Stir Fried Onion & Zucchini Raita/Dip

Long lazy summer afternoons, cold moisture sweating glass of iced lemonade, carressing sun peeping randomly from behind the curtains, all the while spread lazily on sofa and in hand kindle displaying pages after pages of  lovely fictional historical "whodunit?" mystery book. Yeap, thats me this afternoon, enjoying Patricia B Ryan's new historical series "Still life with Murder", great read in all, with a bit of drama, wit and hints of romance, not to forget a good suspense and nice revelations at good intervals. Clock strikes 3:30 pm and its already time to cook our early dinner, now thats a bit unfair for such a good lazy afternoon isn't it?!! But then I remembered I did'nt have to cook much coz peas pulav was sitting ready in refridgerator along with maa-choleyaan di dal and mix-veg curry, all leftovers from last evening's dinner and quantity more than enough to serve 2 very hungry food loving monsters, P & Me. So I carried on with my lazy affairs and completed the mystery novel at precisely 4:17 pm, happy and elated with the conclusion that it offered, my mind was filled with images of how would this story playout if made into a movie kinda thing, funny but I do that a lot. :)
Being happy enough I decided to whip up something freshly cooked, again remembered the amount of food stored in fridge, I decided to prepare raita which would not levy extra burden on already copious amount of food I had in hand.

I coarsely grated 2 medium sized zucchini, chopped 1 medium sized red onion, chopped two green chillies, heated 1 tbs of canola oil in a pan, added 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds added chopped green chillies and onions and stir & sauteed it for 2 mins. Removed excess water from zucchini and added that to the pan.
Threw in 1/2 tsp of red chilli flakes and salt to taste and sauteed for another 2 mins or so. Turned off the heat and let the mixture cool down. Added 200 to 250 gms yoghurt, mixed well and garnished it with few coriander/cilantro leaves. I knew at this point that this will be a hit with pulav.
Happy with the outcome I again laid on my sofa, going through my beloved kindle in search of another mystery/suspense novel to devour. :)

Wishing you all same happy lazy afternoons too!!!

Sev Tameta Nu Shaak/Kathiyavadi Sev Tameta

     "Kismat Kathiyavadi" is a very well known dhaba near Vasad, about 22 kms from Vadodara my home town. Known for its authentic kathiyavadi food like ringan no olo, sev tameta nu shaak, bajri rotla, masala khichdi-kadhi, gathiya nu shaak, lasaniya bataka etc, the list is quiet long. It has been long time since we visited this dhaba so I decided to prepare this simple but very tasty dish for dinner tonite, actually I have to confess after returning from our trip to India, I was running low on my rations of veggies, all I had in hand was a handfull of tomatoes and few potatoes, then I remembered I had brought in a bag of sev from India and hence decide to prepare this dish ;)
This dish is very popular in gujarati households. It can be prepared in a giffy and is also a crowd pleaser. Simple ingredients, fast to cook and tastes amazing what else would you want from a dish!

I served this dish along with phulkas, lasan chutney and jeralu wali chaas.

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped red juicy tomatoes
1 1/2 cups thick sev, I used ratlami sev as we prefer spicy food
1 tbs grated ginger
2 tsp dhania-jeera powder/ cumin-coriander powder
1/2 tsp haldi powder/ turmeric powder
1 1/2 tsp kashmiri lal mirch powder/ red chilli powder
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups water
Handful of chopped coriander leaves for garnish.

For tempering:
2 tbs oil, I used canola oil
1 tsp jeeru/ cumin seeds
pinch of hing/ asafoetida

Preparation:

Heat oil in a kadhai/wok/heavy bottom pan, add cumin seeds and let them splutter, now add hing and grated ginger and sautee for about 15 seconds.
Add chopped tomatoes and all other ingredients except water and sev. Cook for around 3 minutes and add water.
Cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes and add in sev to the cooked tomato gravy.
Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves and serve immediately with hot phulkas/chappati/bajri na rotla.

Tips:
This dish should be served as soon as you add sev to the gravy or else it will turn into soggy mess. If you are preparing it in advance then prepare the gravy and keep aside, just before serving the dish heat the gravy and add sev to it and serve warm.
Adding sugar is important as it balances the tang of tomatoes and sharpness of spicies.
Do not add onion or green chillies to this dish as it tends to overburden this dish with sharpness.
Serve it with garlic chutney and chaas along with phulkas/rotla for the authentic kathiyavadi taste.
Use ratlami sev instead of regular thick sev as it adds to extra favour and spice with goes very well with this dish.

Enjoy!