J is for...(Veg.) JALFRY & J is also for JFI !!!

Childhood is full of so many memories and so many of them connected to food.. I remember , it was always a treat to 'eat out' ! We went to restaurants near our home, within walking distance.. we had no car then. Our favourite places were 'Swagat' & 'Satkar'. I always had a fixed idea of what I was going to eat, Punjabi food and in that ... Chana Masala, Alu Palak (green vegetable), and Paratha or Naan, no variation to that. This meant my parents had to order those and another something for themselves. I remember trying to eat a whole naan(this was when I was in school class 3-4 when the appetite was not comparable to greed!)... stuffing it in and then groaning as I staggered home, to proud to admit I had overdone it!

Later when I started experimenting with other names on the menu card, my parents NEVER ordered the above mentioned veges.!!
After college, when I learnt a 'Punjabi vegetables course', I regretted it. I was the only one in my household who liked Punjabi vegetable preparations. My parents were not too keen ... they preferred the 'usual' for everyday meals.. and unfortunately, when I made anything, the quantities were strictly according to the recipe, which served 6 persons... and above!
One such vegetable I learnt was Jalfry... in fact the name itself was not too appealing to me then.... but I later came to know it is the same or similar as Jalfrazie!

All these years I kept the notes safe and now finally, when I blog, I have the opportunity to try them out.. on a rather unwilling guinea pig... I mean, subject... my dear Hubby! who wants nothing more than his 'Dal-rice' and *no spice*! ~snort~ Now, that was not so polite of me, was it?! But honestly, sometimes in a darker shade of mood, I tell him, " maybe you should have married a girl whose expertise was burning water!"

Anyway, moving on .. although the popular saying goes... dinner like a pauper.... we Indians are probably taking our time digesting that! Dinner is the only time when all of us get together and eat! And after a tiring day, of which a lot of energy, (temper), time is consumed in travelling (here I draw from my own past trials (read, horrors) of travelling in Mumbai), it is bliss to sit down to a hearty dinner.

Though we are spared of the horrors of travelling out here, the hearty dinner is a habit we cannot seem to shrug off!

So for tonight's dinner the vegetable gracing my table is JALFRY, which is also my contribution to Nupur's A-Z of Veges.
Another thing that makes this vegetable great is that, it does not use any spices, to get the taste! No Garam Masala! The Tomato & Tomato Ketchup, give it a nice tangy taste.

I would like to include this as my entry to JFI hosted by RP of My Workshop along with other tomato chutney recipes here and here which I have previously blogged ....(ek teer, do nishaan!!)
For the Jalfry :

100 gms. EACH, Carrots, French Beans and Peas (if u want a shortcut, use a can of mixed veges., like I did)

2 Potatoes

3 Spring Onions

1 tsp. Ginger chilly paste

2 Tomatoes Pureed

1/2 cup Tomato ketchup

1 tsp. Red Chilly Pwd.

1 tsp. Sugar

Salt to taste

3 tbsp. butter

Cilantro

Wash and cube the vegetables.

Steam the cubed vegetables(except the spring onion).

Chop the spring onions, do not discard the greens, keep them aside.

Heat butter, add the chopped spring onion and fry well.

Add the tomato puree

Add gin-chilly paste, chopped cilantro and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the ketchup, steamed vegetables, onion greens, salt , red chilly powder and half a cup of water.

Boil for 10 minutes.

Serve with Rotis / Parathas/ Naan

Pin It