Vegetable Stew Recipe - How to make kerala style vegetable stew

One of my friend had been asking me to post the recipe of this vegetable stew for a very long time. Minimal ingredients and the simplicity of the recipe is what wins you over.  The stew is flavored with warm aromatic spices along with giner, fresh coconut milk and finally tempered with coconut oil. It goes well with idiappam or appam or even with plain steamed rice.

 Ingredients

Onion -1
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 3 cloves
Green chilli - 2 slit, adjust according to taste
Mixed vegetables - 2 cups ( carrot, beans, potato, cauliflower, peas etc)
Thin coconut milk – 1 1/2 cup
Thick coconut milk – 3/4 cup
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt as required

For the seasoning

Bay leaf -1
Cloves -2
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Final seasoning

Coconut oil - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few

Pre-Preparation - How to extract coconut milk

Take coconut gratings of a medium sized fresh coconut in a mixie jar, add 1 cup of water and grind well for couple of minutes. Strain the ground coconut using a strainer. You can even use tea strainer or a colander lined with a soft cotton cloth or cheesecloth. Press it with a ladle or squeeze to extract as much milk as possible. What you got now is the first extract or thick coconut milk or onnam paal. This thick coconut milk cannot be boiled, if boiled it will curdle. 

Now add 1 more cup of water to the already ground coconut and grind it again nicely. Again strain the ground coconut with a strainer. The milk extracted now is the second extract or thin coconut milk or rendam paal which is thinner than the first. This can be boiled and generally can be used for cooking vegetables or payasams.


Chop all the vegetable into medium sized pieces or cubes. Finely chop onion, garlic and ginger.

Method

Heat oil, add the ingredients mentioned under seasoning, saute for a few seconds, then add onions and garlic. Saute till onions turn transparent.

Then add ginger, green chilli and the rest of the vegetables.

Add thin coconut milk, required salt and pepper powder. Cook till the vegetables are soft.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add thick coconut milk and heat it a little. Its very important not to boil the stew after adding the thick coconut milk. The consistency of the stew should be thin.

Finally, heat a tsp of coconut oil, saute curry leaves in it for a second and add to the stew. Serve Kerala style vegetable stew with aappams or steamed rice.

Paneer Butter Masala - Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

Paneer butter masala is the most popular side dish when compared to the other paneer curries. Its a rich Punjabi dish made with paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese). The near perfect combination of spiciness and creaminess of its gravy makes it simply irresistible and versatile to be served with any Indian bread or with pulav or any biriyanis. Tomato puree is the key in this recipe. To get the right color choose red ripe tomatoes and good red chilli powder. Now to the delicious recipe.

 

Ingredients 
Onion -2
Tomatoes - 4 or tomato puree - 1 cup
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Paneer - 200 grams, cubed
Cashews - 10 nos
Kasuri Methi -1 tsp (dry fenugreek leaves)
Salt as required

Spice Powder
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

For the seasoning
Butter- 2 tbsp + Oil-1 tbsp
Cinnamon -1 inch piece
Cloves- 2
Cardamom -1
 
For Garnishing
Fresh cream - 2 or 3 tbsp
Finely chopped coriander leaves


Method


First, you need to make 3 pastes out of these ingredients. And then its just as easy as that to prepare the gravy. 


Onion Paste -Remove the skin, chop the onion into 4 pieces and boil them in water for 10 minutes. Drain the water completely and grind it to a paste.

Tomato puree - Blanch tomatoes- (ie) put the tomatoes in boiling water and close it. After 10 minutes, drain the water, remove the skin and puree the tomatoes.

Cashew nut paste- Soak 10 cashew nuts in hot water for 15 minutes and grind it to a paste.

Heat 2 tbsp butter +1 tbsp oil, add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, when it splutters, add onion paste and saute till it becomes golden brown, then add ginger garlic paste and saute for some more time.

Then add tomato puree and all the spice powder mentioned under spice powder. Cook until the raw smell of the tomato goes and it starts leaving oil. Do not add any water now, else the raw smell will not go off completely

 

Then add cashew nut paste and saute nicely for a few minutes till the raw smell goes.

Add the paneer cubes to the cooked tomato paste. Add 1/2 cup of water, needed salt, kasuri methi and coriander leaves. Simmer and cook for a few minutes.

Garnish with fresh cream and serve with pulao or roti or chapati.

Green Peas Masala Mom's Style

My mom used to prepare this peas masala whenever she makes poori. For me, this is the best combination for poori, rather than the poori masala that is usually served. Whenever she packs this for my lunch box during school days I and my friend will exchange our lunch boxes, cos she loves this a lot :-). Also, this is very simple and doesn't require much ingredients. Actually, the original recipe grinds all the grinding ingredients first and then cooks them. But for added taste and flavor I used to saute them first and then grind to a paste and cook again along with the peas and spices. You can opt for any method depending on your preference. Now, to the recipe.

Ingredients

Green peas - 1 cup (Soaked overnight or atleast for 5-6 hours)
Tomatoes - 3
Onion - 2 (1 for grinding and the other for sauteing)
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Garlic - 4 cloves
Cinnamon stick - 1, a small one
Cloves - 2
Cumin powder - 2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Oil, mustard seeds and curry leaves for tempering

Method

1. Soak the green peas overnight or atleast for 5-6 hours and pressure cook for 3 whistles in high flame and 5 minutes in simmer. Soaking is not required if using fresh peas.
2. Chop the ginger, garlic, one onion and tomatoes and set aside. Heat oil in a pan, add the cinnamon stick and cloves and saute for few seconds. Then add the ginger and garlic pieces and saute for couple of minutes. 
3. Then add the onions and fry until they turn transparent. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry until they turn mushy. Allow this to cool down and grind to a coarse paste. You need not have to grind to a smooth paste. This gives a nice texture and flavor to the gravy.
4. Heat oil in a pan and do the tempering and add the ground paste. Add the spice powders, salt and hing. Stir well and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Then add the cooked peas and add more water if the gravy is too thick. Allow to cook for few more minutes and turn off the flame. Enjoy with hot and puffy Poori's.

Mixed Vegetable Kurma - Chapati Kurma, How to make mixed veg kurma

Kurma is a very popular side dish for chapathi's. I guess there are lot of variations all over India. But the South Indian style recipe uses coconut along with fennel seeds optionally including cashew or khus khus.  Here I have added a touch of pearl onion along with coconut. Personally I liked the flavor of it. You can also omit it if you don't want the flavor of the onion.

Ingredients

Onion - 1 chopped
Tomato -1 chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Green chilli -1-2
Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp

Vegetables 

Carrot -1
Beans - 5-6
Potato -1
Green peas - 1/4 cup
Cauliflower florets -1/2 cup (blanched, I did not use this)
Coriander leaves - a fistful for garnishing

To grind to a paste

Grated coconut - 2-3 tbsp
Fennel seeds/sombu- 1 tsp
Pearl Onion - 1, peeled

For the seasoning

Oil - 1 tbsp
Fennel seeds/sombu - 1/2 tsp
Cloves -2
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Cardamom - 2

Curry leaves - few

Method

1. Soak the green peas atleast for 5-6 hours and set aside. If using fresh peas or frozen peas, soaking is not required.  Wash the vegetables, peel them and cut them into small cubes.
2. Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add the seasoning ingredients one by one and saute for few seconds. Then add the slit green chillies and the chopped onions. Saute until the onions turn transparent. Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell goes off. Add the chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder. Stir until the tomatoes are half cooked.
3. Add the cubed vegetables, green peas and required amount of salt. Mix well and add approximately 1/2 cup of water. Close the lid and cook for 2 or 3 whistles.  Meanwhile grind the ingredients mentioned under "To Grind" section into a smooth paste by adding very little amount of water.
4. On the other side, once the pressure subsides open the pressure cooker and add the ground coconut paste and stir well. Add water if necessary. The kurma should not be too thick or too watery. Adjust the water as per the consistency you need. Cook on medium flame for 5 minutes, check and adjust salt. Turn off the flame and garnish with coriander leaves. Server as side dish for chapathi, poori or parotta.

Channa Masala (Without Coconut) - How to prepare Channa Masala

Channa masala is one among the classic vegetarian side dishes, that tastes great with any kind of rotis or mild pulav's. It doesn't require much of the spices except for those regular garam's and easy to make too. And now to the recipe.

Ingredients

White channa - 1 cup
Paneer cubes - 10 to 12 (optional)
Onion - 1, roughly chopped
Tomatoes - 2, roughly chopped
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1&1/2tsp
Garam masala or Channa masala - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 2 tsp or juice from half a lemon
Salt as per taste

For the seasoning

Oil - 1 tbsp apprx, adjust as per taste
Bay leaf - 1
Cloves - 2
Cinnamon stick - 1

Method

1. Soak channa overnight or atleast for 6-8 hours and pressure cook until soft. For beginners, it may be approximately 2-3 whistles in high flame and 8-10 minutes in simmer depending upon your pressure cooker and the quality of channa.
2. Cube the paneer. Usually, in restaurants they will shallow fry the paneer until they turn slightly brown. Instead of that I used to soak the paneer in hot water for 10-15 mins. Both ways, the paneer retains its texture and softness. Remove from hot water or oil and set aside.
3. In a pan, heat a tsp of oil, add onions, ginger-garlic paste and tomatoes and saute till the raw smell goes off and the tomatoes turn mushy. Allow to cool and grind to a fine paste.
4. Heat oil in a pan, do the seasoning with the ingredients mentioned. Then add the ground onion-tomato paste and the spice powder. Mix well and cook for few minutes (5-10 mins). 
5. Add the cooked channa and paneer and allow to boil until all the flavors blend together. If the gravy is too thick add some water to get the desired consistency. Garnish with coriander leaves,lemon juice and switch off. Serve hot with any kind of rotis!!