Sev Tamatar

We are on a challenge this month. Every 2 weeks, we go to the Farmer's Market to buy fresh vegetables and fruits. This is also close to our Indian store which we loot. Apart from A being embarrassed by my wide grin and sometimes, spontaneous dance moves to the latest Bollywood number playing in the background. Ya, I do that. However, this month, we decided to take some life-changing environmentally safe decisions. One of them included making only ONE trip to the Farmer's Market and the Indian store for a month. That meant we'd be able to buy veggies for only 2 weeks. And not more than that. This move, we thought, will help us save money, gas, help us go creative with dishes and more importantly, help us cut on carbs and eat more proteins. Yes, we previously ignored our Dals and beans because there was always veggies at home. Yes again, nothing wrong with that, but we certainly needed to work on our proteins.

So, the month of April has been amazing for both of us. We've saved a ton of money by saving on gas because the only place we take the car to is the grocery store. We walk to every other place. Including work. Also, we rediscovered black urad dal, kokum, barley, sorghum flour, Bulgar and what not in our pantry. And it has been a wonderful month for both of us. We've entertained guests this month, gone on a road trip and cooked some wonderful, easy, tasty and more importantly, healthy meals for the both of us. At the end of the month, we are feeling incredibly good about our savings, our life and our fitness levels.

Coming back to the actual reason for the post, we cooked a lot of stuff with fresh vegetables in the first half of the month thanks to our shopping. For the last two weeks, we've cooked Bulgar, Thai (with frozen veggies and pastes), Chinese, Poha (rediscovered) and couscous. One of the things we cooked a couple of days ago was Sev Tamatar.

We'd almost forgotten to cook this delicacy in our hunt for new recipes every month. Tomatoes that we bought on March 29 lasted us until a couple of days ago. Still firm and fresh. A particularly has great memories of this dish and he was the one who introduced this dish to me. This dish is from Gujarat, where he studied and ate this almost everyday at his hostel mess. This is not the healthiest of dishes, but is great fun to make and is super comforting on cold nights when you are seeking a far unhealthier treat than Sev Tamatar :)

Ingredients

Tomatoes - 6-7, medium size - diced
Onion - 1, medium size - diced
2 tbsp Kalonji or Nigella seeds
2 tsp Jeera or Cumin seeds
1 tsp Turmeric
Green Chillies 2-3
Garlic - 1 clove, finely chopped (optional)
Chilli powder - 2 tbsp
Garam Masala - 1-1.5 tsp
3 tbsp oil
Water - 1 cup*
1/2 packet of Sev - usually around 150- 200 gms per packet
Salt to taste

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil and add cumin seeds/Jeera and Kalonji. Let it splutter.

2. Add onions and garlic and let it cook until translucent

3. Add the Tomatoes and salt. Add the remaining oil to this and let cook for a couple of mins

4. Add the rest of the spices and the water and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Once it thickens, add more water. Make sure its watery. This is not supposed to be a solid curry. Let it cook for a good 10 mins.

5. Just before serving, add Sev and eat right away.

Sometimes we cook it in the pressure cooker and add Sev just before serving it on the plate. This time around, we cooked it in a sauce pan. If you add Sev before hand, the Sev becomes really soggy. While we like our Sev soft, we still like the crunch and flavour that it provides to an otherwise ordinary curry. Kalonji is the only spice in this curry and stands out wonderfully. I always squeeze some lemon juice while A can do without it. This dish is fairly tangy even without the lime. Or, you could buy Lime Sev as well. Sev is available in Indian stores and is usually eaten as a snack with tea/beer. They are a noodle like snack made out of Gram Flour or Besan which are fried in oil and spiced with different flavours.

This dish goes to Dee of Ammalu's Kitchen who is hosting Sunita's brainchild of an event : Think spice, think Kalonji. For A, this is Think hostel, Think Sev Tamatar. Mine were Alu Bhindi, Puri Choley and Lauki Kofta! What is/was your hostel's special dish? :)