Aviyal

Its Onakalam again.. and time to make my fav dish..aviyal. Explained in english, its a concoction of many vegetables cooked in yoghurt with mildly flavored coconut..

Aviyal is said to have a very interesting origin. There are many stories which link it to royalty. Most commonly said is that it originated during Mahabharata when Bhima ( the strong man amongst the Pandavas) was working as a cook in a palace and while the king walked into the royal kitchen he saw lots of vegetables being left over. As the King did not like waste of any kind, he ordered all the remaining vegetables to be made into a dish..and our dear old Bhima cooked the veggies in some curd and coconut seasoning..& voila a new dish was born.

Interestingly the term " Aviyal " is used colloquially for variety or for mix and matches. There is even a Kerala rock band by this name in which there is a mix of various music genres.

I make aviyal for pretty much the same purpose - to use up left over veggies and also to because its one of the most tasty recipes for having a wide variety of greens..

Ingredients

Many vegetables can be used in Aviyal.Its always nice to make it as coloful as possible

Carrot - 3 No : s
Green Beans - 10 No : s
Raw Banana - 2 No : s
Yam - 250 gm
Drumstick - 1 no :

Coconut oil - 2 tsp

Ground Coconut - 1/2 cup

Curd - 1/2 cup

1 Sprig of curry leaves

Green chillies - 4- 5  big ones
Shallots - 3 - 4 no:s
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Mustad seeds - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1tsp

Cut all as cubic pieces roughly 2.5 to 3 inches long. Marinate all veggies in 1 tsp coconut oil for about 10 mins. This is supposed to help all veggies cook together. Else some " hard to cook" veggies like drumstick can be cooked seperatly and then added.
Grind the coconut, green chillies, shallots and cumin seeds together into a coarse paste.

Take a kadai or a deep pan. Splutter the mustard seeds in 1 tsp oil. Add the curry leaves and turmeric powder and stir. To this add the veggies and the ground coconut paste. Close and let it cook for about 15 mins while stirring.Sprinkle a little water if its gets very dry and stir well. Once cooked, add curd also and stir well till it starts boiling. The dish is done. Serve hot with either white rice or rotis. It is a semi dry dish.

Many other veggies also can be used. The idea is that it needs to be something which can be cut cubically and should not get mushy when cooked with other vegetables. Some people add raw mangoes also while reducing the amount of curd. & some recipe variants replace curd with a lemon size tamarind pulp water.