Olan - Veggies in coconut milk

Ingredients:-

1. Plantain Banana/Pachakkaya - 1
2. Vanpayar/Red Chori beans ~ ½ cup
3. Yard Long Beans/Achinga Payar ~ 1 Cup(2 or 3 no's)
4. Winter Melon/Elavan Kumbalam Chopped lengthwise ~ 1 Cup
5. Green Chilly slit into halves - 5
6. Coconut Oil ~ 2 tsp
7. Curry leaves a sprig
8. Salt to taste
9. Grated Coconut - 1 ½ Cups
10. Water ~ 2 + ½ Cups

Preparation Method:-

• Cut the veggies from 1 to 5 lengthwise, wash it well and set aside in a bowl.
• Pour  ½ cup of lukewarm water to the grated coconut, blend/pulse them in a mixer/blender. Strain them through a muslin cloth or filter. Grab the edges of muslin cloth, lift it up, press and squeeze out all the all the coconut milk(onnam paal). Set them aside.
• Add 1 more cup of water to the coconut and press well with your hands and squeeze out remaining coconut milk(2nd extract or randaam paal).
• Wash and soak Red Chori beans/Vanpayar in water for couple of hours. I normally soak it for 4 hours, try to soak them at-least for an hour.
• Add them to a cooking pan with a cup of water and let it cook for a while. When they are half cooked, add the veggies, salt, green chilies. 
• Cover and boil them in medium heat till the veggies are cooked.(Don't add a lot of water as the addition of coconut milk will provide little bit of gravy)
• Add the second extract of coconut milk(randaam paal) to veggies and let it boil for few minutes say 3-4 minutes.
• Simmer the heat and add the first extract of coconut milk(onnam paal) and stir gently with a spoon to mix everything. When it start to boil slightly ie. when you see bubbles  forming from the edges take it off the stove.
• Garnish with a generous amount of curry leaves and coconut oil

Notes:- 

1. If you forgot to soak Vanpayar/Red Moong Dal don't worry, pressure cook them and dd it to the cooked Veggies.

2. When you make Coconut milk, put on the mixer for once or twice just to pulse the coconut, don't overdo the grind which will result to a messy coarse ground/fine coconut paste).

3. You can use other veggies like padavalanga, cucumber etc or use a combination of veggies available.
4. If you are using store bought milk, to make second extract milk add 1/4 cups of water to 2 tsp of coconut milk and mix. Use ¼ to ½ cup of coconut milk as first extract.
5. Normally Olan is served as a side dish with thick gravy, if you want to make it with gravy for regular day servings you can add more water.

Sending this to Kerala Kitchen at Ramya's Recipe