Borboti Bhaji....Gujrati style

Its been ages now I guess. As I mentioned, being mother to a hyper-active 9 month old is a full time job....add an IT job to it and you have hell broken loose. Exactly what had happened to me. With audits going on at work, daughter down with cold, I felt I needed 48 hours days. I wouldn't even speak about nights...I am dreaming about sleeping like a child for 8 hours some day. That's a luxury currently :(

Lets come back to the recipe now.

I have a friend at work....Sudipta...a total foodie....a pork and beef addict like I am....only difference being that she could survive happily on Maggi for days.. not that I couldn't, but she just refuses to cook properly. She would do a daal and dheros bhaji with a sad face if she had to. But I feel bad for her poor hubby and for her as well. I still coax her to learn cooking...she actually tried cooking banana flower and even Paneer tikka one day. She is improving I guess.

This recipe, being so simple and yet so tasty, is to inspire her. Go on Sudipta, cook some more!!

For me, inspirations come in all shapes and sizes and from all directions as well. My mom, grand-moms, mother-in-law obviously top the list. Then there are others....friends, friends' moms, neighbors, aunts, restaurants, magazines, cookery shows, even the chowmeinwala near my office or Bapi Da's momo shop at Karunamoyee. All of them count.

I am not so much fan of how my mom cooks borboti or long beans, with potato in a tomato gravy. So I always avoided it.

This I learnt from my Gujrati neighbors. Now the Parekhs happen to be more than family. They virtually feed me and my sister when ma is not at home. Which is why I am so fond of whatever they cook I guess. A hungry stomach is fond of any food they can get hold of. Well jokes apart, the eldest Parekh wife, whom we call Boro Aunty cooks like a goddess and unfortunately likes to hold to her secrets. This is the only recipe I could get hold of and even after cooking this one at least hundred times, I fail to get the same taste. Seems she has cheated on me this time as well.

However mine comes out a close second to hers...so I could do with sharing mine with all of you. I am sure even those who hate string beans will fall in love with this recipe. I can have this every day and in every meal of my life and still not get bored with it.

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

About 500gm String beans or borboti.
1 tsp. asafetida/hing
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 tsp. ajwain
1.5 tsp. chilli powder
1.5 tsp. dhania powder
2/3 tsp. garam masala dowder
1.5-2 tbsp. oil
Salt

Recipe:

Chop the beans into 1/2cm or even smaller pieces.

Heat oil in the wok. Add ajwain, followed by hing and baking soda. Follow this with the beans and salt. Give a stir and cover. Put on low heat.

The string beans will release loads of water. Once it begins to dry up, add the rest of the masalas and just a sprinkle of water. Cover again and put on low heat.

Once the beans start looking like a mash and dries up, take it off heat.

I like this with rice and rice only...but I guess the health freaks could try with roti. I warn you it wouldn't taste the same though.


And there you have it. Enjoy with your rice.