We were on the road, traveling for the past couple of days and returned “home sweet home”, last night. During our trip, we made a brief stop at Oak tree road, New Jersey to fill up our pantry and purchased lots Indian grocery and vegetables etc.
There are three main grocery shops on Oak tree road, NJ that I know of. Apna Bazar, Patel Brothers and Subji Mandi. I usually shop at Subji Mandi. Although I am satisfied with their prices and range of Indian stuff they carry, I am still curious to know about the other two shops. Are there any readers of this blog who are regular shoppers at Oak tree road, did or can compare the three and tell me which one you like better. I know it’s all personal, still I want to know what you think of these three shops and your experience of Oak tree road. Any tips and suggestions from a local shopper are greatly appreciated by this out of state, time constrained shopper on rush. Thanks.
One of the vegetables I bought at Subji Mandi are these drumsticks or Munaga Kaayalu. They look like musical sticks, so the name. Greenish firm outside but insides are filled with white colored mildly sweet flesh and tasty small white seeds. They are known to be a great source of Vitamin A. They taste great in sambhar and rasam but my favorite way to cook them is using my mother’s recipe, the traditional curry version with fresh coconut and tomatoes.
Recipe:
3 drumsticks – lightly scrapped with a peeler and cut into small finger length pieces.
3 big ripe juicy tomatoes – cut into small pieces
1 medium onion finely chopped lengthwise
½ tsp of each of red chilli powder and salt
Pinch of turmeric
Make a smooth paste
¼ cup of fresh coconut +
Half inch piece of ginger + 2 garlic cloves and 6 sprigs of fresh cilantro
For popu or tadka
½ teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and few curry leaves
Preparation:
In a pan, heat one tsp of peanut oil over medium heat. Add half tsp each of cumin, mustard seeds, when they start to splutter, add onions, and saut� them for few minutes. 
Add tomatoes and half cup of water. Cook them covered until the tomatoes soften and turn into juicy mush.
At this stage, add the cut drumstick(Munaga Kaaya) pieces. Stir in coconut-cilantro paste, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric and half glass of water. Cover and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes or until drumstick pieces are tender to touch but intact in shape. Serve warm.
Taste great with rice and with pulao.
Drumstick Curry and Rice
The creamy flesh of drumsticks cooked in this way, soaks up the coconut milk-tomato juice and tastes sweet, spicy and tangy when chewed. Truly an Andhra delight to taste buds.
Recipe Source: Amma
