(VEG) Vegetable Drumsticks and fried Paneer cooked in Mustard sauce

Drumsticks (called 'sarakwa' in Hindi and 'danta' in Bengali) look like long,thin green colored sticks. The outer layer is a little tough and should be scraped off with a knife. You can also buy them frozen which saves the trouble of cleaning. You can get them in any Indian grocery store.

How to prepare:

I used the frozen sticks - this allowed me to cook the amount I wanted.
- 1 cup of fried paneer cubes (you can buy paneer from any Indian grocery store. It is sold in small blocks.
Cut the block into tiny cubes and pan fry as much much you want - refrigerate the rest.
- 3 tbs white poppy seeds.
- 3 tbs yellow mustard seeds.
- 1 tsp "Panch phoron" seeds (mixture of 5 seeds: fennel, cumin, fenugreek, Kalonji and black mustard). If you do not have Panch phoron just use little fennel seeds.
- 3 whole green chillies.
- 1 tbs mustard oil or half tsp ghee (optional).
- Quarter cup coriander leaves chopped.
- Pinch of turmeric powder.
- Oil for cooking.
- Small can of coconut milk.
- Salt to taste.

How to cook:

Dry grind the poppy seeds and mustard seeds in a coffee grinder. Then in a blender wet grind
the ground poppy and mustard seeds together with 2 green chillies and turmeric powder, turning it into paste.

Heat about 2 tbs veg. oil in a pan, put in the Panch phoron (or the fennel seeds) and as it sputters, put in the drumsticks and the fried paneer, and stir them for some time. Put salt and the paste and mix well with the vegetables, pour in a cup of water, lower the heat and cover. Allow it to simmer until the sauce thickens. Pour quarter cup of coconut milk and let it cook for few seconds. Turn off the heat and drizzle the ghee or the mustard oil over the cooked vegetable.
Pour it in a serving dish, sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and slitted green chilly and serve it with hot steamed rice.