Potato and mixed vegetable curry

The following  recipe for Potato and mixed vegetable has  been published on the City Connect website at http://www.city-connect.org/2011/06/07/potato-mixed-vegetable-curry.  Please take a look at the website for my recipe and interesting other information. I hope to be a regular contributor to this website.

The main reason for choosing such an easy and simple recipe for the City Connections Website was to convince  people who are not familiar with Indian cooking  that  they can make nice curries at home, using ingredients available in most supermarkets.  This potato and mixed vegetable curry is perfect dish to serve with rice and naan bread. The mixed vegetables make it a healthy curries choice for lunch or dinner.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time 15 minutes


Ingredients for 4 servings

1 teaspoon cumin seeds or mustard seeds
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of chilly powder
½ teaspoon of turmeric
½ teaspoon of a mixture of cumin and coriander powder
2-3 cloves of crushed garlic
2 tablespoons of sunflower cooking oil
1 tablespoon of lemon juice (optional)
1 tablespoon of brown sugar (optional)
2 medium sized boiled potatoes
3 cups of any frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup of passata ( or crushed tinned tomatoes)
Small bunch of coriander (for garnishing)
2-3 green chillies (optional)


Method:

1. Soak your frozen vegetables in hot water and once they soften, chop them into smaller pieces.

2. Heat the oil in saucepan and add the cumin and mustard seeds to the oil.

3. The mustard will pop when the oil gets hot and the cumin will start to get darker. This means that the oil is ready.

4. Rinse the frozen vegetables and add them to the heated oil.

5. Add the salt, turmeric, chilly powder, crushed garlic and cumin coriander to the mixture and stir well so that all the vegetables get coated with the spices.

6. Cook this for a minute and add the passata to this mixture with one cup of hot water.

7. Allow this to simmer gently for 6-7 minutes.

8. Chop the boiled potato into small cubes and add it to the mixed vegetables.

9. Stir well and allow to cook for 5 minutes.

10. Add the lemon juice and brown sugar if you like a sweet and sour taste.

11. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with green chillies or coriander

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Paneer and Mixed vegetables curry with Madras Paste

Mother's Day in UK is always earlier than in some parts of the World.   It's actually on Mothering Sunday which is the 4th Sunday in Lent.    My son made this curry  for us as a treat for Mother's day.  We served it with rice and  stuffed parathas.   Everyone loved the curry and we used the left over curry to make sandwiches for my lunch box the next day.  Thanks RJ for the recipe and for making the dish!

Ingredients to serve 4 people

• 4 cups of cubed paneer
• 1 bottle of Pataks Madras Paste (available in most Asian stores)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 4 cups of tinned tomatoes (blended) or pasata
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
• Pinch of asafetida (optional)
• 5-6 Curry leaves
• 2-3 cloves of grated garlic
• 1 teaspoon corn starch (optional)
• Small bunch of chopped coriander


Method


1.  Cut the paneer in small cubes. We used 2 blocks of paneer which gave us a little more than 4 cups of paneer.

2.  Take 2 cups of any mixed vegetables (we used green beans, carrots, peas and sweetcorn)

3.  Mix half the contents of the Madras paste ( we used Pataks Madras Paste) with the cubed paneer in a bowl and allow it to marinate for a couple of hours.

4.  At the same time, use the other half of the Madras paste and marinate the vegetables for a similar time.

5.   Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in flat frying pan on medium heat and gently stir-fry the paneer for about 3 to 4 minutes until paneer becomes light brown.

6.   Mix the paneer with the mixed vegetables.

7.   In a large saucepan or wok, Heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the cumin seeds and when they go a bit dark, add the tinned tomatoes or pasata to the oil.  Add 2-3 cloves of grated garlic.

8.  As the Madras paste has lots of good spices, you really don’t need to add many spices to the curry. Just add some salt and chilly powder to flavour the bland tomatoes. Add the curry leaves to the curry.

9.   Add the paneer and mixed vegetables to the tomatoes and cook on a medium heat for 12-14 minutes or until it’s bubbling gently.

10.  If the gravy looks runny, you can add a couple of teaspoons of corn flour to thicken the sauce.

11.  Add a teaspoon of garam masala and remove curry to a serving dish.

12.   Sprinkle some fresh coriander on the curry before serving with rice and paratha.

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Punjabi Pizza or Stuffed Paratha ? What shall I call it?

I have just realised who commands the Daily menu in my kitchen!! It's my children as you always worry if they don't eat their food.  You also worry if they are not eating all their vegetables.  I am always trying to think of ways to make a dish interesting for them so that they eat well.   My young son loves Pizzas and went through a phase where he had to either have a pizza every day or something with cheese added to it to make it look like a pizza!!  That's when I came up with this recipe which is of a stuffed paratha but with some of the pizza ingredients added.   I told my son who was very young at the time that it was a "Punjabi Pizza" and since that day, it's been called that in our house.  We really enjoy this dish as a weekend brunch dish.  I hope that you will all agree with me that this one is a real winner with children.  You can add what ever fillings you like and make it as spicy or as bland as you prefer.

Ingredients for 4 parathas:

For the filling:

2 medium sized potatoes

1 small Onion -cut in thin slices

1 pepper sliced thinly

1 tomato sliced thinly

1-2 cups of grated cheddar cheese

some green chutney or tomato sauce 

small bunch of coriander - cut finely

1/2 a teaspoon salt

1/2 a teaspoon chilly powder
some dried herbs like oregano

For the parathas:

2 cups of chappati flour (strong wheat flour)

pinch of salt

1 clove of garlic - minced

Some sunflower oil

Method:

For the filling: 

1. Boil the potatoes and mash them using a fork

2.  Add in the salt, chilly powder, coriander leaves and half the cheddar cheese. 

3. Mix well using a fork and leave the mixture covered.

4.   Slice up all the vegetables you want to use for the filling.

For the dough: 

5.   Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl.

6.   Add the salt and garlic to the flour

7.  Add two teaspoons of oil to the flour.

8.  Mix the dough with warm water and let it rest for half an hour.

9.    Divide the dough into small balls - smaller than a ping pong ball.

10.  Take one ball and roll out the dough to the size of a  6-7 inch diameter chappati

11.  Spread the chutney or tomato sauce on the rolled out chappati.  Recipe for the chutney is here

12.  Spread the cheese and potato mixture on top of the chutney or sauce.

13.  Spread the toppings like you would for a pizza.  I used peppers, tomatoes and onions.

14.  Spread some cheddar cheese and any herbs like oregano on the toppings just like you would for a pizza. Whilst putting all the toppings on the chappati, don't press too hard on it as the dough is quite delicate.

15.   Cover all the toppings with a similar sized chappati.  Now you see why I don't know what to call this dish? Pizza or paratha?? But what's in a name?

16.  Warm a griddle or a frying pan.  Add some oil to the pan and gently heat the paratha on a medium flame.

17.  You want to make sure that the filling cooks without burning the outer later,  You also don't want the cheese to cook too fast  or it will melt and ooze out of the paratha.

18.  Flip the paratha over and allow the second side to cook.

19.  The pizza/paratha is ready to be served.  I'll be very interested in your views on what I should call this dish!!

20.  Some serving suggestions:

Paratha

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Mixed Vegetables and Three Cheese Cannelloni

This is my first attempt at making cannelloni. I saw several recipes on my friends blogs and adapted this to the way my family likes it. This recipe was a hit with my young son and his friends  so I am going to include it in the Mirage series recipes category.

Ingredients:

4 cups of fresh or frozen spinach
2 cups of fresh or frozen mixed vegetables (I used carrots, beans, peas, sweetcorn and peppers)
1 Medium Onion
3-4 cloves of Small Garlic
500 grams of blended tomatoes (I used a can but you can use fresh or canned)
1 Large tablespoon of tomato puree
1 Tub 250 gms Ricotta Cheese
125 gms of fresh mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon Salt for the filling and 1 teaspoon for adding to the water which you need when you precook the cannelloni.
1/2 teaspoon of chilly powder
1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
15 Cannelloni Tubes
200 gms Grated Cheddar cheese
I tablespoon cooking Oil

Method:

1. Heat the oil and add in the onions and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.

2. Add in the spinach, mixed vegetable,  tomatoes and tomato puree; plus the spices - salt, chilly powder, cumin powder, turmeric.

3. Cover and allow to cook for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.

4. Once cooked, blend all the vegetables using a blender.

5.  Allow the mixture to cool.

6.  Now boil some water, add 1 teaspoon of salt to it  and precook the cannelloni for about 4-5 minutes.

7.   Mix the ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese in a mixing bowl.

8.  Take 1 cup of the cooked vegetables and add it to the cheese mix.

9.  Mix the cheese and vegetable puree.  Now your stuffing is ready.

10.  Using a very small teaspoon, scoop the mixture and stuff the cannelloni tubes.

11.  Place the tubes in an oven proof dish.

12.  If you have any filling left, pour it over the cannelloni tubes.

13. Cover the cannelloni shells with the left over vegetable puree.

14.  Grate the Cheddar cheese and sprinkle it on top of the vegetable puree.

15.  Cover the dish with aluminium foil and cook it in the oven at 180 Degrees C for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your oven.

  16.  Serve it hot with plenty of salad.   I am afraid that my picture of the final dish doesn't do it justice.  The cannelloni was absolutely delicious and got the seal of approval from my family.

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