A day through my life...: Potato Stew

Hello every one, I am back from my short vacation. Last week end was the memorial day week end in US. Just for a bit of wikipedia knowledge, Memorial day in US is the day for remembering the men and women who died serving the United states armed forces. It falls on the last monday of May every year. My hubby took two more days off and we went for a short 5 day vacation in Portland, Oregon. I was very nervous on the trip due to some health constraints. But thanks to God, everything went off fine. Visited some scenic places in Portland including several water falls and two light houses. Absolutely breath taking scenery. More over with light rain during our stay (and heavy rain otherwise) and overcast clouds and you can see only greenery where ever you look. Fresh new leaves were sprouting and many flowers were also in bloom. Loved the experience. Very rejuvenating. The place reminded me of the monsoon in Kerala. By the way, Monsoon starts on the last week of May in Kerala too. And on June 1st, when the school reopens, pouring rain follows. And raincoats and umbrellas were a must while shopping for the new school year... Remembrances aside, the trip was fun...

As for today's recipe, I am part of a group called "Vegan Thursdays" started by Priya Suresh of the famous blog "Priya's Versatile Recipes". We post vegan recipes first and last Thursdays of every month. As part of the Vegan thursdays, I am posting the recipe of Potato Stew today. Recipe source is my mom and I absolutely love the way she makes this stew. Ya, I am one of those rare species who do not like potatoes that much. But with this recipe, I just drink up the stew in a bowl and finish the potatoes as well!!! My mom usually prepares potato stew as a side dish with Appam or Idiyappam and it tastes delicious. The recipe is very simple and very very quick to prepare especially for morning break fast.

Potato Stew:

Prep Time: 5min
Cook Time : 15 min
Total Time: 20 min

Ingredients: (for 2 people)

1 or 2 medium sized potato
1 small onion
1/2 of a green chilly ( Use according to the spiciness of the ones you buy)
1 inch ginger
1 - 2 cups thick Coconut Milk
Water
Salt
4 -5 curry leaves

Prepping:

Step 1: Slit green chilly into two.
Step 2: Cut onion into small cubes.
Step 3: Slice ginger into small pieces.
Step 4: Peel the potato and cut into small cubes.

Method of Preparing:

Step 1:

Pressure cook potato cubes, onion cubes, ginger slices, green chilly and water till the potatoes are boiled. (It takes 2 whistles for me.) Please add water so that when the potatoes are boiled, very little water remains.

Step 2:

Now add 1 or 2 cups coconut milk (according to the gravy you require) to the boiled mixture in the pressure cooker and heat it.

Step 3:

Add curry leaves and salt also to the mixture.

Step 4:

Switch off once the coconut milk starts to boil at the edges. Serve hot with Appam or Idiyappam.

Points to Note:

You can use thin coconut milk instead of water for boiling the potatoes - ginger -onion- green chilly mixture also. If you are using canned coconut milk, thin coconut milk can be prepared by mixing water with the thick coconut milk. If you are preparing the coconut milk fro the freshly grated coconut, use the second milk (Randam Pal in Malayalam) that you get after extracting the first milk as thin coconut milk.
Do not let the thick coconut milk boil well. Switch off as soon as it starts boiling at the edges.
The thickness of the gravy depends on the thickness of the coconut milk. My mom suggested that for getting more thickness, little rice flour can be added. Never tried that though as I like to drink the stew as it is :) Enjoy :)