“Mixed Vegetable Palak Curry served with Akki Rotti and Jeera Rice” … A spicy curry that tastes delicious when prepared either with vegetables or as non-veg with addition of chicken/mutton … I prepared it with mixed vegetables along with palak and enjoyed this spicy curry with Akki Rotti / Rice Flour Chapati and Jeera Rice … Tasty awesome lunch … Yummilicious …
** This one is actually a very old mutton curry of mine dated back to nineties the time around which I got married and settled in Thane, a city in the outskirts of Mumbai. Those days we were staying near the main market and early morning there would always be trucks full of veggies and non vegies being delivered to small vendors in the market and to those who would throng to buy them in the wee hours to sell them back in their areas. Once in excitement I bought palak leaves in bulk and had to finish off the same soon as those days my fridge was too small to accommodate more veggies also, being new to kitchen tips and tricks I was not aware of storing method nor was I aware of many types of dishes. Picking up recipes from women’s era a famous women's magazine was my fav. pastime and I had a huge collection of it, so in the lazy noon’s I would go through them as I usually never slept in the noon, maybe a small nap at times of say 20 minutes, that’s it. Finally, I zeroed in on 2-3 recipes. One was too tedious, other needed ingredients which were new to me the third one was not very appealing, so I just decided to mix them all up and come up with my very own recipe and I must say it was simply amazing in taste.
** After that for some years, I stuck to this recipe, without changing it much, I tried it with chicken, veggies, paneer and eggs too and they all tasted wonderful. It had been quite some time since I prepared this one as somehow we hardly eat mutton nowadays though hubby loved it before. The next time round, I will try it with mutton if he is ready to eat it as it has really been a long time since I prepared mutton. However, it does taste great with chicken too, rather I would say it tastes tastier with chicken than with veggies. However, as mom had come over to stay and she being a vegetarian now I had to prepare a curry that was with veggies for the akki rotti which she prepared. Hubby had bought 2 huge bundles of palak and just looking at them reminded me of the good old days and then I could not resist the urge of relishing the curry. Though I wanted to prepare it with Paneer, it was too late to go out and purchase some. In addition, there were veggies at home so decided to prepare with veggies and Mom loved the curry very much as she was tasting it for the first time. Do try this recipe out with vegetables or non-veg. and enjoy with your family and friends. I will soon post the non-veg version too, so do keep a watch on my Blog for the same.
** Here is my very own method of preparing "Mixed Vegetable Palak Curry" ... My Style ...
** Ingredients :
Palak / Spinach : 2 bundles, say about 10-12 cups finely chopped.
Green Peas / Vatana : 2 cups (shelled)
Cauliflower : 2 cups cut into small florets
Carrot / Gajar : 1 heaped cup cut into medium sized cubes.
Chayote / Chow Chow / Seemebadanekayi : 1 small, edible portion cut into cubes.
Beetroot : 1 small cut into medium sized cubes.
Tomatoes : 3-4 medium sized cut into small cubes.
Ginger / Adrak / Alley : ½ inch
Garlic / Losun / Lehsun :8-10
Onions / Piyav / Kanda : 1 +1 large sized finely chopped.
Curds / Dahi : 1/2 cup beaten.
Curds / Dahi : 1/2 cup beaten.
Curry Leaves / Kadipatta / Karbev : 10-12 fresh ones.
Ghee / Toop : 2 tblsp
Oil : 2-3 tblsp
Butter / Loni : one lemon sized ball (Homemade white butter)
Salt to taste
** Masala Powders :
Kashmiri Red Chilly Powder : 2 tblsp
Coriander / Dhania / Kothimbir Powder : 1 tsp
Cumin / Jeera Powder : ½ tsp
Fennel / Badisep / Saunf Powder : ¼ tsp
Turmeric / Haldi Powder : ¼ tsp
Goda Masala : 1 tblsp
OR
Garam Masala : 1 tsp
Chole Masala Powder : 1 tsp (I used Everest Brad)
** Discard the stems of the palak and use only the fresh leaves. Chop them roughly, wash in a colander and put it in a pressure cooker pan with very little water say about 1-2 cups for 12 cups of chopped palak. Cover and pressure cook to 2 whistles and let rest till it cools down and you are able to open the lid.
** Now drain off the cooked palak water and put the cooked palak in a vessel and with a potato masher mash it well to a thick puree. Keep this ready aside. Put the strained cooked palak water back in the pressure cooker pan. Wash, drain and add all the vegetables that are chopped except tomatoes and cauliflower into the cooker ie. Green Peas, Carrot, Chayote beetroot only and pressure cook on medium heat to one whistle.
** Remove and let the pressure cooker for 5-7 minutes, then release the pressure from the cooker with the help of tongs by slowly lifting the weight while the pressure passes away. Be careful and let the pressure pass off from opposite side of you, lest you burn yourself with high pressure steam. When you are able to remove the lid, do so and add only the cooked veggies to the palak puree and keep it aside. Do not throw away the cooked water, keep it in a bowl, we will need it while cooking further.
** Note : The cooker weight, is lifted with tongs to allow the steam to pass off so that the veggies within the cooker do not get over cooked. If not comfortable or feel scared to follow this procedure, you can also just cook them in a vessel, which takes more time and also got to be careful as some veggies will cook faster than the others. You may choose any method suitable to you. Here we just need the veggies and the palak cooked separately.
** To be ground into a fine paste : Add in one chopped onion along with ginger and garlic into a mixer grinder and grind to a very fine paste. Remove and keep this ready aside.
** Heat oil+ghee in a thick bottomed kadai, when hot and ghee has melted and mixed well with oil, add in the remaining one finely chopped onion and fry till it turns light brown in color on medium heat. Now add in the ground onion-ginger-garlic paste and further fry on low to medium heat for good 5 minutes, till the rawness off the onions go, if you find it getting burnt though it will not if you have added on the mentioned amount of oil+ghee, sprinkle some cooked water kept aside and continue.
** Now add in the curry leaves and all the powders mentioned above in the list if you do not have Goda Masala, which is a Maharashtrian type of Garam Masala that has some extra added on ingredients you can add the normal garam masala powder available. But if possible purchase a small packet of Goda Masala, it tastes awesome for certain biryani and chicken curries. Again I have added chole masala powder from famous Everest brand, you may use any which is available to you.
** Fry the above masala for a few minutes, if necessary sprinkling the cooked water kept aside. When there is a good aroma, add in the finely chopped tomatoes and mix well. Add in the cooked water too that is kept aside and cover with a tight lid and cook on slow fire till the tomatoes are well cooked and slightly mushy. Gently mash them with the back of spatula lid bit so that the tomato leaves out a little bit cooked water to the gravy.
** Now add in the cauliflower, mix well, cover and cook till 70% done. Here we have not added cauliflower together with other veggies into pressure cooker as it cooks fast and tends to become mushy and leaves or shape and is not very appealing to eat. Once slightly cook add in both the palak puree and the other cooked veggies and mix well. Cook on medium heat after checking the gravy consistency adding on water if necessary only, till bubbles appear on surface.
** Lastly add in salt to taste, the beaten curds and let cook for 2-3 minutes only and then finally add in the butter, mix well and simmer for 2 minutes and remove and keep aside covered for 25-30 minutes for the flavors to seep in. Once you add on the curds, do not cook the curry too much or else there are chances of it being curdled. Remove and keep aside covered for 25-30 minutes for the flavors to seep in.
** Mixed Vegetable Palak Curry” is done and ready to be served. I served it with Akki Rotti (Rice Flour Chapati/Chawal Atte Ki Roti/Alanu Tandla-pittache' Chapati) and jeera rice and it tasted simply awesome. Try this dish when you have friends or guests coming over, I am sure they will love this dish, goes well with roti/chapatti or poori too.
** I am sharing the recipe links to both the dishes that are accompanying this curry in the picture, if you want to try out this combo, you can do so and trust me it is a lovely and delicious combo sure to be loved by all. You can also try out other paneer recipes by using the search or label option on the right side of the page for more recipes.
** For the “Akki Rotti/Rice Flour Chapati/Chawal Atte Ki Roti/Alanu Tandla-pittache' Chapati” Recipe, Please follow the link given below …
** For the “Jeera Rice” Recipe, Please follow the link given below …
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