Keerai Molagootal


Molagootal is a unique dish of Kerala Iyers. Everybody likes it, including non-Iyers who join our family (by way of marriage) takes an instant liking to it. It is not very spicy nor oily, with the taste of lentils, vegetables abd fresh coconut. Molagootal can be made with mixed vegetables (raw banana, pumpkin, winter melon, chenai, koorkai), spinach (keerai), cabbage. One of my mami (aunt) swears by beet root (beets) molagootal, and recently amma (mother) makes brussel sprout molagootal. You can find Yelvan molagootal here.

Keerai (spinach) molagootal can be made with Are keerai (amaranthis), molai keerai,  parippu keerai, spinach keerai (palak), siru keerai. Of these traditionally we use Are keerai.

Keerai (spinach/greens/palak): 300g
Toor dal: ¾ cup
grated coconut: ½ cup
mustard: 1 tsp
urad dal: 2 tsp
red chilli: 1
pepper corns: 1 tsp
turmeric powder: 1tsp
salt: to taste
Oil: 1tbsp

Wash and drain the keerai, and cook. Cool. And grind to a paste. Pressure cook the toor dal with turmeric powder. Heat 1 tsp of the oil, add 1 tsp urad dal and 1 red chilli broken into bits, fry till the dal is pink in color. Remove. Grind coconut with fried dal and chilli and pepper corns to a smooth paste. Boil the spinach puree with salt. Add the cooked toor dal and boil for 5 minutes. Add the ground coconut paste and add enough water to get pouring consistency. Boil. Remove from the stove. Heat the remaining oil, add the mustard seeds when they splutter, add the remaining urad dal, when the dal turns pink, pour into the keerai molagootal.



Accompaniments: Thogayal, Thair pachadi, Pachadi, Pulikachal.

Notes:
* Generally pepper corns are not used for molagootal. My mothers cousin, who is a professional cook and my brother swear by it. I tried and found it to be just too taste worthy. So now I add it.
* Jeera is not added not added to coconut paste in Kerala type Molagootal, but it does give a lot of flavor and if you want to add, 1/2 tsp is good.
* Just to make the whole process simpler, buy the finely cut spinach. Its sold in the market in frozen form. When cooked this is similar to pureed spinach and none will know the difference. 

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