What a Stew!

Had a double dinner last night – the first courtesy Aashish who took me out for a belated birthday dinner. Since it was right after work and around Oxford St. it had to be Busaba, my favourite Thai fast meal deal. Enjoyed a chilli prawn fried rice with the Chinese broccoli/shitake mushrooms with their slivers of garlic and of course, no meal there is complete without their fabulous Thai Calamari. So feeling very pleased, I get back to Somya’s to find she’s finished cooking – her rendition of what was supposed to have been a Thai curry turned Avial combo stew. Since my Bengali DNA allows and indeed even encourages constant inputs via the oesophagus, I was only too glad to keep her company over a late dinner, the first of her day and the second of mine :-).

What can I say about the stew/jhol, except that it was really very, very simple vegetable stew, but absolutely delicious! So much so, that I had to get the receipe for myself, even if I don’t ever make the attempt, at least I now have the power! The secret is to not cook like Indians do, i.e. death to all the vegetables, but to make sure they stay CRISP so you have to bite and chew and not directly swallow.

So, in tribute to Somya’s fabulous meal, I’ve put down the receipe and since it’s her very own creation, I’m going to stick to calling it….

Somya’s Surprise Stew

Ingredients:
1 tbsp Olive oil * Mustard seeds * Curry leaves (preferrably dry) * Haldi powder (a couple of pinches) * Ginger (3” piece, finely chopped) * 2.3 Green chillies (for spicy stew, finely chop, otherwise, just split lenghtwise) * 2-3 Carrots (diced rounds) * 1 Potato (cubed 1”) * 3-4 Courgettes/Zuccini (diced rounds/halves) * 75 gm Brinjal (diced) * 75 gm Lau/Dudhi (diced) * 1 onion (chopped, but large pieces) * 1 cup peas * Juice of 1 good sized lemon * 1 cup Coconut milk * 1 cup Yoghurt/Dahi * 3 Glasses of water * Salt (to taste) * Corriander leaves to garnish *
N.B. – the baigun and lau were leftovers in the fridge… but tasted yumm!

Method:
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When spluttering, add the curry leaves, chopped ginger and green chillies. Stir, then add the onion, and sautee on high heat till soft (2-3 min). Add the potatoes, carrots, brinjal and lau, salt then cover and cook till the vegetables start getting tender (3-4 min). In the meantime, blend the coconut milk and yoghurt separately. Add to the vegetables, along with the water and bring the stew to a boil 2-3 times till vegetables are cooked through, but still crisp. Squeeze the lemon juice in, stir and then add the courgettes and peas and cover the pan (lid must be tight fitting). Leave for 5-10 minutes. Garnish with chopped corriander and serve hot with rice. Yummy!!

ENJAI!

P.S. - The original was the same stew but only with broccoli and courgettes/zuccini, but the broccoli weren’t behaving well that day......