Cooking With Seeds, June 2012 Event Announcement: Black Gram

I am happy to  announce that Tiffin Carrier Antic/que's will be guest-hosting the monthly Cooking With Seeds event  for June 2012. Started by the very prolific and talented, Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes, the ingredient is Vigna Mungo. It is  more commonly known as  Black Gram/ Urad Dal /Black Matpe Bean/ Uzhunu etc. 

I like the symbolic representation/connotations of this tiny seed:

It is commonly used in South Asia in many different ways. 

Considered to have originated in the Indian Sub-continent. 

It's fame as the ubiquitous Punjabi-Indian export of Dal Makhani and Kali Dal/Ma Ki Dal. 

The dal is used in all its avatar's: whole black gram seeds with skin on is a staple Dal in Nepal.

Split-skin-on black gram was commonly used in the rice-lentil batter, which aided fermentation and created steamed dishes like the South Indian staple, Idli's.
Black Gram flour is also used to make sweetmeats and steamed savoury dishes.

Skinned Whole Black Gram Seeds.

I would have loved to use the black-skin-on  and split-skin-on variety that we used  during our 'growing up' years but the pantry did not hold any and my schedule did not allow a trip to the Indian Grocery. Am looking forward to your creative talents  with tradtional/ innovative Black Gram recipes perfect for our summer season ahead!

Guidelines are Simple:

1. Post any recipe using Black Gram Seeds Recipe between June 1st and June 29th, 2012. 
2. Link your post to this announcement and to Priya's event announcement. This is mandatory.
3. Use of the logo, above would be appreciated.
4. Non-bloggers are welcome to participate. Please send the details to me along with a photograph not more than, 500 x 700 pixels.
5. Please send your recipe details to me, tiffincarrieranticques AT gmail DOTcom with the following details:

• Your Name :
• Your Blog Name :
• The Recipe Name :
• The Recipe URL :
• A photograph of your recipe, 500 x 700 pixels in size

Looking forward to a lovely collection of recipes. Thankyou Priya!