Bisi Bela Bath (Bisi Bele Huli Annam) - Karnataka Special - Aromatic Hot Lentil Rice

Bisi Bele Bath is a wonderful mixture of cooked tuvar dal, mashed rice and vegetables in ghee-roasted n ground spices. And Onions! Mini-Onions. Ghee-Roasted :) Coconut - also ghee-roasted! Yes, I beg to differ when I hear someone mention Bisi Bele Bath as an equivalent of Sambar Rice. I agree, it does look like sambar rice, but take a spoonful of BBB and you can't stop! It's just heavenly! :)  Sambar rice is just another everyday food, that's all.  <Sorry, Sambar, I know I come to you more often...bcoz u r easier! >

I have beautiful memories of Bisi Bela Bath. Amma prepares it extremely well and even my ammamma asks her to make it when she comes. Its her kai vaakku :) Her recipe is often sought-after in the family but now, I'm letting the cat out of the bag!  I do not know if I was successful in reproducing that exact taste, but it was somewhere close.

Mini-Onions - The queen of this recipe!

Bisi bela bath has a long list of spices, each of which plays a role in enhancing the taste of this dish. The addition of roasted coconut, ghee-roasted mini-onions, a collection of veggies like potatoes, carrots, beans...

Vegetables, chopped ready

Now, on to this Hot lentil Rice recipe...Some quick pointers -

1. Mini onions are undoubtedly the *Star* of the recipe. If there aren't enough of them, I don't think it qualifies to be called "Bisi Bela Bath".
2. Ghee :)  Drool ...
3. Enormous amounts of cooked and mashed toor dal (lentil)
4. Lots of veggies - potatoes & carrots are a *must*, but less in numbers, individually, compared to mini-onions.  You can also add some red onions (quartered), especially if there aren't enough of mini-onions.
5. Mash both rice and cooked dal and add some ghee and mash well together using a potato masher, before mixing with the prepared Bisi Bela Sambar.

What I Used -

Mini Onions - about 25
Potatoes - 2
Carrot -1
Beans - 12
Chayote (Chow-Chow ) - 1 

Rice (Ponni or any normal variety that can get mashed well) - 1and 1/2 cups
Tuvar Dal / Toor Dal - 3 + 1 handfuls  => To be pressure-cooked
Grated Coconut  - 2 handfuls
Ghee - 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp + 2 tbsp
Tamarind - 1 lemon sized ball (or equivalent paste)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder (Home-made or any good brand) - 2 tsp (I use Ambika's)
Salt - to taste
Vanaspati /Dalda - 2 tbsp

Spices - To Roast and Grind

Dhania (Coriander seeds)  - 1 tbsp
Channa Dal (Kadala paruppu) - 1 tbsp
Red chillies (Dry) - 5 nos.
Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1 tbsp
Fenugreek (Methi / Mendayam) - 3/4 tsp
Fennel / Saunf (Sombu) -  1 tsp
Clove (Grambu) -3 nos.
Bay leaf -  1
Cinnamon - 1 stick (or 3/4 tsp powder)
Poppy seeds (KasaKasa) - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida (Hing) - 1/4 tsp
Black pepper corns - 8 nos.
Curry leaves - 2 sticks

How To -

Take a deep pan, heat 1 tsp of ghee and fry all the whole spices listed. Add grated coconut finally and roast until it turns a bit reddish. Take care not to blacken any of the spices or the coconut. Set aside on a bowl/plate and let cool.  Later, grind to a coarse powder.

In the same kadai, pour another teaspoon of ghee and roast mini-onions until they turn a little more pinkish and glossy.

Fry the chopped veggies next.

Add salt, turmeric, sambar powder and tamarind extract. (Soak tamarind in 1 cup warm water and extract the juice, discarding the strands and seeds).  Cook for 6-8 minutes until the raw smell vanishes.

Add the ground powder (of roasted coconut and spices). Mix well and cook for 5 minutes.

Roasted n ground spices

Mash the cooked dal and 3/4 th of it to the boiling sambar. We shall use the remaining 1/4 th of dal with the rice and mix the sambar with it in the final stage (like paruppu sadam and sambar over it, just like in childhood days!)

Cook until you see a frothy layer on top. That's about 7 minutes. Now, the Bisi Bela Sambar is ready. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves(cilantro) if you wish.

Final steps, but very important though - Mash rice well  while adding ghee and some dalda to it. Mix the mashed dal with this rice. Then, add ladlefuls of prepared samber to rice-dal mixture and mix well. Take care not to mash cooked veggies. They should be seen and we should enjoy the crunch they give, while relishing the dish. That's it :)

Bisi Bela Bath

Bisi Bela Huli Annam

I served these with deep-fried tapioca papads (Maracheeni appalam)

Tapioca papads

Some Cucumber Raitha would also be good to pair with this Aromatic Hot Lentil Rice.
Bisi Bela Bath definitely makes a satisfying Sunday brunch :) You may even want to take the afternoon nap after this wonderful meal!