February 8, 2008

Uppadam



Uppadam is an easy to make kootan/kozhambu , which will not take more than 10 minutes. This a very traditional recipe and and it is almost forgotten now. My amma used to prepare this. So I have acquired a taste for this. Any stir fried vegetable will go well with uppadam. Its almost an instant dish provided you have the basic curry powder in hand. This curry powder is the main ingredient for pulikuthi upperi (A kerala iyer speciality). In most homes, this powder is always kept handy. This curry powder takes only 3 ingredients

Curry powder

Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Red chilly - 2 Nos
Methi seeds - 1/4 tspn

Wash and dry the rice. Dry roast the rice and chilly. When the rice starts turning little borwn, add methi seeds. Methi gets burnt easily. So add it at the last stage. When cool, powder it in a mixer. It need not be too fine. This is an all purpose curry powder. You can add this for any vegetable stir fry/kootu. This acts as a thickening agent too becoz of the rice in it.


Coming to the main recipe, you need


Tamarind - small lemon size
bhindi - 5 Nos
Salt to taste
Turmeric - a pinch
Green chilly - 3 nos

Cut the bhindi of 1/2inch size.
Soak the tamrind in warm water and extract the juice. Add 1/2 cup water to it. Take a vessel. Add the tamarind extract, turmeric and salt.

When it starts to boil, add the chopped bhindis to it. Slit the green chillies and add. Cover and cook.

When the bhindis are cooked, take 3 tblspoon of curry powder and mix in water without forming lumps. Stir into the tamrind gravy. Add more water if required. The gravy consistency should be something in between rasam and sambhar. Bring to boil.

Season with mustard and curry leaves.


Enjoy a simple meal with hot rice and any vegetable prepared as thoran.

15 comments:

  1. never heard of this before or maybe in a different accent ...but sounds very simple

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  2. yes srivalli, uppadam is an almost forgotten recipe. A traditional one.(Updated the same in my post)

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  3. thats very interesting recipe jaya. its good to see and learn recipes like this which are almost forgotten by us. thank you for sharing this with us.

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  4. Wow. Pulikuthi upperi !!!You have a very nice blog here. I grew up with most of the recipes (Mom from Vadakancherry) .It's nice to see somebody write about these typical/traditional Palakkad recipes....

    Keep it going....

    Usha

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  5. Sounds interesting. I shall try it. Thanks.

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  6. very different one lady !!!thanks for sharing

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  7. Thank you all for your comments.
    Sia, Main interest behind this blog is to bring back the traditional recipes.

    Usha, thanks for your comments. Its hard to find a palghat iyer who dusn't like pulikuthi upperi. Hey my native is nemmara near to vadakkenchery.

    Uma, Pls try and let me know how u liked it.

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  8. deepa, thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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  9. wow you have some interesting recipes here. Even though my parents are from Kerala, I am not familiar with so many of your recipes. Keep up the good work!
    What other veggies can be used in this dish instead of bhindi?

    sree

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  10. sree, thanks for dropping by and leaving ur comment here. Other bhindi, manathangali berries can be used. Its the fresh ones that is used, not the dried variety.

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  11. Great blog! I am from Kerala too. We call it Uppadan. Nice to see Kerala recipes. Here is my blog id, hope to see your comments too! Thanks.
    http://detailedrecipesformytweetsizere.blogspot.com/

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  12. Jayashree,

    Thanks for blogging such forgotten recipes, I have never eaten it before & want to give it a try.
    Can u please tell me what kind of rice is used to prepare the Curry powder, will any white rice do ? oR is it the red rice rice Keralites eat ?

    Thanks
    Aruna

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  13. Aruna, thanks for leaving ur comments here. You can use any kind of raw rice/pacharisi. White rice will do. The main idea of using rice is for thickening. So usually the boiled rice / puzhungalarisi is not used.

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  14. very tasty.reminds me of my Mom's and grandma's cooking.Made Keeramolagutal with this and both me and hubby finished almost everything.Incidentally my mom is from Vadakkenchery too

    Thanks
    Sruthi

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  15. Thanks Sruthi for taking time to leave your feedback. Glad you both enjoyed your meal.

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