I want to apologise for not having all the pictures of therecipes, but will definitely post in near future.
1. Luchi or Puri ( round-shaped puffed deep-fried bread)
Luchi, is one of the sunday or holiday breaksast for bengalis. Luchi is one thing that bengalis can eat at breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is known as phulko (puffed-up) luchi. If it is not puffed up round, it doesn't look good. It takes time to learn to make Phulko Luchi but with practice anybody can make it.
Ingredients :
White all purpose flour or maida : 500 gm.
Oil or ghee : 2 tbsp.
Salt : a pinch
warm water to knead the flour
Oil to fry
Method :
- Take flour in a deep-bottomed bowl and add salt and ghee. Mix them finely.
- Now adding little water at a time, knead the flour and make a soft, spongy dough.
- Take little portions from the dough and make round balls. Roll out the balls in 4-5 inches circle.
- Heat enough oil in a pan as it is deep fried. wait till the oil is piping hot. The heat of the oil is very important for Luchi to puff up properly .
- Release the luchi gently in the oil one by one and press the sides with a flat spatula.them on both sides. As soon as it puffs up, flip it on the other side and then take it out . Always fry them before eating. Serve hot.
Variation : Jeera puri-- To make jeera puri, just add 1 tbsp. cumin seed(jeera) while adding salt and oil. Other steps are same.
2. Aloor Dum ( Baby Potatoes in spicy gravy)
Ingredients :
Potato (small & round) - 1/2 kg.
Onion Paste - of 2 big onions
Ginger & garlic Paste - 2 tbsp.
Tomato - 1 (medium- chopped)
Green Chili - 2-3(accr. to taste-chopped)
Curd - 1/4 cup
Cumin Seed - 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp.
Red Chili Powder - 1 1/2 tsp.
cumin powder - 1 tsp.
Coriander powder - 1 tsp.
Bay leaves - 2
Cloves - 4 nos.
Cinnamon - 2 sticks
Cardamom - 4 Nos.
Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp.
Oil - 4-5 tbsp.
Salt to taste
Fresh Coriander Leaves to garnish
Method:
- Peel the potatoes and keep in salty water for 1/2 an hour. Boil and keep them aside. when cool, deep fry them.
- Heat a pan, add bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. when they change their colour, add cumin seeds and wait until it gets golden brown and crackle a little. Then add onion paste and stir continously until it turns light brown. Don't let it burn. Then add ginger-garlic paste and stir some more.
- Now add tomatoes and green chillies and stir together until tomatoes mixes finely with onion paste. After that, add turmeric, cumin, coriander and chilli powder and mix finely with onion paste. Add curd, a pinch of salt and sugar at this time. Fry the paste until oil seperates.
- Finally, add potatoes and coat them with the masala paste. Now add 1 cup warm water to make gravy and let it cook a little.
- Cook till the water almost dries up. There won’t really any gravy as such and the potatoes will be nicely coated with masala. If you like, you can keep a little gravy.
- Sprinkle garam masala over it and garnish with coriander leaves.
3. Potoler Dolma (Fish-stuffed Parwals)
This is one of the fine delicacies of bengali cuisine which is always part of any bengali festivals. There are many variations of this preperations. You can also stuff keema(minced meat)or Paneer(cottage cheese) or dal(lentil stuffing). This concept of stuffing had made its way from Greece & Turkey. But the fish stuffing is bengali's very own though. You can serve it fried or in a spicy gravy
Ingredients :
Rohu fish- 150gm.
Parwal(wax gourds)- 8-10 large
Onion- 1 medium, chopped.
Ginger paste- 2 tsp.
Garlic paste- 1 tsp.
Green chilli- 1, chopped
Tomato - 1, small, chopped
Haldi (turmeric)- 1 tsp.
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp.
Oil- 3 tbsp.
Tejpatta (bay leaf)- 1, small
Bengali garam masala (clove, cinnamon and cardamom) powder- ½ tsp.
Yoghurt - 2 tbsp.
Sugar - 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Method :
- Rub fish with salt and turmeric. Steam for about 5-7 minutes until cooked. Set aside to cool.
- Peel the skins of parwals leaving stripes of skins, trim the end and scoop out the seeds very carefully. Take care not to break the parwal.
- when the fish gets cool, de-bone the fish and discard the skin. Mash the flesh of the fish.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil, fry few onions, ginger paste and green chillies till onions turn light brown, about 2-3 minutes. Add to fish and mash all together with garam masala to make stuffing.
- Fill the parwals with the fish stuffing. Put back the stem ends to seal if liked. Saute in hot oil till it turns light golden.
- You can serve at this moment as a snack or as a side dish with rice and dal or you can make gravy to serve this dish as a main course meal.
- To make the gravy, heat oil, add bay leaf, then add rest of the onions, ginger-garlic paste and saute in medium heat until the raw smell goes off. Then add tomatoes, little turmeric and red chilli powder and keep stirring until oil seperates. Add the yoghurt and salt, sugar and mix all together.
- Now put the stuffed and fried parwals in the gravy and pour very little water to make the gravy. Cook in low heat and when the parwals just starting to soften, sprinkle some garam masala and 1 tsp. ghee. Stir for a minute and it's done.
- Serve hot with rice or roti or parantha.
Use paneer instead of fish and rest of the process are same. For stuffing, knead the paneer finely and fry onions, ginger paste, green chillies and few raisins. Mix with scrumbled paneer and fry till all the moisture gets dry. Proceed to stuffing and make gravy same way as fish stuffing.
4. Tomato Mutton
This dish of tender mutton cooked in tomato based gravy is certainly a festive food of bengalis. You will fine this recipe here.
5. Green Mango Chutney
This mouth-watering chutney recipe is one of the favorites among the bangalis. For the recipe, visit here.
Few more recipe is coming shortly...so keep visiting.........
This post goes to Navaratri festive food event hosted by LG of Cooking Station & Taste of Mysore.
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1 comment:
Such a nice spread of festive food. Please send it to our Navaratri Festive Food event you can see the details on my blog at www.tasteofmysore.com
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