Kalan and some awards

     There are many different varieties of yoghurt based dishes in Kerala like moru curry(seasoned with ginger and garlic) , pulliseri and kalan. Some varieties of pulliseri  are made using fruits, namely mambazha pulliseri, pineapple pulliseri,  ripe plantain/ethapazham pulliseri etc. Vegetables like winter melon/kumbalanga, vellarikka/yellow cucumber, raw green plantain/ethakka, pumpkin, drum sticks, tomato and elephant yam/chena are also used to prepare pulliseri. Out of all these varieties, mambazha pulliseri and kalan are my favourites. Kalan is a very popular traditional dish of Kerala and is another important dish of a Kerala sadya. Kalan has a much thicker consistency than pulliseri and uses pepper powder. There are two  types of kalan namely rasa kalan prepared using a variety of vegetables like pumpkin, yam, platain, ash gourd, yellow cucumber, chembu, raw mango etc and kurukku kalan which has a semi-solid consistency, usually served in Trissur.  In our place kalan for sadya is usually prepared with green plantains and elephant yam and has a medium consistency. Kalan prepared with sour yoghurt tastes the best. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1. Raw green plantain - 1/2 cup diced (I removed its skin)
2. Elephant yam - 1/2 cup diced (You can use frozen yam)
3. Green chillies - 3 slit
4. Sour yoghurt - 2.5 cups
5. Grated coconut - 3/4 cup
6. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp (opt)
9. Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Uluva podi/ fenugreek powder - 1/4 tsp
11. Curry leaves - 1- 2 sprigs
12. Salt - To taste
13. Coconut oil - 2 tsp
14. Mustard - 1/2 tsp
15. Dry red chillies - 2

Method

1. Cook the plantains and yam in sufficient water adding turmeric powder, chilli powder, pepper powder and salt at medium heat. Meanwhile grind the coconut and cumin seeds to a very fine paste.

2. When the vegetables are cooked, mash them up a little bit and add the ground coconut paste. Cook for a few minutes until its raw taste is gone. Bring down the heat and add the beaten yoghurt. Keep stirring, after you add yoghurt, otherwise it will curdle. Sprinkle fenugreek powder and check for salt. Heat through and switch off. 

 

3. In another pan heat some coconut oil, splutter mustards, brown the dry red chillies, add a few curry leaves and pour this tadka over the kalan. Serve hot with steamed rice.

 

 

 

 

Nithubala of Nithu’s Kitchen sent us the Personalised Participation Award for participating in her event, Think beyond the usual - Fruits. Thanks a lot Nithu. We are looking forward to participating in your forthcoming events.

 

 

 

We are also excited to receive a bunch of awards from  Pavithra Srihari of Binge on Veg and Rumana Rawat of Spice Ur Senses. Both of them have some really interesting recipes in their space. You might want to try baked thattai and lemon rasam from Pavithra’s blog and Korean Chicken Gravy and Rajma Paratha from Rumana’s blog. Thanks a lot for these awards, girls.

We would like to pass on these awards to Srividhya of Vidhu’s Kitchen, Cool Lassie of Pan Gravy Kadai Curry, Shama of Easy2Cook Recipes, Deepti of Panchamrutham, Nithya of 4th Sense Cooking, Dolly of Curry And Beyond, TreatnTrick, Shabs of Shab’s Cuisine, Ms. Chitchat of ChitChat@CrossRoads, MaryMoh of Keep Learning Keep Smiling, Sreeviji of Ladys Blog, Vineetha of Ruchi, Shriya of SpicyTasty, Shanthi of Shanthi Krishnakumar’s cook book,  I’m a Home Chef of Cookery Bits, Subhie of Subhie’s Kitchen,  Sayantani of A Homemaker’s Diary, Gita of Gita’s Kitchen, Jay of Tasty Appetite and Varunavi of My Kitchen’s Aroma.