Moru Kachiyathu

Moru Kachiyathu or Kachiya Moru (with coconut paste)

A delicious main curry in Kerala cuisine, made of buttermilk (moru), coconut paste and seasoning. Goes well with rice !!!

Serves: 3 – 4

Ingredients

For moru:

1 cup (Indian standard measuring cup of 200 ml / 8 oz capacity) medium thick curd

1 cup water (200 ml / 8 oz)

¾ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Method

Blend curd and water in a blender or Tupperware quick shake container. Blend till smooth. Keep aside.

For coconut paste:

3 tablespoon grated coconut (45 g)

4 cloves garlic, chopped

½ teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)

1 – inch piece ginger, chopped

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

2 tablespoon water

2 green chillies, chopped and crushed

Method

Make a fine paste of above ingredients (except chopped green chilli) in a small mixer bowl with 2 tablespoon water. Finally, mix with blended curd. Add crushed green chillies. Stir curd – coconut mixture well.

For seasoning:

2 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

6 curry leaves

1 dried red chilli, broken into 2

4 shallots / chuvannulli (or 2 teaspoon), chopped

Method

Heat oil in a wide pan. Add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add curry leaves, broken red chilli and chopped shallots. Saute on a low heat for 3 – 4 minutes until fragrant and crisp. Now add blended curd – coconut paste and boil on a very low heat for 5 – 7 minutes.

(Or cook over a double boiler ( double boiler -a pair of saucepans, one of which fits above and partly inside the other: food is cooked in the upper one by water boiling in the lower and it helps even cooking and coconut paste / curd won’t curdle ).

Finally, mix with ¼ teaspoon dried fenugreek powder (uluvapodi) / methi powder). Serve with rice.

Moru Kachiyathu (without coconut paste)

Serves: 4 - 6

Ingredients

For curd:

400 ml curd

100 ml water

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

For seasoning:

1 tablespoon oil

3/4 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)

1 - inch piece ginger, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped and crushed

3 shallots (chuvannulli / sambar onion), finely chopped

2 green chillies. slit lengthwise

1 spring curry leaves

Method

For curd:

Blend curd (if the curd is very thick, add 200 ml water) water, salt and turmeric powder in a blender or Tupperware quick shake container. Blend till smooth. Keep aside. Moru is ready now.

For seasoning:

In a pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds. When they begin to crackle, add jeera, ginger, crushed garlic,shallots, green chillies and curry leaves. Stir fry on a low to medium heat for 10 minutes or until the color changes and crisp. Pour the seasoning over moru and stir continuously for 2 - 3 minutes. Serve as a side dish with Rice.