There are so many recipes or ingredients I wish to know more of and write about. I am not talking about ingredients that I may have read about in articles but ingredients that I have seen in markets but never ever used or see any one use or may be just tasted a single recipe.
When you sit down to write especially for a food blog, the motive is not to teach someone a recipe precisely (because they vary home to home and each is as incredible as the other) rather it’s an attempt to keepsake my learnings and share the stories which we all have lived through.
After writing different seasonal recipes through years, I am lucky enough to be introduced to various new ingredients throughout the blogging journey. Yet, I am fully aware that the innumerable variety of a single region and ecosystem is more than enough to at-least last me a lifetime. The more you know about something the more frontiers open up. Don’t they?
Hence the past few months were filled with new discoveries and observations that brought a smile on my face every now and then. Like tasting Tembre a month ago, a sticky sweet fruit resembling Chikoo or mud apple. A week before that talked over phone with my mother in law about how to make chur ki bhaji, my sister in law showed me air potatoes and how she used to eat it, saw my family excited to know the rains are approaching and we may now get Kantola in market. A mention of Charoli fruit made me hark back to my childhood days.
But the best part-Learnt how to make Ambadi bhaji from my mother in law which will be shared below
For us vegetable market visit is a weekly regular activity that happens in the evening scurrying past a jam of name shouting street hawkers with variety of fruits and vegetables adorning their cart. A simple question by my mother in law of would you eat Ambadi tomorrow and me being like umm have never tasted it got us into this new series of Ambadi bhaji eating spree. The apparent shock and disbelief over me having not eaten it is a discussion for another time but it was carefully and lovingly taught to me with a mutual interest of learning and teaching a new dish simultaneously. New culture teaches you to embrace not only different customs but different cooking habits which were unknown to you earlier Available from late summer to fall Ambadi also forms an integral part of Goddess Mahalaxmi mahaprasad.
It was not as if I hadn’t seen the leaves in the market or didn’t know their name but it was the first time being introduced to Ambadi as far as tasting or actually having a proper meal is concerned. Ambadi is a tart actually tipping towards sour one must say green leafy vegetable. When young the leaves are full and as they mature the leaves split revealing a strong trident shape. With its spearheading leaves and a delicate but firm stem of green or red its a proper late summer-fall crop. The red stem signifies enhances tartness and It is a green which is consumed even in monsoon because of its increased acidity that keeps microorganisms at bay and is also a great source of vitamin A, C, iron and folic acid that improves ones immunity.
The recipe starts by cleaning the leaves-clean whole leaves are selected and snapped along with the delicate part of stem which isn’t wasted while browned and torn leaves are removed and is all done preferably a night prior stored in the refrigerator which in the morning is followed by washes in few changes of water accompanied by prep of coarsely grinding jowar, smashing garlic, making chilli paste, boiling the leaves etc. A lot of simple pre-prep goes on simultaneously; a clear sign of building flavours.
One of my earliest recipe on blog was the chutney made of Ambadi flowers an is one of my favourite and the Ambadi leaves are reminiscent of the flavour minus the floral undertone and treated a little differently. The flowers are combined with jaggery to create a sweet sour contrast. Do visit the chutney recipe in case you are excited to try that as well. The Lal phool ki chutney recipe.
Eating greens has always been my favourite. But now adding a dish which doesn’t need supporting characters to shine through it also make a delicious and healthy morning breakfast bowl. Don’t you think?
Ambadi bhaji (Gongura leaves curry)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1/8 tsp Fenugreek seeds
- 4 nos Smashed garlic
- 4 nos Curry leaves
- 1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
- 1 tbsp Chilli paste
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric
- 1/2 cup Coarsely ground sorghum millet/ cracked wheat 240 ml
- 500 gram Gongura leaves before processing
- to taste Salt
- 250 ml Water including gongura leaves water
- 1 tbsp Coriander leaves chopped
Instructions
- Check and separate the Gongura leaves from the inedible stalk.
- Wash them in multiple changes of water. In a saucepan/vessel take enough water to submerge the leaves. Submerge the leaves and boil it for 5 minutes starting from cold.
- Let cool, strain (i.e. do not throw away) the water. Blitz to a paste.
- In another saucepan. Heat oil on medium high flame. Crackle mustard, cumin and fenugreek seeds.
- Add in the smashed garlic, curry leaves, ginger garlic paste and sauté for a minute.
- Add the chilli paste and turmeric. Cook them for 10-20 seconds.
- Add finely ground Jowar or Dalia and sauté it in oil for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the Gongura leaves paste, little of the Gongura leaves water if needed. Plain water and let it come to a boil.
- Add salt to taste and lower the flame. Cook covered till the Jowar or Dalia softens and oil separates and floats on top. Ensure that you occasionally stir in between to avoid the curry from sticking to the bottom as it slightly cooks and thickens.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.