Name: Palghat Spinach (Keerai Molaghutal)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1½ teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds; 5 dried red Thai or cayenne chiles, stems removed; 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds; 1 teaspoon coriander seeds; ½ cup shredded fresh coconut; or ¼ cup shredded dried unsweetened coconut, reconstituted (see Note); 2 tablespoons canola oil; 2 tablespoons skinned split black lentils (cream-colored in this form, urad dal), picked over for stones; ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon oily or unoily skinned split yellow pigeon peas (toovar dal), picked over for stones; 1 pound fresh spinach leaves, well rinsed (see Tip)

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

A specialty of the Palghat Iyers (a community of Brahmin Iyers from Palghat) on the coast of the lush green state of Kerala, this curry, with a pigeon pea-coconut sauce, I warn you, is quite addictive. They often serve it as a side dish on special occasions, to highlight what they love: coconut and chiles. This version is an adaptation of Vidya Subramani’s family favorite. (Vidya, a consumer researcher for a national chain of electronics stores, is an accomplished south Indian classical Bha