Corn Capsicum Masala

Hi Everyone! 🙂

I’m Sathya! You guys must know me as Nithya’s sister – I’m not new to this blog, and i’ve already written a post here (Veg Pizza). I’m taking over this blog for a while just so that we can fill in for each other when busy, so you as readers won’t see too much of a gap between blog posts. Basically, you’ll see a lot more of food around here in the days to come 🙂

Corn capsicum masala is a dish that I have started making from time to time for lunch/dinner. This is something that I made when I had mostly no veggies in my kitchen, but had just a few frozen corn kernels and capsicum lying around 😀 I was out of ginger-garlic paste as well 😛 This idea came to my mind when I was halfway through trying to make tomato chutney for dosa, but I was actually craving hot rotis that day! So in the end, I just adapted it to Corn capsicum masala as I managed to find corn in my freezer and one last capsicum in my refrigerator 😉

In this recipe, corn kernels and capsicum are cooked in a delicious tomato-onion gravy and this simple yet mouthwatering dish goes really well rotis/phulkas, jeera rice, matar pulao, etc. You can also use any leftover tomato-onion paste as chutney for your dosas and idlis.

Ingredients:

• Tomato- 2, medium sized
• Onion-1, large
• Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
• Kashmiri Red chilli powder- 1.5 tsp
• Coriander powder- about a tablespoon
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Corn Kernels- about a cup (I used frozen corn here)
• Green Bell Peppers/Capsicum- 1, large
• Black Pepper powder- 1 tsp
• Cumin- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Sugar- 1/2 tsp
• Oil-1 tsp for the gravy, 1 tbsp to make the curry.

Method:

1. Heat a pan with a teaspoon of oil. Once the oil is hot, add roughly chopped onions and sauté for a minute or two.
2. Then, add tomatoes, turmeric, a pinch of salt and sugar (add more if you like your dish sweeter).
3. Cook the mixture until soft and mushy, keep aside. Once it cools down completely, grind this into a fine paste.

1. In a separate pan, add about a tablespoon of oil. Once hot, add some cumin.
2. After the cumin splutters, throw in some chopped capsicum and sauté for about a minute, followed by the corn kernels. Cover and cook the veggies until sightly soft.
3. At this stage, add some salt and pepper and give it another stir.
4. Pour in the tomato-onion paste.
5. Now add all the other spices- red chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala.
6. Cook the gravy on medium-low flame for about 5 min, until the oil separates from the gravy. Garnish with some coriander. Serve hot.

Some tips:

1. If you’re making this recipe for guests, you can throw in some cashew nuts or almonds while making the gravy. This will make the gravy a lot richer, and will the take the taste up a notch.
2. Adding some Kasuri Methi in the end along with the coriander will make it a lot more aromatic and make it taste very restaurant-like.
3. You can also add butter/ghee in the end, or use them instead of oil to enhance the taste of your gravy.
4. You can substitute store bought tomato puree if you want to, but the taste may turn out slightly different.