Carrot Fenugreek / Gajar Methi Sabzi

We had this, Gajar Methi sabzi / Carrot Fenugreek vegetable for the first time at a restaurant in Jodhpur. This sabzi / vegetable was one of the dishes served in the thali at Gypsy restaurant. The red juicy carrot / gajar works best in this dish; the combination of slightly bitter methi with the sweetness of the carrot and the slight pungency from the chillies makes for a great dish. This sabzi is healthy with the goodness of the carrots and methi cooked in very little oil and spices.

 

Ingredients

Carrots / Gajar - 1 cup

Dry fenugreek / methi leaves - 1/4 cup

Green chillies - 2

Asafoetida / Hing pwd - a couple of pinches

Red chilli pwd - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric pwd - 1/2 tsp

Fenugreek / Methi seeds - 8 to 10 (optional)

Oil - 1tsp

Salt as per taste

Dice carrots into medium sized pieces and slit green chillies and keep aside. Add a little water and soak the dry fenugreek / methi leaves.

 

Heat a pan and add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the fenugreek seeds and stir after about 30 seconds add asafoetida powder and stir a couple of times. Then add the turmeric powder and green chillies and stir and put in the carrot pieces and red chilli powder. Stir and add salt and cover to cooksprinkle about 1/8th cup of water little by little to help the carrot to cook. When the carrot is half cooked add the soaked fenugreek or methi. Cover and cook for a few more minutes till the methi softens and all tastes mix together. Check for salt and adjust if necessary. Take off the heat and keep covered till ready to serve.

Serve this Carrot Fenugreek / Gajar Methi Sabzi with rotis.

 





My Carrot Fenugreek goes to
- Flavours of the World - Grand Finale hosted by Nayna, North East West Indian Cooking hosted by Anu & New "U" hosted by Vardhini.

 

 

 

Mixed Vegetable Khichdi

The khichdi is a wholesome meal, usually had when unwell and the digestive system is not functioning to its fullest extent. It is a rice and moong dal mushy dish which is easily digestible making it ideal food for children as well. But this dish can be transformed to a one meal dish with the addition of vegetables and some aromatic spices. Whole moong adds additional fiber also. In fact, the Bengalis make their khichdi with vegetables and spices.

 

I remember a friend telling me "khichdi ke chaar yaar - papad, ghee, kadhi aur aachar", or something of that sort or maybe in a different order. These accompaniments add that extra zing to this meal.

Ingredients:

Rice - 1/2 cup
Whole Moong - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1 small chopped
Carrot - 1/2
Beans - 4-5
Green peas - 1 tbsp
Ginger - 1tsp chopped
Garlic -1tsp chopped
Green chilli - 2
Turmeric pwd - 1/2tsp
Salt to taste
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Water - 1.5 cups
Spice
Bay Leaf - 1
Black Elaichi - 1
Jeera - 1/2tsp
Dhania pwd - 1/2tsp

Soak the rice and moong in water for about 1 hour .

Heat the pressure cooker and add ghee into it. When hot, add the bay leaf, elaichi and jeera and let it splutter. Then add the chopped onions and stir for 2 to 3 minutes after which add the ginger and garlic. Let it fry well till light brown. The add the vegetables - carrot, beans, green peas and green chillies and stir for about 2 minutes. Drain the water from the rice and moong and add it to the cooker. Stir well. Add the turmeric powder and the salt and after mixing it well add the water. Once it boils check for salt and then close the pressure cooker and put on the weight. Let it cook for 3 whistles on medium heat, then open and serve in a bowl. Just before taking it to the table add a blob of ghee on top of the khichdi and serve with papad and achaar.

Mixed Vegetable Upma / Upumaav / Upama

Upma is one of those foods that is either really loved or absolutely detested by people, leaving hardly any fence-sitters. I do not like the upma on most days unless it is made with vegetables. For my husband it is the most comforting food that he falls back on for breakfast or lunch or dinner. But he likes it made simply, without tomatoes and vegetables which I do not eat. So at our home, if my husband is eating upma you can be sure I am eating something else! When growing up, whenever mom made upma, she cooked something else for me or made sure there was bread and cheese in the frig for me. I can live on sandwiches so her fall back plan for me was always bread with something for the stuffing!

I learnt to make an upma after marriage knowing that this was the go to dish for my husband. Its not easy to get the consistency right especially when you are starting off. Here in this post also, the measures I have given is more approximate than exact. Most of my cooking is done by the look, feel, taste and smell and I am giving you how to do it here. I prefer to add only little of what I like to call taste ingredients like salt, sugar, tamarind, chili powder, etc. initially. You can always add some later though the reverse, i.e., lessening of a taste ingredient is difficult. So be miserly at the start and add little by little as needed.

Broadly, follow these steps for making upma -

In a pan dry roast rawa on low heat till they look crisp which will take about 10 minutes, then keep aside. Heat oil in a kadai / deep pan for phodni / vagaar / tadka / tempering, add the mustard seeds and a few udad dal / split black gram. Tip, take a little more oil than required, it helps in fluffing the rawa when cooked. Once the seeds have spluttered add chopped onions, chopped green chilies and curry leaves, stir fry till the onions are soft and light golden. Add water into this and a little salt. Once it boils, lower heat and check for salt and add more if necessary. Tip, the water should taste a little saltier than you usually take in food. This is because rawa like potato absorbs salt making the upma tasteless if the water had exact salt to start with. Continuing with the upma, Raise the heat and once you have the water boiling again, slowly add the rawa into the boiling water. Add the rawa by tilting the container slightly to create a continuous flow without dumping a lot at one time. Stir the spoon in circles in one direction, mixing all the time. Do not stop stirring, lumps will form and your upma will good only for the trash can. Now, add as much rawa till the time, the mix has come together and it becomes difficult to stir the spoon. Stop adding the rawa, lower the heat and keep stirring to bring the whole mixture together. Tip, keep some boiling water handy incase you added too much rawa by mistake and incase you need to use this extra water the rule is to add little - stir well, then add more if required. If the water is all absorbed then pile all the upma into a mound then take the pan off the heat and keep covered for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then, uncover and stir the upma to fluff it up.

Mixed Vegetable Upma
Ingredients
Rawa / Sooji / Cream of wheat - approx. 1 cup
Pyaaz / Kaanda / Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
Tamatar / Tomato - 1 small, finely chopped
Gaajar / Carrot - 2 tbsp. finely chopped
Farasbee / Beans / French Beans - 2 tbsp. finely chopped
Vatana / Matar / Green peas - 2 tbsp.
Mirchi / Hari Mirchi / Green Chili - 1 finely chopped
Rai / Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp.
Kadipatha / Curry leaves - 2 - 3 torn into pieces (optional)
Coriander leaves - 1tsp. chopped
Water - 1.5 cups
Oil - 3 tbsp.
Salt to taste

In a pan dry roast rawa on low heat and keep aside. Heat oil tempering, add the mustard seeds and once it splutters add chopped onions, chopped green chilies. Stir fry till the onions till soft and translucent. Add the finely chopped tomatoes and fry it for a minute. Add turmeric powder, stir, then add water into this and a little salt. Add the chopped carrot, green peas and french beans and let it cook for about 5 minutes till still crunchy. Raise the heat till boiling and add the rawa slowly stirring all the while. When the mixture has come together switch off the heat and keep covered. Add the chopped coriander leaves and fluff the upma up. You can also add 1 or 2 tsp. grated coconut to this.

Spoon some into a bowl and get some piping hot tea to go with it! Enjoy!!!

Thai Green Curry with Ching's curry paste

I so like Thai green curry and my husband just cannot stand it. He somehow cannot take the aroma of the thai curry, I guess its to do with the galangal, lemon grass and basil in the curry. So this means, no  Thai restaurants or takeaways when eating out and cooking different things for him and me is out also. So when I saw the Ching's Thai green curry paste on the shelves in Big Bazar I just picked it. Of course there were 2 other brands but the price was the clinching factor for me! Next I needed some canned coconut milk and got Real Thai coconut milk and that because I have used it before and liked it. Though I would suggest using the Lite coconut milk for this curry.

 

I have always liked the vegetable Thai curry rather than the one with chicken. So I grabbed a zucchini and a small tray of baby corns from the store before exiting. I had some eggplant, carrots and bell peppers in the frig and I put all together and chopped them up. Then all I did was follow the instructions given on the bottle and it was done in no time!

It was definitely not the best curry like some I have had at restaurants but will make do to satisfy my cravings sometimes. Next, will try the red curry paste!

Uthapam step-by-step pictures

Last week I had some left over dosa batter which was also going sour and thought of making uthapam. I know scores of people make uthapam and I would be stupid to post a recipe for it. But when making it, the riot of colors made me photograph it and hence posting it....

And my most liked pic....

Thats the chopped red onions, green peppers (capsicum) and lovely red carrots added to the dosa batter. In addition to these, I added green chilli, curry leaves, salt and a pinch of turmeric.

The batter spread on a pan with a few drops of oil.

The uthapam turned over.

I added a little cheese on one side of the uthapam, just because I like cheese on just about everything!

Enjoy it with some coriander green chutney or with garlic pickle like I did.

 

My uthapam was slightly yellow from the turmeric with flecks of carrot, onion, pepper, curry leaf and chilli showing through.