Feb 4, 2006

Guess the flower? (Achinga Payar)

Guess me?Yes, it is the light green Achinga Payar or Yard Long Bean. No idea what the exact english name is.pic shows the bean in it's infancy.

Here is the recipe I had blogged earlier.

Feb 1, 2006

5 minute Indian Beans Fry Express

Names:Achinga mezhukkupuratti / അച്ചിങ്ങ മെഴുക്കുപുരട്ടി

It is called Achinga Payaru Mezhukkupuratti/Upperi back home. I don‘t know the exact name for this, but it is Indian version of Beans. You get the darkgreen variety in U.S, but I don‘t like it. This light green variety is available very rarely, but I have it in my garden. This is a very tasty easy to make dish. In 5 minutes. Cut it into 2 inch. Usually we snap the beans in between the fingers instead of cutting them. Dont know why, but my mom would never let us cut beans. (Back in Kerala, we use coconut oil for every preparation, but here it is very expensive to buy coconut oil. We were spoiled back home with freshly made coconut oil right from our coconut trees).

For 3 cups beans. Heat 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, splutter mustard seeds, 1 whole red chilli broken into two, curry leaves, 1 pod crushed garlic, 4 green chillies, 4 shallots diced. Saute all these a frying pan in that order. Then add the beans, add 1/4 tsp turnmeric, add salt and sprinkle water (maybe 1 tsp).

Saute for 5 minutes,then cover tightly and cook in very low flame. This is a dry side dish for rice with some gravy. (Shallots are very good for your heart, so we always prepare with shallots. We get two pounds of shallots of $1. You can use whole red onion instead. )