Winters are the time  when we get plenty of fresh vegetables and Tender Green Peas is one among them. Though we get the frozen ones all year round I always look forward to this season so that I can stock up the fresh green peas and prepare my favourite dishes.  Ambat is the first thing that comes to my mind and is a family favourite. Most of the Ambats are prepared using toor dal but here I am using green peas and coloured cucumber(madras cucumber/magge). Same recipe can be used to prepare ambat with tender toor/tuvar(jeevi tori).

Batani ambat

Ingredients:

• Handful of green peas
• 1/2 cup of coloured cucumber(magge) chopped into medium size pieces without skin
• 3/4 cup coconut
• 4-5 red chillies roasted
• Small lemon sized tamarind
• 1 onion cut into chunks
• Salt to taste

2. Grind coconut, red chillies and tamarind to a smooth paste as shown below.

4. Add water and salt and boil it well for some 5-10 minutes adjusting the consistency as  you prefer.

Seasoning:

1. Heat oil in the pan and fry onions till golden as shown in the picture below.
    
2.  Pour this seasoning over the curry and close the lid .
3.   Enjoy as a side dish or as an accompaniment to rice.

Notes:

1. Add water depending upon how you want the curry, the above picture is of medium consistency and can be used as an accompaniment to rice .
2. Here’s a picture of ambat prepared with tender tuvar/jeev tori using the same method., just substitute peas with tender toor/tuvar/tori.