A Maharashtrian Thali So Simple Yet So Soulful

Hi everyone, today on our delicious journey let's make Rojki Thali very interesting. So today let's make Palak Kansachi Bhaji, Kalai Vatanechi Usal, Batata Bharit, Vatpacha Varan, Chapati and Bhaat. A soulful meal. For the Palak Kansachi Bhaji, I've taken 3 bunches of Spinach here, washed it, cleaned it and finely chopped it. Add half a litre of water, not more. 7-8 Green Chillies and cook it till the leaves wilt. Now here I've taken 4 Corn on the cobs, cut them into 1 inch thick rounds, slices, whatever. And now we're going to pressure cook these along with half a cup of Peanuts. The way my son eats Palak is when I add Peanuts to it, because he loves Peanuts in everything and that's the only way even this grown up horse to eat Palak is by adding Peanuts. And half a cup of Chana Dal. Now I've soaked the Chana Dal for about 45 minutes to an hour. So add half a litre of water to this as well. Pressure cook this for 2-3 whistles. See how beautifully the Spinach is cooked. Take a masher and just mash the vegetable. We'll add the other spices now to this. A tbsp of Red Chilli Powder. A tsp of Goda Masala. Now we'll add 2 tbsp of Jaggery to this. And 2 tbsp of Thick Tamarind Pulp. Now mix this well. You must be wondering why I haven't added the salt as yet. Just be patient, we'll add salt right in the end and give it a good boil later. Now just cover this and cook it for another 5 minutes. Now while the Palak is still cooking, we're going to make a nice Gram Flour paste. So take 2 tbsp of Chana Atta or Gram Flour. Add half a cup of water to this and make a no lump paste. So the Peanuts, the Chana Dal and the Corn are also done. We've cooked the vegetable also for quite a bit. Now we'll add the Gram Flour, Besan ka Atta ka slurry to this. It'll add a little body, a little thickness to the curry. Now add the salt. Also add the cooked Corn, the Chana Dal and the Peanuts. Now just mix this well. Now the other vegetable you can use instead of Palak is Arul. You get special leaves to make the curry, the Colocasia leaves. They are much more tender that is used to make this curry. You can use those instead of Spinach as well. Now cover this and cook for another 5 minutes while we prepare the Tadka. Heat 3 tbsp of Oil, I'm using Peanut Oil here. So the Oil is hot and I have crushed 7 large cloves of Garlic. Now we'll add this Tadka to the Palak Kansachi Bhaji. What an amazing aroma, I love the aroma of fried Garlic, I just love it. Our Bhaji is also ready, we'll keep this aside and we'll make the Kala Vatanachi Usal. Now for the Kala Vatanachi Usal, I have soaked 2 cups of Kala Vatana for 8 hours. Then drained them and then I allowed them to sprout. Add 1 cup of water to this. A tsp of Salt. Now we're going to pressure cook this for 2 whistles. And now we'll prepare the water. So first just saute 3 medium sized Onions that are sliced. See now the Onions have browned well without adding Oil to this. Now add 2 tbsp of Oil to this. And now just saute this for another 2-3 minutes, we don't want it to be crisp and dark brown, okay. Now while the Onions are also getting browned, I'm going to be adding 7-8 cloves of Garlic. 5 Green Chillies. An inch of Ginger. Now just fry this for a minute more, not more. It's been 2 whistles now. Shut the flame. See this should be the colour, it shouldn't be too brown but it should not be raw as well. Now in the same Kadai, I'm going to add 1 1⁄2 cup of fresh Coconut that's been grated. And roast it till it's brown. The Coconut is also roasted well. See this. Now remove this along with the Onions. Now in the same Kadai, add 1⁄2 cup of dry Coconut that's been grated and roast it well. So this is also done. Now add a cup of water to this once it's cooled down and grind it to a fine paste. So we've made a fine paste out of the roasted Onion and Coconut. Now we'll make the curry. Now first heat ¼ cup of Oil. Now for the curry, take 1 large Onion and finely chop it and add it to the Oil. Now saute the Onion till it is soft and pink in colour. Now that the Onions are translucent and soft, add a tbsp of Garlic paste. A tbsp of Ginger paste. And 1 large Tomato, finely chopped. Now saute this Masala till the Tomatoes are nice and soft and cooked well. Now here I have Malvani Masala, this is also easily available. Jai Ho to online shopping. Add a heaped tbsp of Malvani Masala. Or you can add even 2. Add 2 to 3 tsp of Water. And fry this Masala. Now you can see the Oil has started to separate. Now add another ¼ cup of Water to this. And cook it for another 2 to 3 minutes. This Masala has got such a beautiful colour, just see this. Kale Vatane also are cooked to perfection. Now we'll add the cooked Peas. Now this Vatap that we have made, add only half of it. Mix it well. Now cover this and cook for 5 to 10 minutes on a low flame. And this remaining Masala, that is a bonus for you. Please put it in an airtight container and you can refrigerate it for at least 10 days. So you want to make this kind of a chicken again, you know you don't have to start right from the scratch, okay? Now, just take 3 to 4 tbsp of this boiled Kale Vatana. Cool this and grind it to a paste without adding water to it and then you add this back into the curry. It will give a lovely thickness to the Kale Vatana that you serve. See how wonderfully the gravy has become nice and thick once you add the ground Kale Vatana. So now just bring this to a boil and our Kale Vatanacha Rassa is ready. See our curry is ready. What an amazing fragrance, Garam Garam Chapati or Bhakri with this and Koshimbir. Perfect meal na, very comforting. So now, we'll make the Vatapacha Varan. So here I've already boiled 2 cups of Toor Dal along with 1 large Tomato that's finely chopped. See, I added little Turmeric to this as well and Salt. Now, we'll make the Vatana for this. I'm taking 4 Green Chillies, 1 cup of freshly grated Coconut, 1 Onion, a tsp of Jeera. Now, grind this to a coarse paste. We already have Onions in it so don't add too much of water in this. See this, this is how coarse the paste should be. Now, I'm going to add this Vatap to the Dal and bring it to a nice boil. The consistency of the Dal should not be too patla or thin or it should not be too thick as well, okay. Keep that in mind. So you can see, the Varan has come to a boil. Shut the flame, now we'll prepare the Tadka. So for the Tadka, heat 3 tbsp of Oil. Splutter a tsp of Mustard Seeds, a tsp of Cumin Seeds, a pinch of Hing, a sprig of Curry Leaves, now add this Tadka to the Dal. Cover this immediately and let the Tadka infuse into the Dal. So for the Batar Echa Bharit, heat 1 cup of Oil. Now to the hot Oil, add a pinch of Hing, 1 tsp of Mustard, 1 tsp of Cumin, and 2 Onions that are finely chopped. Saute this for a minute, not more. Now to the soft Onions, add 3-4 Green Chillies that are finely chopped, 5-6 Cloves of Garlic that are finely chopped. Saute this for another minute. Add 1 tsp of Turmeric, some Salt to taste, 1 tsp of Roasted Peanut Powder. Now the Peanut Powder should be nice and coarse. Mix this well. Now add 1 cup of freshly chopped Coriander. And here I have 3 boiled Potatoes, I'm just going to crush them with my hand. Mix this well. Now cook this for a minute and the Batar Echa Bharit is also going to be ready. Now let's quickly plate our Thali. So our soulful Thali is ready to be served. I can't wait to dig into this Thali, damn my diet today. I'm going to eat this, please try all these recipes, make this Thali. Let me know and one more thing I want to tell you, please click pictures of whatever you cook and keep sending it to me, we can also post this on my Instagram and also on my YouTube, okay? So, enjoy cooking your Thali and keep watching Smita's Day.