Vellai kurma - Vegetable kurma

When I was a kid, we used to goto a restaurant nearby and my favourite dish in that restaurant was idiyappam - kurma. They used to serve a white colour kurma which I used to love with Idiyappam. When my mom started making idiyappam, I demanded the same side dish. But the kurma my mom made was brown in colour (though it tasted great) and I was not satisfied. It took some time for my mom to find the recipe of this vellai kurma. A neighbouring aunt who is from tirunelveli gave the secret to my mother. And here I am sharing the secret with others.

Ingredients:
onions - 50 grams
carrot - 35 grams
beans - 35 grams
potatoes - 35 grams
tomatoes - 20 grams
coconut (grated) - 25 grams
green chillies - 2 nos
Oil - 10 grams
ginger/garlic paste - 5 grams
coriander leaves - few
mint leaves - few
Salt - to taste

Spices:
cloves - 2 nos
cardamom - 1 no
fennel seeds - 10 grams
poppy seeds - 5 grams

Method:

• Grind the coconut, fennel seeds, poppy seeds and green chillies and keep aside.
• Finely chop all the vegetables. We can also add peas, cauliflower etc... to make the dish more interesting.
• In a pressure cooker, pour oil and and add the cloves and cardamom.
• Add onions and ginger/garlic paste. Fry until the onions are translucent.
• Add the rest of the vegetables except tomato. Add salt, mix well and cook for one whistle.
• Open the pressure cooker, add the grinded coconut paste and finely chopped tomatoes.
• Mix well and allow the gravy to boil.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and mint leaves.

Kurma ready. Serve with hot idiyappams.

Note:
Since we dont add coriander powder/garam masala powder/chilly powder, the gravy tends to be in white colour or off-white colour. For the same reason, tomatoes are added at the end, so that the colour of the tomato doesnt sink in the gravy.