Sijha Tarkari

 This one is a very popular Oriya dish - sometimes also called "Santula" or "Pani Santula". A classic vegetable stew, flavored with the quintessential panch phutan (or panch phoran), which is so characteristic of Oriya cuisine. It's healthy, hot and quick - completely hassle free and unpretentious.

From a "deliciousness" quotient, this one is like fine wine. Tastes better with age (your age, of course). I remember as kids we used to go after all the sweet pithas, or the tasty chicken/mutton mom used to make, and sort of ignored this gem of a dish, but as we grew we got more and more interested in it.

These days, Anu and I have it whenever we feel the need to cleanse, if we have had too much masala, or outside food. We have it like a soup with bread, whereas some folks take it like a side dish with rice, and some with soft rotis. Enough said, let's get on with it!

You need:

For the soup
1 egg plant
1 potato
1 piece of drumstick
1 carrot
1 raw banana
1 tomato
1 onion
1 indian zuchini (or any kind of squash)
6-8 beans

For the tadka
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp panch phutan
2 chopped green chillis
1 tsp oil

Salt as per taste
1 tsp Turmeric powder

The method is very simple. You got to boil all the veggies with salt and turmeric and add the panch phutan tadka into it. So if you are a pro, you know what to do! I will still write down the detailed steps, assuming you are a rookie ( By the way, I just thought of this one: What would you call a rookie cook - A "cookie" ?! ;) ).

So as I said, next steps are for rookies - all about how to chop the vegetables into proportionate pieces, so they boil uniformly, how muchc water to add - blah blah

1. Chop the eggplant, potato, zuchini and raw banan into bite sized chunks.
2. Chop the carrots a into comparatively smaller pieces, so they boil uniformly alongwith the other veggies.
3. Cut the drumstick into 4 pieces (1 inch is a good size !)
4. Cut the beans into small 1/2 inch size pieces
5. Peel the onion and chop into cubes
6. Make 4 pieces of the tomato

Put all the chopped veggies into a pressure cooker, add turmeric and salt. Add water based on your style of eating. If you want it as a side dish, add minimum water. For a watery soup, be a little more generous with water. Simple, isn't it. Now, put it on pressure. Wait for 3-4 whistles (or 15 mins on medium heat) and switch off the burner.

Once the pressure eases off, prepare the tadka with crushed garlic, panch phutan, slit green chillis, and add to the veggies in the pressure cooker.

Serve hot and slurrp slurrp this real quick!!

Adios for now!