Potato and Soymeat Cutlets, Ponnaganni Keerai Kadeyal

It is Navarathri again for the year, September 28 to October 5. I nearly let this slip though till my girl reminded us her school was doing the Saraswati puja. Interesting is this celebration of the tridevis, Durga, Mahalakshmi and Saraswathi. The shaktis wielded a power so tremendous that even the trimurthis were quite wary of it.

According to Hindu-blog, "The nine-day festival of Navratri in Hindu religion is held in honor of the nine manifestations of Goddess Durga. Navratri literally means ‘nine nights’ and is celebrated differently in different parts of India by Hindus. But in all places the victory of good over evil is celebrated and Goddess Shakti is propitiated. Such adoration to Mother Goddess is unique to Hinduism. The festival also marks the arrival of winter season, a period when Nature undergoes several changes. Navratri celebrates the victory of Goddess Durga over Mahishasura, the buffalo-headed demon. She fought for nine days and nine nights before emerging victorious on the tenth day. Goddess Shakti in the nine forms is worshipped during the period for knowledge, wealth, prosperity and auspiciousness. Knowingly or unknowingly during this period we also recognize the primordial source of energy (Shakti), which manifests in all living and nonliving."

I asked the man of the house whether he was interested in doing 9 days of vegetarian thingy. Surprisingly, he said yes!!

So, since momsy came down yesterday afternoon, i hd some time off from chasing the rambunctious one year old around the house. I actually welcomed the quiet, undisturbed hour of scrubbing toilet, kitchen and the rest of the house which was in really in dire straits for months.

Finally, having cleaned out old dust and grease off the stove, i was excited in planning a good vegetarian menu for the next 9 days. Something nice, different from norm, no 'nigella express' but more of 'french food at home', slow and steady from scratch .

I had a packet of ponnaganni keerai in the fridge, an impulsive pick from a quick visit to Village Grocer to get some NZ Ambrosia apples which the little boy hearts (and a cuz is promoting as the best of apples). Unfortunately dint find any, so got some NZ Rose apples, a bit harder to bite but fragrant and nice.

I was surprised to find a green vege as rare as ponnaganni at a up market grocer, i thought you could only find that in Sentul Pasar, the most. Ponnaganni again brings back memories of my grandmother who taught me how to pluck the top shoots of wild ponnagani growing in the corners of our frontyard, still wet from morning dew for her cooking.

So keera kadeyal it was, with split green dhall as base. 250gm of the ponnagani (RM2.90), leaves removed and rinsed. Boil a cup of split green dhall with 3 cloves of crushed garlic, 3 green chillies and salt to taste. Once dhall cooked, in goes the leaves, lids on and let cook, approximately 3 mins on high fire. Once the vege wilts, leave lid open so that the green doesnt turn brown. In another pan, melt 2 tbsp ghee (for richness) and fry a teaspoon cuming, half teaspoon fenugreek, half teaspoon mustard seeds, a big onion sliced, a big tomato sliced, some curry leaves and combine a juice of a lime. Mix into dhall and vege and let cool. Once cooled say 10 mins, its time to bring out my loyal Philips handheld blender. Effecient, less washing and easy to achieve the rustic texture you need for kadayel.

Ok, that done, i had 2 kgs of potatoes left. Cutlet. I hd soymeat. I boil the potatoes, mashed em and combined 5 shallots, 3 cloves garlic all minced and a few dashes of garam masala. Salt. I then soaked the soymeat in hot water till it doubled in size, then squeezed off water and sauteed in a 3 tbs ghee, (for richness) and once lightly browned, drained and mixed a tbsp of fish curry powder, sprinkling of salt, a squeeze of lime, a fistful of chopped mint and coriander leaves. Mix well and let cool. Finally fill balls of potato with a soymeat in the centre and form cutlet, for extra heat, chop some cilipadi and fill together with soymeat as per your heat tolerance. Dip in milk then corn flour and again milk and finally breadcrumbs ( i used japanese tempura breadcrumbs) and fry till brown.  

Serve with par boiled rice. Drizzle more melted first rate ghee if you desire. Yummy yummy.

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