Kootu Curry ~ Sadya Dish (Step By Step Pics)

Thiruvonam is on its way but I still don't feel much about Onam this year as mostly people are confined at home and haven't moved out much due to Covid-19 precautions. We too haven't done any shopping this Onam and are not planning to do at this time. This year's Good Friday, Vishu, Easter, Eid all went away the same way. We are just comforting on the thoughts that if the family is healthy and sound we can have a elaborate Onam any day when all meet together. I think many of my friends would also share the same thought, right? So let's celebrate this Onam safely at home with minimizing the outside visits thereby reducing exposure to corona and make innovative, improvised dishes if you don't have a particular veggie and come up with a new dish if it clicks in the family too. Also, try to add in pookalam with whatever flowers you have in your garden and enjoy the simplicity for the betterment of our family.

Many of the sadya dishes are already on the blog space but there is no dearth of recipes when it comes to try newer sadya dishes compared to the traditional recipes may that be varieties of payasam, pachadi or any other sides. Scrolling down my sadya dishes, I found that kootu curry has not been posted here so far. Kootu curry was new to me till I tasted this dish during one of our Onam sadya in US. Kootu curry mainly is made to the north of Kerala and down south its replaced with erissery. Erissery and kootu curry preparations are almost the same except the veggies and lentil combos differ. Erissery is made with pumpkin and vanpayar (cow peas) and kootu curry is made with black chickpeas, yam and raw plantain generally. Also, in erissery we don't add jaggery as such and the sweetness is mostly derived from the pumpkin. Kootu curry can be made with split bengal gram,yam and ash gourd combo. Kootu curry is a dry side dish and the fried coconut tempering gives it its unique flavors. 

The chickpeas is soaked overnight and then cooked in a pressure cooker. The plantain and yam pieces can be added together and cooked separately till done. Then the chickpeas, veggies are mixe together with coconut paste, spices,salt and jaggery Finally the curry is tempered and poured over the curry. Do give this a try and enjoy with your loved ones!!

Preparation time ~ 15 minutes

Cooking time ~ 25 minutes

Serves ~ 5-6

Author ~ Julie

Ingredients
chick peas 1 cup
yam / chena 3/4 cup
raw plantain / kaya 3/4 cup
coconut grated 1/2 cup
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp(optional)
chilly powder 3/4 tsp

turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
*pepper powder(coarsely crushed) 1 tsp
jagerry powder/sharkara 2 tsp
salt to taste

for garnish
coconut grated 3 tbsp
dry red chillies 2 broken
curry leaves a sprig/ thandu
mustard seeds 3/4 tsp
coconut oil 1tbsp + 2 tsp

Method

• Soak the chick peas overnight, drain water and then cook the chickpeas with turmeric(1/4 tsp) and salt in a cooker upto 4-5 whistles. Reserve the cooked water for cooking veggies.

• In the meantime, chop the yam and plantain in cube size pieces separately and add to a bowl of water. Also grind the cococnut with cumin seeds(jeerakam) to a fine paste with little water (don't add more water as you may have to dry up all the moisture at the end then).
• Now add the plantain pieces to a thick bottomed pan and add the cooked chick peas water. Add remaining turmeric powder and cook the plantain pieces until 1/4 th cooked and add yam pieces(you can even add both veggies together and cook). Cook till both veggies are cooked well. Add in the cooked chickpeas to this.

• Add coconut paste, coarse pepper powder, chilly powder and jaggery(add crushed jaggery piece, it will melt down in the heat and mix). Adjust salt if needed.

• Mix well and dry up all the moisture well so that the kootu curry looks nicely coated with masala. 

• Heat oil in another wok/ kadai to temper. Splutter mustard seeds when the oil is hot, then add curry leaves, red dry chillies and finally add grated coconut. Fry the coconut till light brown. Pour this over the kootu curry. Finally, pour 2 tsp of fresh coconut oil on top and keep covered for 20 minutes. Serve warm with steamed rice and other sides.

NOTES

* Whole peppercorns when crushed and added to many of the traditional recipes gives a unique flavor unlike pepper powder, do try that way for authentic tastes. You can even add the crushed pepper corns while tempering, heat and then add to the curry. But I generally add crushed pepper to the cooking mix.

* Kootu curry can also be made with the combination of split bengal gram,yam and ash gourd. 

* Final addition of coconut oil on top after tempering is optional but that definitely adds a unique flavor to sadya dishes.

Please refer this link here for more sadya recipes.