Vegging out

Winter is a month where you can get all kinds of vegetable in abundance. Be it the white cauliflowers to the broccolis to the lovely tender peas or the plump red tomatoes. You are simply spoiled for choices during the months from November till at least February. I am hoping to make the best of these few months and try to experiment with a variety of vegetable recipes and of course include more veg in my family's everyday diet. My father-in-law is not at all fond of vegetables so I am trying to find interesting recipes that has variety of flavors to spike his interest. Yesterday I tried one which turned out to be pretty good and I was greatly flattered when my father-in-law went for a second helping!!! This recipe is taken from the book Madhur Jaffery Indian Cooking. It is a great book and if you are looking for one simple book on Indian cooking then I would strongly recommend this one. The original recipe called for frying some of the vegetable but since I am trying to cut down on the oil intake, I omitted that. Also, this recipe is versatile enough for you to incorporate a variety of vegetable. I have included some in the main recipe, but check out the note section for what additional vegetable you could add in this. I have also done other slight modification to the main recipe but overall it is almost true to the original one.

Mixed Winter Vegetable in Tomato Gravy
Serves 6

Cauliflower florets - 2 cups
Green beans - 1 1/2 cups
Cabbage (leaves separated and shred into medium pieces) - 2 cups
Tomato (roughly chopped) - 2 cups
Peas - 1 cup
Potato (cut into bite size cube) - 1 1/2 cups
Ginger paste - 2 teaspoons
Garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 2 teaspoons
Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon
Chili powder - 1/2 teaspoon (or to taste)
Salt - 1 teaspoon (or to taste)
Whole Cumin Seed - 1 teaspoon
Whole Mustard Seed - 1 teaspoon
Kali Jeera - 1/3 teaspoon
Aniseed (mouri) - 1/2 teaspoon
Oil - 3 tablespoon (2 tablespoon if using non stick wok)
Tomato paste - 3 tablespoon
Water - 2 cups

Heat oil in a wok(karai). When the oil is very hot, add the cumin and mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds start popping add the kali jeera and aniseed. Follow it up with adding ginger and garlic paste and all the powder masala (coriander, cumin, turmeric, chili). Fry the spices till the raw smell of turmeric and other spices are gone. You would need to add 2 tablespoons of water time to time while frying the spices to prevent the spices from burning.

Once the spices are well fried and the oil comes up to the surface of the spice mixture, add the tomato paste, chopped tomatoes and about 4 tablespoons of water. Stir and cook until the tomatoes are a bit soft and the tomato paste is well incorporated into the mixture. Add the cubed potatoes and cover the pan. Lower the heat.

Cook for about 10 minutes until the potatoes are about 1/3 done. Add the cauliflower, peas and the beans along with the remaining water. Cover and cook until the vegetables are almost cooked through (about 10 15 minutes).

Uncover the lid, add the cabbage, mix it gently with the rest of the cooked vegetable. Cover and cook for another 5-10 minutes. The cabbage should be well wilted into the curry but not over cooked and soggy. This dish has a bit of gravy.

Serve the vegetable curry hot, garnished with chopped coriander leaves (cilantro) with rice or pulao or any kind of roti.

Enjoy!!!!

Note: You can also add broad beans (sheem), broccolis, a small quantity of radish (moola) etc. Avoid using any watery vegetable (like lau, green papaya etc.) or vegetable with a strong flavor (turnip etc.)