Thank you

Thank you all my visitors to this site for making my work a success. The blog is not even 2 months old and it has crossed that 1000 hits hurdle. This has given me a new zeal to work on new recipes and post those all for you.

So till my next post happy cooking and happy eating.

Kala Paturi

I had been writing about different dishes, fish, chicken , vegetables and everything but nothing about desserts. So thought of writing about a sweet for those who have that extra sweet tooth and even if you don’t have , I’m sure you’ll definitely like this one. This is a special sweet, typically Bengali, which you will never find in any shop throughout India I bet.

The sweet gets its name from the banana bowls it is served on, and if you don’t find any banana leaf to serve then just call it “Chhenar Sandesh”.

Ingredients:

Milk (Dudh) : 2 litres

Lemon (Lebu): 1

Caster sugar (Guro chini): 2 tablespoons

Raisins (kismis): 10 /15

Rose water (Golap jal): 2 taespoons

Banana leaves (Kala pata)

Preparation:

• Heat the milk in a pan, as it starts boiling pour in lemon juice or calcium lactate.
• The milk will form farmer’s cheese or chhena, drain out the water.
• Take the chhena in a plate and mash it well, and continue doing so till the surface becomes oily. You can feel with your fingertips that there are no lumps in it.
• Add the caster sugar and the rose water and mash again till it is well mixed.
• Make small round balls and add a raisin over each ball.
• Put the balls in small banana leaf bowls. You can also serve it without the bowls, those are only for decoration.

Serve at the dinner table and enjoy that great Bengali feeling, anywhere anytime. Happy cooking and happy eating.
Sending it for Monthly Mingle – Low Sugar Treats
Picture: Courtesy my Sis, PUPU

Macher Jhol

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Fish had always been my love at the dining table. Fish of all types and fish of all kinds does always bring that extra smile to my face. This is the reason why I am just enjoying my stay here in Bengal. I feel that it is for all Bengalis wherever they are, fish is the best way to end the meal. My mom used to cook a very simple but the most delicious fish curry, when I used to go to school. I still like that fish curry. Here it is for all you readers. To tell you one simple trick to make this curry a bit more spicy, cook it with any kind of fresh fish brought from the market that same day.

Ingredients:

Fish (Maach): 4 pieces

Potato (Aalu): 2 , cut like finger chips

Onion (Peyaj): 1small, chopped finely

Turmeric powder (Halud guro): 1/2 teaspoon

Chilli powder (Sukno lankar guro): 1 teaspoon

Cumin powder (jira guro): 1 teaspoon

Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 2 tablespoons

Bay leaf (Tej pata): 2

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Half fry the fish pieces, potatoes separately and keep aside.
• Take oil in a wok and sauté the onions, and the bay leaves.
• Add all the spices to the sautéd onions and fry a bit.
• Add 2 cups of water and to it add the fried potatoes.
• Cook the broth till it starts boiling and then add the fish pieces, take care so that those do not break.
• Cook till the potatoes get fully cooked.
• Serve with rice and enjoy eating.

I prepared this dish with Rohu (rui maach), you can do the same with any fleshy fish.

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Panchmeshali Tarkari

Here I am at my father’s place and enjoying all kinds of Bengali dishes cooked by mom. She is preparing all kinds of dishes that I love. Tonight was as usual one of my favorite platters at the dinner table. It’s a mixed vegetable curry cooked in without any kind of spices and is a delight to have as a light dinner or as a breakfast side dish along with paratha or roti. So this one to all you people who loves to shed off that extra carbs.

Ingredients:

Ridge Gourd (Jhinga) : 50gms

Pumpkin (Kumro): 50gms

Radish (Mulo): 50gms

Potato (Aalu): 50gms

Italian flat beans (Sheem): 50gms

Brinjal (Begun): 50gms

Green chilli (Kacha Lanka): 2 / 3 pieces

Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 2 teaspoons

Wild celery (Radhuni): 1 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves (Dhone pata): for garnishing

Preparation:

• Slice the vegetables in 2 inch small slices.
• Take the oil in a wok and add the radhuni to it. Sauté for 30 seconds and add the sliced vegetables.
• As the oil gets mixed up with the vegetables, add water and salt.
• Boil the vegetables till they become soft. Add more water if required.
• Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.
• Serve with rice, roti, paratha.

You can add other vegetables like beans, gourd, etc. Happy cooking and happy eating till next time.

Morola Macher Chachori

Recently I visited my parents’ house and had that awesome treat with all kinds of fish one can think of. I’m writing one of those preparations today. You can prepare this with any cat fish like Tangra, Morola, and Kachki acoording to your wish. What my mom prepared was with Tangra.

Ingredients:

Tangra : 200gm

Onions (Peyaj): 4 medium sized, chopped

Potato (Aalu): 2 medium sized, cut like small longitudinal strips

Tomato: 2

Turmeric powder (Halud guro): 3 pinches

Chilli powder (Sukhno lankar guro): 1 teaspoon

Green chilli (Kacha lanka): 3 / 4

Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 2 tablespoons

Preparation:

• Take oil in a wok and heat it, fry the fish and keep aside.
• In that same wok sauté the onions.
• Add the fried potatoes and tomato, and fry it till the tomato softens.
• Add the turmeric powder, green chilli powder, water and salt.
• As the gravy starts to thicken add the fried fish to it.
• Cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, till the potatoes get cooked.
• Serve with rice.

Hilsa with Steam

Serves 4

With the first rain drop, the thing that comes to the mind of all Bengalis all over the world is Ilish. This salt water fish that comes to lay eggs in fresh water is a delicacy among all fish lovers. Today is a special recipe for this special fish. Though we call it Ilisher Bhaape, but the name I have given is from a seven-star hotel menu card, that makes you think what actually it is. The preparation is very simple and the whole cooking takes maximum 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

Hilsa (Ilish): 6 pieces

Mustard seed (sarse): 2 tablespoons

Poppy seed (posto): 2 tablespoons

Green chilli (kacha lanka): 6/7

Mustard oil (sarser tel): 3 tablespoon

Turmeric powder (Haluder guro): 3 piches

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Make a paste of mustard and poppy seeds along with 2 /3 chillies.
• Wash the fish pieces well, take them in a shallow microwave bowl.
• Add salt, turmeric powder to the mustard and poppy paste.
• Mix the paste to the fish well and pour the oil over it, also add the remaining chillies.
• Microwave for 5 / 6 minutes at 800watts (microwave high), in between check whether the fish has become soft and the mustard smell is coming out or not.
• Serve hot with rice , and enjoy this great delicacy.

Chicken in chilli garlic sauce

Sometimes back I read about a chilli garlic crab preparation in a cook book. Thought of trying the same preparation but with chicken in place of crab. The experiment turned out to be a very spicy and yummy platter, so here it is sharing with you all.

Ingredients:

Chicken (murgi): 1kg

Red chilli powder (sukhno lankar guro): 3 teas-spoons full, mixed with water to make a paste

Garlic (rasun): 15 cloves , chopped well

Mustard oil (sarser tel): 2 table-spoons

Tomato: 3 small sized, 2 of them grinded to make a puree

Onions (peyaj): 1

Cornflour: 2 table-spoons

Vinegar: 1 table-spoons

Spring onions : 2 stalks, chopped

Eggs (dim): 2, beaten well

MSG (ajinamoto): 1/4 teaspoon (optional)

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Take the chicken , one tomato, one peyaj (cut into half) and boil the whole in a deep pan with sufficient water such that the ingredients get covered with water.
• Take it out , when the chicken is half cooked. Keep the stock for later use.
• Heat oil in a wok and deep fry the half cooked chicken. Keep aside.
• Take some more oil and sauté the garlic for a minute. Add the tomato puree, chilli powder paste, and the stock and bring it to boil. When it starts boiling add salt.
• Take the cornflour in a boil and mix it with water. Add it to the boiling sauce, cook till it gets thickened.
• Now add the chicken along with vinegar , MSG and spring onions to the sauce and mix. Add the beaten egg in trickle and cook till the egg strands rise to top.

Your chicken in chilli garlic sauce is ready to serve , spicy and yummy. Serve hot. Enjoy cooking and happy eating.

Ful Kopir Tarkari

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Serves: 4

Winter has gone away, but it has still left us with many vegetables to feel that dry cold winter afternoons. Cauliflower is one with which you can experiment out a lot many things. For today is the most simple one, I would be writing about the some more recipes with cauliflower in my following posts.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower (full kopi): 1 medium size

Potato (aalu): 2 pieces

Tomato: 1

Green chilli (kacha lanka): 3 / 4

Turmeric powder (haluder guro): ¼ tea-spoons

Chilli powder (sukhno lankar guro): 1 tea-spoon

Ginger paste (aada bata): 1 tea-spoon

Cumin seeds (gota jeera): 1 tea-spoon

Cumin powder (jeera guro): 1 ½ tea-spoon

Mustard oil (sarser tel): 2 table-spoons

Salt to taste

The Ingredients

Preparation:

• Cut the cauliflower in 1“ size florets and the potatoes also of the same size.
• Pour oil in a wok and fry the cauliflower and the potatoes separately. Keep aside.
• Add the cumin seeds to the heated oil and let it fry a bit.
• To it add the ginger paste and the tomato, cut into one-fourth.
• Take 2 table-spoons of water in a small bowl. Add the cumin, chilli and turmeric powder and make a smooth batter. Add this to the wok. Cook for 1 minute.
• When the gravy starts boiling add the fried cauliflower and potatoes.
• Cook till they become soft. In between add little water for the vegetables to cook well.
• Serve hot with rice, roti, paratha.




Platter ready to Serve