Methi ki Launji (मेथी की लौंजी) - Happy Mahashivaratri To All !!!

Mahashivaratri Festival or the ‘The Night of Shiva’ is celebrated with devotion and religious fervor in honor of Lord Shiva, one of the deities of Hindu Trinity. Shivaratri falls on the moonless 14th night of the new moon in the Hindu month of Phalgun, which corresponds to the month of February - March in English Calendar. Celebrating the festival of Shivaratri devotees observe day and night fast and perform ritual worship of Shiva Lingam to appease Lord Shiva.

Thus following my tradition, I am keeping a fast today and will make Poori, Aloo/Paneer ki Sabzi and Kheer in the evening to break my fast. This is my usual food to break fast. A lot more things are made today, but as I am "trying" to watch my diet, I will keep it to minimal, plus this is the favorite thing of Aryan as well, so works best for me :)


Wishing everyone a wonderful महा शिवरात्रि festival !!!


I also need to mention here and give credit to my wonderful sister-in-law "Manju" for most of the Rajasthani recipes that I am posting here as I learnt them from her. Thanks didi for teaching me all this and many more to come :)


Today, I am going to post recipe of  "मेथी की लौंजी" that she makes deliciously and I love it. It is a bitter/sour/sweet curry of fenugreek seeds.


This is also an entry in Event – Cooking With Seeds – Fenugreek Seeds and Cooking With Seeds~~Announcing A New Event

Methi ki Launji (मेथी की लौंजी)

Ingredients

Methi (Fenugreek) Seeds  - 100 gm (soak for 2 hours)

Dry Red Chillies (Whole) - 50 gm

Kishmish (Raisins) - 50 gm

Khajur (Dates) - 50 gm

Mustard Oil - 3 tbsp (or more based on how long you want to preserve this curry)

Gud (Jaggery) - 75 gm

Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsp (or per your taste)

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Jeera (Cumin) Seeds - 2 tsp

Salt - as per taste

Amchur (Dried Mango Powder) - 2-3 tbsp (depending on how much sourness you like)

Sugar - 2 tsp

Water for making curry - 1 cup

Preparation

Wash methi seeds and pressure cook it with dry red chillies, kishmish and khajur for 15-20 min ?(or 3-4 whistles). Once the cooker has cooled down, strain everything and let the bitter water drain.

Now, heat mustard oil in a pan, add jeera and let it splutter. Then add cooked methi/kishmish/dates mixture to it. After mixing for 1 min., add haldi, red chilli powder, salt, amchur, gud, sugar and little water. Once it starts boiling, add garam masala and mix it. The curry is all done. Make sure that there is no running gravy. This should be close to a dried curry, but not completely dry.

Serving
This can be served with practically anything - rice, roti, poori anything that you can eat a curry with.
Anyone who is not used to fenugreek, may find it a bit bitter initially. You need to develop taste for it. One more note is that sometimes it helps to drain water once in the middle while soaking fenugreek seeds, just to reduce the bitterness. Also, feel free to increase the dates/kishmish quantity if want to make it sweeter. But, I would suggest, for the first time, make it the way suggested and then increase or decrease any ingredients depending on how you would like it to be.
Enjoy the bitter/sweet/sour curry of fenugreek seeds. It is super yummy.
This can be refrigerated for 2-3 weeks easily. Increase the quantity of mustard oil slightly for preserving longer.
This is very good for people who have gas (वात) issues and also who have some aches in their joints.
That's all for now. I will be back with more recipes later. Till then, bye and take care.
Priya