Chettinad Keerai Mandi Recipe With Amaranth Greens

Ingredients

• 2 cups Green Amaranth Leaves cleaned and finely chopped
• 8 Pearl onions (Sambar Onions) finely chopped
• 2 Green Chilli finely chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic crusched
• 2 Dry Red Chillies
• 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds (Rai/ Kadugu)
• 1/2 teaspoon White Urad Dal (Split)
• 1 cup Mandi leftover water from washing rice
• 1/4 cup Fresh coconut
• 2 teaspoon Sesame (Gingelly) Oil
• Salt to taste

Steps

1. To begin making Chettinad Keerai Mandi Recipe, clean, wash and finely chop the amaranth leaves or any greens of your choice and keep aside.Collect one cup of mandi water by washing the raw rice and keep aside. Mandi in tamil means sediment. In cooking, mandi refers to arisi mandi or rice mandi. It is the left over water from washing rice. Simply soak the rice in water for 5 minutes and after 5 minutes rub the rice in the water. The white starchy water is mandi. Drain this water to measure for about a cup and keep aside.
2. Grind the coconut along with the mandi water and keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan on medium flame, add the mustard seeds, urad dal and let it crackle.
4. Add the dried red chillies and let it roast for a few seconds.
5. Add the onions, garlic, green chillies and saute until the onions turn translucent.
6. Add the amaranth greens, season with salt and saute until the greens wilts and gets cooked completely. Cover the pan so the greens cook faster.
7. Add the mandi and coconut mixture and simmer for 2 minutes.
8. Bring the Chettinad Keerai Mandi to a rolling boil. Check the salt and adjust according to taste. Turn off the heat and transfer the Chettinad Keerai Mandi to a serving bowl.
9. Serve the Chettinad Keerai Mandi Recipe along with Steamed Rice, Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu and Beans Poriyal to make it a complete Chettinad style lunch over the weekend.