Long Beans Dry Curry (Chorri Shaak)
The other day, I had the pleasure of going ‘Indian grocery’ shopping to with my mother-in-law at one of the plethora of stores in North West London. It’s always an adventure when I go shop with her as I get to learn so much about Indian spices, lentils, and flours. I remember when I was growing up, my own mother trying again and again to explain the same things to me but it was so irrelevant to me. Years on and I seek out every opportunity to learn from people’s mothers.
Anyhow on this shopping experience, I bought myself a variety of Indian vegetables and my mom directing me over Skype, I made a Gujarati meal for dinner.
Serves 2-3; Total time 25-30 minutes
Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes (new or baby ones work best), cut into small cubes (yields 1 1/4 cup worth)
1 bunch long beans (chorri), cut into small 5mm lengths (yields 2 cups worth)
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 cup water
handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Spice batch #1
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera), 1/2 tsp of ajwain (ajmo), 1 tsp sesame seeds; pinch of turmeric powder (haldi) and asafoetida (hing)
Spice batch # 2
3/4 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp ground coriander-cumin powder (dhana jeera)
1. Heat oil in a pan until hot but not smoking. Temper the oil with Spice Batch #1. Add the potatoes and long beans. Add salt, stir and cook on medium heat for a minute or so.
2. Add water and turn the heat medium-low, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes. The water should be fully absorbed by now.
3. To finish off, add Spice Batch #2 and give it a quick stir. Let the flavours develop for a few minutes and sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves. Dish is ready to serve with chapatis. The reason you wait to add the second batch of spices until the end is so that you don’t burn the spices and doesn’t darken your vegetable curry.
For the first time, I was truly satisfied with my chorri shaak. Even my husband really enjoyed it! 🙂
VegDelights 