Undhiyu

For years I have been wanting to try my hand at making this Gujarati delicacy. It is a bit intimidating but the extreme urge to have this finally took over the fear and I started researching. I found two very helpful recipes on Youtube – the first one is by a fellow instagrammer Veeni’s grandmom (I was sold on the authenticity of it, because her sweetest gujju grandma makes it first hand!) the other one was by Dhartii’s recipe on youtube as well (I love her traditional Gujarathi recipes).

Both are wonderful recipes and have great tips. I took bits and parts from the two and modified them a little bit based on my preferences, my memory of the best undhiyus I have had over the years and ingredients that I have available in my pantry and local grocery stores.

Read on for my version of Undhiyu! There are a lot of components and the procedure sounds long, but trust me its not as bad as it sounds. Also, this freezes very well, so make a lot at once and freeze in a couple pint containers. You can thank me later 🙂 Another great tip is to just freeze the chutney that goes in tit – you can make this in bulk when you find good green garlic and freeze it. Having this ready is a huge time saver when you make undhiyu

You will nedd:

Vegetables:

Ubdhiyu is specially known for a variety of vegetables that are added to it. It is made typically in winter when most of the vegies are available in their fresh and tender form.

You can choose one or more of the following:

• potatoes – medium to large sized russett potatoes work best
• Purple yam (I sometimes use this frozen if I can’t find fresh ones)
• Brinjals – green brinjal cut in quarters OR long cali eggplants cut in large pieces – this cooks the fastest, so the pieces need to be larger than the other veggies, otherwise they will get very mushy and dissolve in the masala
• Green peas – you can use fresh or frozen. I use frozen
• Val – this has to be sorted
• Papdi – this has to be deveined and cut in pieces
• Green banana – cut in large pieces

What I used:

• 3 large potatoes – peeled and cut in large cubes 
• 5-6 green brinjal cut in quarters OR 1-2 long cali eggplants cut in large pieces
• Valor+papdi – 1/2 kg or 1 lb – cleaned and sorted – will come to about 350g after sorting out 
• Kand (purple yam) if available – substitute one of the potatoes with 2 of these 
• 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas

Masala –

• 1 cup fresh shredded coconut 
• 5-6 fresh green chillies 
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• 1/2 a bunch of green garlic – about 10 stalks
  • If you cant find fresh green garlic, you can use 8-10 large cloves of garlic and A bunch of chives 
• 4-5 large cloves of garlic – use more or less depending on size of the garlic and how strong it is in flavor
• if you can find green garlic bunch (easily available in india) use one entire bunch along with the garlic in it (5-6 stalks). I used chives and garlic cloves separately as that’s what I could find here in the US 
• A bunch of fresh cilantro leaves with stems (keep the stems for extra flavor)

• 2 tablespoons dhaniya (coriander) powder 
• 1/2 tablespoon jeera (cumin) powder 
• 3 tbsp besan (chickpea flour) 
• 1 tablespoon (3 tsp) Garam masala – I used one teaspoon each of KePra goda masala, MDH kitchen king masala and Everest garam masala. You can use whichever is available. I like the combination of these 3 for this recipe – makes it taste closest to the authentic gujju style undhiyu 🙂
• 2-3 tbsp jaggery powder or sugar (at least a couple tsp of sugar/jaggery is necessary to round the flavor – it does not make it sweet)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder 
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp kasuri methi

• 1/3 cup oil for cooking the undhiyu
• 1 tsp hing (asafetida)
• 1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain/ owa or ajmo seeds) – coarsely crushed

Procedure:

Procedure Part 1 – prep the veggies 

Here’s the 4 vegetables I used and the method to prep them – these are easily available here in the US and make for a very good mix for undhiyu

1. Potatoes – peel and cut large pieces from 2 very large potatoes (the potatoes in US are huge, if you have smaller use up to 4) – keep the pieces submerged in water to prevent browning
2. Brinjal – small round ones or long California brinjal – use one that does bot have a lot of seeds and is tender. I used 1 large Cali eggplant. You can use 5-6 green small brinjals cut in quarters 
3. Green peas – I used a cup of frozen green peas 
4. Val papdi – also known as valor –
   • when you buy them you will get a mix of tender and mature beans. Nip bother the ends and remove ridges.
   • The ridges are in both the edges of the bean and are especially stringy and tough on mature beans. Tender beans have very thin or sometimes none.
   • Break the tender beans into 2-4 pieces depending on length. For the mature beans, split open and removes the peas from inside and throw away the outer bean.  
   • Submerge the sorted beans and peas in water as well to remove any dirt or insects. I used 1 lb (450g) of this. Must have come to about 359g after sorting and cleaning. 

Procedure part 2 – making muthiya

If you are not adding muthiya, skip to the next step 🙂

• Adding the muthiyas is completely optional. I have made it both with and without and it tastes equally great! Of course adding muthiya always elevates it 🙂
• you can completely skip this and make the undhiyu with just the vegetables as well. The recipe remains the same whether you re adding the muthiyas or not beacuse the muthiyas have all the seasonings on their own and do not take away from the rest of the undhiyu.
• The only difference is they soak up some of the gravy/ masala and make the udhiyu a little dry. You can avoid this by adding a little more water.
• I make shallow fried muthiya using this recipe. I just substitute half of the dudhi in my recipe with some fresh methi leaves.
• I find it unnecessary to fry the muthiyas, although that is the authentic way to make them and add to your undhiyu

Procedure part 3 – making the masala mixture 

• Grind together 1 cup coconut, green chillies, 1 inch piece of ginger, 4-5 cloves of garlic and cilantro along with lots of stems 
• Finely chopped together 1 pack of chives, 3-4 cloves of garlic and a bunch of cilantro leaves 

• Mix together the coconut chutney, the chopped chives+cilantro and all the dry spices – 2 tbsp dhaniya (coriander) powder, 1/2 tbsp jeera (cumin) powder, 3 tbsp besan (chickpea flour), one tsp each of goda masala, MDH kitchen king masala and Everest garam masala, 2-3 tbsp jaggery powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, kasuri methi (powdered) and Salt 

• This will form a soft dough-like mixture

Procedure part 4 – cooking the undhiyu 

• in a pressure pan heat 1/3 cup oil (about 6 tbsp) 
• When the oil is hot add a tsp of hing (asafetida) and a tsp of coarsely crushed carom seeds (ajwain/ owa/ ajmo) 
• Once they sizzle add the masala mixture and mix with the oil. 
• Next add all the veggies and mix until the spice mix Coats all the veggies uniformly 

• Add a sprinkle of water and pressure cooker as per your cooker

• I use AMC cookware’s secuquik lid and cook it on the “soft” setting 
• If you want to cook it in a non-pressure pan, add the papdi first followed by potatoes and brinjal as the brinjal cooks the fastest and papdi takes the longest time to cook. If you’re using frozen peas, they are already cooked so thaw them in hot water and add at the end. If you’re using fresh peas add them along with the papdi. Cook with lid on between additions of the different veggies. Preferably use a nonstick pot with a lid that fits well.
• Lastly, add the muthiya right before serving and mix well.

• Serve hot with fresh phulkas or any flatbread of your choice