Friday, March 30, 2007

Jalfrazie



Jalfrazie, I guess is an amalgamation of different cuisines. It has the spicy and the sour taste fused together. The origin of this dish is still a mystery I reckon, maybe some enlightened soul can shed light on this popular dish.
.

I have tasted this at numerous restaurants in India, some better than others. The restaurants are notorious for using their "secret ingredient" aka tons of oil, but one thing is very prominent and that is the spice level. This dish is supposed to be hot as in "tikha".
.

Anyway, the basic concept is stir frying the vegetables (or chicken, seafood etc) with spices and then throwing in a thick sauce made out of tomatoes and spices. Here is how I make the veg version of Jalfrazie.
.

1 potato sliced like fries
1 big carrot sliced
10 beans sliced at a slant (French cut)
2 small florets cauliflower
2 small florets broccoli (if using)
Few pieces sliced paneer
1 onion sliced
1/2 green bell pepper sliced
2 tomatoes OR 1/2 cup canned tomato
1tbsp ginger/garlic paste
Turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala
2 tbsp oil
1tbsp ghee
.
Heat oil. Add sliced potato, beans & carrot and stir fry on high heat till done. Add some grated garlic towards the end of the saute process. Keep aside. To quicken the cooking process, you may par boil the vegatables and then stir fry. What ever you do, DO NOT add boiled veg in gravy, that is a different recipe altogether, this one is supposed to be crunchy.
.

Heat ghee, saute onion & green bell pepper (see pic). Add a puree of tomato, ginger, garlic, salt, red chilli powder(can use dry red chilli to get the red specks), turmeric powder & garam masala. Cook till oil separates and you get a thickish gravy. Add fried vegetables, paneer and mix well. This dish is supposed to be spicy, so you can adjust spices as per your tolerance level. Garnish with finely chopped paneer, if in a generous mood ;-)
.

Notes:
I generally do not like tomato seeds and skin, so I puree tomato and pass it thru a sieve.
To get the sourness, I prefer to use canned tomatoes. If using fresh tomatoes, you can add some lemon juice at the end.
.
Serve with roti/naan and sliced onion in sirka(vinegar).
.

This is my contribution to Nupur for A-Z series.
I would also like to contribute this to RP for JFI-Tomato.

31 comments:

Kajal said...

Hi Richa,
Thanks for your nice comments. I like your Jalfrazie.
It looks so yummy…….
It is nice recipe to contribute A to Z; nupur’s events.
Pictures look great.
Mane pan tari recipe bahu game chhe.

Have a great fun with your gujarati words. I like it very much.:)

musical said...

Thats a fun post Richa :).

Nice pick for "J" :)

I am watching some old Dev Anand movies this weekend.....Jewel Thief and Hum Dono :)).

Richa said...

hi kajal,

glad you like my recipes, thanks.

restaurant ma tari favorite dish kai chey?

Richa said...

musical dear,

tusi ae subji bannaneo?

tusi purani movies de shaukeen o' ?
'hotho pe aisi baat' jewel thief da gana haega, right?

enjoy!

TNL said...

wow richa....bau saras..."Jalfrezi" etle mane paan khabar nathi..I think, ke "mughlai" word che...but don't know for sure..

ketli languages bole che tu? :-)

trupti

Richa said...

thanks trupti!

ha yaar jalfrazie nu origin khabar nathi, yeah may be muglai mix.

hu toh ghanee languages bolu chu, pan lokoney mari khali char paanch languages samjay che he!he!he!

Mandira said...

the jalfrezi looks delicious richa. Thanks for sharing.

Sig said...

Great looking jalfrazie Richa, never seen a veg jalfrazie before. And nice garnish with paneer, first I thought those were coconut flakes!

Richa said...

mandira,
welcome to my blog
glad you liked the veg.
thanks

Richa said...

sig:

wow compliments on my pic from the ace photographer herself!!

thanks for the inspiration & encouragement.

do give this a try when you are in mood for veg food.

keep smiling!

Viji said...

A nice side dish definitely. Well presented. Tks for sharing. Viji

Richa said...

thanks viji.
the combination of spices works very well with the stir fried veg.

thank you

Anonymous said...

Thats a very nice entry for the event Richa. I have tasted Jalfrazie many times in restaurants and cooked it few times here. I had completely forgotten about it. Its a good lunch box item with chapathis. Thanks for reminding

musical said...

Richa-the polyglot:

Its so nice to see you talk Punjabi and Gujarati in the same breath :).

haanji, assi purani movies de shukin haan te eh gana Jewel Thief di hi e.

Enjoy :)

Richa said...

hey shilpa,
thanks!
do post ur version as well, wud love to see it.
btw today i'm making one of ur recipes for lunch, guess which one?
HINT: once u had it for breakfast, lunch & dinner on the same day!!

see ya around

Richa said...

and marathi and ... he!he!he!

ajj sadda zee awards dekhan da plan haega ;-) kal thoannu odi khabar davangey
tusi movies enjoy karo

keep smiling...

Latha said...

Hey Richa,
Looks yummy! Your pictures look delectable! Paneer Jalfrezie is one of my favorite dishes! Yumm...
Cheers
Latha

Sia said...

u madee me think about it:)
let me start my googling for the answer:)
by the way jalfrazie looks very delicious and shall i place my order?;)

Prajakta said...

I was looking for Jalfrazie recipes all last weekend and now I have such a great one. Nice pictures there as well.

Aahaar Vihaar said...

Hi Richa,
Jalfrezi with vegetables, great choice for Nupur's event. Photograph tempts me to make it right away.

FH said...

Jal Frazie!! WOW!! Looks so good,I am hungry right now.Would you toss me some?;D

Sharmi said...

hey Richa, Nice entry. I have heard of this dish in restaurants but now got the recipe. thanks

cheers
sharmi

Anil P said...

What I find odd is that almost every restaurant I ate Jalfrazie, it tasted different, until I actually gave up eating it since I wouldn't know if the place I walked into would make it of a taste I like :)

Richa said...

thanks for the compliments latha, do try it.

Richa said...

hey sia,
glad you liked it. sure will send some over with the onion in sirka and naan.
enjoy..

Richa said...

welcome to my blog AV.
glad u liked ththankse pics & recipe

Richa said...

sure asha, will send some over.
will i get umm ali in return ;-)
thanks

Richa said...

thanks sharmi.
do try it.

Richa said...

welcome to my blog anil.
yes u r right, i too have had exp with the tasty and the not-so-tasty veg at the restaurants.
why don't you give my recipe a try and see if you get the taste u r looking for.
enjoy

Richa said...

welcome to my blog prajakta.
glad you liked it,
thanks

Suganya said...

hi,
First time to ur bolg...... jalfrazie is very nice....