Drumsticks grow on a tree

Thursday, September 24, 2009

These drumsticks are for real.  The botanical name for this tree is Moringa Oleifera.  Referred to as "Murungai" in the native Tamil language, this tree bears a vegetable that resembles a drum stick, the percussion instrument.  It is a long green pod and inside the pod are seeds embedded in an edible flesh.  Both the fleshy vegetable and the leaves of the tree are extremely nutritious.

The leaves are asignificant source of beta-carotene, Vitamin C, protein, iron, and potassium.

A traditional dish in Kerala and Tamil Nadu is the Adai, which is made from various lentils and shaped like a pancake.  The similarity ends there,  The Adai tastes a quadrillion times better than a pancake.  The drumstick leaves are added to the Adai batter and when the Adai is made, these leaves are embedded in it and cooked. The drumstick pod, which is a foot to a couple of feet in length, is chopped into small 3 to 4 inch pieces and cooked with sambhar.  A variety of other dishes are also made with drumstick vegetable and the leaves.

A future post will deal with making Adai incorporating drumstick leaves.