APPYAYAN

Chola bhaja - Fried Black chickpeas/kala chana.

2009-12-08T13:38:00.000+08:00

My last post was a tea-time snack....here I am again with another great and healthy snack, which goes great with tea or coffee and it's not deep fried, so it's one of a kind guilt free and healthy snack. It is made of black chana or chola in Bengali. Just soak for few hours and then shallow fry them in medium heat, and you have home made healthy tea-time snack. I learned it from my friend, and from that day on it has become my hubby's favorite snack. It is nutritious and also quite filling.

Ingredients :

Black chickpeas/chola/kala chana : 1 cup
Onion : 1(medium-chopped)
Green chilli : 2(chopped)
Mustard Seeds : 1 tsp.
Oil : 2 tblsp.
Chilli powder : 1-2 tsp.
Salt to taste

Method :

Soak chickpeas overnight if possible, or for 3-4 hours in hot water. WHen soaked totally, remove and pat dry.
Heat oil in a wide pan, temper with mustard seeds. When seeds start to crackle, add chopped green chillies and finely chopped onions. Fry until onions turn light brown, then add Black chickpeas.
Stir and mix with onions. Turn the heat to medium. Keep stirring them continuously for another 10 minutes. The key for this snack is in the frying.
After frying for 10 minutes in medium heat, you will find chickpeas became soft and cooked from inside.
Enjoy this yummy snack with tea or coffee, but consume immediately. Do not store them.

Round-up of Sunday Snacks : Festive snacks of Navratri & Diwali

2009-12-02T13:18:00.002+08:00

It's time for the "Sunday Snacks" Round-up for the month of Oct-Nov....the theme was Festive snacks of Navratri and Diwali.....This event is a brainchild of Hima of SnackOrama, she passed the rein to Pallavi of All Thingz Yummy for some reason and this time guest hosted by me...I want to thank Pallavi for giving me the opportunity to host this great event. I totally loved the whole experience and proudly presenting the round-up.
Through this theme, I wanted to know some Indian regional snack recipes, what we make during the festival time. Some foodies also sent me sweet recipes, which I accepted, as without making your mouth sweet, any festival is incomplete, especially Diwali.

I want to thank wholeheartedly to all the foodies who sent their entries for this event. The next edition is hosted by Manju of Mirch Masala...for the announcement of theme, checkout here.

Now let's move to the roundup..........

Snacks

From the state of Karnataka :

Supriya of Celebrating Little Things In Life sent this chivda,

which is made during Diwali.

From the state of Punjab :

Meera Of Enjoy Indian Food sent this mouth watering Tandoori Chana Jor garam, made with garbanzo beans

From the state of Tamil Nadu:

Shanthi of Shanthi Krishnakumar"s Cookbook
sent this Yummy Vada recipe, Amma Vadai

Kamala of Cook@Ease sent this nutritious Sprouted Peas Sundal, which is made during Navratri for Prasad, she further sprounted the peas to make it more nutritious..great idea, Kamala

Priya of Priya's easy & tasty recipes sent multiple entries for this event..You can expect multiple entries for any event from only this blogger
Split roasted Gram dal Murukku , which is made during Diwali

Godhuma(wheat) & Sweet Potato Bonda

From the state of Gujrat :

Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong sent this popular yummy wholesome gujrati snack, "Khandvi"

From the state of West Bengal :

Sharmistha of Cook-A-Doodle-Do sent this alltime favorite Sabudana Vada

and this Yummy Fish Croquette aka Fish Chop recipe

These two snacks recipes are contribution from my side(Indrani of Appyayan)

Beguni or Brinjal fritters is very popular and beloved Bengali snack, it is available in any snack shop there and also made at home during festival time or on any homely occassion like Birthday, Marriege.

Masala Peanuts or Spice crusted crunchy peanuts, which is basically from North India, but now widely popular allover India, made during festival time like Navratri and Diwali

Renu of Renu's Kitchen sent this Low fat Baked Shakarpara, which is traditionally deep fried, but she baked it to make this snack more healthy

Now it's Sweet time

Sudha of Malaysian Delicacies sent this Famous Puran Poli or Sweet pan-fried flatbread, belongs to the state of Maharastra

Shobana of Jounal of a Budding Cook sent this Rawa Laddoo, belongs to the state of Tamilnadu

Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes sent this popular Diwali sweet and yummiest laddoo of all, Boondi Laddoo, belongs to the above state

another sweet dish from Priya, Maida Halwa, belongs to the above state

next entry from Priya, a very healthy sweet dish, belongs to the above state, Microwave Butternut Squah and Barley Kesari

Another sweet dish entry from Priya, from the state of Maharastra, Besan laddoo

Unfortunately last entry from Priya, belongs to the state of Tamilnadu, Microwave Pumpkin & Coconut halwa,

Bindiya of In love with Food sent this Easiest Coconut laddoo

recipe,which is very popular during Diwali

Last and very Gorgoeus entry of this event from Kalva of Curry In Kadai

this most popular Diwali sweet of India, Kesar Badam Vermicelli kheer

Hopefully, I have included all of your entries and links, if I missed any of your entries/links, pl. check and send me a mail....
Check out previous Sunday Snacks Round-ups :

Sunday Snacks : bake it

Sunday Snacks : Fix it

Sunday Snacks : Fry it

Sunday snacks : Hot & Spicy

Sunday Snacks : Grab n go

Sunday Snacks : Chaats

Sunday Snacks : Spill the beans

Sunday Snacks : Snacks with bread

Spice Crusted Crunchy-munchy Peanuts (Masala Peanuts)

2009-11-26T14:14:00.002+08:00

This is a recipe where hot and spicy peanuts are fried with delicious mix of spices,which is totally impossible to resist. This makes a great snack or munch for sitting around watching TV or playing games with family and friends. If you are bored of eating regular peanuts, try this zesty recipe. It is also made during Indian festivals like Holi, Diwali etc. Serve this snack with some sweets to your friends when they visit you next Diwali or Holi and make them happy.
It is a great party food, too. Goes well with cocktail or any kind of drinks, or with a cup of hot tea. The most important part of this snack, you can make this ahead of time and store in an airtight jar for 3-4 weeks. You guests will wonder where do you get them from. You can get this snack also from Indian Grocery stores, but most of them are with a stinky smell of oil. Spend 15 minutes in your kitchen and result, a freshly made, healthy snack which will be loved by everyone, even good for kids. Store and munch whenever you feel like.
Most of us avoid Nuts for fear of weight gain. But friends, do you know, A prospective study published in the journal Obesity shows such fears are groundless. In fact, people who eat nuts at least twice a week are much less likely to gain weight than those who almost never eat nuts. So munch your peanuts without any fear at least twice a week. Hurray!! now I'll munch even more than before..I love peanuts!!!!!
And there are some obvious reasons, not to avoid them at all

Nuts lowers the risk of weight gain.
Help prevent gallstones
Peanuts contains a higher concentration of Anti-oxidants
Peanut is a good source of Monounsaturated fats, which is good for the health of your heart, helps lower blood cholesterol.

Ingredients : ( I combined two recipes I knew and it came out real good)
Raw peanuts/groundnuts : 1 and 1/2 cup
Besan/chick pea flour : about 1/2 cup
Rice flour : 1/4 cup
Turmeric powder : 1/2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 1-2 tsp.(adjust to taste)
Coriander Powder : 1 tsp.
Amchur/mango powder/Chaat masala : 2 tsp. (it will give a tangy taste)
Cumin seeds & Fennel/Ani seed : 1 tsp. each (crush a little with a rolling pin)
BakingSoda : a pinch
Salt to taste (about 1 tsp.)
Water : about 3/4 cup or as needed
Oil to deep fry

Method :

In a frying pan, dry roast peanuts for 3-4 minutes in medium heat, remove and let them cool for few minutes.
Prepare the spice mix. After peanuts cool a little, take them in a big bowl along with all the ingredients except oil and water.
This step is very crucial, do not hurry, do it with a steady hand. Mix them together, them drop water 1 spoon at a time and mix. You should add that much water, so that spices and flour just coat peanuts evenly. It should not be crumbly either. Just a smooth spice paste coated evenly with peanuts. ( See the image below)

Heat oil in the same frying pan, the oil should be at least 1 inch high. To check if the oil is ready, put one drop of batter in the oil. The batter should raise to the top but not change color right away.

Take a handful of peanuts mix, try to seperate each peanut while droping, by moving your finger through the mix. Wait for a minute. Try to seperate further if there are some lumps. Fry in medium heat, stir occasionally until they turn brown in colour. Fry for at least 5-6 minutes in medium flame for crispier peanuts.
When done, take them out with a slotted spoon and place on a kitchen tissue to absorb extra oil. After cooling to room temperature, peanuts should be more crispy.
Finally, store to an airtight jar for further use, can store for at least 2-3 weeks or more.

This Crunchy-munchy snack is going to take part on this event "Sunday Snack : Festive snacks of Navratri and Diwali" hosted by me this time, deadline is 29th of this month, send me your entries if you wish to participate.
This event is a brainchild of Hima of SnackORama and now organised by Pallavi of All Thinz Yummy. Visit here for future schedule of the event and if you wish to host in future, as Pallavi is engaged with her newborn twins.

Sorshe Begun (Baby brinjals in mustard & yoghurt gravy)

2009-11-24T13:34:00.003+08:00

Mustard is one of the most preffered spice in Bengali cooking, as I said in my earlier posts. Bengalis are quite fond of this seed, not only Mustard oil is the preffered and main cooking oil there, but seeds and paste are also appear in quite a few of our delicacies. If you followed my earlier posts, You'll see I have also posted many veg. dishes which are cooked with this paste. Almost all the vegetables are cooked with this paste, fish, even eggs are also cooked with this paste. Off Course, there is some reason for this love of Mustard, as Mustard is considered as "One of the World's healthiest spices". Check out my other post, where I explained the health benefits of mustard seed and oil.
My today's recipe is one of the delicacy of Bengali cooking, " Sorshe begun" , where baby soft brinjals/aubergines are fried and doused with freshly ground mustard and yoghurt/curd paste and tempered with Panch phoron(five spice mix). My mom is a great cook and this is one such dish my mom cooks the best. I made this many times, but never could bring the same test like mom.

Ingredients :

Long baby brinjal/aubergine : 7-8 pieces
Yoghurt/curd/dahi : 3/4 cup
Ginger : 1/2 " piece
Garlic : 3-4 cloves
Green chilli : 2-3(slit lengthwise)
Mustard seed : 1and 1/2 tblsp.
Gram Flour/besan : 1 tblsp.
Turmeric Powder : 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 2 tsp. (as per taste)
Panch Phoron : 1 tsp.(mixture of mustard, fennel, white cumin, black cumin/kalonji and fenugreek/methi seed-mix in equal measure)
Mustard oil : 3-4 tblsp.(prefferably mustard oil, can use any other oil)
Sugar : 2 tsp.
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander leaves(few sprigs) : chopped

Method :

Trim the end of the stalks and cut brinjals lengthwise into 4. (see the picture below). Rub about 1/2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. turmeric into inside of the brinjals and fry them in medium hot oil until soft and almost cooked. Remove on to kitchen tissue.

Preperations : 1. Soak the mustard seed in 2 tblsp. hot water for 10 minutes, then whiz to a smooth paste in a blender. Remove and set aside. 2. Put remaining turmeric, red chilli powder, ginger and garlic with little water in a blender and make a smooth paste of it. Remove and keep aside. 3. Using a whisk, mix together yoghurt, gram flour, sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt.

Heat oil in a pan, add slit green chillies and panch phoron. When spices start to crackle, add ginger-garlic(2nd preperation) paste and stir fry for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to sim, and add the yoghurt mix. (because if yoghurt boils, it tends to split)
Gently mix the spices and cook for 1-2 minutes, check the sugar-salt balance. Then mix the mustard paste, mix thoroughly with yoghurt, cook for 2 minutes. Then carefully place the fried brinjals in the sauce.
Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves over it, cover the pan and simmer for 3-4 minutes. As brinjals are already cooked, this step is just to incorporate brinjals with sauce.

Spinkle few more coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice.....enjoy

There are lots of good memories attached to this recipe. As this is one of my favorite dish, My mom used to make this on every Birthday of mine. But now, far away from mom, I miss mom's cooking and whenever I make this, it brings tears to my eyes.
Sending this mouth watering brinjal gravy to HOTM#31 - Retro Dishes , hosted by Ilva of The Heart of the Matter-eating for life

Broccoli-Brinjal Fry

2009-11-20T18:34:00.002+08:00

Today, I'll share a quick stir fry recipe combining broccoli and brinjal. As broccoli is quite hard to incorporate in our Indian taste bud, I look for some interesting way to put this vegetable in our diet. Specially, kids are quite reluctant to eat this vegetable. Broccoli taste good while still in shape after cooking, not over-cooked. So one day, I made broccoli fry this way and my daughter liked it and from then she eats broccoli. I add this vege in pasta or pulao, someway in our diet because of the health benefits of this. Read more to know the health benefits and include broccoli in your diet.
Broccoli is well established as one of the major anti-cancer foods. Numerous studies have concluded again and again that people who eat an abundance of broccoli have fewer cancers of the colon, breast, cervix, lungs, prostate, esophagus, larynx, and bladder. Broccoli contains some 3% of protein and is one of the richest vegetable sources of calcium, iron and magnesium, also loaded with antioxidants and protective phytochemicals which reduces the risk of many diseases, like Cancer, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cataracts and osteoporosis. Broccoli also contains some of the highest levels of vitamins A and C of any food.

Health Benefits :

Anti-Cancerous - protective against bladder, ovarian, prostate even lung cancer
Heart healthy
Phytonutrients in Broccoli helps in detoxification, the cleansing process through which our bodies eliminate harmful compounds.
Support stomach health
An Immune system booster
A birth defect fighter : Folic acid present in broccoli prevents many birth defects. So, pregnant woman must include Broccoli in their diet.

This broccoli-brinjal fry goes very well as a side dish with roti, paratha or even rice.

Ingredients :

Broccoli head : 1 (big)
Brinjal : 1/2 cup (cubed)
Onion : 1(medium-sliced)
Garlic : 3-4 cloves(grated)
Tomato : 1(small-chopped)
Green chilli : 2 (chopped)
Mustard Seed : 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder : 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 1-2 tsp. (as per taste)
salt to taste
Sugar : 1 tsp.
Oil : 2-3 tblsp.

Method :

Cut each florets into half to quarter pieces(as desired). Cut brinjal in medium size chunks. Soak cut broccoli florets in hot water for 5 minutes with a pinch of salt.
Heat 1 tblsp.oil in a pan, throw the broccoli florets, add little salt and stir fry them for a minute or two. Cover lid and lower the flame to sim. Stir fry time to time uncovering the lid. Fry until it gets tender and lightly browned. It won't take long about 5 mins. Remove and keep aside. This way, you can cook them without much oil added.
In the same pan, heat up 1 tblsp.oil and add brinjal pieces. Sprinkle little salt and fry them too until soft and browned. Keep aside. In same pan, add rest of the oil, temper with mustard seed, when splutters, add grated garlic and onions. Saute until onions get soft, add green chillies, tomatoes, turmeric and chilli powder.
Mix well all the masalas and then add fried broccoli and brinjal pieces. Mix well with the masala and stir fry for 3-4 minutes in medium flame. Add sugar and mix well. Check the seasoning. Add if needed. Take care, while frying, broccolis should not loose their texture. Do not over cook them.

Combine it with any cooked dal and serve hot with roti, chapati, or rice. You can see, It needs very less oil, less spice and still taste yummmmmmmmm..try this out

This is on the way to Sudeshna's event, "Think Spice: Think Turmeric",

which is a branchild of Sunita of Sunita's World.

Panchmisali Tarkari - A Bengali Mix-vegetable Delight

2009-11-17T13:27:00.001+08:00

Tarkari, A cooking term associated with Bengali cuisine, which is similar to 'curry' in english. In bengal, we use this word for any uncooked vegetable as well as for cooked curries of vegetable or for fish curry or fish and vegetable cooked together. Even though, the staple food of Bengal is definitely rice and fish, bengalis consume a lot of vegetables, too and it's a must daily along with fish. Bengali cuisine has a lot of low calorie veg. dishes, made with very less oil and spices, tempered with some seeds(referred as phoron) and just a touch of turmeric powder and green chilli. So these veg. dishes are extremely healthy and low calorie.
One of them is Panchmisali Tarkari...if you got the meaning of tarkari, I will tell you what panchmisali means...'panch' means five, 'misali' means mix here, that means it's a mix vegetable curry dish. But the number of vege doesn't have to be five, it can be 4 or 6. Just 5 or 6 or more types of vegetables cooked together with a tempering(phoron) and with touch of turmeric powder. It's extremely healthy dish. There is no fixed vegetable for this, you can use any vegetable available in your home. It's just a simple comfort food and you are getting all the vitamins and minerals needed from one dish.

Now to the recipe....

Ingredients :

Vegetables I used : Green beans, broad beans/shim, sweet potato/potato, cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal, pumpkin, Okra/bhindi and carrot(optional). (arbi/taro roots, ridge gourd/Jhinge can be used, do not use beets in this dish, brinjal is a must here)
Dry red chilli : 1 (break into 2)
Panch phoron : 1 tsp.(mixture of fennel, white cumin, black cumin, mustard and fenugreek seed--mix each in equal quantity and use 1 tsp. from the mix)
Turmeric Powder : 2 tsp.
Chilli powder : 1 tsp.
Green chilli : 1 or 2(chopped)
Tomato : 1(medium-chopped)
Salt to taste
Sugar : 1 tsp.
Oil : 2 tblsp.
Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing(optional, but recommended)

Method :

Wash and cut all the vegetables more or less in same sizes. Because, as all are going to the same pot and cooked together, harder vegetables should cut in smaller sizes and softer veges should cut in bigger sizes, so all can be cooked at the same time. if using, ridge gourd, add it at the end when all other veges are already tender.
Heat oil in a pan, add dry red chilli and panch phoron, when seeds start to turn dark (do not burn the seeds, it will make the curry bitter) , throw all the veges to the pan. Add little salt and stir fry for 2 minutes. Then add chopped green chillies, tomatoes, turmeric and chilli powder. Give it a good stir for few minutes and mix well with the veges. Add sugar and mix again.
Pour over about 1 cup of water and cover the lid and let it cook in medium heat.
Check time to time, it will take more or less 7-8 minutes. When water dries up and vegetables are tender, check the seasoning(salt). Add if needed. Give it a good stir and mix well.
Sprinkle fresh coriander leaves if available. Serve hot with rice as the first course of meal.

Dear Foodie friends, please send your entries ASAP for Sunday Snacks: Festive snacks of Navratri and Diwali event..deadline is 29th of this month

Sending this tarkari to Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong,

who is hosting This month's "Think Spice : Think Turmeric"
Event, which is brainchild of Sunita of Sunita's World

WHB#209 : Chaltar Ambol (Sweet & Sour Elephant Apple)

2009-11-11T16:59:00.001+08:00

Chalta, as known in Bengali, or Outenga in Assamese, is known as Elephant Apple or Wood apple universally(Dillenia Indica as scientifically) is native to Southeastern Asia, from India, Bangladesh and Sri lanka, east to southwestern China and Vietnam, and south through Thailand to Malaysia and Indonesia.
In India, chalta is found in forests along the base of Himalayas from Nepal to Meghalaya. It is also found in dry hilly regions of Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh in north and Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in south India. It bears green fruits which resemble large apples. Hence, it got its name, "elephant apple". It is a tropical acidic fruit, is eaten both ripe and unripe. It is common in chutneys and other pickled dishes. The fruit comes into season in the fall months, depending on the region, with maturity in October and November in Malaya and a longer harvesting period, October through March, in India.
The fruit : The fruit of the elephant apple tree is enclosed in a hard husk, which must be cracked to get at the fruit. This can be accomplished by hurling the fruit at a hard surface or by using a hammer to crack the husk open. The elephant apple itself is very fleshy, with Astringent and resinous notes. It also has a strong smell, along with numerous small seeds.

Image source :

http://www.fruitipedia.com/chalta.htm

Image source :

http://pt.treknature.com/gallery/Asia/India/photo174378.htm

Different uses of this fruit and parts of the plant :

The wood of the elephant apple is very hard and prized for construction applications in which durable wood is needed.
During the rainy season, the tree exudes a gum that is used in some parts of the world to replace gum arabic, and it appears in watercolors, inks, varnish, and other applications in which gum arabic might normally be used.
Products of the elephant apple tree are also used in some traditional Indian medicine, and the plant is said to be soothing to the digestion.
The fruit is said to possess tonic and laxative properties, and is used for abdominal pains. It is also known as anti diabetic and has cooling effect on body.
The bark and leaves are astringent.
Dried leaves are used as a substitute for sand paper in polishing ivory and horn.
Culinary use : Fleshy sepals form the edible portion. Though the fruits contain sugars, still these taste pleasantly sour due to predominance of acid. These are seldom eaten raw and are mostly used as flavouring in curries. These are also made into jams and jellies. The juice is sweetened with sugar to make a cooling and refreshing drink.
Do not use if pregnant

The recipe I want to share today of this fruit, is called Chaltar Ambol, is from Bengal(Bengali cuisine), my native place Kolkata. This is basically a sweet and sour Chutney, but little different from typical chutney. Chutney can be both sweet and sour, but Ambol is always a sour dish, served at the end of the meal to provide the refreshing touch of tartness to make the tongue anticipate the sweet dishes which is served just after Ambol or chutney. Ambol, is a cooking style of Bengal, where a sour dish is made either with some fruit or vegetable or even with small fish, the sourness is being produced by adding Tamarind pulp. But in this dish, as chalta, itself is an acidic soury fruit, jaggery is used to make it little sweet.

How to cut this fruit : The fruit flesh comes into layers and its outer covering is very hard. You have to be careful while cutting, as inside pulp is very slippery because of the gum. After you cut through the middle by a sharp knife, discard the central or the most inside seeded part. Then seperate layers and cut into thin lengthwise pieces.
For this recipe, we need not too ripe or not too young fruit, a yellow greenish elephant apple.

Ingredients :

Chalta(elephant fruit) : 2
Sugar Cane jaggery(akher gur) : 250 - 300 gms.(or use accrd. to your taste)
Dry red chilli : 1

Panch Phoron : 2 tsp.(is a mixture of cumin seed,
black cumin seed, mustard seed, fennel seed and
fenugreek seed-mix each in equal quantity--No. 5 in the image)

Turmeric powder : a pinch
Oil : 2 tblsp.
Salt : a pinch
Flour(APF/Atta) : 1 tblsp. (optional, but recommended)

Method :

After cutting into thin slices, pressure cook it for 10 minutes with a pinch of turmeric. Take out and discard the water.
Heat 1 tblsp. oil in a pan, add whole dry red chilli and 1 tsp. of panch phoron. When seeds turn light brown and you get the aroma of fried seeds, throw the elephant apple or chalta pieces. Add little salt and stir for 2 minutes. Then add about 1 cup of water. Cook with covered lid for 7-8 minutes.
Add the jaggery. Do not add jaggery all at a time, add little by little, let it melt, taste and if needed add some more. It will be a little sweet, more sour kind of taste. How much jaggery is needed depends on the sourness of the fruit. The consistency is kind of liquidy(you can see in the image). If you think, yours is very liquidy, mix 1 tblsp.of flour with 2 tblsp. of water and add into it. This will thicken the gravy and add some taste.
When you get the right consistency, pour into a serving dish. If a small pan, heat 1 tblsp. of oil, add rest of the panch phoron, when it splutters, pour this with oil into your serving dish over the ambol. This will add a fresh tempering flavour to the dish.
Chaltar Ambol is ready to serve. Serve in room temperature. Leftover can be kept in refrigerator and consume cold. It tastes even better.

This post is my entry to Weekend Herb Blogging(WHB)#209,

hosted this month by Paulchen's Foodblog, event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now the event is managed by
Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything.
This is my second time contribution to this awesome event ...every time I feel proud to be a part of WHB event.

Bengali's hot favorite : Kalai er dal O Pyaj-Aloo Posto(Split white urad dal and onion-potato with poppy seed)

2009-11-06T14:03:00.001+08:00

My today's recipe is hot favorite among bengalis...you ask any bengali about this...they can die for this awesomely cool comfort food, I mean if you give us a choice of a five course meal and this combo, any bengali will choose this one without any hesitation. ( I am sure?????..... at least me)
Kalai-er dal is a dal made of split (skin removed) white Urad dal. The special about this dal is the use of fennel seed unlike other dal has the usual cumin seed or panch phoron(mixture of five different seeds) as tempering. this dal has two versions, both are awesomely tasty. One is with roasted dal and another without roasting. As urad dal is little slimy or slippery in texture, if you roast the dal before making it, the slimy texture will go away. I love both versions and will give you both recipes, inredients are almost same in both versions, but the process varies a bit...you know what accompanies with this dal...yes, the famous Aloo posto (Potato in poppy seed paste). if you want a leisurely comfort food in a relax weekend lunch, have this combo and you'll love it, I guarantee you................

Now to the recipes....first Aloo posto...it is a dish made with potato and a paste of poppy seed. You can make this dish in many different ways, this time I made this with onion..so it is Pyaj-Aloor posto (Potato N Onion in poppy seed paste)

Ingredients :

Potato : 2(medium)
Onion : 1 (medium)
Poppy seed : 2 tblsp.(heaped)
Black cumin seed(kalonji/kala jeera) : 1 tsp.
Tomato : 1/2 (chopped)
Green chilli : 2 (more or less accr. to your taste or omit)
Oil : 2 tblsp.
Turmeric powder : 1 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 1 tsp.(optional)
Salt to taste

Method :

Cut potatoes in small cube like pieces. Grind the poppy seed coarsely with green chillies in a coffee grinder. Do not make it too fine.
Heat oil in a pan, temper with black cumin seed, when the aroma rises, add onions. Fry for a minute and then add potatoes. Add salt and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add turmeric powder and give it a good stir.
Add chopped tomatoes, red chilli powder mix it well and then add poppy seed paste. Cook on medium heat for few minutes, so that the paste can coat nicely with potatoes. Add enough water to cook the potatoes. Add little salt over it.
Cover the lid and wait till all water dries up and potatoes are cooked. After the water dries up, check the seasoning, add if needed and stir fry the whole thing vigorously for 2-3 minutes to make it more dry and fried.
Take out from heat and serve hot with any dal and white rice.....................

Now to the dal, first unroasted one, i.e Kacha kalai er dal

Ingredients :

Split white Urad dal : 1 cup
Dry red chilli : (Break into 2)
Fenugreek seed(methi dana) : 1 tsp.
Fennel seed(mouri) : 2 tblsp.(dry grind into powder)
Ginger : 1"(grated)
Green chilli : 2-3
Oil : 2 tblsp.
Turmeric powder : 2 tsp.
Salt to taste

Method :

Soak urad dal in water for about 1/2 an hour as it takes comparatively more time to cook. Soaking before cooking it, will need less time to cook. Pressure cook the dal until it is soft and done. When done, open the cooker. If water dries up, add 1 cup of water. With a wire masher, mash the dal. Add little salt and turmeric powder and let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Keep it aside.
Heat oil in a pan, when it is really hot and smoky, lower the flame, add dry red chillies, green chillies and fenugreek seeds. When seeds slightly change colour(turn brown, not dark brown---do not burn fenugreek seeds, the whole dal will taste bitter), pour the cooked dal over it.
Cook for 2-3 minutes. Finally, when you have your desired consistency(it is not a thick dal, and also not so watery, kind of a smooth consistency) of dal, check the seasoning. Add ginger juice (squeeze the ginger paste and add only the juice) and powdered feneel seed. Cook for 1 minute and take out from heat. Your dal is ready.

Now the recipe of fried one, i.e., Bhaja kalai er dal

Ingredients are same as above, only no fenugreek seed. I dont have the picture of this version, next time I make it, I'll add it for sure.

Method :

Dry roast the dal and then wash and soak the dal as above. Then pressure cook it until done.
Add 1 cup of water, with a wire whisk, mash the dal and give it a smooth texture. Add little salt and turmeric and cook for 2-3 minutes. Keep it aside.
Wet grind fennel seed and ginger to a fine paste(ada-mouri bata).
Heat oil in a pan, when its hot and smoky, add dry red chilli, green chilli and the paste of ginger and fennel seed (ada-mouri bata). Fry the paste for a while in medium flame, when you get the sweet smell of the paste, add the dal. Check the seasoning and cook for 2-3 minutes. Your dal is ready.
Enjoy with Aloo posto and hot white rice............

TRY AND LET EM KNOW IF YOU LIKED IT OR NOT............

Awards for my followers

2009-11-04T13:06:00.000+08:00

Hi Friends! it's award time................

It's time for me to convey my gratitude to all my followers who have encouraged and showed their support, commented with nice and encouraging words throughout my blogging period. So, this set of awards are for my followers...Thank you all for your love and moral support..you all are the inspiration of my blog..thank you so much...........please accept these awards from me
This "A Fabulous Blog" award has passed on to me by one of my followers, Babli of Khana Masala..Thank you dear Babli ..Now I want to pass you this set of awards..pl.accept them
Followers/Friends, when you see my post on your reader, please come and acceprt these awards and let me know, Please..................Thank you again
My followers are :

Ushnish Ghosh, Prasu, Pria, Sanghi, Dithi, Sarah Naveen, Rituparna, Sangeetha, raje, lakshmi venkatesh, Priya, Tina, RV, Shanthi, Kimmie, Tulip, Arti, Aysha, LG, Nithya, Babli, Divya, SGD, Renu, Pinky, Adlak's tiny world, Chitra, Ann, Mrs. kannan, Sunanda, Gayathri, Angel, Oriya Food, Subhie_br, Mydhily Naidu, shaista tabrez, hurby-kh, Cayla, தேவன் மாயம், Mom, my blog, Amrita Banerjee and Sowmya.

Reposted recipe : Chinese Kidney Beans & Potato Fry

2009-10-30T18:21:00.004+08:00

Reposting my older post Chinese Kidney Beans & Potato Fry for JFI : Rajma, hosted by Divya of Dil Se and event started by Indira of Mahanandi

Mutton Vindaloo (spicy mutton stew) in Parsian Style

2009-10-29T12:57:00.003+08:00

Vindaloo is a meat dish of Portuguese origin, which derived from Portuguese word Vinho(vinegar) and Al'ho(garlic), which are two key ingredients for this dish. Due to its ability to preserve well, vindaloo was carried by Portuguese sailors on their sailing trips and found its way into Goa by this route. Now Vindaloo has become a popular and integral part of West Indian cuisine. It also a very popular among Parsis too, who imigrated from Persia, recent day Iran to Gujarat, the Western most State of India about 1000 years ago. As Parsian cuisine is very much influenced by Portuguese cuisine, So Vindaloo has become a very popular meat dish of parsian community. It differs a little from the Goan Vindaloo recipe. Today, I'll share the Parsian style Mutton Vindaloo recipe...It is basically a fiery-hot curry sauce and a real delight who loves hot and spicy curries. Traditionally the Parsis make vindaloo with duck, but mutton can be substituted, even with chicken or pork.

The image was taken in a hurry, couldn't take a good one, as hungry people were already on the dinner table, so had to hurry...really sorry for that

Ingredients :

500 gms mutton cut into small cubes
6 tblsp oil
3 small tomatoes, chopped
3 small potatoes peeled and cut into round pieces
2 onion chopped in slices
250 gms boiled peas (I omitted)
Bay Leaves : 1 or 2
Curry leaves : 6-8 pieces(crumbled)
salt as per taste

Vindaloo masala :

6 dry red chillies (adjust as per your tolerance level)
3 cloves
5 cardamoms
6 black peppercorns
1/2" cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Coriander seeds
6 garlic cloves
1" piece ginger
1 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tblsp.Vinegar

Method:

Dry roast until lightly browned all the spices from dry chilles to coriander seeds(vindaloo masala section). Then ground with rest of the ingredients. it should be a smooth paste.
Cut mutton pieces in small cube like pieces. Clean and pat dry. Marinate them with vindaloo masala paste, crumble up curry leaves and add to it, salt and 2 tblsp. of oil. Keep aside for at least 2-3 hours. More is better.
Heat rest of the oil in a wide pan, fry potatoes with salt and keep aside. In the same oil, add bay leaves for flavour, when they change colour, add onions and fry until lightly browned. Then add chopped tomatoes, stir till tomatoes are pulpy. Then add marinated mutton pieces in there.

Stir-fry for at least 15 minutes or spices are well blended with mutton pieces. Add about 5 cups of water and let it cook in medium flame until mutton are tender and the curry is thick. Give it an occassional stir. Add salt as necessary. When mutton are almost tender, add potato pieces in it.
If using green peas, add when mutton and potatoes both are done.
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice or any Indian flatbread like chapati, naan or paratha.

I'm sending this parsian Mutton Vindaloo to Meera of Enjoy Indian Food

who is celebrating Parsi Cuisine for this edition of
RCI(Regional Cuisine of India), this event is started by
Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine

Beguni or Brinjal Fritters

2009-10-26T12:28:00.002+08:00

Hi Friends, I'm back after a quite long break. Even after coming from vacation, last 10 days, the man of the family was terribly sick with fever. So couldn't even think of blogging a bit...Now he is fine, so tried to post something...I don't know why it feels little weird to write down something after such a long break, it feels like I havn't ever did this before...but I've to say that, I terribly missed blogging,...
Any way, Beguni or Brinjal Fritters is my recipe today...........

Beguni is a famous bengali snack made from brinjals. We call brinjals "begun", so the fritters or pakoras made out of it is "beguni". This fritter is so beloved in bengali community, it is served as an evening snack with tea (mainly in demand when it rains outside) or is a famous accompaniment with Khichdi(a lentil-rice combination), a popular appetizer in any special occassion menu like birthdays, Puja, even in marriage functions. You can serve this as a side dish with any dal and rice. During Durga Puja, it is served with Khichdi in puja pandals and even it is made at bengali households,too. I also made this during puja time at home.
The most important aspect of this fritter is the shape in which the brinjals are cut. First, cut in 1/8 inch thick round slices and then cut each round one from the middle (resembling the shape of half-moon). Another way to cut the brinjals is to make thin slices of the brinjals vertically. For best results, always use the dark purple brinjals. Now to the ingredients, you need very less ingredients for this fritter...

Ingredients :

Thick Purple Brinjal : 1
Besan(chick pea flour) : about 1 cup
Chilli powder : 2 tsp. (according to your taste)
Turmeric powder : a pinch
Kalonji or black cumin or onion seed : 1 tsp.
Poppy seed(posto) : 2 tblsp.(for extra flavour & crunch)

Baking powder : 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Water
Oil for deep frying

Method :

Sprinkle a pinch of both salt and turmeric powder over the brinjals and keep aside for 10-15 minutes.
To prepare the batter, take besan in a bowl, mix all the ingredients in it except water and oil and mix them together.Then add enough water to make a semi-thick consistency of batter. It shouldn't be runny or not too much thick.Whip the batter for 2-3 minutes to make a smooth and lump-free batter.
Heat enough oil in a wide vessel to deep fry. Dip each eggplant piece in the batter, check if it is coated from all sides. then deep fry in medium heat until lightly browned.
Serve hot immediately after frying.............................

This is going to take part in my ongoing event ,
"Sunday Snacks : Festive snack of Navratri & Diwali"....Friends, send in your entries soon to me, I want to know Which snack you've served to your family & friends during this festive season.

Wishing Happy Diwali To All

2009-10-16T17:21:00.000+08:00

Wish all my readers, followers and visitors a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous Deepavali

Quality Scrap Greetings from SetOrkut.com

Hi friends, I'm back from vacation in my hometown, Kolkata as promised just before diwali...spent a great time with family and relatives and had loads of fun during Durga Puja in Kolkata..had no time to miss the blogging world but still missed it a bit. Now I've to catch up with all of your wonderful posts and hope soon I'll be back too with my posts.

Don't forget to send in your entries for my ongoing event "Sunday Snacks - Festive snacks for Navratri & Diwali"

Announcing "Sunday Snacks" event - Festive Snacks of Navratri and Diwali

2009-09-24T17:33:00.004+08:00

In the month of October and November, the famous event of blogosphere "Sunday Snacks" is nestling here in Appyayan. This event is a brainchild of Hima of SnackORama, but Pallavi of All Thingz Yummy has took over since Hima has moved to India. Few months back, when I saw Pallavi is asking to guest host the event, as she is pregnant with twin girls. I just had to help her and took this great opportunity to host this great event. I knew how hard is going to be for her, as I went thru the same experience 2 years back and now a proud mother of twin boys. Wishing her all the best...it was quite a good experience for me and hoping the same for her........................
As I'm hosting on the month of October-November, the theme was obvious...it's the month when we, Indians are in festive mood. Three main festivals are celebrated this time - Navratri, Dusshera and Diwali. While North and West Indians celebrate Navratri and Dusshera, same time East Indians celebrate Durga puja to worship Devi Durga. And then comes Diwali or Deepavali, the festival of lights, which is celebrated all over India.

So the theme of this edition's "Sunday Snack" is

Festive Snack of Navratri and Diwali"

Festivals in India are incomplete without delicious food. These festivals offer a great opportunity for people from different regions to enjoy the traditional delicacies that are cooked using the traditional recipes which have been passed on from generations to generations. So I want to know what snack do you make during this festive season. Share traditional or your family's favorite recipes from your part of India.

PLEASE READ ALL THE RULES CAREFULLY.. AND PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THEM

Each recipe being submitted for the event, must have a link to this post..even if it is reposted grouped with others, every individual entry must have a link to this announcement, even your archived ones .. Linking with logo is preferable as it's made for this event only, but not compulsory.

Due date :

the duration of this event is 2 months. due date will be the last Sunday of November, i.e., 29th November, 2009 (Round up will be posted by the next week with a new theme announcement for the future edition)

Ingredients Restrictions:

There is no restrictions with the ingredients...vegetarian and non-vegetarian entries are allowed. But no beef, please.........

Multiple Entries:

Send as many entries as u like

Posts from Archives:

Anything from archives is ok. Reposting is not necessary but again you must link each and every individual post/entry to this announcement.

Non-Bloggers:

Please submit your recipes via email. Please include your name, where are you from and recipe text and images are compulsory.

Email your entries to indranidh@gmail.com with subject line as Sunday Snacks - Festive snacks of Navratri & Diwali

Please include all these fields in your mail.......................

Your name:

Blog name:

Name of the dish:

Post permalink:

Picture of the Dish : Max. 300 px.

Previous Sunday Snacks Roundups are here:

Sunday Snacks : Spill the beans
Sunday Snacks : Chaats

Sunday Snacks : Grab n go

Sunday Snacks : Hot & Spicy

Sunday Snacks : Fix it

Sunday Snacks :Fry it
Sunday Snacks : Bake it

With this post I'll take a break from blogging for 2-3 weeks, as I'm visiting Kolkata for Durga Puja...Hope to see you all soon and keep making festive snacks and send me your yummy yummy entries...wish my readers, visitors and blogger friends a happy and healthy Navratri and Dussehra............I'll see you before Diwali

Bread Utthapam

2009-09-23T12:43:00.005+08:00

Bread is now so important part of our diet...without eating bread day's diet can't be complete. But always choose wholemeal bread over white bread or white flour bread. The basic difference between these two types of bread is during production of wholemeal flour the whole grain is used. This type of flour has an extraction rate of 100%, which means nothing is removed during milling. White flour is refined. The bran and nutrient-packed germ are separated from the rest of the grain losing many nutrients. The wholemeal flour contains all parts of the grain: the fibre-rich bran (outer layer), the endosperm (middle layer) and the germ (inner layer). The bran provides fibre, B vitamins, minerals, protein and other phytochemicals. The endosperm contains carbohydrates, proteins and small amounts of B vitamins. The germ is packed with minerals, B vitamins, vitamin E and other phytochemicals. The regular consumption of whole grain foods has been linked by researchers to a reduction of several diseases including heart disease and cancer, especially colon cancer.
My family likes bread than cereal or any other breakfast stuff. So I'm in a constant look for something different to serve them with bread. Few months back, I came accross one such recipe which can be served as a breakfast and also for evening snack. My daughter loved it and now every day she wants only this for her evening snack...so try it some time and let me know how your kids have liked it...........

Bread Utthapam........It's very easy to make and simply delicious bread snack recipe, which will be loved by all ages. If you don't know what a uttapam/utthapam is, it is dosa like dish made from same batter like dosa, but it's thick and not filled like dosa and different grated veges spread over it and fried.

Ingredients :

Bread ( any type of bread) : 6-8 slices ( I used Focaccia, it was just yummy)
Curd/yoghurt/Dahi : 1/2 cup
Semolina/Suji : 1/4 cup
Grated Onion : 1/2 cup
Grated Carrot : 1/2 cup
Grated Capsicum : 1/4 - 1/2 cup
Finely chopped tomatoes : 1/2 cup
Grated Ginger : 1 tblsp.
Finely chopped Green chillies : 1 tblsp.(Omit if cooking for kids)
Finely chopped Coriander leaves : 1/2 cup
Chilli powder : 2 tsp.( as per taste)
salt to taste
Butter/Margarine : as needed
Oil/ghee(clarified butter) : 2 tblsp.

Method :

In a big bowl, take curd/yoghurt, whip it a little. Then add all the ingredients except oil and bread.
Spread butter or margarine in only one side of your bread.
Heat tawa or a wide pan, put butter side of the bread down, let it brown, on the top side, spread the yoghurt batter evenly in a thin layer. Once the down part is done, pick it up with a flat spatula, drop 1 tsp. of oil, flip to the other side.
In medium heat, let it brown. Remove from tawa. Prepare other slices same way.
Serve hot with a ketchup or any sauce of your choice.

I'm sending it to Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes
for her event, "Sunday Snacks : snacks with bread". I've the priviledge to host this event next month, so friends and foodies come to my place for the announcement and please participate and make it a success........

Also want to share my daughter's recent favorite snack with Srivalli of Spice your Life, who is celebrating her first blog anniversary with the theme, "Kids Delight"

Home Made Bengali Sweet : Malpoa

2009-09-22T13:30:00.011+08:00

Bengalis call their desserts course as mishti. It was many years ago that every household made its own sweet dishes. The principles of economy and the skilled required for the popular preparations led to families specializing in confectionery – making, where expertise was handed down from father to son. The community, known as Moiras, has developed sweet-making into a fine art and specialities like rosogulla and sandesh are made. The sweet shops of Bengal known as "Mistannan Bhandar" (Sweet House). But, to one’s belief, Bengali sweets are not only Sandesh, Rosogulla or Misti Doi. There are even lots more varieties to Bengali Desserts, which might not be available, commercially in the market, nor in the sweet shops, but typically home made, like different "Pithas"(which are basically rice-wheat-coconut based sweets, some are stuffed , some not, some are stuffed and dipped in thickened milk and so on), Rasbara( made from pasted Urad dal, whipped till frothy, then fried in round balls and finally soaked in syrup), Narkel Naru(coconut laddoo) and Malpoa to name some of them..

I'll share this home made delicacy with you today, which is made during festival time,too. I always make this on my husband's birthday, as he just loves this. Being a bengali, he has less sweet tooth than me, he'll prefer this over any cake. So I made them on last weekend for his birthday.

Malpoa : It is made with all purpose flour(maida) and semolina/suji, made into a thick batter. The batter is then drop into hot oil in a form a small round pancakes which are deep fried and then dipped into hot sugar syrup. You can add also crushed fruits in the batter, like banana, mango or pineapple for different taste. But my family just love the natural flavour of fennel seeds and coconut. This is the basic recipe of malpoa.

Ingredients :

Flour - 1 cup

Sooji (Semolina) - 1/4 cup

Fennel (Mouri/Saunf) seeds- 1/2 tsp

Milk - 1 and 1/4 cups ( as needed)

Coconut - 2 tbsp, grated or finely chopped

Oil - 2 cups (for deep frying)

For Syrup:

Sugar - 2 cups

Water - 2 cups

Green Cardamom - 3(crushed)

Method :

In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients except oil. Using your hands, make a smooth batter free of lumps. use milk as needed to make a semi-thick batter,little thicker than pakora batter.

Meantime, in a wide pan, prepare sugar syrup, adding cups sugar in 2 cups of water and let come to boil. Add crushed green cardamoms and Simmer for 8-10 minutes. Note : remember syrup thickens when cooled so do not boil to a thick consistency.
Heat the oil to smoking in a wide pan/kadhai. Turn the flame down to medium. Using a ladle, pour in a full measure of the batter in a form of small circle of 3" diameter into the oil.
Fry for approximately 3-4 minutes until deep brown on medium heat, so the batter can cook through. Flip over and fry other side to deep brown.

Remove and add directly to the hot sugar syrup, boil them for 3-4 minutes in syrup and then take them out. Meantime, fry another batch of malpoas and dip in sugar syrup.
Tips : If your syrup dries a bit during process, add some more water and sugar if required. But don't let syrup thicken much.

Serve in room temperature. you can store the rest in refrigerator and can keep them for 7-10 days but before eating, warm them up a little.

I would like to share this festive sweet with Sudeshna who is

hosting an event " Durga puja Food Festival" @ her place Cook Like A Bong....
And to EC of Simple Indian Food for her Festive treat Event
And to Shanthi Krishnakumar's event Dusshera, Dhanteras and Deepavali

In another note : Recently, Some of my blogger friends has passed me a loads of awards to me, which I couldn't acknowledge before for lack of time. My heartfelt thanks to Pinky of Esho-bosho-aahare showered me with so many awards that I just totally drenched with excitement and enthusiasm, Thanks dear for your support and love....

I am supposed to share these awards with 7 bloggers and I would love to share my awards with these lovely ladies of blogger world..........But I love you all

Home Cooked Oriya Food, Kitchen Flavour, Tulip, Babli, Sowmya, Nithya and Renu

Lissie of Salt and Spice has shared her awards with me.....My heartfelt thanks to Lissie

I would Like to share these awards with Shanthi, Chitra, Pallavi, Aysha, Ann, Meera and Radhika

Murukku for Indian cooking Challenge

2009-09-18T12:30:00.002+08:00

Murukku in Tamil, Muruku in Telegu, or Chakli in Marathi or Kannada, is a popular South-Indian teatime Snack, but now popular in allover India. It is one of the popular snack during "Diwali", the festival of light, which is right around the corner. Murukku is typically made from a mixture of urad dal(split black gram dal) and rice, both made into flour, added salt and flavourings such as chilli, asafoetida or hing, ajwain(celery seed) or cumin or sesame seeds. Both flour mixture is made into a dough and then filled into murukku press, formed into any shape, like spiral or coil, and then deep fried to a crisp.

I just love this snack, but never tried to make this at home as it is easily available ready from market. After joining Srivalli's event Indian Cooking Challenge, we're learning all regional delicacies from scratch. This month, we're learning this great mouth-watering snack. To make Murukku, you need Murukky press, which comes with many discs with thin holes, bigger holes, star shaped holes and flat rectangular holes, can make murukku of different shapes.
I had this cookie press for years, I make sometimes different shaped cookie with this, had no idea that murukku press also look the same. It has these different shaped tips and many other different shaped discs for making cookie. I made these murukkus with the smallest star shaped tip.

Ingredients :(This recipe makes approx. 250 gms. of murukkus)

Raw Rice - 4 cups
Urad Dal - 1 cup
Water - app 1/2 cup or more

For Seasoning ------

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds- 1 tsp
Asafetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 75 gms

Method :

Wash and drain the rice. Shade dry the Rice for 1/2 hr. Dry roast the Urad dal to light brown. Allow it to cool. If you are using more quantity, you can get it ground in rice mil, else use your mixie to grind both Rice and Urad dal.
First grind rice into a fine flour, keep it aside. then grind the urad dal to fine powder.
In a wide vessel, take both the flours along with salt. Mix well. Add cumin, Sesame seeds to the flour, mix well. Whether you use Asafetida powder or the solid ones, you got to mix it in water, make sure it is dissolved before adding to the flour. If its not dissolved properly, when deep frying the muruku, there are chances for the hing to burst our due to air bubbles.
Mix in the hing to the flour and finally add the butter. Gather everything well and you will get more of a crumbling mixture. Now slowly add water and knead a dough which is little more softer than the puri dough.
Heat a kadai with oil enough to deep fry. Once the oil is hot enough, simmer to low flame. Take the Muruku Aachu, wash and wipe it clean. Then divide the dough into equal balls. Fill the Muruku maker with the dough. You can either press it directly over the flames or press over a paper and gently slide it down the hot oil. But since the quantity mentioned here is less, you can press it directly over the kadai.
Cook over medium flame, using a slotted spoon, turn it over to other side to ensure both sides turn golden colour. You will know by seeing the colour that its cooked. Remove to a kitchen paper and store it in a air tight container.

You can store in an airtight container, it stays good for weeks, which is quite impossible unless you forget about them.

Stuffed Bell Peppers in Peanut-Sesame Sauce

2009-09-16T13:10:00.006+08:00

Want to color your life healthy? Then eat bright colour fruit and vegetable.
Brightly colored bell peppers, are rich sources of some of the best nutrients available. Bell peppers, also known as sweet peppersor capsicum, are like the Christmas ornaments of the vegetable world since they are beautifully shaped, glossy in appearance and come in a variety of vivid colors such as green, red, yellow, orange, even in purple, brown and black. Bell peppers are not 'hot' like other peppers. They contain a recessive gene that eliminates capsaicin, the compound responsible for the 'hotness' found in other peppers.

Health Benefits of bell peppers/capsicum :

Brightly colored bell peppers, whether green, red, orange or yellow, are rich sources of some of the best nutrients available. To start, peppers are excellent sources of vitamin C and vitamin A (through its concentration of carotenoids such as beta-carotene), two very powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants work together to effectively neutralize free radicals, which can travel through the body causing huge amounts of damage to cells. Free radicals are major players in the build up of cholesterol in the arteries that leads to atherosclerosis and heart disease, the nerve and blood vessel damage seen in diabetes, the cloudy lenses of cataracts, the joint pain and damage seen in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and the wheezing and airway tightening of asthma. By providing these two potent free radical destroyers, bell peppers may help prevent or reduce some of the symptoms of these conditions by shutting down the source of the problem. So it creates Protection against Free Radicals, Cardiovascular Disease, Promote Optimal Health, Promote Lung Health, Protection against Rheumatoid Arthritis and Better Eyesight...

Vitamin A & C content in red, green and yellow bell pepper(in 1/2 cup, chopped):

RED PEPPER :          Vitamin A 45%,     Vitamin C 240%
YELLOW PEPPER : Vitamin A 2%,        Vitamin C 230%
GREEN PEPPER :     Vitamin A 4%,       Vitamin C 60%

Now, you already know what my recipe contains today....Yes, yes, Bell peppers, I just love to add them in our diet..Because of their hollow appearance, we love to stuff bell peppers. Almost every cuisine has their own stuffed bell pepper recipes. With Rice, meat, lentils, vegetables, nuts and cheese and so many more things are used to stuff the bell peppers. I love to stuff bell peppers with potatoes. Normally, I just stuff peppers and brown them and serve them with pulao or other things. Few days back, while I was browsing thru Indira's Blog, Mahanandi, I found her stuffed bell pepper recipe and she made a peanut-sesame seed sauce with it. After seeing that colorful sauce I had to try it and I made and served my guests. They were spellbound. It was worth all the effort, it's such an unique recipe, thanks, Indira for sharing the recipe.

Stuffed bell peppers in peanut-sesame sauce

BTW, The stuffing recipe is mine. Let's move on to the recipe, it's going to be big...couldn't take a good pic, sorry , had no time..

Ingredients :

Bell peppers(any color) : as needed( try to get smaller sized capsicums, bigger one doesn't look good for this curry)
For stuffing --------
Potato : 3 (big)
Green peas: 1/2 a cup
Onion : 1(chopped)
Ginger-garlic paste :L 1 tblsp.
Tomato : 1(small-chopped)
Green chilli : 2(finely chopped)
Cumin seeds : 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder: 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 1-2 tsp.
Cumin-coriander powder : 2tsp.
Roasted peanut (raw peanuts roast and ground) : 1/2 cup (not totally powdered, but ground into very small chunks)
Fresh coriander leaves : a bunch(chopped)

For peanut-sesame sauce :

Sesame seed : 1/4 cup
Raw Peanuts : 1/4 cup
Cloves : 2-3
Cinnmon : 2(1" pieces)
Jaggery powder : 1 tblsp.
Tamarind juice : 1 tblsp.
Salt to taste

Oil : 4-5 tblsp.

Method :

Pick small sized capsicums. Wash and trim the top off, remove the seeds and membrane and make a hollow space. Dip in a bowl of salted water for 10-12 minutes.

Boil the potatoes, mash and keep aside.

For stuffing, take a pan, heat 1 tblsp. oil, add cumin seeds. Then add chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste, green chillies and tomatoes. Saute for a while, add all powdered spices, thena add mashed potaoes, green peas and mix well. Stir for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and add roasted peanuts. Mix well, add chopped coriander leaves, mix well with the potaoes and remove from heat. Your stuffing is ready.

Fill bell peppers with the potato stuffing to the top. Take a big and wide frying pan, add 2 tblsp. of oil, place bell peppers neatly in a circle. Cook them covered on medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Turn them to sides in between, so they could get brown from all sides. Caution : Be careful while handing these beauties, as they are tend to break if overcooked. Just cook them until they are browned and tender to touch. Mine has also become little overcooked.

Meantime, roast peanuts and sesame seed for the sauce. Take them in a grinder with all the other ingredients. Grind them to a smooth paste.

Heat 2 tblsp. oil in another big and wide frying pan. Add the peanut-sesame sauce and about 2/3 cup of water. Mix well. Simmer on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add salt and a bit of sugar to adjust your taste. Place browned capsicums directly from the other pan to this pan of cooked sauce very carefully, put little sauce over the bell peppers. Cook covered for another 8-10 minutes in medium heat.

Serve hot or in room temperature with rice, chapati, naan or with any Indian bread...I know, it's a labory, time consuming dish, but when you taste it, you will feel it's worth the effort...enjoy these beauties.....................

Sending this royal and festive dish to Sudeshna of Cook Like a Bong ,

who is celebrating upcoming Durga Puja with Durga Puja Food Festival....send her your festive recipe,too, friends......................deadline 22nd September,'09
And to EC of Simple Indian Food for her Festive Treat event

Festive food of Durga puja - Chicken Shahi Korma

2009-09-14T13:42:00.005+08:00

In the beginning of Autumn season, when the sky looks beautifully blue in bright sunshine, kash flower sway with wind, sweet scent of white 'shiuli' flowers fill the air, it's the time to celebrate bengali's most beloved festival of the year, "Durga Puja", which is just 10 days away. Even though, nowadays, the scene has changed quite a bit for last few years, the sunshine part has vanished and Kolkata is under threat of T-strom and heavy rain from one month before the puja starts. But it can't shatter the mood of bengalis they get into with the onset of Autumn season.

If you're wondering, what's shiuli flower, check this out, shiuli phul is also known as Parijat flower
(image source : http://flickr.com/photos/abhijitc17/2209784394)

Image of beautiful Kash phul(flower) dancing with the wind under the blue sky
(image source : http://bdshots.com)

"Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu Saktirupeno Sangsthita,

Namastasyayee, Namastasyayee, Namastasyayee Nama Namaha!!"

ABOUT MAA DURGA

Durga, in Sanskrit means "She who is incomprehensible or difficult to reach." Goddess Durga is a form of Sakti worshiped for her gracious as well as terrifying aspect. Mother of the Universe, she represents the infinite power of the universe and is a symbol of a female dynamism. The manifestation of Goddess Durga is said to emerge from Her formless essence and the two are inseparable.

Info source : www.durga-puja.org

The festival can never be complete without good food. Bengalis do not need special occasions to have a delicious lunch or dinner. To them, having food with friends and family members itself is a big occasion. And when special occasions come, Bengalis appetite knows no bound. Kitchen in all Bengali houses remain crowded day and night with women, who put their best efforts to prepare delicious dishes for their family members and relatives. During this time, all the delicacies are cooked at home from fish to meat, veg. dishes to dessert or sweet.
Today, I'll share one such chicken recipe My mom used to make during this festive time or on some special occassions.........

Chicken Shahi Korma

(Korma, is a term of cooking, where meat is cooked in yoghurt based sauce in ghee, instead of oil, shahi means Royal, as some royal food items like almonds, safforn, kewra water are some key ingredients of this recipe-very simple but yummy )

Ingredients :

Chichen : 1(whole)
Onion : 4-5(medium)
Ginger-garlic paste : 3 tblsp.(2" piece of ginger and 6-7 cloves of garlic)
Curd or yoghurt : 1 cup
Turmeric powder ; 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 2-3 tsp.(as per taste)
Garam masala powder : 2 tsp.
Kewra water : 1-2 tsp. ( can be found in Indian grocery stores)
Saffron Strands : 1 tblsp.
Whole black peppercorn : 10-12(grind into powder)

Almonds : 12-15 pcs.

Bay leaves : 2-3 pcs.
Salt to taste
Sugar : 1 tsp.
Ghee(clarified butter) : 4 tblsp.(I combined2 tblsp. oil and 2 tblsp. ghee)
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method :

Cut the chicken into pieces and apply salt and 2 tsp. black pepper powder, keep aside for 1/2 an hour. Chop the onions and beat the yoghurt with 2 tblsp. of water and keep aside.
Soak almonds in water and take out the skin and grind into powder. Soak saffron strands in kewra water. If you don't get kewra water, soak in 1 tblsp. milk. After 10 minutes, make paste.
Heat ghee in a pan, add the bay leaves and 1 tsp. of sugar, add onions before bay leaves turn dark brown. Saute till onions get soft and transculent. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for few more minutes. Add turmeric, red chilli powder and rest of the black pepper powder.
When oil seperates the masala, add the chicken pieces, mix well with the masala paste and saute for 10-12 minutes. Add 2 cups of hot water and let it cook covered with lid.
When chicken is 2/3 done, add beaten curd, almond paste, sugar, garam masala and mix well. Season with salt. Let it cook for another 5 minutes.
There should be no water left, it's a dry gravy based dish. Lastly add saffron paste. Mix well with the chicken, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Serving Suggestion :

Serve with Pulao(Bengali sweet Pulao) or any Indian bread like puri, paratha etc.
Check out my last year posts on Durga puja :
1. Dura puja is on our doorstep - know all the rituals of bengali durga puja
2. Pujor Diner Khabar(festive food of Durga puja) - Part 1 and Part 2

Sending this entry with above mentioned older entries to be featured on Durga puja Food Festival, organized by Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong

Spicy Potato & Scrambled Egg Sandwich

2009-09-11T11:53:00.003+08:00

Friends, I have a good news to share with you...Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong, who is a famous bengali blogger, has loads of authentic bengali recipes in her new site. She is doing so much more than just blogging. Recently, she surveyed the web and enlisted Top 7 Bengali food blogger and Friends, I am in her list. I still can't believe this. This recognision just after 1 and 1/2 years of blogging, I am just delighted and so much thankful to Sudeshna and Kalyan. Thanks a lot, you both. She is going to publish the our interview, too in her site soon.
For this joyous occassion, I 'll share our family's favorite breakfast sandwich recipe which I make quite often ... its very filling and you can pack this sandwich for your and kid's lunch-box, too. It's a very healthy evening snack option for kids.

Ingredients :

Bread : any bread of your choice
Butter or margarine
For filling ::
Potato(medium) : 2(boiled and mashed)
Egg : 2
Onion(medium) : 1
Green chilli : 2(chopped)
Tomato(small) : 1(chopped)
Fresh coriander leaves : a handful(finely chopped)
Turmeric Powder : 1 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 1 tsp.
Chaat masala : 2 tsp. or Lemon juice : 1 tsp.
Oil : 1 tblsp.
Salt to taste
Black Pepper powder to taste
Lettuce leaves, Cucumber, Onion and tomato slices(few)

Method :

Boil the potatoes and mash them finely with a pinch of salt. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan, fry onion and green chilli till onion turns brown, add chopped tomatoes. Wait till tomatoes softens.

In a bowl, beat 2 eggs vigorously to mix egg white and yellow. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper to the egg and add in the pan and mix well with onion and tomato.

Vegetarians skip the above step and follow rest of the steps for spicy potato sandwich

Stir and break the fried egg into small pieces, just like you make scrambled egg, keep the eggs soft, not too much fried. So do it in medium low flame. Now add the mashed potato in it. Add turmeric, red chilli powder, chaat masala or lemon juice and coriander leaves. Season with salt and keep stirring until everything is well mixed. It should be a dry mixture. Remove from heat, your filling for sandwich is ready.

Now toast bread slices, put some butter or margarine. On down piece of bread, place few lettuce leaves, spread some of the filling on that, place 2 slices of cucumber, onion and tomatoes each, sprinkle some black pepper powder on that and finally place your top bread slice.

Your sandwich is ready. Give a big bite.........yummmmmmmmm

Alternatively, You can skip the potato and make a scrambled egg sandwich too in this way.....

Sending this to Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes for her event "Sunday Snacks : snacks with bread"

Full meal idea: Subzi dal and Kasoori gobi

2009-09-08T13:53:00.002+08:00

My spotlight : fish is over. Thanks again to all 20 bloggers to make this event a success. My friend Sharmila of Kichu Khon has suggested me to put my next spotlight on festive food this month as Bengalis' durga puja is coming in 2 weeks. That was a very good Idea, Sharmila. But I've to disappoint you, Sharmila. I wanted to but as I'll be away on holiday during this time and so many festive food event going on in the blogosphere, thought to pass it this time and will try to participate on those events.
After all those fishy posts, thought to post a vegetarian complete full meal, which I make quite often..simple and delicious..Subji dal and kasoori gobhi, wat do u say, isn't it a good combination? I just love this combo............so without much edo, lets's go for the recipe..

Sabji Dal::::::::::::

Ingredients :

Yellow Moong Dal : 1/2 cup
Massor dal or Toor dal : 1/2 cup(can use both)
Mixed vegetables(carrot, cauliflower, capsicum) : 1 cup
Green Peas : 1/3 cup
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp.
Cumin seeds (jeera) : 1/2 tsp.
Dry red chilli : 1(break into 2)
Green chili : 1(chopped)
Onion(medium) : 1(chopped)
Ginger-green chili paste : 2 tsp.
Garlic paste : 1/2 tsp.
Tomato(large) : 1(finely chopped)
Red Chili powder : 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder : 2 tsp.
Oil : 2 tbslsp.
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander for garnishing

Method :

Wash and pressure-cook the dals together with 2 cups of water and little salt till the dals are tender. Open the cooker and add 1/2 cup of warm water in the cooked dal, Keep aside.
Cut the vegetables in small chunks. Heat oil in a pan, fry carrots, cauliflower and capsicum in medium flame until 2/3 done. Keep them aside.
In the same oil, temper with broken dry red chilli, mustard and cumin seeds. When they crackle, add chopped green chilies and chopped onion and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the ginger-green chili paste, garlic paste, tomato and again saute for about 3-4 more minutes or till tomatoes softens and raw smell of garlic and ginger evaporates.
Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, mixed fried vegetables and mix well. Add the dals, green peas, season with salt and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Garnish with the chopped coriander.

Yummy subzi dal is ready to serve with any Indian bread or rice.

Kasoori Gobi : A yummy dish made with gobi/cauliflower and kasoori methi(dry fenugreek leaves)
I just love the flavour of kasoori methi. So this time I tried my hands on kasoori gobi, the famous North Indian dish....and loved it.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower : 1(cut into medium size florets)
Green peas ; 1/3 cup (optional)

Ginger-garlic-green chilli paste : 2 tblsp.(1" ginger+3 cloves garlic+1 green chilli-green chilli can be omitted)

Tomato(big) : 1(chopped)
Cumin seeds(jeera) : 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder : 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 2 tsp.
Coriander powder : 2 tsp.
Kasuri methi(dry fenugreek leaves) : 2 tsp.
Salt to taste
Sugar : 1 tsp.

Oil : 3 tblsp.

Method :

Cut cauliflower in medium size florets and dip in a bowl of water with a pinch of salt.
Heat oil in a pan, fry cauliflower florets until lightly browned. Keep them aside.
In the same oil, temper with cumin seeds, add ginger-garlic-green chilli paste, saute for 2-3 minutes, then add chopped tomatoes, saute till tomato softens, then add all powdered spices mixed with 3 tblsp. of water.
Cook the spices well till oil seperates. Add kasuri methi and fried cauliflower. Mix well and season with salt and add a pinch of sugar. Add 1/2 cup of water just to cook cauliflower. When water evaporates, add reen peas, mix everything well, check the seasoning. Remove from heat and serve hot.
You can garnish with coriander leaves if you want, but I just want to have the flavour of kasuri methi,so I don't add coriander leaves.

So friends, try this combo some time....it is quick to make and result is just awesome....

Round-up of Spotlight:Fish with National and International Cuisine

2009-09-04T18:28:00.022+08:00

Time flies so fast...few months back the idea came to my mind to host an event on Fish, then I was hesitating, may be I won't be able to give so much time, and see I'm posting the Round-up of The 1st event on Appyayan. I am so thankful to all the bloggers and non-bloggers who have gracefully participated on this event and made this event a huge success. Because of this huge response, I've become more enthusiast and I promise Spotlight event will continue. Next month, I'm hosting Sunday Snacks event by Pallavi of All thinz yummy. After that or if possible in between, I'll put my Spotlight on something.
Check out this array of fish dishes thru this film I've received from 20 bloggers, some of them with multiple entries. Some of them I knew and some of them I've known for the first time. Through this event, I came to know so many new bloggers. I want to thank each one of you for your kind participation.....enjoy this feast for eyes..............

The participants in alphabetical order :

1. Ann of A Delighted Foodie
2. Aysha of Life Today

3. Bong Mom of Bong Mom's Cookbook
4. Indrani/Myself of Appyayan
5. Jyothi of Shadruchulu
6. Lissie of Salt and spice
7. Malini of Khana Khazana with Malini
8. Meera of Enjoy Indian Food
9. Nabanita/Pinky of Esho-Bosho-Aahare
10. Nisha of Look who's cooking too
11. Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes
12. Radhika of Sourashtra Kitchen
13. Renuga & Gayathri of Ideas for a wonder home maker
14. Sharmila of Kichu Khon
15. Soma of eCurry
16. Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong
17. Sudha of Malaysian delicacasies
18. Sumathy of Sumi's Kitchen
19. Sunanda of Sunanda's Kitchen
20. Tulip of Amader Rasona
21. Valarmathy of Simple and Yummy Recipes

I've arranged the round-up in categories by type of the dishes and then by cuisine:

1. Appetizer/Snack/side dish :

Valarmathy sent a Fish fry recipe which is an authentic recipe of Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, which she says, "Food from Andhra Pradesh is rich, high on spices, it is absolutely delicious and the taste is very distinguishable. The spicy lip smacking dish of Andhra Pradesh are something to savour forever."

2. Priya of Priya's easy N Tasty Recipes sent Bread N Salmon Fish Pakora ,

which is her own creation , as she never likes gravies made with this fish(here we're very similar, Priya, Me too never liked it), she thought to make pakoras with this fish and leftover bread slices. Great Idea, Priya...I'll surely try this yummy recipe

3. Soma of eCurry sent Tandoori Fish . Tandoori is a traditional North and North-western Indian cuisine and Soma made this dish with home-made tandoori masala, not with store bought one. Amazing energy you have, Soma and in her place, she explains nicely about this amazing cooking technique, Tandoor and the ingredients of Tandoori masala.

4. Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong sent several entries, but I was drooling over this yummy Macher Dimer(Fish roe) Vada. This is an authentic recipe from Bengali cuisine. She gave a very good and elaborate explanation on Fish roe, which you all should check out. Just lovely, Sudeshna.

5. My contribution in this category is Fish Cutlet, a popular snack of Bengal and an authentic Bengali recipe. This is little time consuming but very enjoyable snack. You can please your guest or anyone with this yummy snack. Serve with cucumber-onion-tomato slices and a dollop of Bengali kasundi(mustard relish)..ummmm yumm

6. Another entry from my side, which is a side dish I make very frequently, Potato & Shrimp Fry. I don't know about the authenticity of this recipe, but my mom used to make this whenever we had shrimp at home. It goes very well with simple meal menu like, lentil, rice and this fry.

7. Ilish mach bhaja(Hilsa fish fry) from

Sharmila of Kichu khon : Simple hilsa fish fry with only turmeric and salt, but taste just great. Top in all bengalis favorite food list.

8. Jyothi of Shadruchulu sent an authentic Fish Fry recipe. The recipe is from her native place Andhra Pradesh, fish marinated with spices and fried with oil in a pan...just lovely, Jyothi

2. Main Course (Curry/gravy) :

I've categorise this section with recipes from different cuisines, as that was my intention of doing this event to learn authentic recipes from different places........

Kerala Cuisine :

One highly fish influenced state of India just like Bengal is Kerala. Varieties of fishes including shrimp, cuttlefish, squid, oil sardines, mackerel, prawn, silver bellies, tuna, sting rays, shark, crabs, mussels, and oysters comprise the popular seafood items of Kerala.
1. Ann of A delighted Foodie sent an authentic fish recipe from Central Kerala,
Mullan Vattichathu/Striped Ponyfish in a spicy,tangy yet mild gravy, she made it with ponyfish, which is very new to me, known as Mullan in Kerala. The color of the gravy is absolutely gorgeous, Ann

2. Another relish from Kerala, I got from Lissie of Salt and Spice is, Fish Pickle, which is an absolute keeper recipe, I never heard of pickle made of Fish. Thanks for sending it to this event, Lissie....just gorgeous

3. Aysha Dileen, sent a traditional everyday dish of keralaites, named Meen Vattichattu....she Used Basa fish for this, Basa is a type of Catfish.

4. Another fish curry from Kerala sent by two bloggers, who blog together, Gayathri and Renuga of Ideas for a wonderful home maker. Spicy Kerala Fish curry....In their blog, they blog on different areas like, home decoration, on kids as well as yummy recipes, everything in one place to make your home heaven in this World..keep the good work, you 2.

2. Konkani Cuisine :

Konkani Cuisine, is another Indian cuisine greatly influenced by Fish.
This cuisine is prevalent in the coastal parts of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. The manner in which Konkani cuisine prepares fish gives it another taste altogether. This is because of the marinating procedures involved in the process.

Fish recipes from Konkani Cuisine sent by one of the most active blogger in the blogosphere at least I know, Meera of Enjoy Indian Food. She sent us two recipes..
Kotambir Methi (in south canara style) :This fish curry is traditionally made with Indian Mackerel, but she used Mahi mahi or Rainbow trout fillet

Sungatha Fanna Upkari(fiery Prawn curry) : she shares that she has a great passion for seafood(here we have a similar taste bud, Meera) and how she had missed fish tastes after moving to US. We all had gone through this face, Meera. Even you find fish in US, it's not similar like India. The curry look really fiery, wow what a red vibrant color!! Just Lovely........

Himachali Cuisine :

Cuisine of Himachal is very similar to North Indian cuisine yet it definitely has a uniqueness of its own. Influence of Punjab and Tibet can be clearly seen in the Himachal cuisine. Himachalis are most hospitable, and inviting an ‘acquaintance’(this could be someone they’ve just met!) home is a way of life. The host will then offer whatever food there is in the house, for they believe that a guest should not leave without eating. In case you have no time for it or turn down the offer for some reason, you will find something being stuffed into your bag – be it just green apples!

Trendsetter of Palates & palettes, a blogger which I got to know for first time, sent us a Himachali Fish curry made with Trout Kullu fish

Andhra Cuisine :
Andhra Cuisine or the cuisine of Andhra Pradesh is reputedly known as the spiciest of all indian cuisines.

Jyothi of Shadruchulu sent her mom's recipe made in telengana style fish Curry. Telengana is a region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Telengana cuisine is flavoured by red hot chillies and tamarinds.

Parsi Cuisine :

Parsi cuisine is an eclectic north-west Indian recipe tradition native to the Parsis living in India, migrated from Persia or present day Iran.
One persian recipe sent by Bong Mom of Bong Mom's cookbook : Prawn Patia

International cuisine :

This entry sent by Trendsetter from Continental Cuisine, Fish Fingers with Tartar sauce

Malaysian cuisine :

SUdha of Malaysian Delicacies sent a Malaysian fish delicacy Asam Pedas/Asam Fish She says, [Asam pedas is one dish synonymous with Malacca as well as Johor in Malaysia and it is so popular that it’s said “a trip to Melaka or Johor is incomplete without savouring it”.]

Bengali cuisine :

Lastly, my native cuisine, bengali cuisine. Bengali cuisine is the cuisine of Indian state of West Bengal. Bengalis are known as the inveterate eaters of fish as Fish is the main source of protein here and no good meal is complete without this. Bengali cuisine does not start and end with fish, though it forms a large part of the Bengali's food habits. Almost every part of fish is eaten here, from fish head to fish oil. Some most common or popular fish varieties are from Sweetwater fishes are carp like Rui(rohu), Katla, Pabda(Indian butter fish), from Catfish family- tangra, magur, shingi, From Saltwater fishes - Ilish(hilsa) is an Icon of bengali cuisine, Shrimp or prawn(Chingri in bengali) is also very popular among bengalis and lots of fish delicacies are made with it. Here you'll see a great cover-up of most popular fish recipes of Bengal, I've received from my Bengali blogger friends....
I've categorise all bengali recipes in the way of Cooking, so you can see how many ways bengalis make their fish :
Jhol(Curry): Thin gravy of fish seasoned with ground spices and thin slices of vegetables added to it.
1. Pomfret Fish curry from me

2. Ilish macher Jhol(Hilsa Fish Curry with potato & eggplant) from Tulip of Amader Rasona : a very popular and delicious fish curry

3. Bengali Fish curry in Microwave from Malini Of Khana Khazana with Malini : A fish curry with Rohu fish cooked in microwave

Jhal or dry gravy : Fish is lightly fried first and then cooked in light sauce of ground mustard or other spices. For tempering, panchphoron(a dry spice mixture of Five spices) or black cumin is used.
1. Sorshe Bhetki (Fish in Mustard gravy) from me: Bhetki, which is similar to Seabass, cooked in mustard sauce gravy

2. Sorshe Rui(rohu in mustard gravy) from Malini of Khana Khazana with Malini : A similar dish, where Rohu is cooked in mustard sauce gravy

3. Another Sorshe mach from Sunanda of Sunanda's Kitchen

4. A dry preperation from Sharmila of Kichu Khon, Tomato Chingri(tomato prawn) : Not an authentic one, but a very simple yet delicious dish created by Sharmila, just for her by chopping this and that and made this yummy looking dish(which she is very good at)

5. Doi Mach(Fish cooked in yoghurt sauce) from Bong Mom of Bong Mom's Cookbook : A favorite bengali dish made in every special occassions. Fish is lightly fried and cooked with yoghurt and very few spices...just delicious...

6. Doi Katla (katla fish in yoghurt sauce) from Nabanita(pinky) of Esho-bosho-aahare: it is a similar dish like above, but she made it with Katla fish, a popular bengali fish from Carp family.

7. Tanngra macher Jhol/Jhal : a dry gravy dish from Sunanda of Sunanda's Kitchen, made with small fish like Tangra(from catfish family)

Bhapa (steamed): Fish or vegetables are steamed with little oil and spices, mostly with ground mustard. The traditional way of steaming is to wrap the marinated fish pieces in banana leaf. Can also be done in steaming pot or pressure cooker or oven.

1. Bhapa Ilish (Steamed Hilsa Fish) from Bong mom of Bong Mom's cookbook: A must-have delicacy of bengali cuisine, which she prepared in oven

2. Baked Sorshe Ilish (hilsa baked in mustard sauce) from Sharmila of Kichu Khon : She also baked it.

3. Chingri mach Bhape(Steamed shrimp in mustard sauce) from me : here I made this dish with shrimp marinated with ground mustard, coconut and a little yoghurt, in pressure cooker

4.Another Bhapa Chingri(steamed prawn) from Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong : She did it in a double-boiler.

Kalia : A rich preperation of fish made in a sauce of onion-ginger-garlic and with veri little spices like turmeric and chilli, finally wih a touch of ghee(clarified butter) and Bengali garam masala(powder of cardamom, cinnamon & cloves), normally made with carp(Rohu or Katla)

1. Macher Kalia from Sunanda of Sunanda's Kitchen

2. Rui macher kalia from Malini of Khana Khazana with Malini

3. Another Rui macher kalia from Tulip of Amader Rasona

Fish with vegetables : Often made in Bengali kitchen this variety of dishes to make a simple vegetable dish a delicious one, flavoured mostly with small or medium sized shrimp or prawn
1. Lau chingri( Shrimp with bottle gourd) from me

2. Kochu Chingri(shrimp with taro root/arbi) from me

Using Fish head : As I told you, in bengali cuisine, all parts of fish is eaten in some way. Fish head, first fried and then used in lentil or cooked with lots of vegetables in one dish and even with rice.
1. Macher Muror Dal (Fish head dal) from Sunanda of Sunanda's Kitchen: Muro is fish head in bengali. Fish head is cooked with lentil. It is just delicious and a traditional fish recipe often served in special homely occassions.

2. Macher Muror Ghonto(fish head curry) from Sunanda again : Fish head cooked with flavoured rice like basmati. It's just delicious and flavourful dish..thanks a lot, Sunanda for these authentic fish recipes.

3. Chenchra from Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong : Here fish head is cooked with green herb and other vegetables..just love this dish. The presence of fish head makes this dish an unforgettable experience.

Macher Dimer kalia (fish roe curry) from me : a dry preperation of fish roe..just yummy, serve it with hot rice

Rice preperation with Fish

Sweet Potato & Prawn Pulao from me : a simple but delicious dish, I added prawn and sweet potato for extra goodness in one dish

That's all from Bengali cuisine...Now it's time for
Participant's Own Creations :

1. Easy Breezy Salmon Curry from Sumathy of Sumi's Kitchen : She says, it's a must try of salmon for people who love salmon, even you don't love, you 'll start liking it..then I'll definitely try your recipe, Sumi..as I fall in the second category.

2. Random Fish Curry/Mali Amti from Radhika of Sourashtra Kitchen : She made this curry with Kingfish ..absolutely gorgeous, radhika

3. Fish Khurma from Jyothi of Shadruchulu : a new blogger to me and she blogs in both English and Telegu

4. Another entry in this category from Renuga and Gayathri of Ideas for a wonderful home maker : Steamed Pomfret

5. Another creation from above bloggers, Fish Gravy

6. I'll end this round-up with this gorgeous entry from Nisha of Look, who's cooking too is Fried, Line Caught Tuna Steaks. She couldn't decide in what way she should make this fish, continental or Indian and finally decided to do in Indian way. I've to tell, it's just one gorgeous looking Tuna steak..great Job, Nisha

So what do you say friends, Wasn't it a successful event......Bookmark this round-up, fish lovers and I'm going to try each one of yours recipe...if I've missed(hope not) any of your entries, please mail me ASAP...I'll update soon
Thanks again friends..........

Mini Fish Cutlets

2009-08-31T12:09:00.009+08:00

Fish cutlet, is one of a kind delicacy of Bengali cuisine with Fish. Fresh fish, first boiled and mashed with potato and then spiced up with little spice and onion-ginger-garlic and then deep-fried coated with breadcrumbs. It is so scrumptious that no one can resist this at anytime. It is served with cucumber-onion-tomato slices and by they side a dollop of kasundi(bengali mustard relish). At Kolkata, you don't need to make it at home, as we get them freshly made in front of you at nearby snack shop at every nookkar or goli or corner. But when you're outside India, to indulge this delicacy, you have to spend some time and energy in your kitchen, but after you taste it, you will feel that it's worth all the energy and time spent. I Made this Mini cutlets for my event Spotlight:Fish, which is ending today. Serve them with tea or as an appetizer in your full meal. This irresistible fish cutlets are must in any bengali wedding menu.

Ingredients :
Bhetki fish(I used seabass, or any white fish) : 4-5 pieces
Potato : 2 (medium)
Onion (medium) : 2 (finely chopped)
Ginger-garlic paste : 2 tblsp.
Garlic cloves : 2(pounded), Ginger : 1"
Black Peppercorns : 6-7
Green chilli : 2 (finely chopped)
Fresh coriander leaves (chopped)
Red chilli powder : 2 tsp.
Chaat masala powder : 1 tblsp.(optional- gives a tangy flavour)/lemon juice : 2 tblsp.
Worcestershire sauce : 4-5 tsp.
Egg : 2(beaten)
Breadcrumbs : as needed(apprx. 1/2-1 cup)
Salt to taste
Butter : 1 tblsp.
Oil for deep frying

Method :

First boil the fish pieces. To boil, place the fish in a saucepan and cover it up with water (just enough to cover the fish). Pound the garlic cloves and ginger and add it in the water, along with the peppercorns. Bring it to a boil and cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until the fish is done. Let it cool down.
Meanwhile, boil the potatoes too in pressure cooker or anyway you like. Cool and mash them too.
Remove the fish from the water, take out the bones and skin. Put all the flesh in a bowl and mash finely.
In a pan, heat butter, add chopped onions, fry till brown, add green chilli, ginger-garlic paste, mashed potato, mashed fish, coriander leaves, all dry powders and worcestershire sauce. Add salt to taste. Mix very well stirring vigorously for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for few minutes. Frying fish in the butter will remove any raw fish smell.
Make cutlets from the mixture, give shape as desired, round or oval or flat. Take a small lump, press between your palms and flatten them until you get your desired shape. Don't make them too thick, otherwise it won't cook through.
Take a flat bowl of beaten eggs with a pinch of salt and another plate of breadcrumbs. Take each cutlet, dip in egg and immediately roll in breadcrumbs. Repeat it once again, dip in egg and roll again in breadcrumbs. This process will make them more crunchy and crispy.
Heat the oil for frying in a deep pan or kadai, deep fry the cutlets in batches of 3-4 on a medium heat. When evenly brown on all sides, take out with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Serving suggestion : Cut onions, cucumber and tomatoes in thin slices and serve cutlets with them and with your preferred sauce or bengali kasundi. Serve with tea or as an appetizer.

Bengali kasundi recipe is here from my friend, Rashmi of Delhi Belle.
She has a full post on Bengali Kasundi and the pic is also from her blog.

Tips :

Make lots of cutlets at one time, fry as much needed and store rest in the freezer for up to a week. This saves a lot of time.
When you fry the cutlets in the oil, avoid turning them immediately, they might break.Wait for few minutes and always fry in medium heat.

Pyaji (Bengali Onion Pakora)

2009-08-29T11:04:00.009+08:00

Onion pakora is known as Pyaji in bengali...it's one of a kind mouthwatering snack.....have them with tea as an evening snack or have it as a side dish with dal, chawal(rice).

While making onion pakora, I took this onion and garlic still life picture for this month's Click photo event : Allium @ Jugalbandi.

Ingredients :
Onion(big) : 2 (chopped)
Chick pea flour(besan) : about 1/2 a cup or as needed
Green chilli : 2( finely chopped)
Fresh coriander leaves (chopped) : a bunch
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder : 1-2 tsp.
Baking Soda : a pinch
Oil for shallow deep frying

Method :

In a big bowl, first take onions, green chillies and coriander leaves.
Then add all the other ingredients. Mix together, then add water slowly as needed and make a smooth creamy batter, not runny.
If the batter is too thin, add some more chick pea flour.
In a pan, heat enough oil, drop one big spoonfull of batter, one by one. Make pakoras thin, then it will be more crispy. Fry till dark brown from both sides. Fry in medium flame so that inside of batter can cook.

Serve hot immediately with tea..................

Macher Dimer Kalia (Curry with fish Roe)

2009-08-28T11:41:00.011+08:00

Macher dim, or fish egg or fish roe is fully ripe internal ovaries or egg mashes of fish. In Bengal, deep fried fish roe is a delicacy and they are so tasty, once you try, you'll be hooked to it. Among all the sweet water fishes, Rohu and Hilsa fish roe's are mostly eaten in Bengal. One great bengali food blogger and my friend, Sudeshna of Cook like a Bong, she explains very well all about fish roe. Visit her page to know how to make fish roe vada. I had no idea that Fish roes are so popular outside India too, mostly in Asia and Europe.
In this post, I'll share the recipe how to make curry with fish roe, which we call MACHER DIMER KALIA(Kalia is a term of bengali cooking, where the sauce is based on onion-ginger-garlic paste with lots of onions and little more oil is used than regular fish curry, basically it's a rich preperation)
I used Hilsa fish roe, vada recipe here

Ingredients :
Fried Fish roe(macher dim) vada
Onion : 3(medium)
Ginger-garlic paste : 1" ginger+2 cloves of garlic
Tomato : 1(medium)
Green chilli : 2 (Slitted)
Turmeric powder : 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 2-3 tsp.
Coriander powder : 1 tsp.
For tempering :Bay leaf : 1 + Cinnamon stick : 1(1") + 2 cardamoms + 3 cloves
Salt to taste
Oil : 2 tblsp.
Ghee(clarified butter) : 2 tsp. (optional)
Garam Masala powder : Grind together 2 cardamoms, 4 cloves and 1(1") cinnamon stick

Method :

Keep aside the fried fish roe vadas.
Slice the onions lengthwise. Make a paste of ginger and garlic.
Heat oil in a pan, temper with the ingredients, when they start to crackle, add sliced onions. In medium flame, fry the onions till dark brown with a pinch of sugar. It should be soft but not crispy, so lower the flame. It will take about 5 minutes or so. This way, the curry will take a darker shade.
Add ginger-garlic paste, stir for a minute, then add chopped tomatoes and chopped green chillies. Fry till tomatoes get pulpy and soft. Then add powdered spices with 2 tblsp. water. Stir till oil seperates. Add fried fish roes, mix well with spices.
Add 1/2 cup of water and in medium flame let it cook for 7-8 minutes. When water evaporates, check the seasoning. It should be a dry gravy. Drop 2 tsp. ghee(clarified butter) and garam masala powder over it. Mix well with the gravy and remove from heat.

Serve hot with rice...........Unglia chatte rahe jayoge(you'll keep licking your finger even after finishing your food, it's so tasty)
This traditional bengali delicacy is for my event Spotlight : Fish