Vegetable Stew !!

My husband and I set off from India to London in the August of 2010 to complete an year long assignment. As time passed we fell in love with England, its people, food and my husband being a huge football fan, could not have been in a better place.
So something that started as an assignment, led us to take a permenant transfer to England and make it our second home. We have rented a lovely 17th century stone cottage with a lovely fire place and a charming kitchen. I am looking forward to more cooking and baking as we settle in. Having said that I was keen on going back home for a luxurious after alomst a year and 3 months.
   And here I am.. back in India for a liesurely vacation for 3 weeks and what I have on my mind is not hard to guess :)) foood!! I have been missing lovely home cooked food, the variety and spices that different parts of India have to offer. My plan is to learn some tradiotional dishes and spices from around India and them back to Engalnd where I can share them with my friends.
  When I was on the flight to India my mind was racing and I was making lists of what food I wanted to eat :-) We stayed for a couple of days in Bombay where my husband's parents live. There is a restaurant called spice tree right across the house. Its a quaint little place offerring sumptuous food. I ordered a lovely veg stew and appam(very similar to dosa), goes really well with this veg stew. The stew was very simple but had a mouth watering taste, very similiar to a Thai curry. I was wondering what went into it, because it clearly didn't have too may ground spices.
So, I got talking to my friend who happens to make this a lot at home and she was kind to share the recipe. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I had already thought of a twist to this authentic kerala recipe. I was confident it would taste equally good if not better. If this does work, I know what to look forward to in the chilly winters of England that are round the corner :-)
The portion I am preparing is for a family of 6 or something you can make and refigirate for those who cannot have the liberty of leisurely cooking every day.
Here's the shopping list:
Vegggies:
Cauliflower 1 head
Carrots about 3 big size
Green Beans a handful
Green Peas about 150 gms, can use frozen if you cant get fresh pods.
Paneer about 200 gms (optional)
Sweet corn - about 2 tender cobs, can use frozen as a replacement
Beetroot 2 medium size
Shallots 2 / spring onions 3
Potato - 1 big potato
1green Chilli
Garlic - optional
Ginger about an inch long.
Mustard oil / Sun Flower Oil
Spices:
3 cloves
1 star anise
Cinamon sticks about 2 finger long sticks
3 cardomom pods
Base:
Coconut Milk - 1 can of 1 ltr

Seasoning:

Salt

Pinch of Sugar

Crushed white pepper. If white pepper is not readily available, use regular black pepper corns.

Once your shopping basket is ready, crack on:

1. Steam all the vegetables, the idea is to have a bite to the vegetables not to make them too squishy. Tip: Cut all vegetables in the same size they will cook evenly. Steam the green peas and beans separately as they do not take long to cook. All the other vegetables can go in together.
2. Take a nice heavy bottom big pot for cooking that allows you to cook the stew without the stress of spilling anything over. Heavy bottom pot allows you slow and even coooking, without the fear of burning your vegetables.
3. Tip 2 table spoons of oil in the pot, add the spices, let them fry gently till they release an aroma.
4. Add garlic, ginger and shallots together. This will help garlic and ginger from burning, also the idea is to have a mild flavour of everything and not get a waft of any element.
5. When the shallots are translucent stir the veggies in, all the vegetables can go in together as they have been steamed previously and are tender enough to be stirred together.
6. Season them nicely and stir until they get get coated in the spices well.
7. Pour in coconut milk. I am all for using canned coconut milk, don't stress about fresh coconut milk (unless ofcourse you are a purist).
8. Bring the stew to a boil and turn off the heat. Please take care that you don't keep boiling the stew for a long time, chances are that the coconut milk might split. It is not bad but doesnt have the same texture.
9. If you have reached this stage, the stew is ready to be eaten as it is.  I however like to add some garnish and take the stew to the next level and that is achieved by tadka (a fried garnish of some more spices)

To Garnish:
The word tadka sounds very complicated, but it is really a fried mix of spices poured over the stew. Here is how you make it.

1. In a separate pan tip a table spoon of oil, any flavourless oil, can use the same oil you used to fry the vegetables.
2. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, 2 Dry red chillies and curry leaves (put as much or as little as you want, depends on how you like the flavour of curry leaves) about 5-6 big leaves.
3. Let everything sputter nicely and turn down the heat when the mix stops sputtering.
4. Pour the mix over the stew. The stew is now officially ready for a taste.

The stew tastes well with anything, but the usual suspects are neer dosa, appam, puttu and rice.
   I started this blog when I was in India, so it gives a feel that I am in India.. however I am finally finishing it after I can back to England all settled into my cosy cottage and I can confidently say, the stew turned out really well. My one and half year old niece relished it and ate every vegetable that was there, so did my nephew and you know what, I can't get a better compliment than that :-) The pictures of the stew are yet to come, I will upload them the moment I have them.. until then happy cooking and a warm hug to the chilly winters!!