Pesarattu is a famous food item thats said to have originated in Andhra Pradesh thats very similar to the Dosa… The key difference is that its batter is made using Green Gram instead of the Ural Dal which is whats used in the case of the Dosa… Of-course the way its cooked and eaten is pretty much the same as the Dosa and the side dishes ie, the Sambar and Chutney(s) will have the Andhra influence as well… Now today it was indeed a surprise to see this item being listed as available in the menu of Godavari, the food provider from whom I had a Hyderabadi Biriyani and wrote about before… Having found the biriyani to be quite authentic, I couldn’t resist my temptation to try the Pesarattu and here we are… 🙂
Regarding the Pesarattu here, in the menu, there were two kinds of Pesarattu… The Pesarattu and also the Pesarattupma which is basically Pesarattu but stuffed with a portion of Upma… What I got was the Pesarattu and it came along with Sambar and two kinds of Chutneys as can be seen in the pics here… The Pesarattu itself did retain some of its crispiness and to my surprise, found that it was stuffed with a stuffing consisting of Onions, Green Chillies and Peanuts… Coming to the taste, the Pesarattu reminded me a bit of Ada Dosa but with the taste of Green Gram dominating… If I am not mistaken, I thought I could a taste a bit of Mint Leaves in it as well… The White Chutney felt like it was made with Coconut and Bengal Gram along with Green Chillies… The Red Chutney felt like a Sweet Chilly Chutney made with Red Chillies and had a sweet and sour component to it… My research tells me that typically the recipe for this chutney, known as the Pandu Mirapakaya Pachadi uses Tamarind Paste but here I couldn’t detect the taste of Tamarind, but rather felt like they used Tomato and then added Cane Sugar / Jaggery to it for the extra sweetness… The same can be said about the Sambar which again had the taste of Jaggery in it but in a mild level… The overall sweet and savoury combination of flavours of the Pesarattu, Chutneys and Sambar felt nice to me, though I think might be an acquired taste for most… The only problem I felt is that I personally didn’t like the Peanuts in the filling… I mean thanks to the strong presence Bengal Gram and Green Gram, the addition of Peanuts felt too heavy for me… Otherwise, it was indeed an enjoyable breakfast for me…
Thats it for now… The Pesarattu is definitely a unique version of the Dosa that is quite enjoyable… Its is quite rare to find in Kerala and if I am not mistaken, Godavari might be the only place in Trivandrum that sells it… I for one am hoping that Godavari brings more Andhra delicacies in their menu as it is a cuisine thats mostly unknown to the rest of the world and I think it would be great to learn what beyond the Hyderabadi Biriyani, exists in the cuisine…
