This ubiquitous dish found in most restaurant menus has its origin in colonial British India. The word Jalfrezi comes from the Bengali word jhālpharezī, which can be broken down jhāl meaning spicy food in Bengali and parhezī means suitable for a diet in Persian. Jalfrezi is usually prepared by stir-frying ingredients, a technique introduced to the region by Chinese cuisine.

I’ve never made Jalfrezi before and tried it one evening for dinner. This dish is not in a gravy form and could be best described as semi-wet. Since this is not a gravy dish, I decided to have rotis or Indian flatbread to go with it. If you want to have it with rice, either make it slightly more watery or pair it with any dal.

Vegetable Jalfrezi

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup cauliflower florets
• 1/4 cup carrots, chopped lengthwise into 1.5-inch sticks
• 1/4 cup potatoes, chopped lengthwise into 1.5-inch sticks
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup paneer, chopped lengthwise into 1.5-inch sticks
• 1 large green bell pepper sliced lengthwise into 1.5-inch sticks
• 1 garlic
• 1-inch piece of ginger
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped roughly
• 2-3 green or red chillies
• 3 medium-sized onions
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp kasuri methi
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Chop two onions roughly and keep aside. Cut the balance onion into two and slice the two halves into thin slices and keep aside.
• In a blender, blend together the chopped onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and chillies into a fine and smooth paste and keep aside.
• Heat the oil in a pan and lightly fry the paneer till they become slightly brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a kitchen tissue and keep aside.
• In the same pan, add the butter and add the chopped vegetables and stir fry on high heat for around 5 minutes, stirring continuously till the vegetables are almost cooked, but still crunchy. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon and keep aside.
• Now add the sliced onions and stir fry till the onions become translucent. Then pour in the blended paste and stir well. Let it come to a rolling boil.
• Add the spices – turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder plus salt and mix well. Let it boil until the oil separates. We don’t want the gravy to be thin, so let it boil down until you can just coat the vegetables.
• Then add the stir-fried vegetables and the paneer and give it a quick stir to coat the vegetables with the gravy evenly. At this point, you need to have a semi-wet kind of gravy, more dry than wet actually.
• Check for seasoning and add the kasuri methi after crushing it with your palms to release the oils.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis or any kind of Indian flatbread.

We really loved this dish and this is a keeper for sure! I would also use beans, baby corn and even mushrooms in the future.