Plantain and Tamarind Chutney ~vazhakkai puli thuvayal~

My paternal grandfather, my achachan, was an excellent cook. I am sure if he were alive today he might be outraged at how some of the traditional recipes have evolved bearing no resemblance to their former selves. Me? I love evolution, its only evolution that lets pretenders like me to hang on and claim great achievments in our kitchens.

My achachan had no interest in farming - which was terrible for a household whose mainstay was agriculture... instead he wanted to cook. At some point in the 1930s he boarded a ship and cooked his way to Penang. Here he worked as a khansamah on one of the plantations until WW2, at which point he returned home to his village and set up a Tea Club (the café culture arrived half a century later).

Years later when my mother entered their household, my achachan apparantly found his true successor. And it is to her that he handed down his precious cookbook. Now torn at the edges, its delicate pages brown with age - it perhaps holds the secret beginnings of many tamil-malayali dishes we see today and some that have disappeared up the chimney.

In an attempt to resurrect these old recipes I am starting a series called My Grandfather's Cookbook: Tastes Long Forgotten. The idea is not to improvise and to stay true to achachan's cookbook, that way we get the idea of what the dish tasted like, back then. The language in the book is old malayalam and I do take a while to read and comprehend it, the measurements are according to old Kerala standards, so I am taking proportionate measurements to suit me - that is the only adjustment I am allowing myself.

My first dish in the series is Vazhakkai Puli Thuvayal. Thuvayal is like a chammanthi/chutney/dip. It essentially belongs to the Tamil kitchen, but I suspect pallakadan malayalis may also be familiar with the taste. The consistency is a bit like hummus, which most people are familiar with. Its really simple to make and I really liked it.

Ingredients:
Vazhakkai/Raw Plantain - 1 big
Whole dry chilly - 2,3
Urad Dal - 1/4 cup
Tamarind - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Some hot water

Method:
1. Char grill the plantain, till it looks cooked, should take around 10 min. (Or roast in the oven)
2. In a wok, roast the whole red chilly and the urad dal.
3. Discard the charred peel of the plaintain and cube it.
4. Drop the plantain, roasted red chilly, urad dal, salt, and tamarind into a blender, add a bit of hot water and make a hummus like paste.

Mix in some warm gingelly oil and have with rice, or use as a dip for chips. Interesting texture, nice taste.

Vazhakkai Thuvayal on other blogs - Cardamom - Vazhakai Thugayal