Avial in Chef Style

Ingredients:

1. Elephant yam – 500 gm
2. Carrot – 50 gm
3. White guard (Ilavan) – ½ kg
4. Cucumber after removing outer skin and seeds – 350 gm
5. Raw banana (padathi kaaya) skin scrapped – 150 gm
6. Brinjal – 100 gm
7. Snake guard – 125 gm
8. Drum stick – 150 gm
9. Raw mango – 25 gm
10. Sambar chilli – 100 gm
11. Green chillies – 25 gm
12. Curry leaves – 10 gm
13. Amaranths/Cluster beans (Cheena Amarakka) – 25 gm
14. Cashew nuts – 25 gm
15. Turmeric powder – 1tsp
16. Chilli powder – 1.5 tsp
17. Salt – one handful
18. Curd – 2 big spoons
19. Pine apple scrapped – 3 small spoons
20. Coconut – 125 gm
21. Water – 1.5 litres

How to prepare Avial?

1. Remove skin of elephant yam and carrot and cut them to 1 inch pieces.
2. White guard, cucumber, brinjal, snake guard and amaranths – cut them to avial pieces and keep separately.
3. Cut banana pieces and put them in water.
4. Mango, sambar chillies and drum sticks – wash them well and split them to pieces and place separately.
5. Crush green chillies. Take curry leaf bunch and make leaves one by one.
6. Make a fine paste of coconut and cumin seeds.
7. Heat a big container and add 25 milli coconut oil. Add elephant yams, carrot and half amount of curry leaves.
8. Add half litre water and boil it well. Add the remaining vegetable pieces, after washing well. Don’t add green mango, sambar chillies and drum sticks.
9. Sprinkle turmeric powder and chilli powder on top. Add salt solution as well. Never stir the contents.
10. Cook for 20 minutes and check if elephant yam is cooked well. If so, stir all contents well and make it dry, evaporating the whole water content.
11. Add mango, sambar chillies, cashew nuts and drum sticks to the cooked vegetables making dough is the centre. Cover it fully with the cooked vegetables. Add crushed chillies and remaining curry leaves on its top. Then cover it full using coconut paste.
12. Add curd, pine apple and coconut oil on its top and cook in lowest flame for 20 minutes.
13. When sweet aroma comes out, using a spatula check if drum sticks are cooked well. If it’s completely cooked, mix all contents well and check salt.

 

Read a few more banana vegetarian side dish recipes here. Click on the images in the gallery to read.