White beans with garlic tempering (konkani style)
Navy(White) beans or cannellini beans are small dry white beans oval in shape and slightly flattened. It features many dishes such as baked beans, pies,salads and soups such as Senate bean soup. Cannellini beans are used in continental cuisines but very much unheard in Indian dishes. But Mangalorean cuisine uses these beans in very unique ways. Magaloreans call it ‘Tingalavo’ and use it in a variety of ways - in sambar, or with raw jackfruit in a coconut gravy or a saarupkari which is today’s recipe. This dish might be totally unknown and unheard off outside mangalore but most easiest and every family in mangalore have their own version. This recipe is not just for white beans, but can be used for a variety of other beans like cow peas, horse gram, black eyed peas and even chickpeas (see how to make this recipe with black eyed peas) Saarupkari - In konkani ‘saaru’ means rasam and ‘upkari’ is a dry preparation of any vegetable. So now you know, this dish is more with a rasam consistency with white beans and vegetables (usually potatoes are used but today I am using jackfruit seeds). Let’s get to the recipe now.
What you’ll need :
1 cup white beans
10 -12 jackfruit seeds (or 1 potatoes, cubed into small pieces)
1 tbsp coconut(or any cooking) oil
1 tsp mustard seeds, cumin seeds
1 green chilli slit into half lengthwise
2 red chillies cut into half
7-8 curry leaves
5-6 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed lightly
1 tsp asafoetida
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp tamarind paste
How to :
Soak the dry white beans for around 3-4 hours (or even overnight). Pressure cook the beans for upto 3 whistles in 3 cups of water. Since this curry is of liquid consistency, the more water the better. You can also use the store bought ready to use canned cannellini(baked) beans. With canned beans, you can use it directly without pressure cooking.
Once the pressure cooker has cooled, open the lid and add the jackfruit seeds cut into halves (Find more details on how to peel them here )and green chilly. Pressure cook again for 2 more whistles with little salt. If you want to keep it simple or don’t have jackfruit seeds, potatoes instead and cook along with white beans. Transfer the mixture into a large pot and mash a few beans so that the liquid thickens up. Add tamarind paste, more salt as per taste and give it a boil for a good 5 minutes.
In a separate pot, prepare the tempering. Add a tbsp of oil and mustard seeds. As they start spluttering, add the crushed garlic and let it brown partially. Now add the cumins seeds, red chillies, curry leaves, asafoetida and turn off the heat. Pour the tempering over the cooked white beans and garnish with some coriander leaves. This gravy goes well with rice. If you want the curry to be spicy, add more green chillies while cooking. Since this curry is mildly spiced and has a rasam consistency, you can also enjoy it as a soup. In this photo, I have used potatoes instead of jackfruit seeds as the seeds are available only during the jackfruit season.
