108) PIYYAVA GOJJU

PIYYAVA GOJJU

HOT AND SPICY ONION GOJJU

Onion Gojju with Appo

Ingredients:

     1)    Onion – 100 gm.

     2)    Tamarind – 10 gm.

     3)    Hot red chili powder – 1 tablespoon

     4)    Coconut oil – 1 tablespoon

     5)    Salt – 1¼ teaspoons

To Make:

          Peel the onion. Remove the hard basal portion. Chop to super fine pieces with a very sharp knife. Transfer to a bowl. Pour 100 ml. of drinking water in another bowl. Tip in the tamarind and squeeze well with your fingers till must of the tamarind dissolves in water. Sieve the tamarind juice and pour it over the chopped onion. Add the salt.

          In a small pan, pour in the coconut oil and add the chili powder. Warm it up lightly on low heat. Stir for a few seconds and switch off the heat. Tip over the contents of the pan into the bowl of onion pieces and mix well till the salt dissolves

          Your hot and spicy onion gojju is ready to enjoy. Serve with hot Appo (see my recipe) or with Green Dosa/Paserot (see my recipe). You can also enjoy balls of soft sticky cooked rice by dipping them in piyyava gojju and gulping them down as people used to do centuries ago.

Note:

          The recipe given here is my tasty and much milder version of the original traditional scorching hot piyyava gojju which is quite capable of making the common man shed tears of agony. For such super-hot chili lovers, here is the traditional recipe:

Ingredients:

     1)    Kaandaari chili (tiny, but very, very hot green or white pigeon eye chili) – 3 Nos. (or more)

Capsicum frutescens

     2)    Onion – 100 gm.

     3)    Tamarind – 10 gm. (or more)

     4)    Dry hot red chilies – 5 Nos. (or more)

     5)    Coconut oil – 1 tablespoon

     6)    Salt – 1¼ teaspoon

To Make:

          Chop the onion as in the earlier recipe. Set a small pan on low heat. Pour in the coconut oil. Tip in both types of chilies and fry for half a minute. Turn off the heat. In a bowl, pour in 100 ml. of drinking water. Put in the tamarind and the fried chilies along with the oil. Let soak for half an hour. Now squeeze the chilies and the tamarind nicely with your fingers for as long as you can (You must use a glove, but remember, there were no gloves in olden times and the cooks used to suffer the burns of the chilies for a whole day). Now add the chopped onion and the salt. Mix well and serve.

Note:

          Kaandaari chilies are used by Keralites in treatment of cholesterol, diabetes and blood pressure. The wild ones grown here are often just an inch in length but are packed with flavor and with excruciating heat. Many poor South Indian peasants often eat their cooked rice with no other accompaniments than just a bit of salt and the kaandaari chili.