Mixed Vegetable Curry

One of the most redeeming lessons being a graduate student and being in America has been about money. 2 years ago, I didn't have a job and the feminist in me became stingier (I've always been stingy) by the day before I asked A for money. Being a graduate student and paying through my nose without a loan has brought out the stereotypical inner South Indian in me (My rather bindaas about money and generous parents will be horrified) and I think 100 times before doing anything. And the tree hugger in me, of course, wants to buy only food that is 'good' for the body and the world. Unfortunately, these two factors clash in my life right now and I'm forced to be stingy all over again. To this dilemma, let's add a no sugar, most of the times no polished carbohydrates diet and watch the fun unfold.

It has truly been fun - this past year. Customizing food, cooking quick-fix meal, making cakes with honey and applesauce, eating mostly vegetables, eggs, beans (God bless them!), Dals or lentils, fruits at almost every meal has made me way fitter and way more determined to stick to my diet. I tweeted a couple of days ago how my comfort food has moved from Dal-Chawal or Curd rice with pickle to a quick roasted vegetables or quinoa with dal or veggies on top. I do indulge once in a while. Wednesdays are bad days for me. I come home at 9 PM after a rather exhausting day. It's no fun in the cold at least. And I don't take to hunger that well. Earlier, during such times, I'd come home to eat a tortilla while I was cooking or make rice and gobble it up with some curd. Nothing more comforting for a Tamilian :) Nowadays, thanks to my diet, I'm way more creative. I end up using canned beans or frozen veggies on Wednesdays and quickly make myself a meal. Last Wednesday, I made this curry. It was really quick and absolutely lickable, dare I say so myself. This doesn't even require a recipe considering this blog's followers, but this is for all those Twitter friends of mine who tweet every night about food :)

Ingredients

2 small Potatoes - sliced lengthwise

1 carrot - peeled and cut lengthwise

1/2 an onion

1 Jalapeno/Green Chilli, chopped

Any other random vegetable - I didn't have anything else!

1 tsp Kalonji (Substitute with Jeera/Cumin seeds)

2-3 tsp Garam Masala

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (Chilli powder)

1 tsp turmeric (I didn't use it because I didn't have any!)

2-3 tbsp water

1-1.5 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

1. Heat oil, add the Kalonji or Jeera. Let it splutter. Add the onions and jalapeno or green chillies

2. Let it cook for 2-3 mins, add the potatoes, sprinkle some water and close and let cook for 7-10mins. Thinner the slices of the potato, the better it is.

3. Add carrots to this mixture and the rest of the spices, some more water IF the mixture is dry and let it close to let it cook.

4. Once they are partially cooked, take the lid off and let it cook for a good 5-7 mins. Stir if you think it's getting burned.

Voila! It's done. The spice level may be high for some people. I love spicy, hot food and so, the cayenne pepper, the Garam Masala and the chilli. You can adjust it accord to your preference. The quantity should be enough for one really hungry person or two people who behave decently when there is food around!

I didn't pay much attention to this curry. I throw one ingredient, wash the vessels lying in the sink or clean up. On this day, I made rotis along with the curry and that kept me occupied. One can think of a 101 vegetables to add to this mixture. Adding cabbage or beans, peas or bell peppers could work brilliantly. Or, even peanuts for the crunch factor. If you are the type to use the Microwave which I admit I have become, you can zap the potato or carrots in the microwave for a quick 3-4 mins before adding to the onions on gas. You can add some coconut milk to make this a gravy or some tomato sauce. I ate a satisfying meal that night - yogurt sprinkled with some Garam Masala (friend's care package again!) and rotis and this curry. The pictures certainly may not scream, 'make me now.' But then, this blog hasn't been about that at all. So, this is all I can manage in the kitchen I have with yellow lights with a camera whose battery is dying as I click and a grumbling stomach at 9.30 PM on a weeknight :)

Sometimes, I'm so exhausted, just the thought of cooking when I have assignments and deadlines to catch up with tires me. Like this time, I didn't think I was going to make rotis. I thought I'd stuff my tortillas (I always have a pack of Whole Wheat tortillas in my fridge and readymade Rotis just in case) and top it with some cheese or an egg and make a meal out of it. But when I started working on the vegetables, new energy took over and I cleaned the kitchen, made rotis and washed vessels - all by the time this sabzi was ready to eat. Cooking meals like this everyday in order to keep to my resolution of not buying food to eat has made me feel more productive and I feel better at the end of every week. Twitter friends help me a lot in this regard. Every night, someone posts about the #dinner they're eating or they want to eat. And I end up thinking how I can't skip a meal or how I can't eat crap. I feel responsible. I feel responsible as a food blogger who is aware of the positive effects of food and cooking, as a person who believes earnestly that good food makes me and this world better. Then, I cook for myself. It isn't as bad. It is emotionally tough sometimes, but it is liberating most of the time.

Try cooking yourself a meal today. It doesn't have to be as fancy as we food bloggers make it out to be sometimes. It doesn't have to involve a lot of money or eating out. It could be something as soul satisfying as a bowl of dal or a curry made in 15 mins in a pressure cooker. If I can do it, you can do it. There's no one lazier than me and I've been spoiled all my life with adoring grandmothers, fantastic room-mates who didn't let me enter the kitchen, a mother who got interested in cooking for our sake, a food and cooking crazy husband and a chef of a mother-in- law.

Cook something. Eat well. You will help yourself and without knowing, this world that we live in.

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? :)

Gajar Matar

When I got married and came to A's house, his mom prepared every single thing he liked for the 10 days we stayed there. One of the dishes was Gajar Matar. When she first mentioned she was making Gajar Matar, I assumed it was a stir-fry. She disappeared into the kitchen to make Gajar Matar. A started drooling already! She came out 10 mins later and participated in the discussion going on in the drawing room. She never went back. I thought that she had to go sometime to switch off the gas! Finally, when I had dinner, I found the curry to have a rich gravy. She explained that she cooks the Gajar Matar in a Khoa gravy with some simple spices and in the Microwave. Now that explains it!

So, A keeps talking about it and how we should make this sabzi. I was skeptical of trying one his mom's inventive recipes! I stalled it until I felt like eating it one day! I haven't been a huge fan of carrots in curries. I've seen carrots only in mixed vegetable curries or carrot-beans poriyal. Poriyal is something I hate, and so I hated carrots! Gajar Matar totally changed my perspective on carrots! I cooked it on the stove and with milk instead of Khoa. Since I'm on a diet, I added 1 tbsp of cream to A's portion while I omitted it in my portion! *The cream portion rocked, but hey, I rock coz I eat healthy :D* Here is the recipe. Make it with or without cream. Use cream when you want to indulge and you won't regret it!

Ingredients:

Carrots - 5-6 big ones, chopped lengthwise.
Peas - 1-1. 5 cups
Onion - 1/4 cup finely chopped
Milk - 2 cups
Cumin or Jeera- 1 tsp
Turmeric- 2-3 tsp
Chilli powder - 2-3 tsp
Garam Masala -1-2 tsp
Oil - 2tbsp
Salt to taste
Coriander to garnish - a must!

1. Chop the carrots lengthwise. Don't make them too thin. Cook them in the microwave for 5 mins. You can skip doing this and cook it thoroughly in milk. It will just take longer.

2. Thaw peas if frozen. If still in pod, make sure your husband shells them every weekend :D

3. Heat oil, add the cumin seeds, let them splutter, add the onions and fry a bit.

4. Add the peas to the onion mixture and fry them for a good 5 mins until the peas seem to shine

5. Add the cooked carrots now and stir.
*if you are using uncooked carrots directly on the stove, make sure to cook them in a little water and add milk after the carrots are semi cooked.

6. Add milk and follow with the masalas or spices and salt.

7. Close the dish and let it cook for a good 10-12 mins. Keep stirring once in a while to avoid burning of milk or the carrots.
*You may add 1tbsp of cream at the stirring stage.

8. Once the curry achieves a creamy consistency and slightly thick, but not too thick, garnish with coriander!

* If the curry gets too thick (which it has a tendency to!), do add water. You do not have to add milk or cream all the way. Water will do fine too! :)

This curry turned out to be so, so, so delicious that I'm going to make it every week and if A gets bored, I'm going to say: You asked for it :D But then, the man said that this curry was as good as his mom's. I guess I'm happy with it for the time-being! And hey, this dish is so healthy for your kids too! Carrots, milk, peas, hardly any oil - How much healthier can tasty get, I say!

Oh, oh, oh! With this, I'm answering Aparna's clarion call to paint the blogworld Orange, a colourful initiative by Sunshinemom whose name has orange written all over it :P (Pop quiz: How many times did I use the word 'orange' in this sentence?)

A Satay Saturday!

I think N and I have made it known that after Indian food, Thai and Italian are our favorite cuisines. Actually I'm proud of the fact that I converted N into liking Thai, just like she talked me into this whole food blog deal ;) Thai food stands out as unique, flavorful and quite nutritious at the same time. It offers terrific variety for vegetarians. And the amount of spiciness and 'hotness' could be varied to suit our taste-buds.

We have already posted a Green Thai curry which was more or less an improv based on the ingredients we had. But one fine day, N and I went to a bookstore called Borders and found this book on clearance. Its called Sauces, dips and salsas and is published by Bay Books. It has an eclectic collection of recipes from across the world. One of them being this wonderful Satay sauce. We modified the recipe and made it vegetarian, since the original one asked for shrimp paste, to suit us . Here's how it came out.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup broccoli cuts
1/2 cup carrot, julienned
1/4 cup edamame
1/4 cup snap peas
1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup water chestnuts
1/4 cup green onions
1/4 cup red bell pepper
1 tbsp chilli oil
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 clove finely chopped garlic
3-4 dried crushed red chillies
1/2 cup coconut milk
Salt to taste
1 cup water
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds for garnishing

1. Heat cooking oil in a pan. Add the garlic.

2. Add the onions and the green onions before the garlic turns brown. Saute until onions are transparent and light brown.

3. Add the vegetables followed by chilli oil.

4. Add the salt, crushed red chillies, peanut butter and water. Bring it to a boil.

5. Add the coconut milk. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds. Serve with steamed or fried rice. We had ours with spring onion fried rice.

The curry tasted delicious, and we strongly recommend chilli oil. It adds a distinct, unmistakable 'Asian' flavor to the whole preparation. The choice of veggies is entirely up to you so you could decorate this curry YOUR way :)