Thursday, January 10, 2013

Cabbage and Potato Gravy

Years ago, at NIIT, one of my students had invited me for lunch. She was treating me to some north-indian style dishes. Of those, the taste and preparation of this dish is still afresh in my mind and taste budz...

This can be prepared either as a dry sabji or curry depending on your needs and taste.

Ingredients:

Vegetables:

Cabbage (Patha ghobi / Mutakose) : 1 cup - chopped into thin slices
Potato :  2-4 medium sized, peeled, and cut into cubes
Onion:    2 medium sized, cut into thin slices
Tomato:  2 medium sized, cut into thin slices
Garlic:     5-6 pods (per your taste)
Ginger:    A piece finely chopped
Green Chille: 3-4 slit at the center
Curry Leaves : 3-4
Coriander Leaves: Chopped for garnishing



Spices and others:
Jeera: 2 tspn
Refined Oil  : 3-4 tbspn (as per your usage)
Turmeric Powder: 1 tspn
Dhaniya Powder (Coriander): 3-4 tspn (2 tbspn)
Red Chillie Powder : 2-2.5 tspn (1-1.5 tbspn - as per the spice levels; balance it with the green chilies used)
Mango Powder (Aamchur): 1 tspn
Salt : to taste
Asafoetida - a pinch

Method:
  1. In a pan (kadai), add oil and as it becomes warm, add jeera.
  2. Allow the jeera to splutter, and add chillies, ginger, and garlic
  3. Fry them till the garlic turns golden brown
  4. Then add onion and fry till it turns golden brown (Tip: You can add a pinch of salt to quicken the process)
  5. To this mix, add tomatoes and cook them for a mt or two
  6. Now add the spices in the order of : turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chillie powder, and mango powder
  7. Mix them well and leave for 1 mt (if rqd, you can add a few drops of oil when adding chillie powder)
  8. To this mix, add hing and salt
  9. At this point, add the curry leaves, chopped cabbage (I added a few pieces of chopped capsicum) and allow it to cook for 2 mts by sprinkling some water
  10. Allow it for 2 mts, and then add the fried and sauteed potatoes (Refer to 'Preparation of potato' section below).
  11. Add enough water to create the gravy consistency (or you can make it as a dry sabji by just sprinkling water to cook)
  12. Add the coriander leaves before removing from fire.

      Preparation of potato
  1. In parallel to Steps 3 to 6, in another tava, add oil to fry the diced potatoes
  2. When the oil turns a bit warm, add the diced potatoes and fry them till golden brown
  3. Saute them with a bit of salt and pepper or alternatively chaat masala
  4. Keep them ready to add to the gravy

You can serve this as a side dish for Rotis, Paranthas, Dosas, Aapam, or even bread. When made as a curry, you can also have it with rice. 

Variations:
1) Instead of frying the potatoes, you can also boil, peel and cut them into dices
2) You can make similar preparations with Brinjal and Potatoes