Vegetable stew--creamy and spicy, Kerala style

The perfect side dish to go with rice or roti, bread or idiyappam or palappam!

Vegetable Stew, Kerala style

I was always a huge fan of the spicy and coconut based creamy veg side dishes of Kerala. A recent visit had me converted totally into a palappam,veg stew and puttu person.

So, at the earliest opportunity, I tried out some of these dishes in my own kitchen! And that phase is likely to continue for a while..

The vegetable stew—which comes as “ishtew”  on some menu cards—can  be had just as well with plain rice, though I had it  with palappam for breakfast, with rice for lunch, and just by itself as a light dinner! The next day, I had it with idiyappam. J

And it hardly took me ten minutes to make it.

Cubed vegetables

Ingredients:

Uniformly chopped vegetables like beans,carrots, potatoes,brocli(I did not have this one) etc – 2 cups full

Onion—1 medium sized

Green chillies—4 or 5 chopped

Cloves – 3 or 4

Cinnamon-a 1 inch stick

Bay leaves-2

Mace—one or two

Star Anees-2

Coconut milk—extracted from one coconut

(I used coconut milk powder)

Milk- Half a cup

Rice flour- half a teaspoon

Salt—to taste

Coconut oil—1 teaspoon

Vegetable oil-1 teaspoon

Boil the vegetables till they are partly cooked, but crunchy—al dante. Keep aside.

Semi boiled vegetables simmering in coconut milk

Heat the oil in a sauce pan, add the spices, sauté.  Take in the aroma for a minute, and add the finely chopped onion, green chillies, and  sauté. Now add the boiled vegetables, and mix well. Two minutes later, add the coconut milk while the gas is on sim, use milk to get the right amount of gravy Now add the salt. Two minutes later, add the rice flour mixed with a table spoon of water. This is the thickening agent.

Top it up with a spoon of plain coconut oil for flavor. Curry leaves are optional.

Your stew is ready. Serve …with  rice, idiyappam or aappam…or even plain, fresh bread. Or even roti or  Punjabi parathas or Malabar parotas.