Keerai Molagutal ~ Spinach in a Lentil – Coconut Gravy

I always thought that I have been blessed to be born and raised in a family that embraced two cultures to the extent that we sometimes had difficulty distinguishing the two. I am talking about the tam-brahm ( Tamil Brahmin) culture, here. Most of the tam-brahm families expereince the same. This is mainly because, when the states of Kerala and Tamilnadu were formed, the province of Travancore was split and most of it ( which is now Thiruvananthapuram) was merged with Cochin, which became part of Kerala and some of it (which is now parts of Kanyakumari)was merged with the then Madras state (now Tamilnadu). A lot of migration took place at this time. Similarly at the Pallakad-Coimbatore belt, there was a migration of similar sort , but towards Palakkad in Kerala, as a result of a famine in Tanjore. ( this is just what I have heard from families and others around, I have not checked for authenticity of this information, so if anyone feels otherwise, pls let me know)

I have lived most of my life in Thiruvananthapuram (capital city of Kerala) and in my family, we speak both malayalam (language of Kerala) and tamil (language of Tamilnadu) and celebrate all festivals from Pongal, Diwali (celebrated mainly in Tamilnadu and not so much in Kerala) to Onam and Vishu as well (festivals of Kerala). Similarly, there was a fusion in the cooking as well. Infact, the tam-brahms have developed a niche fusion cooking of their own. Traditional recipes like Sambhar, Rasama, Pitla, Vatha Kuzhambu, Poricha Kootu etc were combined with some of the cooking styles of the Namboothiris in Kerala , whose traditional recipes were erissery, kalan,olan, mulagushyam etc and an entirely new set of recipes came into being. You will find a lot of them like molagutal, mezhukkupuratti, pulingari, podithuvals, kadhi etc. Even these differ from region to region.

Now that I am married into a very traditional kerala Nair family, I am creating a fusion niche of my own. 😀

Keerai Molagutal (also called Keerai Kootu)

2 cups chopped spinach (I use baby spinach as i had a huge box of it from Costco)
1/2 cup pigeon peas / toor dal ( I sometimes substitute with split moong dal as well)
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste

To grind to a paste:
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 green chilli, minced
1/2 tsp urad dal ( skinned and split black lentils)
2 dried red chillies

Roast the urad dal and red chillies in a little oil before grinding them with the rest of the ingredients.

For tempering:
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
a few curry leaves
1/2 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp chana dal (yellow split lentils)

Boil the spinach in water with turmeric and salt.( If you want to retain the green colour of spinach, shock it by draining the hot water and running cold water over them. In that case, do not add the turmeric powder to the spinach, add it to the pigeon peas) Pressure cook the pigeon peas and keep aside.

Grind together the coconut, chillies, cumin seeds and dal with a little water to form a paste. In a pan, heat some oil and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, urad and chana dal. Let the mustard seeds splutter. Add the boiled spinach and dal to it. Stir in the coconut paste as well. Add salt to it and let it simmer for a while till all the ingredients mix together well.

This can be served hot with rice and sambar or rasam or just with plain rice and curd with some mango pickle.

And, yet another award is here for my blog. I dont think I have ever had soo many awards one after the other, ever!! 🙂 This time it is from Akal and Varsha and this is what it says:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.”
It also says : “Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

Ok, so i have included the words, and now I have to choose eight bloggers to pass it on..my-my, this is going to be tough! So, after much thought, I would like to pass these on to :

Rekha – Plantain Leaf
Smitha – Saffron Apron
Natasha – 5 Star Foodie
Danielle – So many cookbooks..so little time
Laavanya – Cookery Corner
Suganya – Tasty Palettes
Asha – Foodies Hope
Cham – Spice Club

Phew, thats 8, isnt it?!! 🙂