Avial / Aviyal

No big treat comes even closer to the Sadya spread on a banana leaf. I love having it. In fact, I remember asking my mom to take me to the karshaka market (farmer's market) for a Sadya, during one of the summer vacation. Those are the heights of my Sadya craving. And yes it has to be on the real banana leaf and not those plastic coated banana leaf look alike paper.

This Onam we had planned for a Sadya with friends but Jordan backed off. Not only did he fall sick of cough and cold, he took us down too. But all the Facebook and whatsapp updates and pics didn't let the Onam spirit go down. We didn't have all items on our Onam spread but we did have a decent amount of items that were more than our number of fingers, which includes salt and papadam too .. He he . For the last two years we had not prepared a sadya either because I was pregnant or because I had hardly anytime left after having taken care of a new born. So this time, we so badly wanted to celebrate, atleast for Jordan. Our planning made us buy the plastic banana leaves a week in advance thinking that if we stay adamant about the real banana leaf , we might just not get it at the last moment. Now that we had no friends coming over ( I would hate to serve cold along with sadya to our friends), we had so many leaves and so much leftover curries. Even though Onam was over we still used to have our lunch and dinner with those leftover curries spread over the leaf to compensate on the sadya missed out for the past 2 years. And Jordan just loved it and I guess , he mistook it to be a new practice at our home. Because he gave me a strange look when I served him the meal the next day in a plate rather than the banana leaf ..he he

Now when I was listing down what all to go into the menu for our sadya, I cancelled out few things that I thought would be ok to live without in a sadya. But few things that are a must, included Avial . For me, a sadya is incomplete without Avial. And it's not only a hit for sadya but also for everyday meal menu. So try it and let me know if you liked it.

Ingredients

1. A variety of vegetables in small amounts
• 1 small potato
• A palm length of Snake gourd/Padavalanga
• 2 Drumsticks/ Muringakkai 
• 1/2 of a Raw Banana/Kaya
• Hand full of Tindora/Kovakka
• 2 small Brinjal/Vazhuthananga
• 1 medium sized carrot
• 1 cup of Green beans (slit into half, length wise)
• 1 cup of Ash gourd/Kumbalanga
• 1 cup of Yam/ Chena
2. 1 1/2 cup of grated coconut
3. 2-3 green chillies
4. 1 tsp of Jeera/ Cumin
5. 2 strands of curry leaves
6. 2 tbsp of coconut oil
7. 1/2 tsp of Turmeric powder
8. 1/4 cup of raw mango or 4-5 tbsp of plain yogurt (sour variety)
9. Salt to taste

Method

• Clean and cut all the vegetables. The vegetables should be about 1 1/4 inch long and about half an inch in thickness.
• In a pan or earthen pot, take the vegetables that take longer time to cook like Yam. Pour in little water. Place it on the heat. After few minutes, add remaining vegetables except brinjal and drumsticks. Add salt and 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder. Cover the lid and toss the pan to mix everything well. Let it cook.
• Once the veggies are half cooked, add the drumsticks and brinjal and toss it again to mix. If using raw mangoes, it should go in now. Continue cooking for another couple of minutes.
• Meanwhile, grind the ingredients 2-4 with 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder. Drop the ground coconut and curry leaves into the cooked vegetables and stir it gently without breaking up the veggie pieces. Cover and let it cook for just 1 minute. Turn off the heat and pour in coconut oil. Do not stir now if you would be adding yogurt. 
• If you would be using the yogurt, let the veggies cool down a bit before adding it, else the yogurt would break. Give it a stir gently.

Tips

1. Never add all the vegetables together. You should always add the vegetables which take longer to cook first, followed by others.
2. If adding yogurt, add it only after the veggies have cooled down , else the yogurt would break.