Alu Methi/ Potatoes with Fenugreek Leaves

I  started to change my blog  and simultaneously things started moving on the house sale, I got some design to do, a birthday party to organize and so on....Sorry for the delay in opening up the blog again. Once it got closed it felt awkward to open it up again incomplete and what seemed like a day's work took more than a few stolen hours from here and there.  It still has glitches so do let me know but my better half asked me to open it up without spending more time fine tuning it , so bear with me.

In the meanwhile, the leaves outside changed colors, and its all halloweeny everywhere with pumpkins, scary ghost decorations and rust colored leaves covering the roads. The winter jackets came out and except for a short spell of the glorious weather (when I obviously ended up being outside the whole day with my little one and not doing anything else), the cold toes and chilly breezes are here to stay. All the birds are busy deserting us and I wish I too could migrate to a warmer weather for the winter. In the summer, all our friends also have parents and family visiting (not us this year) and my friend's apartment complex where I hang out, is bustling with kids, and parents of all ages warmly strolling around enjoying time with kids. Makes the whole place feel alive and like any place back in India. Come fall, they all too start boarding the earliest flight available and the same apartment complex looks forlorn and cold and dead with everybody cosseted inside.

 When the mind is preoccupied  with all kinds of worries but no action is required as yet from you, what do you do?  I do my grocery shopping and start planning the next meal as an escapism from the worries, as a form of stability and as something that is creative and anyway needs to be done.  Accomplishing a meal with out a takeout menu gives a sense of balance in a lost day.  But then these meals are not blog worthy.. they are not elaborate, they are not exotic, they are not exceptional or  have any memories attached to the recipe..they are just meals that everybody is making on any given day amidst schedules busier than mine. So then I lost the thread of "what to blog"!
A lot of my friends are much better cooks and make better use of their time juggling all the things along with a full time job and they don't blog. If I could blog their days, you would appreciate each of them who make a wonderful meal at any given day in the blink of an eye after a long day  doing a job/ looking after the kids and driving them around for their multiple activities. (As my friend's toddler recently asked her, " Are you my cooker and driver?")   Out of a child's mouth...:)

So while I do showcase Malabar Specialties, I have no time for that right now and  wish I had a place nearby that I could pick up some Porotta and curry, while I make Alu methi instead which takes a fraction of the time. So to cut a long story short, Potatoes with any kind of leaf..Fenugreek leaf, Spinach Leaf, etc is a good way to get veggies in and the leftoers make good stuffings for paranthas.

I use more leaves and less potatoes to get more nutrition but you could do change the proportion to your liking. Methi leaves have a bitterness to them which is mitigated by the potatoes and taste good while spinach is a limp companion. Another leaf I haven't tried in this but would like to is Broccoli rabe which also has a bitterness. If the bitterness is too much for you, you could reduce it by adding a tablespoon of cream in the end.

You Will Need:

2 -3 cup fresh methi (fenugreek) leaves (cleaned, washed and finely chopped)
Potatoes-1 medium peeled and cut into small pieces

Onion- 1small one chopped
Garlic-1-2 flakes of garlic  crushed
Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp
Red chili powder-1/2 tsp or more

Cumin seeds (jeera) -1/2 tsp

lemon juice-1/2 tsp
Vegetable oil-3 tbsp

Salt To Taste

Preparation:

Soak the methi or spinach leaves in lots of water and wash repeatedly to get rid of the dirt. Drain for some time and then chop them finely.

Cube the potatoes and place in a glass bowl with 1/2 cup water. Boil the potatoes in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes. or boil them as you usually do till they are almost cooked.

Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and crushed garlic and stir well. Add the onions and saute for 2 minutes.Add the potatoes and fry well on all sides till the potatoes start turning slightly brown. Add salt, turmeric, chili powder all over and  keep stirring till the spices coat the potatoes. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to tartness. Add methi and cook on a medium flame till done and till water is fully absorbed. Add oil if the vegetables are sticking to the pan. Serve with roti.


P.S. The water from the methi changes the texture of the potatoes slightly.
If you like a fried potato taste, you could saute the methi separately in a pinch of salt and 1 tsp of oil till it gives out all the water and then add it to the semi fried boiled potatoes. If the potatoes are too cooked , they will need more oil to get fried so try not to cook them fully.

Filling: Just dry the leftover subzi completely in a pan, smash with a fork to an even consistency and use as filling for parantha instead of pototoes. Make sure the filling is dry else rolling out the paranthas are not fun.

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A belated Eid Mubarak to all my friends and readers. This year Eid was on a Sunday which in this country means, everybody had a holiday and could really celebrate it. Unlike India, only common holidays are the public commemorative ones and the religious holidays are limited to only some factions. Hope you all had a wonderful time with your families and friends.

I am still catching up on my old posts and this was one I started a couple of months back. One of the funny things about being a food blogger is that I keep getting offers to advertise or showcase different food products. That's not what this blog is for so I mostly turn them down... but when I got an offer for coupons for something I always buy anyway, I couldn't resist it. If you have been following this space, you would know the importance of yogurt in my house and the versatility of it in my recipes.

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If you have any leftover grilled or fried chicken or chicken dry curry , u could add onions and chilies and make the filling masala.  The filling should be dry for the samosa to hold together.

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Fasting or Feasting?

It's always nice when your mind can get off a rut and think afresh. Last few weeks whenever I opened my blog and looked at the keyboard, all my mind was filled with, was the status quo. Now, with the advent of Ramadan, there is a relief in the line of thought. With fasting and fast breaking, the conversation has shifted to food, religion, and consciousness.

Everybody knows the goodness of fasting..every body fasts in different ways..on Tuesdays, Fridays, without grains, without meat, without dairy products..or follow lent.. Every religion has some kind of fasting embedded in it. Definitely healthy to get rid of toxins and change your food habits once in a while. Besides the religious aspect, fasting is a great way to discipline the mind and control cravings.

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