Thiruvathira Puzhukku

A very special delicacy on thiruvathira day. Its a great pleasure to write down something that had a great past. The variety of this dish is that its prepared only on the thiruvathira day and its main ingredients are tubers. Most of the tubers are easily availabale from the yard. Now the markets flood with these tubers and today during this preparation my mother in law was talking about the freshness of the tubers they gathered from their own land.

Ingredients

Raw plantain(Ethakka)-1/4 cup

Chinese Potato(Koorkka)-1/4 cup

Elephant yam(Chena)-1/4 cup

Cassava(Kappa)-1/4 cup

Kachil-1/4 cup

Chembu-1/4 cup

Nanakizhangu-1/4 cup

Madhurakizhangu-1/4 cup

Cow peas beans(Vanpayar)-1/2 cup

Chilli powder-2 tb sp

Turmeric powder-1 tb sp

Salt- as needed

Coconut oil-2 tbsp

Curry leaves- as needed

For grinding

Grated coconut-11/2 cup

Cumin seeds-1/4 tsp

Garlic-10 pods

Method

It will take more than 1 hour to finish this because it takes a long time to prepare these tubers. First we have to pressure cook the red cow beans with salt. All these ingredients must be square cut. We have to cook Cassava separately. When we cook it add some salt to it. After cooking drain the water and keep it aside. Then cook all the other tubers (after thorough washing) in pressure cooker. Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt to it. One or two whistles may be enough. Then we have to drain out the excess amount of water. After grinding the coconut with the other ingredients mix this with tubers, cassava and cooked cow beans. Let it boil for sometime for blending the tastes. Add the coconut oil and curry leaves. The delicious puzhukku is ready and its a pretty and mouth watering side dish to rice or kanji. But on thiruvathira day most of ladies are taking this with Gothambu kanji as part of Vratha.