BM# 103: Week 2, Day 1
Theme : Recreate into a new dish

This week’s theme is to give a new makeover to a dish you have already prepared. I won’t claim to be a great cook, but I am definitely past that stage where every dish turns out to be a flop. So for this theme, I had to do a bit of mind jogging to decide what to make. I found myself looking at everything I prepared for an idea to recreate into something else.

And that’s when the flop happened! I had prepared a carrot and beans porial with coconut as a side for rice and sambar. But the carrots were very sweet. Aided by the coconut and slightly sweet beans, the dish turned out to be sweet and it didn’t suit our tastebuds at all. I served it for lunch anyway but decided to use the leftover for a kurma. Mixed vegetable kurma was a good way to mask the too sweet vegetables. I was able to increase the spice level with green chilies and other spices. So the curry wasn’t sweet and paired well with chapati.

Read on for the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups mixed vegetables*
• 2 tablespoons ghee or oil
• 1 big onion, sliced
• 2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste
• 1 big tomato, diced
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 2 teaspoons red chili powder
• 2 teaspoons coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 2 tablespoons yogurt
• 1 cup water
• Salt

To grind:

• 2 tablespoons grated coconut
• 6 cashew nuts
• 2 green chilies
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 2 cloves

*I used one cup of beans-carrot porial and one cooked potato and 1/2 cup frozen peas

Method:

1. Grind everything under the “to grind” list to a smooth paste, adding a little water as needed. Keep aside.
2. Pressure cook the vegetables with 1/2 cup water and some salt. But since I was using cooked vegetables, I skipped this step.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add the sliced onions. Once they turn pink, add the ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute. Add the tomatoes and all the spice powders. Cover and cook for 5 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked and mushy. You can add a spoon or two of water if it’s too dry to prevent burning of spices.
4. Once the tomatoes are mushy, add the cooked vegetables along with the water in which it’s cooked. Since I used cooked vegetables, I added one cup of water. Let it come to a boil.
5. Add the ground coconut paste and mix well. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Now whisk the yogurt well and add it to the curry. Let it come to a boil. Take off the heat, serve with roti or naan.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this Week