Thursday, October 2, 2008

the Really easy rajma curry

Rajma is a favorite at our place and goes very well with roti ,chapathi as well as rice

STEP 1 : Soaking and pressure cooking Rajma

Rajma

Choose the light brown ones and skip the dark ones. The dark ones need prolonged cooking, and that’s not Really easy

250 g

Soak overnight in sufficient water. First thing in the morning drain away the water, rinse the soaked seeds well.
Pressure cook soaked rajma for atleast 20 minutes. Old kitchen wisdom advises against adding salt as that prevents satisfactory cooking of the rajma. Try cooking with added salt. It did not make too much of a difference for me

STEP 2 : The final preparation

Oil

2 tblsp

Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp

Onions, medium sized, cut into thin slices

2

Ginger –garlic paste

1 ½ tsp

Curd

2 tblsp

Tomato

1, pureed

Salt

To taste

Turmeric

½ tsp

Coriander powder

1-2 tsp

Chilli powder

1 tsp

Garam Masala

½ tsp


Note: Some recipes use onion paste. I found this gives too strong a taste and I prefer to use chopped onions. Too much of tomato isn t too good, again going by my preferences !

Heat oil in a heavy pan. Add cumin seeds. Take care not to burn the cumin; 30 seconds should do.
Add onion and fry till transparent.
Add ginger garlic paste and mix well. If you have a good nose for things, it helps. Ensuring that the rawness of the ginger garlic leaves the pan is the best way to know you can move on. Other wise I would spend 3-4 minutes here.
Add curd and blend it in well.
Now add the tomato puree. This is again an important step and the trick is to cook the tomato well in the onion. Looking for the oil to separate from the mix is a dependable sign.

As you are waiting for that to happen, add the powders, coriander, chilli, turmeric and salt to the mix. ( If you ve pressure cooked rajma along with salt, then watch your salt now! I skip salt here.)
Now add the boiled Rajma and let it boil in the gravy on a slow flame for about 10 minutes. The rajma stock in the pressure cooker can be put to good use during the final cooking. Garam Masala for the final effect.

Another option is to add the gravy mix to the cooker and pressure cook for 4 minutes but I haven t tried this so far.

Use Kasoori methi once you get a hang of the cooking (advanced level!!)

3 comments:

Gita Jaishankar said...

Hi,
This is my first visit to your blog. I like all your recipes. The details on each recipe are useful.

lubnakarim06 said...

As the name says the recipe really sounds easy. Must try to me. Bookmarked.

Sujatha said...

My first time here, and your rajma recipe sounds easy.. I like your tips.. :)