Author: Indira Chakravorty {amind@flash.net}
Potol bhaja: Scrape the patals [don't peel them], make some slots with
a knife in them and wash them. Sprinkle a little salt on them. Heat
oil on high heat and add the patals carefully. Deep fry, take them
off oil and put in paper-lined dish. Done! :-)
KhichuRi: You can make khichuRi with either mung or masur daal -- the
recipe will be different. I am sending the one with mung here, if
anybody is interested, let me know, I will send the other one. Mung
daal - 11/2 cups, rice -- 1 cup, ghee, whole cardamoms, cloves and
cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, whole cumin seeds, gr. turmeric,
gr. chili pepper, gr. cumin [jeera], gr. ginger, two med. potatoes
peeled and cut in fourth, few florets of cauliflower [optional], peas
[opt.], whole green peppers, oil, salt and sugar to taste. Fry the
vegetables in oil and keep aside. Wash and drain the daal and rice
separately. Now in a heavy bottomed pot heat the ghee, add the whole
cumin seeds, the cloves, cardamoms and cinnamon sticks, the bay leaves
and then after a few seconds add the daal to it. Saute the daal til
it looks golden brown and starts emitting a nice fried smell. Add the
rice, saute for a couple of minutes, then add water about 3 times the
volume of the rice-daal mixture [you will need to add more water later
on]. At first you need to cover the pot to make the khichuRi come to
a boil, then when it starts to boil uncover it and keep it uncovered,
adjust the heat and stir frequently so as to not let it stick at the
bottom. When the daal/rice seem to be half-done, add the vegetables,
the green peppers, the spices and salt and sugar. Mix them well into
the rice-daal mixture and let it cook for about 1/2 hour more or until
the khichuri looks and smells done -- you will have to stir constantly
at this time or the khichuri will burn, also add more water as needed.
Serve the khichuRi with melted ghee or butter on top. Enjoy! :-)
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Author: Saumen {sengupta@sunyit.edu}
Only a year ago I picked up this recipe from a good friend of mine. I
believe its relative simplicity puts it ahead of many other possible
varieties.
Ingredients:
a. Well cleaned and thoroughly washed musur kernels
b. Appropriate amount of salt, chili powder, a dash of sugar (if
necessary)
c. Fresh mustard oil or ghee, a tablespoon or two of lemon juice
d. Some finely chopped onion, plucked corriander leaves, finely
chopped green chilies. All these should be available fresh just about
the time of serving.
1. Boil the musur daal throughly. After it is boiled (not before), add
required amount of salt and chili powder. One need not add any
turmeric into it. Keep it aside till needed. It should neither be
thick (like a tarka) nor should it be extremely thin but somewhere in
between in consistency.
2. When ready to serve, warm it again. Add mustatd oil, lemon juice,
onion, corriander leaves, chooped chilies into it. It is ready.
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Author: Indira Chakravorty {amind@flash.net}
First microwave bake a medium size potato or may be two if you want
more. In the mean time, wash and rub with turmeric powder and pinch
of salt 2/3 lb. of fresh fish [any good variety is ok -- catfish works
out excellently!] cut up in small pieces. Peel and crush the
potato[es] -- don't mash them -- add to the fish along with 11/2
tsp. of turmeric powder, chili powder and salt to taste [I make it
hot!], 1 large onion chopped up, sliced green pepper, chopped cilantro
and a generous amount of oil *[this dish can be made without oil for
people who can't have oil also :-)] Mix well and put in a microwave
safe dish. Do not add water, just sprinkle some on it. Cover, either
with plastic wrap or a lid. Microwave at high for 8-10 minutes.
Uncover and see if it is done. If not, microwave for 2-3 minutes
more. it's done -- eat with plain rice.
Note: You can line the dish you are cooking the fish into with
kalaapaata if you can get your hands on one! In that case, line the
dish with kalaapaata, pour the prepared fish, line the top with part
of the kalaapaata and then cover.
*Got sorsher tel? Superb!!
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Author: Saumen {sengupta@sunyit.edu}
Ingredients:
(a) The flowers of a mocha with the pollen stem coming out from
inside removed. However, it is important to select the fresh mocha
flower appropriately. Often they render a bitter taste if one is
not careful. In absence of fresh mocha flower one could use
preserved mochas in cans.
(b) Two to three tablespoons of grated coconut (sweetened ones).
(c) Peeled potatoes and chopped in cubes.
(d) Fresh green chilies
(e) Salt, sugar, jeera powder, mouri, bay-leaves, turmeric,
chili-powder
(f) garam-masala (freshly powdered cardamom & cinnamon -
no cloves, this time)
(g) A little flour (in case of emergency), ghee
This method of preparation is basically a standard one for many
vegetables. One could even call it a base scheme. For instance, should
one feel like adding a little "umph" into it by adding some shrimps --
one could use basically this but, of course, without the
coconut. Otherwise, it would be an overkill.
1. Cut fresh mocha flower stalks into short pieces. Boil them till
they are sufficiently tender. If canned mochas are used, remove them
from the can, wash them thoroughly and chop them into short
pieces. Boil them. You may find the water turning black but don't
that distract you. After the mocha is boiled, remove them from the
water and keep it aside.
2. While the above step is carried out, fry the potatoes in a little
ghee. To do this, sprinkle a little turmric and salt onto it and coat
them evenly. On a hot frying fan, fry them till they turn slightly
redish. Do not overfry them. After they are done, keep them aside.
3. Now return to your boiled mocha. Wash your hands thoroughly and
then mash this mocha as much as you can with your hand attending
particularly to the hard centers that you'd occasionally meet. Now you
are really ready.
4. In a clean frying pan, heat some ghee. When the ghee is hot
sprinkle some whole mouri, a bayleaf or two, some green chilies into
it. Before they start to burn, add the coconut and stir it. Almost
immediately (and you don't have much time otherwise the coconut would
begin to burn), add the potatoes into it and stir it. Now add the
mochas into it, stir it a little. Now add the turmeric, chili powder,
a little geera powder, a half a teaspoonful of mouri powder (you can
prepare it in your grinder). Stir everything thoroughly.
5. After a while the potatoes would be cooked inside it. Taste it, if
it requires a little more sugar, add a dash of sugar (1/8 th of a
teaspoon, say) and stir into it. If it is still kind of watery -- add
into it a little water containing some flour -- say a teaspoon-full at
most and stir into it. Very soon the whole think would appear dry as
it should be.
6. Just before removing it from the heat, add a half a teaspoon-full
of garam masala and stir into it.
Now enjoy the meal when you are ready! I'd use a Beaujolais or any
robust Burgandy to serve with it.
Note. If you are using shrimp, fry them a little until their
opaqueness is gone. Do not use any cocconut now, but add the mocha
straight after the potatoes are added. Then add the shrimp into it.
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Author: Indira Chakravorty {amind@flash.net}
Get some fresh fish [try to avoid frozen ones for this recipe] and rub
some turmeric powder and a pinch of salt to it. Heat oil on stove
very hot [not a lot], add the fish pieces one by one delicately trying
not to over crowd. Cover. Wait couple of minutes or so, uncover,
turn the fish, cover. Wait some more, uncover and take them off hot
oil, draining. This way fry the fish in batches if needed. [always
fry fish in high heat and very hot oil]
Turn off heat. Put some kaalojire and slivered kNaachalankaa in the
oil before it gets cold. Stir. [careful, the lankaas might explode!]
Add a11/2 tsp. of turmeric powder [more for more than 10/12 pieces of
fish], chili pepper according to taste, 1-2 tsp. of jeera powder
[depending on how much fish] and mix. Turn on heat, high. Saute for
a minute [do not burn the spices] and add water, enough to cover the
fish. Add salt to taste. As soon as the gravy starts boiling, add
the fish and cover making sure the fish are submerged in the gravy.
Cook on high heat for about 10/15 minutes, open cover and add chopped
cilantro. Cover and cook for couple more minutes. DONE!
Note: The trick of cooking fish is to cook them on high heat -- less
time, more heat. I asked you to turn off heat while adding the whole
spices so as not to scorch them [as the oil should be really hot for
frying the fish]. If the oil is not that hot, you need to have heat
turned on at this point. Be careful not to burn the spices.
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Author: Saumen {sengupta@sunyit.edu}
I would like to offer the following recipe to our fish-loving friends
all over the world. Ideally, the belly portion of carp (or similar
large fish) would be my choice for the texture it offers.
1. Cut belly of the fish into several finger-sized portions. This is
really the fatty part of the fish that hangs down as belly. Wash them
thoroughly.
2. Grate or grind just one or half of an onion. The actual amount
would be predicated by the amount of gravy one requires.
3. Coat the fish portions with turmeric and salt and a little
flour. Then fry them in a frying pan. They should not be overfried
though. Perhaps a minute in the frying pan on an intense heat is
sufficient.
4. Into a hot saucepan, add some oil (be a little generous to yourself
today). When the oil is really super hot, sprinkle five-seeds
(reasonable amount of kolanji, methi, jeera, mouri (fenugreek) and
mustard) and a dry red laanka into it. Immediately, without burning
it, add the onion paste. Fry it till it becomes sticky golden
brown. Add a couple of green-hot chili pods into it. Keep frying the
lot and then add some turmeric (haldi) and chili powder (guro-lanka)
and salt. Stir them well. By this time you'd be getting its wonderful
irresistable aroma. But continue on! When the gravy has thickened a
lot add your fried fish into it.
5. Add some water and thicken the gravy so that it basically clings to
the fish. Ideally this dish should be fairly dry -- all its gravy
should be on the fish.
You are now ready to eat this delicious food using just ordinary hot
rice. Any chilled white wine (semi-dry) goes with it well, but I
prefer Lieb Frau Milch if and when I can afford it.
Enjoy the meal! :-))))
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Author:Indira Chakravorty {amind@flash.net}
I have two recipes for mishti doi:
1 can condensed milk
1 can [12 oz.] evaporated milk
1 8 oz. plain yogurt
cardamom seeds crushed
Mix them well with electric hand mixer or in a blender til froth forms
on top. Pour the mixture in a rectangular or oval cake pan, cover
with foil and put in preheated 300 deg. oven for half hour. Turn off
the oven and keep the doi inside [don't open oven door at any time
during the process] overnight. Take out doi in the morning and put in
refrigerator. Keep at least 3/4 hours before serving. Serves about
10/12 people.
Mix together with an electric hand mixer til it starts frothing:
2 cans of condensed milk
1 32 oz. plain yogurt
1 8 oz plain yogurt
a little rose water/rose essence for food
cardamom seeds crushed
Pour in rectangular 13x9 baking dish [some will be left, pour in a
small baking dish]. Put in warm oven [225/250 deg] uncovered for 30
minutes, check, if not set another 30 minutes. Take out carefully and
let it cool. Cover and refrigerate a few hours. Serves about 25
people.
Try and see which one works for you. Good luck!
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Author:Indira Chakravorty {amind@flash.net}
Hard boil the eggs and peel. Heat a little amount of oil, and fry the
eggs. Add water to just cover the eggs, not a whole lot! :-) Now add
a teaspoon and half [depending on how many eggs reduce or increase --
I have about 6/8 eggs in mind] turmeric powder, chili powder according
to your taste, salt, sliced green pepper, cilantros chopped, a
tablespoon of musturd oil [if you don't have it, forget it!] and a
couple of tomatoes cut up. Mix them in the water delicately, cover
and simmer in med.high til the gravy has a heavier consistency with
the tomatoes getting mushy and roughly mixed into the gravy [about 15
minutes approx.] and do not look like water with spices mixed in it
:-). [Stir occasionally and delicately while it's cooking to turn the
eggs and to prevent burning.] It's done, eat with plain rice.
`Dimer jhaal' has quite a few variations, the process of cooking being
the same, let me give you the ingredients used.
1. Plain jhaal: Use just turmeric, chili powder, salt, sliced green
pepper, cilantro and if you can, mustard oil.
2. Sorshe diye: With above ingredients use ground mustard [a
tablespoonful or less, according to taste] before 5 minutes left of
cooking.
3. With garlic and mustard: Use all the steps above, only crush a
couple of garlic cloves and add it right before you are adding water
to the oil and saute for a second.
4. Try no.3 without tomatoes.
I hope you like them!
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Author: Saumen{sengupta@sunyit.edu}
Try the following recipe.
1. Get sona-moong daal, if possible. On a heavy skillet, roast the
moong by frying it dry (without any addition of oil, of course)
stirring it constantly. When the color of the moong becomes reddish
brown, remove it from fire and put it aside.
2. Now peel the lau and cut it into convenient sized thin slim pieces.
Put it aside after washing it.
3. In a saucepan, add some water and boil the moong with some crushed
ginger, some green chili and salt. When the moong is sufficiently soft
add to it the lau pieces which you have it already.
4. Stir it periodically so that it does not get stuck at the bottom of
the saucepan until the liquid from the lau is practically gone.
5. In a separate saucepan, add some ghee. When it is really hot,
sprinkle some white jeera and a little mouri along with a bayleaf or
two, and a red dry chili. Before the whole thing burns, add your
boiled lau-moong concoction and stir into it. You are done.
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Author: Indira Chakravorty {amind@flash.net}
Peel the laau and cut up strips like french fries, only shorter[ and
thinner if possible]. Wash, drain and keep aside.
Heat a large pot over stove and add a handful of dry [do not wash them
at this point] moog [mung] daal to it. Stir continuously til they are
golden brown [this is a little bit tricky -- it shouldn't take a lot
of time, couple of minutes at the most, and the daals have a tendency
to scorch -- so stir continuously and as soon as they look and smell
done get off the stove and put the pan under cold water tap -- this
way you cool the pot immediately and also wash the daal.]. Drain the
daal and put on stove over med-low heat. Add the laau, a little
turmeric powder, very little chili powder [optional], a tsp of jeera
[cumin] powder [more depending on how much laau], salt and sugar to
taste. Also add sliced green chili peppers. Cover. Wait a few
minutes, uncover and stir the laau and cover again. Lower the heat
even more. Usually the laau will emit a lot of liquid, so you don't
have to add water. But some laau may not do that, in that case add a
little water and let it cook. Uncover from time to time and stir --
check if the laau and the daal are cooked. The laau should be
thoroughly cooked with the daal getting mushy and clinging to it. Add
some chopped cilantro and cook for a minute or two more. Now in a
small pan heat some ghee [oil is ok too] and put a pinch of whole
jeera [kaalonji is another option, specially if you are not using
ghee] and couple of whole red chili peppers in it. Take them off heat
as soon as they begin to pop [if you like, a tbsp. of grated coconut
can be added at this point -- saute a little, then take off heat].
Pour the ghee mixture in laau, cook for a minute or two [add a little
more time if you have added coconut]. Enjoy!
Note: If the laau is very tender [kochi laau] -- after roasting and
washing the daal first put them on stove with a little water [just
enough to cook them] and cook in low heat, covered, til they are half
done. Then add the laau and spices and follow the recipe.
Variations of cooking laau:
The main process is the same, but you can use differnent ingredients
as additives:
1. Fry some shrimp and add in the beginning. [laau-chingRi] -- do not
add coconut in this recipe.
2. Fry boRis and add when you are adding the ghee mixture.
3. Wash thoroughly and rub a generous amount of turmeric and a pinch
of salt to a maachher maatha. Pan fry it [keeping a cover on, lest
you might get hit! ;-)] golden brown, inside out. Add it in the
beginning of cooking. Increase amount of turmeric powder to 11/2
tsp. or more, depending on amount, also more cumin powder than the
other recipes, consider ghee as a must [no coconut] -- this is a
gourmet dish, if you know what I mean! :-).
4. Also something else could be added to enhance the taste. For
instance, one of my favorite is to add "daal er boraa" (not bori, but
boraa) into it.
Prepare some mator daal paste by grinding already soaked mator daal
over four hours. Add to the grinder fresh chili and ginger and some
salt. The thick paste is then spread on a hot frying pan (don't add
any oil) and then slowly dried over a medium heat by constantly
stirring it until its becomes a very thick, sticky greenish/yellowish
mass. Remove it from the fire and then spread it over a large plate
patting it gently with your already washed hand.
After it has cooled down a bit, cut into small diamond shaped
cubes. Then fry them gently. Once they are fried add them into
lau-moong while it is cooking. It will absorb most of the water from
the lau-moong.
This variation is also quite appealing.
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