Preparations:

Wash the French beans. Before cutting the beans it is necessary to check the sharpness of the knife. Sharpen the knife using a grind stone. String the washed French beans. Break the ends & remove the fiber on the sides of the beans. Cut beans into thin slices. Hold four or five beans tightly and slice them with a sharp knife. The thin the slices are the better they look and taste when cooked. Similarly cut all the beans into thin slices.

Take the thinly sliced French beans into a microwave safe bowl and add 25ml water. Place this bowl in microwave oven and cover it partially. Cook the beans on high power for 5 minutes. Stir once and place the bowl again in microwave oven and cover it partially. Cook beans on high power for 5 minutes and allow 2 minutes standing time.

Take out the coconut from the shell and remove the brown portion using a peeler. Cut the coconut into small pieces and grate in a mixer grinder.

Method:

Heat a pan and add oil to it. When oil is hot add bengal gram and black gram. Fry the seeds stirring till they start changing color. Then add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and fry till the seeds splutter. Then add curry leaves, red chili flakes and turmeric powder. Mix fast and then add cooked French bean pieces. Mix well and add salt. mix once again and cook on low flame, covered for 2 minutes. Remove the lid, mix once and add grated coconut. Mix all well and cook stirring for one minute. Transfer the curry to a serving bowl and serve hot with plain rice.

Points to Notice:

Use tender French beans for a sweet natural taste.

Use red chili flakes according to taste. Red chili powder also can be used instead of red chili flakes—but the color of the dish changes. Using red chili flakes gives the hotness without changing the color of the dish. Another option is to add few red chili pieces to the seasoning to bring the required hotness to the dish. But do not use green chilies for this dish as the taste would be totally different.

Sharpening the knife helps in slicing the beans thinly.

Removing the brown portion of the coconut with a peeler gives WHITE grated coconut.

Do not fry the red chili flakes for a longer time as they cook fast and will get burnt fast. So add red chili flakes, turmeric powder and immediately add the cooked beans and mix well.

After adding coconut cook stirring for one minute till the curry is dry---frying removes the moisture in the coconut. Stirring is important otherwise the coconut gets burnt at the bottom of the pan.

Serve hot with plain rice or roti, chapatti, paratha etc..