Chenai-Avarakkai kari (Yam-Flat beans side dish)

Thiruvathirai came and went by in early January this year. I was in Phoenix with my parents and brother's family. Amma cooked this amazing, as usual, kali and sambhar. Coming from a family that celebrates all the small and big religious and non-religious festivals, we all kids wait for these even small festivals that come by nearly every month and celebrate it with the same enthusiasm as we would show the big ones.

Thiruvathirai is one of the rarest festival where a sweet and savory dish is offered to the God as neivedyam. The sweet item is the kali and the savory item is the sambhar or poduthuval. Thiruvathirai kali and sambhar is the norm in my family. My mothers' family cook poduthuval instead of sambhar, which requires indegionous Indian vegetable 'kavathu'. Kavathu is a root vegetable with a kind of sour and bitter taste.

There is a tradition on the number of vegetables that needs to go into the sambhar. Amma usually adds either 5 or 7 vegetables to sambhar. Vegetables are always kept in odd numbers. Chenai (yam), Avarakkai (flat beans), Vazhakkai (raw banana), Chepan kazhangu (colacasia), Mathan (yellow pumpkin) are must add vegetables.

Since I was home in Phoenix and amma cooked the Thiruvathirai neivedyam, I decided to just make do with a semi-traditional neither sambhar nor poduthuval kari today. The number of vegetables used is less (due to availability in Ames, Iowa), but the procedure is same. Here is what I did -



Ingredients -

Chenai (yam) - 1 pkt frozen about 350g
Surti Papdi (instead of Avarakkai) - 1/2 pkt frozen about 200g
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp.
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Green chillies - 2 nos.
Curry leaves a few
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp.
Mustard - 2 tsp
Ullutham paruppu (Split urad dal) - 2 tsp
Red chillies - 2 nos.
Jaggery a small piece ( can use 1 tbsp of light brown sugar instead )
Salt to taste

Method -

* In an utensil add enough water to cover Chenai and surti-papdi. Add turmeric, red chillies, and salt. Cook till the vegetables are just done.

* Grind coconut and green chillies to a coarse paste with just enough water. Keep aside.

* In a pan (gas top) add coconut oil. When the oil is heated add mustard seeds. After the mustard seeds splutter, add ullutam paruppu. Make sure that paruppu is fried just so it turns golden. Add the curry leaves.

* Add the vegetables to the pan. Bring them to a boil. Add coconut mixture and jaggery. Bring this to a boil. Remove from stove when the kari just starts to boil.

* Now the Chenai-Avarakkai kari is ready to be served. Eat it with rice or chappati as a side dish.

Note:
* After coconut is added never boil for a long time. Coconut will start giving out oil on constant over-heating and the dish will taste oily and that's not what we want!
* I used frozen vegetables, which come cut. IF you use fresh vegetables, make sure they are 1" long/ 1" cubes.

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