chukandar ke patton wala rajma | palak wala rajma | kidney beans cooked in beet greens or spinach gravy

I love rajma and make it in so many different ways that whenever I soak some rajma to cook I have to plan the way I will be cooking it the next morning as I rarely depend on one specific way to cook my rajma.

It doesn't mean I don't like the traditional rajma but I love experimenting more. I keep buying so many varieties of rajma it will be criminal to use them all in a singular way.

The badarwahi rajma from Jammu is usually cooked the traditional way or with beets puree added to the bhuna masala mix. The Jammu badarwahi rajma also tastes great with a simpler buttery gravy, the Kashmiri rajma.

The Uttarakhand rajma is cooked usually with a very light curry which is onion based as that was the way I loved it when I tasted in Uttarakhand. The big sized Uttarakhand rajma is very soft and creamy though it takes some time to get cooked in pressure cooker. I love the Uttarakhand variety with spinach puree added to bhuna masala mix.

The rajma cooked the Himachali way with spinach is also one of my favourites.

I make a variation of rajma that is called Gogji Rajma and is made with either Turnips or Knol khol. These Kashmiri recipes are so simple to cook and so delicious that one finds comfort in them even though one is not grown up eating them. Such is the case with me at least.

The recipe of Gogji Rajma will be shared soon but the pureed beets and beet greens and spinach rajma is not much from the recipes used all over north India, hence sharing them together to give you an idea of how a single dish can be nourishing and yet easy way to accommodate vegetables and beans in one.

ingredients
(serves 3-4, depending on side dishes or the lack of it)

200 gm raw kidney beans (rajma), soaked overnight
1 tsp salt, add more later to adjust
1/4 tsp soda bi carb
1 liter water
500 gm cleaned spinach leaves or beet leaves
60 gm or 1 large sized red onion roughly chopped
15 cloves of garlic
2 inch piece of ginger chopped roughly
2 large ripe tomatoes chopped roughly (or 1/3 cup thick yogurt)
2-3 red dry chillies or to taste
2 tbsp everyday curry powder 
garam masala powder to taste
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp mustard oil
pinch of hing (asafoetida)

procedure 
Drain the rajma, transfer to pressure cooker pan, add salt and soda bi carb and water and pressure cook for 20-25 minutes. Cool down before opening the cooker. Rajma should be well cooked and cracked.

In the meanwhile, prepare the greens and the spice mix.

Chop, steam, cool and puree the spinach or beet leaves. You can use a mix of both or just boiled beets puree instead of the leaves. I use boiled beets puree when making rajma with badarwahi (jammu) rajma.

Make a paste of onions, ginger, garlic and red chillies and keep aside. In the same blender puree the chopped tomatoes too. Or blend the yogurt if using. Keep aside.

Heat the oil, add hing and wait till it gets aromatic. Pour the onion paste and bhuno till the mixture looks glazed or oil separates.

Add the powder spices and bhuno again for a few minutes or till the mix becomes aromatic.

Now add the tomato puree or whipped yogurt and bhuno once again till the mix becomes glazed. Add garam masala powder and let it incorporate. Do not bhuno much after adding garam masala.

Add the spinach or beet greens puree (or boiled beets puree if using) and simmer the mix for 5 minutes or so. Add the cooked rajma with all the cooking liquid and simmer for 10-20 minutes. The rajma soaks all the flavours and the curry gets delicious.

Sometimes I add half puree and half chopped greens to get a nice texture. See this spinach rajma cooked with yogurt.

I need very little rice with my rajma and here is how my mug meals look like. This mug is 700 ml capacity and most of my soupy meals are enjoyed like this. Hot and comforting.

Always adjust seasoning too, because some mature leafy greens are a little alkaline in taste and you may want to have lesser salt in them and balance the alkalin etaste with some added yogurt or lime juice.

Serve with some butter on top of plain old ghee, or without any topping as the rajma itself is so flavourful.

This kind of rajma is best served with plain boiled rice but it tastes great with thin delicate chapatis or thick millet rotis too. Try this kind of rajma with some crisp hot parathas to break the monotony.

Some days you must try these rajma recipes enriched with the goodness of greens. It does take some time to cook but you can always cook in a large batch and serve 2-3 times over a week. Or just keep some bhuna masala for convenience and make any rajma recipe quick. We always find a way to eat what we like.

recipe of sepu wadi, a delectable rustic treat from Himachal Pradesh

Sepu wadi is a rustic yet aromatic recipe from Himachal Pradesh, cooked mostly for wedding feasts as it is supposed to have been a recipe from the royal kitchens of Himachal Pradesh. The recipe of Sepu wadi was closely guarded by the royal cooks as I have heard some Himachali folks say but now that this wadi is available in the market even in dry form, it proves how popular it has become with everyone in the region, and with those who get to taste it. Count me in.

I used to cook sepu wadi after I had seen the recipe on one of the TV shows I used to follow long long time ago. And then I lost the recipe and used to crave for the same taste. Then I saw dry sepu wadis at Himachal stalls at trade fair and wondered if those are the same as in the TV show the wadi was made fresh.

I was puzzled about this dual identity of sepu wadi for a long time until I saw it again when it was being cooked at the home stay (Raju's Cottage) at Goshaini. Lata ji, the lady of the house cooks all meals for the guests and is a great cook. I had requested her to cook some of these Himachali dishes and she obliged. That's when I saw her soaking dry sepu wadis to cook them with spinach. The wadis are deep fried and sold in markets for convenience. A genius enterprise of the local cottage industry I must say. I had only seen dehydrated Amritsari wadis or wadis from other regions of India but deep fried sepu wadis are a step ahead regarding convenience of desi foods.

This is what I saw at Raju's cottage.

I loved the wadis cooked in spiced spinach puree and took the recipe too. Thankfully there is loads of spinach growing in the garden and needs to be used a lot.

I prefer freshly made sepu wadi as I find the texture better suited for my taste. Of course I wouldn't trust the quality of oil they use to deep fry the ready to use sepu wadis. So I make my own fresh sepu wadis. Once you have planed your work well and work on it rightly, this recipe wouldn't be so time consuming as it looks.

Recipe of sepu wadi..

ingredients for the wadis...
urad daal (skinned black lentils) 1 cup to be soaked overnight
(this makes a lot of vadis for about 6-8 servings, the leftovers can be frozen for later use)
cumin seeds 2 tsp
peppercorns 2 tsp
ginger grated 1 tbsp
dry red chillies 3-4
mustard oil to deep fry the wadis

ingredients for the spinach gravy (2-4 servings)
spinach cleaned, chopped roughly and steamed 2 cups packed
yogurt 1 cup
mustard oil 2 tsp
cloves 4-5
black cardamoms 2
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
coriander seeds 1 tsp
asafoetida (hing) a pinch
fennel powder 2 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
chilli powder 1/4 tsp or more to taste
dry ginger powder 1/4 tsp
salt to taste

Procedure..

To make the wadis, you can divide the work into 2-3 days. Soak the lentils overnight and grind with the cumin, peppercorns, ginger and dry chillies without adding any water to it. Blend well so the paste gets fluffy. The paste can be left to ferment for a few hours or you can go ahead and make the wadis right away.

The wadis can be made the next day and even after making them they can be refrigerated and used whenever required.

To make the wadis, boil about 2 liters of water in a deep vessel with a little salt. Make smooth balls the size of ping pong balls from the lentil paste and drop them in the boiling water. Let them all boil for about half an hour. Fish them out and let them cool down.

Once cooled, cut them into bite sized pieces and deep fry in hot mustard oil. These deep fried wadis can be refrigerated for a week or frozen for a few months to be used when required.

To make the spinach gravy, blend the spinach along with yogurt and salt and keep aside.

Mix the powder spices with a little water to make a paste and keep aside.

Heat the mustard oil and tip in the whole spices. Let them splutter and get aromatic before pouring in the powdered spices soaked in water. Mix well and let them fry till a bit fragrant.

Pour the spinach yogurt mix, add sufficient water to make the gravy of desired consistency, keeping in mind that the wadis will soak up a lot of water. You can also add water as the curry cooks.

Let the green gravy come to a boil. Add required number of wadis, 4-5 wadis per head should be enough but go by your choice. It will be good to chop the fried wadis further if they are too big or too hard.

Simmer the curry till the wadis soak up the juices and become bigger and spongier. Adjust seasoning and serve hot with plain boiled rice or rotis of your choice.

We loved it with makki ki roti more than rice.

Note how this curry looks almost devoid of any oil in it. Not that it is a low fat recipe but there is not much oil even if the wadis are deep fried. The reason is that the the urad daal wadis don't soak much oil while deep frying and if we use less oil for the gravy, the overall fat percentage will not be too much. Although you can always use more oil for taste and convenience of cooking.

This sepu wadi curry is so flavourful you wont feel like having any other side dish with it. Just a few raw slices of tomatoes and onions will be great, just like the frugal desi meals we love so much.

The flavours of fennel, cloves and black cardamom is so potent in this curry and the tartness of yogurt just balances everything nicely. I like this curry slightly hot with a god chili kick but you can always tone down the heat to your preference.

Apart from the taste and texture of the wadis in this curry, I love the spinach gravy a lot. And since I have loads of spinach in the garden right now, I have been making this same gravy with boiled rajma (kidney beans) as well.

For the same amount of spinach gravy I add a cup of boiled kidney beans and simmer till fragrant. This becomes a filling meal with just a spoon of rice in it. I don't want to dilute the flavours I like it so much.

Cook the spinach curry sometime even if you don't have the patience to boil and deep fry the sepu wadis. You can use chickpeas or mixed lentils for this curry and see how much you like it. This will give you an idea of what flavours sepu wadi packs in.

These are some of the desi flavours that I love and you would be glad to know how healthy these meals are. Out traditional food is mostly gluten free and uses the seasonal produce so efficiently and optimally.

I always feel we don't need to use any produce being transported from faraway places or out of season as we can cook so much variety or flavours with just the few produce we get in every season in every place. I have experimented enough to conclude this.

Sepu wadi will remain a favourite for several reasons. Thanks to Lata ji at Raju's cottage, Goshaini for reviving sepu wadi in my kitchen.

kashmiri rajma : the most simple delicious rajma recipe you need

Beans and rice or rajma chawal as it is called in the north of India is not as Indian as I have grown up thinking.There are other places in the world where this meal is cooked in different ways. Check out here if you don't already know. Now I wonder it may have come to India through the spice route and welcomed by the curry loving folks.....

The variety of kidney beans and black beans available in our country is a testimony to the grand welcome this kind of beans received here. Welcome would be a wrong word to say in this age as we have grown up knowing it as a truly indian khana. Somewhere deep in my heart it hurts to acknowledge that rajma chawal is not truly Indian by origin, you know what I mean ....

Rajma chawal is such a punjabi favorite that it is the most favored comfort food in this part of the world. A delicious filling meal of rajma chawal once a week is what a true punju needs to go through the rigors of life.....true bliss on a plate. It is such a popular meal that small stalls or rehris (push carts) of rajma chawal can be seen in almost all the north Indian cities to cater to the low budget traveler or even the office goers during lunch break.

Rajma is usually served with plain boiled basmati rice. I cooked small grain govindbhog rice for this meal as it is very very soft and goes well with this mildly flavored smooth kashmiri rajma.

Now about the rajma being kashmiri, this is a variety of kidney beans smaller in size and darker in color, very smooth n creamy and flavorful when cooked, called badarwahi rajma or kashmiri rajma.

It grows in the hills they say, I get it from a small shop owner from katra whenever we visit Vaishno devi. It is available in Delhi too you just need to look out for very small grains of rajma with dark skin color.

There are other varieties of kidney beans too, chitre rajma, pahari rajma of uttarakhand, and many other varieties which differ in taste and texture though all of them are great if prepared accordingly.

This recipe of rajma is kashmiri too , it is mild in taste as the flavors of the rajma beans is so wonderful you'd not want to mask it with overpowering spicing. So it is just the onion-garlic-ginger-tomato gravy and a hint of butter brings the richest flavors of rajma. This is the favorite rajma of Arvind while I sometimes like it a bit spicy n hot made the punjabi way but he always prefers this one whenever asked.

I used to love it at one of my Aunt's place and learnt it quickly as the recipe was very simple and tastes unbelievably creamy mild and full of earthy rajma flavor. Every family has it's own version of rajma and another kashmiri version uses the fennel-dry ginger- kashmiri masala and that version is very different from this one....

This one is absolutely our favorite kashmiri rajma...

ingredients...
 ( for 4-5 servings )

rajma / kidney beans 250 gm
( i used badarwahi or kashmiri rajma as this recipe is best suited for this variety)
the beans have to be soaked overnight 
red onions medium sized  2 nos. or coarse onion paste 1 cup
ginger paste 2 tsp
garlic paste 2 tsp
tomatoes large and fully ripe 2 nos. ( or 200 ml tomato puree )
red chilly powder 2 tsp
( i used regular chilly powder, use kashmiri chilly powder if you want a brighter red color )
cumin seeds 1 tsp
bay leaves 2-3
ghee 1 tbsp
butter 1 tbsp or more
salt to taste

procedure...

Boil the soaked rajma in pressure cooker for 12-15 minutes under pressure, with enough water to submerge the beans and salt to taste, till the rajma beans look cracked.

Do not use the soaking water for cooking as it causes flatulence (due to phytates that are soluble in water and get washes away when soaking water is discarded), traditional cooks cook along with this pinkish water though. Some cooks don't even soak rajma and cook it directly, I wouldn't ever do that. 

Make a coarse paste of onions and tomatoes separately and keep aside, the onion paste should be about a cup full and the tomato paste should fill up 2 cups, juice n all.

Heat ghee in a kadhai or any thick base pan and throw in the cumin seeds, wait till they splutter and get fragrant and then pour in the coarse onion paste ....

Fry with a pinch of salt and throw in the bay leaves after a couple of minutes, bay leaves should not be put directly into the hot ghee as the essential oils get lost at such a high temperature, it releases great flavor in a watery-oily cooking mixture. Add the ginger n garlic pastes too and fry till the ghee separates...

Now add the fresh tomato paste too or tomato puree if using , and fry for another couple of minutes, adding salt to taste.

Wait till the tomatoes are cooked and then pour the boiled rajma into the kadhai ...

Add water if needed, depending on how thick or thin gravy you like and as soon as it starts boiling, add the butter too. Simmer this for about 15 minutes on low flame, the rajma beans will soak up all the flavors from the gravy, very subtle flavors with just a mild hint of aromatic spice due to the bay leaf used....

Because of such a mild spicing the actual taste of the rajma is enhanced by the butter even though it is used in minimal amounts and the rajma is not at all oily. No ghee floating on top.

With hot boiled white rice it is a slice of heaven on your plate, I like the spicier punjabi version of rajma with brown rice or with boiled millets daliya (broken millets). With coarser grains the spicy curies and stews taste great.

This Kashmiri rajma needs a perfect mate. White (rice) is right with this.....the beans are melt in your mouth texture and the puddle of gravy beneath the rice is something to relish without any hindrance of a side dish.

Do you need sides with your rajma chawal? Really?

For me just a few slices of onions and cucumber and I am set.

Other versions of rajma will be featured soon as I like to cook according to varying moods and seasons and different spices are needed at different points of time. That is why we cook the same things differently I think...