Mulaikeerai is also well known as amaranth leaves/ chauli/ thota kura . It is used in dals or as a side dish, for porriyal. This green leaf, mulaikeerai is chopped with its thin stalks, after washing it in water properly. You can cook this by adding any dal you like or just the green leaf. Instead of mulaikeerai, you can use spinach, which is easily available in India, or any green leaf which is good for stir fry. In Chennai, people eat lot of green leaf, in afternoons during lunch time some green leaf dish will be their, it will be either in dry form or gravy type (kottu). In the mornings, I used to see the dwellers coming and selling the green leaf vegetables and they used to sell it by screaming keerai amma , keerai ( green leaf madam) , they will shout and repeat these words, so that the ladies in the kitchen can hear their voice and come for buying. Green leafs are a very good source of iron and good for eyes, so I always include this in my meal. You can have it every day or twice a week. I love this as a stir fry (poriyal), every body cooks it in different style, I will show which I learnt from my mother and my mother in law. At my home we call stir fry green leaf as sukha bhajji means dry fry green leaf. We always eat it with either plain rice as a side dish, with any dal cooked at home or with roti(chapathi). Whenever I go to India, I see that I eat varities of green leaf (bhaji), which I donot get in uk.
