Carrot Poriyal

We heard the other day that nearby Ooty is famous for amongst things carrots, which is funny because I don't normally 'love' them but when we had this dish I really noted how sweet and lovely they were, so there must be a reason for the local carrot fame.  

It is typical in South India to have side dishes called poryals which are dry, chopped vegetable dishes with a seasoning called tempering, usually including mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida and curry leaves.  Once you have the knack of doing this and how it goes with the cooking you are onto a whole new world of seasonings which also work in salads.

Another thing that might be surprising is the use of dill in this area, not something you think of with your North Indian Friday night curry in the UK, but it's lovely to have the taste of an old Mediterannean friend in a new way.




Carrot Poriyal - serves 4


500 g carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 cm cubes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 green chilli, slit sideways
2 tbsp grated fresh coconut or 2.5 tbsp dried coconut
1 tbsp mixed chopped dill and or coriander

For the tempering

2 tsp oil
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp chana dal
1 dried red chilli halved
1/2 tsp asafoetida
A few curry leaves

1. Boil the carrots in small amount of water for about 5 minutes.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy bottom saucepan.  Add the mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, red chilli and asafoetida and stir, add the curry leaves.  When the mustard seeds pop add the carrots and green chilli.  Stir thoroughly, add the grated carrot, salt, green chilli, turmeric and coconut and mix thoroughly to heat the carrots through.
3. Remove from heat, add the mixed herbs and serve hot.