STARTING TROUBLE .......? - "வாங்கவாங்க! துவங்கும்போதே அசத்துவோம்!" - Part II

வாங்க வாங்க துவகும்போதே அசத்துவோம் - மடல் ௨.
You know to cook well you really don't have to slog. All you need is some devotion to cooking, a flair for what flavours and tastes can mingle well and certainly a nose that can sniff and find out what is missing  will help.

Common Denominator Recipe for dry vegetable curry:
This is SOP (standard operating procedure) for all vegetables that are edible.
Take a frying pan and add 2-3 spoons of oil, depending upon quantity.
To this add 1/2 spoon mustard seeds, 1/4 spoon urad dal, 1/8 spoon cumin seeds, asafoetida, and let the mustard pop completely);
Then add finely cut ginger, oninons and garlic (if you like onions and garlic). Saute till brown.
Now add:
boiled and water strained vegetable (cabbage, cauli flower, beans, avaraikkai, koththavarangai, beetroot), OR
fresh vegetable cut into nice uniform small pieces (egg plant, bhindi, carrot, snake gourd, bitter gourd, tondli), OR
fresh peeled cut vegetables (plantain,beetroot, turnips, yam), OR
boiled, skin peeled and then cut into uniform pieces (potatoes, arbi, sweet potatoes).

Add required quantity of salt, 1/8 spoon turmeric powder and let cook. When done, add curry/coriander leaves and asafoetida.
Serve in an attractive container.
With this recipe, now you can prepare any vegetable. This is the simple plain basic vegetable curry. Anything else is frills added; which you will learn by and by as you cook more and more.

SOME DOS and DON'TS.
1. Get your vegetables, ingredients ready before starting the range.
2. Have all vegetables cut.
3. Don't walk away from the range for too long, lest the ingredients decide tos how you a sulking black face!
3. If something is to be boiled, do so now.
4. Take out the boiled vegetable and strain the water.
TIP: You can use the water of the cooked vegetable as soup stock.
5. For root vegetables, pre boil, peel the skin off and cut into pieces.
6. Do not have the flame on high.
7. Wait for the mustard seeds to pop completely. If it doesn't, you will see brown miniature eye like stuff all over your dish.
8. Do not cover if it is green vegetable. It will make it soggy.
8. Ad asafoetida powder and curry leaves or chopped coriander leaves at the end and cover to preserve flavour.
9. Keep the dish warm.
10.With eggplant, have a bowl with water ready and drop the cut vegetable in it. While adding to the pan, drain the water.
11. With plantain, drop the cut vegetables into a bowl of water mixed with a spoon of yoghurt, to keep it from going dark. Be prepared to wash your hands well as cutting it leaves your palm with sticky stuff.
12. With yam and arabi, make sure that they have been sun dried to some extent. This will remove any itchy effect on the tongue that many a time happens when eating the vegetable.
13. Make sure that the vegetable doesn't get soggy.
14. Do not use the top portion of a bunch of carrots with leave son top. They are toxic.
15. Don't waste time. You could have boiled dal in a vessel for making a simple dal thadka when you were making this vegetable!
16.  SERVE WITH A SMILE.
Happy cooking!.........