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Kerala Vegetable Stew / Ishtew and Aapam

Whenever I visit a new city in our out of the country, I make it a point to visit the local supermarkets. Nothing reflects the local culture, food habits and buying preferences of people in that city as much as the local supermarket. You might find that crazy but major of my shopping ends up being f
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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 potatoes , boiled , peeled and cubed
  • 2 cups cauliflower florets small
  • 1/2 cup green peas fresh / frozen
  • 3 - 4 cloves
  • 2 cardamoms green
  • 1 cinnamon " stick
  • 1 - 2 green chillies , sliced
  • 1/2 tsp ginger shredded
  • 2 sprigs curry leaves
  • pinch turmeric powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup coconut milk

Method
 

  1. In a pan, place over 1/2 cup water with the cauliflower florets and green peas. Cover with tight fitting lid and boil for 4-5 minutes, until both veggies are tender yet crisp. Keep aside.
  2. In a wok, heat the oil. Stir in the whole spices and then the chillies, ginger and curry leaves. After 30 seconds, add the cubed potatoes, peas and cauliflower along with the water used for boiling. Season with salt, turmeric powder and sambar powder. Stir well. Once this comes to a simmer, add a cup of coconut milk. Let this come to a gentle simmer and then remove from flame.
  3. Keep this covered for over an hour.
  4. Grease a tsp of oil on a rounded aapam pan or any non stick pan. Wipe with a tissue to spread the oil all over the surface. On a moderately hot pan, pour a ladle of the batter, and rotate the pan around to spread the batter into a circle. Cover and cook on medium flame. Aapams are cooked only on one side unlike dosas that are flipped over and cooked on both sides. Remove and serve hot with stew.

Notes

Note:For Aapams - I used the ready Rice Palaapam mix (Fine rice flour with yeast) to be reconstituted with water, salt and a pinch of sugar.
For Variations-You can also break an egg in the center portion of the aapam while its cooking and cover for over 1-2 minutes. The white gets cooked fully and the yellow is slightly jiggly. Crack some pepper and salt into this and you can dip the edges of the lacy aapam into the soft egg before taking a dig into the stew.
This is my submission for RCI Kerala hosted by Jyothsana at Curry Bazaar.