Kadala Curry

Kadala curry is another traditional dish of Kerala. Puttu can be accompanied with any savories of your choice, but Kadala Curry is considered to be its better half.

Ingredients:

Black ChickPeas (Kadala) - 1 cup
Sliced Onion - 1 medium
Sliced Green Chillies - 2
Sliced Tomato - 1/2
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Curry Leaves - a few
Grated coconut - 1 tbsp
Chopped Coriander Leaves - 1 tbsp
Red Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 and 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp
Mustard Seeds -1/2 tsp

Method:

Soak chickpeas overnight. Cook it in a pressure cooker adding enough water, salt, green chillies, half of ginger-garlic paste and half of sliced onion. Heat little oil in a pan and add grated coconut into it. Fry till light brown and remove it from the pan and clean it well. Keep aside to cool. When it is cooled, grind it along with 2 tsp of cooked chickpeas and coriander leaves. Again add oil into the same pan and add mustard seeds into it. When they pop, add the curry leaves and the rest of onion and ginger-garlic paste. Saute till the onion turn brown. Add all the maslas and tomato into it. Saute well. Add cooked chickpeas along with the water into the pan. Mix well and allow it to boil for 5 minutes. Just before switching off add ground mixture into the curry. Stir well and simmer it for 2 more minutes. Serve hot.
This goes well with Appam, Idiappam or Puri as well.

Puttu / Steam cake

Ingredients :

Puttu powder / Rice flour - 2 Cup
Fresh Grated Coconut - 1 Cup
Salt - As Required
Water - As required

Method :

Mix powder in a bowl, add salt and add water little by little and mix well.The flour should be wet enough for steaming. If you are using rice flour, it is better if you can just warm it for a while in a low flame. Dont let the colour change. If you are using puttu powder,then no need to warm. Be careful while adding water - Add little by little to get the correct consistency.
Keep your puttu maker ready, now layer it with coconut and the flour mix. First layer it with some coconut, then puttu powder, then coconut again and so on.The last and the first layer will be coconut. Steam it for 5 - 8 mins on top of the cooker or the regular puttu maker.
When done serve hot with kadala curry or steamed plantains or mutton/ chicken curry or anything else. It tastes just good with most of the curries.

Note: After cooking it, if you let the vessel stand and cool for a few minutes, the Puttu will come out clean - Inbroken.