Note: This post is not adorned with mouth watering photos that usually other food blogs contain (often unfairly). I say unfairly because these days I seem to be perpetually hungry because of browsing all of the colourful splash. May be we should make a food blog rule that all good food photos should follow after a warning – “Beware: Hunger inducing photos follow”. Getting back to the point, read on for a neat recipe.
Enlightment strikes in the most nonchalant ways. This time it struck me a couple of days back when my visiting mother in law causally gave me a recipe over a random chat. ‘Radish leaves are edible!!!”, I thought.
I usually leave the vegetable shopping to Satish – over the last one year he’s become an expert in picking vegetables from taro/arbi that does’nt turn ‘gooey’ to richly coloured eggplant with almost invisible seeds to radish that just has a mild taste. But this sudden enligtenment called for my rare appearance at Pazhamudir Nilayam yesterday, to scourge for radish leaves that are cut to be thrown away.
I had to convince the man near the radish stack that I was perfectly sane and definitely wanted only the leaves and not the radish. The girl at the sales counter was equally bewildered – “I cant bill for waste!!! What can you make out of this?!!”. I simply said, “I dont know, may be Masiyal” (which should make sense to any Tamilian). But she seemed even more confused. Perhaps, people who sell vegetables at Pazhamudir Nilayam need some cookery lessons.
Here’s the recipe for Radish Leaves.
Preparation time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 10 minutes, Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 Radish Leaves
- 1/4 cup groundnuts
- 1 tsp chilli pepper
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
- a pinch of hing (asafoetida)
- Salt to taste
- Oil for cooking
Method
1. Remove the thick stem from behind the leaves.
2. Wash the leaves thoroughly – remove every ounce of dirt.
3. Fine chop the Radish Leaves.
4. Microwave the groundnuts for 45 seconds on high to roast them. You can also roast them with oil on a stove. Keep aside the groundnuts for cooling.
5. Microwave the leaves with turmeric, hing and a few drops of water on high for 4 minutes. Alternatively you can do this on a stove. Ensure that the leaves are well cooked and drain any excess water.
6. In a kadai, pour 1/2 tbsp oil and add mustard seeds. add the cooked radish leaves after the mustards crackle. Keep the flame low.
7. Coarsely grind the groundnuts in blender. Add this to the leaves in the kadai.
8. Add salt and chilli pepper. Cook on a medium flame for a thirty seconds to a minute. Transfer to a serving dish.
Serve hot with rotis, rice (or even pasta!!) and curd.
I made this for the morning breakfast to go with a modified version of a traditional pasta recipe that is cheeseless. Yes, there are lovely pasta recipes that are to be served without cheese and taste incredilbly good. But that calls for another post.
FootNote: The leaves are a wee bit bitter, so Satish who has baby like taste buds din’t quite enjoy. I recommend for those of you who dont like even a pinch of bitterness – the same recipe with paalak keerai. I loved the ‘kai’ although I admit that this is not something that can be consumed in large quantities.
Read Full Post »