Anjappar Hotel Keerai Masiyal
I try to make sure that Keerai masiyal is once a week appreance in my kitchen.Picking the leaves is the most boring job when it comes to keerai and i am instantly reminded of my paati, who used to ask us to help her with this. She always ended up complaining i dont notice the leaves which has the holes in them and discard them, eventually she will let me go and she will do it herself ;).
I once had vegetarian meals in anjappar and they served keerai masiyal, which i liked so much, that i had more than 3-4 servings. I wanted to replicate it and this is what i had done. Until then i was making keerai in a much more simpler way with less ingredients , the way my mom makes ,which is also tasty.
But once we made this version , we loved it and this recpie is a keeper. Also this recipe has made S like keerai too, who never used to like spinach in any form before.
So if you dont like keerai, try this - it might end up becoming one of your favourite! :)
Keerai Masiyal
Spinach - 2 bunches [picked/washed/chopped]
moong dal - 1/3 cup [Pressure cooked well with a pinch of turmeric]
Green chill - 2 small, slit length-wise
Tomato - 1 finely chopped
Onion - 1 Finely chopped
Garlic cloves - 5 chopped finely
2 cups water
Cumin - 1 tspn
Mustard - 1 tspn
Hing - a pinch
Oil - 2 tspn
Salt - as per taste
Method
Heat a kadai with oil. Add hing ,mustard - let it crackle, add jeera - let it roast. Now throw in the onions , green chilli, and garlic. Saute till the onions are translucent.Add the chopped tomatoes, little salt, cover the kadai, and stir ocassionally till the tomato becomes soft and let out juice.Now add in the spinach leaves and saute them, add in 1 cup water, stir well and close the kadai with a lid, and let them get cooked well.This should take about 15-20 minutes. After the spinach is cooked well, add in cooked moong dal - dal should be of mashable consistency, add 1/2 cup of water, salt and stir well. Let this boil for another 5 minutes. switch off stove.
Server hot with rice-ghee and Urulaikilangu [potato] masala. That's one satisfying and healthy meal. :)
Notes
1. Never pressure cook spinach, as it will loose all its nutrients. Always cook them in the kadai along with other ingredients in which ever way you make them.
2. Be careful while picking the leaves from the spinach bunch, and make sure to discard the ones which have holes in them.
3. Wash the spinach leaves well with water 2-3 times as it contains a lot of mud particles and dirt.
4. I have tried this preparation with 3 kinds of spinach - palak/methi and paruppu keerai and its worked well for me. If you try out with any other and comes out good, please do let me know. :)
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5 Yummmm:
Shwetha .. maybe u wud want to add a note on the spinach varieties that could be used ..... because the one variety of palak that we make palak paneer or mutter palak n all with , i doubt if it would be fine for this kind of preparation ?
@Lara - it works fine with palak too da , I have used them with methi , palak , and parrupu keerai , just that for palak since leaves are big , it needs to be chopped well. The remaining two kinds - no chopping is needed. :).
In fact , initially I used to buy only palak to avoid picking the leaves :)
@lara - Added a note :). Good add - its probabaly the first thing that comes to mind, what kind of spinach? :)
ohh ok ... i found it bitter at times .. so have been a little scared to use that for our masiyal type recipes :) ..will try with that one too once :)
Wondering why it would take 15-20 mins for spinach to cook. Mine is done in about 5 mins. Is there a reason we cook for so long?
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