Achinga payar pattichu ularthiyathu / Long beans stir Fry (Kerala style)

The other day when I called home, my father said he did a round of cooking and said a list of things he made which included Achinga payar pattichu ularthiyathu.  My mom had been away for a couple of days and he was waiting for her return. And since the stocked up food in the fridge got over, he cooked up few curries. Oh, do not underestimate my father's cooking skills. Some of the curries that he cooks are delicious than what mummy makes :).

When I was in 10th standard, everyone kept telling the matra that 10th results decide our future. All scared of wasting any minute, I sacrificed my trip to Kerala to attend my uncle's wedding. So my mom went to Kerala to attend the wedding and I ended up staying with my father. Thats when I realized my father can cook. When mom was back she started enquiring about the food quality, I said "Papa makes awesome Aloo Bhajiya. Can you learn it from Papa and make it ?" Mom was all disappointed as she didn't see that coming. Instead, she might have expected me of giving a bad review and making fun of Papa's cooking :).

Anyways, coming back to Achinga payar pattichu ularthiyathu, the name itself has the method followed in cooking it. Little long a name for a dish but thats what we had been calling it at home and so I am gonna keep that name intact.

Ingredients

1. A bunch of Achinga Payar/ Pacha Payar /Long beans - washed and cut into 1 inch long pieces
2. Coconut cubes as required
3. 2 green chillies
4. 4-5 tbsp of water
5. 1-2 tbsp of cooking oil - preferably coconut oil
6. 1 tsp of mustard seeds
7. 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
8. 1/2 cup of finely sliced red onion/shallots 
9. 2-3 dry red chilly (optional)
10. A sprig of curry leaves
11. 1/2 tsp of pepper powder
12. Salt to taste

Method

• To a heavy bottom pan, add ingredients 1-4 and salt to taste. Cook it on medium heat having closed it with a lid and stirring occasionally. The beans would get cooked under steam and would turn tender. Remove it from heat.
• Place another pan on stove and pour in the oil. Once hot, add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start popping, add the turmeric powder, sliced onion, red chillies and curry leaves. Saute it till the onion turns golden brown in colour. Drop in the cooked beans and sprinkle it with black pepper powder. Saute it till the water (if any) evaporates and the beans are cooked.
• Serve it hot with rice.

Tips

1. Sautéing the beans would not take time. You could cook the beans before hand and saute it just before serving to have it hot. 
2. I used green chilly, red chillies and pepper powder. However, you could avoid red chillies if you would like it less spicy.