Theeyal, another typical Kerala dish is made from roasted coconut. Theeyal can be prepared from a variety of vegetables like eggplant, pearl onions, drumstick, yam, snake gourd, bitter gourd, long beans, raw cashews, sometimes mixed vegetables or even with shrimp. Out of this my favorite is ulli theeyal, which is made with shallots / kunjulli. It is a very delicious dish that goes well with rice. Its very difficult to peel the shallots, but I guarantee that this dish tastes really good. Peeled shallots are nowadays available at the Indian store so you can give it a try sometime.
Ingredients
1. Shallots – 1.5 cup
Thenga kothu – 1/4 cup (optional)
2. Green Chilies – 2 slit
3. Grated Coconut – 1.5 cup
4. Tamarind Paste – 2 tsp or tamarind – small lemon sized
5. Dry red chilies – 4
6. Chilly powder – 1 tsp
7. Coriander powder – 1 tsp
8. Fenugreek powder – 2 pinch
9. Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
10. Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
11. Coconut oil – 1.5 tbsp
12. Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
13. Salt – to taste
Method
1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and sauté the grated coconut until light brown. Then add the dry red chiliies. Sauté until it turns brown in medium heat. Switch off the stove. Add the chilly powder, coriander powder, fenugreek powder and turmeric powder. Sauté for a few seconds and keep aside to cool. When it cools down, grind into a very fine paste without adding water. Keep it aside.
2. Soak the tamarind in half cup of warm water. Squeeze its juice and strain.
3. Heat oil in another pan, splutter mustard seeds and sauté the shallots, thenga kothu, curry leaves and green chilies. Add little salt .
4. When the shallots turns light brown add the tamarind juice and the ground roasted coconut paste. Add water for your desired consistency. Boil it, check for salt. Add a few curry leaves. It should be medium thick. Switch off the heat and serve with rice.
Tips:
1) You can also add drumsticks to this theeyal.
2) You can make this theeyal using savola (big onion) as well but it wont be as tasty as this one.
so perfect and yummy!! my fav!!! ooh i m drooling
Ahaa,looks so tasty!! Will try it.
If you soak the pearl onions/kochully for sometime,it’ll be easy to peel the skin off and your eyes won’t be watery too.
Sarah,
Thank you for visiting our blog..And thanks for your lovely comment!
Preets,
Thanks for sharing your great tip! Please come back with your comments/suggestions after trying it out..
We make this dish so often..clearly written.. thank you..
aaahh..one of my favorites!
Looks spicy !!
Hai,
Its very good recipe.Is it good we add muringa also?
Regards
I made this today. I didn’t have pearl onions so I used small onions. I also added some drumsticks and cashewnuts. Came out delicious.
Thanks for sharing Maya this is my favourite and it came out well
Thanks for your feedback Tintu!