Olan - one of the favoured preparations in a Kerala sadya and loved with normal lunches.
The delicate Kerala Olan is seemingly an unlikely pairing with robust red rices, but counter intuitively it goes beautifully together.
Made with red cow peas, ash gourd and freshly made coconut milk, flavoured only with a couple of green chillies and garnished with raw coconut oil and curry leaves , the recipe is as simple as it comes but to get that perfect olan is an art.
It is the simplest of preparations but rich in flavour and it is here we need ingredients that are fresh, organic, authentic. Because the dish takes its flavour from the ingredients alone without the embellishment of spices. The plump cowpeas, the translucent ash gourd and creamy , rich coconut milk . And above all it is the cold pressed organic coconut oil drizzled over the cooked Olan that adds the final dash of taste and fragrance.
Using organic cold pressed coconut oil, made from organically grown coconuts sourced in our own district of Coimbatore. Made in small batches in small rotary mills run by two committed, veteran organic farmers, this small batch 100% natural cold pressed coconut oil
These coconuts are grown organically, plucked and dried in solar dryers without any chemicals. (In conventional oil production, coconuts are dried using sulphur for quick and cheap drying) Non chemical drying is time consuming and becomes expensive. These are milled in small rotary mills that do not heat up while producing this cold pressed coconut oil.
Because of this process the recovery is also lower, which means that for every kilo of copra (dry coconut) the oil produced is 600 gms. One fresh coconut becomes 25% of its weight when it becomes copra. As a person who uses coconut oil to cook regularly this is one of the most important ingredients in our kitchen.
Try our cold pressed organic coconut oil : an outstanding cooking medium; good to have raw to aid your memory; good to deal with burns or insect bites or small abrasions; an excellent oil for the skin and hair ...you can't go wrong with this ..
Today's lunch plate, which I didn't plan to share, but the olan changed my mind.
Carrot beans thoran (steamed with grated coconut and minimal spices),
Amaranth greens thoran,
Olan
Coconut chammandi podi
Thondi red rice from the Wayanad paddies.
@devi_lakshmikutty
As always, check out our store to check out the cold pressed organic coconut oil.
