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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Is This Still Olan?



How do you pronounce Olan? I asked Seema. Is it Ohlan OR Ohlaan OR as in Marathi AaLaN?

Ohlan is Olan!!! I found out.

Humm I had put the blackeyed cowpea for soaking in the morning before I left for work. At lunch time I was telling her about this Kerala Project. She said red cowpeas and white gourd/pumkin in coconut milk spiced only with green chilies and curry leaves is Olan.

I went home and decided I'll dump my bag at home first and then go down to the Fresh to buy white gourd specially for the Olan. Later I got lazy and thought anyways I have made an exception as I was using blackeyed cowpeas instead of the red so what's the harm in using some baby potatoes instead of pumkin or white gourd. That's what I did finally.

So it's now upto you to decide if this is still Olan? Well it's still simple flavours and the coconut milk I did use. I extracted it so give me a bonus point for it. In addition I used the true Keralite love the coconut oil to top it!

It is Olan atleast I think! What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Ingredients

1/2 cup blackeyed cowpeas
6 baby potatoes
300ml coconut milk
2 green chilies
few curry leaves
1 tablespoon coconut oil

Soak the cowpeas for atleast 8 hrs in water.

In a pressure cooker boil the cowpeas and baby potatoes. Allow 3 whistles. Cool and then open the pressure cooker. Drain the cowpeas. Skin the baby potatoes.

Add the cowpeas, potatoes, green chilies back into the same pressure cooker. Add the coconut milk and let it simmer for 10 mins. Do not increase the heat as coconut milk cannot tolerate high heat.

In a small bowl heat the coconut oil till it starts smoking. Add the curry leaves and pour it over the Olan. Cover it immediately to retain the smoky flavor of coconut oil.

Olan is generally served with rice but I think it can be eaten with all types of dosas and appams like I did yesterday. Yes this is the invisible Olan I talked about here.

You have the blue blood Olan here @ Ammini's : Hey she uses blackeyed peas like I did !!
Bee and Jai's version with potato besides the gourds and blackeyed peas. Yay!!!
@ Ammupatti's: She makes it like it was described to me.

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