Part II: Vegetable Masala

Of course, we needed a vegetable dish for our Indian Feast. Since the main dish had a sauce and so did the Paneer, I wanted the vegetable dish to be "dry", but still spiced. So i found a recipe for Vegetable Masala.



2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, chopped
10 green beans, chopped
1 quart cold water
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes - blanched, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 sprig cilantro leaves, for garnish

1. Boil potatoes, carrots and green beans until tender.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook mustard seeds and cumin; when seeds start to sputter and pop, add the onion and saute until transparent.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, garam masala, ginger, garlic and chili powder; saute 3 minutes. Add the cooked vegetables to the tomato mixture and saute 1 minute. Garnish with cilantro leaves.
   

I followed the recipe pretty well, except i omitted the frozen green peas. I just do not care for green peas. The original recipe didn't ask to boil the vegetables, it asked to neat them up in the MICROWAVE!!! I looked at the recipe and thought...don't insult me! The result of the dish was okay. I thought it needed more flavor...maybe more salty or a bit of sugar to enhance some kind of taste...something was just missing. Rachelle liked it. I guess it was alright because we wanted the trout to be center stage...more on that later.