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    Home » Blogging Marathon » Keerai Kadaiyal in Clay Pot

    Keerai Kadaiyal in Clay Pot

    Posted on April 13, 2016 · Last Updated on August 11, 2021 · By Srividhya G · 42 Comments

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    Keerai kadaiyal is yet another signature recipe of Tamil Nadu cuisine and I wanted to try this in clay pot / Manchatti as we say in Tamil. I went with regular spinach that we get here in US (pasalai keerai) but this can be prepared with any greens that you get. It is a simple steamed spinach which is then mashed with Thayir Mathu / Buttermilk churner (see notes below) and tempered with spices. I am super glad that the Indian stores here started to carry Thandu keerai / Amaranth leaves and also Manathakkali leaves/garden huckleberry.       

    Manchatti Keerai        

    Our friend JV uses clay pot and she was suggesting the same to me too and I couldn’t find them at amazon but luckily found them here and ordered it right away. This is the penultimate recipe that I prepared for this A-Z challenge. (Between I am still a novice in photography. The steam photographs intrigued me a lot and tried in this recipe. All the steam became blurry and I got a some what decent one and that’s my featured. ahem ahem.. I can hear you laughing.. Any tip for steam photography would be helpful)

    Clay Pot With Churner

    Clay Pots:

    Clay pots or Manchatti is made out of earthen clay. We all know clay is porous meaning it has lots of tiny holes and that property of clay provides the unique characteristics for the clay pots. As they are porous, they retain the moisture during the cooking process. It reduces the acidity of the foods and also their inert property (chemically inactive) makes them not to react with foods. But before using the clay pot you need to process them and make it suitable for cooking and stove top. I just followed the instructions given in the package, but pretty much all the clay pots follow the same.

    Clay Pot

    • Wash them first with Luke warm water with mild soap and rinse it well.
    • Then soak them in water or fill the clay pot with rice stock or water and leave it overnight.
    • The next day remove the water, wipe it dry and apply coconut oil all over the pot and keep on stove top and heat the empty clay pot under medium heat for 5 minutes.
    • Once it is cooled down, add water or rice stock again and leave it overnight.
    • Repeat steps 2 to 4 for four days.

    Clay Pot with an open lid

    So here is the super simple, humble and healthy recipe, (both turmeric and pepper powder are used for killing any germs, in Tamil we say kirumi naasani)

    Serving Manchatti Keerai

    Ingredients:

    • Spinach (I used the regular spinach, you can any other spinach variety) – 10 oz pack 1
    • Oil – 2 tsps
    • Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
    • Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
    • Turmeric Powder – a pinch
    • Salt – 1 tsp
    • Pepper Powder – ½ tsp
    • Red chilies – 3

    Steps:

    • Clean and chop the spinach.

    Chopped spinach

    • Heat the clay pot and once it is hot add the oil.
    • Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing.
    • As they start to splutter, reduce the heat to medium and break the red chillies and add it to the same.

    Keerai Kadaiyal Cooking Step

    • Fry for a minute and then add the spinach. (As my clay pot was small, I added half of the spinach and covered it for 2 minutes and then added the remaining half)

    Keerai Kadaiyal Step 2

    • Cover and cook for 2 minutes.
    • Now add the turmeric powder, salt and pepper powder.

    Keerai Kadaiyal Step

    • Cover and cook again for 3 to 4 minutes.

    Keerai Kadaiyal Step 4

    • Now using the butter milk churner or matthu, mash the spinach nicely.

    Keerai Kadaiyal Step 5

    • Cook till all the water evaporates or if you want to be like gravy, add 1 cup of water and mash it again and as it starts to boil turn the heat off.

    Keerai Kadaiyal Step 6

     

     

    Notes:

    • For this quantity, we can add 4 to 5 shallots for additional taste.
    • Mashed moog dal can be added like kootu.
    • Adjust the red chillies and salt according to your preference.
    • As I couldn’t find spinach masher/mathu I went with buttermilk churner / thayir mathu.

    Clay Pot Spinach Curry

     

    📖 Recipe

    Clay Pot Spinach Curry
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    Keerai Kadaiyal in Clay Pot

    A super simple, humble and healthy spinach recipe prepared in a clay pot in the traditional way and mashed using buttermilk churner.
    Prep Time10 minutes mins
    Cook Time20 minutes mins
    Total Time30 minutes mins
    Course: sides
    Cuisine: TamilNadu
    Servings: 4
    Calories:
    Author: Srividhya G

    Ingredients

    • Spinach I used the regular spinach, you can any other spinach variety - 10 oz pack 1
    • Oil - 2 tsps
    • Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
    • Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
    • Turmeric Powder - a pinch
    • Salt - 1 tsp
    • Pepper Powder - ½ tsp
    • Red chillies - 3

    Instructions

    • Clean and chop the spinach.
    • Heat the clay pot and once it is hot add the oil.
    • Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing.
    • As they start to splutter, reduce the heat to medium and break the red chillies and add it to the same.
    • Fry for a minute and then add the spinach. (As my clay pot was small, I added half of the spinach and covered it for 2 minutes and then added the remaining half)
    • Cover and cook for 2 minutes.
    • Now add the turmeric powder, salt and pepper powder.
    • Cover and cook again for 3 to 4 minutes.
    • Now using the butter milk churner or matthu, mash the spinach nicely.
    • Cook till all the water evaporates or if you want to be like gravy, add 1 cup of water and mash it again and as it starts to boil turn the heat off.

    Notes

    For this quantity, we can add 4 to 5 shallots for additional taste.
    Mashed moog dal can be added like kootu.
    Adjust the red chillies and salt according to your preference.

    I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.

    Tried this recipe?Mention @vidhyasvegetariankitchen or tag #vidhyasvegkitchen
    For Video RecipesCheck out My YouTube Channel

     

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    Filed Under: Blogging Marathon, Kootu Varieties Tagged With: A-Z Challenge, Blogging Marathon, giramiya samayal, gramiya samayal, how to prepare keerai kadaiyal, keerai kadaiyal, manchatti keerai kadaiyal, mashed spinach

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. VEENA KRISHNAKUMAR says

      June 04, 2016 at 6:50 am

      That is an authentic presentation. Looks very nice

      Reply
      • Srividhya G says

        June 05, 2016 at 10:48 am

        Thanks veena.

        Reply
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