Phulkopir Chire Ghonto - Cauliflower cooked with rice flakes

Little S hates cauliflower. As a result it is rarely cooked in my kitchen. After a long day at work,  I cannot usually think of cooking multiple courses, so it is usually my favourites which are sacrificed. But not today. S has gone for a Birthday party, and I am assured by the host who is a very dear friend that he will not come back by dinner time. So today I have the liberty of cooking and eating cauliflower to my heart’s content. There is one problem, though. There is no cauliflower in the refrigerator. :( But when there is opportunity, can the mere absence of the wonder flower deter me ? Of course no! What can stop me from going down and getting the coveted vegetable from the sweet Bangladeshi girl sitting with her vegetable-ware spread across the pavement  -  all in just two minutes? When will I take advantage of Mumbai being one big market place?

So today I cooked this wonderful flower. The original recipe is from a cookery book in Bengali written by Shatarupa, but over the years, I have modified it to suit my convenience...and D’s taste.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower: 1 medium

Potato: 1(optional)

Whole cumin seeds: a pinch

Flattened rice flakes(chire/poha) : a handful fried/roasted. You can also use 1 tbsp soaked rice if you donot have chire.

Whole garam masala: 1 tsp

Bay leaves: 2

Green chillies: 2

Ginger : 1 inch, grated

Jeera powder: ½ tsp

Salt: to taste

Sugar: ½ tsp

Turmeric pdr: ½ tsp

Raisins: 1 tsp(optional)

Peanuts: 1 tbsp(optional)

Green peas: a handful

Tomato: 1, chopped

Ghee: optional

How to:

1.       Heat 1 tsp mustard oil.  Saute the cauliflower florets and potatoes lightly, with a little salt and turmeric. Remove. You can also boil the potato like I did instead of sauté-ing.

2.       Add a little more oil, and throw in the bay leaves, whole cumin seeds, and whole garam masala and the peanuts. If you are using soaked rice, add it too along. Mix and cover for apprx. 5 mins.

3.       Now, add the green peas , tomatoes, ginger, green chillies, Jeera powder, mix well. If you are adding flattened rice, add it now. Sprinkle a little water if it sticks to the wok. Cover for some more time.

4.       When the tomatoes are nicely cooked, Add sugar, the cauliflowers potatoes and raisins. Mix well and cover. Cook till the cauliflowers and potatoes are completely cooked and mushy.

5.       If you are adding ghee, add it just before turning off the flame.

Enjoy with hot rotis or dal-rice !

Jhinge Poshto – Ridge gourd cooked with poppy seeds

This is one of the most common but always highly regarded delicacies for a Bengali tongue. And at the same time not so appealing to a non-bong one. When I first came to Mumbai and saw a friend not exactly gushing over jhinge poshto, I actually thought he was weird, but now I know – Poshto and Bengali are made for each other and others sitting on the fence may not  just understand the relationship – and that’s OKAY. So I’m posting this recipe for all my Bong friends out there  - with a faint hope that atleast  one non-Bong friend will try it out, maybe by tweaking the recipe a little to suit her and her family’s taste…………

Jhinge Poshto - Ridgegourd cooked with poppy seeds

What you’ll need:

Ridge gourds: 2/3

Tomato : 1 medium

Paanch foron: 1 tsp

Salt: 1tsp

Whole red chili: 2

Poshto/poppy seeds / khuskhus : 2 tbsp

Oil : 1 tbsp

How to:

Step1: Soak the khus khus seeds and the whole red chilies in warm water for as long as you can (say abt 2 hrs), that would make it soft and easy to grind. Grind in a mixer or a grinding stone, whatever you wish. My mom thinks grinding in the stone gives the real taste of poshto. I do it in my mixer – you guessed it right !

Step2: Peel the ridge gourd. If little skin is left, its okay, but the ridges have to be removed. Cut it into small pieces. Chop the tomatoes also and keep aside.

Step3: Heat a little oil in a wok, and throw in the paanch foron.

Step4: Throw in the ridge gourds.

Step5: When the ridge gourds are almost cooked, add the tomatoes and the salt. It will be slightly watery as ridge gourds   release a lot of water.

Step6: When all the water has dried up, add the poppy seed paste and mix well. Since this paste will also contain some water, you will need to stir it a little to dry up the dish…..you’re done!

Some people like this dish a little wet, some like it dry…you pick your choice. If you like it dry, you will need to stir it for some more time…thats all.

Jhinge poshto is one of the tastiest dishes in the world…..at least for all Bengalis !!! We have it with rice...but there are stories about how Queen Victoria used to love eating rotis with Jhinge or Aloo poshto  !!! 

Alu Kabli – Aloo Chaat Bengali Style

“Sob bangalir moto tomar-o alur dosh aachhe dekhchhi !

a statement from a very senior Bengali dada in my neighbourhood. If you are scandalized by the above statement – rest assure, I was so too! For a Bengali hailing from West Bengal alur dosh had a different meaning altogether J ….adding potatoes to every dish was NOT a dosh by any standards!

My mother, like all Bengali mothers loved to add potatoes to all her dishes. So much that she even prepared sweets from sweet potatoes! As a result I have grown up eating potatoes as a very integral part of my diet. I cannot say that I didn’t enjoy potatoes myself – alur dom (Dum Aloo) 10 years and 20 kilos later is still my all time favorite! Never really thought eating potatoes was a sin until I landed in Mumbai – and started inviting people home as a courtesy! My husband’s friends were horrified to find potatoes in mutton curry…that’s when I realized that I too add potatoes in literally everything! For me not adding potato in mutton curry was blasphemy….I loved that potato more than the mutton!!! Ofcourse now I have learnt to keep that potato to myself and out of everyone else’s visibility !

The truth is that Potato is one of the most underrated vegetables –branded guilty for no fault of its own! A large boiled potato weighing about 100g has only 44 calories, as against 2 chapattis weighing the same (100g) contains about 300 calories! So, my alu kabli, which I’m going to share here has only 70 – 75 calories…far less than what 1 chapati contains!! That’s what I call guilt free indulgence J

Alu Kabli – Aloo Chaat Bengali Style

This Alu-kabli is made by a vendor who is selling this amazingly chatpata dish outside the Ram-Mandir in Durgapur, for the past 30 yrs atleast ! He was there when I was small, and he is still there till date. Whenever I go to Durgapur on my yearly visit, I always make it a point to have this mouth watering dish of his!

What you’ll need:

Potato: 1 large, boiled and peeled

Kabuli chana: 10-12, boiled

Tamarind: a handful

Rock salt: ½ tsp

Sugar: 1tsp

Jeera : 1 tsp

Dried red chillies: 2

Pani puri: 2 crushed

How to:

Step1: Soak the tamarind, for about an hour, strain and keep aside.

Step 2: Heat a few drops of oil throw in a few cumin seeds and add the strained tamarind juice. Add sugar salt and chili pdr, bring the liquid to a boil and your Imli chutney is ready.  Keep aside.

Step 3: Roast the chilies and the cumin seeds and dry grind it into a coarse powder. (See Kochu kumror chhokka)

Step 4: Cut the boiled potato into thin slices.

Step 5: Add the chickpeas, rocksalt, roasted masala, and imli chutney and whisk them together.

Step 6: Spread the mixture and garnish with crushed pani-puris, or coriander leaves or anything according to your taste, availability and imagination !

The Rains and the khichuri combination

When I landed up in Mumbai city about 10 years back, there were two things that surprised me the most. 1. White earthworms painted all over the buildings 2. Before you purchase or rent a flat, you are asked if you are a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian.

With time I learnt that the earthworms are nothing but chemical treatment applied over cracks to prevent leakage. It is funny, but if you look out of your car/bus local train window, you cannot help noticing these white serpentine lines all over buildings….you never see this in any other city. I later came to know that most of the extended Mumbai is built on reclaimed land, and hence does not stand on a very firm ground. That and the substandard quality of materials, and the black salty sand used in the construction are responsible for poor quality construction work. 

And for the second query, I came to know societies enquire upon your food habits because theirs must be an all vegetarian society and they are unwilling to accommodate anybody who is not!

But for each thing that surprises me in Mumbai, there are ten that I love. One such thing is the zest and revelry with which various religious and regional festivals are celebrated here.  Durga Puja is celebrated here with as much enthusiasm as Ganesh  Utsav or Navratri or Christmas. Its kind of sad, but little S is keener on being at the Navratri ground than at the Durgapuja Pandal ! I for one, just adore the Durgotsav observed here in Mumbai. Its out of West Bengal….and simply out of the world. It is distinct from West Bengal and more of  gharoa in approach rather than the club-centric puja’s back home in West Bengal. It is more tolerant towards wholesome participation of the Boudi clan – hence more appealing for me. And the Bhog ! Its Awesome..with a capital A. The bhuni khichuri, labra(mixed veggies with a typical East Bengal drift), begun (thin slices of eggplant dipped in a batter of besan, and deep-fried)i, kumro bhaja (batter or plain fries of yellow pumpkin), chutney , papad, payesh(rice pudding) and rosogolla….I think the platter is worth waiting for a whole year….

Ever since it has been pouring in Mumbai, I have been meaning to make the typically Pujo flavored bhuni khichuri, but had to wait for a rainy Sunday afternoon, and finally got one this Sunday….so off I went…

Bhuni Khichuri

Ingredients:

 Rice (Gobindobhog chaal / or any small grained rice) : 1 cup

Moong daal: 1 cup

Green peas: 1 cup

Cauliflower (optional): 4/5 big florets

Ginger: 1” piece, grated                                        

Tomato: 1 small

Garam masala : whole (2 clove,2 Elaichi, 2” piece of Dalchini ground)

Garam masala powder (optional) : 1 tsp

Paanchforon: 1/2 tsp

Tej pata :  2

Salt: 1 tsp or to taste

Turmeric: ½ tsp

Oil: 2 tbsp

Ghee: 1tsp

How to:

Step 1: Wash and soak the rice in water.

Step 2: Roast the moong dal till it takes a beautiful golden hue. Be careful to stir continuously, to avoid burning. A beautiful aroma will fill your room by the time your dal is nicely roasted. Let it cool, wash it and keep aside.

Step 3: lightly smear the cauliflower florets in salt and turmeric and  shallow fry them in 1 tsp of oil so that they have a nice brownish tint, but not ready to eat as yet. Keep aside.

Step 4: In the same pan, heat a spoonful of oil, and add the Paanchforon first and then the whole garam masala and tejpata.

Step 5: Add the green chilly, ginger, roasted dal, green peas, turmeric, tomato and  fry  till it starts to stick at the bottom.

Step 6: Now add the soaked rice, about a spoonful of salt, a tomato cut into quarters and stir well.

Step 7: When the rice turns translucent, add 5 cups of water  and stir nicely. After you have made sure that no lumps have formed, cover and let it cook. Keep checking as it doesn’t take much time.

Step 8: When the rice and dal are almost cooked, add the pre-fried cauliflower.

Step 9: At this point taste the khichuri and check for salt, sweetness and tanginess. Add salt or sugar or chili powder so that you are satisfied with the taste, and cover. Remember as it cooks for some more time, it will get denser, so the taste will intensify. Add your enhancers accordingly.  Add water if required.

Step 10: When your khichuri is done,ie all the ingredients soft and consistency desirable,  stir in one spoonful of ghee, to get that distinctly pujo-pujo flavour.

Enjoy Bhog khichuri with papad, chutney, beguni, or with an omlette like my blasphemous son S...choice is yours !

Tip : I you want to store leftover khichuri and have it next day, add a little amount of warm water while you re-heat it in a karhai. It tastes even better the next day….I usually keep a little purposely to have it with a little onion and potato fry!

7 secrets of happiness and Alu-kopir chochchori

Okay, so before we go to the eighth secret of happiness -the yummy alu-kopir chochchori, let us quickly go through  the first seven:

1. Delink your happiness from possessions. As long as you have a long “To possess” list – you cannot be happy!
2. Seek happiness from your achievements
3. Keep yourself extremely busy – so much so that you crave for some free time, and when you actually get it, it feels like the best thing on earth. Believe me lots of free time are the root of many troubles.
4. Take very good care of your physical being – your health, your weight, your skin and your appearance in general.
5. Re-kindle an old passion – it can be reading, writing, gardening, cooking, pottery, art, craft, anything you can get lost into for hours without even realising. Please don’t choose shopping –it has to be something which is either free or very cheap…..remember rule no.1!
6. Involve yourself in some social service. Look around for work that needs to be done and don’t wait for the Municipal Corporation or an NGO to do it …do it yourself. Trust me, it gives you unparalleled satisfaction.
7. Keep-in-touch. With parents, relatives, friends, ex-colleagues, your babysitter – all the people who touched your lives in some way and are far away now. NOW…that does not mean hook yourself to Facebook or Twitter or Orkut. I by no means want to belittle these wonderful networking platforms, they have made the world a small place in the real sense, but how you use them to your benefit and not to detriment – is up to you!

My recipe today is another simple dish which is a very integral part of all Bengali households – alu-kopir chochchori. We used to have it with roti’s on normal mornings and with luchi’s on special mornings.

Alu-kopi’r  chochchori

Ingredients:

Potato: 1 large

Cauliflower: ½ , cut into little florets

Jeera: 2 tsp

Dry red chillies : 2

Salt: ½ tsp

Oil: 1 tsp

How to:

Step1: Roast 1 tsp of the jeera and the dry red chillies and grind them into a coarse powder. (For pictorial details of this step check out kochu kumror chhokka)

Step2: Chop the cauliflower and the potatoes into small pieces. If you wish, you can peel the potatoes, I donot.

Step3: Heat 1 tsp of oil and add 1 tsp of jeera.

Step4: Once the jeera is fried properly, add the potatoes first, and then the cauliflower after 5 mins. Potatoes are added first as cauliflower cooks very fast.

Step5:Add the salt, stir and cover.

Step6: When both the cauliflower and the potatoes are cooked, (in about another 5 mins), add the roasted jeera  pdr, mix well and your chochchori is done ! Goes very well with rotis, plain triangular parathas and puri/luchis.

Alu – potol bhate – Potato and pointed gourd bharta

What you’ll need:

Potato: 1 medium

Pointed gourd: 3/4

Onion :1 sliced

Chilly: 1 green or red dried

Cumin seeds: ½ tsp

Mustard or any other oil: 1 tsp

Salt: 1 pinch

How to:

1.      Skin the pointed gourds  as shown.

2.      Boil the potato and the gourds. You can also put it inside your rice pot. That’s how it was done by my mother.

3.      Skin the potato.

4.      Fry the cumin seeds, chilly and sliced onion in the oil, and pour the 

      entire thing on the boiled veggies, add salt and mash.

Healthy and delicious. Just try it out. You can also make similar bhartas with pumpkin, eggs or brinjals. You will find pumpkin bharta here.

Kumro-alu bhate - Yellow pumpkin and potato mishmash

What you’ll need:

 

Potato: 1 medium

Pumpkin slice: any size

Onion :1 sliced

Chilly: 1 green or red dried

Cumin seeds: ½ tsp

Mustard or any other oil: 1 tsp

Salt: 1 pinch

How to:

1.      Skin the pumpkin if it is yellow. If the skin is soft and green, you can leave it on.

2.      Boil the potato and the pumpkin. You can also put it inside your rice pot. That’s how it was done by my mother (all our mothers), and that' how the name came by. Since I cook my rice in the microwave I boil them separately.

3.      Skin the potato.

4.      Fry the cumin seeds, chilly and sliced onion in the oil, and pour the entire thing on the boiled veggies, add salt and mash.

YOU'RE DONE !!

Looks great and tastes absolutely delicious. Just try it out. You can substitute the pumpkin with pointed gourds/ eggs/ brinjals – tastes great any which ways.

Pur Bhara KaNkrole (Spiny gourd stuffed with paneer)

KaNkrole (Biological name Momordica Dioica, commonly known as spiny gourd.). My love for KaNkrole dates back to my childhood. Even today I always keep an eye open for the sweet cousin of the bitter karela. In Bengali it is known as KaNkrole or ghee-kawrola . Why ghee, don’t ask me.  I have tried finding answer to the question – to no avail. If you have, do let me know. In Maharashtra its known as Kantole´.  I love it by any name, any form and while my mom used to stir fry it, I have tried making a stuffed version to bring in a little variation.

Pur Bhara KaNkrole (Spiny gourd stuffed with paneer)

Ingredients:

KaNkrole: 4/5

For the stuffing:

Oil: 1 tsp

Jeera: a pinch

Paneer: 100 g

Chilly pdr: ½ tsp

Roasted jeera pdr: ½ tsp

Amchur pdr:

Salt

Turmeric

For the batter:

Besan: 1 table spoon

Rice powder : 1 table spoon

Salt: ½ tsp

Chilly pds: ½ tsp

How to:
Step 1: Cut the  KaNkrole lengthwise into half. Scour out the seeds, chop them and preserve.

Step 2: Smear a little salt and turmeric and keep aside.

Step 3: Mix all the ingredients of the batter with water and whip well in a mixing bowl. The viscosity should be of a cake batter. Not too flowy.

Step 4: Heat oil, throw in the jeera

Step 5: Throw in the scraped and chopped KaNkrole inners, with a little salt and turmeric. When they are done, add the paneer, chilly pdr, amchur pdr and the roasted jeera pdr, stir well and remove. Our stuffing is ready.
Step 6: Fill in the cooled stuffing, dip in the batter and shallow fry both sides in a non-stick pan.

Done ! Great with Dal rice or as an accompaniment with khichdi. I also like to have it just like that…..or may be with a cup of hot chai…

Palong Shaker Ghonto - - Spinach in a medley of other veggies

An Internet friend was shocked when I told her that I have a cook.

“You are running a food blog, and your own food is cooked by a cook!” She was astounded. “What do you do then?”

“Well, I click pictures while she is cooking, and then rummage through the 50 odd snaps to select the 10 I’m actually going to post. Then I write about how to cook the dish, with tips and anecdotes. That’s a hell lot of work, you know.” I inform her.

“What if she doesn’t turn up for work?” My pained friend inquires.

“I order home delivery”

Although the above conversation did take place, it,s not true that that I don’t cook. I was just trying to be funny! I do cook, and although there are days I’m too tied up with my professional commitments and I donot cook even though I’m home - everything that I post is cooked by me….till now. And anyways my cook is an Andhraiite and what I post is predominantly Bengali!

Now, that I’ve cleared the doubt, may I please proceed to today’s dish, which is another Bengali delicacy – Palong shaker ghonto. I loved the way my Mom cooked it, and I still ask her to make it for me when I’m visiting her…or for that matter, even when she’s visiting me (how mothers always let you take advantage of themJ) That is when we are together ….but that’s only once or twice a year ! When I’m away, I cook it(sigh) for my family and this is how I do it:

Palong shaker ghonto - Spinach cooked with a medley of other veggies

Ingredients (in order of usage):

Oil: 2 tsp

Bori – 5 (or any number of your choice)

Panch Foron: ½ tsp

Bay-leaves

Potato

Radish

Green chillies – 2 slit and/or chilli pdr  1 tsp

Tomato: 1 chopped

Brinjal: diced

Green peas

French beans/Flat beans: diced

Pumpkin: diced

Ginger paste – 1 tsp

Spinach : cleaned and chopped

Moong dal – handful

Garam Masala – 1 tsp

Salt

Turmeric

Sugar – ½ tsp

{Trivia: Bori is small sun dried lentil cakes – I prefer the ones made from urad dal, but you can get boris made from every possible dal)

I have not mentioned quantity for most of the ingredients – it means you can add any quantity according to availability or your liking. You can also omit some if you don’t have /like any  vegetable. If you donot like  potato like my hubby D, you omit that too.You can replace or add more veggies like carrot. Sugar can be omitted altogether or replaced by gur.

How to:

Step 1: Heat oil, and fry the Bori’s to a nice golden brown color. Remember bori’s tend to burn fast, so keep stirring continuously. It should be done in about a minute’s time. Remove with a strainer or a slotted spoon and keep aside.

Step 2: In the same oil add the panch foron and the bay leaves and the handful of moong dal in succession in a gap of about 30 secs. Fry till the moong dal turns golden.

 

 Step 3: Add green chillies, tomato, all the vegetables, ginger paste stir well and cover.

 

Step 4: when all the vegetables are well cooked, brinjals turned to a pulp, add the bori’s, salt, turmeric and sugar, stir well and add the cleaned and chopped spinach leaves. Another round of mixing and cover and let it cook.

 Step 5: When the spinach has lost its bright green color, add homemade (or whatever) Garam masala pdr, mix well and let all the water evaporate.

 

 Serve with hot rice. This typically Bengali dish doesn’t go too well with Roti’s, but no harm in trying! Try and let me know…