Brussery
660 Curries by Raghavan Ayer (pp. 615-616)
Ingredients
- 1 (~225g) very firm large plantain, halved lengthwise, peeled, and cut into 2cm cubes
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
- ¼ C shredded dried coconut, reconsistuted1
- ¼ C shredded dried coconut, as is
- 3 fresh green Thai chilis, stemmed
- 1 dry cayenne chili, stemmed
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp urad dal (skinned split black lentils)
- 12-15 fresh curry leaves
- salt for serving
Directions
- Bring a medium-sized pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Stir in the salt, turmeric, sweet potato, and plantain. Cover and return to a boil.
- Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until tender but still firm, 8-10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, scoop out ½ C of cooking water and combine, in a blender, with reconstituted coconut and both kinds of chilis. Purée.
- Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add the mustard seeds, cover, and cook until popped, ~30 seconds.
- Uncover, add lentils, and stir-fry until they turn golden brown, 15-20 seconds.
- Remove lentils and mustard seeds with a slotted spoon and stir them into the coconut-chili sauce.
- Add remaining (dry) coconut and curry leaves to the remaining oil. Cook, stirring frequently, until curry leaves are dry and coconut browned, 3-5 minutes. Stir this too (including the oil) into the coconut-chili sauce.
- When potato and plantain are cooked, drain reserving ½ C cooking water and return to the same pot. Add coconut-chili sauce and reserved cooking water and stir to combine. Finish with ¼-½ tsp salt, or top with salt at the table.
1If you have fresh coconut, replace each ¼ C of dried coconut with ½ C shredded fresh coconut. Back
2 I like to use lots of footnotes. Sometimes I'll even add a footnote3 to a footnote. Back
3 I don't do this often. Back
