Kerala style Coconut dal curry with Pumpkin and Jackfruit seeds

Today, I am sharing a Kerala style curry i.e Coconut Dal Curry with mashed yellow pumpkin (mathan) and Jackfruit Seeds ( Chakka kuru)..It can be called as Malabar Vegetable Curry..In our area, we used to combine different vegetables with dal curry like raw plantain ( pacha nentrakaaya), Snake guard ( padavalanga), Ash guord ( vellari), Ridge guord ( peechinga / tallolam), drumstick  (muringaka) , muringa ila ( drumstick leaves) etc..we used to make this curry without adding veggies too..Its a easy curry to make.Perfect combination for plain rice, ghee rice, chappati, pathiri etc..Lets move to the recipe.

    Ingredients

      For dal ( lentils) curry:

• Red masoor dal ( chuvanna paripp) / Bengal Dal ( kadala paripp) -  1 cup

• Yellow pumpkin,diced ( mathan) - 1/2 cup

• Jackfruit seeds ( chakka kuru) - 10 to 15 no.s

• Onion,sliced - 1 large or 2 medium

• Tomato,sliced - 1 small or half of 1 large tomato

• Chopped garlic - 3 to 4 large pods

• Chopped ginger - a small pc

• Green chillies - 2 no.s, slit halves

• Turmeric pdr - 1/2 tsp

• Red chilli pdr - 1/4 tsp

• Salt - to taste

• Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

      For Coconut paste:

• Coconut shredded - 1/4 cup

• Shallots ( Pearl Onion) - 2 to 3 no.s

• Fennel seeds ( perunjeerakam) - 1/4 tsp

      To Temper

• Coconut oil - 2 tsp

• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

• Shallots (pearl onion), sliced - 3 to 4 no.s ( optional)

• Curry leaves - 1 sprig

• Dry red chillies - 2 no.s broken into halves ( optional)

     Method

• Remove outer skin ( white skin) of jackfruit seeds and soak in water for 5 to 10 mins..Soaking is done to peel the inner skin ( brown skin) of jackfruit seeds easier..Peel the brown skin of jackfruit slightly with knife i.e it should leave few traces of brown skin here and there and keep aside

• In a pressure cooker, heat oil, add sliced onion and saute till pink.

• Add chopped garlic,ginger and green chilly and saute for few seconds.

• Add sliced tomato and saute for few minutes.

• Add turmeric,chilli pdr and salt and saute till raw smell goes away.

• Add washed dal ( no need to soak dal in water),jackfruit seeds and diced pumpkin and mix well..

• Add one and half of water,mix well and pressure cook for about 5 to 6 whistles.

• Grind coconut paste with little water as mentioned in 'For coconut paste' and keep aside.

• When the pressure subsides, slightly mash the pumpkin and add coconut paste and mix well.

• On the flame, cook till when it comes one boil, off the flame..Don't cook for too long, otherwise coconut will curdle..Can adjust the salt, if needed.

• In another pan, heat coconut oil and add mustard seeds.

• When it splutters completely,immediately lower the flame, add shallots ( if using) and saute till pink.

• Add curry leaves and dry red chillies and saute for few seconds.

• Off the flame and pour these immediately into coconut dal- veg curry and close  the lid to infuse flavour.

• Serve warm with the combination of plain rice, chappati , ghee rice etc..

    Note

• You can pressure cook or boil dal seperately, if you don't prefer mashed dal..But I prefer the dal to be slightly mashed.. 

• You can pressure cook,jack fruit - pumpkin seperately and combined it with cooked dal in another pan ( I dumped all the ingredients in pressure cooker in order to save my time).

• You can add any vegetables of your choice or you can make it plain, without adding veggies too.

• If your adding drumstick (muringa kai),saute it in a pan with little oil and dump in pressure cooker to avoid breaking it..Pressure cook for 1 whistle.

• If you are adding other veggies like ridge guord, bottle guord etc..pressure cook at high flame for 1 whistle.

• If you are using cheera ( spinach ) or muringa ila ( drumstick leaves), add last after pressure cooked or pan cooked dal curry and close the lid for few minutes..