Navratan Korma - A Royal Vegetable Dish

I wish all the readers of my blog a very Happy New Year. I hope 2013 brings you good health, happiness and great food. Since food tastes good only when the cook is happy, I hope each day of yours is filled with great joy which in turn will lead to tastier food.

I have been wondering what recipe I should start the new year with and I couldn't make up my mind. Should I start with a starter and follow through with a complete meal or shall I start with a decadent sweet? Well inspiration just struck and I sat down to pen down this wonderful recipe. This is a medley of vegetables, in a rich, flavorful sauce which is also a little sweet. The dish is called "Navratan Korma". "Navratan" means nine gems and "Korma" means a medley. So literally it is a dish which has at least 9 starring ingredients, mainly vegetables, fruit or dry fruit and paneer. It is cooked in a rich cashew based sauce traditionally with cream added to finish it off. I wanted to lighten the recipe. Also, as I was planning to serve this to many people, I did not want to use any nuts in case of allergies. It was a great success and I must say that I received the best compliments from my friend's nine year old who not only ate all the vegetables, but asked for seconds and told her Mom that this was one of the best vegetable curry she had ever tasted.

Ingredients
1 large red onion, finely diced
1 tbsp + 1tsp butter
3-4 canned whole tomatoes (puree it)
1 tsp corriander/dhania powder
red chilli powder to taste
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp corriander-cumin powder (dhania jeera powder)
1 tbsp garam masala
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 green chilli, sliced into 2 pieces
1 potato, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cauliflower, florets separated into medium size pieces
1/2 cup  green beans, diced
6-7 baby corns, diced into 1 inch pieces (I used canned baby corn)
1/2 cup paneer, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
3-4 sliced of pineapple (I used the ones which are canned, but not in syrup)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup low fat milk
3/4 cup cream
salt to taste
1 cup water

Method
Heat 1 tsp butter in a flat pan, sprinkle some salt and shallow fry the paneer pieces till they are lightly browned on all sides. Keep aside.

Heat the butter in a pan which will be able to accommodate all the vegetables. Add the red onion and saute it till it is softened and translucent. Then add the ginger garlic paste, and the green chilli and fry this till the raw smell goes away. Next, add the tomato puree and cook this mixture for a few minutes. Stir and do not let this brown. Then add the turmeric, garam masala, dhania jeera powder and dhania powder. Stir and fry these spices for 2-3 minutes. Then add 1/2 cup water. Then, add the potatoes, green beans, carrots, cauliflower and red bell pepper and boil this for a few minutes, till the vegetables a partially cooked through. Then, add the rest of the vegetables, the corn, pineapple, and the peas. And finally add the paneer. Cook all of the ingredients together till the all the vegetables, especially the potatoes and cauliflower are cooked through. Then, in a small bowl, mix the milk and cream together and slowly add this mixture to the gravy. Add salt and raisins and boil for a couple of minutes. Serve hot, with some naan or tandoori roti. You can garnish this with some grapes.

Tips
Feel free to choose any combination of vegetables. You can use fewer than 9 ingredients as well. If you do not want the sweet tinge, then don't add the pineapple and raisins. If you want a richer gravy, then soak 1/4 cup of raw cashews for a couple of hours and make a paste of these cashews.  Add this paste along with the cream instead of milk. You can also add yogurt instead of cream. Make sure to whisk it till it is smooth.
I used canned baby corn and pineapple. If you use the fresh version, then remember the cooking time will increase and you should either add it in along with the potatoes (specially the corn) or may be semi-cook these in the microwave for a minute before adding to the gravy.
If you don't have canned tomatoes, then you can use fresh tomatoes. To peel them, boil water, then add the tomatoes to the boiling water. As soon as you see the skin is starting to tear up, remove these and put them in a bowl of cold water (ice water is preferred). It will be very easy to remove the skins then.

Sweet Corn Soup

This is a wonderful, easy, healthy and absolutely delicious recipe.  It is another one of those Indianized Chinese recipes. I don't even know if this is inspired from an actual Chinese recipe, but it can always be found on the menu in Chinese restaurants in India. It is a very healthy recipe because it incorporates a variety of recipes. It can also prove to be a bit laborious at times, since you need to cut all these vegetables. However, the end result is worth it. If you have a food processor or a chopper then this is becomes a very easy to make recipe.

Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
2-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
1/2 inch ginger, finely grated
1/2 red onion, diced into small pieces
1 celery stalk, cut into thin slices
1 corn on the cob or 1 can of cream style corn
1 carrot, grated or julienned
10-12 green beans, cut into thin diagonal slices
1/2 cup peas
3-4 green onions, cut into diagonal slices, about 1/2 cm in width (both the onion and leaves)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 green chilli, finely diced (optional, if you want a spicy tinge)
3 cups of water of vegetable broth

Method
If you are using fresh corn on the cob, then pressure cook it and grate it. Alternately you can also steam it till the corn is softened and then grate it.

In a deep pot, heat the oil and add the ginger and garlic to it. If you want to use the chilli, then add it in at this time. Stir and let it cook for a minute and add the diced onion and the onion part of the green onion and cook till softened, next add the celery, beans and carrot. Cook for another couple of minutes, and then add the peas, and the cooked corn (either fresh cooked corn ot the canned corn). Stir and then add the broth or water and let it all boil. Let the soup thicken and cook till all the vegetables are cooked through. Add salt and pepper and mix well.

Garnish with the green onion leaves and serve hot.

Tips
If the vegetables are cooked through and the soup is still very thin, then add a slurry or a paste of 1 tsp of cornflour and 1 tbsp of water. Add the slurry to the soup and boil it and let the soup thicken. If needed you can add a little more of this slurry.

Veggie/Garden Burger - Another Flexible Recipe

This is a great recipe to get your kids to eat their vegetables. The veggie patty in this recipe includes lots of vegetables as well as soy granules. It is delicious and very nutritious at the same time. Patties are great recipes to use leftovers too. I like to experiment with ingredients in the fridge as well as different vegetables to come up new and innovative ways to make the burger patties at home. Any extra patties can be frozen for a couple of months. They are very handy on days when you are rushed to make a quick meal.

If you don't wish to use these patties in burgers or sandwhiches, you can also make mini-sized medallions as sides to your meal or even as an appetizer which can be relished with some ketchup or green chutney.

Ingredients
2 medium potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 cup of soy nugget granules
5-6 green beans, chopped
1 carrot, cut into fine pieces
1/2 cup broccoli florets
½  cup peas
Green chillies, to taste
1inch ginger
Salt to taste
2 bread slices
1/4 cup rava or bread crumbs
oil to shallow fry the patties

burger bun
onion, sliced
lettuce
tomato, sliced
pepper
salt
ketchup
mustard
cheese slice

Method
Boil the soy granules  in 4 cups of water for 10 minutes. Drain and upon cooling, squeeze water out of the cooked granules. Wash the green beans, carrot, broccoli, peas.  Place these vegetables in a vessel and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Alternately, you can also steam cook the vegetables till soft or cook in the microwave for a couple of minutes till softened.

Make a paste of green chillies and ginger.

Mix together the potatoes, soy granules, pressure cooked vegetables and peas.  Mash all the ingredients together. To this add the chilli and ginger paste and salt. Add bread slices if the resultant mixture becomes watery, else you can skip the bread.  Spread out rava or bread crubms in a flat dish. Roll out the mixture into a small ball and flatten it. Then roll it in the rava or bread crumbs. Shallow fry in a flat pan.

To assemble the burger, apply ketchup and mustard on one half of the bun. Next lay a cheese slice, a lettuce leaf, a couple of onoin rings, a slice of tomato and then the patty. Serve with chips or a fresh salad.

Tips
If you are using frozen peas, wash them and then cook them for a minute or two in the microwave. These are pretty soft already and if you cook them in a pressure cooker, they will turn mushy.
If it is just a little soft, you can add a little cornflour. Also, if you want to avoid wheat and not use bread, substitute cornflour instead of bread.
I have also used some lefover beans or lentils and rice in lieu of soy granules. You can also use a variety of vegetables in the patty.