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.