Varutharacha Sambar/ Sambar with roasted coconut

                       Sadya without Sambar is unimaginable for a south Indian. It is the Queen of dishes in a vegetarian feast. It is the most popular vegetable curry to go with plain rice. Hence it would be one of the rarest occurrences, if people from a house hold in Kerala didn't know how to make Sambar, at least in the most simplest form. But I must confess here that it was one of the dishes I mastered very late. Infact, only recently.. (Now don't roll your eyes!! ) YES! It's true! My sambar was no where near to the yummy version. So I had felt always uneasy whenever I had to present my sambar in front of others, let alone guests... ;)

                        So I had taken pains to find out a perfect recipe which I could always rely on.. Talking about sambar, there are lot of variations for it... adding coconut,without coconut, using only one vegetable, with lots of different vegetables and so on.. It varies from place to place..  This version of sambar with roasted ground coconut which I am sharing here today involves little bit lengthy process compared to the no coconut version. But it is worth spending a little more time as it has a very vibrant and distinct taste..This version is more popular in Kerala than in other states of south India. I got the recipe from my MIL who makes it quite differently from my mom. It goes well with rice as well as dosa..

Here is the recipe...

Vellarikka Pachadi

Good food is wise medicine. 

~Alison Levitt

 

                         This is an uncooked vegetarian side dish  eaten with rice, which my family is quite fond of..As it doesn't require cooking and can be made in a few minutes, it is one of the frequently found side dishes at our dining table. I was introduced to this simple  dish by my sister in law and later it became one of my favourites. Try this out and you would be hooked to the distinct flavour of ground mustard and yogurt...

Here is the recipe...

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.

Vendakka Pachadi / Okra (Ladies finger) Pachadi

        There are certain vegetarian delicacies which outplays non-vegetarian dishes with their unique flavour and ambiance. Hence they come handy whenever you run out of chicken and fish. There are times when you forget about the bowl of fried fish sitting infront of you and go on eating those vegetarian dishes; totally hooked. There are many Kerala Sadhya preparations made with vegetables and yogurt which are deliciously flavoursome that you hardly notice, you are eating veg. which is otherwise considered to be bland.( Vegetarians, don't take offense! I was only quoting the general assumptions of a non-vegetarian :))

            Pachadi is a dish prepared with vegetables or fruits tempered with yogurt and spices and is an inevitable dish in the Kerala Sadhya. Wide varieties of vegetables like squash, okra, bitter guard and brinjal and fruits like pineapple too are used in pachadi preparations. This is a very easy, quick and delicious pachadi which my mom in law used to make, which I was totally fond of. So when I took over cooking in 'my kitchen empire', I started preparing it whenever I got a handful of fresh okras every now and then, which my son and better half loves to the last bit.



Vendakkaa Pachadi

Okra/ ladies finger  -  1/2 kg

Fresh yogurt           -  1 cup

Turmeric powder    - 1/4 tsp

Red chilli powder    -  1/2 tsp

Vegetable oil           -  2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Coconut oil             - 1 tsp

mustard seeds         - 1/4 tsp

Dried red chilli         - 2

A sprig of curry leaves

Method:

     Wash, drain and cut the okras into thin slices. Mix the spice powders and salt with it and keep aside. Heat a non-stick frying pan and shallow fry the sliced okras in vegetable oil. Transfer it to a bowl and add yogurt. Mix it well.

      In the same frying pan, add coconut oil and splutter mustard seeds in it. Add the dry red chilli and curry leaves and saute for a few seconds. Pour this seasoning over the okra-yogurt mixture and stir to combine. Serve immediately with steaming rice and curry.

Mampazha Pulisseri

         Some things never seize to charm you even if you have gone a long way from it. Even while living in very different situations or in an entirely different world they tempt you and churns you in a pool of utter longing. When talking about traditions, homeland, cultures and cuisines to which you were born into, the condition is no different. Being a Keralite I often get such pangs in my heart and longings to get near to my motherland, while living far away from it.

         Those longings to feel the breeze around your ancestral home, to smell the fragrance of those jasmines which grew in your mother's courtyard, to walk in utmost tranquility listening to the chirping of the local birds, to feel the coolness of monsoon as it hits your eyebrows and drips down your face, to inhale the smell of the soil as monsoon hits it for the first time... and of course biting into those exquisite tastes of home, as if there is no tomorrow...

         I know I am not alone in this guttural craving for mother land. I have seen lot of Keralites in the air port with baggages as big as a warehouse stock on their pursuit to 'take their home land' to where they live. I have often seen officers smiling at seeing the most unusual things in baggages like large earthen pots to huge jack fruits and yes, coconuts too. It some times end up in making the poor man or woman, untie and display the strange belongings of those baggages in front of everybody concerned, due to suspicion of bombs. It has often reminded me of the ants with a block of sugar (more than double their size) on their back struggling to reach their far away nests.

             So, it is mango season again. The time of the year when every mango tree in Kerala is abloom with a thousand mangoes and every urchin is busy climbing mango trees and eating as many mangoes their little tummies can have. If only I could go back to my carefree childhood of climbing mango trees and jump from them screaming when the 'puliyurumbu'(wild ants) start to crawl over you... Sigh!  This is the season when the homes smell of all the varieties  of mango dishes under the sun. But we seldom made Mampazha pilissery (made with ripe mangoes) at home. I was introduced to this lip smacking dish by one of my friends' mom. Later I used to have it from our hostel on every Wednesdays. It was the only day of tthe week, I ate rice with great relish and hunger.

         We get Kerala mangoes here from a local Indian supermarket. Last week we got  some ripe 'moovandan manga' (local Kerala mango) and I made mampazha pulisseri with it. My family enjoyed it so much that I thought I would share the recipe of this incredibly yummy, sweet and tangy curry.

Mampazha Pulisseri / Ripe mangoes cooked in coconut and yogurt gravy

Things you need:

3 ripe mangoes ( preferably local Kerala mangoes), skin removed
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1and 1/2 cups thick yogurt
For grinding:
3/4 cup grated coconut
2 to 3 shallots
1/4 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1/4 cup water
For tempering:
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds/ uluva
1 or 2 dry red chillies
a sprig of curry leaves

Method:
 
1) Cook the mangoes in adequate  water with salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder until soft.


2) Grind the coconut, cumin and shallots with water and add this to the cooked mangoes and mix gently.Allow to cook for a couple of minutes in low flame.

3) Blend yogurt with 1/4 cup of water and add this to the curry in low heat. Add adequate salt and remove from heat.

4) Heat oil in a pan. Splutter mustard seeds. Saute the fenugreek seeds, dry red chillies and curry leaves in it. Pour this seasoning over the curry and mix gently.

5) Serve hot with plain rice.