Kadai Vegetable

In reality, all of us have personal favourites. Be it a TV show, or an aunt, or an actor, or a cricketer - all of us are both perpetrators and victims of favouritism. And, we 'definitely' have our favourite food! Instinctively, we are drawn towards our favourite food..

If we introspect carefully, whenever we visit restaurants, we would probably be ordering a particular dish again and again - probably seeking some kind of comfort given the bewildering array of choices presented in the menu cards.. This definitely happens to myself and K. When at any restaurant, no matter what we order or dont order, Kadai Vegetable would eventually find its way up our table, and eventually, our stomachs!

Such personal favourites should be made at home, for sure. My search yielded these two recipes that came close to what I taste all the time. Making a medley of both these recipes, I have made my own. It yields yummy results all the time.

Ingredients (serves three)

• Capsicums (medium): 2
• Carrots (medium): 2
• Beans: 6 - 7
• Cauliflower: 6 - 8 florets
• Potatoes (small): 2
• Tomatoes: 2
• Onions: 2
• Paneer: 10 - 15 pieces
• Green peas: A handful
• Garam masala: 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
• Ginger-garlic paste: 1 tbsp
• Bay leaves: 2 Nos
• Oil: 5 - 6 tbsp
• Salt: to taste
• Cashews (optional): 5 - 6
• Corriander leaves: to garnish
  To grind to a coarse powder:
• Corriander seeds: 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
• Red chillies: 3
  

Method:

• Chop all the vegetables into fairly big one 3/4 inch pieces. Do NOT chop them too small
• Coarsely grind cumin seeds, corriander seeds and red chillies and keep aside. Dry roast it if you feel like to increase the aroma. Else, omit it
• Fry one onion in one tsp of oil. To this, add curry leaves, cashews and tomatoes and make a fine paste
• Now, in a kadai, add 2- 3 tbsp of oil and fry all the vegetables till they are done. No need to add paneer now. This can be added later. Keep the fried vegetables aside.
• Now heat another kadai (or the same one, as per your wish)
• Add oil and tadka using bay leaves
• Add ginger-garlic paste and onions and cook well
• Add the ground tomato paste and cook again till all the raw smell disappears
• Meanwhile add the ground dry masala, turmeric powder, garam masala
• When you feel the tomato paste has cooked enough, add the saute'd veggies and paneer
• Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup water and cook covered till the vegetables are soft
• Let the gravy thicken to reach the right consistency
• Garnish with corriander leaves
• Serve hot with rotis
• Done!