Tapioca/kappa vachathu

I like kappa or tapioca cooked in low flame and a simple tadka given to it.
It's very high calorie food and provides you enough energy. There are many families in Kerala who eat kappa as their staple food.

The recipe I follow is very simple.

Kappa vachathu

Ingredients

1/2 kg tapioca/kappa

1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)

2 green chilies

1 tsp jeera

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp broken urad dal 

1 tbsp coconut oil

A few curry leaves

2 tbsp grated coconut 

Salt as required 

Tips

* Cook tapioca in medium flame, once it's tender discard water and add hot water and drain it further.

* Pick the tapioca which is extremely white inside. I always ask the seller to cut the edges and show me, the one with black marks  I generally avoid buying.

Method

*Wash and peel the thick outer skin of the tapioca. Cut into large pieces, further cut each piece into four pieces, remove the inner vein, cut into thin slices.

* In kalchatti (stone ware)  add water and add thinly sliced tapioca/kappa.

*Add turmeric and salt, cook till the tapioca is tender and well cooked.

* Discard the water and add some more hot water again strain the water.

*In the same stoneware pour oil, add jeera, mustard seeds and urad dal, let it splutter, add cooked tapioca/kappa. Adjust salt, add grated coconut and green chilies. Mix in. Finally add curry leaves.

*It's a dish in itself. You can eat it as it is or with side dish as well.

Note: you can cook large pieces of tapioca in pressure cooker and discard the water.  Once it cools down,  use a potato smasher to smash the tapioca and do the rest of the procedure as above. 

Notes

Cut and remove the skin out of the tapioca before proceeding to cook.

Wash throughly before cooking.