Kaachiya Moru - Spiced Warm Buttermilk - yogurt curry

Just like the language is diverse across the subcontinent, the food is also diverse. Sometimes when the people from the rest of the country talk about South Indian foods - it can get quite confusing and lost in translation.  Let me explain.  We had a young visitor to Melbourne whose mother is South Indian and father is North Indian, living in Delhi.  She speaks Hindi / English at home with her parents - and is not very well versed with Malayalam. So I asked this visitor what she would like to eat - because I know how homesick one can get having left home and come all alone to Melbourne.  I have been in a similar situation myself.

She said to me I would love to have murgaachi. My brain went into overdrive - murgaachi? What IS murgaachi - okay let me split it up - murg - means chicken in Hindi - aachi?? What is aachi?!  So I asked her is it a chicken dish and she replied saying no, it is a yogurt dish.  

Then it clicked!  Literally like a light bulb - OMG, she is talking about Moru Kaachi, the other Kerala lifeblood, the first being Kallu (toddy), of course.  Moru Kaachi can be so easily converted to Murgaachi - and I said triumphantly , ahh, I can do that for you!

Ingredients:

2 cups thick natural yogurt

2 to 3 cups water - enough to make the yogurt a little thinner than pancake batter

Whisk the yogurt with the water - make sure there are no lumps.

1/2 an inch piece of ginger - chopped fine

1 green chilli - chopped fine

1/2 a small red onion - chopped fine

1 sprig of curry leaves

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 dry red chilli broken into two

1/2 a teaspoon cumin seeds - powdered

1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds - powdered

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon oil

salt to taste

Method: 

In a saucepan, heat oil and add mustard seeds.  When the seeds have crackled, add the ginger, green chilli, onions, curry leaves and dry red chilli.  Saute for a few minutes till the onions start to get golden.

Meanwhile, to the yogurt whisked with water, add all the powders and salt to taste.

When the onions turn golden, add the fried ingredients to the yogurt mix.

Heat the yogurt with the oil and fried ingredients until it is just warmed through.  Remember to stir often to get a lovely emulsified mix. Do not boil - your curry will curdle and that is not good.

Serve with rice. 

NOTE:  DO NOT BOIL - I cannot stress that enough.