Soupe de lentilles avec vadouvan | Paruppu kadaisal French style

Third week means time for ChefsAcrossBoundaries, an initiative by handful of bloggers who have taken up the challenge to learn and expand the expertise horizons. This month's challenge is Indo French cuisine | Franco tamil cusine to expand our knowledge on the food culture in Pudhucherry during the French Colony reign.Thanks to Hetal kamdar for her excellent thought on this.

South India is well known for it's plentiful sunshine,so people use that to make a lot of preserves.One such is called Vadagam(vadavam), meaning dry fritters. Looks like  the onion vadagam , that people used to prepare in summer and use it during heavy rain and flood situations, has attracted the French Gentlemens.There comes the birth of this wonderful spice mix , Vadouvan ,where Tamil Spices are making a perfect alliance with French herbs.

Being a Tamilian,the process of making this was quite easy for me as I can understand the taste that every single Indian spice is going to contribute to this spice mix.

Since the idea here is to bring the Pondicherry cuisine, I took the basic recipe of paruppu kadaisal meaning mashed lentils, which is very much a part of their life and given a  twist to the usual recipe here.

Vadouvan Spice Mix

Ingredients

 Red onions ........................................ 1 lb , roughly chopped
Shallots ............................................. 1 handful , chopped
garlic ................................................/ 1 head
fenugreek seeds ................................. 1/4 tsp
Cumin .............................................. 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder / flakes ................... 1 tsp ( adjust as per taste)
Mustard seeds .................................... 1/2 tsp
Green Cardamom ................................ 4
Clove..................................................4
 Nutmeg ........................................... a pinch , grated
Turmeric powder ............................... 1/4 tsp
Fresh curry leaves .............................. 1/4 cup
Oil ..................................................... 2 tbsp


Method

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Pulse the onion, garlic and  shallots  in a blender or food processor and set aside.
• Heat a shallow pan and dry roast fenugreek until golden brown and set aside to cool.
• In the same pan , dry roast the cardamom and cloves for 30 sec and add it to fenugreek.
• Now , saute the mustard just until they get hot, we don't want them to splutter.
• Take all the dry roasted ingredients in a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder.
• Heat the same pan with oil over medium high and add the onions, finely chopped curry leaves, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt , nutmeg and the freshly ground spice  and cook well until the onions are golden brown.
• Now line a baking tray with parchment and spread the onion mixture as a thin layer and bake until the onion mixture is completely dry.
• Cool and pulse it in a spic grinder / mortar and pestle.
• Transfer to a air tight container and refrigerate it.

 Paruppu Kadaisal / Soupe de lentilles avec vadouvan

Ingredients

Red gram lentils / toor dal  / masoor dal ................................ 1 cup
Turmeric powder ............................................................... 1/2 tsp
Ghee / Clarified butter .......................................................... 11/2 tbsp
Dried Red chilly ..................................................................  1, broken into pieces
Mustard seeds .................................................................... 3/4 tsp
dehusked split Urad Dal ..................................................... 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves ...................................................................... few
Garlic ............................................................................... 2 cloves , crushed
Salt ................................................................................ to taste
Vadouvan spice mix ........................................................ 2 tbsp
Herbs De Provence ......................................................... 1/4 tsp

Method

• Pressure cook the lentils with 2.5 cups water and turmeric powder and mash well.
• Heat a deep pan with ghee over medium and add the mustard, when it crackles add the urad dal and red chilli pieces and saute.
• Then add the crushed garlic and saute until golden brown and add curry leaves and vadouvan spice mix and herbs de provence for 30 seconds.
• Add the boiled and mashed lentils to this and add salt.
• Let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve it hot over a bed of steamed rice and enjoy.