Vegetable Stew
After tasting this stew, Simi, my Punjabi friend exclaimed, “this is a revelation to me, a Kerala curry without mustard and not red in colour. This is like a Thai curry!! ” It seems she had tried Kerala food from some restaurants in Mumbai and it all looked and tasted the same with a fiery red colour and mustards floating around. It has happened to me also at times. I’ve gone through some cookery books which supposedly have authentic Kerala recipes and it is anything but a Kerala recipe. Anyways coming back to the stew, she was very much impressed with it that she got the recipe from me immediately and made it the very next day :)
This is a very simple dish, but I like it because of its subtle flavor and of course I love the thick & creamy coconut milk :). This goes very well with appam, but I like it best with puttu, if you havent tried that combo yet, I strongly recommend you give it a try.
Here is the recipe:
- Carrot – 1 (cubed)
Potato – 1 (cubed)
Green Peas – 1/4 -1/2 cup - Onion – 1, sliced finely
Green chilly – 4-5
Ginger & garlic – 1 tbsp each, crushed - Whole black pepper – 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon – 1 piece
Cloves – 3
Cardamom – 3 - Thin coconut milk – 1 1/2 cup
Thick coconut milk – 1/2 – 3/4 cup - Curry leaves
Salt
Coconut oil
Heat oil in a deep bottom pan & splutter the crushed spices. Add the onion, ginger & garlic, curry leaves & green chilly and saute for a few minutes till the onion becomes soft/transparent. Dont make the onions brown. Add the cubed vegetables & combine well. Add thin coconut milk & salt, bring to boil, reduce heat; simmer and cook till vegetables are tender, it will take 10 mins approx. Add thick coconut milk and cook for 5 more minutes & remove from fire. Garnish with curry leaves fried in coconut oil or ghee.
Serve hot with appam, puttu, roti etc;
Notes: If you want to make the gravy very thick, add 1 tbsp of cashew paste. To make cashew paste, soak cashews (around6,7) in hot water for 5-10 mins. Grind it into a smooth paste. Mix the cashew paste with thick coconut milk & add to the curry. It increases the taste and also gives a thick gravy.
Recipe adapted from Kitchens of Kerala by Nimmy Paul
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Lovely Potato stew Maria! Looks creamy thick n delicious! Love this with appam. Never tried having this with Puttu yet. I’ll take ur word and have with puttu next time :)
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There wont be a single mallu who dont like this divine combo of appam-stew..ente fav aanu ithu..never tried with puttu tho..:)
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I completely agree with Varsha! I love appam nd stew… chicken stew aanegil pinne parayenda! Appan thinnunathu ariyathilla! :D Your stew looks very warm nd nice :)
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I love this stew.. but if it doesn’t have to be strictly veg, I go for both meat and veggie pieces.
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Vegetable stew looks so creamy and rich!!
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HI Maria, your recipe came at the right time. i have been wanting to make one for some time now..Did you use fresh cocunut milk? What abt the coconut milk we get in cans or packet? If i use that , what do you think will be the measurements ? Thanks a lot…
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Maria
Reply: on June 10th, 2009 at 11:01 amHi Reena
I use maggi coconut milk powder. For 1 cup of thick coconut milk, I add 3 heaped tablespoon of maggi coconut milk powder to 1 cup of water.
Hope this helps.
Happy cooking :)
Maria
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Hi da ..
love stew ..stew looks rich and delicious ..love the presentation
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For me with aoppoms pleas. Drool drool
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Thanks Pooja & Varsha, you guys should try it with puttu, do let me know if you try it ok :)
Ria & Asha – yes, chicken & beef stew is my fav too, but I dont mind a veg stew once in a while :)
Thanks Parita & veena :)
HC – you are always welcome to Bahrain :)
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Thanks a lot for this recipe…I had some vegetarian guests and I made this stew with appam and they really liked it..hoping to see more recipes like this..Keep up the good work Maria.
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Maria
Reply: on September 5th, 2009 at 11:06 amHi Sumi
Very happy to know that your guests liked the stew :) Thanks a lot for trying out the recipe and letting me know about it :)
Cheers
Maria
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Hello Hi ,
The receipe is an excellent one.But i did like to know ,the above mentioned ingredients is for how many portions.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thaxs & Regards
Lincy sudheer
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Maria
Reply: on November 11th, 2009 at 2:54 pmHi Lincy
Thanks for dropping in.
The above quantity will serve 4-5 people. Hope you’ll like it.
Cheers
Maria
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agree with the others!…stew is always a hit…i made it for some of my north indian friends and they loved it… first they were surprised to see a white looking curry with no masalas n no frying n all :)…. and its just so easy to make!
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