Tara Tari Paanch Mishali -- Five Vegetable Medley

Eating healthy does not necessarily mean eating a salad.

Think of something your Mom used to make and you would turn up your nose at. Go ahead, quick. Do you see yellow, orange, green ? Yeah ? Well those were the nutrient laden, healthy dishes from your own cuisine.

Cook them. Make your new age changes to them. Use EVOO.

Talk like Rachel Ray.Ask yourself "Why do people like Rachel Ray?". They don't.

So you are in safe company, go ahead and make your very own Five Vegetable dish in under 30 minutes or maybe more.Depends on how fast you chop or don't.

Eat a bowlful of that. Tastes better than a salad and has all the goodness of it.

Paanch Mishali Tarkari or Five Mixed Vegetables is a very popular Bengali dish. Chop five different vegetables, not any vegetable, there has to be a rhyme and rhythm to them. Something sweet like pumpkin, something sharp like radish, something velvety like ridge gourd or eggplant or in my case zucchini, something orange and crunchy like carrots, something generous like potatoes to bring everything together.

You don't have to strictly follow this rule. I don't. I will toss in some other stuff, like this time I added bitter gourd and ignored potatoes.

I had 1/2 cup each of chopped pumpkin, radish, carrots, zucchini and 1/4 cup of bitter gourd. I cooked them in the microwave with little water, 1/2 tsp of Garam masala(totally optional not used in traditional Paanch Mishali), 3 green chillis and 1 tsp of ginger julienne. It is not necessary that you pre-cook the veggies but I do it, to make the process faster.

I think it took me 10 mins in the MW and I used that time to convince D that going to the beach is actually an outdoor activity while watching Football is well just watching TV. You see I am not a fan anymore, I don't root for a favorite team, I don't cry or get frustrated or jubilant.

Heat 2 tsp of EVOO. Ideally you should use Mustard Oil which is the new EVOO. But I used Olive Oil, my wish. Temper the oil with 1 & 1/2 tsp of Paanch Phoron, the mother of all spices and father of none.Add 2-3 Dry Red chili and a pinch of Hing/Asafoetida. Watch the spices sputter and pop. Feel the power.

I felt the power, the sharpness of chili up my nose. I felt that D might just sway and switch off the TV.

Add the vegetables. Reserve the water, the vegetable stock. We will add that later. Add about 1/4-1/2 tsp of Turmeric Powder. Saute the vegetables for couple of minutes.

Add the water, the stock, add salt to taste, cover and cook. This is too much water, use much less water to begin with.

I continued my convincing process. My methods are not right. No one gets convinced around here.

The veggies are done now. Remove the cover. Add 1 tsp of Mustard paste. I added 1 tsp of Kasundi, the spicy Bengali Mustard sauce. If you have your Mustard Powder or your homemade mustard paste, add that. I have never used Dijon Mustard, how bad can it get ?

Brazil won the game. Of course they would.

Stir everything together. Check that veggies are done. Taste and make any adjustments. If needed sprinkle 1 tsp of roasted Cumin Powder. Cook till water has almost dried up.

Everyone looks happy. The world is a fair place. D wants to go to the beach. But it is too hot. I really don't want to.


Similar Recipes:

Charchari

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt -- arm made

Summer is a difficult time. I am obsessed with the season.

Every weekend I want to go to the beach, to the park -- the one with the sprinklers, to a carnival, to the beach again.

My family thinks I have too much energy for un-worthy things, that two beach visits with a bawling toddler who hates car seats should have been enough to put my desires in order, that the nearby park is fun enough for the kids and that watching football is as much an outdoor activity as running around kids in a strawberry field.

I clearly think otherwise. But it is not easy to put my thoughts to reality. Weekends are times for birthday parties, get-togethers, groceries and chores. Weekdays are time for work, piano(not mine), swimming(not mine), next days lunch. Work is crazy and I don't even get time to visit my blog friends.How do I fit in summer outdoor stuff in this busy schedule ?

In the recent years I have learned to delegate. I have outsourced my house cleaning, occasional help to dust and vaccum. It is hard to get help here in the US but look around and you will find affordable cleaning, someone who might be of service. There might be an Auntie few blocks down who will make you Rotis for the week, a kindly neighbor who will sell home made idli batter, a young Spanish girl who will chop your vegetables for those extra bucks. Once in a while take their help, you not only need it, a busy Mom like you deserves it.

Last month I took a day off. I wanted to take the kids strawberry picking. Since weekends just weren't working, it had to be a weekday. I felt it was really important for the kiddos to know where their favorite fruit was coming from, to know that strawberries are not produced at the neighborhood grocers.

The farm is thankfully not that far and we spent a nice hour or so grazing the strawberry fields. Rows of deep green against the blue sky and the little red fruits hidden in all that green.Being close to Nature is so enchanting that I wouldn't have cared if we were picking bitter gourd and not strawberries.

The kids had loads of fun, they ate some, picked some and I just let them be, at least for this once.

Since they hadn't picked the choicest of fruits, after eating some, I froze the rest. And then one fine day, I wanted to make a strawberry ice cream. Ok not ice cream, but at least a frozen yogurt.

Of course I don't have an ice cream machine. I don't have a whole lot of things. Actually the list of things I DO NOT have is way longer than the things I DO have.

But I won't fret on that, because if your upper arms are as sagzy as mine and you want to do this, you better make ice cream by hand. You will like the process so much that you will do it maybe once and buy Hagen Dasz by the pints. Ok, it is not all that hard, I kid.


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Follow David Leibowitz's hand made ice cream making process. This Strawberry Frozen Yogurt recipe is adapted from here.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

I have used strained whole milk yogurt but Greek yogurt which is creamier will give better result

Put 2 cups of roughly chopped strawberries in a bowl. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of sugar and let them sit for an hour.

In a blender add the
strawberries along with their juice,
1/2 cup of Evaporated Milk,
1/2 cup of Thick Greek Yogurt,
2 tbsp sugar.
Note: Replace Evaporated Milk with
Condensed Milk if you want a creamier, sweeter taste.

Blend till smooth. I also strained the mix through a strainer.

Freeze and follow the hand made ice cream making process. Or use your ice cream maker.

Of Chalks and Chopsticks -- 2nd Edition Roundup

Today I won't talk much. If I start there is no stopping, so I will be quiet, really, really quiet. I will do this so that you get a moment of silence, ok not a moment, you will need more.

And when you get that "chasm of silence" take a deep breath, sit, relax, and lose yourself in the wonderful world of food fiction where real life merges with the imaginary, where food conjures memories, where tales are weaved around life and where life evolves around food.

Presenting Of Chalks and Chopsticks -- 2nd Edition Roundup with stories from 26 very talented food bloggers whose stories are as delicious as the food.

Have a great weekend reading and thinking about your own food story.


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Entries are listed in the order I received them

"Except... Jam!! Sarita was terribly foodie. And her Mom's cooking was something she couldn't do without! And it wasn't just her dal and rice.. Mom's cookies, her cakes, her chicken, her fish, her smoothies, her shakes, her mutton, her quiche....and most of all.. Mom's jams!!!" -- Apple Jam -- Happy Mother's Day from SS@SS Blogs here

"He walked up to the pan which was on the gas burner. There was a strange sound of tiny pebbles clanging against a glass pane. He peered in and saw a kaleidoscope of images flickering in front of him. The pan was full of water. The water was bubbling. There was a thin film of yellow on top. He parted that with a ladle and was intrigued to see what was going on. There were white grains of rice and yellow dots of daal (pulses) circling all over the pan. Soaring up. Going down. Bumping into each." -- Playing 'House' : A Khichudi Recipe Story from Kalyan @ Finely Chopped

"It takes me to places that I lived as a 12-year old, in a house that had a huge kitchen, the time that we had the hottest summers in Kottayam and the baths we used to take under the backyard tap in the dusky evening light. The hot dosas for dinner and this sweet and slightly sour pickle that complemented the dosas like not even coconut chutney could." -- Sweet Mango Pickle - Amma's Recipe from Nags@Edible Garden

"It was hard to tell which came first - the rush of joy at the mention of that unabashedly unwholesome menu or the sigh of relief that the salad could be put off! Or was it neither of these but a surge of love, coupled with the reassurance that he had chosen right, after all? " -- Quinoa: A Love Story from Sra@When My Soup Came Alive

"She quietly eats up the dosa and even the two pieces of drumstick that fell on her plate. She couldn’t tactfully throw the green little sticks onto her brothers plate as she normally would, nor complain about it and chuck it in the garbage. And slowly chewing her food, she understood what the boy meant. She would never be able to say no drumsticks again." -- The Moringa Oleifera story from Denny @Oh Taste n See

"She could see and feel that fateful morning when her mother was preparing ingredients for Momo. It was she who had requested her mom to prepare Momo. From early morning her mom started chopping onions and garlic, kneading the dough, making small balls. She was served steaming hot Momos before she left for school.
Her mom promised Thukpa and Momo after she returned from school." -- Mom(o) from Balaka@Prathompadokhep

"When Shakuntala devi came in the kitchen, it was already 6.30 in the evening. Naren will be here in few minutes or so. She cleaned fish pieces hurriedly and then smeared holod (turmeric powder) and noon (salt) over each pieces well. She then started to make the jeerey/kalo jeerey/golmorich bata in Sheel nora.Then she quickly put the Kadai over gas stove. By the time kadai and shorsh'er tel (mustard oil) was getting hot, she was finished making the bata moshla (masala paste)." -- Tangra Mach'er jhaal from Jaya@Spice and Curry

"Raghu stretched himself up to his full height, took a full breath, and without a single stammer made an offer to the ice cream man "you give us two ice creams and we will give you two bigggg mangoes, what do you think?" The ice cream man thought hard, and drove a hard bargain "I'll give you two ice creams for 4 mangoes, deal or no deal?" Everything sounded fair for ice creams, Raghu ambled up the nearest tree and brought down 4 huge mangoes, they barely fitted into our tiny hands, still we managed to get it over to the gate. " -- Aam Panna from Rajani@eatWRITEthink

"She had borrowed some ingredients from her neighbor to prepare breakfast and she sat in front of the stone grinder and started grinding the batter and Niru came out rubbing the sleep off her eyes.She grinned at her mom who was holding the batter, for it was for her favorite breakfast -Kaara Rotti ,an rare treat!!!" -- Kaara Rotti and the light of dawn from PJ@Seduce Your Tastebuds

"Budhua got up and went to the mango tree behind his hut. Selecting some good sized stones, he threw them at a couple of mangoes. A good marksman, he got them down in no time.
Going inside, he saw the embers of last night's fire had not yet died. He had forgotten to clean out the chulha in his worries. So threw in the mangoes to roast them a little. He would make Aam Pora Sharbat for Moina." -- Aam Pora Sharbat / Aam panna from Sharmila@KichuKhonn

"He started cooking, methodically chopping, washing, sautéing and stirring. He was done in exactly 40 minutes. He transferred the hot risotto to a serving dish as the phone rang. “Hey, it’s me. I am on my way home,” she told him.
He looked around the kitchen and with a sigh started cleaning up. By the time he was done there were ten minutes left for her to reach home.
“Just enough time to set up the table,” he thought." -- Of Quiet Husbands and risotto surprises from Jaya@Desi Soccer Mom

"Maya's question reminded her of the origins of this infamous salad - a summer picnic at Nick's sisters house, when they wanted something Indian. Her sparse pantry had very few "Indian" ingredients but nonetheless this salad emerged as an "Indian" egg salad and stayed that way even when "they" were done." -- Zippy Egg Salad Sandwiches from Rinku@Cooking in Westchester

""Atthe, I cannot make these undes. They are just crumbling. Can you fix it?" girl goes and asks the old lady letting go of her 'Chef' ego. She is almost ready to cry imagining her mother mad because of this. Old lady asks the girl to bring some warm milk, sprinkles it on the mixture and starts making undes. "Thank God for Atthe" the girl sighs in relief and starts to make undes with the old lady. She then fries the ambode and is beaming with pride ear to ear when both the oldies praise her for her work." -- Mother or Not? from Champa@Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen

"That night she boiled some eggs, shelled them and put them in the refrigerator for the next day.She woke up early next morning and started making the egg salad. She packed it in the tiffin box. Mou came down for breakfast and looked glumly at the tiffin box."What did you pack today?Some rice again!" She smiled conspirationally at Mou."Its a surprise!Let me know how you like it." " -- The Tiffin Box from Tania@Experiments Of a Cooking Enthusiast

"He was no novice to cooking but he didn't want to waste his weekend over it. She had a dream the other day that he cooked a number of delicacies and served her. She woke up in the middle of the dream, but her joy and excitement didn't abate. She woke him up and narrated it to him. " -- Love, the Secret Ingredient from Nithu @ Nithu's Kitchen

"” I dont like tomatoes!” cried the girl. “ They are not for you, we are going to eat them.” replied her mum thinking that once the sauce was all mushy & done, the girl will not realise that she was eating tomatoes. " -- Gnocchi with a Tomato Basil Sauce from Bhagyashree@Taste Buds

"“Khe nay, baba”, she said seating herself on a cane modha in front of him. That’s when he started to howl. Just like a baby, bawling and muffling his own sobs. In between drinking water and stuffing his mouth with the sondesh. He choked, ate the sondesh and gulped the water down all at the same time. " -- Sweet Taste of Freedom from Pree@PreeOccupied

"Ma would eagerly empty the khaki bag on a big steel platter and examine the contents with gusto. On most occasions there would be the quintessential Rui or Rohu, the most commonly eaten fish in our house. And then there would be fishes of various sizes depending on what the market had to offer. Finger sized ones for chorchori, and palm sized ones for jhal. The bothi with its curved iron blade would be brought out. Amma would sit on a wooden piri on the floor and place the bothi in front." -- Fishy Tales from Piuly@A Pinch of This and A Sprinkle of That

"I was very afraid to travel alone.as since childhood my family never let me travel alone...my family is very strict...my brother used to follow me everytime i was out may it b my job,interviews,classes.." -- A sweet story and 3 dishes by my hubby from Sanyukta@Creative Sanyukta

"The next day, as Mrs. Kumar walked back from the vegetable seller carrying sweet tiny eggplants for the night's dinner, along with a small packet of gulkand burfi that she simply could not resist, she found the inspector standing at a street corner, staring thoughtfully at the ground. "Not again", Mrs. Kumar exclaimed. " -- Mrs. Kumar and the Sweet Tooth from Nupur@One Hot Stove

"Well, just boil some milk....add some maida and sugar to it. If you want, you can also add essence. Freeze it. Beat it twice in the mixie. That's it.
No amma.....that doesn't sound interesting in the least bit." -- Mango ice cream from Jayashree@My Experiments with Food

"Archana changed quickly, put some tea to boil and set about washing the rice and mixing the curd. “Everything is going to be ok,” she thought as she mixed the curd and the rice and prepared the tempering." -- Anonymous from Jaya@Desi Soccer Mom

"He snuck closer to Amma, who hurriedly put the ladle down, pulled at the sari tucked in at her waist, and smoothed it down with one hand. "Come in, come in!" She called out, picking up the plate of adhirasams. "Look what I made for you-- your favorite sweet."" -- Adhirasam from Vaishali@Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes

"Reluctantly, she ate a spoonful. It had the perfect balance of spicy, sour and sweet, with just the right crunch. A burst of freshness from the cilantro and grated coconut. Exactly the way she liked kairi chi dal.
Exactly the way her aayi used to make it, she remembered. Exactly the way it tasted the last time she had eaten it." -- Kairi Chi Dal from Aqua@Served with Love

""And I must repeat, there were no secrets. I just added a little extra bit of love. Plus, I always chose the fruits with care. The freshest possible, the best money could buy. After all, nothing but the best for you," he smiled." -- Fruit Chaat from Aqua@Served with Love

"Amu always ate last the advantage being that she could eat-heartily without worrying that the food might get short. But today she felt it was a bad idea. Because right in front of her Rati sat and ate and went on eating. And Amu wondered if anything would be left for her at all." -- Cravings from Bhagyashree@Searching Self (Bhagyashree is not a food blogger but her fiction is all about food)

"It would take more than an hour for the payyesh to come to the right thickness. And then Ma would take it off the heat and add the patali, the khejur gur, fresh and deep brown if it was dada's birthday in winter. The whole house would be infused with that rich, sweet smell, that reminded you of cold winter mornings and dew drops clinging on to the leaves." -- Chocolate Brownies for a Birthday from Bong Mom@Bong Mom's Cookbook