Chettinad Keerai Masiyal

It is customary here that kids are introduced to syllables of the first language on an auspicious day of Vijayadasami. They are taught to write the alphabets on this day. Similarly, grown-up children are encouraged to enrol themselves in a music, dance or other art school today. Now I do feel the same as I resume my blogging after a lull of quite a few months. I have shared a simple recipe for a rich and intriguing keerai masiyal which was served to us when we dined at a restaurant in Madurai, my home town, a few months ago before the onset of pandemic.

We usually serve keerai masiyal as a main dish like sambar, rasam or kuzhambu along with rice as shown below.

But this Chettinad style keerai masiyal tastes scrumptious even as an accompaniment, so we can serve this along with sambar or any other kuzhambu.

Generally we prepare keerai masiyal using bland leafy greens like arai keerai or other locally grown greens. Now I used yellow Bhringraj (manjal Karisalankanni keerai) to make this dish rich, creamy and palatable considering the medicinal values. Bhringraj is useful to treat common cold & cough but it is mainly used as a home remedy for treating jaundice (hepatitis).

Ayurvedic properties of Bhringraj:

Taste (Rasa):	Bitter (tikta) & pungent (katu)
Qualities (Guna):	Light to digest (laghu)
Potency (Veerya):	Hot (ushna)
Action (Karma):	Balances Kapha & Vata dosha
Benefits:	Stimulates liver (pandunut), relieves cold & cough (kasahara), improves eye sight (chakshushya), useful for detoxification (vishagna)

We can prepare creamy keerai masiyal or spicy keerai kootu by adding paruppu (dal) with Bhringraj to mask the bitter flavor.

Now let’s prepare Chettinad style keerai masiyal using karisalankanni keerai (Bhringraj):

Chettinad Keerai Masiyal Recipe:

Ingredients:

Leafy greens	1 large bundle
Green gram dal	50 g
Green chillies	2
Salt	3/4 tsp

For tempering:

Ghee (clarified butter)	2 tbsp
Mustard seeds	1 tsp
Split blackgram	1 tsp
Shallots (chopped)	13
Garlic (chopped)	9 cloves
Red chilli	1

Keerai Masiyal Preparation:

• Pressure cook the dal and keep aside.
• Meanwhile wash the greens and steam them.
• When the greens reach the room temperature, blitz them along with green chillies, cooked dal & salt until creamy.
• Transfer keerai masiyal to a bowl.
• Prepare the tempering as shown below and add into keerai masiyal.
• Serve keerai masiyal with hot steaming rice.

Tips & Tweaks:

• We can follow the same recipe using any other leafy greens particularly the ones not liked by us as this recipe elevates even such greens to a whole new level.
• Usually I prefer to make keerai masiyal excessively so that I can use the same for dinner to prepare spinach paratha as well.