Chapor Ghonto

This is part 2 of our pujo spread post. Prompted by our friends going to a pujo spread buffet at a local Indian restaurant, I decided to make a pujo spread of our own.

In this post I bring to you chapor ghonto. This is a medley with bitter gourd being predominantly featured along with other seasonal vegetables. This recipe is a variant from my boro-pishi (dad's oldest sister), where she skipped the other veggies and used only potatoes along with a generous helping of ghee.

Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow split pea or motor daal washed and soaked overnight
• 1 large potato cut into medium sized cubes
• 2 bitter gourd or karela cut into thin half moon slices
• 1 tsp. paanch phoron
• 1 tsp. dry roasted paanch phoron powder
• 1 tsp. ginger paste
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. ghee or clarified butter
• Salt to taste
• Oil

Procedure

Step 1

Drain excess water from the soaked dal and grind it coarse with salt. Gently beat the batter for a minute. 

Heat a griddle or tawa and grease it with oil. Now place the batter on the hot griddle and spread it flat over the tawa with a flat bottom spatula. Let it cooked on the medium heat for a minute or two. Now crank up the heat to high and let it sit there for another minute.

Noe with your spatula try to turn it. you will see it will break unevenly.  These uneven pieces of the lentil cake is called chapor. Flip those uneven pieces on the tawa and apply oil with a spoon from the sides. Let this side sit for two minutes on medium heat and one minute on high heat. 

Remove those chapors from the tawa and keep aside.

Now add oil in a wok and fry the slices of bitter gourd on medium heat till they are crispy. Set aside.

Add two tsp. oil in a wok and temper it with paanch phoron. Wait till they stop spluttering. Add potato cubes to it and fry them on medium heat for a while. Add turmeric powder and ginger paste and mix well. you might need to sprinkle water to it to avoid the spices from burning. 

Season with salt and sugar and add little water to it. Cook it covered till the potato is almost cooked and ninety percent of the water is evaporated. This is the time you add the lentil pieces and the fried bitter gourd to it. Mix well. The chapor will absorb the excess water.

Finish it off with a dollop of ghee and dry roasted paanch phoron powder.

Serve with hot rice and enjoy.

Komola Kopi Chingri

This Durga pujo we got more busy than usual, as both me and my teenage daughter decided to volunteer at the pujo venue. Serving food for hundreds at the pujo meant that we lost our appetite and barely ate lunch. Tired we also decided to turn in early.

A few of our friends learned about a Bengali buffet in a local Indian restaurant. Since
Pacific Northwest does not have too many Bengali families, having a Bengali spread at a local restaurant was a first time. My social media feed soon filled up with folks having luchi-mangso and other Bengali delicacies.

Next week I decided that I am going to give myself and the family our own version of a Bengali pujo spread and got into cooking frenzy. The menu was chapor ghonto, mochar ghonto, dhokar dalna, gondhoraj bhapa bhetki, komola-kopi-chingri, akbari-hundi and rabri.

In this post I bring to you the komola kopi chingri or orange shrimp cauliflower. This is a in-shell shrimps cooked with cauliflower in a orange flavored curry.

Ingredients

• 1 medium cauliflower cut into medium sized florets
• 1 large potato cut into medium sized cubes
• 1 lb prawn deveined (you can also prawns without the shell)
• 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• Rind of one orange
• 1 medium tomato
• 1" ginger
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Salt to taste
• Oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1" cinnamon stick
• 2 cloves
• 2 green cardamom
• 1 tsp. powder of cinnamon and clove

Procedure

Make a paste of tomato and ginger in a grinder.

Heat oil in a pan and fry potato and cauliflower pieces on medium heat till they take a nice golden brown hue. Remove and set aside.

Smear the prawns with turmeric powder and salt. Now fry them on very low heat till both sides turn pink.  Remove and keep aside.

Now add little more oil if you need and temper it with bay leaf, cardamom , cinnamon and cloves. 

When the oil becomes fragrant add fried potato to it. Now put the tomato ginger paste along with little water. Saute on low heat for a while till the raw smell of the spices go away. This is the time you add the cauliflower florets, turmeric and chili powder. As it takes less time for cauliflower to get cooked you add it later.

Mix everything together with the spices till you see oil oozing out. Now add  half a cup of water. Season with salt and sugar. Give a nice stir.

Cook  it covered on medium heat till potato and cauliflower are done. Throw the sautéed  prawns and allow it to sizzle for another one minute.  By this time the curry will be almost dry. Turn off the heat and let it cool down a bit before you pour the orange juice to it. Gently mix. 

Sprinkle cinnamon and clove powder along with the orange rind and keep it covered till you serve,

Goes well with plain rice.

Dhakai Murgh Roast

 

This is a famous Bangladeshi food served in wedding and other party banquets. In our part of US it is frequently ordered from caterers in Bangla parties. Unfortunately I do not appreciate they way it is made to become too sweet. That is not how I remember my grandmom making it.

Dhakai Murgh roast is a open flame roasted chicken that has a good balance of sweet and sour taste. It is never overtly sweet. This goes best with Zarda Pulao.

Ingredients

• 6 pieces chicken leg quarters
• 1/2 cup golden fried onion
• 3 tbsp. ginger paste
• 3 tsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. red chili powder
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 5-6 aloo Bukhara soaked in half a cup of water and de seeded ( in case you don't find it replace with few dried plums. Remember the color will be more on the darker side.)
• 1/2 cup fresh cream
• 1/4 cup khoya
• 1 tbsp. saffron soaked in warm milk
• 2 tbsp. rose water
• 2 tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 cup ghee
• 1/2 cup refined white oil
• 2 tsp. shahi garam masala powder ( just grind all the spices below together and keep in an airtight bottle)   
  • 2.5 tbsp. green cardamom
  • 2.5 tbsp. broken cinnamon stick
  • 1.5 tbsp. shah jeera or caraway seeds
  • 1 tsp. mace
  • 1 tsp. white pepper corn
  • 1 nutmeg

Procedure

In a grinder make a paste of fried onions, raisins and pre soaked aloo Bukhara and keep aside. If needed you can add a spoon full of plain yogurt to make the paste.

In a wide pan heat up oil and sear the chicken pieces on medium heat. After about three minutes when the raw pink color goes away add salt and sugar to it.

Add saffron soaked milk and mix well. Now one by one add ginger paste, garlic paste, chili powder and half of the shahi garam masala powder to it. Keep sautéing on low heat.

Now add the onion, raisin paste you made earlier to it and mix well. Add about half a cup of water and cook it covered on medium low heat for about twenty minutes.

When the chicken is cooked remove the cover and add cream and khoya to it and mix well. This will make the gravy a bit sticky. Add ghee to it and mix well.  Sprinkle rose water along with the rest of the shahi garam masala powder. Turn off the heat and serve with paratha, pulao or zarda rice..

Mutton Pulao

Durga pujo is just around the corner. The fall weather in Pacific North West is very close to that of Kolkata just before Pujo. The sky is blue with fluffy clouds hanging around. The first nip of chill is in the air. Some variant or atleast look-a-like of kash flower abounds in our area.

I have already started planning for the Durga pujo feast at home. A must have is the simple rustic mutton pulao. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. mutton pieces on bone
• 3 cups basmati rice washed and soaked
• 1 medium sized onion sliced
• 1 tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 tbsp. garlic paste
• 12-14 green chilies slit lengthwise
• 2 tbsp. plain yogurt
• 4 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp. Bengali garam maala
• 2 tbsp. whole garam masala (2” cinnamon stick, 8 cloves, 8 green cardamom)
• 4 tbsp. clarified butter (Ghee)
• Sugar to taste
• Salt to taste

Procedure

In a pan heat 1 tbsp. ghee till melts. Add onion slices and fry on medium heat. Add four slit green chilies along with ginger garlic paste and sauté till the raw smell goes away.
Add meat pieces to it and sear them on high heat along with the spices for about two minutes. Reduce the heat to the lowest mark. Sprinkle salt, sugar. Now add yogurt along with 1 tsp. garam masala powder and mix well.
Cook it on low heat till the mutton is three fourth done.
In a deep pan take enough water and bring it to a rolling boil. Add the soaked and drained rice to it and wait till it just starts to boil. It takes around three to four minutes time. Drain the rice on a colander.
Now in a wide pan heat two tbsp. ghee. Add bay leaves, green chilies, and whole garam masala. When it stops sputtering add the drained rice to it. Fry on medium heat gently so that the grains don’t break.
Add salt and sugar to your taste.
Now in a pressure cooker take the fried rice, put the meat pieces. Measure 3 cups of liquid (includes mutton stock + water) and pour over it. Put the pressure lid on and cook on high flame till one whistle comes. Let the pressure release on its own.
In a separate pan heat 1 tbsp. ghee till it melts and add green chilies and garam masala powder to it. Once they start sizzling pour over the pulao and serve….

Mango Peda

 

 

This was the longest time I have not blogged since I started. My one and a half month long trip to India was the initial reason. After I returned Durga Puja kicked in, and with that started the season of house parties. Finally now that I have a little breather, I thought I’d post about the sweets I made for this Diwali. I love peda which is a sweet-dish made of condensed milk. I have been making them for some time. This is a little variation from the traditional milk peda in that I added mango pulps. Hope you like it.

Ingredients

• 2 cups mango pulp (I used readymade one, you can use fresh pulp as well)
• 1/4 cup sugar (If you are using fresh mango pulp)
• 1 cup milk powder
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/3 can sweetened condensed milk (Approx. 100gms)
• 2 tbsp. saffron
• 1 tbsp. freshly ground cardamom powder
• 2 tbsp. ghee (Clarified butter)

For Garnishing

• Slivered almonds
• Chopped pistachios
• Saffron
• Seeds of black cardamom
• Warq (Silver paper)

Procedure

In a bowl mix milk powder along with milk. Whisk well so that the mixture is smooth and lump free.
If you are using fresh mango pulp follow this step. In a pan take mango pulp along with sugar and cook it on medium heat till the mixture turns thick. If you are using canned mango pulp skip this step.
In a heavy bottom pan take mango pulp (canned or the one you just cooked). Add the milk mixture to it along with the saffron strands. Mix well. Start cooking on medium heat while stirring continuously.
Once the mixture is reduced to its half add condensed milk along with a tbsp. ghee. Cook till the mixture turns into a dough and leaves the sides of the pan.Turn off the heat and sprinkle cardamom powder. Mix well and let it cool down completely.
Grease your palms with ghee. Take small portions of the dough and make small balls out of it. Flatten each of them by pressing slightly in between your palms.
Arrange them on a greased tray. Stick one black cardamom seed at the centre of each peda. Top with silver paper and garnish with almonds, pistachio and saffron.

Pati-Shapta

Today folks back home in Kolkata is celebrating Makar Sankranti a festival of harvest. The houses fill with the smell of guur (jaggery), fresh grated coconuts and rice. They also contend it is very cold there (ahem 55F is not cold it’s summer temp). I wanted to recreate the same magic and made some pithes. Among all the varieties I make this is our families favorite. I had posted the recipe before, but let me consolidate it here with better pictures and video steps.

Ingredients For Filling / Pur

• 1 lb. grated coconut
• 1 lb. khoya/concentrated milk solids (an alternative to khoya is a cup of milk powder)
• 3/4th cup khejur gur (date palm jaggery)

Procedure Of making Pur

In a large mixing bowl mix all the above ingredients thoroughly and check the sweetness. Adjust according to your taste. In a pan, cook the coconut mixture on a low flame till the mixture comes together and leaves the sides of the pan. You need to stir continuously to avoid the mixture from sticking to the base of the pan. Allow the mixture to cool down. Your filling is ready to use.

Ingredients For Crêpe

• 2 cups Maida / all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup semolina
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 2,3 tbsp. of powdered sugar
• 3-4 cups of cold milk
• Ghee (clarified butter) for later use during frying

Make The Batter

Mix all dry ingredients together and slowly add milk to make an uniform batter. Mix well and make sure that no lump is formed. The batter will be little thinner than pancake batter.

Getting it all together

Heat a non-stick skillet or tawa and evenly spread a teaspoon of ghee/clarified butter. Sprinkle some water over it and when the water starts to sizzle, wipe off the ghee with a kitchen towel. You need to repeat this step before making each patishapta but use just few drops of ghee instead of a spoon full.

Pour a ladle full of batter on the tawa and with the back of the ladle spread it in a circle like making dosa. Cook it on low flame for 2-3 minutes. Put a spoon full of filling on one side and then roll it like a crepe. Step by step guide is below, click to enlarge.

 

You can have it, as it is, or spread 1 or 2 spoon of sweet condensed milk or liquid jaggery over it. Serve it hot.

Dudh Puli

 

Makar (Poush) Sankranti is just around the corner. This is when pithe is made in Bong homes. This weekend we had decided to stay at home and just relax. So I took the opportunity to make a variety of pithe. Since last time I received some feedback that the steps seemed complex, I recorded a video. Hope you enjoy that. Also I have decided to make videos for recipes which have nuances around how they are made. I am still working out the quirks so my first attempt has a bit of jaundice (see the video you will get it). My tech-support tells me it’s something to do with bad white balance, but trust me, we will get this right the next time around. Check out the video below, the detailed steps and process follows in this blog.

 

Ingredients For Shell

• 2 cups rice flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. ghee (Clarified Butter)
• 4 cups water

Ingredients For Stuffing

• 1 cup grated coconut (Fresh or Frozen)
• 1/2 cup fresh cream
• 4 tbsp. milk powder
• 4 tbsp. date palm jaggery

1. 6 cups full cream milk for cooking pulis
2. !/2 cup date palm jaggery

How To Prepare Stuffing

Take all the ingredients listed under stuffing in a pan.

Heat the mixture in a pan. Cook it on low flame till everything comes together and leaves the sides of the pan. Remove and allow it to cool. Your stuffing for puli is ready.

How To Prepare The Shell

In a pan take water along with sugar and ghee. Put on the heat and let it come to a boil. When the water starts boiling add rice flour slowly and keep mixing. Once you have added the entire rice flour keep stirring till the mixture turn into a dough. Cover the pan and turn the heat to its lowest mark. Allow the dough to sit for 2-3 minutes.

let the dough cool down a bit. When it is safe to handle take a lemon sized ball from it and roll it with very gentle pressure into a disc of 1.5 inch diameter. You can use regular dry all purpose flour to roll them.

Put a tea spoon full of coconut mixture at the center of the disc. Apply water at the edges. Fold the two edges and give it a shape of half moon. Press them tightly so that  they don't open while boiling. This is called the puli.

Take 6 cups of milk in a heavy bottom pan. Boil it on high heat while stirring continuously.Cook till t reduces to its half. Now add jaggery to it and mix well. Wait till it again comes to a boil. Gently slide each stuffed puli into the milk. Let them get cooked in the milk for 2-3 minutes. turn off the heat and allow them to cool before you serve.

Christmas Fruit Cake

One of my friends invited me to her home for Christmas and I planned to bake a cake for everyone. I generally make Christmas cake by soaking dry fruits in Rum. Since there were a few kids around I decided to make the cake alcohol free. Also this recipe doesn't need you to soak the dry fruits in advance and therefore doesn’t need prior planning. Bake it, when you need it!

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cup roughly chopped dry fruits (plum, black raisins, apricot, cherries, orange zest, almonds)
• 250 ml. of orange juice
• 250 ml. apple juice
• 3 tsp. rum flavor
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 100 gm. butter at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. spice powder ( 1 tiny piece of cinnamon, 2 cloves and 1tiny piece nutmeg ground to a fine powder)

Procedure

In a sauce pan mix half of orange and apple juice and stir well. Add chopped dry fruit mixture to it and simmer them in a low flame till all the juices are dried up. Turn off the heat and allow it to cool. Now add 1tsp. of rum flavor to it and mix well.

Take out two table-spoons of fruit mixture and smear them with a spoon of dry all purpose flour.

In a separate bowl sift  all dry ingredients ( flour, baking powder and spice powder) together.

Now in a big mixing bowl cream butter with sugar till fluffy. Now add egg one by one and continue to beat until completely integrated. Pour the rest of the apple juice and 1 tsp. rum flavor to it and mix once again. Now add dry flour and dry fruit mixture to this batter and gently fold into it.

Grease a 10 inch nonstick loaf pan and spoon the cake mixture. Sprinkle the dry fruits that you have separated out on top.

Bake it for an hour in a preheated oven at 375F.

Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack. In a cup mix rest of the orange juice with 1 tsp. rum flavor. Baste the top with this mixture and allow to cool completely before you turn it over. 

Store the cake in an airtight container or eat fresh.

Kucho Nimki

Once Durga pujo is over the custom is to visit friends, family and neighbors to wish each other on Bijoya Dashomi. We touch our elders feet, bless the younger ones and embrace our peers with heartfelt good wishes. Visitors are offered various savory snacks, one of the most common being home made kucho Nimki. These are salty diamond shaped snacks.

Ingredients for dough

1. 2 cups of regular flour ( Maida )
2. 2tsp. oil
3. 1tsp. salt
4. 1/2tsp. sugar
5. 1 tsp. kalonji (Nigella seeds)
6. 1/2 cup of water approximately

For Frying

1. 2 cups of white oil or any refined oil

Procedure

In a mixing bowl take all ingredients other than the water. Now mix everything well using your finger tips till the mixture looks like bread crumbs.

Add water little at a time and knead the dough. Knead till you get a stiff and smooth dough.It will take around 5-6 minutes of kneading to get the desired one.

Cover the dough with a damp cloth and allow it to rest for 30 minutes.

Before you start rolling knead the dough once more. Dust the working surface which you are using to roll the dough into circles. Divide the dough into 5-6 equal portions and roll them out really thin one by one.

Now using sharp knife cut each circle into small diamonds.

In a wok or kadai heat oil for deep frying and fry the diamonds in batches. Fry on medium high heat till the sides turn brown.

Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain them on a paper towel. Store in an airtight container once it cools down.

You are now all set to receive guests for Bijoya Dashomi. 

Chaanar Payesh

Let me start by wishing all my readers Subha Mahalaya.
Today is Mahalaya, which signifies the start of the fortnight long celebration of Durga Puja at our home. Mahalaya is very significant to Bongs. It marks the day, the schools close for Durga Puja. The roads are choked with gazillions of people putting in their final effort to close the pujo shopping. Frantic efforts to finish the extravagant pandals, lighting gets underway.
In our childhood the morning of Mahalaya used to start at four to listen to Mahisasuramardini on the All India Radio. In this digital age many of these customs are losing it’s meaning. You can now stream mahisasuramardini at your own convenience, at any place and time, like from this site. It’s hard for our kids to imagine the ritual of getting up so early in the morning just to listen to a radio program.
Like most households our home also got into festive mood on that day. Since it was a holiday for my mom, she made lots of great stuff for us. One of the regulars used to be Chanar Paayesh (Cottage Cheese Pudding). Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

1. 1+1 liter full cream milk
2. 1/4th cup granulated sugar
3. 1/4th cup lemon juice or synthetic vinegar
4. 1/2 tsp. cardamom powder
5. Few pistachios and almond finely chopped

Procedure

In a heavy bottom pan take one liter of milk and bring it to a boil. When the milk rises to its surface slowly add lemon juice or vinegar to it and turn off the heat. Stir it well to mix. You will see the milk curdles and gets separated from the yellowish green whey.
Keep a strainer lined with a cheesecloth ready. Pour the curdled milk over it to strain the whey . You will see that the paneer or chana is collected in the cheesecloth. Pour one or two glasses of cold water over it to wash any residual sourness and the flavor of lemon out of it.
Tie the four corners of the cheesecloth and hang it from your water faucet for about half an hour.
In a separate thick bottom pan start boiling the rest of the milk and keep stirring continuously to avoid scalding. Lower the heat and let it cook for about half an hour. It will become a shade darker than its original milky white.
Add strained chaana or paneer to it and keep stirring to mix everything well. Let the paneer cook in the milk for 10 minutes. Add sugar and mix well. Taste and adjust accordingly. Remove from heat and sprinkle cardamom powder. Garnish with chopped pistachio and almonds.
Chill before you serve.

Shubho Noboborsho

Poila boishakh is the first day of Bengali Calendar. It is based on Surya Siddhanta and closely tied with the Vedic Solar Calendar. It generally falls on 14th or 15th of April.

For the traders in Bengal it is customary to clear up all the dues on the last day of the year. They start their new accounting book on the auspicious Poila Baishakh after receiving blessings from The Almighty.

For us it was just a quick puja wearing new clothes which were undoubtedly bought  from Chaitra Sale. Evenings were generally booked for cultural events. We were invited to shops, where we were regulars and got a big fat box of sweet and savory.

Now on the other side of the ocean it is the day to celebrate Bangaliana. The plan is already chalked out. Before I move into my kitchen let me share my lunch menu for Poila baishakh with you.

1. Plain white rice
2. Maacher matha diye muger da
3. Dhokar Dalna
4. Prawn Malaikari 
5. Kosha Mangsho
6. Raw Mango Chutney
7. Mishti-Doi

To all my readers best wishes for a year of peace, prosperity, happiness and most importantly good health.

Shubo Nobo borsho to you all.