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.