Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Recipe: Erissery

Atham was last week. Thiruonam is round the corner. It is not Ponnin Chingam yet. All the same, Onam festivities begin with Atham. How soon time flies. I cannot believe one year has passed since we last celebrated Onam. Happy Onam to all my readers.

As usual, I started my Pookkalam on Atham day. I was pleasantly surprised to see a nicely done Pookkalam in front of a house during my walk this morning. I regretted not taking my camera along. I did the next best thing I could at that moment, I went upto the door and rang the bell and congratulated the lady of the house for the beautiful Pookkalam.

As I have said in my earlier Onam blogs, Onam means good food, happiness and well-being. I would like to give few of the Onam special recipes during this Onam season.

I will start with Erissery. Erisserry is an exclusive Kerala dish. Erisserry can be prepared using Yam and Banana, Red Pumpkin, Jackfruit, etc. Though the Onam special is erisserry made of Yam and banana, today I am giving the recipe of Mathan Erisserry (pumpkin erisserry) which is a favourite of all at home. During our younger son’s early days in America, he used to say he was not able to get red pumpkin (though when I visited US I found that varieties of squash and pumpkins were available). I used to tell him to go to the pumpkin carving during Halloween and collect all the pieces the carver would cut as waste.:) Let us get moving with erisserry.

Ingredients

cow peas : 2 tbsp.
Red Pumpkin: ½ kg
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp.
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Jaggery: 1 tsp.
Grated coconut: 4 tbsp.
Jeera: ½ tsp.
Coconut oil: 1 tbsp.
Mustard: 1tsp.
Urad dal: 1 tsp.
Curry leaves: 2 sprigs.

Method:

Soak the cowpeas in water for 3-4 hours and pressure cook.

Grind 2 tbsp grated coconut and jeera to a fine paste.

Cut the pumpkin into 2” pieces. Cook the cut vegetables with turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt, adding 1 cup of water. Add cooked cowpeas.Add jaggery (this is optional. If the pumpkin is naturally sweet, you may omit the jaggery). Add the ground coconut paste and boil. Remove from the stove and add one sprig of curry leaves.

Heat the coconut oil in a wide fry pan, add mustard, urad dal and curry leaves. When the urad dal turns to light pink, add the remaining grated coconut and fry till the coconut turns red in color. Pour the seasoning on top of Erisserry.

This erisserry can be served with rice, chappathis, dosa, etc.

Enjoy!

15 comments:

Inji said...

I'm one of your regular readers :) Happy Onam to you as well. This recipe sounds interesting - I'm sure the coconut fried in coconut oil as a garnish adds special flavour.

Ammupatti said...

Hi Inji

Thank you and we wish a happy Onam to you and your family also.

Yes, the fried coconut as garnish add a special flavour and taste to the dish.

Regards

Anonymous said...

Hello Aunty,

Happy Onam to you and your family..

What is cowpeas?

Sujatha

Ammupatti said...

Hi Sujatha

Happy Onam to you and your family.

Cowpeas is Vellapayar in Malayalam, Karamani in Tamil and Halisinde kalu in Kannada,and lobia in Hindi.

Narayan Swamy said...

Ammupatti, how yumm your erisserry sounds. I look forward to an Onam feast.

I have a non-food blog this time around for Onam at http://riteriterite.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/the-shrubs-in-the-rain-soaked-lane/

Hope you all enjoy it.

Ammupatti said...

Hi Mr.Narayanswamy

Thanks for your compliments. It would taste yummy as well. I hope to give more onam recipes, I am getting lazier.

Your blog post once again brought back memories of rain soaked Kerala
in the monsoon months. How I miss those days. I was beyond myself when I could once again get drenched in the rain all the way upto the Sannidhanam from the banks of river Pamba and down,last month. I cherish each moment. Thanks for bringing back sweet memories.

Happy Onam to you and your family.

Kannan said...

This blog is good.

Ammupatti said...

Thank you Mr.Kannan for visiting my blog and posting your comments.

Best wishes

abraham said...

first time here... nice place to come back again... please try my ebook on ONAM recipes, if you wish to offer it to your valued customers i will send you the link as well. let me know please.
http://chackoskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/08/onam-recipes-ebook-release.html
rgds
abraham and susan

Ammupatti said...

Thank you Susan and Abraham. You have a very good e book indeed. Congratulations!

Regards

Devi Balaji said...

Hi aunty,

U hve such a wonderful blog and i m followin for the past 4 yrs..and ur blog recipes are similar (in fact same) to what my in-law and mom cooks..Ur blog ws my guide whn i started cooking.For palghat iyer cookin i use ur blog and i need not call them each time for a recipe
I tried ur erissery but with a twist..instead of cowpeas (becoz i didnt hve it) i tried it using masoor dal...it tasted too good and v loved it..inspite of the fact tht my hubby, though a keralite, doesnt like red pumpkin. next time wil try out with cowpeas..

Ammupatti said...

Hi Devi

What a beautiful name! Thank you for your encouraging comments. I am glad that your erissery turned out well with masoor dal also. What I have given is the traditional recipe. Experimenting with various other ingredients is what makes cooking more enjoyable.

Best wishes

KennQ29 said...

thanks for sharing this, i love this blog. please keep posting and God bless! :)

Gayatri said...

Thank you Ammupatti!
You remind me of my Patti. Thats why I come to your blog for all traditional recipes and I enjoy reading all that you post. Today I'm making Mattan Errisery.

Ammupatti said...

Thank you Gayatri. I am glad that you are reminded of your patti for pattis are the special people in this world who shower a lot of love on their grand children. I had a wonderful Patti too and so did my adorable children for whom this blog is dedicated.

Best wishes