It’s difficult for a Malayali to let go of age-old home remedies and medication, especially during the lean monsoon months and the ritual-filled phase of Karkidakom. Here’s a look into a traditional kitchen which gets its 'pathila curry' (ten leaves curry) ready. The ten leaves are what’s commonly found around houses or grown in plenty. These ten different leaves are what form the base of the pathila curry.
This is also called 'Karkidaka curry' as the mix was resorted to only during the month of Karkidakom. Here’s how to turn the ten leaves into tasty dishes … Thazhuthama (spreading hogweed), chembila (leaves of colocasia), cheera (asparagus), thalu (wild colocasia), tharakara (oval shaped cassia), payar ila (cowpea leaf), chena ila (elephant yam leaf), kumbalam ila (ash gourd leaf), mathan ila (pumpkin leaf) and velicheera (star gooseberry leaf).
Ingredients
5 cups leaves (chopped)
2 cups green gram (cooked)
1 coconut
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric powder
4 cloves garlic
10 chillies (kanthari)
2 sprigs curry leaves
Coconut oil, salt
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp chopped shallots
Curry leaves
2 dry red chillies
Preparation
Add the leaves to the cooked green gram
Add salt and cook without killing the green colour of the leaves
Grind coconut, cumin, turmeric powder, garlic, kanthari chillies, and curry leaves
Add to the green gram-leaves mix
When it starts boiling, turn off the flame and season with mustard seeds, shallots, curry leaves, and dry red chillies
