Cauliflower Medley Gravy Curry

Isn't it amazing how so many of our childhood memories are tied to food? I commonly see this occurrence, when a family gathers together and start reminiscing about the past, inevitably the conversation seems to stray into food territory and some times the conversation becomes about which foods were served when we were younger and how it was served. One such food that brings back memories of my school days is this curry that I call Cauliflower medley gravy curry for a lack of another good name for it.

In my home when it was made it used to be called paatal or patal bhaji. Now I know that bhaji is a Marathi term for curry and paatal I guess means a curry which has gravy that is not very thick or creamy but a little runny.But all my efforts at looking up this term using google have not been able to provide me the correct description for it or even if such a curry is surely made in Maharashtrian cuisine. Surprisingly enough both my mother and my mother in laws version of this curry is similar with very slight variations, and the names they call it by are similar sounding too, leading me to believe that the name for this curry is somewhat close to what I have known it by, but might not be exactly the same. If any of you can shed some light on the name of this curry and its origin do share.

I remember when my mother used to make this when I was younger, she usually made it to go with phulkas ( a type of Indian bread) and I would be inordinately happy to see this on my plate. I used to play all kinds of games especially when I bit into each cauliflower floret, I used to imagine the cauliflower floret to be a tree and say things like " I am biting the tree trunk or biting the tree top" depending on which part of the floret I was biting into...... ah the silly and fun times we had when we were children, can any other phase compare with those carefree days?

Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Cauliflower Medley Gravy Curry

1 large yellow onion (cut fine)

3 small tomatoes (cut fine)

1 large green bell pepper (capsicum) (cut into 1/2 inch or 1 inch pieces)

1/2 head of cauliflower (broken into florets)

1 cup green peas (fresh or frozen)

2 medium potatoes (cut into 1/2 inch pieces with or without skin)

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

salt to taste

1 tsp red chilli powder (or according to taste)

2 tsp sugar

2 heaped tsp chick pea flour (besan) mixed with 2-3 tsp of water (see notes)

Seasoning

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

Optional garnish

handful cilantro (cut fine)

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, add mustard seeds to it, when mustard seeds start to splutter add cumin seeds to it.

When cumin seeds sizzle add cut onions and stir them until the onions turn transparent.

Add tomatoes and saute until the tomatoes turn mushy and soft. Add turmeric powder, stir for a few seconds.

Then add all the vegetables, salt and chilli powder, about 2 cups of water and let the vegetables cook until soft but not mushy.

Finally add the chick pea flour + water, add more water if required and let the mixture simmer for a few minutes. Adjust salt and spices if required at this point.
The copyright of this content belongs to Veginspirations.com

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with phulkas or plain steamed rice or any other type of roti ( Indian flat bread)

Notes

This curry is not meant to be very thick and creamy, so I have used only 2 tsp of chick pea flour (besan) for this quantity of curry, if you want yours thicker or creamier you could double the quantity of chick pea flour (or use your judgement) to get a thicker consistency.