Cauliflower Peas stir fry / Mattar Gobi

I have been busy lately and could not blog as much as I wanted to. Today I wanted to share with you a very simple stir fry made with cauliflower and peas using a  good old pressure cooker. Wait, I hear your mind voice saying,cooking cauli in the pressure cooker would make it a mush right? But, It does not if you follow OPOS technique.

I had mentioned in my previous post about OPOS and shared the recipe for rawa kesari. For people who have not heard about OPOS, it is a short form of One Pot One Shot, an innovative method of cooking initiated by Mr Ramakrishnan. OPOS is fast, healthy, clean and environmental friendly. One may be intimidated and hesitant to try this concept of cooking, but trust me it is  very efficient. Once you get the hang of it, you are going to be addicted to OPOS!

All you need is a good working pressure cooker, measuring spoons and the mind set to learn.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6FgPMwt0pw&list=PL1A5ukabJeD51pa9Ts1vzFKi_SdYuO50F
Check out this video to learn more about OPOS cooking style. One needs to follow the steps of standardization before jumping into doing all the recipes.

This recipe is from OPOS channel and I used spices according to my liking. The addition of water oil base with curry leaves act as a buffer zone when you are cooking veggies directly in a pressure cooker and prevents burning. One can replace curry leaves buffer to chopped onions  as well. The original recipe calls for dunking he cauliflower florets in boiling water for a few minutes before adding to the cooker. But, this step can be skipped, if you wish to as I did.

I used a aluminum Prestige pressure pan. if you are making smaller/ larger quantities use a 2 lt or a 5 lt pressure cooker.

Get Ready ( serves 4) Cooking time 8 mins, Prep time for chopping etc 12 mins.

• 1 large cauliflower, washed and made into florets ( came to about 5 cups)
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/4 cup curry leaves
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp sambar powder ( or any other masala powder you have)
• 2 tsp pav bhaji masala
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• salt 1-1.5 tsp or per taste
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro or as desired

To temper/ tadka

• 1 tsp oil
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds/ kadugu
• 1/4 tsp urad dal

Go:

• Add all the spice powders, salt to the washed cauliflower florets and combine till well coated

• Take a pressure pan, add the oil, water. Note, the cooker is on the stove yet. This is layer number 1.
• Add a layer of curry leaves or chopped onions. layer 2

• Add the spice powder coated cauliflower florets. layer number 3.

• Add the frozen peas on top. layer number 4.

• Turn the stove and make sure the entire base of cooker is covered with high flame and not burning the bakelite handles.
• Place the weight and cook on high flame for 1 whistle. 
• Turn the heat off.
• Release the pressure manually and open the cooker. Please make sure the pressure is fully released before opening the cooker to avoid burns, injuries etc

See how the cooked peas and cauliflower retain their color!

• You may see a little water on the bottom or not depending on the quality of the cauliflower.
• Cook open till the water dries up.

See, How clean the cooker base is!

• In another pan, do the tadka and add it to the cauliflower peas mixture.
• garnish with cilantro and serve.

Tastes great with rotis, rice. I served with both rice , mor kuzhambu and roti.