Kerala & the Malabar Coast · Side
Avial
- Intermediate
- 30 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with an earthy, grounding base, aromatics blooming from the first bite, with warmth in the tail.
Ingredients
- 150 g elephant foot yam (chena), in 5 cm batons
- 150 g raw plantain, in 5 cm batons
- 150 g ash gourd, in 5 cm batons
- 100 g carrot, in 5 cm batons
- 100 g drumstick, in 5 cm lengths
- 80 g yardlong beans, in 5 cm lengths
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 120 ml water
- 200 g fresh grated coconut
- 3 green chillies
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 4 shallots
- 120 g thick sour curd, whisked smooth
- 3 tbsp raw coconut oil
- 3 sprigs curry leaves
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Knife cuts: dice, julienne, bias
The words inside
Allergen screen
None found among the 14 screened.
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Layer the vegetables by density with the yam and plantain at the bottom, add turmeric, salt and the water, cover and cook until a fingernail sinks into the yam while the batons still hold square edges and matte colour.
- Pound or pulse the coconut with green chilli, cumin and shallots to a damp, gritty crumb, stopping well short of a smooth paste.
- Fold the crumb through, shaking the pot by its handles rather than stirring, and cook two minutes more until the raw coconut smell turns sweet and the liquid clings to the batons instead of pooling.
- Pull the pot off the heat, let the steam die back, then beat in the curd so it disappears without a single grain forming.
- Pour on the raw coconut oil, tear in the curry leaves, cover and leave five minutes so the oil perfumes the whole pot.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Knife cuts: dice, julienne, bias 150 recipes
- Take any three pieces from anywhere in the pile: they match closely enough in every dimension that you would have to measure them to argue otherwise.
- The cut faces are flat and clean rather than ragged or crushed; leaves and herbs are cut through, not bruised, and the board carries no dark smear where they were.
- The stated size is the actual size, held against a rule or a known reference rather than called about right.
- Everything in the pile is the shape that was asked for: no wedges, no half pieces, and no offcuts swept in to avoid waste.
- They cook evenly, which is the entire point: at the end of cooking nothing is still raw and nothing has collapsed.
Where it goes wrong The knife was dull, or the vegetable was never squared off first, so the pieces vary: the small ones are mush by the time the large ones are cooked, and the dish has two textures where it wanted one.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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