Poriyal or Palya is a dish from Kerala and Tamilnadu made by shallow frying vegetables and garnished (and slightly cooked) with freshly grated coconut. It can be made using any vegetables and sometimes even made with chicken or lamb. The recipe remains pretty much the same.
Ingredients: Serve 2-3
- Cabbage - 1 cup chopped
- Capsicum - 3/4 cup chopped
- Potato - 1/2 cup chopped
- Tomato - 1 small chopped
- Onion - 1 medium chopped
- Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
- Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
- Curry leaves - 4-5
- Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
- Salt - As per taste
- Coconut - grated 1/2 cup
- Oil - 3 tsp
1. Chop all the vegetables into small sized pieces. Break open a ripe coconut and grate it. 1/2 cup is what we will be using in this recipe. Remaining can be stored in the fridge for use in some other recipe.
2. Heat oil in a wok. Put mustard seeds in. When they start popping, put the cumin seeds and curry leaves. Put the chopped onion after 10 seconds. When the onions turn slightly brown, put the other vegetables in and mix well. Cover the wok and let them cook for about 5 minutes. Keep checking every couple of minutes to make sure that the veggies are not sticking to the wok (the water in the cabbage should help, but still it's better to check). Put all the spices and salt in and cover again for 5 minutes.
3. Once the veggies are almost cooked, put the grated coconut in and mix well. Let it cook for another 3 minutes without covering the wok this time.
4. Garnish with fresh coriander if you like and serve with chapati or appam.
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Some chefs put the veggies in boiling water to cook them first and then just toss everything together in a hot oil. I don't like doing that. Also, like I said before, any veggies can be put in this or even diced chicken and lamb.
The nagger made this dish and I must say it tasted amazing!
