Welcome aboard!

Indian cuisine is a riot of colours, flavours, and spices. Every state has its own unique culture- ingrained taste bud. And, to many of us staying within familiar tastes is a sacrosanct act. Of course an occasional trip to a speciality restaurant that serves another fare is ok. But, as a matter of routine ...at home...NO!

One of the benefits of being born to parents who dared an interstate marriage (am talking about India of the 70's) was being able to widen a regional taste bud to accept, experiment and, relish eclectic cuisines :-)

I love food! Be it traditional or fusion, cooking is all about turning out fare that is tasty and healthy.I welcome all lovers of good food to come on aboard and share your kitchen adventures.

If you like what you see, do leave a comment. If you don't, please leave a suggestion to help me make this better.

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Happy cooking!

Dershana

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Ona Sadya Part 5 - Kalan

The Ona sadya (traditional feast) series continues...
My paternal grandmother, ammoomma, used to make the best Kalan in the world (to me). She insisted on going traditional all the way, right from using the now archaic virakaduppu (fuelled by wood) and kalchatti (stoneware). Somehow, the kalchatti taste just cannot be fully replicated in a non-stick kadai sitting pert on a cooking range!
Kalan is very similar to pullisseri (morekuzhambu). In our family, the difference between the two is that the former is thicker,creamier than the latter. Some zones of Kerala would say the difference is in the raw bananas that are used in Kalan. But, in our family, raw bananas are never used in either dishes.
The recipe I am going to share uses very ripe, large Kerala bananas or Nenthranpazham (ethappazham). In case you don't get it, you can use ripe mangoes or just avoid the pieces all together. The curry tastes just as yummy without the pieces.


Thick curds (yoghurt) - 250 ml
Nenthran pazham (ripe Kerala banana) - 1 large
Green chillies - 2 Nos
Red chilli powder (cayenne pepper) - 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

For masala
Grated coconut - 3/4 th cup (150 gms approx)
Small onions (shallots/scallions) - 3 Nos
Cumin (jeera) - 1/2 teaspoon
Green chillies - 3 Nos
Pepper corns - 3 Nos
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

For tempering
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds (uluva/vendayam/methi) - 1/4 teaspoon
Dry red chillies - 3 Nos
Curry leaves - 3-4 sprigs

Whisk the curds well with a fork. If you are using store bought curds,whisk, and let it stay at room temperature with the addition of 2 slit green chillies. This ensure that a slightly sour flavour permeates the curds.
Finely grind all the ingredients for the masala ensuring that the green chillies are added when the paste is almost done. Grinding green chillies too much can sometimes imbue the dish with a bitter taste and this doesn't go well in kalan.
Heat a teaspoon of oil in a thick bottomed vessel and crackle the mustard. Follow up with the fenugreek seeds ensuring that these don't burn (if it burns, it turns very bitter). Add the dry red chillies and curry leaves. Cube the nenthranpazham and add in along with the chilli powder and turmeric powder. Add a little water and cook till pieces are soft. Add in the ground masala and saute for a couple of minutes. Carefully add in the beaten curds and keep stirring on very low fire till tiny bubbles break the surface. Don't stop stirring or the curds break. Add salt to taste. Take off from flame and let stay for half an hour atleast before use.
Kalan tastes even more fantabulous the next day.
PS: If you dont find nenthranpazham or ripe mangoes, and want to try the version with no pieces in, just crackle the tempering, saute the masala and go ahead straight to adding the curds.

This is my fifth entry to Asankhana's Festive food event - Onam celebrations. The event is on at AsanKhana

My dear friend, Sripriya of srikarskitchen, has given me the Perfect blend Of Friendship Award. I've been getting so many friendship awards that it makes me feel that food blogging is indeed a very nice way to find warm hearted kindred souls whom otherwise I would've never met.


Thank you, Sri for this blend of Trust, Kindness, Honesty, and Caring. This time I'd like to pass this on to Divya Vikram of divya-dilse; Vidhya of My Recipies (iyercooks)who gave this to me the first time; Priti of indiankhanna; and, Suma Rajesh of sumascuisine .

16 comments:

Unknown said...

wow... totally new for me...thxs for sharing... looks delicious...

Indian Khana said...

Hey Kalan looks so wonderful yaar...feast is really so yummy..Congrats on your award and thanks a lot for sharing with me :)

ST said...

Kalan looks sooooo delicious and yummy.Its new for me .Will try it.

I have added U in my blogroll.

Indranee Batabyal said...

First time to your blog...very nice recipes and photos! Will keep visiting for sure.

Deepthi Shankar said...

lovely post .. i loved the sadya series totally .. congrats on the awards N thanks a lot for adding me to your blogroll

Sum Raj said...

woo..each recipe of onam...just sterday i had kalan...congrates on ur awards and thanks for sharing with me..so sweet of u..:)

EC said...

Kalan looks delicious..congrats on the award

Unknown said...

Thanks for the award girl..Kalan looks really delicious..

Usha said...

Kalan looks good...congratulations on your award...

Vibaas said...

hi dershana, thanks for stopping by. Kalan looks yum. my mallu friend used to say so much about kalan and i've never had it before. i think i should definitely give it a try.

Sagari said...

this looks soooo yummyyy

Bharti said...

Lovely series! The Kalan looks delish!

Valarmathi Sanjeev said...

Totally new dish for me. Looks good.

Congrats on your award

Dershana said...

Thank you Sri, Priti, Sireesha...

Welcome Indranee, do keep visiting.

Thank you VP, Suma, EC, Divya, Usha, Vibaas, Sagari, Bharati, and Valar.

Delighted by your encouragement :-)

Vidhya said...

Congratulations Dershana for the awards and thanks for passing it me. You Olan, kalan, inji puli everything looks very delicious and it takes me to my dad's palaghat village where I had a chance to eat onam sadaya once. I stayed there with my patti for 10 days and enjoyed the feast. We usually don't use any veggies in kalan, just add the grounded mix to yogurt.

FH said...

Oh, that's so lovely D,looks delicious. Just like my Kerala cookbook says, Kalan is one of the Sadya dishes. I think I made my gravy a bit thicker than usual Kalan to go with Poori! :)

 
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