Puli Inji

Puli Inji , a Kerala Special condiment with Ginger, Tamarind and Jaggery plays a very important role in Onam Sadhya. You can have this either as pickle or just with hot steaming plain  rice. The recipe follows..

Yields for One small cup

Preparation Time : 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Chopped Ginger       - 3 tbsp
Tamarind                  -  small lemon size ball
Green Chili               - 2
Jaggery                     - 2 tbsp (Vellam)
Small Onion             - 3
Curry Leaves            - few
Salt                           - As required
Turmeric Powder     - 1/4 tsp
Chili Powder            - 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds          - 1/4 tsp
Dry Red Chili           - 1
Coconut Oil              - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

• Soak chopped Ginger in enough water along with little salt for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, drain excess water. This is done to reduce Ginger's strong flavor. You can also avoid this step.
• Saute ginger in coconut oil for some time and then take it out. Crush sauteed ginger using a Mortar-Pestle or Mixer-Grinder.
• Chop finely small onions, dry red chili and green chilies. Extract juice from tamarind. Add enough salt, Turmeric powder and Chili powder to tamarind extract and keep it aside.
•  Powder Jaggery and take it in a sauce pan. Add 1/2 cup of water to it. Cook in medium flame till jaggery dissolves and then filter it, This is done to remove impurities from Jaggery.
• Heat coconut oil in a pan. When it hot, add mustard seeds and chopped dry red chili to it. When they splutter add chopped onions, chopped green chilies and curry leaves to it.
• After onions turned translucent, add crushed ginger. Add also tamarind extract with the spices which we prepared earlier.
• When the mixture starts to boil, add Jaggery extract and cook in medium flame till it gets thickened. Your delicious Puli Inji is ready to serve!!

Onam Sadhya

Onam ashamsakal!!

Sadhya is the feast which is prepared on the auspicious day of Onam. I always wanted to prepare full onam  feast at home.  This year i went ahead with the idea. Since I have never tasted sadhya, I was excited to prepare at home and gathered all the recipes with the help from friends and Google. So i am not sure whether the recipes are authentic. But i swear the taste was too good. 

Cooking Kerala Cusine was  totally a different experience for me. It is completely different from Tamilnadu style of cooking. One distinct thing i noticed was coconut was used in almost all the recipes and the use of coconut oil gives nice aroma to the dishes.  I am just giving insight to the Onam sadhya recipes. The recipe number varies up to 64.  I prepared the feast with 17 dishes..

1.  Banana  
2. Banana Chips. Jaggery coated  banana chips is also used for serving.
3. Pappad
4. Salt
5. Use Lime pickle, Mango pickle and Narthangai pickle. I didn't have any pickles at home. So i skipped this..I served Puli- Inji which is also usually served with it. It is nothing but Ginger is cooked in tamarind and jaggery water with turmeric and chili powder. Hence its a perfect blend of all tastes
6. Cucumber Pachadi - Cucumber is boiled first. yogurt and Coconut, green chili, mustard seeds and cumin seeds paste is added to it and then it is seasoned.
7. Olan - It is prepared with Ash gourd (Vellai Poosanikai) and White eyed beans (Thattam Payaru). Both are boiled separatley and its cooked  together in coconut milk, Green chili, Curry leaves. Drizzle coconut oil.
8. Cabbage Thoran - Shredded cabbage is sauteed together with small onion, coconut , cumin , green chili and garlic paste.
9. Aviyal - Vegetables cooked with coconut paste.
10. Rice
11. Parupu & Ghee -  Boiled Toor dal with Ghee
12. Kerala Style Sambar - Its similar to varuthu aracha sambar. Since we are also grinding small onion together it results in very different sambar.
13. Senai Kizhangu Pulissery - Yam is boiled first and coconut, small onion, cumin seeds, turmeric powder and red chili powder paste is added to it. Also add yogurt and seasoning.
14. Kerala Style Tomato Rasam - Its totally a different rasam. Tomatoes are smashed and boiled together with red chili, garlic, coriander seeds and pepper paste.
15. Spiced Buttermilk - Butter milk with Ginger, Cumin seeds and curry leaves.
16. Kadalai Parupu Payasam - Channa Dal cooked with Jaggery and coconut milk. One of my dear friends prepared this payasam for her onam celebrations. I also used this for the post.
17. Paal Adai Pradhaman - I used ready made Palada for this recipe. Its cooked fully in Milk and Jaggery.