The sun slowly rises once again filling the house with a warm light, the rays filtering in through the window and dissolves before reaching the floor. The leaves sparkle from the morning dew as the sun rays seep in between blanket of leaves. In a little while its bright outside and people have already begun their daily chores. And you cannot spare too much time now to take in the wonders and beauty of nature. The maddening early morning rush is a common sight in most homes. A quick glance of the newspaper, a quick gulping down of breakfast and you are ready and set to head for work or classes.
There is hardly much time to breathe and relax once you reach your destination. Lunch time for some merges with their work itself! But for some, it is an important time that deserves attention even amidst a tight schedule.
I am part of the latter. I enjoy meal times. I eagerly await meal times. No matter how packed your day is with activities, one must need to give meal times its due attention. Elaborate meals are of course a no-no on a daily basis. Quick, yet tasty meals are the highlights here. Not to forget that these meals need to supply you with enough calories to breeze through the day tirelessly.
And recipes that can be ready without too much hassle in the morning before leaving for work are always a welcome. Here is one such recipe. A baby corn curry, to which carrots can be added for your daily dose of vitamin A or some chunks of soft paneer to meet your protein requirement. This curry can be made with paneer alone too.
With dishes like this you too eagerly await lunch breaks. It gives you a much needed short break so that you are all the more charged up to face the day after that.
Wake up 5 minutes earlier than your regular wake up time, enjoy the sunrise while you happily enjoy a healthy breakfast with your family and prepare this curry to pack into your lunch box! There you have it – a delicious meal ready and waiting for lunch time!
And on your way back from work you get a call from friends or family saying they will be coming over for dinner. Even before you switch over to ‘panic’ mode, dish out this simple yet tasty curry. For dinner parties, just jazz it up a bit with creative garnishes like a tempering of butter and red chilli powder or fried cashew nuts or drizzle of cream and so on.
Serve it with soft chapathis or roomali rotis and there you have a delicious meal!
Baby corn masala
Delicious & easy curry
- Baby corns – 12 to 15 OR paneer – 200 gms
- Carrot – 1 medium OR paneer – 100 gms – both optional
- Vegetable oil – 2-3 tbsp
- Cumin seeds (jeera – ½ tsp)
- Shallots (sambhar onion – ½ cup peeled OR 1 medium to big onion, cut into cubes)
- Tomatoes – 3 (medium)
- Garam masala/ kitchen king masala – ½ tsp – optional
- Kasuri methi – 1 tsp – optional
For masala paste
- Onions – 2 (medium)
- Garlic – 5 to 7 cloves
- Mint leaves (pudina – 1 tbsp (heaped))
- Coriander leaves (cilantro – 1 to 2 tbsp)
- Green chillies – 1 to 3 (depend on spiciness desired)
- Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
- Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
- Cashew – 10 whole OR 2-3 tbsp broken
- Garam masala powder – ½ tsp
- Rock salt – 1 tbsp
- Sugar – ½ tsp
- Wash baby corns. Cut carrots into fingers. Pressure cook baby corn and carrots if adding with enough water upto 1-2 whistles or until cooked. Do not drain the stock/ water.
- May shallow fry paneer cubes in 2 to 3 tsps oil if desired.
- Peel shallots and keep whole OR peel and cube one onion.
- Grind together ingredients for paste with little water to a thick and smooth paste.
- Chop tomatoes, may deseed if desired. Then grind to a puree.
- Heat oil and add jeers, let sizzle. Add the shallots/ cubed onion and fry till nice & golden.
- Add the masala paste and stir constantly on low flame (as it may splutter a bit)till pleasant aroma emits, about 3 to 5 mins.
- Add the tomato paste and stir for few mins, about 2 to 4 mins. Cover with lid partially if splutters, stirring frequently in between.
- Add the cooked baby corn, carrots or paneer cubes, some water or the stock. Cook till gravy becomes thick.
- Taste and adjust salt, sugar, chilli powder. Add kasuri methi if adding. May sprinkle kitchen king masala or garam masala in the end. Simmer for 1 to 2 mins.
- Serve hot with chapathis, puris, paranthas, pudina paratha, tandoori rotis.
For dinner parties you could reheat the curry and give a tadka of butter and kashmiri chilli powder just for the color. Garnish with coriander leaves.
To reduce heat from chillies, deseed green chillies before grinding them. That way you have the flavour of chillies with much less heat.
You can make this curry with only paneer too or a combination of paneer and carrots even.
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