Cooking Love!: Vegetable Malabar Curry

After the success of my previous recipe, ‘Rogan Josh’, here’s a veggie delight for my vegetarian viewers. I just have one word to express my emotion for this fabulous curry, ‘YUMM…’

Vegetable Malabar Curry is a South Indian dish which is a perfect ‘comfort food’ with high nutritious value. Once you taste it, you would just fall in love with it! This Curry is extremely simple to prepare. It tastes superb with Neer Dosa (Indian rice crepe), Paratha (Indian Flat bread) and Rice.

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

You will need:

Clarified Butter / Ghee – 2 Tablespoons

Mustard Seeds / Sarso – ¼ Teaspoon

Curry Leaves – 1 sprig

Asafoetida / Hing – ½ Teaspoon

Coconut Oil – 1 Tablespoon

Turmeric Powder – ½ Teaspoon

Kashmiri Chili Powder – 1 Tablespoon (Kashmiri chilli powder is mild and gives a nice red color to the food.)

Ginger (Finely Grated) – 1 Tablespoon

Onion (Finely Chopped) – 2 (medium size)

Ripe Tomato (Blend to fine puree) – 2 (medium size)

Carrot (Chopped into small pieces) – ½ Cup

French Beans (Chopped into small pieces) - ½ Cup

Cottage Cheese /Paneer (Small Pieces) – ½ cup (Optional)

Sweet Corn Kernels/pieces - 1 Corn

Coconut milk – 300 ml

Warm Water – 1 cup

Cilantro/Coriander – To garnish

Salt –To taste

Sriram's Malabar Curry Powder - 2 Tablespoons (Its a white colored box. Available in the Indian grocery stores. Here's the link.
http://www.sriramfoods.com/malabarchicken.html

Any other brand would also do.If you can't find it, make the spice at home by following the whole spice recipe.')

Whole Spices: (Use this only if you don't find the ready made Malabar Curry Spice)

Cinnamon Stick – 2 inches

Cloves – 2

Black Cardamom(Peeled) – 2

Green Cardamom(Peeled) -1

Grind the whole spices to fine powder

Method:

1. Heat clarified butter in a pan. Once the butter is hot enough, add mustard seeds + curry leaves + asafoetida and let them splutter for a few seconds. Make sure that you don’t burn it or else it will taste bitter. Add chopped onions + grated ginger and fry till they turn soft pink. Then add pureed tomatoes + salt. Mix properly and cover it with a lid for 10 minutes on a low flame.

2. Once the mixture starts to leave oil from the side of the pan, add red chilli powder + turmeric powder + Malabar ready made spice OR ground whole spices + vegetables and mix well. Add warm water and cover it with lid for 10 minutes or till the vegetables are cooked completely.

3. Turn off the heat and add coconut milk + cottage cheese. High temperature curdles the coconut milk. Once you have mixed the milk, turn on the heat on low flame and keep stirring the curry for 2 minutes. Add coconut oil and stir again.

4. Garnish it with cilantro/coriander and serve hot with lots of love.