Mixed-Vegetable Curry, American-Style

This week I thought I'd let you all in on a little secret – the secret of instant vegetable curry. My in-laws all make this curry, and sometimes I do too, when I need to get food on the table quickly and with minimal effort. It's better tasting, healthier, and much cheaper than takeout. The secret? A bag of frozen mixed vegetables. No chopping required! You see, I understand. Sometimes you don't have any fresh vegetables in the house. Or you just don't have time to chop, sad as that is. Or maybe you're just afraid of what you might do if you were to find yourself holding a knife in your hand. No need to tempt fate. Simply stock a couple bags of mixed frozen vegetables in your freezer, and you're good to go in these types of situations.

I should mention that this curry is most definitely an Indian-American concoction, as for the most part frozen vegetables don't exist in India. This is because most people in India don't have refrigerators. Those who do have refrigerators often don't have a freezer, or if they do, the freezer is about the size of a glove compartment. At any rate, with black-outs being a common and regular occurrence across much of the country, I'm not sure you'd want to trust your fridge or freezer for saving much of anything for very long.

You might wonder, how do people live without a fridge? Well, the answer is simple. Dry goods like rice and lentils need no refrigeration. Milk comes every day and is boiled, and used in coffee or tea, or made into yogurt. You go to the market every day or so and get what vegetables you need, and prepare the exact amount to be eaten, so that there are no leftovers. That way, nothing spoils. If you do this enough, you get very, very good at estimating how much food to prepare. Also, if you are Indian, wasting food is something you just do. Not. Do. Period. This cultural imperative is a strong motivator. (America is diametrically opposed to this ethic: Here, wasting is something you just do do.)

I think having a refrigerator may actually contribute to food wasting, because of our tendency to put leftovers in a container which over the course of a week gets shuffled to the back of the fridge and then forgotten about until a month or so later, when we finally get around to throwing out everything that's gone bad. So, kill your refrigerator! They use too much electricity anyway.

I'm assuming you didn't listen to me and you still have your refrigerator/freezer. So you can stockpile a few bags of frozen vegetables and make this curry when you need something fast. I guess that's just how life is in America sometimes.

This recipe follows my formula for Universal Curry, which I wrote about back in April of last year. As I wrote back then, you can sub in any number of vegetables, and get tasty results.

Mixed Vegetable Curry
2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds
1 tablespoon urad dal (black gram)*
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder*
1/2 teaspoon turmeric (optional)
2 pounds frozen mixed vegetables
salt
4 tablespoons dried, flaked coconut (unsweetened)
cayenne pepper to taste**
wedges of lemon or lime (optional)

Heat oil on medium high heat, along with mustard seeds and urad dal, in a large skillet or saute pan. When the urad dal is light brown and the mustard seeds begin to sputter and pop and turn grey, lower the heat and add the asafoetida and turmeric (if using). Mix quickly with mustard seeds and urad dal, then quickly add the mixed vegetables and stir to distribute oil and seasoning. Add salt. Cook uncovered on medium heat until the vegetables reach the desired tenderness. Make sure to stir and scrape the bottom of the pan occasionally to avoid sticking. Add the coconut and cook for a couple minutes more. Add more salt to taste if needed. Separate the portion of vegetables you will feed your children, then add desired amount of chili powder to the vegetables remaining in the pan and cook a minute longer. Serve with wedges of lemon or lime. This is optional, but sometimes a little zing of lemon or lime juice helps to brighten the flavors. This dish goes well with dal or sambar, and rice. It also would be nice with chapathis, or pongal, for something simple.

(You can try adding other spices depending on the vegetable. For carrots, I usually add some powdered cumin and coriander as I add the asafoetida. Also consider leaving out the coconut depending on the vegetable. For example, coconut works well with carrots, but I don't like it with eggplant as much.)

* Just get yourself on over to an Indian grocery (or DeKalb Farmer’s Market if near Decatur) and buy some urad dal and some asafoetida. Then you can make this any time you want with all those vegetables you get from your CSA that you don’t know how to use. (Turnip curry, anyone?)

**If you are cooking for people who don’t mind a bit of spiciness, you may add the cayenne powder at the same time as you add the asafoetida.

My Latest Pet: Umeboshi Vinegar (on Roasted Cabbage)

I am the first one to admit I have a problem. A condiment problem, that is. A problem that is only exacerbated by the fact that I live just a few miles away from Dekalb Farmer's Market, which is not really a farmer's market but is actually a giant warehouse filled with foods from around the world, in which at least a quarter of the merchandise appears to be condiments.

My latest discovery is umeboshi vinegar. Small, sour, Japanese plums (ume) are salted with red shiso leaves.  This produces a savory, salty, sour, fruity, red-colored juice, which is not truly a vinegar, but is darn tasty on just about everything. The salted, shiso-seasoned plums are dried, and are then called umeboshi. One use for umeboshi is as the filling inside of onigiri, which are rice balls wrapped in nori (seaweed). So guess what's next on my shopping list? Yes, the actual umeboshi. I'm hoping my kids will love onigiri, since they love sushi. I'm thinking the onigiri are going to go in their lunchboxes, since they've been complaining so much about being tired of sandwiches. "Tired of sandwiches? OK, how about a dried plum inside a rice ball, wrapped inside a sheet of seaweed? Mwa ha ha." (Meanwhile, some kid in Japan is telling his mother how sick he is of rice balls.) But anyway, that's a project for another week.

Back to this week, and the umeboshi vinegar. I had three very small cabbages which I cut into wedges and roasted with sliced onions. Roasting works wonders on cabbage just like it does with brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli. The cabbage becomes sweet and smoky. It's great on its own, but add a few splashes of umeboshi vinegar, and well... You've taken it to the next level.

The really great thing about umeboshi vinegar is that is doesn't have that same acidic bite of other vinegars. While still sour, it's much more mellow and subtle. It really doesn't overwhelm the food at all. So, what can I say? I'm not going into rehab anytime soon.

Roasted Cabbage and Onions with Umeboshi Vinegar
3 baby cabbages, or one medium cabbage, sliced into inch-thick wedges
1 small onion, sliced
a few glugs of olive oil
salt
pepper
umeboshi vinegar (to splash on individual servings)

Preheat the oven to 375°. Place the cabbage wedges and sliced onions on a large rimmed baking sheet, and pour a few glugs of olive oil on top. Mix the oil with the cabbage and onions with your hands, then make sure the vegetables are evenly spaced on the baking sheet. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top, and place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, or until the cabbage is soft and browned on the edges. Pass the umeboshi vinegar at the table, to splash liberally on each serving.

Pongal: The Original Indian Food

Sometimes, pongal is all we need.  Rice and lentils, minimally gussied up with ghee, black pepper, cumin, and curry leaves (if you've got them). My husband's uncle calls pongal the original Indian food, as it predates the introduction of chili peppers to India by way of Christopher Columbus. Black pepper is the original Indian spice, and the original "black gold." (Cue Beverly Hillbillies music now and start saying "cee-ment pond.")  Much like today's black gold, wars were fought over it, and people were colonized over it. Now, of course, we can go into any fast food joint and get a little white packet of pepper for free, and then throw it away without ever using it. Crazy, huh? (Oh yeah, unless you're my husband – he saves the little pepper packets. And the salt and ketchup too. One of the reasons I love him so much.)

The version of pongal you're about to receive is my version. I like my cumin and black pepper to be ground up, though many people simply add whole cumin seeds and peppercorns. Curry leaves add a flavor I can only describe as herbal, citrusy nuttiness, and will take your pongal from just "awesome" to "blissfully awesome," but if you don't have them, don't sweat it. Your pongal will be good.

However, if you really want curry leaves, the Indian store is your best bet. Unfortunately, the Indian stores don't always have them, so if you do see them, grab a bunch. You can keep the extras in your freezer for months. Your other option is to find a good friend, most likely South Indian, who will fly to Boston and nab a few shoots off her mother's curry leaf plant, put them in a dirt-filled yogurt container, and carry them back on the airplane for you. As you can see below, the half of the plant that did not get smooshed is sprouting new growth! I had to cut the smooshed half, and ended up using the curry leaves in my pongal.

Just don't leave out the ghee (Indian clarified butter). That is simply not an option. If you don't have ghee, you can make some (the cheapest option and the topic of my very first post), you can buy some for a lot of money at Whole Foods or your local natural foods store, or you can buy some for much less money at the Indian grocery. I like to describe ghee's flavor as buttery, sweet nuttiness. Gotta love the nuttiness!

My last instruction: While you're eating, enjoy the camaraderie of the millions upon billions of Indians who've consumed pongal on a regular, perhaps even daily, basis for thousands of years. Quite the dinner party.

Ven Pongal (Savory Pongal)
2 ½ cups cooked brown rice
1 ½ cups cooked moong dal (other lentils that break down when cooked would be OK)
salt
4 tablespoons ghee, divided
about a dozen small curry leaves, or six large ones
1 scant tablespoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a large bowl mix together the rice and dal, adding salt to taste. Add a little water if the mixture is too dry and stiff to mix. In a small saucepan on medium high heat, melt two tablespoons of the ghee, then add the curry leaves and fry them until they begin to give off their fragrance. Take the saucepan off the heat and add the cumin and pepper, and let it sizzle for five or six seconds. Then quickly pour the contents of the saucepan onto the rice and lentils and mix everything together, along with two additional tablespoons of ghee. Add more salt if needed. This serves a family of four, meaning two kids and two adults. If you're really hungry or are serving all grown-ups, I'd double the recipe. Leftovers keep well and taste even better the next day.