Kaalan is a staple in any Kerala Sadya especially for Onam Sadya. The usual kaalan recipe has both elephant yam (chena) and raw bananas (pachakkai). I add only yam since that’s more readily available here. Also, its important that the curd is slightly sour, otherwise the curry will taste a bit ‘flat’. Adding a bit of tamarind might take care of this, I haven’t tried that though.
Kaalan
Ingredients:
Curd – 1.5 cups lightly beaten to remove lumps, best if slightly sour
Elephant yam (chena) – 1/2 cup, cubed
Coconut – 1/2 cup
Pepper powder – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Green chillies – 2 to 3
Fenugreek seeds (uluva) – 1/4 tsp
Dried red chillies – 2
Oil – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – a few
How to Make Kaalan
1. Heat 1 cup water with the yam pieces and cook till almost done. (A fork inserted should come out easily. Make sure that the pieces are not mushy, just cooked). Meanwhile, grind coconut with green chillies well, with very little water.
2. Add salt, pepper powder and turmeric powder to the pan.
3. Lower the fire to minimum and add the beaten curd along with the ground coconut. After about five minutes, removed from fire and set aside.
4. Heat oil in a pan and temper mustard seeds. Lightly fry the fenugreek seeds (take care not to burn it!) with the curry leaves and the red chillies. Add this to the above curry and mix well.
I have never heard of this dish.. sounds too tempting. nice pic
The picture’s beautiful, Nags.
And as Jayashree says, tamarind doesn’t work here.
But as weird as it sounds, I don’t (only me) like Kaalan with sour curds, so I make it with fresh curds and up the spice a bit!
Pretty picture! Looks lovely..
Love the colour of your kaalan. Adding tamarind instead of curd doesn’t quite work out well….it takes something away from the taste of the kaalan.
Yummy kaalan! looks lovely.
Kaalan, rice n papadam – heavenly combo!
I love kalan with plain rice, just the thought make me drool.
What a lovely pic! Yellow on black, and the kaalan is just awesome. Love the taste of it.
This curry looks close to our majjige huli what we make in karnataka..nice pics
I love the colours too 🙂
Love the color combination N… yellow on black, and the shape of the bowl is too cute! Kaalan is an all time favorite of mine 🙂