Olan - A Kerala vegeterian sadya delicacy

               So... Where to start?

            After leaving blogging behind for almost five months, I seriously don't know how to start again..

          My fingers feel numb from laziness... and my brain refuses to exude anything intelligible..

      Guess what! I seriously believe, these organs would become vestigial if you don't use it for a long time.. ;)

So, let's stop poking the past... and begin again...

      After a long vacation in India, precisely Kerala, what comes to my mind is one of the simple vegetarian sadya dishes which hails from God's Own Country, Olan.

I have had the picture in my draft for some time.. and thought to post it so as to start blogging again. Actually I have no time to take pictures after I cook the food ... upload it.. brighten it.. caption it... blah blah! Right now, my life is running at sixty miles an hour.. or at a higher pace... and I need to sit tight to stop myself from falling off.

      So, what was I talking about? Oh yes! Olan !

A simple dish with very few ingredients and very less spices (or not at all), it is a treat for the taste buds with its mild, yet outstanding flavour. Me and Mr.KB are Olan nuts, if you may call so, because we are simply fond of this vegetarian delicacy . As far as I know, pure coconut milk and pure coconut oil is what imparts that supple sweet flavour which even a hard core non-vegetarian decline to unnotice.

      After having fish and meet for a long week, my family craves for something 'all vegetarian'.A few days of all vegetarian meal, keeps them in demand for non-vegetarian. So, once or twice in a week,  I make all vegetarian meal for lunch, which my family enjoys with much ardor  One of the dishes which frequents these meals is Olan, which became a family favorite ever since I started making it at home.

Olan Recipe

Black eyed beans / van payar, soaked overnight and cooked- 1 cup

Ash gourd,skinned & cut to small square pieces                    - 2 cups

String beans, cut into pieces of 1&1/2 inch length                   - 1/2 cup                                              

Butter pumpkin, cut to square pieces(optional)                       - 1&1/2 cup  

Green chillies, ground                                                            - 2

Thick coconut milk                                                                - 1 cup

Dried red chillies,split into two                                                - 3

Curry leaves                                                                           - 2 sprigs

Coconut oil                                                                             - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

•  Cook ash gourd, pumpkin, string beans and dried red chillies together with 1/2 cup water and adequate salt.
• When the vegetables are well cooked (almost mushy),add ground green chillies and cooked beans to it and cook further for 5 minutes.
• When the gravy starts drying up, add the coconut milk and stir well.Switch off the heat and pour coconut oil over the Olan. Add curry leaves and stir to combine.
• Serve hot with rice.

Egg curry with coconut milk

                Deciding which curry to make for breakfast has always been a nuisance. When it comes to breakfast curries, my better half has a very narrow range of choices. He doesn't like non-veg curries in the morning and cannot stand potatoes and green peas either. He like other legumes, yes. But not the white chana dals! What about vegetable curry? A big NO! :(  So do u sense it? The choices are coming narrower and narrower.. But he loves the rice pan cakes, 'nool puttus','puttus' and pooris I make and he prefer it with CURRIES!!!

              Not that he would complain if I make them. He would say, "It's nice.. really good" and blah blah blah..! But sitting there in front,  watching him eating, I can quickly sense the diminished interest in him towards these curries and so I would never make them again. So it is like this! Green gram curry today, black chana dal curry the next day.. masoor dal curry the next.. again green gram.. until he start going nuts. So egg curry is my saviour, when it comes to 'something different'. Well, Egg curry is an exception in his 'non-veg' list and he literally loves it. Actually the debate over whether egg is veg or non-veg is still going on, right? Most of the vegetarians use egg in their diet.

            This egg curry is so simple to make.. yet delicious. Here is the recipe..

Things you need:

3   eggs boiled, peeled and cut into halves
1   onion sliced
1/2 tsp ginger, minced
1/2 tsp garlic, minced
1 small tomato, diced
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 green chilli, slit
11/2 cup of water
1 cup of thick coconut milk
Salt to taste
2 stalks of coriander leaves/ cilantro
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Preparation:

      Heat oil in a wok and add onion. Saute it until brown and translucent. Add the ginger, garlic and slit green chilli to it and saute. When the aroma starts coming out add turmeric powder,red chilli powder and coriander powder and saute.Then add the tomato. When it gets mushy add water and bring to boil.Add salt and garam masala powder. Then add the boiled eggs carefully and cook it for a couple of minutes in low heat, covering the wok.Now add the coconut milk and remove from heat when the curry starts to boil and thickens. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with chappathis, lace appams or parottas.