Vegetable curry
Cooking oil
Few curry leaves
½ tsp mustard seeds
1 tomato
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt (unless you are using eggplant: see below)
1 tsp coriander
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp hot chili powder, or to taste
2 cups cut-up vegetables of your choice (eggplant, cauliflower,
zucchini, etc). I always add at least one or two cut-up potatoes. Cut vegetables in 2 or 3-cm pieces.
note: if you are putting in eggplant, cut it into cubes, put it in a colander, sprinkle it with 1 tsp salt, and let it sit for ½ hour or more. Squeeze the eggplant cubes out before adding them to the cooking pot; this removes any bitter liquids that sweat out from the eggplant via osmosis.
Put a 4 L dutch oven on the stovetop on medium heat. Add oil to cover the pan. Heat until the oil starts to shimmer. Put a few mustard seeds in to see if they sizzle. If the oil is hot enough for the seeds to sizzle, add the curry leaves and mustard seeds. After the seeds sizzle for a few seconds, add the tomato, tomato paste and spices. Fry the masala and stir. If the masala starts to stick, add a tablespoon of water to the mix and keep stirring. Fry the masala until it smells fragrant.
When the masala is ready, add the cut-up vegetables, including potatoes, being sure to squeeze the juice out the eggplant before you add it. Lower the heat to medium-low, add ½ cup of water and cook the vegetables to the desired tenderness. You will probably need to add water in ½ cup increments as the potatoes absorb the water. Don’t add it all at once; add it as you need it until it is as watery as you like. Adjust the salt at the end (you might not have enough if the only salt came from the squeezed-out eggplant).
Adding 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh coriander leaves at the end of cooking is a nice, but optional, touch.
Enjoy with rice or parotha or rotli.