Harvest: The Festival of Rice: Roundup Part II

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With many types of rice, it really took me long to come up with the round-up. I would like to thank Hema and Easy to Cook for sending so many recipes for the event. Please let me know if I have missed out any of your recipes. You can see the first part of roundup for this event here.  SGD of  Whims and Wishes also wrote some words about this Harvest festival, and she was very kind to share her thoughts with us.

1. Bajji’s Platter from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
2. Bisi Bela Bhaat from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
3. Bisibelabath from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
4. Black-eyed peas pulao from Asha of Aroma Hope
5. Brinjal Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
6. Capsicum Rice from Shama  of  Easy to Cook Recipes
7. Carrot Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
8. Cauliflower Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
9. Chenna Pulao from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
10. Chicken biriyani from Shama of Easy to Cook Recipes
11. Chilli-Tangerine rice from Anushreeram of Chandrabhaga
12. Cilantro Rice from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
13. Cocnut Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
14. Coconut Milk Vegetable Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
15. Dil se pulao from Sindhura of Bay Leaf
16. Doodh Puli Peethe from Sunanda of Sunanda’s Kitchen
17. Garlic Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
18. Healthy Geen Rice/ Pudina Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
19. Iyengar’s Poliodharai from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
20. Keshari Bhaat (Sweet Saffron Rice) from Sanika of  Sanika’s Spicy&Tangy….Sweet&Yummy!!!!
21. Khasta Kachori from Naveeta of Zaayeka
22. Kondakadalai Sadam/ Red Chana Dal Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
23. Lemon Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook  Recipes
24. Lemony Lemon – A Tangy Tasty Masala Bath from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
25. Medhu Pakora from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
26. Mint Magic (Pudina pulao) from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
27. Mishti Pulao from Aundhuti of Gourmet Affair
28. Mor Koozh from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
29. Multiprotein Rice from Shama of Easy to Cook  Recipes
30. Mushroom Pulao from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
31. Paruppu Keerai Dosai from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
32. Pasta Pulao from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
33. Patishapta from SGD of  Whims and Wishes
34. Peanut Cup Rice from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
35. Poha from EC of  Easy Crafts
36. Prawn/Shrimp Pulao of Homecooked
37. Puliyothaai/ Tamarind Rice from Shama of  Easy to Cook Recipes
38. Puttu~Steamed Rice Cakes from Poornima of Tasty Treats
39. Rice Ball Kheer from Sanika of Sanika’s Spicy&Tangy….Sweet&Yummy!!!!
40. Rice Uppma from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
41. Sharkara Payasam from Poornima of Tasty Treats
42. Shazani biryani from Sindhura of Bay Leaf
43. Spongy Dosa with yum yum coconut from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
44. Tomato rice from Sindhura of Bay Leaf
45. Vegetable Bonda from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
46. Vegetable Pulao from Poornima of  Tasty Treats
47. Vegetable Rice from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
48. Venpongal from Shama of Easy to Cook Recipes
49. Wholesome Moong kichadi from EC of Easy Crafts

With so many recipes, it’s really hard to choose which one is the best. But still, it’s on you to select the best. So go ahead and choose your best recipe and write it down as a comment for this post.

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Harvest: The festival of Rice: Round up Part I

We’ve moved to own domain name – bengalicuisine.net. You can follow me on Twitter, visit my Flickr photostream.

I am so sorry that I was not able to post the round up for the event. Thanks to all for sending me those wonderful recipes and also for being patient. Everyday of the last month I got so many mails for the event. All the mails had so many different kinds of recipe. To tell you the truth the first time when the idea of this event struck I was not at all aware that I’ll get so many different types of recipes with rice or rice flour as the main ingredient. This is really unbelievable.

Here goes the first part of the round up for Harvest:  The Festival of Rice

1. Ambur Mutton biriyani from Ashwini of Ashwini’s spicy cuisine
2. Bengal Royal Rice from Anushriram of Chandrabhaga
3. Brown Basmati Egg Biriyani with Chickpeas from Anuvidya of And a little bit more
4. Cheppi Surnalli from Namrata Kini of Welcome to Namu’s Kitchen
5. Chicken Dum Biriyani from Dershana of The Footloose Chef
6. Chicken Rice from Priya Sriram of Priya’s Sourashtrian Kitchen
7. Chilli-Tangerine rice from Anushriram of Chandrabhaga
8. Chinese fried rice from Dhanya of My Home Cooking
9. Coriander Rice from Ashwini of Ashwini’s spicy cuisine
10. Curd rice from Deepa Hari of Simple Home Cooking – from Deepa’s Kitchen
11. Kadambam Rice from DK of Culinary Bazaar
12. Lemon Rice from Ramya of Mane Adige
13. Minced Chicken Pulao from Poornima Nair of Tasty Treats
14. Mixed Vegetable Khichdi from Usha of Veg Inspirations
15. Paal Pongal from Rajee of Simply Innocence
16. Pakistani Chicken Biriyani from swapna Pravin of  Cooking with Swapna
17. Pongal from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
18. Pongal, vadai and a tooth from Sunshinemom of Tongue Ticklers
19. Puli Sundal from Chitra of Ratatouille – Any one can cook
20. Recipe for Stuffed Baked Acorn Squash from Vnv of Veggie Monologues
21. Rice Dosa and  Koozh of Chitra from Ratatouille – any one can cook
22. Sakkarai Pongal from Priya Suresh of Priya’s Easy N Tasty Recipes
23. Schezeun Fried Rice from Poonam of Poonam’s Kitchen
24. Tacos with Kidney beans, salsa and rice from Arch of The Yum Factor
25. Tehari from Notyet100 of Asankhana
26. Tondli Bhat from Usha of Enjoy Indian Food
27. Undi (Steamed Rice Balls) from Namrata Kini of Welcome to Namu’s Kitchen
28. Veg Dhum Biriyani from Hema of Adlak’s Kitchen
29. Venn Pongal and Chakkarai Pongal from Smita Kulkarni of Dabbu’s Recipes
30. Zucchini rice from Anushriram of Chandrabhaga

Go ahead and comment on your most loved recipes. I would love to know about your comments.

Check out the other parts of the round up, till then Happy Cooking and happy Eating .

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Announcing event – Harvest: The Festival of Rice

We’ve moved to own domain name – bengalicuisine.net. You can follow me on Twitter, visit my Flickr photostream.

Each day of the year flies off so fast that its hard to believe that we have crossed 365 days and even more on leap years between to New Year celebrations. The winter sets in with loads of happiness. Christmas and New Year rings the bells for enjoyment and merriment. It is the time of harvest in India. US celebrate it as Thanks Giving, but that is couple of months before hat in India. In India the harvesting festival is celebrated with much glory. It is called by different names in all over India – Nabanno, Makar Shankranti, Pongal are just a few to mention.

While most of the Hindu festivals are followed according to the lunar calendar, the Sankranti festival is celebrated in accordance with the solar calendar, and so the date never changes from the English date of 14^th January. It is the day when the Hindus believe that the Sun god begins ascending to the Northern Hemisphere.

The Puranas say that this is the day when the Sun-God visits the house of his son Shani, though the son and father do not get along nicely. So this is day has an important significance of father son relationship.

It is also said that this the day when Lord Vishnu ended the terrorism of the Asuras and buried their heads under the Mandar Parvat. So this day also stands for the end of evil and begins an era of righteousness.

In Uttar Pradesh this day is called “Khichdi”. Taking a dip in the Ganges is thought to be auspicious on this day. The Magh Mela is celebrated during this time of the year in Prayag, better known as Allahabad.

In Maharashtra and Gujarat it is celebrated as Sankranti. Sweets made of sesame seeds and jaggery are distributed among families. Married women are invited to their relatives’ houses and are offered utensils. Especially in Gujarat kite flying is a marked for this day.

Lahari is celebrated in Punjab where families gather around a bonfire and throw in sweets, sugarcane and rice. The next day of Lahari is Maghi. This day is marked with the famous Bhangra dance in Punjab.

Bihu festival of Assam is celebrated on this very day.

Bengal sees a huge swarming of devotees from all over India and also abroad to take a holy dip at Sagar Islands, where the Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal.

Andhra Pradesh celebrates it as a four day festival. The Telugus call it the Pedda Panduga, naming each day as Bhogi, Sankranti, Kanuma and Mukkanuma respectively.

As mentioned above, almost every state of India has its own way of celebrating this festival. It is the day of celebration and bringing home the newly cut harvest from the fields.

Every year my mom prepares different kinds of sweets all made of rice or rice flour. So this time I thought of celebrating it in my way, with you all.

Prepare anything where the main ingredient is either rice or rice flour. The preparation can be vegan or non-vegitarian, depending upon your choice. You can also take some idea from the following recipes.

Send in your entries to bengalicuisine@gmail.com with the Subject as “Harvest: The Festival of Rice”, with the following details.

• NAME:
• BLOG NAME:
• BLOG URL:
• POST NAME:
• POST URL:
• Attach a picture of the preparation in jpeg, jpg

The last day for receiving all entries is 31^st January 2009. No late entries will be entertained. I’ll post the round up on 2^nd February.

Feel free to use the event logo, and put a link on your blog for this event. If you want to send any old posts then please update it with the event logo and a link back to this announcement.

Those of you who don’t have a blog, send in your recipe along with a photo of the dish to the above mentioned e-mail id.

It would be nice of you if you can also add your memories related to this time of the year, also post photos if you have decorated your house for the event.

There is no limit to the number of entries you can send, so put on your aprons and start preparing.Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.

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Durga Puja

Durga Puja is a very special occassion for all of us. All year through we wait to spend these 4 days with the best grandeur possible.

Wait for the special recipes for the Pujas.

Week Night Dinner

Monday nights are always the lousiest nights of all the weekdays. After a lazy-dizzy weekend, I’m always reluctant to get into the kitchen after a whole day’s work. Anyways, nothing to do I have to get going and prepare something. So, whatever it be, the preparation shouldn’t take much time, but should be wholesome and of course good to taste.

Now, I started cutting down my options and ended up with jeera-rice, mugh dal and potato fry. This seemed to be a good option with less work to do, and I’ll get back a good output. The recipe for Monday night’s platter is here for you.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Rice (Chal): 200gms

Pulses (Mugh dal): 50gms

Potato (Aalu): 4 medium sizes

Green chili (Kacha Lanka): 1 or 2

Turmeric powder (Halud guro): 1 ½ teaspoons

Cumin (Jeera): 2 teaspoons

Ghee: ½ teaspoon

Sunflower oil (Saada Tel): 2 tablespoons

Mustard Oil (Sarser Tel): ½ tablespoons

Ginger (Aada): 1” size

Salt to t

Preparation:

For making Jeera rice

• Boil the rice, and let it cook properly.
• Drain the excess water out of it.
• Heat ghee in a wok, as it gets heated add 1 teaspoon of cumin to it.
• Thrown in the cooked rice and toss for ½ a minute.
• Keep aside.

For making the Dal

• Boil the pulses in plain water until it softens.
• Grind the ginger to make a paste.
• As the dal gets cooked, add turmeric powder, chili, salt and ginger.
• Heat mustard oil in a frying pan; add the cumin as the oil gets heated.
• Drop in the cooked pulses in it.
• Cook for a minute more.
• Keep aside.

For making the potato fry

Potatoes cut to fry

• Chop the potatoes to 1 inch size slender pieces.
• Add turmeric powder and salt to it.
• Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan.
• Throw in the potatoes and fry.

Week night dinner ready to serve

Veg Mini Thali

You can prepare any other type of pulses of your choice. Serve the hot rice, potato fry and dal; and enjoy your week night dinner. Catch you soon, till then happy cooking and happy eating.

Chaler Payesh

I always had a sweet corner for sweets. I used to devour sweets whenever I got the chance. I remember those days from school, I used to study at night and my mom always kept sweets loaded in the fridge. My way of taking a break from study was to get hold some sweets and have them.

Those days are gone, and so are the streets of Kolkata, where you’ll find sweet shops on every road. I really miss every kind of sweet, be that the world famous rasogolla, or not that famous chanar sandesh. So, thought of taking up the task to myself; satiating my sweet tooth, preparing something straight from my kitchen.

I was all set to prepare Mugh-daler-laddu. Everything was at place, all the ingredients, I had started making it too. Towards the end of my preparing it I got a call from my mom, adnd almost forgot that the oven was on. I jumped back smelling the burnt smells from kitchen, but everything gone. There was only a charred mass left out in the wok. In addition to this mess, I had to wash the utensil: that was really an awful experience.

But, as usual I never loose heart. So the next day I again set up to prepare something sweet, this time it was not the same as the other day. I prepared chaler-payesh and wow, it was really awesome. Here is it for all of you.

Today is janmasthami, there is Puja going at my home in Kolkata, again missing my family a lot. Neways this preparation is for my mom, and sending it to Festive Food Event hosted by Purva.

Also sending it to Anisheetu’s SWC-Karntaka event. Living inBangalore for more than a year now Ijust couldn’t control myself to send this Bengali style Chaaler Payesh for the Karnataka food event, though the payesham is not much different from this paayesh.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Sweet smelling Rice (Gabindobhog er chaal): 100gms

Milk (Dudh): 1 ½ l

Sugar (Chini): 150gms

Ghee: 1 teaspoon

Cashew nuts(Kaju Badam): 10gms,

Raisins (Kismis): 10gms

Green cardamom (Choto Elaichi): 3 or 4

Almonds (Badam): 5 or 6

Bay leaf (Tej Pata): 1 or 2

Almonds and Cashew -courtesy Flickr.com

Preparation:

• Boil the milk in very low flame, and let it condense till it become almost ¾ its original volume.
• Meanwhile, add ghee to rice and mix well.
• Drop in the rice when the milk is ready, and now cook on high flame, stirring often.
• As the rice gets cooked add sugar, green cardamom, bay leaf.
• Keep on flame till the sugar melts.
• Throw in the cashew nuts and raisins.
• Serve hot or refrigerate, as you like it. Garnish with raisins, almonds, cashew nuts or any other dry fruits of your choice.

Tips from Granny:

• If you dont get Gobindobog, then work out with good quality Basmati rice
• You can also leave out the ghee, but that does not allow the rice to stick to each other.
• The more you condense the milk, the better it tastes.

Payesh

Payesh

Khichudi

Khichudi, the name reminds me of those rainy days and rainy nights. Khichudi had always taken a special soft corner in my heart. Mom used to cook it whenever it started and rain means no going out and so everybody at home. The whole family waiting impatiently for the hot and yummy porridge to be served at the dining table. I especially remember one night. It was raining cats and dogs; mom was very ill that night and couldn’t even get up from bed. But we were all in full mood to enjoy khichudi. So what to do? The answer came from my dad, let’s prepare it ourselves. Hearing that my mom started screaming, here to mention at that time my dad was a terrible cook, though with the passage of time and because of his transferable job he has learnt a lot about cooking. Now let’s go back to that night. So here we were me and my dad in the kitchen preparing porridge. That night at last we had to call a nearby restaurant to deliver food, that porridge was absolutely burnt and had to throw away everything.

Days have passed, a lot has changed, but still I can’t separate monsoon rain and porridge. I have learnt to prepare it myself and so whenever it rains, you can smell khichudi in my kitchen. Oh! I missed out something. To make this delicacy something more special don’t you forget to fry those hilsa pieces or at least an omelet. This combination is just awesome.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Rice (Chal): 150 gm

Pulses (Massor dal): 150 gm

Turmeric powder (Halud Guro): 1 teaspoon

Chilli powder (Sukhno Lankar guro): 1 teaspoon

Onions (Peyaj): 3

Garlic (Rasun): 4 /6 cloves

Ginger paste (Aada Bata)

Panch Phoron: 1 teaspoon

Green chilli (Kacha Lanka): 2/3 pieces

Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 2 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Preparation:

So we are ready with the ingredients, now before we start just a few word. Cut one of the onions into half and the other two julienned. You can add some vegetables like potato , cauliflower (cut into small florets), carrot, peas, etc.

• Wash the rice and dal together.
• Take water in a handi and heat it just for 2 minutes.powder,
• Add the rice, dal, half cut onion, garlic cloves, vegetables, turmeric powder, chilli green chilli and salt.
• Now leave it and let it cook by itself.
• Add water whenever required.
• When the rice is almost cooked, heat oil in an wok and add the left out onions and panch phoron. Sauté it.
• Add this to the cooked rice.
• Then cook the rice for 2 minutes more and your porridge is ready to serve.

Khichudi with ladies finger fries
You can have it with any kind of fries, or even with chutney and papad (poppadam). There are some more ways to cook porridge, check out my following posts to find out how.

Tips: Porridge tends to become very dry, so before you take it out of the stove ensure that it has not become too dry and so leave out some water.