Eriseri
Eriseri is a very popular dish from the South Indian state of Kerala. It is a coconut and black pepper based gravy dish made with yam, green banana, pumpkin or a combination of these. Some add a protein source (like black chana, green moong or cow peas) to this gravy, along with the vegetable, to give a more balanced nutritional value.
The recipe is quite simple with minimum South Indian ingredients and an all time favourite in my house. Whenever I make Eriseri, I just make plain white rice to eat with it and nothing else. My grandmother learnt this recipe from her neighbour and taught my mom and my mom taught it to me. So it’s a time tested recipe in our family and I’m happy to share it with you all.
Ingredients
Yam (cleaned and cubed) – 4 cups
Thick tamarind extract – 1 tbsp (or 1/2 tbsp tamarind paste)
Water – as required
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Crushed black pepper – 1 tbsp
Salt – 1 tsp (or to taste)
Coconut oil – 3 tbsp
Dry red chilly – 2 (or to taste)
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Urad dhal – 2 tsp
Curry leaves – a few leaves
Fresh grated coconut – 1 1/2 cups
Jaggery/brown sugar – 1 tsp (optional)
Yield
Serves 4
Prep time
20 mins
Cook time
30 mins
Method
1) In a wide pan, take yam, turmeric powder and crushed pepper. Add enough water to just cover everything. Keep the pan on the stove and heat until the water comes to a rolling boil. Now reduce the heat to medium, cover the pan and cook until yam is half done.
2) While the yam is cooking, heat another frying pan, add 2 tbsp coconut oil. When oil heats up a bit, add red chillies and fry for 1 min (on low heat) or until the chillies turn crisp. With a slotted spoon remove the chillies from the oil and set aside. To these chillies, add 3/4 cups of fresh grated coconut.
3) Again heat the same oil in which you fried the chilly, add mustard seeds and wait until it splutters. Then add urad dhal and fry until golden. Immediately add curry leaves and 3/4 cup fresh coconut and fry (on low heat) until coconut turns golden. Set this tempering aside.
4) When the yam is half done, add tamarind extract, salt and jaggery. Mix once and cover the pan. Let it boil further until the yam cooks completely and becomes soft. While this is cooking, grind the fresh coconut and fried chillies (done in step 2) together with a little water to make a coarse paste.
5) Once the yam cooks fully and becomes soft, add the ground paste and 1 tbsp of coconut oil. Mix and let it boil for 2 mins. Adjust the consistency of eriseri at this stage by adding some water, if needed, to bring it to a nice gravy like consistency.
6) Finally add the tempering we had set aside to the boiling eriseri, mix once and switch off the stove. Flavourful, tasty eriseri is ready to serve. Enjoy this with fresh steamed white rice, rasam rice, Mango rice, VeN pongal or Coconut rice.
Notes
- Fresh coconut is the essence of most of the dishes from Kerala. Instead of coconut powder or desiccated coconut, use fresh coconut for an authentic Kerala taste.
- Coconut is highly nutritious and should be consumed as fresh as possible without much cooking. Therefore after adding the ground coconut mixture, don’t boil for more than a minute or two.
