Spicy Soya Curry

Spicy soya curry…yet another commendable and trendy prototype of South-North cuisine styles’ fusion, combined with moi mediocre culinary skills; well innovated in my humble and safe cooking workplace and effectively tried out on my forever all-supportive family. Thankfully not disappointing them by any means this time round. ;-p

Even though my family has been truly considerate and supportive as regards my frequent “experiments” and the results thereof, the truth is that I’ve always been apprehensive when it comes to revolutionary cooking as I’ve always been taught to adhere to the conventional ways of Kerala cooking. And so, on those days of experimentation and listening of verdicts, there have been a few occasional triumphant smiles on my face when I see my little one devour it with much appreciation; and the frequent contorted looks when it easily finds its way to the garbage. Anyways, this so-called “experiment” quite worked well this time literally forcing me to make it on a frequent basis. Something spicy and healthy to go with a couple of rotis for dinner… Family onto a health spree after recovering from bad health, I guess…. :-)

Coming back to this soya curry, the basic guidelines or the procedure is quite different from my earlier version of soya curry. Unlike the then usage of dry masala powders, I opted to use whole spices to make this curry all the more spicy and aromatic. Moreover, to make the whole process a lot easier, I have used pulverization process instead of sautéing, which definitely saves lots of time and energy. Thanks to the borrowed tips from the cooking web world.

So, here’s how the recipe for a simple and spicy soya curry goes….

You’d require
A cup of Soya chunks
A couple of medium sized Onion
A couple or more of ripe and juicy Tomatoes
A Ginger knob
A few Garlic pods
A couple of Cinnamon sticks (of 1-inch length)
A couple of Cloves
A couple of Cardamoms
A generous pinch of Fennel seeds (Perumjeerakam)
A tbsp of Kashmiri chilly powder
½ tsp of Turmeric powder
2 leveled spoons of Eastern Chicken Masala
½ tsp of Garam masala powder (optional)
Salt – As required
1 - 2 tbsp of Oil
Fresh Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:-
1) Soak the soya chunks in hot water for around 30 minutes or so.
2) Discard the water and squeeze the excess water off the soya chunks and keep it aside. You can also cut it into halves.
3) Grind together onion, ginger, garlic and the whole spices into a fine paste.
4) Heat oil in a pan and sauté the above paste in it.
5) Grind or rather blend the tomatoes in the same grinder.
6) When the onion mixture is sautéed well and the raw smell is gone, add the blend tomatoes into the pan and continue to sauté.
7) When the oil starts to separate from the sides of the pan, add the turmeric powder, chilly powder, chicken masala powder and sauté well further.
8) Add soya chunks followed by salt and enough water and mix well. You can also add a little chopped coriander leaves at this stage.
9) Simmer on low flame until the gravy thickens and the soya chunks are cooked well.
10) Add the garam masala powder and mix well.
11) Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
12) Serve warm with rotis or pulao.

Options available –:

• You can also start the process with a tempering of Cumin seeds to make it more aromatic.
• You can also reduce the quantity of the spices and masala powders accdgly.
• You can also use green chillies while grinding. However, do make sure to reduce the quantity of chilly powder accdgly. But since this would reduce the colour and texture of the dish, I strongly suggest to use chilly powder for best results. And so, though the whole dish has a substantial reddish hue to it, I’m sorry my picture didn’t do total justice at all and lacks that spicy and hot colour. :(
• You can also add in a couple of baby potatoes or hard-boiled eggs and make it all the more wholesome.
• You can even use the base recipe for the gravy to make spicy Egg curry or spicy Mushroom curry.
• You can also add cashew paste to make it more thick and rich.

So, finally you have an effortless and healthy dish that can be prepared in a jiffy and that too devoid of loads of ingredients; infact making it a very good bachelor dish.

Cooking food, I mean tasty food, as they say is a helluva job coz you are never satisfied until you get it right. You are satisfied only when your loved ones’ appetites are satisfied. And when finally you are happy with the final verdict or the outcome of you efforts, you have this urge to go further to persist your quench to be satisfied again. Nothing wrong with that as we only want to make others happy thereby eventually attaining happiness for ourselves too.

But I guess same is not the case with the contemporary human lives. Man seems to be never satisfied with anything; infact anything at all. He’s always on the lookout for superfluous contentment; even if he is cent per cent content with his existing normal life. He goes on to make his life happy even if it brings about unhappiness to others. So, this so-called contentment…is it really worth his efforts if it has been achieved at other’s costs?? Pls do think about it. Hopefully, everyone will.

So, on that contented note, happy cooking!!!