Aloo Matar Gobi

Vegan Mofo 2010 – Day 30
Well it’s come to the end of a wonderful Vegan Mofo. Our fellow vegans have really done themselves proud with some amazing recipes using so much imagination.
I think we should try to keep this up as much as possible and try to post at least once a week ? Anyone else agree ? It will be great to keep up the momentum and grow our online community from strength to strength.
So those of you that have followed my blog for the last 30 days (and I managed to post every day for 30 days) may have noticed that I love Indian food. So I thought it would be fitting to end with my favourite Indian dish – Aloo Matar Gobi. (aloo = potatoes, matar = peas, gobi = cauliflower)

Aloo Matar Gobi
Ingredients :
1 medium to large head of cauliflower
6 medium potatoes
6 large tomatoes skins removed and diced (*)
2 tablespoons freshly ground ginger
As much fresh green or red chillies you want (The hotter the better – but if you don’t have fresh chillies – dried red chillies will do)
2 teaspoons of black mustard seeds
2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of turmeric
2 teaspoons of curry powder (or more if you like)
2 teaspoons of chilli powder
If you have coriander powder and garam masala that would be good about 1 teaspoon of each.
Fresh lemon juice and paprika for the potatoes.
A small handful of fresh coriander leaves for garnish.
Vegetable oil for cooking
OK now for the potatoes …
The super evil way is to peel and cut in quarters, steam until soft and then roast in oven on a medium-to-high heat until crispy. 5 minutes before the potatoes are done remove from the oven pour fresh lemon juice and paprika over them. (the lesser of all evils is to add the potatoes just before adding the tomatoes)
Preparation:
Use a wok or a deep skillet dish that has a lid so it can be covered.
Turn the plate onto medium heat and heat up enough oil (maybe 2 or 3 Tablespoons)
When the oil is nice and hot add the seeds (cumin and mustard)
When the seeds start popping put in the other spices including the ginger and chillies.
Stir quickly for about 30 seconds and then add in the cauliflower and stir them around so they’re well coated.
Do that for about 2 minutes and then add the tomatoes.
You can raise the heat until the tomatoes are cooking nicely and starting to break up then add enough water to cover everything without making everything float.
Then cover and simmer like that for 10 – 15 minutes and the tomatoes have turned into a nice sauce or gravy.
Cover your wok if you can.
When there’s a nice sauce add the roast potatoes and leave for 5 or 10 minutes !!
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve on a bed of steamed basmati rice or a nice garlic naan like the one below (I can’t take credit for making the naan unfortunately).

Garlic Naan
(*) Do you know how to peel tomatoes the easy way ?
OK it’s really easy. Make crosses over the top and bottom just slicing the skin slightly.
Then soak in boiling water for 10 minutes or so then add to cold water and the skins starting peeling off by themselves. Peel off the skins remove hard bit at the top and dice the tomatoes into small pieces.