Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Stir Fries

- Cut the vegetables into small pieces. Use a food processor to chop the vegetables. This will save you a lot of chopping time and help you cook them faster (and hence prevent sticking to the pan).

- Popu / Tadka: Roast a tsp of chana daal (bengal gram), one tsp black gram with the skin (makes it colorful and nutritious) in a non-stick fry pan. DO NOT ADD mustard and cumin. You can throw in some curry leaves now or you can add them when cooking is complete. Roast the lentils until they become brown and start to give off flavor.

- Add the vegetable pieces to the pan. Cook on low / medium heat with the lid on, while making sure the food is not burning or sticking to the pan, stirringly occasionally.

- Most vegetables should not need you to add any extra water, provided you cut them to small pieces. If needed just add a little amount water. Cook until the pieces are al dente, which typically should take you about 15 minutes. At this stage, there probably will be no more water left in the pan.

- Add ground green chillies during the cooking time.

- Add ground pan-roasted sesame seeds or pan-roasted peanuts with skin on to the pan and mix well. Cook for a minute or so and turn the stove off.

- Alternatively, if you are adding coconut, add it after turning the stove off, no need to cook it.

- Sprinkle curry leaves and abundant amount of chopped coriander leaves (you can use the stems too) for added flavor and put the lid on.

- You can also add a quarter cup to half cup of chana daal / bengal gram to the vegetables. You can either soak them for 5-10 minutes or add them directly to the vegetable.

- Another variation is to add a half-cup or so milk 5 minutes before the cooking is complete.

- You can also add Firm Tofu, cut into tiny cubes or crumpled to most of these vegetable dishes, towards the end of the cooking process or along with the crushed peppers. This will make it highly nutritious. You can also add some frozen edamame wherever you are using green peas.

- Measurements that work for us:
        half pound or so of vegetables
        quarter pound of onions (if the recipe calls for)
        quarter pound to half pound of tomatoes (depending on the recipe)
        half pound green leaves such as spinach (if the recipe calls for them)
        6 – 8 small green chillies
        4 tbsp of grounded nuts or coconut
        2 - 4 tbsp of roasted black gram powder (depending on the recipe). This will add an enticing flavor to the recipe. You can add this to most of the chutneys and gravy varieties.
        1 tbsp of aamchoor (by adding aamchoor powder, you can reduce the salt required)
        one quarter tsp of salt
        one tsp each chana daal and black gram and a few curry leaves for popu / tadka / tempering
        coriander leaves with stems – finely chopped or lightly grounded. You can easily use a quarter cup to add the aroma, color and nutrition

- Experiment to suit to your taste.

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