Daily Stir Fry with Assorted Veggies

Vegetable Stir fries are also called Upkari or TalasaNi (if seasoned with garlic instead of mustard seeds) in Konkani. An Upkari or talasaNi is almost always part of a complete Konkani meal. Different vegetables can be used either on their own, or as a combination. I like my veggies cooked just enough to retain a slightly crispy texture. Veggies tend to lose their nutrients when overcooked, except potatoes, yams and eggplant which have to be cooked thoroughly. A typical upkari is seasoned with mustard, broken red chillies, or green chillies with or without hing (asafoetida) and curry leaves.

Tendle'n / Gherkin upkari

Beans and potato/batatae upkari (combo)

Recipe for a Standard Upkari

Ingredients:

• about 2 cups your choice of veggies (chopped, sliced or diced)

• 2 tsps Oil

• 2 tsps mustard seeds

• 2-3 red chillies broken into pieces (or green chillies slit)

• a pinch of asafoetida powder (optional)

• salt to taste

• Little water

Fresh beans upkari

Steps:

1. Heat oil, add mustard seeds, and after they splutter add in the broken red chillies, and the hing (asafoetida) if you are using it.

2. Add some chopped veggies, your choice and mix well.

3. Sprinkle a tablespoon of water, salt to taste, and cover and cook on medium to low flame, until cooked to your satisfaction.

4. You can garnish with freshly grated coconut if you wish.

Asparagus TalasaNi (seasoned with garlic)

Notes:

Some Variations to the seasonings:

- You can add a teaspoon of urad dhal or chana dhal (or both to a seasoning)

- crushed or sliced cloves of garlic can be used instead of mustard seeds for seasoning too. At our house, the more garlic, the better. This preparation is called talasaNi.

- Curry leaves can be added to any seasoning if that is your preference

- Sometimes, I like to use green chillies instead of red chillies or a combination of both

- Cumin seeds and your choice and combination of spice powders (turmeric, black pepper, garam masala, chilli powder, coriander-cumin powder)

Vegetable suggestions for the Upkari

- Fresh Beans like green beans (any variety), long beans (aLsandho)

- Greens like spinach, amaranth, malabar spinach, by itself or in combination with jackfruit seeds (bikkand). I make mostly talasaNi with garlic with greens unless i am cooking it for a religious festival menu, in which case I make the standard recipe with mustard seeds.

- chopped ridge gourd (ghossaLe'n), snake gourd (poDDale'n), cluster beans (I add a little sugar in these upkaris)

- Okra/Bhindi (Ladies fingers), raw bananas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yam, beetroot, are great choices

- asparagus 1 bunch cut up

- zucchini (quartered and sliced)

- tender cashew nuts

- sliced tendli /gherkins

- taro roots (for this I boil and take the skin off and cut into pieces, then season mustard and curry leaves in oil. then add the taro root, chilli powder and salt to taste and cook covered on a very low flame for 5 minutes)

- Cooked Sprouted whole mung beans, horse gram, chick peas/garbanzo beans or brown chana make very tasty upkari choices

Zucchini Stir Fry

Upkari Combinations

(these are only some, you can make up your own combinations)

- Chopped cabbage and chopped onions

- Green beans and potatoes

- cooked Brown chana or garbanzo beans with sweet potatoes (the chopped sweet potatoes I add in after the seasoning and cook, before adding in the precooked chana or garbanzo beans.

- Eggplant/Brinjals and drumsticks (to this combo, I add in a little jaggery as well)

- Cluster beans and corn kernels (I add a teaspoon of sugar to this as well)

- cashew nuts combined with sliced gherkins (In India, both the tendli/gherkins and deskinned cashews were precooked and then seasoned and mixed well in the seasoning. Since we like our veggies crisp and cooked, I just follow the standard Upkari recipe and cook it the way we like.)

- Bharshi (combination) upkari (this is usually what I make, when I have small quantities of assorted veggies.

Clusterbeans and corn kernels upkari