Vaatanyachay Golay - Seasoned Green Peas

I am sure all of us have had this cooking experience where we start out to make some dish and realize we do not have certain ingredients. So you either start substituting or just skip them and the dish still turns out fine! But this one is certainly NOT one of those "let me skip this ingredient" recipe, in my humble opinion. Because there are such few ingredients, a perfect marriage of all the contents really make or break this dish. Especially the coconut, lime juice, the green chilli and black pepper. Even that tiny pinch of sugar makes a world of difference.

Vata-nya-chay Go-lay is a typical Maharashtrian dish made during pujas and festivals. Vatana is green peas and golay means circles - weird name but tasty dish. I made this dish for a dinner thing we had to celebrate Ganesh chaturthi.  Hence the 2lbs of green peas!!! Adjust  your quantities accordingly!

Method and ingredients:

2 tbsp Amul ghee or oil

2 lbs frozen peas, completely thawed and drained completely of any water

1/2 tbsp cumin seeds

3/4 tsp turmeric powder

Couple dashes of asofoetida (hing)

Deep brand shredded frozen coconut, thawed

2 serrano peppers

Salt and Black Pepper

Shredded coconut

Lime juice

Heat ghee. When hot, add cumin seeds. When they sputter, add the hing and finely chopped green chillies. Let cook for a minute. Add the green peas.  Add the turmeric powder, salt, black pepper, tiny pinch of sugar and a handful of shredded coconut. Cook uncovered until peas are tender for 5 minutes. Now cook covered on simmer for another 5 minutes. Top if off with some fresh lime juice.

Note: if you are peas are thawed they will take longer to cook. So adjust timings based on the doneness level of the peas. Peas should be tender because that is when the masala integrates with the peas. But you do not want the peas to be too mushy either.