aloo mutter

By commentator request, I present Melanie's mother-in-law's recipe for aloo mutter. Or rather, my transliteration of her recipe: she doesn't measure ingredients, and she used unlabeled spices that we had to decipher the English names for. I'm cooking it right now, so we'll see if I got a reasonable approximation.

First, buy a food processor. They're tiny, they're easy to clean, and they're at Long's for $14.00. I went a little nuts on that part of the recipe and kinda pureed the onions -- hey, I've never processed food before. It's fun!

You also need a pressure cooker. I already had one ($10 on sale at Macy's, thank you very much) thanks to Melanie.

I know you're supposed to list ingredients in the order they're used, but I think a different logical grouping works better for this recipe.

Ingredients

Main:
1 bag frozen peas
2 chopped yellow potatoes
2 tomatoes
1 yellow onion
about the same amount ginger root
1/2 jalapeno pepper (or not)
5 cloves garlic
1 bunch cilantro

Spices:
2 t cumin seeds
5 cardamom seeds
5 whole cloves
1 t curry
1 1/2 t tumeric
2 t coriander powder
2 t cumin powder

Other:
1 C water
3 T canola oil
1/2 - 1 t salt

Recipe

Chop all this, then put in food processor until finely diced:
1 yellow onion
1/2 jalapeno pepper (or not)
5 cloves garlic
1/4 - 1/2 C ginger root

Put in the pressure cooker (no lid) until seeds pop a little:
3 T canola oil
2 t cumin seeds
5 cardamom seeds

Add:
5 whole cloves, and the onion mix. Cook until onions are translucent.

Chop:
2 tomatoes, then puree in food processor. Add to onion mix.

Add:
1/2 t salt
1 t curry
1 1/2 t tumeric
2 t coriander powder
2 t cumin powder

Stir, then add:
1 c water
1 bag frozen peas
2 chopped yellow potatoes

Stir, put the top on the pressure cooker, and then cook on med heat for 20 minutes.
Add fresh cilantro to serve. (About a 1 bunch, but whatever looks right to you.)

I googled for aloo mutter recipes, and apparently no two are alike. But this one is easy and delicious and vegan, so there's really no need to look further. One subversive thing I did was to add garbanzo beans in order to make it a main dish instead of a side dish. (More protein.)

Postscript: Just ate my first rendition for dinner. A few glitches in the execution, but it was yummy.