Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Gingery Oat and Sesame Cookies

10:00 AM

 
I am that kind of a person who needs some time for herself and I call it My ‘Me Time’. Friends pull leg, family smirks and Hubby sometimes gets annoyed but still that’s something I need solely for myself. Its not like couple of hours, (well that much is best) but even just 10-15 minutes of quiet thoughts with myself, doing something that I enjoy is enough. Like reading an article, walking in the park, spending some times with my plants etc which energizes my tired sole. But these days with my little one, even managing some 15 minutes is becoming difficult. He is naughty and sleeps very less, so the whole day am either running after him or tidying up the things he plays with, which includes everything from shoes, curtains, carpets, pens and whatever lies in front of him. Hubby also is busy with his job and most of the days come home late in the evening. Once he is back I get into the work of preparing dinner. Though I enjoy every moment but Life right now is pretty hectic. The only quiet times I could manage is when the baby naps. Recently He has finally got into a routine sleeping pattern. He sleeps for an hour after lunch and for half an hour in the evening after our stroll in the park. So in morning after putting him in bed I get a full hour to myself, which I savor moment by moment. I hastily take my bath, do Puja and then enjoy my precious moments of Zen with a cup of tea, some snacks and a good book.

I am a sucker for good books and had my best time reading them during my pregnancy when I was suggested to take rest for most of the times. The whole day I lazed around the house absent the world that I never saw. Recently I renewed my membership after almost a year and again am managing time for my books. I made these cookies mainly for Hubby to grab a quick bite between meetings but I also enjoy them with my tea and books.

These cookies are made with whole-wheat flower and Jaggery (Gur) and believe me it has an amazing earthy aroma. The combination of jaggery and roasted sesame will definitely transport you to your childhood memories of Sankranti, eating tilkut. Its very crunchy and a perfect companion for hot cup of tea.

Gingery Oat and Sesame Cookies

Ingredients:
Whole-wheat flour: 13/4 cups
Roasted oat: ½ cup
Jaggery: ½ cup (I used normal sugar cane jaggery)
Egg: 1
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Baking soda: 1/8 tsp
Salt: 1/8 tsp
Ginger powder: 1 tbsp
Oil: 6 tbsp

Method:
Sieve the flour with baking powder, soda bi carb and salt. Mix in the oats and Keep aside.

Heat the jaggery with a spoonful of water till it melts. Add the ginger powder and mix well. Let it come to room temperature.

Beat the egg with oil till creamy.

Now mix everything together to form a sticky mixture. Don’t over mix.Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven at 160 C and line a baking tray with foil.

Make small balls from the dough and press between your palms to make it flat. Place little apart from each other and sprinkle with generous amount of white sesame seeds.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or till very lightly brown. Don’t over bake or it will become very crispy and little bitter.

Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy with tea or in itself.

This tasty earthy cookies are off to Priya's new event Cooking with seeds: Sesame.

Bengali

Tomato’r Jhol (Fish in Very Light Tomato Gravy)

11:04 AM



When I first started living alone restaurant food was something that entered my kitchen regularly. The long commute and hard work as a fresher made me so tired that almost every other day I called up the corner restaurant and ordered in roti, dal and sabzi (flat bread, lentils and vegetable curry) and other days survived on Maggi and scrambled eggs. Those days I only cooked on weekends when close friends would come together and we feasted on home cooked simple meals that we craved most. I used to make rice, dal, sabzi and fish, paneer or egg curry and nearly every month Maa or Dida provided me with light recipes. Every Saturday we gathered after work (half days) and chatted and gossiped late in the night, We would wake up late and sitting on the unmade bed on the floor with our hot cuppas will soon pick up the chat session where we left it the earlier night and would giggle for long. The leg pulling session continued and our gang of girls lazed around while we cut and wash vegetables and start cooking. This recipe of tomato’r jhol with egg plant and potatoes (provided by Dida) was a regular at that time as it is very versatile, requires very few ingredients, and also has a tongue tickling taste that our nearly numb tongues from eating regular restaurant foods really needed. It used to fill every corner of my small pad with a lovely aroma that suddenly made my friends to complete their cores at the earliest. The three of us then sit cross legged on the floor and eat from whatever few plates and bowls I owned. We ate silently, scraping our plates clean and enjoying every morsel.


Today when I prepared this dish and that same fragrance of roasted Panchforon and tomatoes filled every corner of my house it reminded me of those days of pure joy, when we were free of responsibilities and tensions and cherished each and every moment of life. Am thankful to God for where my life has taken me but every now and then something stimulates memories and I long to live that life once again, stretch my hands to touch those giggling faces. I know I can’t do that so I sniffed in that familiar aroma and gave them a call and again chatted and giggled for long.


This recipe is very light yet flavorful and promises a satisfying meal. The best parts are its fragrance and colour which could be best enjoyed with steamed white rice. Today I made the dish with fish but the vegetarian version with paneer tastes equally good. Even my now 10 month’s old son enjoys this jhol with fish.


This light juicy jhol is best enjoyed fresh as the fish and vegetables soak the tartness if refrigerated. If you want to cook larger portions then next day add a few spoonful of tamarind juice during heating. That will restore the taste without much work. 

Here is the recipe
Tomato’r Jhol
Ingredients (serves 4)
Fish: 4 pieces (I used Rohu)
Egg plant: ½ of a medium size
Potato: 1 medium
The white stem of cauliflower (optional): We love this white crunchy inner part and always add this Macher Tak(fish in amchur based gravy) or Tomato’r jhol.
Tomato: 5 big or 6-7 medium; choose tart ones (I used those tart desi variety)
Dry red chillies: 2 pieces
Green chillies: 2 pieces (for the flavor)
Panchforon: ½ tsp

Method:
Peel and slice the potato and the inner white part of cauliflower stem thinly. Cut the eggplant in half and then slice in medium thick pieces. Wash and keep aside. Cut the tomatoes in quarter and sprinkle some salt.

Wash the fish and rub with salt and turmeric. Heat the oil in a pan or kadhai and fry them till lightly brown on both sides. Take them out and reserve.

In the same oil lightly fry the sliced potatoes, eggplants and cauliflower stem with salt and turmeric. Reserve.

In that same oil add the slited red chillies and panchforon. When you get the aroma add tomatoes and give everything a good stir. Add salt, turmeric and cover. Let it cook on low for 7-8 minutes or till the tomatoes are mushy.

With a spatula mash the tomatoes smooth and cook till it starts to stick the bottom of the pan. Add the veggies and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and add the fried fish pieces.

cover and cook till the veggies are soft and the gravy thickens a little.

Vegetarian Version: If you are using Paneer then cut in cubes and lightly fry them with salt. Follow the same procedure but with paneer you can also use thinly sliced carrots and beans.

Enjoy with hot steamed rice and any other side dish of your choice. My family loves it with Alu Posto or Alu bhaja. Don't know how but who ever have eaten it has fallen in love with this humble vibrant dish.


Am sending this humble light fish curry to Arundhuti's Served with love.A beautiful event that she has started at great blog, Gourmet Affair.

Bengali

Niramish Khichuri (Medley of rice, lentils and vegetables)

10:59 AM


Khichuri cooked with Gobindobhog rice and dry roasted yellow lentils, dotted with colourful winter vegetables, flavored with ghee and whole garam masala is a dish that is very close to my heart. If you are a regular reader, by now you must have known how all food that I cook are connected to some of my memories. But this niramish Khchuri has a special place in all Bengali’s Memory of Saraswati Puja (Goddess of education and arts). The somewhat runny variety of this dish served at the schools and colleges during the puja gathering with bandhakopi’r ghanto (dry cabbage dish) and watery tomato chutney (tomato chatni) is something every Bengali has tasted and has some sweet n sour memories associated with it.

Bengali

Gayna/ Naksha Bori (sundried Lentil paste Designs)

12:54 AM



There is a lot of concern about eating healthy, organic and fresh and the blogosphere is no exception. Concerns and awareness are translating into thoughtful posts and attentive comments. And in the middle of all these discussions I as a new mom living in a developing country, am forced to rethink my decisions.  This is not in continuation of any of the discussions so far but entirely a comparison made by a person sitting in a developing country.
First of all I believe the situation differs a lot in developed and developing countries. But before setting a bigger canvas and comparing between these two lets discuss the situation within itself. one important attribute of a developing nation is its inequality of income. In India itself 36% of its population resides below poverty line (1993-94 planning commission report) and still there is a luxury brand boom here. The poor for whom two round meals a day is like a distant dream they no way think of the luxury of organic food. In economics the definition of demand is ‘Demand is the want or desire to possess a good or service with the necessary goods, services, or financial instruments necessary to make a legal transaction for those goods or services.’ They in no way are in a position to DEMAND food to sustain them, leave alone the possibility of choosing what to eat. So that excludes majority of population who could consume organic food. That follows another conclusion that if economies of scale could not be achieved for organic farming the prices will never come down…therefore the organic food articles remains expensive and out of reach of most living in developing countries. Even if we give subsidies still the question remains that, is going all organic possible here? How could you sustain such a big population with organic foods, which said to yield less produce at a high cost? Even us falling in the upper middle-income group would think twice before putting that organic food packet in our grocery basket.
I belong to the old school of thoughts where its said that you are what you eat. So I as a sensible consumer believe to get the most out of my hard earned money So though I know going organic is very good for health but still I would like to stick to my old traditional choice of buying fresh and seasonal and washing my veggies thoroughly before preparing my food.   Am lucky in some ways that I have access to fresh supply in terms of vegetables, fish and meat. I have seen that most of us in India buy fresh fish and meat not those packaged ones from the super markets. Yes of course in this era of high pollution and global warming you need to wash your veggies thoroughly under running water and cook them properly before serving. You don’t need to spend mullah on over hyped organic items to be healthy. Cooking fresh, eating sensibly and doing some moderate exercise would be the best choice.
So today also going seasonal I prepared Gayna Bori which are sun dried lentil chunks but in the shapes and designs of jewelries. These are also called Naksha bori or designed Lentil chunks. These are some royal things not cooked and served everyday but are reserved for some special occasions and for some important persons. Preparing bori is a seasonal affair and that season is Winter. Boris are very fragile and need a lot of pampering. You cannot prepare them in summer, as the scorching summer sun will rupture them. To dry these boris you need mild sun light and dry weather. So boris are prepared in winter in huge quantities and stored for the whole year. Earlier as kids I have seen all the women of a family or sometimes all women of a neighborhood coming together for preparing boris. Those were the days when Mixer-grinder was not a household item and lentils were ground by hand in traditional mortar n pestle. They would make varieties of boris with different types of lentils and spice mixtures. The work would start early morning, grinding the lentils, vigorous beating of the paste and then making small portions of lentil pastes on greased plates…all these works were done over some mishti pan (betel leaf), hot tea and most importantly a lot of gossip. The last day was reserved for this designed boris which is not everyone’s cup of tea as with some quick motions you are required to make designs with some flowy lentil paste. My Maa and Masimoni used to make them and all other including me would have sat around and watch them with admiration. These days boris are readily available in market but I don’t like these readymade things and chose to prepare these myself in leisure.


I believe very few know about these boris. These are a speciality of Bangladesh and Midnapore district of Bengal. but they have become very rare and even in Bengal you would not get them easily.In Midnapore district some self help groups are trying to revive this dying form and they also sell these through co operatives.
Gayna/ Naksha Bori

Ingredients:
Black gram Lentil (skinned)/ White Urad Dal: 1 cup
Salt: ½ tsp
Poppy seeds: 1/3 cup
Oil: to grease the plates
Method: Generally Gayna Boris are made with black gram with skin on, which is soaked overnight then rubbed on jute or any rough surface to peel them. I used skinned white urad.
Wash and soak the lentils overnight or at least 6 hours.
In morning again wash the lentils and place them on a strainer to drain all water.
Blend in a mixie without any water. (To do this pulse for a minute and then scrape the sides and mix everything in the jar. The point here is if the batter contains much water it will fall flat on the plates and sun will make them too dry and heavy.) Make a very very fine paste.
Now comes the difficult part. Take this paste in a big bowl. Mix in the salt and start beating as vigorously as possible. It should become very fluffy and when a spoonful placed on water it should float.
Now to make designs pour the mixture in a piping bag or simply make cones with polythene. My Maa place these in a thick piece of cotton fabric with a nozzle set in the middle.
I don’t have much knowledge of the nozzle sizes. The paste coming out from the nozzle should be moderately thick, say as thick as some antiseptic cream coming out of a tube (eg. Borolene or Rashfree ;-)} I made a cone just like mehendi cones and cut the tip as much required. The designs should not be very thin as the sun will make them thinner and brittle. (look at the fried boris at the right, made by Hubby these are very very thin).
Grease 2-3 steel plates and sprinkle poppyseeds to cover the surface completely. I wasn’t having enough poppyseeds so I mixed it with white toasted sesame seeds.
Now comes the fun part, play with your imagination by pressing the cone or piping bag. Use toothpick to stop the batter coming out from the cone.
Once done dry them in sun for 3-4 hours and let them sit on the plates overnight. Next day if still moist again dry for 1-2 hours.
Keep them stored in airtight container.
Fried Crispy Bori
To fry them just heat some oil and shallow fry them till lightly browned on each side. Enjoy your fruits of labor with rice and see them pulling appreciations your way when served to guests.
Some tips for the designs:
While doing this always keep a toothpick, a bowl of water and some scrap clothes handy.
Always make designs where all the parts are joined and make them moderately thick or you wont be able to take them out easily when dry. you should not make designs as shown at left.
To secure the designs always make 2 adjoining lines, this way the design will be prominent and strong.
Making designs with some flowing paste needs practice, so start with small simple designs and gradually switch to bigger ones.
Don’t make designs that are very big as that’s difficult to be peeled when dry. 
These beauties make their way to My Legume Love Affair; 19 to EC of Simple Indian Food. This very popular event is a brainchild of Susan of The well-seasoned Cook.


Tags:
bori, vadi, wadi, design bori, naksha bori, naksa bori, gayna bori, Bangladeshi bori, Vadi from Bangladesh, Midnapore bori, lentil dumplings, lentil designs, sundried lentil dumplings, sundried lentil designs, fried lentil designs, Bengali art, Bangali bori, Bangali art, special bori, how to make gayna bori, how to make bori, bori recipe, punjabi wadi, punjabi vadi, white lentil designs, biri bodi, bodi, sundried lentil paste, step by step bori making, black lentil, urad dal recipe, designs with urad dal, culinary art. cooking as an art, 

Events Awards Interview

2 Awards, 7 Secrets and some Garden Pictures

11:47 AM

I have been showered by 2 fabulous awards from 2 of my good blogpals. These are awards that I have been eyeing for quite sometime and finally they are here to grace my place. Thanks a lot friends, it feels great to be recognized and motivated by you all. When I started my blog I was never thought I would ever get this much of appreciation, love and encouragement. Thanks to all of you beautiful people out there who cook with a passion and feed with love.

The first one, Beautiful blogger Award, came from extremely talented Dolly whose place has some real delicious and comforting recipe collection. Once there you would be tempted to visit again and again. To believe me just go HERE  Thanks Dolly for your kindness.
The second one Kreative Blogger Award, came from lovely S of Art, food and travel Chronicles. Her space is a real eye candy as she whips up the most amazing baked goodies. She is a bona fide Daring baker and an excellent Tanzore Painter. Do check her space once HERE and you would be hooked for life. Thanks S for your generosity.
Now as the rule book says we need to share 7 of our darkest secrets, ok not darkest but secrets that nobody knows. That’s a real difficult task. Well here it goes…in between reading enjoy some of my Mother’s amazing winter garden pictures.
1.I am a very big fan of Sachin Tendukar.My madness was beyond imagination during school and college days, when I used to have some 65 posters of this ace batsman, no vacant spot was visible on my room walls and I used to celebrate his birthdays with my meager pocket money.

2. Mine is an arrange marriage and when My husband’s family came to meet us I decided to marry him even before talking to him, and the secret and sole reason was ‘He looked like Sachin Tendulkar’ J. But later when I talked to him I realized the guy had a heart of gold and is a real keeper.
Maa's Collection of Chrysanthemum
3. I love cleanliness but am lazy. Though I keep everything clean and take a minimum of 15 minutes of bath everyday but the last time I visited a beauty parlor was during my marriage and that’s 3 years before.
4. I am very family centric person. I love to be surrounded by my near and dear ones and like to do little things for them.
Some more from Maa's Garden

5. I have cherished some real good designing success. I used to design for some very big International brands and even have designed a re-launch collection for a reputed European brand which was very successful among its target groups.
6. Being true to my star sign (Libra) am a big dreamer. One of my cherished dreams is to settle in some hilly area and having a moderately big farm. Recently when we went to Chikmagalur and stayed in a big farm cum resort, I decided to start my own resort somewhere near Digha or Darjeeling. I even planned the entire setup cost, earning channels, staffing and even the menu. Then reality bit me hard in the form of my Hubby.
7. in case of running house I follow my Maa blindly. Like her my pantry is always well stocked with rice, lentils, flours and other essential items. I do a monthly grocery shopping and a weekly vegetable and fruit shopping.
and these beauties belong to my small garden.

I nominate the following 7 bloggers and pass this to them. They have beautiful places and great collection of recipes.
Somoo of Home Cooked Oriya food
Indrani of Appayan
Sangeeta Khanna of Health Food Desivideshi                       
IndoSunGod of Daily Musings
Sharmila of Kichu Khon
PJ of Ginger and Garlic
Arch of The Yum Factor

Looking forward to see what they reveal. 

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