Olan

Olan is a very famous traditional dish from Kerala made with pumpkin and coconut milk as the main ingredients. Most of the sadhyas (feast) will have this as one of the item.

Olan is mostly made from ash gourd. But I like the version made using pumpkin, the yellow one.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin (yellow) - 250 grams

Cow peas (chuvanna payar) – 50 grams

Coconut Milk – 1 cup

Green chillies – 3 nos

Coconut oil – 15 grams

Curry leaf – few

Salt to taste

Method:

• Soak the cow peas overnight. Pressure cook the peas with little salt.
• Chop the pumpkin into small pieces.
• In a kadai, add the chopped pumpkins, salt, slit green chillies and little water. Cover and Cook it on low flame . The pumpkin gets cooked very fast.
• I took 50 grams of grated coconut, added 1 cup of warm water and extracted coconut milk out of this.
• When the pumpkin is cooked (not mushy), add the cooked cow peas, coconut milk. Check for salt.
• Simmer. Do not cook on high heat after adding coconut milk as the milk will curdle.
• Switch off. Now add the curry leaves and the coconut oil.

The smell of coconut oil and the curry leaves gives a splendid aroma.

This dish goes well with rice.