BisiBele Bath

For a long time, I have been wanting to prepare this traditional famous recipe from the Karnataka cuisine in a very authentic way. My recent visit to Bangalore instigated me all the more to try out this dish at home. This is a very common recipe that you will find in almost every hotels at Karnataka- especially places like banglore, mysore etc..

A very flavorful rice much different from the south indian sambar sadham. There is a wide range of spices that goes into preparation of the Bisibela bath masala powder which gives this dish that unique taste and aroma. I was very particular I prepared this in a very authentic way without missing out on any key ingredients.

I have adapted this recipe from Divine Taste - Anushruti. You can watch the full video here. She has explained it in a very detailed manner and is also very authentic. Trust me, this is a fool proof recipe and was a super dooper hit. Since, I had lot of guests coming up, I doubled the quantity and prepared on a mass scale :P. You can however scale down the recipe as required. I have tried to provide as many details as possible to get the perfect taste. Let's jump into the recipe.

Serves:10

Ingredients

1. Raw Rice - 2 cups
2. Toor dhal - 1.5 cups
3. Tamarind - juice extracted from 2 lemon sized tamarind balls
4. Oil - 2 tbsp
5. Ghee - 4 tsp
6. Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
7. Curry leaves - 1 sprig
8. Asafoetida/hing-1 tsp
9. Rock Salt - 3 tbsp
10. Jaggery - 1 tbsp
11. Water - 2 cups (depending on the consistency)

BisiBela Bath Masala Ingredients (Grinding)

1. Coriander Seeds - 1/4 cup
2. Chana Dhal - 1/4 cup
3. Urad Dhal - 4 tsp
4. Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
5. Cinnamon - 1 inch
6. Cloves - 6
7. Cardamom - 4
8. Mustard Seeds - 1.5 tsp
9. Poppy Seeds/Khus Khus - 2 tsp
10. Kapok Buds/Marathi Moggu - 6
11. Fenugreek/Methi seeds - 1 tsp
12. Dry Red Chilies - 12
13. Desiccated Coconut - 1 cup
14. Curry leaves - 10
15. Kashmiri Red Chili Powder - 3 tsp

Ingredients for Bisi Bela Bath Masala Powder
Note: Please check the ingredients column for actual measurements

VegetablesUsed(Can be anything of your choice)

• Pearl onion Shallots -2 cups
• French Beans - 1/4 kg (cut in .5 inch length)
• Carrot - 4 big size (cut round or chopped)
• Potato - 1 big (cut similarly to beans lengthwise)
• Capsicum - 1 small (chopped to small cubes)
• Green Peas - 1 cup (heaped)

Seasoning

• Roasted Peanuts/Cashew nuts - 2 tbsp
• Ghee - 1/4 cup

Method

1. Pressure Cooking Rice and Toor Dhal

1. Pressure cook 2 cups of raw rice with about 10 cups of water and 4 tsp of ghee for 5 whistles and then simmer the pressure cooker for about 5 mins before switch off.

2. This is done because the rice for bisisbela batha must be nicely cooked, smashed well so that they don't get hard as time goes by.

3. Gently smash the rice when it is hot so that they are broken into small grains. Make sure you don't smash way too much that it becomes a paste and form-less. Keep the rice aside covered so that they do not get dried.

4. Likewise, cook the toor dhal with 4 cups of water and a tsp of turmeric for 5 whistles and simmered for 5 mins before switch off. Smash the toor dha nicely as shown in the pic. Keep the cooked dhal aside.

Pressure cooked Toor Dhal

2. Cooking the Vegetables

1. Except onions and capsicum, take all other vegetables in a pan filled with water. Boil the vegetables with 2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of turmeric.

2. Cook them until they are soft. Drain the cooked vegetables and keep it aside. Do not drain the vegetable stock as you can reuse it for making the Bisibele bath Sambar.

Boiled Vegetables

3. Preparing the Bisibele bath Masala Paste

1. Heat a pan, on a low flame, saute chana dal and urad dhal until they emit nice aroma and turn slightly brown. Very mild brown. Switch off the flame and keep it aside.

2. Heat a pan, add all other ingredients mentioned under Masala(except turmeric and kashmiri red chili powder) and saute them gently on low flame for about 5 mins. The curry leaves and red chilies will become crisp and that is the right point to switch off the flame. All the contents to cool.

3. Take all the contents (including turmeric and kashmiri red chili powder) to a blender and grind to a fine paste by adding required water as shown in the pic.

                                        Freshly ground masala paste

4. Preparing the BisiBele Bath Sambar base

1. Heat a pan, add oil and mustard seeds. Once the mustard splutters, add torn curry leaves for aroma. Add capsicum and pearl onions and saute well until the onions turn translucent in color. Add a tsp of salt and saute well.

2. Add the extracted tamarind juice to the above and the cooked vegetables with rock salt, jaggery and asafoetida.

3. Cook for about 5 mins on medium-low flame for the raw flavor of tamarind to go off.

4. Add the masala paste and cooked dhal to the above tamarind mixture and mix well. Add 2 cups of water (PS: Reserved vegetable stock can be used instead) to adjust the consistency of sambar.

5. Add the cooked rice to the above sambar and mix well. Allow to simmer for 5 mins on low flame for the rice to get mixed well with the sambar base.

Saute pearl onions and capsicum in oil

Sambar base after adding masala paste and cooked dhal.

After adding cooked rice - Bisibela bath ready :)

5. Garnishing

1. Heat 1/4 cup of ghee, add mustard seeds, once they splutter, add curry leaves, cashews and red chilies. Saute well until the cashews start browning slightly. Add the tempering to bisibela bath and give a nice mix.

2. Serve hot with cold raita and papad. :):)