Green Tomato / Pachathakkali Aviyal

Green tomatoes are rarely seen in markets. At home, we had access to them  when we had tomato plants growing in our garden. Those plants would have come up on their own from the rotten tomatoes discarded on the foot of the coconut tree or some other plants where vegetable wastes are usually dumped. When the plant comes up, it will be uprooted and planted in  a pot or some better place in the back yard.  Amma used to add them to the dal or make chutney/thogayl with it. I do try to pick some green ones from the vendors. But hardly I get the real green ones. Last month, while we were returning from our trip to BhimaShankar, we happened to see a way side market selling fresh produce. We stopped to buy some veggies. I was excited to find a lady with a basket full of green tomatoes. I don't remember if I have seen such green ones sold before. And while discussing various recipes using them, my friend told me about this aviyal. It sounded very simple and tried it. It was very tasty and I prepared it twice in a week's time.

Preparation time - 5 minutes

Cooking time - 10 minutes

Serves - 3

You need

• Green tomatoes - 3 nos
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Red chilli powder - 1/4tspn
• Salt to taste
• Coconut oil -1 tspn
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig

To grind

• Fresh grated coconut - 1/2 cup
• Green chilly - 1 no
• Cumin -1/4 tspn

Method

Slice the tomatoes. Grind the coconut with green chilly and cumin to a smooth paste.  Take the sliced tomatoes, turmeric, red chilli powder, salt and the ground coconut paste in cooking bowl. Add water to adjust the consistency. Cook the mix on slow fire for 10 minutes or till the tomatoes are cooked. Take care that the gravy doesn't boil and bubble. This will make the gravy watery.  Remove from fire. Add coconut oil and curry leaves. Close it and let the flavors mingle. Enjoy with hot rice and side of any veggie stir fir or papadam. no souring agent like tamarind/yogurt is added since the tang from the tomatoes is good enough.

Note: if you want to cook it as side dish then, saute the tomatoes in little oil and add the ground paste and cook. Also if you wish you can 2/3 shallots or madras onions while grinding. I did not add since I wanted the taste of tomatoes to be more prominent

Kaayatholi /Banana Peel Thoran

For Onam, when I planned to make banana chips, it was two recipes in one shot. The left over banana peel is made into a thoran. Frankly I was more interested in the peel than the chips. It has been a long time since I had the thoran with the peel. Back in Kerala, we can get banana peels from any of the shops frying the chips.  The peel of the nenthran variety is very thick and tastes good. I usually pair it with black eyed beans/vellapayar. This time, I didn't have it in my pantry and used whole moong. It also tasted delicious. It is a simple preparation that goes well as a side for rice with sambhar/morkootan.

You need

• Banana peel of 4 bananas
• Whole moong - 1/4 cup
• Green chilly -1 
• Coconut - 2 tblspn
• Turmeric a pinch
• Salt to taste

To temper

• Oil - 1 tspn
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Dried red chilli - 1 nos
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method

Chop the peel into bite sized pieces. Soak it for few minutes, in water with a tablespoon of buttermilk added to it. This will help to remove the stickiness and avoid discoloration. Drain and add washed whole moong, turmeric and salt. Add enough water just to cover it. I usually pressure cook for 2 whistles. The peel doesn't turn mushy.  Pulse the coconut and green chilly. Don't add water. It should be coarsely ground.

Heat oil in a kadai. When hot, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter, add the red chilli, broken into two and curry leaves. Add the cooked peel and moong. Give a gentle stir. Add the ground coconut-green chilly. Cover and cook for a minute.  Remove from fire.

Kadalaparuppu Pradhaman

Payasam is an integral part of any sadhya/feast.  When it comes to Onasadhya, the payasam has to be something special.  Pradhaaman is considered the king of payasams and is a Kerala speciality. In the land of coconuts, its no wonder that the earlier generations made use of bountiful of coconuts. Milk, in those days, was not available in packets and no refrigerators to increase the shelf life. But now things have changed. Both milk and coconut milk are available in plenty, in ready to use tetra-packs. So making payasam is not that difficult. When it comes to coconut milk, the freshly squeezed milk is any day better than the store bought ones.  With the mixer grinders, extracting milk is not that difficult job either. The basic ingredients for a pradhaman is a main ingredient - rice/chakka varatti/dal/wheat, jaggery, coconut milk - in various thickness. Having said that, the main ingredient determines the taste of the pradhaman and I assure you, each is unique in its taste and there is no way to compare them. This Onam, it was kadalaprauppu/chana dal pradhaman.

I missed the festive atmosphere in Kerala. Also the fresh flowers from garden for the pookalam. Here is the small pookalam made on the Onam day.

And this is the Onasadhya we had - Menu included Parikkai/Bitter gourd thayir pachadi, kaalan, aviyal, elissery, thoran, chips, sharkkaravaratti upperi, pappadam, payasam, sambhar.

You need

• Chana dal/Bengal gram dal/Kadalaparuppu - 1/2 cup
• Powdered jaggery - 1 cup, heaped
• Coconut - 2 medium sized
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn
• Coconut bits - 1 tblspn
• Ghee - 2 tspn

Method

Wash and pressure cook the dal till its well cooked. After the cooker is opened, lightly mash the cooked dal. See to that it doesn't end up in a paste form. We need few bits of the dal to give some texture to the pradhaman.

Grate the coconut and grind it in the mixer using very little water. Take the ground coconut on to a cheese cloth. Squeeze the ground coconut to extract the milk. This is the first, thick milk. Repeat this for two more times to extract the second and third milk. We need 3/4 cup of first milk, 1 1/2 cups of second milk and 2 cups of third milk.

Take the jaggery with half cup of water in a bottom thick vesssel or kadai. When the jaggery melts fully, filter it to remove any impurities. To the filtered jaggery syrup, add the mashed dal and thin, lastly squeezed out coconut milk. Cook this mixture, till it thickens. Then add the second coconut milk extract and continue to cook till it thickens again. By this time, the dal and jaggery mix would have absorbed the coconut milk well. Bring the mix to a boil. Add the first extract of  coconut milk and switch off the heat. Keep stirring for 5 minutes, till its blended well. Stir in the cardamom powder.

Heat ghee in a seasoning ladle. Add the coconut bits. Saute till it starts browning. Add it to the prepared pradhaman. Serve it warm.

Sending this pradhaman to Kerala Kitchen, hosted by Divya.

Kaaya Varathathu/Banana Chips

Banana chips is an integral part of any sadhya/feast. Instead of the usual round chips, when it comes for festive spreads, the quartered chips are mostly preferred. This kind is not thin, will slightly thick too. All these years, being in Kerala, I have not bothered to make this at home. I get fresh chips at shops which are just a stone's throw away. Now that I am away from my native, I thought I should make some at home. Its not that I don't get it here. Husband has already got the quartered chips and the Sharakkaravaratti for the Onam Sadhya.  Frying the chips is not a big task. The variety of banana is important to get the right taste and crispness. Then Nendran variety, which is very popular in Kerala, is the preferred one. Unlike the other variety of bananas, the matured and not ripe ones has a slight pinkish color.

You need

• Raw banana - 4 nos
• Salt - 2 tspn
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Oil to deep fry.

Method
Remove the skin. The chips makers at Kerala removes the skin in such a way that its not scrapped but the whole peel comes out. They score along the thick line on the banana. With the pointed part of the knife, slightly lift the skin. That way, the entire skin will be removed and will leave no marks on the banana too. That calls for some practice. I tried that way and was partially successful. Don't discard the removed skin. Preserve it and make a tasty side dish. I made that the next day. Shall post that recipe later. Now on to the business making chips.

Take half cup of water in a bowl. Add turmeric and salt. Stir well so that the salt is dissolved. Heat oil in a kadai. Take the prepared banana and slice it directly to the hot oil. If you are not comfortable doing it directly over the hot oil, slice it on to a plate and drop them into the oil. After a minute of frying, sprinkle some salt water on to the frying chips. There will be a rise in the sizzling sound. It will not last for few seconds. Oil doesn't spill also. No need to get scared for this. This will help to give some nice color to the chips and a salty taste too. 

When the chips turn golden yellow and is crisp, drain on to a strainer. Repeat with the remaining bananas. Store it in air tight container. Enjoy fresh, home made chips.

Wishing all my readers a very happy ONAM.

Olan- ash gourd, red pumpkin and cowpeas cooked in thin coconut milk

Olan is a bland dish with the flavor of coconut. It is part of the traditional Kerala meal. It is a very simple dish yet very flavorful. Red pumpkin adds slight sweetness to the dish. Olan can be made with just ash gourd and pumpkin alone. You can throw in few long yard beans also to it. And cow peas (small brown colored beans) can also be added. Sometimes, few pieces of taro root/arbi is also added. You can mix and match the ingredients according to the availability.  The vegetables can be cooked in water or thin coconut milk to add up the flavor. 

You need

• Ash gourd/Kumbalanga - 250 gms
• Pumpkin/Mathanga - 250 gms
• Long yard bean/Payar - 5 nos (optional)
• Cowpeas/vellapayar - a handful
• Green chilli - 1 no
• Thick Coconut milk - 3 tblspn
• Coconut oil - 1 tspn
• Salt to taste

Method

Pressure cook cow peas till soft. I have used black eyed beans. Peel the skin from the vegetables and remove the seeds. Chop both pumpkin and ash gourd into thin squares. Trim the edges of long yard beans and cut into 1 inch long pieces. Dilute 2 tablespoon of coconut milk in 1 1/2 cups of water. Add the chopped vegetables to it. Add a slit green chilly and salt to it.

While its half cooked, add the cooked cow peas to it. Be gentle while you mix the veggies when it is cooking so as not to break them much. Cook till the veggies are soft yet firm. Remove from heat. Add the remaining coconut milk and mix gently. Drizzle a teaspoon of coconut oil and cover it, for the flavors to steep in. Serve hot. The aroma of veggies cooked in coconut milk and of  coconut oil is very tantalizing. If cowpeas is used, it will slighty color the olan to light brown.

Palada pradhaman from scratch ~ Kerala Special

Hope all of you who celebrate Onam had it in a grand way. This Onam, I wanted to make the most favored payasam of Kerala - Palada pradhaman. Now a days making palada isn't a big affair when you can have ready made ada packets off the shelf from stores. But I wanted to try it from scratch i.e prepare ada at home.

Traditionally the batter is spread on banana leaf and is rolled and tied with the string from the leaves itself. Then these rolled leaves are dropped in boiling water and cooked. The adai is peeled from the leaves and cut into pieces. I was thinking of doing it the same way. But I haven't seen this myself and all I have is the theoretical knowledge of it. Just before making, called my amma to clear my doubts. My sister picked up the call and I said the reason for my calling and she was like I am enough to clear your doubts. And she told she she has made ada twice from scratch. She suggested me to use the vadam stand which will be easier to manage.

Preparing the ada

You need

Raw rice flour - 1 cup

Salt a pinch


Method

Soak rice for 5 hours or overnight.Grind to a smooth paste with a pinch of salt. The batter should not be very runny. While grinding the rice, take care not to add to much water and end up with a runny batter.
Spread the batter slightly thick on the greased plate.

Steam for 10 minutes. Remove the ada from  the plate and cut into four.

 Score into strips and chop into tiny bits.

By this time, the ada would have dried a bit and it will not be sticky. Transfer the bits to plate.

Repeat the steps with the remaining batter and store the ada in the refrigerator if you are not using it right away. If you have good sunshine, you could sun dry it and store in an air tight container for a long time. 

The ada measured to 1 cups heaped.



To prepare the palada pradhaman

You need
Ada - 1 cup heaped

Sugar - 2 cups

Milk - 2 litres


Method

Usually, the ada is cooked in  a mix of water and milk , till it turns soft. Then milk is added in installments and cooked till it is thick and then sugar is added to it and it is further cooked to attain a creamy consistency. All this will take loads of time. So I tipped all the ingredients to my 7 litre  cooker and pressure cooked for one whistle and kept the heat in lowest flame and continued for another 15 minutes. By then the pressure had build up inside and milk started coming out of the pressure vent along with the whistle. I switched off the heat and left if for half an hour.

Opened the pressure cooker and went on to cook till it had a creamy consistency which took nearly an hour on medium heat. Cooking in the pressure helped to get that pink color which intensed on further cooking and could cut down the cooking time and constant stirring. Leave it for an hour or so to let the pradhaman mature the flavor further.  The test for doneness is when you pour a ladle of the pradhaman on a plate and draw a line it should not join immediately.

Tasting just one spoon of the luscious pradhaman will make you forget all the work that went into it.

Inji Puli /Pulikachal - Ginger in tamarind sauce ~ Kerala Special

Today is Uthradam, the day preceding Onam and it is as important as the Onam day. The last minute shopping rush on Uthradam, to get every thing ready for Onam is termed as "Uthrada Paachil ". All those who will be celebrating Onam will be busy shopping for veggies, bananas, chips and Onakodi ( new dress to be worn on the day of Onam). The streets will buzzing with people. At home, preparations of the Sadhya/feast will be going on full swing. As I mentioned in my last post, apart from the vadukapuli achar, inji puli is the other star pickle for the sadhya. This will also be prepared in advance and it tastes better as it ages a day or two. 

The preparation of inji puli is quite easy but there is some amount of cooking time involved since the tamarind extract has to be simmered till it is half of the original quantity. As the name suggests, inji is ginger and puli is tamarind. So this is essential a harmony of these two tastes complimented by green chilly, salt and a bit of jaggery too.

You need

• Tamarind - lemon sized ball
• Green chilly - 5 nos
• Ginger, finely chopped - 2 tblsn
• salt to taste
• Grated jaggery - 1 tblspn
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tspn

To season

• Gingely oil - 1 tblspn
• Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
• Chana dal - 1 tblspn
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
• Red chillies - 2 nos, broken into two

Method

Soak the tamarind in 3 cups of warm water for 10 minutes. Soaking in warm water helps to  fully extract the juice easily. Extract the tamarind pulp and keep it aside. If you need add some more water as you squeeze but let it not exceed another half cup. If you add too much of water,then you will have to simmer to longer to thicken.


Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add chana dal, broken chillies and curry leaves. When dal turn light brown, add finely chopped green chillies and ginger. Saute for a minute. Add the extracted tamarind water, turmeric and salt. Let it simmer and reduce to half the quantity. Add red chilly powder and grated jaggery. Let it simmer to a thick gravy. Check the salt and tanginess and add more spice accordingly.
It will stay good for a week if kept outside.

The measurements need not be very accurate and you can go by your instinct and add accordingly. If you like to have a bit of sweetness to taste, then increase the jaggery.


Wishing all my readers and friends a very happy and colorful ONAM.

Vadukapuli Naaranga Achar - Onam special pickle

Onam, one of the biggest festival of Kerala is round the corner. This is the one festival which is celebrated for a longer period spanning 10 days. The pookalam (flower arrangement), Onakodi (new clothes) and Onasadhya (feast) are the highlights of the celebration.When it comes to the sadhya, the preparations start earlier on. Banana chips and sarkkaravaratti( deep fried raw bananas coated with jaggery) will be prepared 2 or 3 days before the Onam. Pickles will also be prepared before hand. Vadukapuli naaranga and inji puli are the common pickles served.

Vadukapuli naaranga is a kind of citrus fruit which is very juicy and sour level is high compared to lemon. It isn't bitter like Narthangai. I'm not sure of the English name of this. On searching the net, I understand Citron is narthangai. If any of you know the English name for vadukapuli, do leave a comment and shall update it here.  Update This is called kadarangai in Tamil and wild lemon in Enlgish. Thanks Hema for the info.

This naaranga can be pickled with just salt, green chilly and ginger or the usual way of pickling with the regular ingredients of red chilli powder, fenugreek and mustard seeds. I prefer the salted version and love it very much. I like the chillies and the ginger in this pickle more.  This pickle is very easy to make. The only work involved here is chopping the fruit, chillies and ginger. Then its just mixing all the chopped ingredients with salt and the pickle is ready.

You need

•  Vadukapuli naaranga - 1 nos, chopped into bite size pieces
• Green chillies - 10 -12 nos, finely chopped
• Chopped ginger - 2 tblspn
• Salt to taste

 Method

Take these measurements as pointers and you are free to increase or decrease the quantity of chilly and ginger.  Mix all the ingredients in a dry vessel. Transfer to a clean, dry glass jar. Cover tightly and leave it for a day. The juice will be released from the fruit. The juice combines with salt will have a consistency of honey. It tastes great with curd rice.

It will keep good for a week wit refrigeration. If you want to increase the shelf life to another week, make sure you add some more salt because that's the only preservative added here.

Avalose Podi & Dates Avalose Unda ~ Traditional Kerala Snack

As with many Kerala specials, I was introduced to this sweet/snack by our neighbour V aunty. I have no clue what the name 'Avalose' implies. Because it doesn't indicate any of the ingredients used or the taste of it. If any of you have any idea of it do share it with me. Whatever be the name, the ingredients used easily available ones - Rice and Coconut and a little of jeera/cumin to flavor it up.  This was not part of the traditional cuisine (Kerala Iyer) followed at home. During my childhood days, when we were living as joint family, recipes outside our traditional cuisine were not very common. The occasional indulgence was chappati/ puri with Potato masala. As always, you will yearn for the goodies which is not available to you. Later on when we moved to our own house and with our constant pestering Amma got the recipe from V aunty. The recipe is very simple but the taste is simply out of the world. This is generally made in large quantities and is taken a snack. There are some flour mills, where they pound the rice and roast coconut and the rice flour together. 

You need

• Rice flour - 1 cup, preferable home made
• Fresh grated coconut- 1/2 cup
• Cumin/Jeera - 1/2 tspn

 

 Method

 

Mix flour and coconut together and keep aside for an hour or so. While mixing this way, the flour will absorb the moisture from coconut and the flour will turn fluffy. The mixture will turn dry and it will ease in roasting.

  

Heat a kadai. Roast jeera ad then add the flour mix to it. Roast in medium heat, till it is light brown. I love the the aroma of roasted rice and coconut. If there is any lumps, try to break it with hand. Or to get a uniform texture, just pulse it in a mixer for few seconds.

  

While serving, take some avalose podi and mix in sugar and eat. Optionally, you can slice some banana pieces and mash it along and serve. Personally, I like to eat with sugar only.

 

 Note: Roasting should be done on medium heat so  as to bring out the flavors and for even roasting.

 

 

 

 

Avalose Unda
 

 

 

 

Traditionally, avalose unda is made with jaggery syrup mixed in and rolled into balls. Here I made the balls using dates. Finely chop the dates and pulse it in the mixer grinder. Mix in the avulose podi and make into balls. This makes a healthy snack with natural sweetener.

 

 

 

 

 
 

Chakka Pradhaman- Jackfruit & Jaggery cooked in coconut milk

I wrote in my last post, that I used up the chakka varatti. Yes, I prepared chakka pradhaman as neivedyam for the first friday of Aadi/Karkidakam. I usually make only neipayasam on all fridays. This time I made an exception. If you have chakkavaratti and coconut milk in hand, then making this pradhaman is a breeze. In Kerala, payasam is referred to as pradhaman when coconut milk is used. Now you might think, then how come palada pradhaman where milk is the ingredient. In earlier days, Ada pradhaman was made with jaggery and coconut milk. May be later on, with the availability of milk in abundance, some chef might have come up with this version.

As in all pradhamans, you need 3 sets of coconut milk- thick, medium thick and thin. The first extract from the coconut is the thick milk and subsequent extracts are the medium thick and thin, which are called as first, second and third milk in the order of extract. Coconuts used are not very matured ones. While selecting coconut for milk extraction, look for the coconuts which doesn't have dark brown shell. The ones which has shades of cream are good. Sorry, I forgot to click pics of the coconut. It would give a better idea.

For 1 cup of chakka varatti, you will need about 2 medium sized coconuts. Take the amount of chakka varatti and coconut milk given here as an indication. You go by your instinct and it cannot go wrong. Little less or more of any quantity may not effectthe end result in a big way. So here comes the recipe

 

 

 

You need

•  Chakka varatti - 1 cup, packed
• Three sets of milk extracted from 2 coconuts.
• Chukku podi/Dry ginger powder - 1 tspn

  

Method

 

Grate the coconut. Pulse the grated coconut with very little water. Add water just enough to ease the grinding. Squeeze the milk out with the help of a muslin cloth lined on a strainer. For the successive extract, you can add around half cup of water. Keep each set of milk separately.

  

1) Take a thick bottomed vessel or kadai. Dilute the chakka varatti in a cup of hot/warm water.
 
 

 
2) Then add the third milk. Bring to boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
 
 

 
 
3) Add the second milk and simmer in medium low heat till it thickens. You can smel the flavor of jackfruit and jaggery as it thickens.
 
 

 
Once you add the first milk, no more cooking is done. So it will dilute the payasam. keep that in mind and let it thicken well. Finally add the first milk and remove from heat. Don't leave it on heat once you add the first milk, since there are chances of curdling. Add a teaspoon of dry ginger powder. Serve hot or cold.
 
 
 

 
You can add cardamom in place of chukku podi. Chukku/dry ginger will aid in digestion and probably thats the reason why it is added.

Chakka Varatti ~ Jackfruit Jam

Last few posts have been more of jack fruit and mango. I have some more posts lined up on jack fruit. During my childhood days, I have spent most of my summer vacation at my maternal home. Then, only my grand parents were there. Two months of vacation was full of fun. We spent the whole day playing in the back yard with children from the neighborhood. We were never bored. Those days, mangoes and jack fruit ruled the day.. in both raw and ripe forms. My grandma used to prepare chakka varatti from a minimum of 3 jack fruits in one go. Me and my sister used to help is separating the jack fruit bulbs. In the process, we would eat few also. Coming to the present, i have at most prepared chakka varatty from one jack fruit. Though the recipe is simple, the process is very laborious, it call for great shoulder strength for continuous stirring for a long time. Most of the times, I end making chakka poornam, which is used as filling for ela adai , since it calls for less work. When making the chakkavaratti with few jack fruit bulbs doesn't take much time. I'm sure my grandma  could never imagine making in such small quantity.  Here is how I make it

  

You need

•  Jack fruit segments - 20 nos
• 
  
  Jaggery - 1 cup heaped
• 
  
  Ghee - a tablespoon

  

Method

  

Chop the jack fruit into bite sized pieces. Cook in microwave or stop top till it changes it color. If cooking on stove top, sprinkle some water so that it doesn't stick to the pan.

Cool and puree the cooked fruit.

Take a thick bottomed kadai or pan. Mix the pureed fruit and jaggery. Cook till it is flaky like jam. Finally add a tablespoon of ghee. It will stay good for a year with out any refrigeration. The shelf life increases according to the consistency of the chakkavaratty. I haven't gone to that extent since I knew I would use it in a week.