So today morning I saw some fresh pudina at the subziwala's cart, and there was this nice kaddu, not very big, so I figured why not try making Jo's pumpkin peel subzi? The only thing that does excite me about cooking is experimenting. Otherwise it is just the endless cycle of cook wash-up cook, right? Kills me with ennui. I seriously wonder if one day in the future the human race might evolve to have only one meal a day: it'd save so much time and effort. Alas, Physics and Physiology contradict me, but Poesy can dream!
Anyway, I started with confusing my veggie vendor: the concept of half a pumpkin proved rather hard for him to grasp. The conversation went something like this, on my side -
Nahi bhaiya, itna nahi, aadha!
Ye to bahut kam hai, aadha!
(I am not known for my love for pumpkin. I always ask for around 300 gm
of it, in one piece, so I can microwave it for muffins, but very rarely
do I use it as a vegetable.)
Wahan se nahi, idhar se kato. Seedhi line mein!
Arre nahi, phir tedha ho jayega!
Accha, main dikhati hoon. Yehan se yehan tak.
I figured I'd need a lot of it to get enough peel for the subzi, and better to have more pulp which can be cooked than have less peel.
About five hours later, when all the veggies had been washed and kitchen tidied and cleaning done, I embarked on the actual cooking. How long will it take, I thought, since the peel is sliced so thinly? I'd start at 12:30 and have a piping hot dish with chapatis on the table at one. Easy peasy.
So I confidently chopped up the onions. Two small ones should equal about what Jo had in her thali. Ohhh, not really. Never mind, a little bit extra won't be so bad. (It was, honestly, just a little more.) And peeled 3 cloves of fat small garlic of the bulb which had accidentally been washed with the rest of the veggies and now needed to be used as quickly as possible. You aren't supposed to wash garlic like that, are you? How lucky that this recipe needed some fresh garlic, I congratulated myself.
The next step was to disentangle the pumpkin seeds from its fibrous flesh. As far as first introduction to that bit goes, it was rather more comfortable than trying to isolate melon seeds. But, oh heavens, look at the clock!
Hitherto I had been imagining myself coolly and calmly churning out a dish like a Masterchef contestant asked to use all parts of the pumpkin. Now, a hint of panic started to well up. Perhaps I had better start heating the oil while I peeled and chopped all that.
While the seeds were washed and made ready, the oil looked hot enough for the tadka. A couple of jeera bits went in before I realized that I had forgotten all about the peanuts. Shucks. The pan went quickly off the gas while I went and rummaged for peanuts. Thankfully I still had about a handful left from some other long time ago adventure. But this is also when I realized that I had no sprouts, of any kind, to use. Oh well, that'll be next time!
I thanked Jo in my mind for her recipe needing only low heat all the time because surely I wouldn't have been able to manage to fry the peanuts while simultaneously peeling the pumpkin. Turns out, I still didn't manage to do that. The nuts did try to splutter angrily to warn me about the heat, but I didn't understand their language. Sadly.
And so I managed to burn the jeera also which turned dark almost immediately after going in.
Onions went in. Garlic went in. And oh oh oh, where was the ginger? Run to the freezer, get the ginger out and peel and grate - oh, no time to grate, just chop it quickly and drop it in the kadhai.
Phew. so that done, now to quickly finish peeling. Girls, that is when I discovered that peeling pumpkin is not the same as peeling potatoes. I should have remembered but I didn't. I had definitely taken a lot more kaddu than I needed. And it took a long time to peel. And chop. I ended up with at least twice the amount Jo had, and had to add water to the onions in the kadhai twice to prevent it from browning! Of course sometime in between the seeds also went in to cook. But let this be a warning to not believe your gut when it thinks you need a lot of pumpkin.
Finally the peel went in, as did salt and haldi and garam masala. I was chopping pudina leaves when it occurred to me that instead of putting it in the end, when it would be more flavourful, I should put it in right now, because how can you trust any green leafy thing nowadays? Oh oh, I had also missed the curry leaves in the beginning! It was optional to be sure, but it would have been better. Another oh well!
When the subzi was finally done, I checked and gosh, Jo's pinch must be a lot bigger than mine. I had translated her pinch of garam masala to 1/4 or 1/2 tsp, but given the amounts I had, it didn't really come through, and my pudina was too little and too early. I never know how to season things properly. However, some mirchi, salt, amchur and garam masala later, it really tasted nice. Slightly chewy seeds, crunchy toasted peanuts, and the not mushy pumpkin. I finished half of it without any rotis at all. Incidentally, it had taken an hour for the food to get to the table :D
And then I spent the afternoon watching tv feeling very much satisfied with this food adventure. I think tomorrow we can all eat bread, to make up for all the hard work I had put in today.
Bet you are going back to see what Jo's recipe actually said, aren't you? So now when you cook this, be sure to drop your comments below!
