Maharashtrachi Misal!!

If you are a Mumbaiite or a Punekar,or from Kolhapur, then you are ( should I say , there is a good chance that you are..) a Misal addict... right??
So am I! this simple yet very tasty dish is nutritious too. A delicious mix of pulses/ peas cooked in a spicy gravy topped with farsaan (savoury snack), garnished with onion and cilantro - served with pav/ bread with a small serving of 'katt' and sometimes creamy yogurt. Umm-hmmh!
All it need is a bit of planning... well, not that much!
All you need is
1 cup Matki / Moth
1 medium onion
1 tomato
1 potato
1 sp. tamarind paste
2 sp. Jaggery powder
salt to taste
1/2 sp cumin seeds
1/4 sp turmeric
1 clove garlic finely minced
1 sp. red chilly powder
1 sp. Kolhapuri masala or Rajwadi Garam masala and Kitchen king masala (mixed)
2 sp roasted peanuts (to garnish)
2-3 sp oil
1 cup poha
1 green chilly
a few curry leaves
A dash asafetida
salt to taste
pinch sugar
Bread

Soak the Matki / moth in water, leave overnight. the next day, rinse them well, drain water, tie up the matki in a fine muslin cloth and leave it overnight to sprout.


(after the pulses have sprouted) pick and clean. Chop onion. Cut potato into cubes. Mince the garlic.
Heat oil in a kadhai/ wok, add cumin seeds, add the turmeric, garlic, onion, moth, cubed potato, mix well, add water (I added about 3 cups to get gravy) and cook till tender. Add salt, red chilly powder,tamarind, jaggery, masala (ideally u need to add this 'kolhapuri masala' - readymade in stores, which is the authentic masala, but since I did not have it, i subb'd it with a mix of Rajwadi garam masala and kitchen king masala, and it truned out really well!)
Soak poha, heat oil, add mustard seeds, after they crackle, add the asafetida, chopped chilly and curry leaves, add poha, mix well, add salt and sugar, cover and cook for a couple of mins.

Now all you have to do is, assemble the whole thing (sheesh!I'm making it sound like a mechano set!) well just.... follow the steps shown below

In some places, a 'katt' is served along with the misal, this is typically a soup like consistency mixure of water the masala and redchilly powder, VERY spicy that is poured over the usal and eaten...... which can make one go 'aaarrrgggghhh'!

Step 1
The Usal

Step 2
Adding Poha on the Usal


Step 3
Adding Spicy crunchy Farsaan and garnishing with fine chopped onion,tomato, lemon wedge & cilantro


Step 4
Serve with Bread slices / Pav