Cooking Lesson: Mixed Vegetables

I went to a little cooking lesson today.

Here's a delicious, slightly spicy, vegetable side dish
that Sunita taught us.

Have your spices at the ready.

You'll need just a few spices: remember, the fresher, the better
(and toasted is much nicer, too!) 

1/2 tsp cumin seeds,

3 tsp ground coriander,

1/2 tsp red chilli powder (to taste)

1/4 tsp garam masala*
(*see recipe at the bottom of the post, or use ready-prepared from your spice aisle)

You aslo need to prepare some ginger & green chillies.

Spanking fresh & pungent

Peel or scrub and chop about 2 inches of ginger 

and wash and chop 2 - 3 small green chillies

(to taste - always important!).

You need to make a satiny-smooth paste of these two ingredients,

and at home I usually chop the two coarsely, 

then whiz in my small food processor.

But in Sunita's kitchen, 

she had her (strong, young) helper bash and grind the aromatics with a

sil-batta,

which I don't think I'll be bringing home in my suitcase,
but only due to its immense weight.

The sil-batta requires some old-fashioned elbow grease -
good for bashing out those frustrations.

It produces a silky paste when used properly

You need to prepare 1 cup or so of each of your vegetables,

such as

cabbage, cauliflower, green pepper,

green beans, peas, carrot, & red onion.

Cut into rough chunks of similar size.

Small batch cooking

Now, heat about 1 tbsp of oil or ghee (clarified butter..mmmmm budda!)
in a karahi.

(or wok or heavy-bottomed skillet)

Heat oil until hot, but not smokin'

Once your oil is ready,
add about 1 tsp of the ginger/chilli paste
(save the rest in your fridge for a day, or your freezer for one month)
and stir.
Now add all the vegetables that you prepared earlier
(except the red onion),

taking care not to splatter yourself with the boiling oil.

Stir fry them until they are just catching a beautiful shade of umber.

Look - a rainbow of veggies...just like Mum taught us!

Now, add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup of water,

cover and simmer until tender enough to your liking

(about 2 - 3 minutes).

Cover nice and close to the veggies.

While those babies are cooking,

finely dice 1 - 2 tomatoes (it's up to you), 

take another piece of prepared ginger, about 1/2 inch

and slice into thin batons, like fine matchsticks,

and finely chop 2-3 small green chillies (yes...to taste!).

About the chillies...include the membranes and seeds, 

unless you need a very mild dish.

First make thin slices of ginger,
and then slice those into matchsticks.

When you are happy with your vegetables,

set them aside, and heat 1 tbsp oil (or ghee),

in the same heavy pan you used for the veg.

Once the oil is not, but not smokin',

add the spices/seasoning you assembled earlier

(1/2 tsp cumin seeds,

3 tsp ground coriander seeds,

1/2 tsp red chilli powder (to taste),

~1 tsp salt, and

1/4 tsp garam masala).

Give that a stir for a few seconds, until you smell the fragrance, 

but it's not burning!

Now,

add the red onion, ginger batons, and green chillies.

Stir fry for a minute, or until you can smell the freshness of the seasoning.

Add 1 tbsp roughly chopped/torn cilantro, and the finely chopped tomato.

Simply stir fry until the desired texture of the vegetables has been achieved,

which, is totally up to you.

Add the veg that you had set aside earlier, and mix lightly,

integrating all ingredients.

Garnish with some torn coriander/cilantro leaves.

Oh so yummy, soothing, & nutritious!

This recipe looks long & involved,

but, it's really quite quick and simple...give it a try.

Garam Masala

You'll need:

100 g cumin seeds

10 g piece of cinnamon stick

10 g whole cloves

10 g whole black peppercorns

5 g mace

5 g ground nutmeg

5 g star anise

5 g pipli (if you don't have it, just leave it out)

Toast all the spices in a heavy-bottomed pan, just until they become fragrant.

Now grind (I use a coffee grinder, solely for grinding spices) them, in batches,

mix well, and store in an air-tight container.

You can skip the toasting step, 

but the garam masala will taste better and last longer, if you don't.

Play with the flavour to your liking.