By the Sword

We've wanted to go to India for the longest time.

But still, after more than ten cumulative years in Asia, we've yet to make it to the subcontinent. When we were living in Hong Kong, and then China, India was too far away and the airfare too expensive. We lived in Bangkok for so brief a period that we had time for only one big, long trip: back to the US, to visit family. Saigon was so intensely urban that holidays needed to be spent somewhere peaceful, uncrowded, green, and 'easy' - not India, we figured. Now that we're in Kuala Lumpur closer, equally fascinating destinations - Indonesia, the rest of Malaysia - beckon.

We're sure we'll get to India, but probably not anytime soon.

Happily, Kuala Lumpur and surrounding towns harbor countless little pockets of India-ness, where we can feed our cravings for daal, tosai, and barfi and chat with Malaysians of Indian descent and recent immigrants hailing from Tamil Nadu to Rajasthan. In the fragrant, still-exotic-to-me aisles of Indian grocery stores I can find whatever I might need to put together an Indian dish. And Indian produce is a common feature at most wet markets around town.

We purchased the sword beans (Canavalia gladiata), above, at a small stall set up in an alley in Klang's Little India. The photo might not do them justice - the flattish pods are a beautiful dark green tipped with reddish purple. They're sturdy, stiff, and covered with small bumps that make them feel like textured vinyl. Sword beans are surprisingly heavy, and big - 6 or so inches long.

Sword beans are eaten fresh-cooked, pod and all,but are so tough that they first must be sliced cross-wise into slivers. Since I prepared them at home for the first time a few weeks ago these beans, with their flavor that combines the concentrated legume-ness of long beans and the vibrant young greenness of haricot verts, have become one of our favorite cooked vegetables.

They'd be great stir-fried Chinese-style, with pork slivers and wood ear mushrooms, but I prefer them in a Sri Lankan mallum. Mallum combine one of any number of vegetables (on Sri Lanka, we most often encountered carrot mallum and green bean mallum) with chiles, onions, coconut, and turmeric. Once the ingredients are mixed together in a heavy pot they're steam-cooked over medium heat. Mallum require minimum attention once they're on the fire, and make an excellent side dish.

This recipe for sword bean mallum is adapted (the original calls for regular green beans or long beans - my beloved pea sprouts/shoots/greens, chopped, work beautifully too) from Alford and Duguid's Mangoes & Curry Leaves (p. 76). I can't recommend this tome of Indian, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, and Bhutanese recipes highly enough. I've been cooking my way through it for the last couple of months (lately, 2-3 dinners a week) and every recipe has produced stellar results. (My one nit is that the book doesn't include the names of dishes in their original language.)

Allow some water from washing to cling to the beans as they go in the pot. Leftovers are equally tasty cold, straight from the fridge, or at room temperature.

Shredded Sword Bean Mallum

3/4 pound sword beans (or green or long beans)

1/3 cup finely chopped red onion or shallots

5 green chiles (choose your chile according to your tolerance for heat), finely chopped

heaping 1/4 teaspoon powdered turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bonito flakes, ground to a powder or very finely chopped

1 cup chopped fresh or frozen grated coconut

Finely shred the beans (for sword beans, shred cross-wise; long and green beans, shred lengthwise). Place the beans and all other ingreidents in a heavy pot over medium-high heat and stir to mix well. Lower heat to medium, cover the pot, and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender but not dry.

Update: Reader inquiries have inspired further research on this unusual and tasty legume. Sword beans are a close relative to the perhaps better-known jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis), which probably originated in tropical America (seed remains have been found in archaelogical sites in Mexico dateing to 3000 BC). These days both varieties are found throughout the tropics. In Africa young leaves, pods, and stems of the sword bean are eaten, while flowers and young leaves are taken steamed in Indonesia. They are extremely high in protein (25%).

Sword beans are known as avarakai in India, where they are considered an essential food for pregnant women. (See this recipe for pirattal, a mixed vegetable preparation, which features avarakai.) Other names for this bean: dao dou (Chinese), pois sabre (French), nata mame (Japanese), kachang parang (Malay), and poroto sable (Spanish).

(Sources: van Wyk, Ben-Erik, Food Plants of the World, p. 113 and Davidson, Alan, The Oxford Companion to Food, p. 411)

Comments

[michael]

any idea what its called in Chinese or Malay ? I really dont know what it is and curious.....

[bayi]

Looks like a "junior" version of petai. :)

Yep. I am curious. Any Chinese or Malay name?

[Marketman]

You must get to India. It is fascinating and the food superb. I spent 3 weeks there on work many years ago and every dinner, local counterparts assigned to me took me to different local restaurants each night. They ordered (a big diffirence when a local orders foods that go together, pace the meal right, etc.)superbly and I felt like I had a crash course in Indian food. I don't remember many names but I do recall with fondness all of the food...

[Karen]

You have reminded me that I need to eat more mallum. We ate it most every day when we were in Sri Lanka. I'm glad the country finally intrigued you (based on your previous post). It's a fascinating land, though sadly torn up again (Jerry and I have posted a short story and photos on the ongoing Sri Lanka violence at www.redcoates.net.) I found one of my Top Ten markets, a beautiful vegetarian market, in Jaffna.
You are lucky to have that India-ness in KL. I wish we had more of it here in Chiang Mai, where it can be quite difficult to find Indian spices and ingredients.

[Robyn]

Hi Karen - we went to Sri Lanka in 2003, had planned to go back but waited too long, seemingly. Very sad that the situation has spiraled back to civil war, it seems.

Michael and Bayi, see my update at end of post for more info. Might resemble petai in appearance but not in taste, believe me. There's not a whiff of stink. Try this bean, it's very tasty!

Marketman - in time, in time. Happily we have plenty of oppties for 'research' here in Malaysia!

[Dharma Segaran]

I read with interest this article about avarakai. I had a hard time looking for the english or scientific name for this and now I have a better idea. But the avarakai which I am growing in my small farm in Malaysia does not look like the ones in this picture but a little more rounded and angled. Not so flat but more lumpy and irregular. I am trying to cultivate this on a commercial basis. I will keep looking for more info. Thanks