Mixed Vegetable Kurma (Coimbatore style)/Spicy veggie curry

Restaurant style vegetable Kuruma

Hi guys…I am in India right now, enjoying the lovely weather, hanging out with relatives and gobbling amazing food in different places. If I am not able to post regularly, please excuse me! Right now I am typing from an Internet cafe and it is quite difficult to concentrate with all the commotion outside. Some people at the entrance are expressing their opinions on worldly matters at a very high pitch…still, let me continue!

Home style vegetable Korma is a bit different from what they serve in restaurants. I don’t know the commercial additives that make their preparation more attractive to hungry costumers. But I love that taste and their appealing presentation making the main dish more appetizing. Every home has its own spice blends to make curries but they make subtle changes to add taste and flavour.

The same goes to the restaurants also. Each restaurant and every city has its stamp and style in crafting Kurma, a spicy side dish for flat breads. I was addicted to the kurma made in a particular restaurant called Ajantha in Coimbatore in the prime of my life, but to my grief I found that they are closed now for renovation and could not treat my senses. Yesterday, I tasted a Mugalai style Kuruma and it was yummy. Oh, I have to learn that style too!

The taste of my hometown dishes are etched on my taste buds. Long back I used to admire restaurant food because of its rarity. My father did not like restaurant food as it upsets his stomach and stuck to homemade food. It was special guests who made it possible. As a kid I longed for such instances as it exposed me to spicy variation of food and the special restaurant taste.

As I grew up, I took things in my hand and could visit restaurants with my friends. My husband came into my life as a blessing in disguise as he loves restaurant food, especially the good kind. I would say my golden era of food tasting started soon. He took me to sample all kinds of foods…but has his own preferences too. When I was pregnant, I loved restaurant food with a passion. I was this strange person without morning sickness and could eat anything and everything with a heavy heartburn from the oily and sweet stuff. I devoured truck load of food without a care!

I make veg korma quite differently which can be branded my style. Last time when I visited home, I tasted Coimbatore style kuruma. It has a particular taste and I asked our house help for that exact recipe. She got this recipe from her friend who runs a food stall. When I tried it, it took me back to all the restaurant taste I could recall. Of course, when I recreated it, I added less oil with consideration to health.

 Ingredients

• 3 cups mixed vegetables (Carrot-1 cubed, Potato-1 cubed, Peas-1/4 cup, Corn 1/4 cup, Beans-1/4 cup chopped and Cauliflower florets-1 cup
• Spices to roast – 2 cloves, 1 cardomon, 1 stick cinnamon, ½ tsp pepper corns, 1 ½ tsp coriander seeds, ¼ tsp cumin seeds,
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp white poppy seeds
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ cup shredded coconut
• 1 medium  onion- chopped
• 2 green chillies
• ½ tsp red chilly powder
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tomato
• salt as needed
• vegetable oil
• ¼ tsp mustard seeds
• curry leaves-few
• few coriander leaves-chopped

1. Chop vegetables into small pieces and cook them.
2. Gently fry coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper corns and cloves.
3. Grind coconut with fried spices, fennel seeds,poppy seeds (may use cashew instead of poppy seeds) and garlic.
4. Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds and add curry leaves.
5. Saute for few seconds and add chopped onion
6. Fry till it turns golden brown and add split green chillies.
7. Sprinkle turmeric powder, chilly powder and saute for 1 minute.
8. Add coconut paste, mix well and cook it.
9. Then add all the vegetables, enough water and boil until vegetables are cooked.
10. Add chopped tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes.
11. Turn off the heat and add chopped coriander leaves.

This curry is a perfect side dish for all kinds of flat breads, appam, idly and iddiappam.

I am back in our family kitchen and enjoying the taste of homemade Kuruma again. If you like to taste Coimbatore style Kuruma, do try this.

Kindly excuse me if I am not able to respond to your comments. I may not be able to visit your posts and comment frequently too as time is not in my favour. But I will get back to you at the earliest.

Have a good time every one!