MIXED VEGETABLES IN COCONUT GRAVY

While watching  a daily soap in the evening, I was cutting some vegetables without deciding on the curry I would cook for dinner. I think I was more into the daily soap :). 
I had vegetables like brinjal, beans, capsicum, bell peppers, carrot and peas .

Daily soap over, I started teaching both my children. The elder one found a chapter in Social Studies difficult. He is more fond of subjects like maths, science, computers .The long and lengthy answers required lot of writing and he finds that tough. Anyways, somehow he understood the chapter and was confident enough for the test exam,  the next day .  

I chanced to look at the clock. It was 6.30 in the evening. It was time to take my younger son for his drawing class ."It was so nice to work rather than become a homemaker," I thought. There was little time to sit and relax. And I rushed with him to the drawing class. Sat there through the class as he won't let me return home without him.

Back home, it was already 7.30 and no time to cook anything fancy ! I had to cook something quick  and tasty . For a moment I even was annoyed with the Queen of daily soaps Ms.Ekta Kapoor..Had she not started this daily soap; I would have been through a well organised cooking by now. 

I took out my pressure cooker and said " boss , now  you alone can help me !" :) I was really thankful to the french physicist Denis Papin who invented pressure cooker in 1679, in an attempt to reduce the cooking time of food. His airtight cooker used steam pressure to raise the water's boiling point, thereby resulting in a much quicker cooking .

I decided on having mixed vegetables with coconut gravy.
Here goes the process of making this easy recipe.
The required ingredients are as follows -

Brinjals - One Cup

Carrot- One cup

Beans -One cup

Capsicum - Half cup

Red bell pepper half cup

Onion- one large (sliced )

Tomato -Two ( Chopped )

Coconut milk - Two hundred ml

Salt -To taste

Turmeric  powder- one tea spoon

Oil -Two table spoon

For the paste  -

Coriander seeds- One tea spoon

poppy seeds -Two tea spoon

Red chilli - 4/5

Peanuts -One tea spoon

Ginger and garlic paste -Two tea spoon

Grated coconut -One table spoon

Jeera -One tea spoon

Method-

• Heat one table spoon  oil in a pan. Add all the ingredients of the paste masala and fry for one to  two minutes. The nice aroma from the mixture would signal the optimal frying. Grind the mixture with a little water to a fine paste .Keep aside .
• In the pressure cooker  heat one table spoon of oil. Add onion, saute for a minute.  Add the paste which you have kept aside. Mix the masala and saute for a few seconds . Add all the vegetables, salt to taste and haldi powder and give a gentle mix  .
• Cover the lid and let the vegetables cook for a while in the juices secreted from the vegetables . You should make sure that the vegetables are coated with the paste properly. After the vegetables are half done , add the chopped tomatoes .Mix well .
• Add two hundred ml of coconut milk and mix well . Close the lid of the pressure cooker .Switch off the stove after you get two whistles . Keep it aside and open the lid only after the pressure becomes normal..
• Serve hot with steamed white rice.

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