Kerala · Coconut oil
Kerala Vegetable Stew
A gentle coconut-milk stew with appam, curry leaves, black pepper, and Bharat coconut oil.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp Bharat coconut oil
- 1 large onion
- 3 green chillies
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 18 curry leaves
- 1 large potato
- 1 carrot
- 100 g green beans
- 500 ml thin coconut milk
- 200 ml thick coconut milk
- 1 tsp black pepper
- salt
- appam
The quiet side of coconut oil
Kerala stew is not meant to shout. The vegetables are softened, not browned. The coconut milk is warmed, not boiled. Bharat coconut oil gives the stew its first aroma, carrying curry leaves, ginger, and green chilli before the coconut milk makes the broth gentle.
The rule is simple: keep the flame moderate. Browning the onion will pull the dish away from stew and toward kurma. Boiling the thick coconut milk can split it. Let the oil begin the dish, then let the coconut milk finish it slowly.
Method
- Heat Bharat coconut oil in a brass urli or heavy pan.
- Add onion, green chilli, ginger, and curry leaves. Cook until the onion softens but does not brown.
- Add potato, carrot, beans, and salt.
- Pour in thin coconut milk. Simmer for 18 to 20 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
- Lower the heat. Stir in thick coconut milk and crushed black pepper.
- Warm for three minutes without boiling.
- Rest the stew for five minutes before serving with appam.
Notes from the kitchen
- Add cauliflower or peas if they are in season, but keep the vegetable mix restrained.
- Thick coconut milk should go in only at the end.
- A teaspoon of Bharat coconut oil drizzled over the finished stew sharpens the aroma.
In the making
The oil, the heat, the finish.
The oil for this dish
Bharat Coconut Oil →
Pressed from sun-dried copra. The oil of Kerala, Konkan, and the South.
