Janakirami Tastes — 1 — Sheela’s Moru
A series of recipes from the family and a story to add to it, starts here.
Let me start from the home ground. Introducing here Sheela my mom and her Moru curry. The intro into the series is in the above blog
Her fridge is never empty. There would be stuff for a full-course Malayali meal every time to be pulled out from deep corners of it and can be laid out for any person passing our town. Yes, Thrissur is aptly placed in the middle of Kerala, and family is spread from north to south, so someone always passes through Thrissur and they comes in and she is ready to pull out her fair, all the dining table is full, barring the time.
She had been a professional from the beginning of her life, no idea how she managed to dish out meals and courses all through life with her very demanding career. But our table had always been filled with something delicious and she was never satisfied if it was only one dish for a meal.
Her most famous dish is Moru Kari — Sour Curd Curry. No one makes it like her, that right mix of coconut and spices and the tempering with sesame and curry leaves makes it heavenly. Just that is enough to swallow a truckload of rice for a hungry afternoon meal, yes of course a fish fry is a great addition to complete the protein requirement. Most of her dishes she makes in the soapstone pan or kal chatty. It does add dollops of that earthy taste to the dish and the need of oil in these dishes is comparatively less too.
The dish and its recipe follows
Recipe
For the mallu uninitiated readers, here is the same in English
The vegetables used as main pieces can be White pumpkin, Raw Banana, and Yam.
Ingredients
- The Veggie pieces( one veggie or multiple of the above ones) — Half kg
- Turmeric powder — 1 tbsp — This Moru curry is the color of gold.
- Scraped coconut — Of One good size coconut
- Sour Curd ( Keep some curd out for a while on a sunny day) — Half liter - Need to churn this in mixie without adding water to it
5. Curry leaves — In her case, it's as much as she fancies…. You might have to wade through its network to reach the curry. But the taste that infuses is heavenly, so no complaints.
6. Spicy Green chillies — 6–7 nos
7. Jeera or Cumin — half tbsp
8. For seasoning coconut oil — this is the magic ingredient — 2 Tbsp
9. Mustard seeds — quarter tbsp
10. Fenugreek seeds — quarter tbsp
11. Dried red chilies — the red ones preferred — Brings beauty to otherwise yellow curry — 2 Nos
12. Salt for taste
Process
We are assuming you are using White pumpkin.
Cut the pieces into beautiful equal pieces. In a pan (soapstone or clay pot preferred, the infused taste matters) add the pieces with turmeric water and salt. Keep the vessel closed and bring the boil to the veggie pieces.
Add the mixie crushed paste of scraped coconut + green chilies + cumin into the boiled veggies. Just boil it for 3 -4 minutes and bring the flame to a minimum. To this add the curd which is already mixed. Take care to stir continuously when you add the curd as the curdling can be avoided if the heat is more. Now add another magic ingredient — Curry leaves. Put off the burner and keep stirring till the boiling is subsiding.
Now in an iron wok, put some coconut oil, once hot add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, and red chilly ( can be broken to pieces — this makes the inner juice mix with oil to create a deadly combination which adds oodles of ooomp to the curry together with sesame seeds). Once tempered just pour it over the curry.
Now load a plate with parboiled rice and on the mount let this be poured and devoured. As suggested above you can add a piece of fish or a pappadam to heighten the experience.
Artist in action
