Monday

Navrattan Kurma



I am usually dissapointed at Indian restaurants here...i guess because i know what the real deal is. It is rare that we eat at indian places because i get mad when i see a badly prepared dish served and charged to boot...i am usually forgiving when it comes to bad food cooked by a person at home but not an establishment who claim to know how to cook and serve great food....

But, last week i was really bored to cook..which seriously is rare for me and ordered indian food to go. When we order carry-out jeeves and me order dishes we never make at home so it was navrattan kurma for me (as he is not a fan sweet-hot combo) and bhendi-fry for him (yuck!) and malai kofta for us ( coz i will grossly overeat it if i make it at home :)..well..the navrattan kurma was delicious..just like i always imagined gum-paste would be...my childhood desire was seen through by the good desi folks at the restaurant who made me realise that i was wise to stay away from tasting it at a tender age...grr..I really can never understand how can people serve bad food!!

But, now my heart was set on the kurma and when sra announced the event of making grindless gravy...i decided to give this a go.....and i was pleased with the results....

Now navrattan means nine gems...well i do not know if these were gems...but combination of veggies, fruits and nuts nuts came to nine...err...plus some lil extras for taste enhancement :)


Ingredients:

1. Potatoes - 1/2 cup- diced
2. Carrots - 1/2 cup - diced
3. Beans - 1/2 cup - cut in thirds
4. Peas - 1/2 cup
5. Butternut squash - 1/2 cup
6. Cauliflower - 1 cup - floweretts
7. Pineapple - 1/2 cup (i used tinned - medium diced)
8. Raisins - 1/4 cup
9. Cashews - 1/4 cup

Onions - 1 meduim - finely chopped
Tomato - 1 large - finely chopped
Ginger - 1 medium pc.
Garlic - 3
Green Chilly - 3
Fat free milk - 1/2 cup
Curry Leaves - 4 - torn

Jeera - 1 tsp.
Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp.
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp.
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp.
Salt - to taste

Grated paneer - 2 tbls
Oil - 1 tbls

Method:

1. Boil all the veggies 1-6 with the reqd. salt and keep aside. Make sure they do not get mushy...

2. Make a rough paste of the ginger-garlic-green chilly (GGG) in the mortar-pestle..add about 1/4 tsp salt to help it along.

3. In a large pan, heat oil, add the jeera, then add the GGG paste. When it starts to smell really nice :) add the onions which are diced really fine and cook on meduim flame till soft.You can add some of the pineapple juice to help along..if the onions start to brown.

4. Add the tomatoes with the turmeric powder, raisins and cashews and cook on medium flame till the tomatoes and onions turn to a pulpy mess...you can mash it lightly with the back of your ladle to help the process.

5. Add the cooked veggies and pineapple. Add the red chilly powder, garam masala, curry leaves and salt if needed and cook this mix till it is thick but not dry.

6. Add the milk and let it cook for a few more minutes and switch off the gas.

7. Garnish it with grated paneer and eat with rotis.

Notes:

1. Dice the onions and tomatoes really small...else u have to put a little muscle in the kadhai while cooking..it is up to you where u want to put the effort.

2. If you do not have a mortar-pestle..chop the GGG very finely..it will do.

3. The paneer grating is purely optional...but it does absorb some of the extra liquid...and is yummy too ;)

Here is my entry to the
Grindless Gravy event hosted by sra of When my soup came alive

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE navratan korma. It's one of my favorite dishes that I usually order at Indian restaurants. Thank you for your recipe!

Sig said...

hehehe gum paste, you crack me up gal! I hate the Indian restaurants around here too, given a choice I'd never go... but we sometimes do take out too...

So, is that where the name really comes from, or you just made it up? :p Nice entry for the event...

EC said...

My sister loves this a lot. whenever we go out,she orders this...thanks for posting the recipe

Namratha said...

Oh yum, Navrathan Kurma, I love it! My hubby doesn't like the sweet/spicy combo either...for me it works just fine :)

sra said...

That looks delicious, and is quite in the spirit of the event, Rajitha, thanks for this entry.

KayKat said...

You're quite enthusiastic - trying to replace the grinding with manual mincing - go for it, girl! :)

This looks quite delicious.

sunita said...

I hear you on the food that is being dished out that go by the name 'Indian'...your navratan korma looks absolutely gorgeous.

amna said...

looks really nice. chopping all these veggies might be a pain though :D i am lazy that way!

Rajitha said...

bri- welcome to my blog :) and i love n.k too...

sig- ha ha..you got me..really no idea..just put 2 and 2 together..i guess with the knowledge of hindi i kinda fig it out ;)

easy crafts - i used to order this everytime when i used to go out as a kid..now only my nephews order..we all just eat!!

namratha - ahh!! now we both gotta go out together..then we can indulge in our fav. type food :)


sra - a pleasure sar :)

kaykat- actually i do manually grind ggg with the mp everytime...i love the ooph it gives :)

sunita - tnks..seriously..i feel many college guys double up as cooks behind the kitchen for extra bucks..they really have no idea what is going on!!

nags - aha!! i love cutting veggies u see...i have problems washing mixies, pressure cooker and stuff like that!!

Raks said...

I really like this korma and I should bookmark this and do it some time!!Thanx for sharing...:))

Kalva said...

Oh yum should give it a try dear

FH said...

That's a great entry Rajitha, looks delicious. I agree about local Indian restaurants, yuck is right and costs so much too for ordinary dishes too!

sra said...

Oh yes, Rajitha, I wanted to mention that I liked that gum paste joke!
And I was waiting for someone to raise the point Nags did when I announced the event - that cutting veggies might be as painful as assembling stuff for grinding and doing the grinding itself - like Rajitha said, I find that simpler - grinding, cleaning etc is tougher

Lissie said...

rajitha, the dish looks yummy! i love navrattan kurma :) great entry!

Timepass said...

Hey, I always order this dish when I go out for lunch/dinner. Lip smacking indeed!

bee said...

i hate restaurant navratan korma, which is basically yesterday's stuff mixed together and reheated. one place where they do make lovely navratan korma is in the bay area. yours looks way better than any restauran version - both the colour and texture.

have you tried adding kasoori methi? it adds something to this dish.

Seena said...

Very good one to take with chapathis, love it..!
thanks..Rajitha, for sharing..

TBC said...

Your NK looks really delicious and colorful. Yeah, restaurant food is pretty disappointing most of the time and it's dripping with oil and is so expensive too.

TBC said...

Arreeee yaaar, remove the stupid word verification thing, na? You have comment moderation enabled anyway.:-(
This is my third attempt!

Finla said...

Gem or not i would love to have thme.

Laavanya said...

My husband is a big fan of sweet + savoury combo so he just loves this and Kashmiri Naan. I still have problems adding raisins, pineapple etc. to the gravy though. Your korma looks so good that I may want to try even that.. :)

Rajitha said...

raks - thnks :)

kalva - thnks

asha - it is sad that they cannot even get alu-mattar right...u say why we ordered alu-matar..ask my husband (rolling my eyes)..

sra - :)..glad u are in the same league!!

lissie - mine too!!

timepass - i used to once upon a time!!

bee - u know i love kasoori methi..but i really forgot to add it to this dish..u are right, it will add another dimention

seena - i know..what about with nan!!

tbc - ha ha..okay re.. i will disable the word verification...but first i will announce it on the blog..point fingers at u and then i shall do it ..

happy cook - :) thnks

laavanya - c'mon girl...pati ki seva har patni ka dharm hain ;)..okay okay don't kill me!!

Anonymous said...

Rajitha, I am so with you in terms of food at Indian restaurant. My peeve is against oil they add as though there is no tomorrow.
Your Navaratna Kurma looks great, I have never tried this before.

Bong Mom said...

You are right some of the Desi restaurants do suck with the painted red garvies. I try to stick to the tried&tested ones, we do have a few which are good

So there is Pineapple in Navratan Korma, that is wonderful

Sagari said...

korma looks soo delecious

Rajitha said...

redchillies- seriously, i can make food for nearly 4 days with all the oil i find oozing out at times..yuck!

sandeepa - i try to stick to the same order sandeepa...but i was really craving the kurma... i always wondered how does that gravy get that red...scary thought food color like no tomorrow ;)

sagari - thnks:)

Seema Bhat said...

You are so right about the desi restaurants around here. Most of them have the same base gravy with different titles. Yours looks so very fabulous. Great entry buddy.

Rina said...

Thx for this beautiful healthy recipes which leaves upto its name.

USHA said...

Hi Rajitha,

Navrattannkurma looks very delicious aand rich....healthy .
Hey thanks for dropping your sweet comment in my blog.

USHA said...

Hi Rajitha,

Navrattannkurma looks very delicious aand rich....healthy .
Hey thanks for dropping your sweet comment in my blog.

Bharathy said...

Looks excellent!!real nava rathan!!I mean I can see all those 9 gem colours here :)...Will surely try!..

Rajitha,I think we are not visiting each others place promptly as we used to do earlier..:)..

Shivapriya said...

Dish looks delicious. You are right Rajitha, Indian restaurants charge a lot and the dish taste really bad. Thanks for dropping by my blog. You have really good recipes, I need to explore a lot.

Anonymous said...

can u pls make a recipe index so it will be easy to go thru ur recipes

Kribha said...

I agree with you about the desi restaurants. Sheer waste of money especially for the buffets. Your dish is making me drool. Looks so good and yummy.

Rajitha said...

seema - u said it right girl..same name with some veggies thrown in...yuck!

rina - thnks girl :)

usha - thnks :)..ur blog was fun to read ..

bharathy - i love this about u...you are honest and upfront...a trait that is slowly dissapearing and replaced with some wierd formalities..do not change ..it is refreshing!!...u are right tho :)....i will try visiting faster...now what about u girl ?? ;)

shivapriya - it is expensive for the garbage they give!!..and thnks :)

anon - :)

kribha - i go to buffets for the appetizers and the deserts..i basically skip the middle

Kumudha said...

Delicious dish! I also like cooking grindless gravies!

Sia said...

ROFL... wonderful post rajitha. i try to stay away from floating oil we get in the name of curries here. and the base for every dish is the same and they have guts to cal them by differnt names!!! i feel bad for the people who think curry is the only food made and served in india and they get to eat something like this.
navaratna kurma looks delish inspite of it being 'grind-less'. thanks for leaving a comment in my blog and leading me to urs rajitha. it took me quite some time to reach here but i dont think i will get lost again :)

Swaruchy said...

Ah ...a perfect recipe for Navratan kurma Rajitha....bookmarked it :-))
Please don't mind If I don't comment the next few months as I would terribly busy with my academic work......Hope u understand dear....I will be back in no time :-)

AnuSriram said...

Looks very delicious and attractive... hmmmm... mouthwatering recipe!

Rajitha said...

kumudha - thnks :)..

sia - it is true about what u said...actually it is made worse by the TV hosts who know nothing about our food and only use curry for indian touch!!

siri - i thought so..i had a feeling u were busy with ur MBA..take care girl and come back soon :)

anu - thnks!! :)

Cynthia said...

I like your entry.

Latha Narasimhan said...

Oh no! :( I thought of posting this for the event! Thankfully I have one more very much an Iyengar recipe for the event!:) Kurma recipe is great rajitha!

Mishmash ! said...

This kurma is one of our fav's..we both like it..next time i will try out ur version....will let u know :)

Shn