Drumstick Curry with coconut milk is an eccentric vegan recipe. The recipe hails from Southern India, aka God’s Own Country.


Surprisingly, a drumstick as a vegetable is often overlooked. Like cauliflower, drumstick falls into the “mom, and I don’t wanna eat this” category.

What’s in the Name?

If you google the word drumstick, you will get a stick for beating a drum.🤣🤣🤣 Now that’s certainly funny. Not only this but it’s funny in different languages also.

Okay, back to the topic, drumsticks are called मोरिंगा or सहजन कि फल्ली in Hindi. But, on the other hand, it is સરગવો or સરગવાની શિંગ in Gujarati. So let me help you know what it is called in South Indian languages.

Drumstick in South India?

It’s interesting to know what people on the other side name a vegetable. I like exploring Indian languages. For instance, I have compiled a list below. Take a look:

  • Tamil : Muringakkai (முருங்கக்காய்)
  • Malayalam : Muringakkaya (മുരിങ്ങക്കായ) / Muringakka (മുരിങ്ങക്ക)
  • Telugu : Munnakaya (మున్నాకాయ) / Mulaku Kada (మునగకాయలు) / Mulaku Kada (మూలకు కదా) / Munaga (మునగ)
  • Kannada : Nuggekai (ನುಗ್ಗೆಕಾಯಿ)

So, now you and I both know different names of drumsticks. It’s time to move on with the drumstick curry with coconut milk recipe.

Before we start making the recipe, there are some pre-preparations. Let’s see what they are.

Pre-Preparations For Drumstick Curry With Coconut Milk

Three items need prior attention. The first one is coconut milk, the second is madras curry powder & the third is tamarind paste. Out of these three items, the first two are highly important. Therefore, let’s start with them.

How to Make Coconut Milk at Home?

Coconut milk is not available at dairies. Period. You will be lucky enough to find it at D-Mart or Big Bazar. It was tough for me to find it here in my hometown. Thus, I made it myself at home.

Surprisingly, making coconut milk is easy peasy. Refer to the steps below.

  1. Take out the white meat from fresh coconut. It’s called copra. Make small pieces of the white copra.
  2. Add 1/2 glass water & grind the white copra pieces. It will turn into a thick white paste.
  3. Take a muslin cloth and wrap the thick white paste in the fabric. Put a container underneath.
  4. Tighten & squeeze the cloth till it is dry. You will see coconut milk pouring out when you squeeze.
  5. There are dry coconut flakes left in the muslin cloth. Empty them in the mixture, add water, grind & squeeze.

So, that’s how you get your coconut milk. If you don’t add water, you will get thick coconut milk. So, be careful with the water quantity.

How to Make Madras Curry Powder?

The famous madras curry powder is the garam masala that we use. The only difference between these 2 is a couple of spices. We already have a YouTube video on madras curry powder. Watch the recipe video.

Moreover, there’s a dedicated recipe post on the same. I have the link also. To make the curry powder, it takes dry roasting of all the spices. Roast till it starts letting out the natural fragrance. When done, grind them all. That’s it.

Yeah, your madras curry powder is ready. Allow it to cool down & fill in a glass container. The good news is you can use this curry powder in any recipe of your choice.

Making Tamarind Paste for Drumstick Curry with Coconut Milk

Although tamarind paste is available at the grocery stores, still you can make it yourself. The method is simple. Read the steps below.

  1. Deseed the tamarind fruit. Remove all the dirt.
  2. Take a mixer jar. Add the deseeded tamarind & a little water.
  3. Grind till it is smooth. You will get a thick brownish pulp.

The thick pulp is your tamarind paste. Water quantity must be 1/4 of the tamarind. Isn’t it easy?

Tips For Drumstick Curry with Coconut Milk

  • Cooking Oil – Regular cooking oil is what we are going to use here. Do not replace it with butter.
  • Green Chilli – The first thing to remember is we haven’t used green chilli paste. Yes, instead, we will add whole green chilli. The idea is to maintain a balance in the spicy flavour. Additionally, we don’t want to make tikkhi drumstick coconut curry.
  • Drumsticks – Drumstick vegetable is our essential item in this recipe. Pick fresh drumsticks. Cut them into 2-3 inch long pieces. Make sure drumsticks are soft because they take less time to boil.
  • Tamarind Paste – Although this may be true that tamarind & milk are opposite items. However, both of them elevate the entire taste profile of this curry. The खट्टा-मीठा इमली का स्वाद will make you fall in love with this curry.
  • Spice Powder – There is no use of any other whole spices or spice powder as we are using madras curry powder instead. It is more than enough to provide all the flavours hence we don’t recommend using anything else.

 

The above pre-preparations are necessary before making the recipe. And that is all for this recipe.