Kolhapuri Vegetable Curry / Rassa Bhaji

This is a very spicy and tangy curry which is perfect to have on a cold, rainy day. Kolhapuri curries or sabzi is spicy and very flavorful. Kolhapuri chicken and mutton curries are very popular in Maharashtra. "Rassa" means gravy, so the curries usually have quite a bit of gravy with the meat or vegetables. I decided to try this rassa curry using vegetables. The red color of the curry is due to the byadgi chili I use in the masala. This chili is mild in pungency and imparts a very red color to the curry. Alternatively, Kashmiri chili can also be used to impart red color.  Byadgi or kashmiri chilies are less pungent in flavor. Other varieties of chilies can be used to impart more pungency. Here is the recipe.


Ingredients
1 capsicum
1 potato
3 cups cauliflower cut into big pieces of 2 inches each
1/2 cup peas
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
3 medium tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 1/2 tablespoon coriander seeds
4-5 red chilies (byadgi)
1/2 inch stick of cinnamon
3 tablespoon grated coconut
3 cloves
1/4 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
2 cardamom
6 tablespoon coriander leaves or cilantro
2-3 pepper corn
oil for frying
salt for taste

Method

Cut capsicum into two inch pieces each and fry it for 5-10 minutes till brown on all sides. Fry cauliflower for 4-5 minutes on high flame till crisp. Chop onion into small pieces. In a tablespoon of oil add chopped ginger and onion. Fry onion till brown. Chop tomatoes into small pieces and add it to the onion. Cook tomato till soft.
Soak red chilies in water for 5-10 minutes. Grind red chilies, coconut, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, coriander seeds and cumin seeds into a very fine paste. Add this paste to the tomato-onion mixture. Add tamarind and salt for taste. Add the vegetables in the curry and cook the curry till the vegetables are soft. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with roti or rice

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Serves: 3-4

Black Bean Sabzi

Black beans is also known by the name "Kala Police" in Pune. Not aware of why the name "Kala Police", but it makes a very tasty sabzi. I grind all the spices fresh and that also gives a distinct flavor to the sabzi. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup black beans
2 medium onions
1 tomato
2 garlic cloves
4-5 tablespoon cilantro or coriander leaves chopped
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
4-5 kashmiri chilies
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon jaggery or gur
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
salt for taste

Method

Wash and soak black beans for 8-10 hours. Wash the beans well and keep aside. Chop the onion and tomato into small pieces. Add oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. Add chopped garlic and onion and fry till the onion is brown in color. Add the tomato and cook till the tomato is soft. Fry the kashmiri chilies and coriander seeds for 4-5 minutes and powder them. Mix this powder and the jaggery with the masala. Add turmeric powder and 3 tablespoon coriander leaves to the masala. Cook for 3 minutes and add black beans and 1 1/2 cups of water. Add salt for taste and mix well. Pressure cook the beans till soft. Garnish with the remaining coriander leaves and garam masala. Serve hot with roti.

Preparation time: 40 minutes excluding soaking time
Serves: 2-3

Vegetables in Coconut Milk / Avial / Valval

This is another of traditional Manglorean vegetable curry. Traditionally, valval was made in plentiful during the rainy season when the vegetables like ivy gourds and cowpeas beans or yardlong beans were in plenty. It also uses vegetables like ridge gourd, pumpkin (it is a must), ashgourd, potato, magge ( yellow, oval cucumber)...I guess it is also called Dosakai (they name it so at my local Indian grocery store.). You may also add carrot, peas, snappeas and normal or baby corn. The recipe uses coconut milk, which can be easily found in Indian or International grocery stores in the US, or can be prepared using the following recipe. Here is the recipe for valval.

Ingredients
1/2 cup cubed pumpkin
1/2 cup yardlong beans chopped into 1 inch long pieces
11/2 cups of mixed vegetable (choose from ivy gourds, ridge gourd, ashgourd, potato, magge, carrot, peas, snappeas, corn(baby or normal))
2 cups coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds or jeera
2 pinches haldi or turmeric powder (to obtain the light yellow color)
1 teaspoon ghee or clarified butter
6-7 curry leaves
3 green chilies (thai chilies) or as per taste
pinch of asafoetida
salt for taste

Tips:
The secret behind this dish or any other mixed vegetable is to cut the vegetables into almost equal pieces so that they cook evenly. Else you can cook all the vegetables separately. I usually cut the vegetables into inch to half inch long pieces.

I usually cook all the vegetables and when I switch off the heat, I add the ridge gourd pieces and cover the vessel. Ridge gourd cooks very fast and just the heat from the other cooked vegetables is sufficient to cook it.

The ridge gourd can be skinned or be used with the skin. I skin the ridge gourd and use the skin to make chutney. I never throw the ridge gourd skin as it contains lot of nutrients. I sometimes even leave the skin in the freezer if I am not using it immediately.
I skin the pumpkin, but in India we get pumpkin with a thin skin and we usually don't remove the skin. Same with the ash gourd. You need not skin the other vegetables.
Do not throw the water in which the vegetable are boiled. You can add this to the curry to get it to a desired consistency or use it as vegetable stock to flavor soups.
I cook all the vegetables together with around 1/4 teaspoon salt so that they are salted before adding them to the curry. But be careful when you salt the curry.

Method
Cook all the vegetables till soft. Heat the coconut milk with slit green chilies. When the coconut milk is heated, add the vegetables and get the curry to a boil. This will facilitate all the vegetable flavors to be blended in the curry. In a seasoning pan, add ghee and heat it. When it heats up add mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard seeds splutter, remove from heat and add cumin seeds, turmeric and curry leaves. Add this hot seasoning to the vegetables and cover the vessel with a lid.
The flavor of the seasoning will be absorbed by the curry. Serve the curry hot with rice.

Preparation time: 1 hour
Serves: 3-4

Kabuli Chana Stir fry

I usually make this as a quick snack for evenings. Chick pea is considered to be very nutritious and contains large amounts of protein and is good for growing children. My grand mother would make this every alternative day for me. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1/2 cup chick peas or kabuli chana
1 teaspoon ghee (preferably) or oil
salt and pepper as per taste

Method
Soak the kabuli chana for 8- 10 hours and pressure cook it till soft. Heat ghee in a pan. Add the kabuli chana and fry for 4-5 minutes. Garnish it with salt and pepper powder and serve hot.

White Navy Beans Curry / Avre Koddel / Konkani Beans Curry

Koddel is another of Konkani curries. It is spicy and is seasoned with garlic or with asafoetida (for people who don't like garlic). It is traditionally made with pulses like avro (navy beans), kulith (horse gram), bagdo (azuki beans). I have also tried it with kidney beans , pink beans, black eyed peas , black beans and pinto beans and it comes out well. Raw papaya , magge, potatoes, ashgourd can be added to the koddel. Here is the recipe for the koddel.


Ingredients
1/2 cup white navy beans (avro) or any other beans
1/2 magge or konkani cucumber (optionally you can use potato, ashgourd or raw papaya or use just navy beans)
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 teaspoon tamarind concentrate or small piece of tamarind
3-4 roasted byadgi red chilies
3-4 cloves of garlic or 1/4 teaspoon heeng or asafoetida
1 teaspoon coconut oil or any other oil
salt for taste

Method
Soak the navy beans overnight or 8-10 hours. Pressure cook magge and navy beans (avro) with 1/4 teaspoon salt till soft. Grind the coconut, red chilies, tamarind into a fine masala paste. Add this masala to the navy beans and magge and add water to get desired consistency (the water in which the beans were boiled can also be added). Heat oil in seasoning pan. Crush garlic and fry it in the oil till it is pink. Add this to the curry and cover it for 5 minutes to allow the flavors of the garlic to be absorbed in the curry. Optionally, if you don't want garlic, the heeng can be dissolved in a tablespoon of water and sprinkled with oil on the curry. Serve hot with rice.


Preparation time: 1 hour
Serves: 3-4

Chayote Chutney / Seemae BaDhneKayi Chutney

I came to know about this vegetable when we visited my aunt A in Bangalore. She would make sabzi or chutney out of this vegetable. When my parents shifted to Bangalore, my mom started using this vegetable to make chutney in Bangalorian style. When I came to US, I saw this vegetable in the Indian store by the name of Chayote, but I was not very sure if it was the Seemae BaDhneKayi I had seen in Bangalore. So I never bought this vegetable. Now when my parents visited us, my mom confirmed that the vegetable was indeed Seemae BaDhneKayi and we got it home. This chutney requires only 1 tablespoon grated coconut, but tastes like pure coconut chutney. Also this vegetable does not contain any fat. Read more about Seemae BaDhneKayi here. Here is my mom's chutney recipe.

Ingredients
1 Seemae BaDhneKayi or chayote
1 tablespoon coconut
1 teaspoon jeera
1/2 inch tamarind piece or 1/4 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
1-2 green chilies
salt for taste

Method
Peel the chayote and cut it into small cubes. Boil the chayote pieces till soft. Grind the cooked chayote pieces with the rest of the ingredients into a fine paste. You can serve this chutney with dosas, idlis, rice or roti.


Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2-3