Aviyal Recipe | Keralan Mixed Vegetable Curry With Coconut And Yogurt

Learn how to make Aviyal or Avial ~ Keralan mixed vegetable medley with coconut and yogurt

Heaven must be a bit like Kerala, an ancient strip of lush, tropical land that slithers sensuously down the coast of south-western India.
~ Madhur Jaffrey

Blessed with tropical, balmy weather and plentiful rain, Kerala is truly God’s own country. The land of sparkling backwater zigzagging the lush green landscape dotted with paddy fields, tea plantations and the majestic coconut trees swaying to the cool breeze of Arabian sea, Kerala is home to world’s most precious treasure – spices that have lured traders from antiquity, and then the invaders many centuries ago. At the end of 15th century the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama hitched up his sail and after circling the Cape of Good Hope landed in Kerala at the port of Calicut and soon the other Europeans – Dutch, French and English – followed his sea route. What started as a lucrative spice trade soon created a whirlwind of brutal violence and colonisation in the name of God, king and country leaving a trail of blood stained the map of India!

Ingredients for Aviyal

Black pepper, the king of spices and the most coveted spice was believed to be worth its weight in gold is still one of the most loved spices in the present day is grown abundantly in Kerala along with many other spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms etc. Keralan cuisine is loved for not just it’s balanced used of spices, but also inclusivity of local produce in everyday cooking. Sadya – a celebratory feast consisting of a variety of traditional vegetarian dishes usually served on banana leaves – showcases the beauty of Keralan vegetarian dishes cooked with a wide range of locally grown vegetables like gourds, green plantains, root vegetables, yams etc cooked with freshly grated coconut, coconut milk, yogurt, and lentils etc. Almost every savoury dish has two main ingredients – coconut oil and fresh curry leaves – and it is impossible to imagine Keralan cuisine without these two!

Ela Ada Recipe | Steamed Sweet Rice Flour Cakes in Banana Leaves

Learn how to make Ela Ada ~ Sweet coconut-jaggery stuffed rice cakes/parcels steam cooked in banana leaves, a traditional delicacy from Kerala

Last few weeks have been really busy on home front which required my full attention. This was good enough reason for me to wean myself from spending hours on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google+. It was a good break, away from social networks and spending more time on what I do best, annoying my family! ;)

This year the weather god has been really generous, blessing us with beautiful long sunny days and cool breeze in between to keep our cheer high. So we decided to make the most of it. The days were spent with Lil Dumpling, mostly in garden, caring for the plants and painting under the shade of tree. We took a break by chasing butterflies, watching the ants gather food for the winter, twittering with birds, jumping on trampoline and having impromptu picnics.

Beetroot Pachadi Recipe | How to make Beetroot Pachidi

Learn how to make Beetroot Pachadi ~ Beetroot in spiced coconut and yogurt gravy

We three have been very busy here.... Busy doing nothing! Oh wait... We are enjoying the bright sunny days with clear blue sky, lush greenery around us, a lazy stroll in our parents farms, breathing fresh air, warmth of sun shining on our faces, reading books in the cool evening breeze, sleeping under the twinkling stars, playing in the mud and building sand castles in the beach and eating whatever our heart desires! We really have been busy... ;)

Tomato Pachidi/Pachidi: Tangy, Creamy & Tomato-ey!

Tomato Pachidi/Pachadi

When you move to a different place, different country and also another continent, you are blissfully unaware of how your life is going to change for ever! At least it’s true in my case! And then suddenly it hits you like a bag of bricks! You are away from your family and friends. Far, far, very far away!!! You have some other continents and some more seas/oceans thrown in between from your birth place to your current place! And not to forget about different time zones! So all this could mean only one thing, and that is you just can’t pack your bag at a spur of a moment and hop on to car/bus/train/plane to meet them in few hours time! No sire, no such luck!

A Campaign to Heal & Some Olan

Dear Valli of Cooking 4 All Seasons is my blog friend and since past few days we have become really close by exchanging long e-mails every other day. Mother of three adorable kids and full-time working woman, she is a good representative of modern Indian woman. Recently she mailed me about Anita Lakshmi, 28 years old with two small children, who is been diagnosed with Coronary Artery disease. Coming from an economically disadvantage family they are struggling to raise money for her surgery.

In Valli’s own words,
The darkest hour is just before the dawn. When in despair, you wait fervently, praying that night passes away quickly. Waiting for the hope to peep in. Wishing that ray of hope, to guide you away from difficulties. But for some unfortunate souls, hope never comes their way. They desperately wish that night never passes, for they don't have help, no means to get away from their difficulties. They, with heavy heart want to forget, slumbering the night away, wishing everything is fine.

Valli has undertaken a fundraising drive to help Lakshmi and the target is to raise enough money for her operation and other costs. To achieve this we need to raise about 15,000 US dollars by 15th September, 2008. Lakshmi desperately needs to be operated within 5-6 months and she needs all our support, in every possible ways.

Few blogger friends have offered to give away exciting raffle prizes for this cause. One lucky winner will get a copy of this wonderful book called “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule” from me. The bidding amount to win this prize from me is $25 and it will be shipped to USA and UK residents only. You can read raving reviews of this book here and here.



Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule
A sweet and sassy guide to baking everyone's favourite treat without using any animal products. This unique cookbook contains over 50 recipes for cupcakes and frostings some innovative, some classics with beautiful full colour photographs.
Bid amount: US $25
Code: Sia_Vegan Cupcake
Shipping: USA and UK only
Book Reviews: Here & Here

Please click the chip-in button to make your donations and be assured it is a secure transaction through Pay Pal and goes directly to Lakshmi’s account. Once you get the confirmation mail from Pay Pal, please forward that mail to Valli at lakshmi[dot]fundraising[at]gmail[dot]com and don’t forget to mention your choice of raffle prize, bidding amount, and location. You can support this campaign by donating to the fundraiser and also by spreading the word. Please find more information and also updates at Valli’s site. Contributors list will be updated HERE. Check what others have offered for Raffle prizes HERE.

To add this Chip-In button to your site, click on “Copy” within the widget. Copy and paste the code generated on your posts or sidebar.

This month lovely Zlamushka is featuring one of my favourite blogs, Jugalbandits oops, Jugalbandi for her Tried & Tasted event ;) I didn’t want to miss this chance of cooking something from their witty, humorous, and wonderful blog. These two are nature lovers, small time farmers (he he..look at the fresh produce from their backyards), health conscious, wonderful bakers and brilliant photographers. Visiting their blog is a pure joy, enriching and uplifting. One of these days I am sure to get caught by my boss for reading their blog during office hours as most of their new posts show up on my feeder at this time and I simply can’t resist reading it then and there. Bee and Jai, its pleasure knowing you two through your blog and I hope you continue with your Jugalbandi for many more years.

The recipe I chose to cook from their blog is Olan. I was looking for simple and quick recipe which also uses very few ingredients and Olan was one such recipe. First time I tasted this when I visited my close friend’s house in Calicut and her mom served us this delicious coconut stew with Black eyed peas and Winter Melon/Ash Gourd with Idiyappams or Rice Noodles. The aroma wafting from big terracotta pot in which it was cooked was intoxicating and the taste of it still lingers. Wonder why it took this long for me to cook it. Better be late than never.

I almost followed their recipe to T but used British Cucumber in place of Ash gourd as I didn’t have any. The idea to use Cucumber is from our lovely Punjabi Kudi, Musical, who had mentioned it in the comment section. I was not sure if she was mentioning Yellow Cucumber which is what we usually use in cooking or usual Cucumber we get here. I peeled the cucumber and deseed before adding them and to my surprise it tasted almost like Yellow Cucumber and very close to Ash Gourd. And I also cooked potato and beans together in a pressure cooker to save gas energy. I made it in large quantity and the leftovers we had on next day tasted much better than the one on first day. Will I be making this again? You bet. Thank you, Bee and Jai for this delicious recipe and this is on its way to Zlamushka’s T&T event.

Olan - Coconut Based Stew from Kerala

Print This Recipe

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Olan (Coconut based Stew with Black Eyed Peas and Cucumber from Kerala)
Prep Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 25-30 mins
Serves: 4-5
Recipe Source: Jugalbandi

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Ingredients:
1 cup Black Eyed Beans/Alasande Beeja
1 large Potato, peeled and halved
½ British Cucumber, peeled, deseeded and cut into bite size pieces (Original recipe calls for Ash Gourd/Winter Melon or Yellow Pumpkin)
4-5 Green Chillies, slit
1 can (approx 1½ cups) Coconut Milk (I used canned ones. Feel free to use fresh one)
2 strings of Fresh Curry Leaves
1 tbsp Coconut Oil (Optional)
Salt to taste

Olan - Coconut Based Stew from Kerala

Method:

Wash and place beans in a pressure cooker with 2 cups of water. To this add halved potatoes and little salt and cook covered for 15 mins or 1 whistle. Alternatively you can cook the beans and potatoes separately on vessels till they are cooked. Once the pressure is released, open the pressure cooker lid and dice potatoes into bite sized pieces. Keep them aside.
In a sauce pan, bring 2 cups of water to boil. To this add cooked potatoes, diced cucumber and also slit green chillies. Cover and cook for 5-7 mins until the vegetables are tender.
Add coconut milk to the pan and gently stir in under low heat.
Now add cooked beans and curry leaves and mix well. Allow the beans to heat through by stirring at low flame for 2-3 mins.
Switch off the flame and mix a tbsp of coconut oil. You can skip adding the oil but it sure adds more flavour. Cover and let it rest for 10 mins for all the flavour to blend well.
Serve this delicious Olan with Rice Noodles or Rosematta Rice or just plain steamed rice and enjoy. It tastes better the next day.

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Reminder for JFI-Soya:

I invite you all to celebrate Jihva for Ingredients with this month’s theme JFI-Soya. Choice of Soya products, the recipe, ingredients, method etc is entirely left to you. I would greatly appreciate if you can send me any Vegan or Vegetarian recipes but I leave it to your choice. Soya foods include tofu, tempeh, textured vegetable protein (chunks, mince etc), miso, soya sauces, soya oil and margarine, and soya dairy alternatives.

Deadline: 31st August, 2008

Please go through the guidelines and include all the required information in your post and also in your e-mail while sending your entry. Don't forget to add Your Name, Your Blog Name, Name of the Dish, Type of Dish and Perm Link of the entry along with the gorgeous Photo of final dish.

Click Here or on the logo to find out more information on this event.

Avial

This cabbage, these carrots, these potatoes, these onions ... will soon become me. Such a tasty fact!

- Mike Garofalo

Im not sure about the origin of Avial is Kerala or coastal Karnataka. Whatever, its a great dish. I love it because of the range of vegetables used. For me its a best dish when I find bit and pieces of vegetables left in fridge the week I skipped my weekely grocery shopping. You can use as many or as little varieties of vegetables you wish. My Amma handed over this recipe who in turn learnt from her Mom. You dont need to cook any other sunji's or palya or curries when you have avial in your thali. Its a colourful and healthy food which my Hubby loves and Im quite happy to cook for him whenever he wishes(mainly because it hardly takes 20 minutes to prepare the whole dish).

Colourful Avial

Ingredients:
Vegetables I used:
1/2 cup each of:
Potato
Plantain
Green peas
Drumsticks
Green beans
Carrots
Tindora
Cauliflower
You can also use Yam, Ashgourd but I was short of them.

Veggies used for Avial

Other Ingredients:
1 cup Sour curds
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
Curry leaves Few
3 tbls Coconut Oil(or any other oil)
SaltTo taste

To grind:
2/3 cup of dessicated Coconut
3-4 Green chillies(According to taste)
1 tsp Cummin seeds

Avial

Method:
Grind together the coconut, green chillies and cummin seeds to make a fine paste, adding very little water.
Mix the curd to the ground paste and keep aside.
Peel and chop all the vegetables into 3-inch lengths.
Cook the vegetables together with salt, termaric powder and very little water in a heavy-bottomed vessel.
Add the paste and heat through, taking care to prevent curdling.
Add 2 tbls of coconut oil and curry leaves and mix well. Do not heat.
Serve hot with rice.

Avial served with Rice