Avial
Posted On Sunday, October 08, 2006 at at 10/08/2006 07:12:00 PM by Nav
It has been a while.. nah, a long while since I could manage to blog anything. Busy-ness crept into our lives slowly, but mind you, we did not let it consume us. We made reasonable provisions to breathe fresh air, enjoy ourselves, eat loads of good food. As we are getting back into our older- comfort routines, I present you all the God's own country's speciality dish, Avial. When my mother-in-law was with us here, she made this dish, at least once in a week. On one such occasion, I managed to sneak some pictures while she was at work. The detailed recipe of Avial follows..
Avial needs absolutely no introduction to the people who come from Kerala, but for those of you who do not know, it is a medley of a variety of vegetables, packed with nutrition and richness of coconut. Most of the vegetables used in Avial are found extensively in rural and urban parts of Kerala. When you know the recipe, it makes you wonder how creative, easy and tasty is this dish ..
Once, when we were meticulously cutting all the vegetables for Avial, my Sister-in-law filled me with the origins and history of it: Seems that at a great king’s great wedding, there were lot of vegetables left over and the head-cook came up with this recipe which used up all the left over vegetables and tasted yummy as well. Since then, Avial became part of the traditional "sadya" (Feast), especially during weddings. Avial seems to be a simple dish to make, but having all the ingredients in right proportion is the key thing. So, let's start with what you need:
Ingredients
Picture shows clockwise, Cucumber, Drumstick, Long Beans, Snake Gourd and Yam
Measurement- Malayalam/English/Telugu
1 small- Vellarikkai/Cucumber/Dosakaaya
½ nos. - Padavalangai/Snake Gourd/Potlakaaya
1 or 2 medium-Vadudhanagai/Brinjal/Vankaaya
3-4 strands- Payaru/Long Beans
1 big -Munigekai/Drumstick/Munnakaaya
1 cup -Chaena/Yam/Kandha gadda OR pullaganda
1 Carrot
Few- Chekka Kurivi/Dry Jackfruit seeds/Panasa vithanaalu
Curry leaves - 2 stalks
Fresh shredded coconut - 1 and half cup
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Tamarind - a marble size
Coconut Oil(Optional)
The above-mentioned vegetables are supposed to be the authentic ingredients of Avial, but people who migrate to distant lands (and still share strong attachment to the homely food) make do with the available vegetables in the place they live in; vegetables like carrot and potato are duly substituted in such cases.
Now to the method:
Cut all the above mentioned vegetables in long pieces approx 1 inch in length. Cucumber, Carrot and Chaena need to be scraped out of the skin but for snake gourd light or no scraping will do.
Cut vegetables smeared with turmeric, salt and chilli powder -ready to be boiled- remind me of Holi somehow!
Take a saucepan grease it with one teaspoon of coconut oil – put all the cut vegetables in a saucepan - pour little water – you do not need too much water as many of the above mentioned veggies ooze out water during the boiling process anyways – add turmeric powder, salt, two three slit green chilies, curry leaves and boil thoroughly until all the vegetables are soft and reduce in size.
Soak the tamarind and keep aside. Grind the coconut along with cumin seeds and 2 green-chilies. Mix the ground paste and tamarind with the boiled vegetables and cook for some time .
Season with curry leaves and a teaspoon of coconut oil, mix well and serve with sambhar, hot rice and pappadam.
By the way, we had a spectacular Onam Sadya, check out the picture below, to feast your eyes (if not the stomach) and welcome back to Memories n' Meals :)
Clockwise they are: sambhar, poppadums, banana chips, kaalan, biopot yogurt, avial, cabbage thoran(cut off from the picture, sorry!), lady's finger kichadi, Rice, Inji curry, Home made Mango pickle.
Source of Recipe: MIL
hi
nav
thanks for your avial recipe!!!
i had a friend who used to bring it in her dabba but i did not know how to make it now i definetly will.
nav my brother is in UK for a month and wants me to tell him what he should get for us from there.
can you give any suggestions as to what he can get for us.not very expensive some food items not available in india.
bye
mahek
Hi Nav, nice to see you back and with such a nicely detailed recipe... this is another dish I've wanted to try but been a little scared. Now I have a great tutorial - thanks!
Nav,
Look at who (re)started blogging. Awesome-o. Great recipe and well written :)
Cheers,
Mythili
Mahek,
That is a good question about what goodies to take home from UK ? Even after being here for more than an year, I have not tried much of English stuff (shame!) And also it depends on which part of UK your brother is! If he is in Scotland, do not miss the Scottish Short Cakes. They are yummy, it is the same with Welsh Cakes if he is in Wales. They get a variety of Cheeses here, if you are a Cheese fanatic. What else ? Hot Cross buns - I am not sure how long they last though! Although, it is a French thing, I would recommend you to ask him to get chocolate filled Crepes, they are available in Tesco, check it out at http://www.tesco.com/superstore/frames/default.asp?buttons=&url=/superstore/frames/main.asp. (Sorry, it is kind of silly that you have to register, to browse through and check if they have "Crepes" or not) Unfortunately I did not come across any yummy savoury stuff, as around here, yummy savoury stuff usually means Samosas or Pakoras ;) Oh and Chocolates and Candy obviously, you probably know that Cadbury is a native English Company! Thanks for asking that question, it made me think and motivates me to do more research on it.
Linda,
Thanks. Please do try the recipe, I myself have not tried without my MIL's supervision, but I have gained more confidence in this dish as the key things were knowing the right quantity and ingredients and the exact taste of it. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.
Mythili,
Thanku :) Feels nice to be back here, Been to your site few times, but did not get a chance to comment! Take care.
Ahhhh... wow, what a feast for Onam, Nav!
thanks nav
and what about kitchen items are there any containers which he can get for me which are not that expensive.
he stays in ipswitch now will there be a ipswitch cake.we are not much of a sweet loving family the chocolates which he got last time are still lying in the freezer.
is there anything in the one pound shop which he can get?
i also wanted some food or family magazines and books is there a way of getting them second hand .
or some resoanable prices.
i dont want him to spend much as he is just into the job and as he is only there for a month everything he buys is calculated in rupees automatically right?
Hi Nav - Avial has been our all time favorite Kerala dish. Good result!
Here is my personal invitation to participate at VCC Q3 2006; deadline is now extended to Oct 31. See you at the show!
vkn
My Dhaba
Thanks Shammi!
VKN! Thanks for stopping by memories and meals and the invite to be a part of your wonderful event. It will be my pleasure.
Hi Nav,
Nice to see u back. And love the new look of your blog!
And oh my what a spread. I am so hungry now.
Keep them coming.
Cheers
Latha
Mahek
Thats is some spread. I am drooling :)
Oh my!! What a line up of delicious food! Avial looks yummy!I thought you are a new blogger,but I am new to you it seems!:)
Nice template and good to see you back.. Hope to see more recipes coming..
For some reason, I always thought Avial had curd in it.. This is a great recipe and thanks for sharing.
hey NAV,
its always nice to find exciting blogs and read their stories and try their recipes..think i got another one to my long list of foodies..u got a wonderful blog out here and thanks for visiting mine.
Latha,
Thanks dear, I wanted to buy new clothes for my blog during Diwali :) so I switched to a new template. Yeah, thanks to my mother-in-law it was a great feast and looking at the picture still drives hunger pangs through my tummy.
Mandira,
Did you mean to comment on Mahek's blog ;) I am a bit confused now. Thanks for coming by anyway.
Foodie's Hope,
Thanks a lot! Nav means 'new', so I am always new ;) if that is what you mean. You have a wonderful blog as well ..
Pavani,
Yeah, dont blame you, the amount of coconut that goes into Avial dupes people like us, after all it is from Kerala - Land of Coconuts
Maneka,
Thanks for stopping by, you are very right, we are in the wonderful wide world of food bloggers :)
Avial is something I can never get right. Something is always missing. The avial looks really good.
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