Bengali

Bhapa Ilish (Steamed Hilsa in Mustard based Gravy)

9:43 AM


I wrote the below post last night and when editing the HTML something dangerous happened. I was all alone in the house with the baby but luckily a couple of friends came in to rescue. Now everything is fine and the hubby is also back. Am posting the same with a little change.

Yesterday was Biswakarma Puja. On this day we worship the God Biswakarma, the God of architecture and engineering and the creator of the whole Universe. Remember the architectural marvel and beauty of Indraprastha that Biswakarma built for the Pandava in Mahabharata? It is said that the floors of the palace was so shiny that it gave an illusion of water while the pools were so well made that it looked like flat surfaces. It is also believed that Biswakarma has introduced the idea of industry and science to mankind and thus is regarded as the very essence of creation and craftsmanship. All over Bengal workers from all sorts of life using any kind of tools celebrate this day with great zeal and enthusiasm. Big and small Industrial houses declares holiday and workers get together to clean and decorate the factory spaces to welcome and worship the God with puja, prasad (offerings) and a afternoon feast. For kids this day bears another significance as they get to fly kites the whole day and many elders also enjoy this ritual. The evening sky on this day looks spectacular with colourful kites dotting the sky till the horizon.
Lord Biswakarma

Apart from this puja many Bengali houses also observe ‘Arandhan’ or no cooking day. The day before after praying to the unun(chula/ modern gas oven?) a feast is cooked consisting of rice, assortment of fries, Kochu Shaag (arbi greens) and various Hilsa dishes the day before. I have heard that the cook who prepares this meal cannot talk during the entire time of cooking. Then on the day of the puja (the Sankranti day of the Bengali month Bhadra) this cold preserved meal is served to family and friends.

In Santiniketan, Tagore celebrated this day as Shilpo Utsab or Shilpotsab or the celebration of industry and craftsmanship. In Sriniketan, (a place 3 kms away from Santiniketan Ashrama where Tagore started vocational training schools for the local villagers) this day is celebrated with Tagore’s songs and dance.

In our family this ritual has never been observed but I enjoyed cold rice (panta bhat) meals at friend’s places. But Maa and my elder brother organize a small puja at our place to treat all their collegues and employees. Yesterday morning when Maa called up to say that the puja was over and they were enjoying the prasad, I felt a bit homesick. Hubby was again away on an official trip to another country and I hardly had any enthusiasm to cook anything special. I cooked this Bhapa Ilish a few days back with the fresh Bangladeshi Hilsa that Baba managed to send with a friend. According to me this is the easiest and most flavourful Hilsa preparation. The steam cooking process keeps the aroma of all the ingredients intact and the curd, coconut milk, mustard paste and green chillies nicely balance all the sour, sweet and spicy taste. Many people cook it with mustard-poppy seeds paste (sorshe-posto bata) but I prefer to give poppy seeds a miss. For me the sweetness of the freshly squeezed coconut milk is enough to balance the pungency and heat of the mustard paste. Maa always cooked this on stovetop either in pressure cooker or in a covered stainless steel Tiffin box in steam. But a friend taught me to cook this in microwave. That way it’s very easy and takes only 15 minutes from start to finish.

Bhapa Ilish 
(serves 2)

Ingredients:
Hilsa pieces: 4 pieces cut in thick pieces
Mustard paste: 2 tbsp
Curd: 4 tbsp
Freshly grated coconut: 3 tbsp
Mustard oil: 2-3 tbsp
Green chillies: 4
Salt
Turmeric

Method:
Clean the Hilsa pieces and keep aside.

Beat the curd till smooth. To this add mustard oil, Mustad paste. slit green chillies, salt, turmeric and the grated coconut. I prefer to squeeze the milk in the curd mixture from the coconut before adding it to the same.

To this add the hilsa pieces and 1/3 cup of water. Keep aside for 15 minutes.

Now take a wide mocrowave safe bowl that has enough space to contain the hilsa pieces in a single layer. Spread the pieces and pour the curd mixture on top. Cover this with a cling film. Make a small cut on the top and microwave this for 2 minutes.

Take this out and stir the sauce very carefully. Again cover and cook for 3-4 minutes and repeat the same. Finally cook it for another 3-4 minutes and serve hot with some additional slit green chillies.

For the traditional method on stovetop please see my Chingri Bati Tarkari recipe HERE.

Enjoy this with hot steamed rice.

Tags:
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One Pot meals

Quick Coriander and vegetable Pulao

11:14 AM

Some of our bachelor friends and even a few reader have asked me to post some quick vegetarian recipes that they can cook without hours laboring in the kitchen, especially after a hard days work. I have been planning to cook and post a few of my go to recipes but the bad health of the whole family kept me away from the kitchen. I will definitely post some good side dishes later that one can enjoy with rice or roti, but today am posting a very easy one-dish rice recipe that can be cooked in a jiffy. Yes, you can prepare a full meal with this under 30 minutes. It’s that easy and suits those moments when you crave a good home cooked meal without any effort.



For weekend dinners I like to prepare one-pot meals be it soup, Pasta or rice dishes. These preparations are perfect to have from a bowl while watching your favourite program or movie. I first started cooking these when I was in Delhi. Our hostel often served Tahri or the peasant rice dish from UP. For variations they added various veggies and sometimes soy nuggets. That was my easy soothing meal after a hard days work. Then when my brother came to Delhi for his Industrial Training I started experimenting more with such dishes and one day cooked this coriander pulao with lots of vegetables. That was an instant hit and thereafter became a staple in my kitchen. 

Then recently I saw sandeepa cooking her egg pulao with almost this same spice blend but then she added a few mint leaves. I was intrigued by that idea and this time has also added a handful of mint leaves from my garden. It gives a very mild minty kick to the dish, which we loved.  And now hubby calls this green chutney pulao. This dish needs a raita at the sides to cut the spice and to make a perfect meal.

You can cook this dish in a big pan or even in microwave but I prefer my pressure cooker. As the minimum stirring keeps the rice grains whole and separate. Now cooking perfect pulao in pressure cooker is a bit tricky. The ratio of rice to water has to be perfect and also the number of whistles you should allow. This time I am giving you exact measurement and in the pictures you can see the results yourselves. Here is the step-by-step recipe.

Quick Coriander and Vegetable Pualo
(serves 2)
Ingredients:
Basmati or any other long grain rice: 11/2 cups
Assorted vegetables like cauliflower, peas, potato, carrots, beans etc. cut into cubes: 21/2 cups
Oil: 2 tbsp+1tsp

To be ground together
Onion: 1 big
Ginger: 1.5” piece
Garlic: 5-6 fat cloves
Coriander seeds: 1 tbsp
Dry red chilies: 4 pieces
Fresh coriander: 1 cup tightly packed
Mint leaves: ¼ cup loosely packed
Tomato: 1 small

For tempering
Cloves: 5-6
Black pepper: 8-9
Cinnamon: 1 small stick
Salt
Warm water: 23/4 cups
Lemon juice: few drops


Method:
First prepare the rice. Wash it properly, drain the excess water and then spread on absorbing paper. Let it completely dry before use.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pressure cooker. Add the vegetables and salt, fry on low for 3-4 minutes.

Add the rest of the oil and temper with clove, cinnamon and pepper. Once they start to splutter add the spice paste. Add salt and fry on low till oil separates at the sides (approx 6-7 minutes).

Add the rice and fry for a minute. Pour the warm water and lemon juice.

Add the vegetables. Give a stir to mix everything. Check the salt.

Cover and let it cook till one whistle on low flame. Once done switch off the gas and let the steam escape in itself.






Uncover and fluff the pulao with fork and serve hot with Raita.

Both of us were having cold so this time we had ours with garlic-mango pickle and hard boiled eggs fried with salt and turmeric (thanks for the idea Bongmom). If you are not having cold then don’t give a miss to the raita. That makes the meal perfect.

Sandeepa has a similar egg pulao here.

Events:
Sending this to Akheela's Festive rice event at Torview.










Tags:
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One Pot meals

Mushroom soup with Chili Oil

10:16 AM



This time am not going to start my post with the weather of Bangalore. My brother yesterday called up and said that my blog seems more like a weather report on Bangalore, all its missing is a picture of mine in a business suit with a stick in hand pointing to the map beside me. Ha, very funny but I realized may be a lot of you must have been thinking the same way. So rather today am going to give you a recipe that is very comforting to sustain such bad weathers. That’s my deliciously creamy mushroom soup with chili infused oil.
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Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Coffee Flavoured buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Glaze

11:34 AM


The weather here in Bangalore is seeing abrupt changes in weather and following this almost everyone is falling sick just like India cricket team’s wickets in the slog overs. For us its harder, as we came back from a very hot and humid weather of Bengal and the adjustment proved to be rather difficult. First the baby, then me and now Hubby, all three of us suffered from different forms of fever. Still the baby’s viral fever has not subsided fully and with a running nose the little one is having very tough time in sleeping. Though I have almost recovered (I had to) but am facing difficulty in feeding the child. Whatever I bring in front of him he waves his hand vigorously and says “na na na”. Any suggestion as what to give him is very welcome.

In all these it was my Maa’s birthday on 3rd of this month. I felt very guilt for not being there but Baba arranged a small get together with close family members and she said she had a great time this year. She is a kind of a person who is happy with very little things. Just be present there and she would be happy to have you around. This time I felt bad to be there as she was super busy with her work still she wanted to spend time with the grandson. All the days she woke up as early as 4:30 in the morning…do all her pending work and then by 6 she would have come to our bedroom to take the baby with him. By the time we wake up the baby ate his breakfast and had a great time with all the neighbors on his morning walk with didu.

The cake that am sharing this time is a coffee flavoured cake that I baked for a small get together with friends. The gathering required a light snack with coffee before going out for dinner and this super delicious cake fitted the bill perfectly. The recipe is borrowed and adapted from THIS. And I substituted lemon with instant coffee granules and filter coffee decoction. The addition of buttermilk gave it the ‘oh so melt in the mouth crumbly texture’ that I always wanted to have in my cakes and that aroma of coffee was something you cannot miss. It filled our home with such a warm aroma while baking that even the hubby came enquiring. Love it not only for the taste but also for the ease of making. No wonder the mixer made my baking life simpler but it’s very easy to put things together for this. Apart from the flavor and texture this cake is special in so many other ways too. It’s my first bundt cake, made with the help of my brand new hand held mixer for the first time. So thought of wishing Maa a very happy birthday with this.
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Bengali

Shahi Patol (Pointed gourd in a spicy gravy)

5:25 AM


Here is one more recipe that is very very summery and am trying to post it before the season and the availability of this vegetable is over. Am back from Kolkata. With all your good wishes those pending, niggling works are finally done. Which obviously made us happy but the unbearable heat and humidity in Bengal dint let us enjoy this trip. The baby suffered due to the change in climate and the first week was over wiping his nose. The Hubby decided to stay in the air-conditioned room as mush as possible with his Laptop. As a result of all these I was not even able to do a little Puja shopping that I planned. I thought of at least go to the shop where Kamini bought those awesome Gicha silk sarees but could not make any time for that even. Came back on Sunday to a dusty smelly house and that night itself suffered severe stomachache due to indigestion. Right now am very weak and trying to recover with medicines and very light diet. But that doesn’t mean that I cannot share something rich and spicy dish with you. This Parwal dish is something that will resurrect your taste buds in no time. Whole juicy fried parwals in a very aromatic and spicy gravy, when eaten with Bengali yellow pulao will surely make you crave more.

This recipe calls for good quality Parwal and by good quality I mean long, thin and firm variety. I believe people who detest this vegetable will love to eat this dish as it is full with flavours and spices…tastes amazingly good with long grain steamed Basmati rice or plain Bengali sweet pulao. Though I never had tasted this recipe outside our home but am not sure about its origin. Its pretty rich compared to the other recipes that I share. It’s a staple in our house whenever guests come over during summer and am yet to meet anyone who didn’t like it.

Here is the recipe

Shahi Patol
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
Pointed gourd: 8 pieces (don’t use the ripe ones. Take good care in selecting the vegetable. Look for the bright fresh colour and Press to check the firmness.)
Onion paste: 3 tbsp
Ginger paste: ½ tbsp
Garlic paste: 1 tsp
Tomato: 1 medium
Tomato puree: 1 tbsp
Whole cardamom: 2 pieces
Cloves: 5-6
Cinnamon: 1/2 “ stick
Black pepper: 7-8
Bay leaf: 1
Oil: ¼ cup
Red chili powder: ½ tsp
Salt
Turmeric
Garam masala: 1/3 tsp
Sugar

Method:
First prepare the pointed gourds. Lightly peel the green skin lengthwise at 4 places. Trim the edges. Now cut the gourds widthwise at two places in such a way that the edges are joined (i.e. Poke the knife between the gourds cut lengthwise but not through the edges). Wash and drain excess water. Smear with salt and turmeric.

Heat the oil and fry the pointed gourds till light brown on all sides. Drain the excess oil on an absorbing paper. Set side.

Now add the whole cardamom, clove, cinnamon, pepper and bay leaf in the same oil. Once they splutter add the onion paste. Fry on low till the raw smell is gone. Mix in the ginger-garlic paste and again fry on low till oil separates at the sides.

Tip in the chopped tomato; add salt, turmeric and chili powder. Mix and cover. Once the tomato is soft and mushy add the tomato puree. Cook on medium till you see oil coming out at the sides.

Carefully transfer the fried pointed gourds and mix to coat everything together. Check seasoning(add sugar and salt as per taste)  and add ½ cup warm water.

Cover and let it simmer on low heat.


Once you see the gravy coats the veggies. Sprinkle the garam masala powder and serve hot with any rice dish of your choice.


Tags:
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