Vegetable stew recipe is side dish for appam and idiyappam. It is a coconut milk base, mild spiced flavourful dish.
we eat aapam with sweetened(with jaggery) coconut milk. But when we had our dinner last month in ‘Mango tree’ restaurant here in SG, for aapam we ordered ‘Vegetable Ishtu’ from their menu. Till then I have not tasted any stew. It was so simple, plain, pure white, with veggies and only the ginger flavour that wafted from the stew. For me it was smelling like the potato masala we make for poori,but with the richness of coconut milk and onion, it was just tasting and smelling divinely.
So I tried at home,with recipe adapted from Divya’s blog slightly,also keeping in mind of what I had in the restaurant. I could not get the pure white they had,but tasted the same.
Vegetable stew recipe
Ingredients
- Coconut gratings - scrapped from 1 coconut
- Carrot - 1
- Potato - 1
- Beans - 8
- Cauliflower florets - 8 small bite size pieces
- Ginger - 1 tablespoon grated
- Green chilli - 2
- Curry leaves - 1 sprig
- Salt - As needed
- Oil - 2 tsp
Instructions
- First grind the coconut with ½ – ¾ cup water and grind till smooth and extract the thick milk using a strainer.
- Again add 1 cup warm water to the coconut gratings and grind for a minute and take the thin extract from the coconut.
- Cut the veggies to thin stripes (I used baby beans) as shown in the picture. Slit the green chillies and onion. Heat pan with oil add ginger,green chillies ,curry leaves,followed by onion.( I tried adding bay leaf and cardamom, but took it off in the middle as it dominated the other flavors. So I omitted in the ingredients)
- Cook in medium flame,taking care, not to turn the onion colour. It should just be transparent. Boil the veggies with salt and the thin coconut milk along with this fried onion.
- Let the veggies cook (without turning the veggies mushy),then add the thick coconut milk,just keep in low flame for a minute and put of the stove.
Notes
- My hubby said they had tempered with whole black pepper corns and no green chillies were there. So you may try that too. That way i thought the greenish shade in the stew can also be avoided.
- Try not to change the colour of onion as it will change the stew colour too…
I added the veggies that I saw in the restaurant…
Vegetable stew method:
-
- First grind the coconut with ½ – ¾ cup water and grind till smooth and extract the thick milk using a strainer.
- Again add 1 cup warm water to the coconut gratings and grind for a minute.
- Collect thin coconut milk from the above.
- Cut the veggies to thin stripes (I used baby beans) as shown in the picture. Slit the green chillies and onion. Heat pan with oil add ginger,green chillies ,curry leaves,followed by onion.( I tried adding bay leaf and cardamom, but took it off in the middle as it dominated the other flavors. So I omitted in the ingredients)
- Cook in medium flame,taking care, not to turn the onion colour. It should just be transparent. Boil the veggies with salt and the thin coconut milk along with this fried onion.
- Let the veggies cook (without turning the veggies mushy),then add the thick coconut milk.
- just keep in low flame for a minute and put of the stove.
- First grind the coconut with ½ – ¾ cup water and grind till smooth and extract the thick milk using a strainer.
Stew is ready to enjoy with aapam! The onion,ginger and curry leaves along with coconut milk makes the stew smell divinely!
Stew is a wonderful dish i loved it wen i first tasted at green park. Ur stew is so colorful n yumm i love it so much..
wow..what a beautiful colour..love it Raks..
Love it Raks. Beautiful and awesome as ever.
Nice beautiful color u have got…I havent tasted stew yet…looks and sounds tempting. Luved the 2nd click
Wow.. this stew sounds simple and delicious too. Rich coconut milk!! yummy I say 🙂
My friend's mom uses white pepper powder and avoids green chillies and black pepper. lovely clicks Raji.
each time i see that corningware pathram of yours, i feel like buying one too.
my dad's sis makes the best stew ever! i should get her recipe too. she doesn't add veg though, only potatoes 🙂
Hi Raji… we often make ishtu in our home only with potatoes as we all love it a lot… i normally boil onion, ginger, potato & just one green chilly together in thin coconut milk till everything gets cooked. finally i will add the thick coconut milk & a pinch of pepper powder and even before it starts boiling will switch off the stove. then add curry leaves & coconut oil, stir it & close the lid. i never used to saute or temper any of the items for ishtu… this way the color wil remain white throughout… Yours look colorful with different veggies… need to try your way…
Simple and great side dish for aapams…
Hi Divya, thanks much for letting me know the way you make, will sure try next time and make 'white' stew 🙂
Stew looks good…a great combo with aapams
simply looks delicious….love it!!
White or not, you have one fabulous looking ishtu here Raks. I always tell friends that I can never get the colour that my friend Princy makes…so I think, it is okay to not have exactly the same. this one is evry nice too!
delicious and healthy looking stew..
Stew looks yum!! my mom adds green chili and garlic. great clicks.
Beautiful,looks perfect and tempting.
Looks flavorful Raks, The green chilli variety adds the color to it try the spicier Thai chilli or the osi milagai one(if you have`nt done so) for more white color. We add just the Potatoand may the carrot does add some color too.
Stew looks so delicious and comforting. Loved the presentation.
Deepa
Perfect one.. You know what.. I love to have this with any dish.. appam/puttu/chapathi or even rice 🙂
Hey looks good… I used to make similar stew for appam… I add peppercorns and finish off with lime juice for that citrus kick…
we loved this on our last trip to Kerala. refreshing stew.
Ooo.. Its one of my fav Kerala dishes 😀 Yumm.. Yours looks yummy.. I mostly make it with potatoes alone though! 🙂
Recreating dishes we ate in restaurant is fun. It makes me happy when it is pretty close to what I tasted. This stew looks delicious and my friend's mom prepares it the same way.
Sooper Raks..Looks so rich n delicious and looks so vibrant..
Healthy and tasty stew..Looks great!
wow…very colorful dear….perfect plating
we once had idiyappam with chicken stew in chennai and were simply bowled over by its mere simplicity, loved ur presentation…looks very yummy
delicious curry for appams….healthy one!!nice click raji!
I make it with potatoes too once in a while.Try this with Idiyappam–tastes awesome!!
this looks delicious lovely colourful stew
love the colour of the gravy
Yummy stew,looks so healthy and colorful.
Wowwww… Delicious looking stew.. colorful and tempting recipe… truly delicious 🙂
Appam n stew is another fav combo of mine..ur stew looks delicious…
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Since I am not a big fan of coconut milk I have never tried anything adding that. This sounds so interesting and very colorful too
The coconutty kerala way of side dish which rocks with appams 🙂
Looks pretty and colorful, raks 🙂
* I have a habit of waiting for the first comment after done with a new post 🙂
Hugs for doing it, Raks 🙂
off for my afternoon nap 🙂
Me too always love appam and thenkkai pal…Sure want to try kurma too…Lovely pics…Thanks for sharing…
Delicious stew,the colour is so gud…
The color you got is so nice ~ very authentic n delcious recipe!
US Masala
I only heard abt it. Now only looking them. Must give a try.
Cheers,
Uma
http://umaskitchenexperiments.blogspot.com
Wonderful stew. I love them with appam and also idiyappam.
So this was you were talking about ….looks yum ..that white colour is really gud
Oru thengala irunthu paal edukkanumaa? remba rich recipe..but still,Wow..the stew looks wonderful Raji! 😛 😛
All the veggies are in their original colour..nicely done!
Wowo i am really surprised to hear that you have not had stew till then, back at home we always had apams with stew or kadal curry etc or aslo like you said with sweetend coconut milk but then with sugar not jaggery, this stew looks super yumm.
We had this exact combination for Sunday breakfast – so was thrilled to see you post it the next day! 🙂
Looks so delicate and yummy. Its a classic combination.Another bookmark.
That is a beautiful looking side dish . Lovely stew
I love ishtu :)looks very tempting raji :)))beautiful pictures
Love the appams with stew.. it is a very light dish and also has all the veggies.
gorgeous pics! the stew looks awesome! this is a fav combo in my house too
Stu looks superb..Its one of the fav at home with appam and puttu. Never thought of adding cauliflower. Mainly potatoes and carrot. Yeah its difficult to get that white colour. Beautiful clicks Raji..
Hi Raks!
Just love your blog and the pics ! I was searching for a nice aapam recipe for a long time then saw this stew recipe and your aapam beside the stew in one of the pictures. Then I knew you must have an aapam recipe in your blog and finally found it! Going to try making the aapam along with this delicious looking stew.! Just a suggestion – link the aapam recipe also to this page so it would be easier to find for ppl like me 😉
Harini – http://hariniscorner.blogspot.com/
raji, i have heard of this, but never tried this. sounds yummy.
I love veg stew ..looks so delicious Raji…lovely click as well 🙂
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Hi Raji.. i have became a very big fan of u nowadays. I have tried more than 15 – 20 items from ur website. and yesterday i did this veg stew for palappam(bought this ready mix aapam) .. and the combo was great.I did the same as u have mentioned here with the proportions and quantity. it came up delicious and tastier. U believe it or not,i prepared enough quantity and at last i was kept only a small cup of it for taste. The whole bowl of stew was emptied by my kid and hubby . and gave some to my mom for taste. Thanks for sharing all lovely tasty yummy recipes. keep going….
Vaazhga valamudan
Thank you vaani for the feedback and the nice words 🙂
Harini, thanks 🙂 will post more authentic aapam recipe,mine is the way i make 🙂 So watch out for another aapam recipe, hope you made aapam and stew and liked …
Hi raks,
I will be cooking this stew tonight and posting it on my blog hopefully by tomorrow. i've started a new blog called neetustastytreats.blogspot.com. Do chk it out when you're free. You have alovely blog btw! The detailed step by step pics make it so much more easier! Cheers and keep up the good work!
Dear raks
I have tried some of ur recipies nd it came out really well. I use to make an easy version of stew. I take a cooker nd add my onion, ginger, green chillie 2 just for smell not for spicy, veg (potatoes, carrot, beans nd forzen peas) and salt nd leaa than half cup of water. Pressure cook this for 1 whistle. After pressure settles add thick coconut milk, pepper powder nd check the consistancy. Switch off the flame nd add curry leaves nd drops of coconut oil. Close the lid till u serve.