Tuesday, April 17, 2007

A Colourful Affair

Yep, all of us know this could only mean a tame vegetarian dish with lots of veggies in it. Nothing to do with anything more colourful than that, fortunately or unfortunately!

The picture of this in a Hyderabadi cookbook has had me itching to make this dish for about two weeks. However, fate had assorted germs in store for me and that meant very little cooking, leave alone blogging. And yesterday, when I did summon the energy to make this, which involved a lot of slicing and dicing, and photograph it, I ended up worse than I had felt in the past two weeks – the pain I developed from all the coughing, sneezing and blowing my nose froze into a funny crick – the only benefit was that the fumes from the onions cleared up my sinuses for the next few hours!

Should I continue with this post? It's obviously labour-intensive, didn’t do much to cheer me up and didn’t look like anything in the original illustration - but ended up being much appreciated at my great-aunt’s place that evening.



I didn’t follow the original recipe at all because it called for a lot of oil and frying first and frying next and so on, so here’s my adaptation – a mixed vegetable dish that you can adapt to your own tastes. It’s a great way to rescue the veggies in your fridge, by the way! Add potatoes, cauliflower, any vegetable that occupies space in your pantry and weighs heavily on your conscience! The result is an almost rainbow-striped dish with a light gravy that’s high on taste and low in calories? Yes, I think so, relatively speaking.

Carrots – 300 gm, cut into ½-inch pieces
French Beans – 300 gm, cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces
Eggplant/Brinjals – 4-5, cut into 2-inch pieces
Capsicum/bell pepper – 2 big, diced
3 medium onions – finely sliced
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
A pinch of turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 cup curds/yoghurt, beaten
2 green cardamom
4 cloves
1 bay leaf
1/4 –inch piece cinnamon
¼ tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
Salt to taste
Oil – 3-4 tbsp
A bit of curry powder/garam masala, if you like

Parboil carrots and French beans.
Fry brinjal till more than half done in a little oil, remove, fry capsicum the same way, remove.
Fry the whole spices till they turn colour, then the onions till golden brown.
Add ginger-garlic paste, fry.
Add salt, turmeric and chilli powder, mix till they blend well with the onions.
Add the cooked and fried vegetables. Put in the curds. Stir and cook on simmer, covered, till the vegetables are fully cooked. Sprinkle a little water while cooking, if required. Add the curry powder and stir. Serve.

16 comments:

  1. am i the first one here? sounds like a cross between a jalfrezi and a korma. will give it a shot since u took the effort of sneezing and coughing thru it. :)

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  2. hw r u feeling sra? hope u r recovering fast.
    u did so much of chopping when u were not keeping well? girl, u should be taking rest. but it does look very colourful and tasty. clearning the fridge is with little bit of this and that vegs is always a pain and this recipe of urs will come to anyone's rescue:) thanks for the recipe and take proper rest till u recover completely:) hugs to u:)

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  3. Hope you feeling good now :)

    The new look of you tempate loks good too :) I am anyways biased to white :)

    The colourful affair is colourful in its true sense :) Loved it :)

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  4. Hope you are feeling better now.Sneezing everyday of Spring is part of my life for me!;D

    Dish looks great,healthy with all those veggies and stir fried with lot spices!What more do I need?YUM!! Thanks sra,take care .Hugs:)

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  5. Thanks, Mallugirl, warms the cockles of my heart!
    Sia, am ok, thanks - I guess this too is addiction - not being able to not post a dish despite strain and sprain! But I was missing it as I didn't do anything for two weeks!
    Coffee! You noticed! Oh happy day! I'm glad you liked it - I agonised over the template colours for a month, but they finally came to me in two or three days!
    Asha, yes, it's a healthy dish and tasty too, you can even powder the whole spices mentioned there and omit the curry powder at the end! Are you still sneezing? Hope you don't, any longer - I even got a sprain from all that jerky movement!

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  6. Hey Sra, how are you feeling ? The new template looks very fresh and since I like white with a touch of colour i like this one better

    The veggies a good try when I have bits and pieces in the refrigerator and I like that you used saunf

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  7. aah!!! lots of veggies. colorful and beautiful.

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  8. that sure is a coulurful affair!! Hope you get well soon dear!!

    warmly
    sharmi

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  9. Sandeepa, thanks, happy you like it. I wanted to add a second sidebar and some pix to the banner also but am tech-challenged and find it difficult to understand the instructions on the help groups, so till such wisdom dawns on me, I'll be happy with this.
    Reena, thank you.
    Sharmi, thanks for your wishes, am getting better.

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  10. Hi Sra,
    The new template looks good.I have changed mine recently too. The recipe is really colourful and I hope u are feeling better now.
    Take care

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  11. Prema, yes, I noticed your new template. Thanks for the comments.

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  12. wow sra
    that is a fantastic recipe.i never thought we could mix brinjal with carrot and beans..!!wonderful combo.will definitely try it out..

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  13. Swapna, yes, we can mix whatever we want if we want to save the veggies from a cold and miserable death! LOL!

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  14. it looks so nice.... coloroful ..thanks for the recipe

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  15. Yes it is colourful and yummy too. Viji

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  16. Dee, welcome to my blog. Thanks.
    Viji, thank you.

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