Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Nimona (sort of) - Fresh peas in a spicy sauce

I had watched bits and pieces of the documentary Food Inc. at a friend's house and also a program on PBS about the documentary and wanting to see it fully in the comforts of my couch. My local library has a copy but I have been on hold for more than 4 months and about 40th in the list. Despair not, the documentary will be on PBS, April 21.





It seems like not too long ago the talk was about our record snow fall and now it is the record heat. How hot? The idli batter fermented without putting in the oven. That hot.





Meera's Blog Bites recipe for Nimona was the inspiration for this dish. I had green peas, fresh spinach, radish but no potatoes. Nimona does not have spinach, I decided to use it in place of the minced peas.






No potatoes can you believe that? So a nimona, sort of was made with the ingredients on hand. It is not as attractive as it would have been if you had stuck to the recipe and DD asked me correctly if I had made a healthy curry.






Ingredients
1. 1 1/2 cups of fresh green peas
2. 1 cup of chopped red radishes (10) - (use potatoes instead)
3. 1 bag of spinach - 6 cup loosely packed, chopped (optional)
4. 1 onion chopped
5. 3 tomatoes - 1 1/2 cups chopped
6. 5 garlic cloves
7. 1 1/2 inch knob of ginger
8. 3/4 tbsp red chili powder
9. 3 tsp cumin powder
10. 2 tsp turmeric powder
9. seasonings - cloves, cinnamon and asfoetida
10. salt to taste
11. 1 tsp oil
12. 2 tsp ghee

Method
1. In a pressure pan heat the oil and saute the onion, ginger and garlic till brown. Set aside.
2. In the same pan saute the tomatoes for a minute or two.
3. In a food processor blitz the onions,ginger and garlic till coarsely chopped. Remove.
4. Puree the tomatoes, set aside
5. Now add the ghee to the pan and add the seasonings.
6. Add the radish and saute till they start to brown.
7. Add the onion mixture and saute for a few minutes
8. Add all the powders and give a good mix
9. Add the chopped spinach and let it cook on high heat till they wilt.
10. Add the tomatoes and if required 1 cup of water and salt.
11. Let it boil together for 8-10 minutes.

24 comments:

  1. Im giggling after reading your comment on mine :)

    I thought this one was almost like aloo matar, adding radish would be really healthy, good for the liver! Good one to welcome the sunshine!

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  2. I wud like it potato instead. Looks so tempting with roti.

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  3. No potatoes? Now that is shocking :-)
    Thanks for the documentary mention, I will keep an eye on it. Like this curry with peas, spinach, but I would like to try this with potaotes.

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  4. Indo, we had summer like winter while the rest of the country experienced extreme winter with lots of snow even in places like Houston but now we are having winter weather with rain on most days.
    Curry sounds healthy but I`d prefer with potatoes.

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  5. I always avoid using Raddish in any sabzi but never thought of replacing the potatoes in alu Matar style one !

    this seems quite interesting :)

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  6. Adding radish sounds interesting, looks fabulous..

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  7. that indeed a healthy curry. looks similar to alu mattar without alu. perfect for this hot season.

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  8. Delicous looking curry. I have neve rcooked with the small red radishes. We always eat them fresh with boursain cheese.
    That seems to be a populat documentry if it has such a huge vwaiting list.

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  9. This combo of greens with radish is totally new to me. And the plate with roti and Nimona its inviting right away. I envy you for DD's attitude over health food! Thats so sweet of her :)

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  10. wooow!!! sounds great dear sauce (curry) with radish n peas,, good for the health n the ingredients looks tempting sure it will taste good with rotis..

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  11. Ok, so I finally get to see what Nimona looks like! Have seen this recipe in books on UP/Varanasi cooking. Didn't realise it would have spinach in it.

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  12. I am still debating about whether I want to Food Inc or if it will give me nightmares...wonder if that movie will tell me anything that I don't already know.

    I've been eyeing Meera's nimona too! Your version looks terrific.

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  13. Sra, nimona does not have spinach in need, they use minced peas instead.

    Just got confimed how popular potatoes are, feel I now have to defend the humble radish.
    Imagine it were the radish speaking (in a meek voice it would say): I wasn't all that bad!

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  14. Nupur, you should watch, you'd learn so much and then we will go back to doing what works for each of us individually.

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  15. I will check out the documentary... hope to record it so I don't miss. Love the name - Nimona - find it so cute and that curry looks good even without the potatoes :)

    I don't want to complain abt how hot it is after the winter we had :D But atleast there's a nice breeze to counteract the heat.

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  16. I would want this with rice :)

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  17. It's getting hotter here too :-)But still I need to put my batter in the oven
    This sounds quite interesting

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  18. Nimona looks so delicious and looks very tempting with freshly made rotis. Thanks for the tip on Food Inc; I have watched it once but won't mind watching it again at-all! It does have an effect of putting people off of eating fast food chicken or supermarket chicken though; just as a pre-warning from someone who went off chicken for a while after watching it :)

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  19. We saw temperature in the mid nineties this week too, it seems we went from winter to summer with no stop in between for spring !

    The curry looks yum, very healthy too!

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  20. Thats the same story everywhere, exact as it is in the land of rising sun...only thing is too much soy there, here it is more americanized.

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  21. Nice healthy dish, herbs and spices from your spice racks, it's easy to prepare and not a hustle at all. I love the way you present your food.

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  22. no potato?!! LOL..

    I have never combined peas, radish and spinach except for a bengali labra or chorchori. very nice recipe and yes healthy too.

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  23. I like the spices you put in the recipe! thanks

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