Onam Recipes : Pumpkin Errisery

It’s that time of the year again when Mahabali tales and Onam Sadya is on everyone’s mind. I feel a strange connect to all things mallu, whether it is the gorgeous Kerala Kasavu or it’s the appam and beef fry or the breathtaking beauty of backwaters of Kerala, N at home teases me that I either have some previous life relation with Kerala or an ex-boyfriend I don’t tell him about and secretly still date 😉

Sadya I made two years ago

Two years ago I made the full sadya. Like I have said in that post, I find the idea of banana leaf meals and sitting down and eating almost magical. It was a tough task but in the end the satisfaction on the faces of people who ate it was amazing. But somehow I never could sit down and enjoy the meal, when I cook too much I can never eat and last week a friend invited few of us for an onam sadya cooked by her and I enjoyed every bite I took and decided to make the sadya items a day for this week and share the recipes here. If I still have energy left might just do a mini sadya on Saturday the Onam day

Sadya made by Meeta this year

But till then here are the recipes to help you with your planning. Starting with Pumpkin Errisery. When I asked my family what was their favorite dish from the sadya two years ago, the MIL and N both said the one with pumpkin without even thinking twice, so here it is. Unfortunately the camera card I clicked pictures on yesterday went kaput on me and hence using the picture from two years ago, will buy a new card today and have new pictures for the rest of the dishes promise 🙂

Recipe : Pumpkin Erissery

Source : My Diverse Kitchen 

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp oil (use coconut oil for being totally authentic, I am still trying to make my peace with it)
• 1.5 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 tsp urad dal
• Handful of curry leaves
• 3-4 dry red chillies
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 cup fresh coconut to be grinded
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/4 cup fresh grated coconut to be toasted
• 300 grams chopped yellow pumpkin
• Salt to taste

Method

• To make the spice paste for the erissery, grind together ½ cup coconut, cumin seeds and red chillies, adding a little water if required, to a fine paste. Keep aside till needed
• In a heavy bottom pan, add the chopped pumpkin pieces (discard the peels) along with a cup of water and turmeric. Cook till the pumpkin is tender and the water has almost dried up
• Add the coconut and spice mixture and let it cook for about 4-5 minutes at low heat. Take off heat
• In a small tadka pan, heat the oil, add the mustard seeds and when they crackle add the urad dal and let it brown, turn off the heat and add the curry leaves and after a minute pour this over the cooked pumpkin
• In a separate pan, toast the 1/4 cup coconut without oil constantly stirring and paying attention to it so that it turns a nice even brown. Add to the pumpkin mix, stir and the erriserri is ready to serve

Coming up next my favorite Onam recipe : Pineapple Pachadi