Sometimes living away from home can have its own downfall. You miss your family, your friends; you miss the luxury of having a maid, a laundry man and vegetables/fruits etc delivered to your doorstep at no extra charge. But most importantly you miss the food.
Not that we don’t cook Indian food here, we do almost on a daily basis. However there are a lot of vegetables that we don’t get here and I miss them. Vegetables like Small Brinjals (Baingan), Fresh Fenugreek (Methi), Cluster Beans (Guvar), Jackfruit (kathal) and a lot of other ones.
So whenever I go for my monthly Indian food shopping I hunt for frozen vegetables to see if there is something good available and a lot of times I hit jackpot and come back home with packets of frozen goodies. I know they don’t taste the same but what the hell they look the same.
My treasure box this month had a few packets of Cluster Beans or Guvar as we call them in India. These beans are a bit like French Beans but taste completely different, they are also a little bitter so somewhat of an acquired taste. D doesn’t really enjoy them so I try and avoid making them.
But we have house guests at the moment R and M and M suggested we make them the Maharashtrian way with Peanuts and Coconut. I was a little skeptical at first but I gave it a try and they turned out to be smashing and went perfectly with hot Rotis. It is funny how we can use 1 main ingredient and cook it in so many ways to give it a completely different flavor.
Recipe Cooking time 30 minutes, serves 4
Ingredients:
350 g Chopped Cluster Beans
½ cup roasted unsalted Peanuts ground into paste
¼ cup fresh or frozen desiccated Coconut
1 Large Onion finely chopped
1 tsp Red Chili powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
½ tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Sugar
Salt to taste
Method:
1) Heat oil in a non-stick pan and cumin seeds and chopped Onions, sauté till the onions have turned translucent.
2) Add the chopper Cluster beans to the Onion. If you are using frozen beans like I have just add them directly to the pan without thawing them.
3) Cover the pan and cook on a medium flame for 10 minutes you don’t want them to be really mushy.
4) Add the Peanuts, Salt, Cumin powder, Red Chili powder and Turmeric powder. Mix and cover cooking for another 7 – 10 minute on a slow flame.
5) Turn the gas off and add the desiccated Coconut and Sugar mixing well before you serve it hot.