Avial (Vegetables in ground coconut)

Avial or Aviyal is a semi dry - super healthy dish from the God's own (or rather my own) country, made with an assortment of veggies in equal proportions. It's a delight for any vegetable lover. For the same reason it was an instant hit with my husband.

Some Avial trivia! The story has it that somebody came up with a magical way to use up a whole lot of left over veggies and created Avial. Wikipedia suggested another story which dates back to the Mahabharata age, when Bheema, who probably didn't even know how to make an omelette, assumed a chef's role. He chopped whatever was available, boiled them all and in anxiety dropped a whole lot of ground coconut over it. Okay! That's a li'l bit of exaggeration of mythology. ;)

There is a popular rock band from Kerala by the same name catching up fast with the international audience. In Mallu land 'avial' is synonymical with any form of medley. The name is a perfect fit for the band which has a mix of members belonging to different genres of music. Check them out @ Subash's World

Ingredients 1 (to chop lengthwise into thin strips in the same fashion as julienning)

• Carrot - 150 gms
• Raw banana - 1
• Yam - 150 gms
• Ash gourd - 150 gms
• Drumstick - 3 (optional)
• Long beans - 100 gms (optional)

Ingredients 2 (to coarse grind)

• Coconut - one half scraped
• Jeera - 1 tsp
• Green chillies - 3-4

Ingredients 3:

• Sour curd - 1 cup
• Curry leaves - 1 small sprig
• Coconut oil - 1 tsp

Method

• Boil the cut vegetables in ingredients 1 with a pinch of turmeric powder and salt, till cooked. Strain the water and keep aside.
  
• Add the ground coconut mixture to the cooked vegetables.
• When the mixture begins to boil, add one cup of sour curd and remove from heat.
• Take care not to boil the mixture once you add the curd.
• Season with curry leaves in coconut oil.

Avial is best when accompanied with hot rice, sambar and pappadam. Will update with a pic soon :)

Carrot Soup

It's red carrots every where these days, even in the vegetable compartment in my refrigerator. It comes very cheap in winters. So this time around every year I always have them in surplus.

That says a word about my husband's love for the vegetable!

What do I do with them? Oh I make several things out of it right from salad to dessert. This time all I wanted was to get rid of at least a bunch of them, but of course in an easier, healthier, less time consuming way.

My husband has a thing for 'healthy stuff'. So I decided to make some nice soup out of all those carrots and here is how...

Ingredients (serves 4 people)

• Carrots (Red or Orange) - 400 gms or 5 - 6 medium sized - cubed
• Potato - 1 large - cubed
• Butter - 2 tbsp
  
• Coriander Leaves - 2 tbsp ground paste - coarse or fine - doesn't really matter
• Black pepper - coarsely ground or crushed - 1 tbsp
  
• Salt - as required
• Sugar - 1/2 tbsp

Method

• In a cooker, heat 1 tbsp butter and add the carrots and potatoes to it. Stir fry for a minute
  
• Add around 3 - 4 tea cups of water (around 700 ml)
  
• Pressure cook for 2 whistles in high heat.
• Once it cools down, blend and strain
• In a pan, heat the rest of the butter and saute the coriander paste for 30 seconds
• Add the strained vegetable mixture
• Add sugar, salt and pepper
• Bring to boil and then simmer for a minute or two.

Tips

• More the pepper, better the flavour. So you can sprinkle some ground pepper while serving too
• If you like your soup to be meaty, go ahead and add some bread croutons
• And finally I still have some more carrots left. Would you like to try them for free ;)