Gavar ki sabzi

Gavar is called chavalikayi or gori kayi in  Kannada .It is cluster beans in English. I had a colleague in my office ( when I worked outside home ) who would make a lip smacking gavar sabzi. Lip smacking, because, I have never liked gavar . I asked her for recipe & did try it, some time. I liked it & yet, my un fondness for gavar disallowed me to making it often.

After my marriage I realized, that whatever sabzis I disliked, are liked by my husband. Like is, too mild a word. It should be loved.My husband loves veggies for which I have no liking .So, I had to start cooking gavar on a weekly basis. And I am eating it too, as gavar has numerous health benefits.

Here's my recipe or rather my colleague's recipe ....

Ingredients : 250 gm gavar ( stringed & washed &  broken into 1/2 inch pieces by hand), 1/2 tsp ajwain , 1 potato deskinned & chopped into cubes,1 tbsp milk, 1/2 tsp Mazeedar Maharashtra masala ( goda masala), 1/2 tsp red chilli powder ( optional ), 1/4 tsp haldi, 1/2 tsp hing powder, 1/2 tsp jaggery, 1/2  tbsp oil, 1 byadgi mirchi ( optional -a type of dry red chilli ) , salt to taste.

                                    

Method : I hardly ever chop gavar after  stringing them. I prefer to break them into smaller pieces by hand. I had read that vegetables handled with hands have more taste than chopped ones. So wherever, I can skip chopping, I manage with my hands or rather fingers.

In a kadhai, heat oil.Add ajwain seeds.Add hing. Let it all become aromatic. Add the byadgi mirch pieces ( optional ) ) Add in the cubed poatatoes & mix all nicely. Add haldi. Mix all nicely. The potato cubes would have become coated with hing, haldi & ajwain.Let it cook for about five minutes. Keep stirring after 2 minutes. Add the broken cluster beans pieces .Mix all nicely in kadahai. Cover with a lid & cook for five minutes. Add 1-2  tbsp water. Mix all ingredients nicely. Cover with lid & cook for five to ten minutes. Add milk. Give it a good stir so that all ingredients get nicely coated with milk.. Add jaggery & salt. Mix all ingredients again. Cook for another five minutes. Open lid & check if potato cubes & cluster beans have become tender & are cooked. Add Mazeedar Maharashtra powder to the kadahi .Give all the ingredients in the kadhai a good stir. Cook for another five minutes. Add a little water if the kadhai mix has got very dry. Cook for another five minutes by covering with lid. Put off gas. Gavar ki sabzi is ready to be served.

Another method is to pressure cook washed gavar pieces along with potato cubes to which haldi & salt has been added. Pressure cook for 2 whistles. Keep aside.

In a kadahi, add oil.Heat it up.Add ajwain seeds & hing. Add broken byadgi pieces. Give all ingredients a good mix. Add the cooked veggie mix of gavar & potato cubes.Add milk .Mix all ingredient again. Add jaggery, salt, red chilli powder & Mazeedar Maharashtra masala . Give the mix in the kadahi a good stir. Cook for five minutes with lid covered. Put off gas. Gavar sabzi is  ready to be served .

For a tangy flavour, one can squeeze a lemon on the sabzi .

Sometimes, I like to eat kadak rotis which have remained on hot tava . This sabzi, I like with kadak papad like roti .And maybe, a few slices of raw onion or cucumber !

Pumpkin sabzi :North Indian style.

I have loved the Pumpkin sabzi that is served in Pancham Puriwala at CST, Mumbai. My north Indian friends make it as an accompaniment to puris on festivals.

I made this sabzi last week with green chillies, red chilly powder, methi dana ( fenugreek seeds )  & amchur ( dry mango powder which is a souring agent ),This time , I made this dish by following Sangeeta Khanna's recipe from banaras ka khana .I did add methi dana, jaggery and amchur though she has not added any of these in her dish.

Ingredients : 250-300 gm red pumpkin deskinned , washed &  cubed, 1/ 2 tsp jeera, 6 peppercorns, 1 badi elaichi, 1 green elaichi, 1 star anise, 1 small  cinnamon stick, 1/4 tsp powdered hing, 1/4 tsp haldi, 2 -3 byadgi mirchis broken into 2-3 pieces each, 2-3 tsp oil, 1 tsp amchur powder, 1 tsp jaggery sugar, 1/ 4 tsp methi dana, 1/ 2 cup water, salt to taste.

Method : Heat oil in kadhai. Add powdered hing. Add cinnamon stick, slightly crushed peppercorns, slightly crushed badi elaichi & green elaichi , star anise. Fry them for a few seconds.Add broken byadgi mirchi pieces, methi dana & cumin ( jeera ).Jeera & methi will get aromatic. Add Pumpkin cubes. Saute them. Add haldi. Mix nicely all contents of kadahi. Add half cup water. Mix all contents nicely. Cover kadahi with lid. Let it cook for 7-8 minutes. Add jaggery powder & am

chur powder to contents in kadahi. Cook for 4-5 minutes. Put off gas. The cubes must retain their shape & yet be soft enough to melt in mouth. Serve with rotis or puris.

Pineapple rasam.

My friend had been talking about pineapple rasam. And I knew I wanted to make it soon. So one morning ,I decided to go & buy pineapple that is available on streets.The pineapple slices-6-7 pieces in a   plastic packet which sells for 10 bucks.I got one packet for this rasam.

I googled & found this recipe on veg recipes. I made it like the recipe with some differences.

Ingredients : 1/4 cup tur dal, 1 packet pineapple slices ( cost Rs 10 ), 1-2 tsps rasam powder, 1 /2 tsp jeera, 1/4 heaped tsp black peppercorns, 1 large tomato chopped fine & pureed in mixer, 1tbsp ghee, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 red dry chilly, 1/4 tsp powdered hing, 1/4 tsp haldi, few kadipattas,salt to taste.

Method : Pressure cook tur dal with haldi & hing for two whistles & then on slow gas for up to 10 minutes. Put off gas.after the cooker has cooled off, mash the tur dal Keep aside.

Take half of the sliced pineapple pieces & puree in mixer. Keep aside.

Remaining slices of pineapple are chopped finely & kept aside.

In small grinder jar, grind the jeera & black peppercorns to a coarse powder. Keep aside.

In a vessel, add 1 tbsp ghee.Put on gas. As the oil heats up, add mustard seeds. After they crackle, break the red chilly into some pieces & add to the oil.Add the curry leaves now. Now add the pureed tomatoes to the vessel.Allow it to come to a boil.Add salt. Mix nicely. Add the coarsely ground jeera black peppercorn mixture to the vessel,.Mix nicely with the tomato puree .Let it cook for a minute or two.Add the pineapple puree now. Mix nicely. Add the mashed tur dal now .Mix nicely.Add rasam powder now. Add water depending on the kind of rasam that is needed...thin or thick.

Add the finely chopped pineapple pieces to the rasam now. Bring it to boil.Put off gas.

Serve pinapple rasam with rice .

I forgot to add jeera pepper powder to the ghee in vagar & hence, added after tomato puree had boiled. And I added pineapple pieces at the end. In the recipe, these are added after tur dal is added.Maybe , if you follow recipe, it would turn out more flavorful.I have used smaller quantities of jeera & peppercorns as I am not used to very pungent flavours.

Pinneapple gojju.

In our religious mutts & temples ,especially mutts in particular, Pinreapple gojju is one of the items in the prasadam feast. I love the sweet tangy taste of the gooju . So I thought of trying out this recipe which I googled.

I had brought four slices of pineapple from the market. Its in  season now & one can see many handcarts selling 4 slices of pineapple in packet for the price of 20 bucks ! I used up 2 pineapple slices for making pineapple sheera .The remaining two sices I used up while making this gojju. I wanted to try & see how the rcie turns out in my hands .So just two slices.

Ingrdients : 2 slices of pineapple ( peeled ) , 1 tbsp jaggery, 1 tbsp fresh dessicated coconut, 1/8 Methi seeds, 1 tsp urad dal, 2 tsp Sesame seeds ( used white unpolished ), 4 dry red chillies ( used 2 byadgi & 2 lavangi chillies ) , 1/ 2tsp mustard seeds,  1/4 tsp hing, 1/4 tsp haldi, 1 tsp oil,5-6 curry leaves , 1 tsp lemon juice, salt to taste.

Method : Roughly chop the pineapple piece & let them be cooked in a little water & hing.  Add jaggery to the pineapple pieces as they are getting cooked

Meanwhile dry roast methi seeeds, sesame seeds, dry red chillies & urad dal all separately. Alternatively  little bit of oil can be used to fry sesame seeds & methi seeds ...both separately. Keep aside all roasted ingredients. Take all the roasted ingredients & add fresh desiccated coconut to it. Make a paste of all these items with some little water .Pour the paste into the pinapple water jaggery mix. It must be boiling now.

Prepare vagar by popping mustard seeds & curry leaves. Pour this vagar over the coconut curried pineapple mix. Add lemon juice. Mix nicely. The pineapple gojju is ready .Serve with rice and or rotis !

I used both lavangi & byadgi mirchis as byadgi mirchi are hardly pungent & lavangi mirchis are pungent. If you don't want pungency, you can use all byadgi mirchis .If you want gojju to be pungent, you can use all lavangi mirchis.

The gojju tasted great. Even my parents said that ! 

Cauliflower in tomato carrot gravy

I have started cooking Cauliflower in the Bengali way. Well, in this method, break down the cauliflower into florets.Put these florets in a vessel filled with water. Add 1/4 tsp turmeric & a tsp of salt to the vessel.Bring the water containing the florets in water to a boil on a gas stove. .Put off the gas.Drain the water. The cauliflower florets are ready to be cooked.This method removes residual pesticides from cauliflower. Cauliflower is sprayed with too many pesticides. Hence, this method to make it safer for consumption.

I had boiled  cauliflower florets in salt turmeric water & kept in the morning. I was trying to prepare a gravy when the bell rang. It was the gas pipeline fellow .He said he is going to check for leakage in gas pipeline. He checked & found all to be fine. He then put off the gas supply as they were fixing the gas pipelines all over the building where I reside. I knew,that I will have to use the microwave. The gas supply was to be restored by six in the evening.I decided to use the microwave to make the sabzi.

Ingredients : 200 gm Cauliflower florets boiled in salt turmeric water , 1tbsp oil, 1/2 tsp jeera, 1 medium carrot peeled , 2 tomatoes-chopped into cubes, 1/2 tsp flax seed powder ( optional ) , 2-3 green chillies roughly chopped, 1/2 tsp grated ginger,  few curry leaves,1/4 tsp black pepper powder,  1/4 tsp garam masala powder, salt to taste.

Method : Grind the chopped green chillies, grated ginger & curry leaves into a grainy mix. Keep aside.

Grind chopped carrots & tomatoes into a fine paste. Keep aside.

Take oil in microwave able vessel & add cumin seeds to it. Microwave on high for 1 minute.Add grated chilli-ginger-curry leaves mix to the vessel.Microwave on high for a minute.Add carrot tomato paste to vessel.Remember that cualiflower florets have been boiled in salt water.Microwave on high for 2.5 minutes. Add 1/4 water & salt to taste  to vessel. Add flax seed powder to vessel. Give the mix in vessel a good stir with a spoon. Microwave again on high for another 2.5 minutes. Add cauliflower florets to vessel.Give the vessel ingredients a stir.Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. Give the ingredients another good stir. Add  pepper powder & garam masala powder & give it another stir. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes.Put off microwave. Let it cool.After five minutes, take out the vessel from microwave. Serve with rotis and or pulao .

As flax seed powder was added, the gravy was quite thick .So very doubtful , if this gravy can be had with plain rice in place of dal.Though with pualo, its should work out fine.

Jeera rice

I have made jeera rice earlier & it turned out mushy. This time around , I was determined to make a  a better version. I wanted to use the pressure cooker method. I have no patience trying to cook rice in an open pan.I checked a few recipes like Nithya's Nalabagam & Veg recipes of India.

And believe me, my version of jeera rice turned out real good though it can be made better next time.

Ingredients : 3/4 cup rice, 1/2 ts jeera, 2 cloves slightly crushed , 1-2 bay leaves, 1/2-1 inch cinnamon stick, 1tbsp ghee,

Method : In a vessel, heat ghee. Add bay leaves, crushed cloves, cinnamon stick & jeera or cumin. After they all get aromatic, add rice & mix all nicely.Roast for 2-3 minutes. Add salt Add 1 1/4 cup water. Pressure cook upto 2 whistles .Put off gas.After cooker cools, remove lid of pressure cooker. Jeera rice is ready ! This can be served with aloo matar or whole masoor or chhole or rajma or any other side dish of choice.

I think ,i need to add more cumin seeds. Next time around, I must improve on that.

Easy cutlets

Leftover bread pieces, leftover bread sides , leftover potato curry can be transformed into cutlets for morning breakfasts.This is very easy & filling as well !As the bread gets older , cutlets get better ! Dry breads make for better cutlets, in short ! This is called upcycling of leftovers !

Ingredients : 1-2 boiled medium sized boiled potatoes ,2 medium carrots, a few kadi pattas ( curry leaves), 1 tbsp finely chopped hara dhania, 2 -4 slices of brown bread ( even white bread is fine ), 1 tsp garted ginger, 1 tsp flax seed powder ( optional ),1 tsp finely chopped green chillies ( or use 1 tsp red chilli powder), 1 tbsp lemon juice ( in summers,1 tsp grated raw mango can be used ),1/4 tsp turmeric,1/4 tsp hing, 2 tbsp oil,salt to taste.


Method : Clean & grate the carrots.Keep aside.Finely chop the kadi pattas after washing them.Mix them with the grated carrots,grated ginger ,chopped green chillies & chopped coriander.Keep aside.


Meanwhile crumble the bread slices into fine grainy powder in mixer.Roughly cut green chillies,kadi pattas ,coriander can be added to this in the mixer along with roughly broken bread slices to get an evenly mixed bread chilli-coriander-kadi patta mix !

Mix this bread crumble with grated carrots-chilli-coriander-kadi patta mix.Add salt ,lemon juice ( or grated raw mango ) ,flax seed powder,haldi & hing.Mix nicely.Keep aside. Peel the boiled potatoes  & mash them..Mix the mashed potatoes  with the bread carrot mix.Knead nicely all mix into a dough.Add a little water if you feel it is too dry.I did not add any water.

Grease palms with little oil & take a small amount of dough & pat it into a circular shape like a pedha though a bigger pedha.Repeat with the remaining dough & make circular pedhas.I made some 12 pedhas with the dough.

Warm a tawa on the gas.Smear the tawa with oil.Transfer the pedhas 5-6 at a time on to the tawa.Cover with lid.Let it cook for 5 minutes.Uncover & flip the pedhas over .They will have browned on the bottoms.Cover & cook for 2-3 minutes.Take them off from the tawa. They should have burned  brown a little or turned golden brown on the other side as well.If not ,cook for a minute more.

Serve with chutni or tomato ketchup.....In fact, they are so yummy that they can be eaten just like that ! 

If grated beetroot is added , the cutlets will be dark pink ......

Saatvik chhole.

I had read about this authentic chhole recipe in Sangeeta Khanna's blog banaras ka khana.I had tried it before .I had skipped posting what I tried.I had used grated raw mango in place of aam chur. I tried it again .This time I made use of kairi preserve or raw mango preserve.

My mom realised that many kairis had been given to us by our neighbour who has planted mango trees at their factory grounds.Since,mango pickle is not relished  throughout the year.this is because , somehow,the mango pickle loses its crunchiness as , she thought of grating the kairis.Then she added salt,haldi & hing to the grated kairi.And we bottled this kairi preserve to add to dishes as a souring agent in dishes if a change in sour taste was needed.The bottled kairi preserve is stored in refrigerator.

Ingredients : 1 /2 cup kabuli chana &  1 tbsp chana dal soaked overnight, 1 tsp kairi preserve, 1 hari mirchi roughly chopped,1-2 byadgi mirchi broken into pieces, 1bay leaf,3-4  peppercorns,1 clove, 1/2 inch grated ginger ,1 tsp dhania powder , 1/2 tsp jeera powder, salt to taste, 2  tsp oil.

Method : Pressure cook the soaked chana & chana dal with salt for 2-3 whistles.Then slow down the gas & cook for 15 minutes.Put off gas.


Grind all dry spices.Add adrak & hari mirchi to dry ground spice mixture & grind again.

Take oil in kadhai.Heat the oil.Drop the ground spice mixture in that.After the aroma wafts across, add the pressure cooked chana chhole mix to the spices in kadhai.Mix nicely.Add raw mango preserve.Mix nicely.Let it all boil for 10 minutes.It will start thickening .If you need it to be watery,add water. Put off gas.Serve with rotis,naan ,bhature and rice.

This came out so nicely that I am thinking of making it again & again. No bother of chopping onions & tomatoes .And the taste is so authentic !

I added amla candy piece to the water in which the kabuli chana & chana dal was being cooked.This gives the chana the brown tinge .No haldi was added.Even a teabag can be added to water or tea in a small potli ( a thin piece of cloth with tea wrapped & bound ) can be dropped in the water which pressure cooks the chhole.Using tea bag gives the same brown tinge to chhole.I added a pinch of baking soda to the chhole chana dal mix while it was pressure cooked so that the kabuli chana & chana dal are cooked mashably well !

I did not have badi elaichi & so skipped using  it. In the original recipe ,it is added.I added both byadgi mirchi as also 1 hari mirchi as byadgi mirchi has little pungency .

Beet root sabzi

Beetroot is a good source of calcium.This is a very simple recipe .I like the sweet taste of beetroot.

Ingredients : 2-3 medium beetroots,1tsp mustard seeds,1 -2 bydagi chilly ( a dry red chilli variety ) ,1tbsp oil,1/2 tsp urad dal,1/4 tsp hing,1 sprig of kadipatta leaves,1 tbsp fresh grated coconut ,salt to taste.

Method : Pressure cook the beet roots for 3-4 whistles or more.beetroot is a hard  vegetable & hence pressure  cooked in cooker ).After the cooker has cooled,remove the beetroots .Peel them with bare hands after washing them in tap water to cool them.

Chop them into roughly into cubes.Keep aside.In a pan heat oil.Add mustard seeds.When they splutter add urad dal.Let the urad dal turn golden brown.Add broken byadgi mirchi pieces & kadipatta.Saute them both in the oil.Now add the chopped beetroot & saute them for 1-2 minutes.Cook covered with a lid for 5 minutes.If the veggies is still hard -check by a knife by trying to poke into the veggie ) ,add a little water & cook for some more time.Add salt & mix nicely.In the end add fresh coconut & cook for 2 minutes.Put off the gas.Serve with chappatis or rice.