We Keralites have ‘Kadala curry’ in our menu like it is a staple food. But this Kadala curry is one which I had quite some time back when I visited my friend Damo (a.k.a Njan Gandharvan or Gandhu in online space). Gandhu’s mom made a kadala curry as side dish for idlis. It was so tasty, I tried to recreate it myself and never succeeded. It has been a couple of years since then. Last week I contacted Gandhu again and got the recipe, talked with his mom and today, I cooked her recipe. It was, out of the world! Here is it for you to try that out.
Ingredients
- For pressure cooking
- White chana (Kabuli chana) – 1 cup – Soaked overnight
- Potatoes – 3 medium size – small dices
- Onion – 2 large – thin slices
- Green chilly – 5, slit
- Curry leaves
- Salt
- For grinding
- Coconut – ¾ cup
- Coriander powder – 4 tbsp
- Red chilly powder – 1 tbsp
- Fresh ground black pepper – per your tolerance.
- Cumin seeds – 1 tea spoon
- Shallots (Small onions) – 4 nos.
- For tempering
- Shallots – 5 nos – sliced
- Mustard
- Oil
- Cumin Seeds (optional)
- Curry leaves
Preparing Kadala Curry
- Put the first set of ingredients into a pressure cooker.
- Fill water to level the vegetables.
- Add salt to taste.
- Let it cook.
- While veggies are cooking, get the grind ready.
- Heat a pan, add coriander powder to it. Heat it until the raw smell goes. Make sure its color is not changed. Don’t burn it.
- Grind the ingredients in a mixer to a smooth paste. Add water as needed.
- Once the veggies are cooked, Heat a woke.
- Add oil and mustard. Once mustard is popped, add cumin seeds, shallots and curry leaves to it. Saute this for a minute.
- Add cooked vegetables into the woke.
- Pour the grind into this.
- Mix well and let it boil for another 5 minutes.
- Check and add salt as needed.
This goes well with almost anything! Roti, Dosa, Poori, Idli… what not!
Happy cooking!!
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