Matar Aloo ka Nimona | Peas Potato Gravy in Awadhi Style

Welcome to the 19th Edition of Blogging Marathon. I must confess I have sort of settled with the new pattern and in fact, look forward to trying out four different themes each week. Though the pressure and stress are not there, I think we can live through it. For this edition, I had really worked overtime thinking about making the themes challenging. So instead of giving tough themes, I thought I could give more rules for each theme. I am surely going to enjoy how each of my fellow bloggers is going to do the challenge.

Coming to my first week, I selected to do Cooking from BM Blogs. In this theme, we have to select one blogger and cook from their blog. After deciding this, somebody suggested that I could make it even more challenging to ask folks to cook as per the edition's themes. Well, that's really tough since I had decided what I make already. So I had to really think through the conditions and concluded that I have done justification for my own rules. I hope you make these and enjoy it.

Though I would have loved to cook with all my BM friends, I thought I must start with Vaishali's space. Now if I must say something about this wonderful energetic lady, I may go on and on. I am sure many of you who have interacted with her know that. I met her through BM and yes from the first interaction we have caught on. We frequently chat over the phone and discuss pretty often for the Indian Cooking Challenge. I must say she is one of those bloggers who support whatever I do. If you must know I seriously thought of flying down to her home when she dished out so many Thalis. I must have shown her thalis to everybody at home and to my colleagues as well. Amma and Athamma loved her Thali presentation and appreciated the hard work she had put in. I am so glad of our friendship and recreating her dishes were just a small token of the appreciation I want to show.

Matar Aloo ka Nimona

I had bookmarked many dishes that I wanted to try from her Thalis. From her list of recipes, I wanted to try those gravies the most. So I selected those that suited the other themes as well, like calcium-rich, 30 Mins Meal, etc. Al the dishes kept up to their look and appeal. First, to be presented today is a colorful and lovely gravy called Nimona. If you were to look up the Internet to research Nimona, you won't find much. This is because this dish is more of a home fare and not usually featured in restaurant menus.

Nimona is usually prepared during the winter season when fresh peas are abundant. The specialty of this gravy lies making adding a puree of the fresh peas, including the whole peas as well. And also using Mungodi or dried, fried Mung dumplings in the gravy. When I went through Vaishali's recipe I was wondering how to replace those mungodis, she suggested that we can replace them with Aloo. So you see another new combination was formed. I guess it's pretty common for most gravies to be added with Aloo when you can't lay your hands on some ingredients. The puree, the peas, and the aloo made a great combo. I served these with Kulchas, it was a deadly combo on whole.

Mattar Aloo ka Nimona

Step by Step Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cuisine - Awadhi
Preparation Time : 10 - 15 mins
Cooking time - 15 mins
Serves - 4

Mattar Aloo ka Nimona

Adapted from Vaishali

Ingredients Needed:

Shelled Fresh Peas - 200 gms / 1 cup (half for the puree and half whole peas)
Potatoes - 2 medium
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder a pinch
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Bay Leaves - 3 -4 small
Tomato puree - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

For Onion paste
Onions - 2 large
Oil - 1 tsp

Fry the onions in a nonstick pan to crisp and make a paste of it.

For Masala paste

Ginger - 1’’
Garlic -  5-6 cloves
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Preps
Make a paste of 100 gms peas. Microwave the remaining peas for 10 mins. Else boil in a pan.

How to make Matar Aloo Ka Nimona

Wash and mark on the potato with a knife. Microwave for 8 mins and soak in water. Peel and cut into small pieces.

In a nonstick pan, heat ghee. Add bay leaf. Saute for a minute. Then add the ginger garlic and cumin paste. Saute for a couple of mins.

Next ass the peas paste. continue sautéing for few mins, until the raw smell leaves. Then add the fried onion paste. Saute for 5 mins in sim.

Now add tomato puree and all the spice powders. Simmer with a lid covered and cook till the ghee comes up. Now add the boiled aloo and saute well for a couple of mins

Add a cup of water and simmer till the gravy is cooked and you get a thick gravy.

Serve with Roti / Naan / Kulchas

Notes:

If you want the potatoes to crisp you can roast them as well. If you are using the mangodis, you need to add them when the gravy is simmering and cook till it's done.

Recipe