Name:
Recipe name and category: Undhiyu, Entrée (Vegetarian)
No. of servings:
Preparation time:
Recipe ingredients and
directions:
Ingredients for the
Undhiyu:
2 green bananas
1 medium-size dudhi (a
kind of squash)
2 cups tindola (a
vegetable not unlike mini zucchinis)
4 tbs vegetable oil
2-4 green chilies, depending
on taste, minced
pinch asafoetida
½ tsp turmeric
1 cup fresh peas, podded
2 tsp fresh fenugreek
leaves, coarsely chopped
2 cups whole broad beans
(papdi)
1-1/2 cups green tuver
(pigeon peas)
salt
¼ cup fresh or frozen grated
coconut
¼ cup coriander leaves,
finely chopped
water
Methi Moothia (Chickpea flour dumplings):
1 cup chana flour
pinch baking soda
¼ cup methi leaves, coarsely
chopped
1 green chili, minced
1 tbs lime juice
¼ tsp sugar
water
4 tbs plus 1 tsp vegetable
oil
For the methi moothia: Combine chana flour, baking soda, and
methi leaves in a bowl. With a mortar and pestle, make a paste of minced green
chilies, salt, lime juice, sugar, and oil.
Add paste to the chunna flour and methi leaves. Add just enough water to bind the
ingredients. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in
a small frying pan or heavy-bottomed casserole. Form dough into little dumplings and deep fry in hot oil until
golden brown. Drain on paper
towels. Set aside.
For the undhiyu: Cut green bananas (with peel), dudhi,
and tindola into large (approximately 2-inch) chunks. Heat the leftover oil from frying the methi
moothia in a large, lidded casserole.
Add bananas, dudhi, tindola, minced green chilies, asafoetida,
and turmeric and fry until just fragrant and warm. Add remaining vegetables (peas, fenugreek leaves, papri, tuver)
and salt. Stir and cover. Reduce heat to minimum and cook for up to
two hours, stirring vegetables every once in a while so they cook evenly. About ½ hour before serving, add the methi
moothia. Just before serving, add
half the fresh grated coconut and chopped coriander and a little water. Cover and steam for about 3 minutes. Garnish with remaining fresh grated coconut
and chopped coriander. Serve with bajari
rotlo, a dark, earthy, millet flatbread.
The name of this dish means “upside down” in Gujarati. At the height of the winter vegetable season, before the searing heat of summer ends the harvest, tender fresh produce was collected and placed in a terra-cotta pot that was sealed with a terra-cotta lid using a layer of wet clay around the rim. The pot was then placed upside down in a pit in which a fire had been made and allowed to burn down to hot coals. More coals were heaped around the pot and the vegetables inside were allowed to slowly steam their way to doneness. This is a Jain version of the famous dish, which otherwise usually includes eggplant and may include potatoes. Jains believe that eggplants and cauliflower contain high levels of microscopic organisms (i.e., many lives) and are therefore to be avoided. Orthodox Jains also consider all root vegetables, which grow in dirt, to be unclean and do not consume them.
Recipe source: Grandmother
(kids’ great-grandmother)
Recipe anecdote: This
recipe is included in my book Motiba’s Tattoos: A Granddaughter’s Journey into Her Indian Family’s Past. The book won the 2002 Washington Book Award.