Bengali

Aam Sandesh/ Mango Sandesh (Mango flavoured cottage cheese based Bengali sweet)

12:43 PM


It is said that we Bengalis celebrate thirteen festivals in twelve months but in reality its way more than thirteen. We just need a reason to celebrate anything with good company, adda (chat) and great food. One such celebration is Jamai sashti or a very special day for Bengal’s son in laws. Jamai in Bengali means son in laws and Sashti is the sixth day in a fortnight of a Hindu calendar. Jamai Sasthi is observed on the 6th day of Shukla Paksha which means the waxing phase of moon. On this day all mother in laws worship Goddess Sashti who is the Goddess of fertility and the protector of children with full devotion for the well beings of their son in laws and treat them with kingly honor. All the jamais or son in laws take a day off (state holiday) from work and are invited to their in laws place where after the completion of a traditional puja, mother in laws tie yellow threads around their wrist and Prasad is distributed among all. Later they are showered with loads of expensive gifts and a majestic traditional lunch spread. The preparation for this day starts the day before when the father goes to the market to order for special sweets, fish and mutton. As Hilsa the most adored Bengali fish becomes available during this time, it’s a common sight in the fish market to see fathers flocking in to get the best fish for their jamais. The feast starts in the morning with lavish breakfast of ghee e bhaja luchi (Puris fried in clarified butter), curry and varieties of sweets. The lunch is served on a traditional Kansa thala (brass plate) with numerous items served with rice. The main focus remains on non vegetarian like mutton and numerous fish dishes.

This year Jamai sashthi was on 17th June. Because of the distance the Jamai here is deprived of any jamai ador , but more than the jamai it’s the in laws who are sad. The numerous enquiries started pouring in from the day before. Several times Maa, Baba, Mama (maternal uncle), Mami (Mama’s wife) and Dada(elder brother) called to know what I am preparing for him. I planned on a quick dinner with pulao and Chicken do Pyaja but that was nowhere closure to their satisfaction. They atleast wanted some dessert to end the meal. Now preparing dessert for my hubby is a difficult job. He doesnot like anything that’s has a sweet taste and there are very few sweet dishes that he likes. So I wanted to play safe and targeted his favorite fruit Mango to whip up something quick.
The Mango sandesh (mango flavoured cottage cheese based sweets) I made for this occasion came out much more than I expected. It has a nice sweet aroma and a lovely bright summery colour of the begumpally mangoes. The taste simply could be summed up in one word ‘heavenly’; unlike regular sandesh it has a creamy, melt in the mouth textures. I used my most prized possession, My Dida’s terracotta sandesh moulds to give shapes and designs to the sweets for the very first time. It was a very nostalgic moment for me as many sweet memories came pouring in and I felt very close to her. Finally, when served on a traditional kansa plate Hubby was in awe, his first reaction was like where did you buy them? And more to my surprise my not at all sweet loving Hubby ended up eating 8 pieces of these gorgeous yellow bites (not at all exaggerating). The other man of the house, our little cub even loves this and ate two small pieces. I am going to make different versions of this again and again as this is a great way to eat some good milk product but more because our most trusted sweet shop here has recently closed their shutter. So further about Bengal’s most favourite sweet Sandesh later in my coming posts. Till then enjoy these sweet treats.
Aam Sandesh

Ingredients:
Full Fat milk: 1 liter
Khowa/ Milk solids: ½ cup
Mango pulp: 1 cup 
(I used one big begumpally mango; you can use canned pulps as well)
Powdered sugar: 1/3 cup
Condensed milk: 4 tbsp
Lemon juice: 1 tsp
Method:
First prepare the chena/ chana or cottage cheese: Heat milk on medium flame and bring to boil. Increase the heat and mix in the lemon juice and gently stir. Gradually it will start to curdle. Keep stirring with a gentle hand till you see light green water separating from the cheese. Switch of the heat and strain the water in a muslin cloth.
Hold the cheese in the cloth under running water and wash thoroughly to get rid of any lemony taste and smell. Bring the sides together and hang it to drain any excess liquid at least for 30 minutes.
Kneading the chana: After that take the cheese out on a plate and start kneading with the heel of your palm. Continue doing this till you get smooth dough and your palms feel the softness (approx. 5 minutes). Now mix in the sugar and again knead for another 3-4 minutes. At the end of this process you will get a little oily and very smooth dough without any lump.
Now peel and deseed the mango and puree the pulp.
Preparing the makha: Pulse the khowa (make sure it is at room temperature) in a food processor to get a smooth consistency. If needed add little milk. Take a non stick pan and mix in the mango pulp, Khowa, chana and condensed milk, the consistency would be thick batter like. On a medium low heat start cooking the mixture. You need to keep stirring it continuously to avoid from burning at the bottom, while doing so scrape the sides occasionally.
Keep on cooking this way till the chana becomes thick and finally take a dough shape leaving the sides of the pan (approx. 15 minutes). Switch off the heat and take it out on a plate or bowl. Cover and let it cool a little bit.
Moulding or shaping the sandesh: In the mean time wash the moulds and lightly grease the inside with a little ghee (clarifies butter). Pinch the dough and take small portion of the makha. Spread this on the mould in whatever form it is. Press with your palm and gently take them out of the mould. Repeat the process with the rest of the makha.

Serve warm or at room temperature. You can also freeze them for 3-4 days in a covered container.
Note: this could be prepared with any other aromatic fruit like strawberries, raspberries etc.
the classic sandesh is only prepared with pista and cardamom. will try to post that later.

the kneaded sweetened chana is the raw form of rasgullas. to make that make small balls of the kneaded chana and boil them in sugar syrup for 5 minutes.


Sizzling Summer ContestSending this to Srivalli's Kid's Delight ~ Colouring your Kid's Delight! 
and also to Sizzling Summer Contest at SpicyTasty.com.






Tags: 
cottage cheese, sandesh, bengali sweet, milk sweet, chana, chhana, chena, Mango dessert, milk dessert, Indian sweet, Mishti.

Bengali

Chal Patol (Parwal/Pointed Gourd in Aromatic Rice Gravy)

12:36 PM

Trichosanthes dioica is also known as the pointed gourd, parwal (from Hindi), or potol (fromAssamese, Oriya or Bengali (পটল) pôţol). It is a good source of carbohydrates, vitamin A, and vitamin C. It also contains major nutrients and trace elements (magnesium, potassium, copper, sulfur, and chlorine) which are needed in small quantities, for playing essential roles in human physiology.It is a vine plant, similar to cucumber and squash, though unlike those it is perennial. The fruits are green with white or no stripes. Size can vary from small and round to thick and long — 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 cm). 


I am actually copying almost the whole Wikipedia article on Parwal just because from my own experience I know there are a lot of people who never have seen or eaten this vegetable. I dont know why but there is a big bunch who actually hate this so much that they even refuse to try this even once. Well I don’t belong to them rather on a contrary this is my most favorite summer vegetable. I love it so much that during pregnancy when I detested almost everything even then I ate full meals only with a light parwal stew. I belong to a Parwal loving family where summer meant many delicacies with parwal. My Maa makes a whole parwal curry which is finger lickingly delicious. Apart from this we Bengalis cook a variety of savory and sweet dishes with green parwal, ripe parwal and even with parwal peels. Though the most famous Bengali Parwal dish is patoler Dolma or Parwal stuffed with spiced veg or non-veg stuffing and cooked in a creamy gravy. Once after my marriage we invited some of his friends for dinner and I painstakingly labored in the kitchen to prepare prawn and coconut stuffed parwal. I sang its praises before dinner until 70% of them declared that they hate Parwal. So the statutory warning here is before cooking this veggie for your guests make sure that they like it. Luckily Hubby is fond of this and for that matter he pretty much loves all the veggies.

Apart from being a popular veggie Bengalis have a fascination with the word Patol and its shape. A girl with a doe shaped eyes are often referred as Patol chera chokh. 

Before I get into the recipe here are some benefits of Patol (source: www.findmeacure.com )
The plant is cardiac tonic and antifebrile. Its decoction with chirata and honey is given in bilious fevers as a febrifuge.
A decoction or infusion of the plant is an efficacious remedy for boils and worms.
The leaf juice is rubbed over the scalp for the cure of alopecia.
Powder of the dried root is very effective in curing ascites.
A decoction of its leaves with chebulic myrobalan taken in the morning on empty stomach is an age-old remedy for acidity and bilious disorders.
Leaf juice is an age-old remedy for liquor poisoning.
Leaf juice is a household remedy for controlling high blood pressure.

Here in Bangalore this is quite an expensive vegetable and we hardly get to see the fresh produce. This week Hubby got some real fresh and perfectly shaped patol from our local veggie market. A Look at the bag and my heart sang to me Chal Patol. Chal in Bengali means rice which gives this dish the distinctive aroma. This is an authentic Bengali vegetarian dish cooked with aromatic Gobindobhog Rice (kalijeera rice) and coconut. This is actually cooked without onion and garlic but some people also add prawns to it.

Chal Patol

Ingredients:
Parwal: 6 pieces
Potato: 1 large
Gobindobhog rice/ basmati rice: 2 tsp
Scraped coconut: 3 tbsp
Green chillies: 2
Ginger paste: 1 tbsp
Cumin powder: ½ tbsp
Coriander powder: 2 tsp
Cumin seeds: ½ tsp
Turmeric powder
Chilli powder: ½ tsp
Garam masala powder: ½ tsp
Whole clove and cinnamon: 2-3 pieces
Bay leaf: 1
Oil: 3 tbsp
Ghee/ clarifies butter: 1 tsp
Sugar: ½ tsp
Salt


Method:
Wash the parwal, trim the edges then peel skin at 2 or 3 places lengthwise. Cut them each in 3 or 4 pieces depending on the size.

Peel potatoes and cut in cubes. Now smear a little bit of turmeric and salt on the potato and parwal and keep aside.

Mix all the spice paste and powder with 2 tbsp water and keep aside.
Heat 2 tbsp oil and put the parwal first. Fry for 5 minutes and then add the potatoes. Fry till light brown.

Heat the rest of the oil and temper with slitted green chillies, bay leaf, cumin seeds, cinnamon and cloves.

Once the aroma hits you add the rice. Fry on low heat till the rice turns white.
Mix in the spice paste and keep on frying on low heat. When the oil starts to separate at the sides add in the coconut paste. Stir and cook for another 

minute before adding the fried veggies.Add salt and cook on low for a couple of minute.

Pour 1 cup water and cover. Let it cook on medium heat till the veggies are soft and the gravy coats the veggies. Adjust the water accordingly.

Once done stir in the ghee and the garam masala and serve this divinely aromatic dish with rice.



This recipe is off to
Side Dish Showdown Blogger EventSide Dish showdown: June at Cinnamon and Spice and everything nice.


And also to


Think Spice: Think Garam Masala, a great event started by Sunita and this time hosted at Sara’s Corner.


Tags:
Parwal, Patal, Patol, Pointed Gourd, Alu Patal, Potato with parwal, Gobindobhog chal, Klijeera rice, Aromatic Rice, Parwal Gravy, Garam Masala, Bengali vegetable, Tarkari, Vegetables in gravy, Bangali, Niramish, Pure Vegetarian, Side Dish with rice.

Desserts and Sweets

Mango Kulfi ( Mango Flavoured Indian Ice Cream)

3:59 AM


This year we are witnessing a bumper harvest of Mangoes in India. The three mango trees in my backyard never fail me and this year also they have given me great produce. It’s great more because I was not here for most of the mango season following which they had been attack by almost all the passersby. The bigger tree gives me most of the produce, almost 80% but the ripe fruits of this one are not juicy or sweet. So I mostly use them for pickles and Amchurs. The medium one is of a hybrid variety and tastes great when ripe. The last one is small and yet to fruit but provides excellent support to my broad bean and pumpkin vines as trellis. When I came back I only saw some fruits at our side of the garden, the opposite side faces a road and most of the visible fruits there were collected by the numerous tent owners residing in our locality. Hubby suggested that we pick all the remaining fruits or they would cause more nuisances.  So last month brother and Hubby climbed the tree and collected all the mangoes and to our astonishment even that amounted more than two big bucketfuls. I have made a huge batch of Amchurs for my family which will at least last for the coming year. The mangoes in the second tree have started to ripen and they are juicy and sweet. We had a few of them in themselves as after meal desserts but my experimenting self wanted to do something new with them . After a lot of brain storming decided upon making Mango Kulfi.

Kulfi or flavoured frozen rich milk based dessert from India is a delicacy in hot summer days. By nature they are close cousin of Ice cream, but they are not whipped so have a dense frozen texture and thus take more time to melt.  Traditionally it is cooked on slow fire by stirring full cream milk for hours till it thickens and then it is frozen in small aluminium cone shaped pots or moulds. In Northern India Kulfis are available on roads where the vendors keep it frozen by placing them in big earthenware pots filled with ice and salt and covered with thick layers of wet cloth. Sometimes kulfis are set in small terracotta pots called Matka and are served with flavoured faloodas (Indian Vermicelli). Among all types of frozen desserts Kulfi is my most favourite and whenever I am in Kolkata I make it a point to visit Rally’s to have my share. There saffron flavored pistachio and rose syrup topped kulfis are to die for, am not a fan of faloodas so mostly give it a miss. These kulfis were an instant hit with my brother, Hubby only likes pista flavored ones so was not much enthusiastic about this.  I simply loved it and this summer and all coming summers I am going to make them again and again. The only problem I had with my kulfis were the mangoes, they were not very flavourful so next time when am going to make this I will make sure I use better mangoes or otherwise will use some artificial Mango flavours (Bush).

Here is my quick recipe:

Mango Kulfi


Ingredients:
Mango Pulp: 1 cup
Full cream milk: 1 liter
Condensed milk: ½ can
Khowa/ Sandesh: ¼ cup
White bread: 1 slice
Corn flour: 1 tbsp
Sugar: 1/3 cup

Method:
Take 1/3 cup of milk and grind the bread slice in a mixer. Add the corn flour, mix well and keep aside.

Also grate the khowa or sandesh and mix it with 1/3 cup of milk. Keep aside.
Now in a heavy bottomed pan boil the milk on medium heat for 15 minutes. Stir continuously or it will burn at the bottom.

Add the condensed milk and sugar and again boil for 2-3 minutes.

Add in the bread-corn flour mixture and boil for 5 minutes.

Take it off from heat and let it cool for 20 minutes.

Mix the mango pulp and mix well.

Pour in moulds and freeze. You don’t need to have kulfi moulds as small plastic coffee cups or pop sickle makers will work fine.

To unmold bring them out of the fridge and rub between your palms. Revert on a serving plate.

Decorate with chopped candies mangoes and more mango pulp if you like.
Serve and devour immediately.

Note:
Make sure to mix the pulp only when the milk is cold otherwise if the mangoes are tart it might curdle.

Similarly strawberries or any other aromatic sweet fruits could be used.

To make Kesar Pista Kulfi follow the same method but instead of using mango pulp use some milk soaked saffron strands. Boil them along with milk and before freezing stir in some chopped pistachios.


Sending this to Monthly Mingle: Sweet Treats guest hosted this month by Erin of The Aprtment Kitchen. This event is a brainchild of Meeta of What’s For Lunch, Honey.


and also to Yasmeen's I scream for Ice Cream.


 and Neethu's Sizzling Summer Contest. 


Tags:
Mango, Kulfi, Indian Ice Cream, Mango Ice Cream, Mango Dessert, Indian Dessert, Frozen Dessert, Milk Dessert, Corn flour, Sugar, Mango Pulp, Frozen Milk,Cold Dessert.

Noodle and Pasta

Chilled Summer Salad

11:46 PM


I like to blog not only because I love to cook but it also helps me to know a lot of new things and inspires me to try out ingredients that I never thought of buying. Zuchini is one such vegetable that I see each time on the fridge section of the Hypermarket where I do my vegetable shopping these days but never thought of reaching and picking them. I always thought these are some fancy vegetables that are used in continental dishes unless one day I saw this month’s theme for NCR. So yesterday, while picking groceries I finally walked that few steps to these dark green vegetables and put a couple of them in my basket. Hubby gave me a wired look when he saw these and asked the obvious question what are you going to do with these? I was as clueless as him so decided to give him a ‘Wait and watch’ kind of smile.

Once home I googled and my ever trusted Wikipedia told me that The zucchini has a delicate flavor and requires little more than quick cooking with butter or olive oil, with or without fresh herbs. And I got my clue….Salad, which fits the NCR requirement perfectly. So with some more summer veggies I created this refreshing summer salad. Before I get into anymore blabbering let me thank you once again for inspiring me to bring these crunchy zucchinis home, which I am going to do again and again.

The salad I created had more vegetables than pasta and tossed everything in a mildly flavoured white sauce. The bite from the pasta, the crunch of the vegetables, the sweetness of the baby corn mingled brilliantly with the sauce and this makes for a very light refreshing meal. We had this for dinner with some cold coffee and immediately after finishing the meal Hubby enquired when am going to make it next…guess that only means good. I am going to make this again and again as this is
  1. healthy
  2. Tasty
  3. real quick
 AND

4. Hubby has fallen in love with it (you know those times when I eye that perfect silver ear ring or so badly want another set of hand block printed curtains)
  
Here is how I did it

Chilled Summer Salad


Ingrediants:
Pasta: 1 cup: any small variety will do; I used penne
Zucchini: 1 medium
Carrot: 1 medium
Potato: 1 small
Cauliflower: 1/3 cup: separated in small florets
Beans: 6-7
Capsicum: 1 medium
Babycorn: 6-7
Onion: ½ of a small one
Garlic: 2 fat cloves
Tomato: 1 small

For the Sauce:
Olive oil: 1 tsp
Flour: 1 tbsp
Milk: ½ cup
English mustard: ½ tsp
Grated Cheese: 2 tsp

Seasoning:
Salt
Pepper
Chilli flakes
Oregano
Olive Oil: 1 tsp

Method:
Boil a big pan full of water with salt and put the pasta in it. Cook as per the time given in the packet.

In the mean time slice all the vegetables (Potato, carrot, beans. Cauli flower, zucchini, baby corn, capsicum) in small pieces and keep everything separate.

Microwave potato, carrot, beans, cauliflower for 5 minutes.

Also chop the onion and garlic.

Heat 1 tsp oil and add the flour. Stir continuously till the raw smell is gone (approx. 2 minutes).

In a steady stream add the milk while stirring the flour continuously. Try to avoid formation of any lumps. Season with salt and pepper and cook on low till it thickens a little. The consistency would not be very thick but it should be able to coat the back of a spoon. If you need extra water to make it thin use the water from the boiled veggies. Finally stir in the grated cheese and Keep the sauce aside.

Once the pasta is done, drain the water and keep aside.

Now heat one tsp of oil and add the chopped garlic and onion. Fry for a minute and add zucchini, capsicum and baby corn. Add a pinch of salt and cook for another minute. Take it off from the stove.

In a big bowl put everything together and give it a good mix. Check the seasoning.

Serve immediately or after chilling for 30 minutes.

Sizzling Summer Contest Am sending this to Sizzling Summer at Nithu's Spicytasty.com


Also sending this to two events associated with Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes
 Priya's Healing Foods- Onion started by Siri of Siri"s Corner


CWS: Peppers this month hosted at Padma of Padma's Recipes.




also to Vegetable Marathon: Carrot at Seduce your tastebuds.



















and also to No Croutons Required this time hosted at Tinned tomatoes.

Tips:
This morning I had the left over salad mixed with a chopped boiled egg and it tasted excellent.

Other veggies that will work well in this would be green peas, salad greens, broccoli, cabbages etc.

Homemade crumbled cottage cheese will also taste great in this.

Bengali

Panchmisheli Tarkari (Bengali Style Mixed Veg)

10:44 AM


The last couple of weeks have been very hectic yet fun. As told earlier had to arrange everything in the house and there were big big cleaning works. Then we went for a weekend trip to Yercaud that we stretched for additional two days, came back with another big bag of laundry finally today I can sit back and make this post. But am writing this with a heavy heart as my kid brother went home today. After almost three months with family today we feel very lonely. The baby is opening doors and looking for his Chhoto Mamu (younger maternal uncle) and in the evening he brought his shoes to his father and pointed to the main door to take him out as his Mamu used to do this past couple of months.  My Brother could literally be called a big guy with a heart of a little boy. He came here after almost 2 years and this time enjoyed it to the fullest so that way am very happy. As like everyone in my family he is a total foodie and I cooked some special items some of which he liked a lot. I am going to post those one by one in the coming weeks. But today I present to you a very simple yet very tasty and flavourful dish.  This weekend we dint got for our weekly vegetable shopping so the fridge had nothing but some odd vegetables like half of a carrot, half of ridge gourd, a little piece of pumpkin etc. Hubby went to the Airport with brother so thought of making a quick dish with these.

Paanch in Bengali means five and misheli means medley or mixture so Panchmisheli tarkari means a dish cooked with five vegetables. Though no one actually will stop you if you want to make it with more vegetable, even I always cook it with 7-8 veggies. Like my last post this one is also a peasant dish and they add whatever little bit of vegetables they have, a little bit of this and that to prepare something delectable to eat with rice. Another variation of this dish without onions are cooked during Puja to offer to God as Neivedya. Before I start with the recipe let me warn you that it’s nowhere close to that cream laden spicy omnipresent restaurant staple North Indian Mixed Veg. This is very light dish but without any compromise with the taste. This is a dish where the vegetables beautifully mingle with each other and provides a creamy texture.  This is one of my most favorite veggie dish and could be eaten with both roti and rice. We had a satisfying meal with rice, lentil, this veggie and some leftover fish curry.  Hubby renamed this dish as Fridge raided Curry.

Here is how I made it

Panchmisheli Tarkari
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
Take 2 cups of cubed potato, pumpkin, ridge gourd, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, beans or whatever veggies you like.
Tomato: 1 medium
Ginger: ½ piece; grated
Onion: 1 medium; chopped
Panchforon: 1 tsp
Red chillies: 2 pieces
Peanuts: handful
Oil: 1 tbsp
Salt
Sugar: ½ tsp
turmeric

Method:
Dry roast the pea nuts and coarsely ground in a mortar n pestle. keep aside.

Heat the oil in a kadai or heavy bottomed pan. Add the panchforon and red chillies. Once the aroma hits you add in the chopped onions.

Fry till the onions change colour then add all the veggies, salt, turmeric, whole tomato and the grated ginger. Mix well and cover.

Let it cook on medium flame and stir in between.

Once the veggies are soft (almost 10 minutes) mash the tomato with the back of spatula. Mix everything together and add 1 cup water.

Again cover and cook on medium till the veggies are cooked and the gravy coats the veggies.

Add the sugar, ground pea nuts, mix well and check the seasoning.
Serve hot with rice, roti or paratha.


This curry tastes best when eaten fresh and hot. if you want to keep it in fridge then next day while heating add fresh tempering.

Tips: you can try any combination of veggies in this dish but potato, pumpkin and ridge gourd is what gives it the creamy texture.

You can also add peanuts or soaked chickpeas.

For non vegetarian version add a handful of prawns or small fishes. In that case add the non veg items after frying the onion. Cook for some time and then add veggies.

Sometime I make coarse paste of prawn heads and mix it in the curry.

Some veggies that mingle in the dish well are potato, pumpkin, ridge gourd, drumsticks, cauliflower, cabbage, cluster beans, French beans, carrot, egg plant, parwal etc.


Am sending this to an event which is very close to my heart, Green Gourmet at Preeti's Write Food.


Also to Priya's Healing Food Onion an event started by Siri of Siri's Corner.

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