Poriyal

It is a stir-fry, and the coconut goes on at the end as a dressing rather than into the dish.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 600 g green beans, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon urad dal
• 2 dried red chillies
• 15 curry leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 80 g coconut, grated
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. IT IS A STIR-FRY, AND THE COCONUT GOES ON AT THE END AS A DRESSING RATHER THAN INTO THE DISH. Its article is unusually direct about both. On the method, it derives the name from the verb: pori REFERS TO STIR FRYING, cooking in a hot pan with a SMALL AMOUNT of hot oil, and the dish is made by SHALLOW FRYING shredded or diced vegetables with spices. On the coconut: SHREDDED COCONUT WOULD BE ADDED AS A DRESSING. A dressing goes on top of a finished thing. Ground into a paste and cooked in, as it is in every other dish in this group, it would stop being a poriyal.
2. THE ORDER OF THE PAN IS ITS ARTICLE'S OWN. Mustard seeds, then urad dal, then onions, THEN the main vegetable, and FINALLY turmeric, spices, dried red chillies and coriander. The ground spices last, not first.
3. THE URAD DAL IS A TEXTURE, NOT A PULSE. A tablespoon, fried in the oil until golden, where it stays crunchy right through to the plate.
4. THE VEGETABLE IS CUT FINE. Shredded or diced, which its article says. Beans in half-centimetre lengths. A stir-fry needs surface area.
5. THERE IS ALMOST NO LIQUID AND NO LID. Two tablespoons of oil and nothing else. Covered, it steams and turns into a different kind of dish entirely.
6. IT IS LEFT ALONE IN THE PAN BETWEEN STIRS. Spread out, two or three minutes at a time. Constant tossing keeps it pale.
7. THE BEANS SHOULD STILL HAVE BITE. Eight to ten minutes. Soft beans in a poriyal mean it was covered or crowded.
8. THE COCONUT IS STIRRED THROUGH OFF THE HEAT. Raw, at the last moment. In the pan it browns, which belongs to another dish here.
9. ITS ARTICLE NAMES ITS NEIGHBOURS AND THE SMALL DIFFERENCES. Palya in Karnataka, sometimes with chana dal instead of urad; vepudu in Telugu; mezhukupuratti in Malayalam; porutu in Andhra. Eaten beside rice with sambar and rasam, or with Chapati, as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes