Olan

Olan is a simple coconut stew prepared with black-eyed beans and white pumpkin. It is a popular Kerala / Palakkad stew, that's prepared during festivals like Onam.

The simplicity of the dish belies its wonderful and lovely taste! It can be prepared in no time and is nutritious with vegetable/fruits, and protein from the black-eyed beans. And going from recent nutrition "research", coconut is great for you too! I wish some of my grand (and great grand) relatives were alive to hear this, because it's hard not to use coconut in our cuisine, and until recently, we were scorned for the same reason, and our food used to be labeled unhealthy. Of course, moderation (and a sensible head) is the key. No research will validate deep frying pastries in coconut oil... so, moving on ;)

Last month, when I visited one of my aunts, she generously gave us some ripe vegetables/fruits from her lush garden. Amongst those, she gave me an acorn squash and suggested that I make a nice pot of olan with it. Although olan is traditionally made with white pumpkin, any vegetable or squash can be added - we make up rules as we go along :). So I came back home to make a simple and delicious pot of olan with the fresh acorn squash and some carrots.

The lovely acorn squash from my aunt's vegetable patch

Here's how I prepare this simple stew. 

Vendhaya Keerai Sambar / Methi Sambar

After almost 350 posts and three years of writing about South-Indian food, I finally get to sambar, the most ubiquitous of all South-Indian foods. What a cardinal sin this is! I have no excuse for putting off this post for so long, other than mere intimidation and self-doubt.

 Do I know enough about making a good pot of precious sambar? Good enough, at this point. But there's always things to learn and improvise.

Anyway, sambar is a basic lentil gravy/stew that is flavored with sour tamarind extract, vegetables or greens, spiced with a rich set of spices that make sambar powder, and seasoned with ghee or coconut oil to make a truly one-of-a-kind dish.

The recipe I am sharing today is the most basic form of sambar - no frills attached. This is the kind that is made almost every single day in most families in South India. In subsequent posts, I will write about slightly more nuanced versions of sambar.

Making sambar is all about knowing how much water to add. Water? Yes, water :). You can measure the water/liquid you add today and try to replicate it tomorrow, but if the chemistry is not just right, you will upset the sambar Gods. I am not saying this to make it seem like this is an unconquerable, finicky, complicated dish! But just to highlight the fact that although the procedure is simple and straightforward, there is a certain amount of skill (and a rabbit's foot) that is required to make a pot of sambar that truly balances all the spices, tartness, and flavors from the vegetables such that it hits all the right notes on your palate. But, worry not, I have a little trick that I mention in the end to make sure you can work around the uncertainties of sambar :)

Sambar is usually prepared with vegetables and very rarely prepared with greens such as fenugreek leaves. As I have mentioned before, fenugreek leaves are also nutrient rich like most greens. They have a slightly bitter taste to them, so stewing them in sambar with tamarind juice and spices is a great way to cut down the bitterness. But the leaves also have a nice aroma, so the whole dish becomes infused with a lovely aroma, thanks to the greens.