Mixed Vegetable (Summer - not exclusive) Curry – the Mesha-mishi Tarkari of my home

With summer I’ll be cooking more vegetarian recipes at home. On days it can be only dal, bhat, amer tak, aloo bhate and the crispy aloo bhaja...a very simple thali but satisfying. Pui saag combo with simple vegetables is another interesting dish I cook during summer; the secret, pui saag is available in plenty during the hot days. Add khucho chingri (tiny prawns) to the pui saag chorchori, tastes heavenly. Other leafy vegetables (saag) cooked with bodi is somewhat a must as many different kinds of fresh vegetables start disappearing in summer. With lots of green mangoes in the market, time to make some mango jelly, gur aam, aam diye masoor dal and of course regular amer ambol (with a running gravy).

It doesn’t mean non-vegetarian dishes get totally lost in our home. It will be more of fish, the smaller ones preferred for their typical taste and flavour.

Back to my mesha-mishi tarkari.

The vegetables in my list:

Potatoes: 2 medium size

Brinjal (egg plant): 1 (big)

Radish: 2 along with the shoot and leaves

Carrot: 2

Green papaya: ½ of a medium sized one

Green banana: 2

Cauliflower: 4-5 florets

Drumsticks: 4 sticks (cut into 1 ½ inch in length)

Tomatoes: 2

Green chilli: 3 (slit in the middle)

Cut the vegetables into the required size so that each vegetable is cooked, as it should be, with each other in the cooking pot. Wash and let the water drain out. Don’t throw away the radish shoot, cut them into 1 ½ inch in length. You may also add some of the radish greens to the curry.

For cooking:

Mustard oil 2 tbsp

Dry red chilli: 2

Haldi powder: I tsp

Jeera powder: 1tsp

Dhania powder: ½ tsp

Red chilli powder: 1 or even ½ tsp (as you like). I use deghi mirch as this adds more colour than the heat.

Salt

Sugar

Green coriander to garnish

Mix the jeera, dhania, lal mirch and haldi powder in a bowl with some water and keep it aside.

Once all the ingredients are ready at hand place a kadhai (wok) on the burning stove. Add oil and then break the dry red chillies into half and drop them into it once the steam starts rising. Then add all the vegetables except the drumsticks. Cover and cook for some time, stirring the vegetables from time to time.

After cooking for 6-7 minutes add the masala that had been mixed in a bowl. Stir so that the masala mixes well with the vegetables. Now add salt and sugar to your taste, reduce the flame and cover it. Remember to give the vegetables a stir now and then so that the vegetables don’t burnt. Once the oil starts appearing at the sides, it’s time to add the drum sticks and then enough water to cook the vegetables. Cover and cook on low flame for some time and then increase the flame and cook till all the vegetables are cooked leaving no watery gravy.

Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with rice and dal. Those who don’t like rice eat this curry with roti or paratha or even puri (loochi).

Great fun in cooking something so simple...enjoy the taste of all the vegetables.

Piyaj koli aar Aloo bhaja – Potato and Onion green Stir Fry

Her name is Kakoli, but her in-laws use the short form of her name and call her Koli. She , Koli, reminds me of the piyaj koli which makes some preparations so interesting and tasty, but the greater side of this stalk-like green is, it can be cooked so simply. Stepping into the kitchen for the first time, a girl, a woman, a bachelor or someone trying out his/her efforts for the first time in a kitchen, can easily cook this Bhaja (stir fry) quick and with ease.

The kolis have their own sweetness, and give out the mild aroma of onion when the cooking time is on...tick tick tick tick as the clock goes on.

No more words, off to work. In these two expressions – Word and Work – just the two ending alphabets‘d’ and ‘k’, see the sea of difference in their meaning. Now you must be getting impatient to know how I cooked the dish.

A bunch of piyaj koli (greens of the onion)

See the Kolis here:

Two medium size potatoes washed, peeled and cut lengthwise.

Cut the piyaj kolis into 1 ½ inch in length, wash and drain the water.

Haldi powder ½ tsp

Salt to taste

Cooking oil (I’ve used mustard oil for its strong flavour) 2 tbsp

Once you’ve kept all the ingredients near at hand, place a wok on the burning stove.

Pour in the oil and once its hot tip in the potatoes.

Stir and cover, simmer the flame and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring it from time to time.

Now add the piyaj koli (the greens) and mix it up properly. Another minute or two, then add the haldi powder and salt. Cook for a minute on high flame and then simmer it. Cover and let it cook in the juice the piyaj koli and the salt releases, stirring in between from time to time. During this time the sweet soft aroma of the onions will be entering your nostrils...haah!!! such a nice and sweet smell...aaahaah!

Cook for another 5-7 minutes, don’t forget to remove the cover and stir it from time to time. Now it is ready to be served.

Serve with hot rice and dal but don’t forget if you prefer rotis it goes very well with it, and even with paratha if you’re happy with extra oil or ghee.

Cucumber and Onion Salad – My Summer Frequent

There isn’t much to say about Salads. Each one has his/her own way of presenting salad. My cucumber and onion salad is very simple. I give it a sharp touch with lime juice and balance this sourness with some sugar. The green chillies add a spicy tang.

This salad finds a place in my home more in the summer days, and I call it My Summer Frequent. This is how I make my khatta meetha cucumber onion salad.

Cucumber: 1 wash, peel off the skin and cut into thin long narrow pieces.

Green chillies: 2-3 finely chopped

Onion: 1 cut into ring shape.

Mix cucumber, chillies and onion in a bowl. Mix it properly.

Now add salt (to taste) and squeeze the juice of a lemon into this mixture. To this add some sugar to balance the tangy taste. Mix it carefully so that all the ingredients blend properly. Keep it aside till the salt, sugar and lemon juice blend.

Ready to serve and taste.

Drumsticks Cooked in Roasted Mung Dal

It is not always we can find drumsticks in the market. And there in our house how the drumsticks would be dangling from the branches and when they grew in size, were broken down from the branches with long bamboo sticks and then cooked...fresh from the garden. The branches are so fragile they broke when at times the monkeys came in groups and were busy in their tandav. They jumped from branch to branch...the father monkey, the mother monkey, the children, the aunts, the uncles...hey they came, the monkey lot,  devastating most of the trees and fruits in the backyard garden. They ate the vegetables and fruits and also wasted some...maybe not their taste-worthy.

When spring came the leaves of this tree, was cooked with dal. It has a bitter taste and it was believed to be a good preventive for chicken pox. Whatever it was cooked, most of us siblings, never let Thakur (our cook) serve this. If Baba was present there was no way to make a fuss. The flowers were made into Boras...equally bitter but Ma said it was healthy.

With years of experience in my kitchen, I am happy to cook drumsticks in roasted mung dal. This dal and drumstick combination was something I tried out and it was tasty indeed. Here it is:

1 cup moong dal, dry roast till it takes a pinkish tinge. Once it cools down, wash and place the dal in the pressure cooker with 2 ½ cups of water. Add ½ tsp haldi and cook till the cooker gives out 4 whistles.

Take 4-5 drumsticks. Size them to 2 inch in length. Wash and keep them. Put to boil the drumsticks in a pan with 1½ cup water and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook till the sticks are cooked. If there is water remaining don’t drain it out.

Pour 1½ tsp mustard oil in a wok. You can use any cooking oil. Once the oil is hot add 2 tsp panch phoron and tip in 3 green chillies broken into half. Once the seeds start crackling in the hot oil pour the cooked dal into the wok. As it starts boiling add the drumsticks along with the remaining water. Add salt and sugar. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Pour some desi ghee on top.

Serve with hot rice and even tastes good with hot rotis straight from the tawa.

Robibarer Porota aar Aloo Tarkarir Jalkhabar – Sunday Breakfast with Paratha and Potato Curry

Sunday, is it really a day of rest? No not at all, I’m speaking on behalf of this Wee Self. Saturday goes into thinking of pushing all the work for Sunday. Saturday, watch a movie on a DVD till late into the night. And then the very Sunday comes, late breakfast...cook, serve and also savour...laundry, shopping for fruits and vegetables, if there’s a programme visit friends and relatives and vice versa. The afternoon lunch has to be very appetising after the late jolkhabar and served not on time for that’s how my Sunday is all about. The plan for a lunch or dinner at some favourite place, can happen, maybe have to drop the plan for some other important reason. Some may think this is all Abol Tabol, no no not the Abol Tabol of Sukumar Ray. Now now now...

...enough of Sunday, come the murmurs. No more Sunday gossip back to work.

The whole preparation of jolkhabar for 4, took about 30-40 minutes.

For the Porota:

2 cups atta. To that add ½ tsp salt and 1tbsp groundnut refined oil. Mix it well. Then add water and make into dough. Keep it aside.

Next:

For the potato curry -

Peel 4 mediun size potatoes. Cut into very small cubes. Wash and keep it. In the meantime heat 1 ½ tsp mustard oil in a wok. Once the smoke rises, throw in 1 ½ tsp of panch phoron and 3 green chillies slit in the middle. The crackle of the panch phoron starts and time to tip in the potatoes and cook for a couple of minutes. Now add ½ tsp haldi powder and ½ tsp red chilli powder and salt (to taste). Stir to mix all the ingredients with the potatoes. Add 2 ½  cups of water and the sugar. Cover and cook till the potatoes are soft to eat with running gravy.

When the potatoes are being cooked, roll out the parathas and fry them. I use groundnut refined oil for frying my parathas.

Serve for everyone and enjoy the breakfast while watching the TV or sitting at the dining table, chit chatting to heart’s content. After all there’s so much to talk to one another...maybe Naram maybe Garam...