The frilly salads and pretty berries of summer are long gone. Slow simmering pots fog up the cold windowpanes and fill the kitchen with warm aromas. This has to be one of the best things about autumn and winter in my kitchen.

This is a time for hearty soups, stews, and brews to warm your toes! What better time, then, to cook up one of my all time slow cooked favourites – mudaré kanni, a savoury, deep reddish brown sauce made by boiling and reducing an extract of horse gram.

Mudaré, or horse gram is one of the unpolished gems in Indian cooking. As the name might suggest, this most humble of legumes was considered suitable food for horses as well as cattle feed. (Read more about this legume and its various health benefits in this excellent article by Ammini Ramachandran.)

Despite the name, it is most definitely food for humans too! The bone chilling cold and damp of the Coorg monsoon, and the cooler winter months, call for fortifying foods that nourish and heat the body. Few foods fit the bill better than mudaré.

“Borrow horse gram in bulk from cart driver or farmer.” Says Jaya Shenoy, in her wonderful cookbook “Dakshin Bharat Dishes”.

Borrow? Why, of course! In a perfect example of a mutually beneficial culinary relationship of those days, one would return the horse gram to the cart driver or farmer, after having extracted what was good for oneself, while leaving a tasty and still nourishing mass for the cattle and horses.

My mother describes the making of mudaré kanni on the baané (an open grassy field) behind her childhood home in Mercara. “A cart carrying provisions from the estate would make its way to town, stopping at various family homes to make deliveries of produce. Our home was the last stop and, at night, the oxen would be tethered in the field behind the house. The cart driver would begin the process of boiling down large quantities of horse gram over a slow burning wood fire. Through the night, whiffs of woodsmoke and the tantalizing fragrance of the mudaré would waft down the hillside.”

With that level of anticipation, I can only imagine how amazing the resulting mudaré kanni tasted!

The red variety of horse gram is considered best for making mudaré kanni, while the tan coloured one is usually preferred for sprouts.

As always, everyone has their favourite way to prepare a dish, and this is no exception. This is one we make at home – delicately spiced, and  with just a touch of sweetness to complement the hot and sour flavours.

Mudaré kanni

Red horse gram sauce- hot, sour, salty, and just a little sweet

• 500 gms red horse gram (about 2 1/2 cups) soaked for 6-8 hours
• 1/4 tsp cumin, lightly roasted and ground
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 green chilli, slit
• 1-2 tbsp tamarind paste*
• 1-2 tbsp jaggery
• Salt to taste

Seasoning

• 2-3 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seed (optional)
• 1 dry red chilli, broken and deseeded
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1/2 cup sliced shallots
• 5-6 cloves garlic, lighty crushed
• 1-2 green chillis, slit

If you are not using a pressure cooker, soaking the gram overnight will help to reduce the cooking time. Cook the gram in a large pot with 3-4 litres of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the gram is softened. Add small amounts of hot water if it looks like drying out before this happens. When done, you should have a thin, reddish brown extract. Strain the gram out, and proceed as below.

The magic of a slow wood fire under a gently simmering cauldron may be lacking, but a pressure cooker can work wonders of its own. In this instance, it does an exemplary job of extracting all the good stuff out of the horse gram, in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

Cook the soaked horse gram in a pressure cooker with 2 litres of water. Strain out the gram and transfer the liquid to a wide, shallow pan. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the liquid shows signs of thickening slightly. Scrape down the sides of the pan to recover any solids that stick.

Add the ground cumin, coriander, salt and green chilli. Continue cooking until the sauce begins to resemble a very thin custard.  If you prefer a thicker sauce, continue to reduce it until it reaches the required thickness. Add the tamarind and jaggery to  taste. Simmer for 4-5 minutes.

In another pan, heat the oil, then sputter the mustard (if using) then add the red chilli and curry leaves. Stir for a minute. Add the crushed garlic cloves, followed by the shallots and green chillis. Cook for a minute of two, or until the garlic and shallots are beginning to brown.

Add the thickened sauce to the seasoning pan, heat through and serve. Preferably with steamed white rice or akki otti.

Makes approx 2 cups of mudaré kanni of a thin custard consistency or 1 cup of concentrated extract. Store the extract in the fridge for up to two weeks or freeze for later use.

* Use the horse gram extract instead of water to soak and soften lump tamarind.

Molaé mudaré palya

Stir fried brown horse gram sprouts

2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seed
2 dry red chillis, broken into large pieces and deseeded
1 small sprig of curry leaves
1 green chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
2 cups sprouted brown horse gram
Salt to taste
2-3 tbsp fresh grated coconut

Mix the sprouted gram, shallots, green chilli, salt and coconut together.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When they sputter, add the red chilli and curry leaves.

Stir for a minute, then add the sprout mixture. Mix, cover and cook on a low heat for a minute to two.

Remove from the heat when done to your taste. (I like to leave a little bite in the onions and sprouts.) Add more fresh coconut before serving if you like.

And that’s how little horses grow big and strong! 🙂