Ulli Theeyal

    Theeyal, another typical Kerala dish is made from roasted coconut. Theeyal can be prepared from a variety of vegetables like eggplant, pearl onions, drumstick, yam, snake gourd, bitter gourd, long beans, raw cashews, sometimes mixed vegetables or even with shrimp. Out of this my favorite  is ulli theeyal, which is made with pearl onions. Its a very delicious dish that goes well with rice.  Its very difficult to peel the pearl onions, but I promise you that this dish tastes really good. The peeled pearl onions are nowadays available at the Indian store so you can give it a try sometime.

Ingredients

1. Pearl Onions – 1 cup

2. Green Chillies – 2 slit

3. Grated Coconut – 1/2 cup

4. Tamarind Paste – 1 tsp or tamarind – small lemon sized

5. Dry red chillies – 4

6. Chilli powder – 1 tsp

7. Coriander powder – 1 tsp

8. Fenugreek powder –  2 pinch

9. Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp

10. Curry leaves – 2 sprigs

11. Oil – 2 tbsp

12. Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

13. Salt – to taste

Method

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and sauté the grated coconut until light brown. Then add the dry red chiliies. Sauté  until it turns brown in medium heat. Now add the chilli powder, coriander powder, fenugreek powder and turmeric powder. Sauté for a  few seconds and remove from heat. When it cools down, grind it into a fine paste without adding water. Keep it aside.

2. Soak the tamarind in half cup of water.

3. Heat oil in another pan, splutter mustard seeds and sauté the pearl onions, curry leaves and green chillies. Add little salt .

4. When the onion turns light brown add the tamarind juice and the ground paste. Add water for your consistency. Boil it, check for salt. Switch off the heat and serve with rice.

 

Tips:

1)  You can also add drumsticks to this theeyal.