Stuffed tomato curry – when you want that one special recipe to shine at your dinner table. With a rich sauce and a delicious spiced potato filling, this dish makes a striking vegetarian centerpiece for a party menu.
Garam Masala
Garam masala is a blend of ground spices – cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and more depending on region and personal taste.
Gobhi Musallam: A ‘Whole’ Cauliflower Delicacy
Gobhi musallam is a gourmet’s delight, a recipe that can star on any party menu. Make this for your festive spread and have the crowd entranced.
Arbi Masala: Curried Colocasia
The tuber colocasia or taro root (arbi in Hindi) is the potato’s less popular cousin, but when cooked right, can charm you like none other. Try this arbi masala (curried colocasia) to see how.
Baingan Bharta: Smoky Eggplant Mash
For a really good baingan bharta, getting the eggplant perfectly roasted is half the battle won. And for a perfectly roasted eggplant, the ingredients you need most are patience and balance – patience in cooking the eggplant on a low, open flame through till the core, balancing the heat all around without charring, leaving no spot raw or burnt.
The proportion of other ingredients and spices, the duration of post-roasting sautéing, can vary, but if the heart of the dish – the mashed eggplant – is nicely done, baingan bharta turns out delicious.
With that thought, on to my baingan bharta recipe in all its smoky splendor…
Tinda Masala: Apple Gourd Curry
Tinda gets its English name from its visual similarity to green apples. A member of the gourd family, tinda has a mild flavor, high water content and lots of vitamins/minerals. The vegetable is ubiquitous in Delhi – at arm’s reach in the local market, cooked every other day in office cafetarias. Not so in Bangalore. Here this gourd graces only the bigger stores, cellophane-wrapped and stocked with imported veggies like yellow peppers and Chinese cabbage.
I didn’t realize I’d crave for tinda till it became scarce. As with parval (pointed gourd), my love for this vegetable has been a recent change of heart. Whoever said that absence makes the heart grow fonder knew what he was talking about.
Bhindi Do Pyaza: Okra, and Twice as Much of Onions!
Bhindi (okra) with a generous mix of onions and Indian spices – bhindi do pyaza (literally: okra with twice the amount of onions) is a lovely vegetable dish to go with chapatis.