Kollam Kadalai Curry and Aval Puttu. കൊല്ലം കടലായി കയും അവൾ പുട്ടും.

Does the name itself sound like a Malayalam movie? The evergreen ,wet climate peaceful serene roads , the dhoti clad hero , pleasant simple heroine in the Malayalam films telecast in the regional films section on Sunday afternoons in Doordarshan are some sweet memories about Kerala. The Puttu and kadalai curry , the puttu mould were first heard or seen by me when my sister visited her relative in Kerala. So i thought  oh! this must be a good food and the combination was a surprise for me . Long long ago ….no  i have never thought of making KERALA PUTTU .

Again book reading gave me a kick to prepare puttu and in the silent mornings in my kitchen with the relaxation time for my own i jumped into this preparation and i got yummy tasty Aval puttu and Kolla Kadalai curry. The puttu is going to take a smaller part in this post . Do you know what i  did i do  to get that cylinder shaped puttu? Keep guessing……

Kollam Kadalai Curry.

Ingredients:

1. Black kondaikadalai/ Black channa -1 cup
2.  Big Onion -2
3.  Tomato -2(small)
4. Saunf/ sombu-1 tsp
5.  Grated Coconut -1 /2 Cup
6.  Green Chilli  -2 to 3
7. Cinnamon -1  small piece
8. Turmeric powder -1 /2 tsp
9. Garlic -4 flakes .
10.  Oil – a tsp (Coconut Oil preferred )
11.  Salt – to taste

Method:

1. Wash and soak the Black Channa in water overnight or even 3 hours is enough.
2.  Cook till soft and done in a pressure cooker.
3.  Grate coconut, peel garlic, cut tomatoes and slit green chilli.
4.  In a kadai add oil then saute onion, green chilli,saunf, garlic followed by tomato. Finally saute  the coconut.Switch off the flame .
5.  When cool add little water and grind this to a fine paste.
6.  In a kadai add oil, add the small piece of cinnamon .
7.  Let the flavour enhance the oil..
8. Then add our ground paste.
9.  Saute a bit. It is my habit to add turmeric powder for all my dishes.
10.  So let us follow that habit.
11. Add the Boiled Kondaikadalai
12.  Remove the water before adding the Kadalai.
13.  If needed add little by little the water.
14. Add salt and cook in slow flame .
15.  Cover and cook .
16.  In about 10 to 12 minutes your Kollam Kadalai Curry is ready .

Tips:

1.If needed add the remaining water to the gravy .

2. Add curry leaves .

3. i was skeptical about using such a simple list of ingredients.

4. But i was wrong . The original Kerala Flavour which i suppose should be like this  is gotten here .The dish carries its own flavour not suppressed by too  many spices.

The gravy tasted good for Puttu, Tomato Rice and Chapathi too.

Aval Puttu:

 

Puttu is steamed rice flour. And yes Rice can be replaced by millets , grains . Oats, Aval  are some new varieties .I preferred Aval (flattened Rice ) as it is always light .

Traditionally puttu is steamed in moulds specially made for it . It is  either cylinder or round shaped . Here i am making cylinder shaped puttu . This is called Kuzhai Puttu.

We being occasional eaters of Puttu do not have that mould  in our houses. So i thought of using my Murukku mould. I screwed it with the  fine holed Omapodi achu.

Greased the inner with ghee. Added the Flour . Added water in the idli pan. Kept another small vessel with water in it . For a safer side placed a colander on top of the small vessel .On top of these two i kept the murukku mould .. Covered the idli pan and cooked for ten  minutes. The steaming mould should be left for few minutes. Unscrew the bottom and tap gently on a plate. The cylinder shaped Puttu will slip out .

Yeah…

Cost effective and space saving  Puttu Mould .

 Ingredients:

1. Aval -1 cup

2.Salt – a tsp

3. Milk -1 tsp

4.Water – as needed

5.Palm  sugar -2 tsp

6. Coconut _ 2 tsp.

 METHOD:

1. Slightly Dry Roast the aval in kadai .
2. Dry Grind the Aval when it is cool in a mixie.
3. Prepare the mould as described above.
4. Heat the water in the Idly Pan.
5. In a vessel add the powdered aval and salt  and mix well.
6.  Sprinkle water little by little
7.  Milk too should be sprinkled in between.
8. The final yield is a semi dry and moist texture.
9. The flour should be held together when tightened and again separate when we leave the grip.Quite funny right? And  we have to be  careful in this step. It is easy and comes by Practice .
10. Just add this flour in the mould. Pack it loosely
11.  Finally we can give a hard press .
12. Steam this for 10 minutes and we get the super soft Puttu.
13. Alternatively for the sweet version add palm sugar and grated coconut in the mould along with the flour , lining flour, coconut palm sugar , flour..in this order .We get colourful yummy sweet Puttu .

Serve Aval  Puttu with Kollam Kadalai Curry 

 

Advertisement