Samudra Methi - Phulkopi

Waking up groggy in the mornings, I just want to get lunch cooked while I brush my teeth and run around to let the (very reluctant to wake-up-and-get-out) cat out.


I rustled this up and bought chappatis on my way to office a few days back.

I chopped up some cauliflower (aka phulkopi to us Bengalis) and dug out some samudra methi and quickly washed everything and put it in my large sieve to drip dry. I discovered samudra methi in Mumbai. You find these little bunches of baby methi that you get in bunches. A dozen bunches come for ten rupees. I have even got 18 once when I haggled with a vendor in Santacruz station late one evening. And... 20 this weekend in Dadar...! Definitely better than buying the normal methi...

I put a little oil in the non-stick pan and threw in some jeera and methi seeds till they crackled. The chopped cauliflower and sautéed them till I got a nice aroma out of them. This takes about ten minutes on my hob. On hotter hobs it will take half the time.

A few swished of the knife later, the methi was ready to join the gang...

I resisted the temptation to cover the pan since the methi would stop looking nice and green. Also the baby methi is so tender, I would get some mash if I did this. 

A few minutes later my lunch was ready...

And this is how it looked in my lunch dabba...