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French beans or French beans with mushrooms sabji - Vegetable - Indian recipe

Ok, Ok, I admit, I gave in to the temptation, and finally bought a packet of fried onions! They are probably the best-est ingredient you can have in a kitchen (especially if your kitchen is ‘desi’ - For non-desis; desi means being from southeast asian countries). And what do I say about cooking with fried onions, well, making a meal is a dream.

This recipe is a combination of beans with mushroom I had at Yasir’s aunts house (she is called Badi (’badi’ means big in hindi) aunty; she is the best!), and since then I daydream about it. This recipe for making beans is taught to me by Fauzia (if I dont mention her name, she will haunt me in my dreams :S) It is nothing unusual, just make your beans vegetable as you normally do, add the sauteed mushrooms to it, almost towards the end. So here it goes.
Ingredients:

green beans fresh or frozen, about 2 cups
mushrooms sliced, about 2 cups
fried onions, approx handful
tomato paste 1 tbsp (more if you like the tangy taste)
garlic chopped, as much as you like, I use about a 1/2 tbsp
spice mix: 1/2 tsp turmeric (haldi), 1/2 tsp red chilli powder(mirchi), 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1/2 tsp corriander powder (dhania), 1/2 tsp fennel powder (saunf) ( if you do not have some of the spices listed, you could leave them out, its ok!)
oil for cooking,
Method:

First pressure cook the beans till they are tender. On the other side, sautee the mushrooms and keep aside. In a small pan, make the spice sauce. To do this, start with oil in the pan, add garlic, when it sizzles, add the spice mix, just mix it for few seconds, add the tomato paste. Mix and cook for a couple minutes. Finally add the fried onions; crush them between your palms. Cook again for a couple minutes. Now mix the beans, mushroom, and the spice sauce together (if you dont like mushrooms, or are allergic to it, then leave them out, and you will have french beans cooked in Indian style). Cook for a few minutes, till it all comes together.

Serve with steamed rice.

Note: If you dont have fried onions, then just chop up one onion, and when you start the spice sauce, start with the frying onions, in the oil, then garlic, then spices, then tomato paste.

December 3rd, 2007