Vishu Sadya and Bitter Gourd Theeyal Recipe

Today is Vishu, the astronomical New Year of Kerala, marking the start of the harvest season. There are a lot of customs associated with Vishu, which have been covered in detail on different sites, so I’m not going to repeat any of those. Read all about Vishu here and here.

Growing up in an atheist household, my Hindu festivals were mostly about the food. My parents adapted the non-religious aspects of all the festivals. So Vishu was all about the feast, fire works and Kaineettam (the elders in the house passes out money to the youngsters ).  After coming to the US, fireworks are out of question, I guess now we are the elders of the house, so the only way to celebrate Vishu here is by sharing a grand feast with family. In absence of the real family, most of us Indians in the US have built a virtual family, a group of friends we share the important moments of our life with.  We celebrated Vishu with a part of our virtual family today, sharing a traditional Sadya (feast) consisting of sweet, salty, bitter and sour dishes, served on banana leaves 

Here is a look at our Vishu Sadya.
(There is supposed to be an order in which the different dishes are arranged for a traditional Sadya, but none of us really knew the order, and no one bothered to check the Internet, we just placed things around the banana leaf. )

 

Clockwise from left:

• Pavakka Theeyal – Bitter Gourd cooked in a gravy made of fried coconut, tamarind and spices.
• Beans Thoran – French cut beans stir fried with fresh grated coconut and spices.
• Pappadam – a crispy thin flatbread made of lentil flour, deep fried in oil .
• Tomato Pachadi – Tomatoes and yogurt in a coconut, mustard and spices paste.
• Aviyal – A mixed vegetable dish with a coconut , yogurt base
• PuliInchi – Ginger and Tamarind with spices
• Mango Achar- Mango pickled with red chili powder and other spices
• Erissery – Squash and black eyed beans in a coconut based thick gravy.
• Olan – Black Eyed Beans and Ash gourd in coconut milk.
• Parippu Curry (Daal)- The yellow gravy on the rice. Lentils cooked with mild spices.

The first course is rice with Parippu Curry as shown in the picture.

Next course is rice with Sambar (a mixed vegetable thin curry in a lentil based gravy).

After that rice with Kalan (plantains in a coconut based yogurt gravy).

Then finally we had Parippu Payasam (A sweet dessert made of green gram lentils and jaggery and coconut milk) .

Well, is that too much coconut? I say not enough.  

Out of the group of eight, I was the only proper Mallu (who actually grew up in Kerala) and two were mallus by birth. I was a little worried about whether the non-malayalis will enjoy a traditional vegetarian meal (we are all hardcore carnivores), but everyone loved it. I know they were not just saying it, after seeing the way they licked the leaves clean.

Even though we had four of us cooking, it was still a lot of work putting this all together. After today, I appreciate my mother even more! She used to cook all these dishes and some more, without any help from any of us.     

I will post the recipes for all the dishes sometime, but here is the recipe for my favorite dish, Bitter Gourd Theeyal, which was a big hit today.

Bitter Gourd Theeyal

• 2 medium sized bitter gourd (pavakka or karela) cut into thin slices
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 cup grated coconut
• 1 thinly sliced shallot
• 1 tbsp thinly sliced ginger pieces
• 4 dry red chilies
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/8 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1/8 tsp cumin seeds
• 4 green chilies
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste
• 1 bunch curry leaves
• salt to taste
• oil
• Seasoning
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 small thinly sliced shallot
• 1 pinch fenugreek seeds
• a few curry leaves
• 2 dry red chilies

Method

Cook bitter gourd pieces with the turmeric powder and salt with just enough water to cook, and cook till it is half done.

In a deep pan, dry roast the grated coconut till brown and keep aside.

In the same pan, dry roast the red chilies, coriander powder, fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds and keep aside.

Add a little bit of oil and saute the shallots and ginger pieces one after the other till brown.

Grind all the fried ingredients with a little water to form a smooth paste.

Add some more oil to the pan and saute the cooked bitter gourd pieces along with the slit green chilies till all the moisture is gone, and the pieces starts to turn brown. 

Add the ground spice paste, tamarind paste, curry leaves, salt and a cup or more of water to the pan and stir well to combine. Cook till the gravy thickens. Taste and add more tamarind paste if needed.

To Season, heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the remaining seasoning ingredients and fry well. Pour this over the prepared gravy.

Serve with steamed rice.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous year ahead!

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Category: Bitter Gourd, India - Kerala, Recipes, Vegetarian