Hyacinth Beans Rice ~ Anapa Ginjala Annam

In my A-Z Challenge Journey Through Telangana Cuisine, I stumbled on a hurdle, again!! I never excepted I would have trouble coming up with recipes this early in to the challenge. I had to use one of the clauses to pass this hurdle, an English name of the main ingredient or the dish.

Being a South Indian I love rice dishes. To my surprise, this is the only rice dish I have for this marathon. If not for the tough letter ‘H’, I probably would not have done any rice dishes altogether, though I do have some curries that are served with rice. ‘H’ was another tough letter I had a difficult time coming up with a dish. As with many of the other tough letters, I had planned on doing a vegetarian Haleem from Hyderabadi cuisine, as I have already posted mutton haleem for Andhra Pradesh when we did the Indian Odyssey. When I narrowed my theme to only Telugu Telangana dishes, I was in a fix and had to use an English name of the vegetable.

Hyacinth beans is anapakaya in Telugu, avarekalu in Kannada and surti papdi in Hindi. Do not confuse anapakaya with anyapakaya. Anapakaya is hyacinth beans and anyapakaya is sorakaya or bottle gourd. Anapakaya is one of the most favorite and liked beans in our family and relatives circles, specially in Karimnagar district. Anapakaya is abundantly available in villages and towns of Karimnagar district in winters. I can guarantee that if one makes social visits to bunch of relatives homes during this season, at least one or two of them will offer food prepared with anapakaya.

The most common preparations with anapakaya are anapa gudaalu and anapa kudumulu. Anapa gudaalu are sauteed anapa ginjalu (shelled anapakaya) which is prepared similar to sauteed Indian beans and the only difference is fresh anapakaya takes a little longer to cook, however frozen anapakaya ~ surti papdi lilva does not take that long. Kudumulu are steamed rice flour cakes with anapa ginjalu. Cooked anapakaya is mixed with rice flour, seasoned, shaped into cakes and steamed.

Another anapakaya preparation that was common at my paternal grandma's place is anapakaya annam, hyacinth beans rice. This preparation is similar to fresh garbanzo beans pulao and chikkudu annam ~ Indian Broad Beans Rice. Just like with chikkudu annam, the skin of the shelled hyacinth beans ~ anapa ginjalu are removed and inner part of the shelled beans is used. We get frozen anapa ginjalu in Indian store which is surti papdi lilva. These frozen beans are smaller in size compared to the anapa ginjalu we get back home and it was quite tedious removing the skin of the beans.

However, towards the end I figured it was lot easier to rub the beans between fingers and the skin peels off. I like to remove the skin of the beans but it time consuming. I would suggest skinning at least half the beans but if one wishes they can use the beans as it it. This rice is mildly spiced and pairs well with any gravy. We usually serve it with shorva and I served it with some mutton shorva.

Collage of anapa gudalu, first one at a gathering and the second at my mom's place.

Below is the collage of ingredients for anapa ginjala annam and the final picture. I know the light is poor but was too lazy to edit the images. I recently started using 'Layout' app for collages and the collages you are seeing in the last few posts is the result of my excitement for this newly discovered app. With this app, making collages and uploading it directly from the phone has made it lot easier for me. Do expect to see lot more step by step preparations and ingredients collages in the future. I will be back on Monday with 'I' after a break on Sunday. Have a nice weekend, folks!

Total Time: 60 - 80 minutes
Preparation: 30 - 40 minutes (this is skin the beans and one can skip this step)
Cooking Time: 30 - 40 minutes
Serves: 2 - 3

Ingredients:
Measuring cup used is the one that comes with the rice cooker

• 1 packet (12 oz) Surti Papdi Lilva
• 2 cups Basmati Rice
• 3 tbsp. Oil
• 1 tbsp. Ghee ~ Clarified Butter
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 4-5 Cardamoms
• 2-3 Cloves
• Biryani Flower
• ¼ tsp. Shahjeera
• 1 small Onion, sliced
• ½ - ¾ cup Methi ~ Fenugreek Leaves, chopped
• ½ - ¾ cup Mint Leaves, chopped
• 6 small Green Chilies
• 1 tbsp. Ginger Garlic Paste I think.
• 1 ¼ - 1 ½ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
• Coriander Leaves for garnish

Preparation:

1. Wash surti papdi lilva. In a pot take washed surti papdi lilva, add some water and heat it for 3-4 minutes until papdi lilva is thawed and water is hot. Do not bring it boil. Turn off the heat, add some cold water to bring it to lukewarm.
2. Remove the skin of beans by pinching each beans. The inner part of the beans will pop out. This is a tedious process and after doing this for ½ hour, I figured it was easier to just rub the beans between fingers. Do not put too much pressure on the beans, lightly rub and the skin will peel off. The skin will float on top and the beans will sink to the bottom. Change water few times to discard the skin.
3. Wash rice and soak for 30 minutes.
4. 20 - 25 minutes into soaking of rice, take 4 cups of water in a rice cooker and switch it on. Water will come to a boil until rest of the preparation is done. I used 1:2 rice to water ratio.
5. Heat oil and ghee in a pan. When hot, add bay leaves, cardamoms, cloves, biryani flower, shahjeera and let the spices toast.
6. Add onion and saute until soft.
7. Add methi & mint leaves and saute until methi leaves wither.
8. Add green chilies, ginger garlic paste and saute until chilies change color and ginger smell is gone.
9. Add surti papdi lilva and saute until spices coat the beans.
10. Add rice, salt and lightly roast.
11. Transfer to rice cooker. Give a good stir and close the lid.
12. When the rice is almost done, add chopped cilantro keeping aside a few leaves. Give a good stir, sprinkle some homemade garam masala or dry roasted coriander powder, cover and continue cooking until cooker shuts off automatically when rice is done.
13. Let the it sit for at least 15 - 20 minutes before serving.

Note:

• I sauteed the beans and rice in a frying pan and finished it off in rice cooker. If cooking in a saucepan, instead of transferring to rice cooker in step 11, add water (hot or room temperature), stir, cover and cook until rice is soft and cooked.
• I used 3 tbsp. of oil and 1 tbsp. ghee ~ clarified butter, one can use equal quantities of oil and ghee or use only oil or use only ghee.

So far in this A-Z Journey Through Telangana Cuisine,
A for Attu Tunukala Koora
B for Biyyapattlu
C for Chegodi
D for Dondakaya Barada
E for Ellipaya Karam
F for Fenugreek (Menthi) Aaku Pesaru Pappu Koora
G for Garela Pulusu

[inlinkz_linkup id=601058 mode=1]