Kashmiri spiced roasted vegetables

Well, this week along with the turnip greens we were blessed with some turnips, not a lot about 3 fairly large and pretty purple topped varieties.
Well, I pondered on what to do with them, I like these with lamb, however I needed to put together a vegetarian main dish and my vegetarian (sans garlic eating MIL) is visiting for the week.

I did not know whether this would work with lettuce which is the other thing that we have so much of in our garden. So finally I thought of adapting a fairly rich recipe for the oven.

I know that a lot of people avoid the oven in summer, but I have to tell you I prefer it sometimes to stove top cooking. Today it was time for the oven.

Kashmiri spiced roasted vegetables

This recipe came together very nicely and with fairly interesting results.Kashmiri Dum aloo uses small baby potatoes, that are deep fried and then cooked till dry in a nice spice base.

Here I roasted vegetables and then baked them further with the spice and yogurt sauce.

Ingredients

3 medium turnips, peeled and cubed

2 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 cup medium sized broccoli florets

1 cup medium sized cauliflower florets

1/3 cup oil

1-2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1/8 teaspoon asafetida

2 cups low fat yogurt

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon red chili powder

Method of Preparation

1. Prick the vegetables well, until they appear porous. This is a tip I got from some recipe that Sanjeev Kapoor had suggested. It makes the vegetables crisp and helps absorb the sauce.

2. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

3. Place the vegetables in a baking pan and drizzle with some of the oil and salt and bake for 15 minutes.

4. In the meantime, heat the remaining oil and add the ginger and asafetida and cook until the ginger is nice and crisp.

5. Add in the yogurt.

6. Grind the fennel and cloves to a powder and add in with the red chili powder and remaining salt. Bring the sauce to a simmer, it should be a fair thin sauce.

7. Pour this over the vegetables that should be nice and crisp at this time and cook for another 10 minutes, until the sauce is almost absorbed by the vegetables.

Well-rooted medley

This recipe is something that I had actually cobbled together last fall. It is made up of turnips and potatoes sauteed together, with some freshly grated ginger, drizzled with a nice dusting of chopped dill and cilantro. It is a perfect example of how wonderfully flavorful a few good flavors can be.

Well Rooted Medley

Prep Cook Time: 20 minutes

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon, freshly grated ginger

4 small turnips, peeled and coarsely diced

3 potatoes, peeled and coarsely diced

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon red chili powder

1 tablespoon chopped dill

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the ginger and saute lightly.

2. Add in the turnips and the potatoes and the salt and red chili powder.

3. Mix well and cover and cook on low for 10- 15 minutes, till the vegetables are soft and golden in spots.

4. Mix in the chopped dill and cilantro.

5. Enjoy!

Salgam Paneer - Turnips cooked with homemade paneer

Taking a page our of my own book I gave turnips a try. What I mean by that is that for some reason, I have never given turnips a chance, for no particular reason, just felt that they were too similar to potatoes. I personally love potatoes and often to do make room for any other starch...

How similar are turnips to potatoes? Well, looking though the web, it turns out they are actually much lower in carbs than potatoes, if that is your diet issue of concern.

Well, there are purple top turnips a plenty around our place, this time of the year. This recipe is exceedingly simple, with the exception of the fact, you do need to make the paneer at home, not a huge issue, but just needs some planning time.

So, to make the paneer, this is what I did, I brought about 1/2 a gallon of 2% milk to a boil, squeezed in a whole juicy lemon and waited for the milk solids to separate. Then I drained and gathered the cheese in a cheesecloth and set aside to drain.

Salgam Paneer - Turnips cooked with homemade paneer

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Serves 6

Ingredients

8 small to medium trimmed white turnips

2 onions

1 large (about 1-inch) piece of ginger

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon ground fennel

1 teaspoon red chili powder

3-4 cloves

2-3 cardamoms

1.5 cups of beaten yogurt

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup of very finely chopped turnip greens (optional)

1 cups of prepared crumbled paneer

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Chop the turnips into eights.

2. Peel and thinly slice the onions and grate the ginger.

3. Heat the oil and add the ginger and the onions and cook for 7-8 minutes on medium heat, stirring frequently till the onions soften, wilt and then softly turn golden brown.

4. Add in the turnips and the turmeric, salt, coriander, fennel and the chili powder cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. By now the kitchen begins to smell quite glorious.

5. Add in the cardamoms and the cloves and the yogurt and bring the liquid to simmer. Reduce the heat and add the salt and the turnip greens and cook covered lightly for 15 minutes.

6. Remove the lid and stir in the paneer and cook for another 3-4 minutes, check the seasonings and stir in the cilantro and serve immediately.