Spicy Vegetable Kurma..

I have successfully survived 4 months with my daughter, Nanditha and though she doesn’t seem to be a big fan of my cooking (she’s an Enfamil fan), she likes to stare at our mouth when we are eating. But Nirmal enjoys traditional Indian cooking, especially vegetarian dishes.Since he is traveling a lot, weekends are special for us and so this week I decided to make a vegetable Kurma for him.

The Indian KURMA is probably one of the oldest side dishes concocted!!! You take some carrots, potato, beans, green peas etc add some masala and lo…you have a side dish that you can eat with almost any tiffin item including APPAM !! Well, I use the exclamation mark with appam b’coz appam has been long associated with stew and so it has been difficult for me to even convince my mother that appam with kurma is not the same as an inter-caste marriage!!!

The whole idea of having appam with kurma is to have something spicy in comparison to the more bland stew combination. But I promise you that this dish is no where close in spiciness to any of my other posts and so if you have ever fled my page earlier wary of all the spice in the cuisine – This, YOU WILL LOVE.

THINGS U NEED:

• Vegetables (carrot, beans,couliflower,green peas,potato) - 2 cups
• Onion - 1 big
• Tomato- 1 big
• Green chilies -5
• Ginger -1" piece
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
• Bay leaf -1
• Oil -2 tablespoon
• Mustard seeds -1 teaspoon
• chilli powder- 1 1/2teaspoon
• Coriander powder 1 1/2 teaspoon( add more or less)
• Garam masala - 1 teaspoon (preparation link)
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Coconut milk 1/4 cups
• Salt to taste

TO GRIND:

• Coconut - 1/2 cup
• Cashew nuts - one handful (about 10)
• Poppy seeds -1/2 teaspoon
• Fennel seeds 1/4 teaspoon
• Green chillies - 4

METHOD:

• In a thick bottom vessel, heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add bay leaf, onions , green chillies , ginger and ginger garlic paste one by one and fry. Onion should not turn brown color. add the powdered ingredients and fry for few mins. Put the vegetables in this along with the coconut milk ,salt and enough water and cook. When it is half way through add the finely grinded paste (refer TO GRIND ) and choped tomato . Let it cook until done. Add a few curry leaves and coriander leaves at the end for a better aroma and taste !!

NOTES:

U can use the frozen vegetables that are cleaned and cut available in the grocery stores . U can serve this kurma with almost everything!!