Thursday 17 December 2015

Vaali Ambat-Spinach and Cucumber cooked in a Spicy coconut sauce and Seasoned with onions


I have already posted a couple of ambat recipes before  in this blog whereas each combination has a peculiar taste.'Vaali' is the Konkani term of the spinach and ambat means a type of gravy.This curry is native to Mangalore-udupi belt and prepared by GSB Konkani community and tastes heavenly when served with white rice and heavenliest with red boiled rice. 

Ingredients:
Spinach(Malabar variety)
(washed and chopped)
also a few tender stems                            3cups
Cucumber(mangalore/madras)
chunks(peeled)                                             1cup
Tuvar daal,cooked
(split pigeon peas)                                       1/4 cup
Onion(L)finely chopped                            1 nos(reserve 2tbsp for seasoning)
Turmeric powder/haldi                            1/4tsp
Jaggery                                                            1/4tsp
Salt                                                                     to taste

For masala:
Fresh grated coconut                                1/2cup
Roasted red chillies                                   3-4
Tamarind                                                       size of a peanut

For seasoning :
Oil                                                                      1tbsp

Method:
  • Pressure cook spinach leaves along with its tender stems,cucumber chunks,chopped onion along with turmeric and a dash of salt  adding 2cups of water to just 1 whistle then cook on a low flame for 2-3 minutes.
  • Tansfer the pressure cooked contents into a soup pot.
  • Take out a little water and use it for preparing masala and texture adjustments
  • Add salt to taste,cooked daal and jaggery and bring to boil.
  • Meanwhile prepare a smooth masala paste with the mentioned ingredients.
  • Add this masala paste to the soup pot and boil some more adding required amount of water to get a gravy consistency.
  • In a small seasoning pan heat the oil and roast the reserved onions adding a pinch of salt to golden brown and drop into the pot of gravy.
  • Boil for one more minute.
  • Since the roasted onion is used here,the gravy thickens after sometime.
Note:
Cucumber may be substituted with peeled and cubed raw papaya(the best and authentic combination)or even peeled and cubed chayote chunks.
Similarly spinach(palak) may be substituted instead of Malabar spinach.

Mangalore/Madras/Malabar cucumber-
 
 
Malabar Spinach(vaali)-
 

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