Omakka Thakkali Murangakkai pulissery /Papaya Tomato Drumstick in Yogurt coconut gravy

Pulissery is one of the curries amma used to make more often at home. Among the gravies that amma made such as sambar, Rasam and pulissery, sambar occupies the first position and pulissery and rasam running a close second. This dish is common in our feast menu also. Pulissery is usually made with cucumber, okra, and tomato and is a hot and sour curry. It is hot from chilies and sourness from the yogurt used. There are other kind of pulissery also where we adds fruits such as ripe mango, ripe plantain, ripe pineapple etc. I like fruit version compared to veggies one, because of balance of flavors between sweet, sour and spiciness.

After making stir fry with papaya and left with ¼th portion of it which was not enough for any curry I decided to add papaya and tomato to make a pulissery. While opening my freezer I also found a long lost pack of drumstick (Moringa oleifera read more from here), which had 4 pieces left (don’t get confused with our favorite chicken drumstick). I also incorporated drumstick into my pulissery. Drumstick is a very slender, slim looking vegetable. Among the vegetables, if a catwalk is organized, drumstick will be supermodel.  Finally I got a wonderful combo of papaya, tomato and drumstick in this pulissery.

Pulissery is yogurt based gravy with touch of coconut (off course we can’t live without them), cumin seeds and green chilies. Not similar but distant cousin of this curry you can see in Rajasthani cuisine where yogurt and chana dal flour is used where they are called Kadhi. However it lacks coconut. Sometimes, ginger is also grinded along with coconut. I used my mom’s recipe for making this delicious curry. Here goes the recipe.

What you need

 Papaya/omakka: 1 cup (chopped into bite size)
Tomato: 3 no (chopped into bite size)
Drum stick: 4 bite sized pieces
Yogurt: ½ cup
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Coconut: ½ cup
Green chili: 1 no ( I used hot Thai chilly)
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Oil: 2 tablespoon (I used olive oil, use coconut oil for authentic taste)
Cumin: ½ teaspoon
Red chilies: 2 no (halved into two pieces)
Mustard seeds: ¼ teaspoon
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Water: 2 cup for cooking + ½ cup for grinding





How I made

In a medium sauce pan add papaya, drumstick, salt and turmeric and cook for 15 minutes or until done with lid closed.

To this add chopped tomato and cook for another 3 minutes. 

In the mean time grind coconut, cumin and green chili with1/2 cup water for a fine paste and set aside.

Add the coconut paste to papaya, tomato, drumstick mixture and bring it to a boil. Reduce the flame and add yogurt to this mixture and let it simmer for 2 minutes and switch off the flame.

In a small pan add oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chilies. Once mustard seeds starts popping switch off the flame add this mixture to cooked vegetable yogurt mixture. 

Enjoy with rice and stir fry.

Preparation time.25 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Making more often.

Swathi