Kootu Curry

 

This is one another veggie dish against which my sweet better half doesn’t turn his face off. Even I love this one. Whenever I have a sadhya, the first item to vanish from my plate (of course banana leaf for sadhya) would be kootu curry. At home, we used to prepare this only for Onam & Vishu. I always used to ask my grandmother to prepare extra kootu curry & payasam for Onasadhya, so that I could have the left overs for the next days as well.  Of course the left overs of the “special dishes” were meant for the younger ones @ home J and that was me n my brother.

 

 

Ingredients:

Black chick peas                   --    ¼ cup

Yam                                      --   250gm

Raw Plantain                         --   ½ of a large one

Turmeric powder                   --   ¼ tsp

Cumin seeds                          --   1 tsp

Pearl onions                          --    2-3

Whole Pepper                      --    15 – 20 pepper corns

Curry Leaves                        --   few

Shredded coconut                 --   ¾ cup

Mustard seeds                      --    ½ tsp

Sesame seeds                       --    1 tsp

Red chillies                           --    2 -3

Oil                                        --   2 tbsp

Salt                                       --   to taste

 

Preparation of Kootu Curry:

Soak the chick peas in water for 8 hours/overnight. Cook it in a pressure cooker and keep aside. Normally it takes 3 – 4 whistles to get this cooked.

In another vessel, cook the cubed yam and raw plantain with turmeric powder and salt.

 

Grind ¼ cup of shredded coconut with cumin seeds, pepper corns and shallots.

Once the veggies are cooked, add the ground mixture and the cooked chick peas. Mix well.

 

Heat oil in another pan and splutter the mustard seeds. Add sesame seeds, red chillies and rest of the coconut and fry until the coconut turns brown.

Add this in to the curry and mix well.

 

Serve hot with rice.