Mathanga Erissery as its popularly called in Kerala is a mild curry made with pumpkin, cowpeas in a coconut based curry and tempered with mild spices. Pumpkin or Mathanga Erissery is one of the traditional dish served in Onam Sadya. This is also known as Elisseri in some parts of Kerala.
Mathanga Erissery is one the staple in Onam Sadya lunch menu. Mathanga Erissery is a tasty healthy sidedish for meals. This is one of the authntic recipes from Kerala cuisine.
About Mathanga Erissery
Mathanga Erissery is a thick curry made from pumpkin, cow peas and coconut tempered with mild spices and roasted coconut. The mild sweetness with chunks of pumpkin and the crunch from the cow peas, the combo is just too good to resist.
Restaurants serving authentic kerala meals must have Erissery on their meals menu once at least in a week and be sure to give a try when you see it while travelling! Am I supposed to post recipe or guess sambar or suggest dishes for travelling – my goodness, here we go with the authentic, traditional Kerala Erissery recipe!
Pumpkin – My wild best guess of Annapoorna Sambar being the best sambar for its taste and consistency might be due to that they are adding ground pumpkin in all their sambars! Its their Coca cola secret not revealed till now! Hope Annapoorna will not sue me!
Other related recipes
Mathanga Erissery Ingredients
- Pumpkin & alternatives : Wonder we get sliced pumpkin, else the whole vegetable might occupy fridge for days together even after using multiple times. Pumpkin skin peeling and vegetable carving with Pumpkin are good suggestions for competition involving culinary skills. This recalls me of an excellent vegetable carving of a bunch of yellow roses out of a pumpkin at a marriage. Erissery can be made with vazhakka (raw plantain) and senaikilangu (elephant yam) too.
- Black eyed peas : Vaenpayar (Malayalam) / Cowpeas or Thattapayaru (Tamil) / Alasandalu (Telugu) / Lobhiya (Hindi) / Alasandee (Kannada) gives the crunchy feel of the curry. These peas are available in both vegetable form and also as legume – Best part is both these forms can be used for making Erissery and they taste good. These peas are so good to be a part of two hero curries – with the other hero being Yam, Pumpkin and white pumpkin (ash gourd)!
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📖 Recipe Card
Mathanga Erissery
Ingredients
- 2 cups yellow pumpkin
- 1/4 cup black eyed peas
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
- water as required
- salt to taste
To grind to a paste:
- 1/4 cup coconut fresh & grated
- 1/2 teaspoon jeera
- 2 nos green chilli small
To temper:
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 2 nos red chillies broken
- a small sprig curry leaves
- 1/4 cup coconut
Instructions
- Remove the skin and the seeds of pumpkin.
- Chop them into bite sized pieces. Set aside.
- Soak cowpeas for 2 hours.
- Add water till immersing level.
- Pressure cook black eyed peas with enough water for 2 whistles or until soft. Let pressure release by itself.
- Open to check, if its easily mashable and soft its done.
- In a mixer add all the ingredients listed under 'to grind'.
- Grind it along with little water to a slightly coarse paste, set aside.
- Cook pumpkin along with salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and water.
- Once it starts to boil.
- .Cook covered until its soft.
- It should be in mashable form.
- Mash it roughly with a ladle. If you like chunky pieces then just mash roughly else mash well like I did.
- Add coconut paste.
- Add cooked cowpeas.
- Mix well and cook for 5 mins until the raw smell of coconut subsides.
- Prepare the tadka - Heat oil add the ingredients listed under 'to temper' let it splutter.
- Now add coconut.
- Fry until coconut turns reddish brown.
- Add this to cooked pumkin mixture.
- Mix well and switch off. If the curry is too thick adjust with water and boil for few more mins. Then switch off.
- Serve hot with rice and papadam.
Video
Notes
- The consistency should be semi thick.
- Mash pumpkin according to your liking. If you want it full mashed mash well else if you want to feel small small pumpkin pieces here and there while eating then mash slightly.
- Roasted coconut gives a great taste and flavour to the erissery.
- The curry is mildy sweet.
- Coconut paste should not be very fine and should not be watery.
- You can also make erissery with kaya (raw banana), chena (elephant yam) etc.
Black Eyed Peas is Thattapyir (Cowpeas).I usually dont soak overnight, soaking for 2 hrs itself is ok. If you forget to soak also its ok you can roast it for a while then just pressure cook for 6-7 whistles. - You can even fry small onions along with tempering and add it to the curry, it gives a nice crunch.
- You can add more cowpeas if you like it around 1/2 cup may be.
How to make Mathanga Erissery
1.Remove the skin and the seeds of pumpkin.
2.Chop them into bite sized pieces.Set aside.
3.Soak cowpeas for 2 hours.
4.Add water till immersing level.
5.Pressure cook black eyed peas with enough water for 2 whistles or until soft. Let pressure release by itself.
6.Open to check, if its easily mashable and soft its done.
7.In a mixer add all the ingredients listed under ‘to grind’.
8.Grind it along with little water to a slightly coarse paste,set aside.
9.Cook pumpkin along with salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and water.
10.Once it starts to boil.
11.Cook covered until its soft.
12.It should be in mashable form.
13.Mash it roughly with a laddle. If you like chunky pieces then just mash roughly else mash well like I did.
14.Add coconut paste.
15.Add cooked cowpeas.
16.Mix well and cook for 5 mins until the raw smell of coconut subsides.
17.Prepare the tadka – Heat oil add the ingredients listed under ‘to temper’ let it splutter.
18.Now add coconut.
19.Fry until coconut turns reddish brown.
20.Add this to cooked pumkin mixture. I always reserve little for garnish.
21.Mix well and switch off. If the curry is too thick adjust with water and boil for few more mins.Then switch off.
Serve hot with rice and papadam.
Expert Tips
- The consistency should be semi thick.
- Mash pumpkin according to your liking. If you want it full mashed mash well else if you want to feel small small pumpkin pieces here and there while eating then mash slightly.
- Roasted coconut gives a great taste and flavour to the erissery.
- The curry is mildy sweet.
- Coconut paste should not be very fine and should not be watery.
- You can also make erissery with kaya (raw banana), chena (elephant yam) etc.
- Black eyed peas is Thattapyir(Cowpeas).I usually dont soak overnight, soaking for 2 hrs itself is ok. If you forget to soak also its ok you can roast it for a while then just pressure cook for 6-7 whistles.
- You can even fry small onions along with tempering and add it to the curry, it gives a nice crunch.
- You can add more cowpeas if you like it around 1/2 cup may be.
Variations
- Instead of cowpeas, you can use karamani too.
- You can use big onion replacing small onion. But I recommend small onion as it gives great taste.
Serving Suggestions
- Mathanga Erissery is an important dish in Onam Sadhya. It can be served as a side dish in vegetarian meals and thali.
- Add some more water to make it watery and use it as a gravy for rice when Sambar, Kuzhambu repetition can be boring.
Recommend to consume on the same day of making as coconut is added in the recipe which might spoilt the curry when kept for next day.
FAQs
1.Is Erissery and Puliserry the same?
No – even when they are similar in rhyming. While Erissery is a vegetable, legume and coconut based curry, Puliserry is a fruit / vegetable and curd based side dish!
2.Can I cook Erissery without Black eyed peas?
Yes – it also saves cooking time, however it may not taste like traditional Erissery and will also miss the crunchiness!
Ramya Venkateswaran
delicious looking recipe
Tech Dynamo
I have never heard of this dish before as I m a Punjabi !
marudhus kitchen
Neat presentations and clicks..love this pumpkin eriserry
Full Scoops
Looks so delicious!