Keerai Masiyal (Mashed Spinach)

This is a very simple and modest dish which belongs to the traditional iyer cuisine. I have heard of keerai masiyal in other forms too; most of them have onions or tomatoes or both. The speciality of iyer cuisine is, there is minimal or no addition of onions and garlic. I have seen my mother adding onions only to potato curry. Somehow, I can't digest the idea of adding onions to beans or any other kind of curry. I feel the flavour of the main ingredient is lost and you feel the taste of onions prominently. Anybody who enjoys eating iyer cuisine would agree with me. It's just my choice of food and nothing to hurt anyone's sentiments.

Coming back to the keerai masiyal, back home it is done using amarnath leaves. Due to the unavailability of different kinds of greens, I have used spinach. This dish is simple and easy to make. With spinach, it is lot simpler since it gets cooked faster. Specially in US, we have spinach in microwaveable bags and doesnt require any cleaning at all. Yet, I wash it once for my satisfaction. This is an ideal side dish for vetha kozhambu though you can have this with anything you please. I have added coconut in my recipe since I love to bite into the crunchy pieces amidst the otherwise smooth gravy. You might avoid it if you don't relish the idea ; literally. :)


Ingredients:

Cleaned and chopped spinach - 1 cup
Coconut pieces finely chopped - a handful (optional)
Coconut oil - 1 or 2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Cumin - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Dry red chilli - a small piece
Salt to taste

Method:

1) Cook the spinach thoroughly and mash it with salt. You can even use a blender.
2) Heat coconut oil, fry the coconut pieces till light brown. Add rest of the ingredients. When the mustard pops, add the seasoning to already cooked spinach and enjoy.

Kwik Fix Series # 4 - Spinach Cashew Pakoda

This is an ideal snack for a cloudy evening or a rich starter for a party. Both preparation time and cooking time is less and hence qualifies for the kwik fix series. You got to just put together the stored ingredients and the pakoda is ready in a jiffy. No soaking, no grinding and no standing in the kitchen for long! I was actually quite bored of the usual onion pakoda and tried this as a variation. It was ready in just 20 min. Try it!

Ingredients:

Besan - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 table spoon
chopped onion - 1
Chopped spinach - few leaves
Cashews - 15 (I used fried cashews available in tin)
Curry leaves - 5
Chopped coriander - a handful
Chopped green chillies - 3
Chopped ginger - a small piece
Asafoetida - 2 pinch
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

Method:

1) Heat oil in a deep frying pan. The heat should be medium.
2) Mix all the other ingredients including salt, sprinkle a little water to bind them together. Beware it should not be sticky.
3) Make into small balls and fry in oil till golden brown. Serve hot.

Tips:

1) Start mixing after the oil becomes hot. This way it will consume less oil. Also, mix a tsp of hot oil to the flour base.
2) Oil should be medium hot for the pakodas to cook evenly and crispy outside.
3) Just sprinkle enough water to bind the ingredients and do not make it sticky.

Sending this to EC's fried snack event. Thanks Chitra, for letting me know about the event.

Keerai (greens) molagootal

This is a traditional Palakkad iyer dish which is quite famous at my home. One irony about the dish is, though it is called molagootal, we don't add any molagu(pepper corns)to it. I see lot of people mentioning about pepper in their molagootal recipes. But the authentic recipe doesn't have any pepper and this is highly nutritious, non-spicy food, good for everyone.Molagootal is made using ara keerai and since I get only spinach here, I made use of it. Other famous molagootals are cabbage,mixed veg(raw banana,carrot,yam,potato,chow-chow), just chayote squash(chow-chow), yellow pumpkin and you can always be creative and come up with your own combination. I'm tired today to post anything eloborate and so limiting myself to a simple recipe. This can be made in a jiffy specially with the kind of spinach you get here. It's so clean and fresh unlike Chennai where we got to spend a lot of time in cleaning up greens. But of kors, you don't get so many Indian varieties here. That's a trade-off and I am actually quite happy that I get a lot of Indian veggies here. I never expected so much.Spinach is a great source of iron,vitamin A,B and C and this is one great way to consume it without losing the nutrition. This has spinach,dal and coconut making it tasty,healthy and nutritious. Now let us get cooking.

Ingredients:

Spinach - 2 cups finely chopped

Thoor dhall - half a cup cooked

coconut - 1 to 2 table spoons

Red chillies- 2 medium

jeera - 2tsp

urad dhall - 2 tsp

Mustard - 2 tsp

coconut oil - 2 tsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Method:

1. Cook the spinach and mix the cooked dhall.

2. Grind coconut,chillies and jeera into a paste and add to spinach.

3. Boil till frothy and season with urad dhall, mustard, asafoetida in coconut oil base.

Use the same method to make any molagootal substituting spinach with a diff veggie.

Goes well with vetha kozhambu or rasam rice. Also, plain rice and pickle makes a good combo to spice up this non-spicy dish.

More Keerai

translated into english means spinach in buttermilk gravy. This simple dish pairing with vetha kozhambu makes a heavenly lunch. Though I love eating masala and spicy dishes, nothing can beat a humble south Indian dish. Home food to me means typical iyer food and I would vouch for it anytime.Hailing from Palakad, I have been exposed to both Tanjore and Palakad kind of cooking. Take the case of simple morekozhambu, my mother used to make both kinds.

This is a small variation to the usual spinach kootu. I love greens but unfortunately the only available (Indian) keerai here is spinach and I am left with no other option. I can eat boiled greens with salt without even adding anything to spice it up. For that matter, I can have any veg just like that including bitterguord. That explains my affinity to vegetables. I really do not like frying them with lot of oil. More than the health factor, I feel the flavour of veg is lost that way and every veg has a distinct taste to be savoured.






Ingredients:


Spinach 2 cups finely chopped
Coconut - 2 table spoon
Butter milk - 1 cup (If u have only thick curd, just dilute it with water)
Green chillies - 2 to 3 depending on your taste
salt to taste
coconut oil,Mustard, urad dhall and red chilli to season


Method:


1. Boil the spinach with water and add salt.
2. Grind green chillies and coconut to a smooth paste. You can also add a tsp of jeera if you wish to.
3. Add the paste to the spinach and boil till frothy. Switch off the gas and add the butter milk.
4. Season with the ingredients listed for seasoning