Olan

One another Side dish from Kerala. Very simple to cook yet tasty. Olan recipe has very few ingredients and less time taking dish to prepare. During any festivals in Kerala you can find "Aviyal" , Olan, Kalan, Thoran etc.. served as side dish for steamed brown rice. And most of the recipes including dessert will have coconut as an ingredient. I prepared this recipe for "Vishu".

"Vishu" is the New year in accordance with Malayalam Calender. It falls on the next day of Tamil New year. The most important event in Vishu is the "Vishukkani" meaning "the first thing seen on the day of Vishu after waking up". Vishukkani consists of arrangement of various fruits, mirror, konna poo (Yellow flower), raw rice and urli in the pooja room of the house.

Another famous ritual is "VishuKaineettam" where elder people gift money to the young people. We used to wait the whole year to get the gifts from our elder members from family ;).

 Olan is prepared with Ash gourd and coconut milk. In some places it is prepared with Ash gourd and black eyed bean as well. Here I have posted Olan recipe which uses only Ash gourd and coconut milk.

Servings:  4        

Preparation Time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Level: Easy

 Ingredients:

 1)      Ash gourd                          100 gm 

2)      Coconut milk                      3 Tbsp

3)      Salt                                     as req

4)      Coconut oil                         2 Tbsp

5)      Curry leaves                       8-10

Method:

1)      Peel off  the skin of ash gourd and chop into thin rectangular slice.   2)      Take 1 ½ cup – 2 cups of water in a pan. Add ash gourd and salt. 3)      Place it on heat and cook for 8- 10 mins. 4)      When its cooked enough add 1 Tbsp of coconut milk and stir well. After few secs add  another Tbsp of coconut milk and mix again. Do it same for the rest of milk. 5)      Check the ash gourd for doneness. Turn off the heat and transfer to bowl 6)      For garnishing heat coconut oil in a tawa. Add curry leaves. Pour this on the Olan. 7)      Serve with steamed rice

Note:

1)      You can use Black eyed bean and pumpkin along with Ash gourd