Vegetable Stew

This goes best with appams, but tastes great with just bread too. And it's one of those put-everything-together-and-boil recipes - and absolutely no oil! If you have tinned coconut milk, then even a child can make this so easily :)

Ingredients

1. Potatoes - 3 - small chunks
2. Carrots - 2 - small chunks (will take longer to cook, the bigger they are)
3. Green chillies - 3 or 4 (the coconut milk tones down the chilly a lot - some people add whole pepper in this dish if they want it spicier)
4. Ginger - one big piece, you can just crush and add
5. Curry leaves - a stalk
6. Coconut milk - from one coconut. You could just use canned coconut milk instead, thin it with water. You can add the thicker milk at the end to give it the desired consistency. (To make coconut milk, the hard way - :) - scrape coconut, add to mixie jar with water and extract milk. The first time, the milk will be thicker, keep it aside. Then add more water and repeat - the second milk is what you use to cook the vegetables.)

Procedure

1. Very simple! Add the following in a deep vessel - potatoes, carrots, chillies, ginger, curry leaves - and add enough second coconut milk to submerge them all.
2. Cook! Add salt after a while when the veggies are half cooked.
3. In the end, when vegetables are cooked, add a bit of the first milk - this is just to thicken the gravy.
4. You can also use the leftover first milk to pour over the appam - delicious!

See also Appam recipe.

Methi-Aloo-Oats Paratha - an Easy Healthy Breakfast!

This one is such a feel-good breakfast on those days when you need a lot of energy/when you have so much work you don't want to be bothered by hunger/late lunch. And I managed to sneak in some oats too, without any change of taste!

And this paratha will not break easily when you roll it out, because there's no onion in it. Even non-experts can make this one!

Ingredients (for 6 parathas)

1. Potatoes boiled in cooker - 3 (The potato basically holds the leaves together and makes paratha soft, you can reduce this quantity and add more leaves. If you add oats, that will also serve as a binder)
2. Methi leaves finely chopped - 2 bunches (Fenugreek leaves). You can also use spinach leaves instead. (Keep the leaves in salt water for a while and wash, so that they are clean. Dry them in a towel after you wash them - if there's water in the leaves, the mix could get watery, and you may not be able to re-use it the next day. )
3. A small cup of oats, powdered (optional - the traditional paratha does not have this, this is just for the health factor!)
4. Coriander leaves chopped (optional)
5. Green chilly, crushed - 1
6. Garlic - a few cloves, crushed
7. Coriander powder
8. Jeera powder (Cummin powder)
9. Salt

Flour for making chapathis - keep dough ready, like you do for chapathis. I add a little soya or ragi flour to the wheat flour.

Procedure

1. Mash potatoes well.
2. Add the chopped methi leaves, chopped coriander leaves, crushed garlic and chilly, coriander and jeera powder (add a teaspoon, mix and add more if you want), powdered oats, and salt, and mix well.
3. Now roll out thin chapathis with the dough - the edges should be thinner than the centre.
4. Add this mixture in the centre, take the edges of the chapathis and close over the mixture, make a ball, then flatten it a bit, and roll it out as thin parathas gently. Gently, so you don't break it!
5. Cook them on a tava with a little ghee. It's okay to have some ghee for breakfast, you'll burn it all away! And since this paratha does not break easily, you don't have to add much ghee.
6. Serve with curd and pickle. Well, I have a friend who eats this with jam and loves it!

Potatoes with fenugreek leaves and dill, from Punjab and Sindh

This is aloo methi with dill. Lots of green leaves, very healthy. If you want to shorten cooking process, boil potatoes in cooker first and then add. There is very little chilli in this, so it doesn't kill the taste of the other ingredients. Goes very well with chapathis, also with rice.

You can make this dry subji, the moong dal recipe I posted above this, and make chapthis and/or rice, probably some curds too - and you have a complete meal.

Ingredients

250 gms, potatoes, preferably new (you can use those baby potatoes too for this)
3/4 cup fenugreek leaves (methi leaves)
salt
3 tablespoons oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
4 stalks of fresh dill, chopped (sabbajgi, those thin needle-like leaves)
1 tablespoon chopped coriander

Procedure

If not using new potatoes, peel and cut into bite-sized pieces. New potatoes can be left whole with the skins on.

Soak the fenugreek leaves in a bowl of water with a pinch of salt for 30 mins. This will remove the slightly bitter taste. Then drain and chop.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add the garlic and chilli. After a few seconds add the fenugreek leaves and fry for a minute.

Add the potatoes, turmeric powder and salt to taste and stir-fry for 2 minutes, then add the dill and coriander leaves.

Cover, reduce the heat to very low and leave to cook for 15 mins or until the potatoes are done. If necessary sprinkle just a little water.

From: '50 Great Curries of India', Camellia Punjabi, Rupa Books (2006)

Potato palya + Lime rice/Tomato rice

A combo meal from Christabel/Sundari :)

Karipatta=Curry Leaf
Haldi=Turmeric powder

Potato Palya
Heat oil and throw in some mustard seeds + karipatta + 1 clove garlic chopped. When they (mustard seeds) begin to crackle throw in fine chopped onions and green chillies and fry till well-cooked. Add very little tomato and cook well till onions start browning and tomato is well cooked. Add the chopped potato a dash of haldi + salt and a little bit of water (to provide steam for potatoes to cook in but not so much as to make a curry!!). Cover and let it cook for 15 mins to 30 mins depending on how much potato you got in there. Add green coriander at the end and mix well.

Lime Rice
Heat oil. Add mustard seeds and when they crackle add karipatta + onions + green chillies + jeera seeds. Fry till onions are brown. Add a dash of haldi + juice of half a lime + green coriander leaves + salt. Fry for a few seconds. Now add cooked white rice and mix well. Can add more lime if needed and some roasted peanuts (optional).

Tomato Rice
Fry onion and green chillies. Add tomatoes + chilli powder + haldi + karipatta (Curry leaf). Cook these well. Then add raw rice and enough water and cook. Can add a dash of butter for added flavour.

Aloo Gobi (Potaoes with Cauliflower)

This came out really well.

Ingredients
• 1 Cauliflower
• 4 Potatoes
• 1 Tomato
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• ½ tsp Red chilli
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp Oil

How to make Aloo Gobhi
• Wash cauliflower and potatoes and cut into pieces.
• Heat the oil and add potatoes and cauliflower and leave it on medium flame for 5 minutes.
• Add chopped tomato, turmeric powder, coriander, red chili and salt.
• Cook it for 5 minutes.
• I added some chopped coriander in the end, and a dash of lime.
• Serve it with rotis.

From: http://www.indobase.com/recipes