Mathanga Van Payar Olan

Peel the skin off the pumpkin. Slice it into medium sized pieces. Cut carrot into roundels. Cook black eyed beans in a pressure cooker till done. 3)Place the sliced pumpkin along with carrot, chillies, curry leaves, a little salt and 1 - 1+ glass of water in a vessel. 4)Cover the vessel and cook for sometime. 5)When it starts to boil well and the water content starts to reduce, add the cooked van payar along with its retained water. 6)Mix well and cook till the water content is almost reduced. 7)Reduce the flame and add the thick coconut milk. 8)Stir well the whole thing. Do not boil after adding the coconut milk. 9)Check for salt and adjust accdgly. 10)If done, add a few curry leaves and pour a tsp of plain coconut oil onto it. 11)Close the vessel to lock the flavor. It is ok if the contents get mashed while stirring as pumpkin and carrots are kinda mushy veggies. This tends to make the dish get a thick consistency. So, do keep that in mind while adding coconut milk. Another option is you can also cook the veggies in thin coconut milk or the 2nd extract of coconut milk instead of water which would make it more tastier and sweeter.

Coming back to the diverse variations these dishes are subject to, believe me, I also learnt that olan is prepared without adding coconut milk too in some parts of Keralaa. In which case, the cooked veggies are given a final topping of pure coconut oil and a few curry leaves for flavor. Maybe wud try that one if I run out of coconut milk while making my olana 🙂

So, I deduce from this simple example that life has too many options to offera If you run out of one and if you think that¦s the end of it, well then, u r wronga. When encountered with such a situation, open our eyes and find those alternatives that are available instead of waiting for opportunities to come to usa. And select the best among them and I¦m sure you wont be disappointeda.:)

So, on that note, happy cooking!!!!