Dhakai Fish

I have had the good fortune to be always blessed with great neighbors. Our Seattle home is no exception. We meet a few times over the summer vacation to indulge in barbecue and pot-lucks.This summer when one of my neighbors organized a get-together at their place, I asked them what I should get. I got the request of something spicy.

I wanted to ensure I bring something from our homeland and not the fake Indian food like butter chicken. It also needed to be finger food and palatable to the western taste. I settled on Dhakai fish, which is a shallow fried fish garnished with sautéed onion and green chilies. I made it with locally available fresh rock-fish fillet. You can use any fish of your choice both as fillet or cut into steaks. You can even use whole cut fish like pomfret. Just change the frying time depending on the size of the fish.

I have no clue why this is referred to as “Dhakai” or from Dhaka the capital of Bangladesh, it’s just what my mom used to call it.

Ingredients

• 1lb fish fillets cut into medium cubes (2" *2")
• 1tbswp. ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. red chili powder
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. rice flour
• 2 tbsp. Besan (Bengal Gram Flour)
• Salt to taste
• Oil for shallow frying

For Serving

• 1 onion thinly sliced
• 2tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 tbsp. minced ginger
• 2 tbsp. chopped green chilies
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp. oil

Procedure

Marinate the fish cubes with all ingredients other than the flours and oil for half an hour.

Once the margination is over sprinkle the flours over it and mix it gently so the fish cubes are roughly coated with the flours.

Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the fish pieces on medium high heat in a single layer so that their surface turns crispy yet the inside stays soft and juicy. It takes about three minutes. Remove them.

Now keep one tbsp. oil in the pan and add chopped ginger, garlic, onion sliced fry on medium high heat for about two to three minutes. Add green chilies to it and fry everything together on low heat.

Add fried fished to it and toss very gently to coat the fishes with the fried spices. Take care not to break the fishes.

Serve on a platter and garnish with chopped cilantro and crushed black pepper.

Enjoy with plain rice or as a finger food.

Bhuni Khichuri from Bhaskar da, Simkie di

After a long hiatus I am back to food blogging. This post is brought to you by a bad bout of cold. The last time I had a cold was when I visited, ahem, a very cold place.

It was January of 2017, when few of us visited the cold sleepy town or rather village of Roslyn, up in the Cascade mountains. Like any true Bong outing, it was less about where we went, but more about what we ate.

Since I was down with a cold, I mostly stayed indoors helping others cook. One of our friend BhaskarDa made this amazing Khichuri based on his better half SimkiDi’s  recipe.

The great thing about this Khichuri is it’s simplicity and rustic taste.

Ingredients

• 1 cup gobindobhog rice ( Jeera rice)
• 1 cup yellow moong dal
• 2 tbsp. cumin seeds
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 2-3 dry red chilies
• 1” raw ginger grated
• 1 cup medium sized cauliflower florets
• 1 cub medium sized cubed potato
• 4 tbsp. oil
• 2 tsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Wash rice and drain the water and keep aside.

In a frying pan take moong dal and dry roast it on medium flame till you get a nutty aroma and dal starts taking a nice brown hue.

Remove from the heat and wash it. Now soak the dal in water.

In a heavy bottomed pan heat two tbsp. oil and temper it with one tbsp. cumin seeds, bay leaves and dry red chilies. When you get a nice aroma add washed and drained rice to it and fry them on very low heat for about five minutes.

Once you start getting the flavor of the fried rice add soaked dal along with its water to it. Give them a hearty stir. Add salt and cook it covered. you need to check the water level time to time and need to replenish if required.

In the mean time smear the cauliflower florets and potato cubes with little salt and start heating the rest of the oil in a frying pan..

Once the oil is hot enough  fry the cauliflower florets and the potato cubes on medium heat. Remove them from oil and keep aside.

When the rice and dal mixture is three fourth cooked add the fried cauliflower florets and potato to it.  Check the seasoning and the water level and adjust accordingly. This is the time you add grated ginger and sugar. Mix once more and cook it covered.

When the khichuri is done, turn off the heat. In a small frying pan heat ghee till it melts and temper it with the rest of the cumin seeds. When they stop sputtering, pour it over the khichuri and immediately cover the pot. Keep it covered till you serve.

Chicken Hariyali Kebab

We had a steady stream of guests over the holidays. Especially to cater to the palate of our local friends I chose this mild kebab, which goes really well with wine and beer. I serve this as a starter as Hariyali kebab turns out to be an excellent conversation starter.

Hariyali means green which is the color of the kebab, in this regard this is very different from the other kebabs. The green comes from the paste of cilantro, mint and fenugreek leaves that is used as marinade.

Ingredients

For 4 people. serving size 4 pieces

• 1lb. boneless chicken breast cut into 2” pieces
• 4 tbsp. thick curd
• 1 lemon
• 1 cup cilantro ( Coriander Leaves )
• 1 cup mint leaves
• 1/4 cup fenugreek leaves ( Methi )
• 1” ginger
• 5-6 fat cloves of garlic
• 3-4 green chilies
• 1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp. red chili powder
• 2 tsp. chicken tandoori masala
• 3-4 tbsp. ghee ( Clarified Butter)
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Take chicken pieces and apply salt, lemon juice and red chili powder to it. Keep aside for 10-15 minutes.

In the mean time make a smooth paste of cilantro, mint, fenugreek leaves along with ginger, garlic and green chilies.

In a mixing bowl add curd and all other ground spices and mix them with the green paste. Add chicken pieces to it and mix them well with the marinade so that the chicken pieces are well coated with it. Keep it covered for at least two to three hours.

Soak the skewers in plain water for half an hour to avoid burning. Now arrange chicken pieces on the skewer and apply some clarified butter over it.

Pre heat the oven at 400F and grill them for 12-15 minutes. Turn the skewers once when they are half way through for even cooking.

Remove the kebabs from the skewers and arrange them on a serving plate. Serve with some green chutney and lemon wedge.

Aloo, Cholar Torkari

This is a common curry served at road side shacks in and around Kolkata along with Puri and Kachuri. Most of us grew up gobbling this down along with the famous Luchi. I made some of this recently to go with Dahl Puri.

Ingredients

• 8-10 medium size potatoes, halved and cut into quarters
• 1/2 cup chick peas soaked overnight and boiled
• 1 tbsp. paanchphoron (five whole spices mixed together in equal quantities – celery seeds, fennel seeds, cumin, Nigella seeds and fenugreek seeds)
• 5-6 whole dry red chilies
• 1 tsp. hing (Asafetida)
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. red chili powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 2-3 tbsp. mustard oil
• Salt to taste
• 1 and 1/2 cup of water
   

Procedure

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Temper it with whole dry red chilies, hing and five spice mixture. Let them splutter for a while.

Add the quartered potatoes and the boiled chick peas. Fry on low heat for a minute. 

Add turmeric powder, chili powder and coriander powder to it and cook on medium heat for another minute.

Add water, salt and sugar. Give a nice mix and pressure cook it till one whistle comes.

It goes excellent with puri, kachori. I served it with Dahl parantha.

Bhendi Posto (Okra in Poppy Seed Paste)

My daughters favorite veggy is Bhendi or Ladies finger. If she were to choose she chooses Bhendi over mutton, which is pretty weird

So as you can guess we buy tons of Bhendi and make it in different ways. The most common being Bhendi fry with Daal, the next being Bhendi Posto (Okra with Poppy seeds).

Ingredients

• 1lb. okra small sized
• 2 tbsp. poppy seed
• 1 dry red chili
• 1 tsp. kalonji (Kalojeera)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste
• Oil

Procedure

In a grinder make a smooth paste of poppy seed and dry red chili with little water.

Wash okra and pat them dry. Now snip off both ends.

Heat  4-5 tbsp. oil in a pan and temper it with kalonji seeds. When it stops sputtering add okra and sauté them on high heat for a minute. Sprinkle salt and sugar and cook it covered for 2-3 minutes. Remove the lid and do rest of the cooking uncovered. When it is almost done add poppy seed paste and mix with okra gently so that they don’t break.At the end each okra should be coated by poppy seed paste. Add 1 tsp. mustard oil at the end to get an extra zing.

Upma

Having grown up in Sothern India, this is my daughters staple school lunch. She takes it at least once a week. This is common weekend breakfast for us as well. Even though this is super common in South India, folks in Kolkata are just picking this up. I got a call from one of my relatives asking about upma and hence I am writing this down.

Ingredients

• 1 cup sooji ( Cream of wheat )
• 2 tbsp. small dices of carrots
• 2 tbsp. thin slices of beans
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbsp. chopped ginger
• 1 tsp. chopped green chilies
• 1 tsp. hing ( Asafetida )
• 1 tsp. urad dal
• 1 tsp. chana dal ( Bengal gram )
• 1/2 tsp. black mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp. whole cumin seeds
• 8 – 10 curry leaves
• 1 tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp. oil

Procedure

Heat oil in a pan and temper it with whole mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal and chaana dal. Fry on low heat till they turn golden brown. Add chopped onion, ginger, green chilies and curry leaves to it. Sauté on low heat till the onion turns pink.

Add 2 cups of water and season it with salt and sugar. Stir well. When the water comes to a boil slowly add suji while whisking it continuously.

You will see the water is al absorbed by the suji in no time. Turn off the heat and keep it covered for another 2-3 minutes.

Serve with thick coconut chutney.

Bread Upma

I learned to make this when I used to live in Hyderabad from a neighbor. It makes good use of bread when the expiry date comes knocking. We make it sometimes for breakfast and also for my daughter’s school lunchbox.

Ingredients

• 6 slices brown bread cut into small cubes (preferably stale bread) 
• 1 large onion chopped roughly
• 1/2 cup green peas 
• 1 tsp. finely chopped ginger
• 1 tomato finely chopped
• 2 green chilies finely chopped
• 1/2 cup coriander greens finely chopped
• 5-6 curry leaves 
• 1 tsp. Black gram
• 1 tsp. chaana dal  (Bengal gram)
• 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. oil
• 1 tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Add oil in a pan. Temper it with 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, mustard seeds, black gram and chaana dal. Allow them to splutter. Add chopped onion, green chilies and ginger. Fry till onion turns translucent. Add tomato and green peas followed by all dry spice powders, sugar and salt. Mix well.

Pour half a cup of water to it and add bread pieces. Toss them. Sprinkle chopped coriander and serve hot.

Goalondo steamer Curry

I see a lot of stories online around the origin of this famous Bangladeshi dish. I do not know which is the real story but I heard the same first hand version from both my mother and father who lived in Bangladesh.

Apparently a common route to come to India (Kolkata) from Bangladesh  at that time was to take a train from Goalondo. To reach Goalondo most folks relied on steamers and other modes of river travel. This chicken curry used to be made by the boatmen on these river routes. Since obviously there are limited resources on a boat/streamer this chicken curry is made with fresh basic un-ground spices. If you make it, you will see the amazing difference that comes with just the fact that the spices are used whole.

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized whole chicken cut on bones
• 4 big onions coarsely chopped
• 6-7 fat cloves of garlic coarsely chopped
• 1” ginger coarsely chopped
• 2 – 3 dry red chilies coarsely pound
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 5 – 6 tbsp. mustard oil
• 1 tsp. sugar (Optional)
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Mix the chicken with all above ingredients and keep it for an hour.

Transfer it into a heavy bottom pan and sauté over medium heat for 5 – 7 minutes. Cook it covered till the chicken is tender. The moisture of all the ingredients will be sufficient for cooking, so you really don’t have to add any.

Serve with fresh hot rice.

A similar recipe you might like is Dakbungalow Chicken

Sobji diye Chingri-r Jhal (Shrimp and Vegetable Medley)

This is made with prawns and a medley of vegetables. Based on individual choices, many of those vegetables could be replaced with others. For example traditionally, this is made with egg-plant, but since I do not like it so much, I used pumpkin instead.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. tiger prawns
• 1 large onion thinly sliced
• 3-4 green chilies slit lengthwise
• 1 ridge gourd (Jhinge) cut into medium cubes
• 6-7 ladies finger (Okra)
• 4 medium sized potatoes cut into quarters
• 4-5 big chunks of pumpkin
• 1 tbsp. kalonji (Nigella seeds)
• 1 tbsp. Kashmiri chili powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1/2tsp. red chili powder
• 5 tbsp. mustard oil
• 1 tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste

Procedure

In a microwave safe bowl take potatoes and add quarter cup of water to it. Cook it in microwave for 2-3 minutes and remove.

Add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt to the prawns and rub it well.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the prawns till they turn pink. Remove and set aside.

In the same oil fry all other vegetables (Including the steamed potatoes) except ridge gourd. Remove and keep them aside.

Add nigella seeds to the same oil and allow them to sizzle. Add onion slices to it and fry them till they turn golden brown. Add Kashmiri chili powder, red chili powder, and turmeric powder to it. Mix well and pour a cup of water to it. Add fried vegetables other than the okra. Season with salt and sugar. Cook them covered till they are 3/4th done and now this is the time to add fried prawns, ridge gourd and okra followed by some green chilies. Remove the lid and cook it for another 3-4 minutes.

Serve with plain hot rice.

Spinach Pakoda

Sunny summer days are something which folks living in the Pacific North West really cherish. Sun sets late in the night after 9 p.m. and we head out to the lush parks around town for some picnic pot-lucks. This is one of the items which I took last time as my pot-“luck” was to make starters.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of chopped spinach
2. 1 small onion finely chopped
3. 1 tsp. chopped ginger
4. 1 tsp. chopped garlic
5. 2 – 3 green chilies finely chopped
6. 1 tsp. roughly crushed coriander greens
7. 1/2 tsp. chili powder
8. 1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
9. 1/2 cup besan (Chickpea flour)
10. 1/2 tsp. baking powder
11. Salt to taste
12. Oil for deep frying

Procedure

In a mixing bowl take all ingredients other than besan, baking powder and oil. Mix all ingredients with your hands using gentle pressure. Soon they will start releasing water. Add besan little at a time just to hold the ingredients together. Sprinkle baking powder and mix once again.

Heat oil in a wok till it smokes. Reduce the heat and add small portions of the mixture in the hot oil. Fry on medium heat till all sides are done and crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain the excess oil on a paper towel. Sprinkle black salt and your favorite chat masala before you serve.

Musur Daal Paanchphoron Diye

This is one of those simple foods, which the Bengali heart craves for now and then. After our super long 6000 km road trip to California where we ate all kinds of stuff from across the world, what I really wanted when I stepped into our home was some simple daal. This simple dal flavored with our very own paanchphoron, sukno lonka and accompanied with begun bhaja becoms delicious.

Ingredients

• 1 cup musur dal (red lentils)
• 1 pinch turmeric powder
• 1 tsp. paanch-phoron (generally available in Indian grocery stores)
• 2-3 dry red chilies
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. mustard oil
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Wash dal thoroughly and pressure cook it with a pinch of turmeric powder, salt and 2 cups of water on high heat till the first whistle. Let the pressure settle down on its own.

In a pan heat mustard oil till it smokes. Temper it with broken red chilies and paanch phoron. Wait till you get a sharp fragrance of the spices. Be careful as to not burn them. Turn off the heat immediately and pour the spices along with the oil  in the dal. Season with sugar and salt and mix them well. Let it simmer on high heat for a minute.

Serve with plain rice with a wedge of lemon and begun bhaja.

Blueberry Cup cakes

My daughter has an inherent interest in cooking. Whenever I am doing some research for a recipe, she always hangs around “contributing” in whatever way she can. Which mostly involves fetching stuff.

One day she expressed the desire to make something from scratch. Cooking is in general a not very child friendly activity. However, baking in general is safe until the last step where a grown up can easily help, putting in and taking stuff out of the oven. So I gave her a recipe for making cup-cakes and she made the whole thing on her own (with help operating the oven). It came out really really well. Some of our friends who came visiting right after couldn’t even believe that the little one had made them.

Ingredients

• 1and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Procedure

Pre heat oven at 350F.

In a mixing bowl mix butter and sugar till they are fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat till the mixture is light and smooth.

In another bowl whisk flour with baking powder. Add this dry mixture to the butter mixture in three intervals. If you feel the batter is too hard you can add little milk to it.

Add vanilla extract and blue berries and fold in.

Line cup cake tray with cup cake liner and pour the batter in with an ice cream scoop. The cups should be half filled as the batter will rise.

Bake it for 15 to 20 minutes.

Take it out and enjoy.

Chaana Posto (Cottage Cheese with Poppy Seed Paste)

After cooking and eating a bunch of special stuff over the weekend, I try to give myself some rest on Mondays. So for Monday lunch I prefer making something quick and simple for myself. Given that poppy seeds are known to induce sleep it helps me recover from the hectic weekend as well.

Ingredients

• Chaana made out of 2 cups milk (see my rosogolla post on how to make chaana at home)
• 1 red onion finely chopped
• 2 green chilies finely chopped
• 4tbsp. poppy seeds grind into a fine paste with 1 green chili
• 2tbsp. mustard oil
• 1tsp. sugar
• salt to taste

Special Utensil

• Pressure cooker
• Steel/Aluminum tiffin box

Procedure

In a bowl mix all ingredients above together and transfer the content into the tiffin box. Cover the lid tightly.

Pour water in a pressure cooker and place the box so that half of its is down the water. Make sure you don’t cover the tiffin box with water.

Pressure cook it on high heat for 2 whistles. open the lid when the pressure settles down. Enjoy with some white rice and an extra dash of mustard oil.

Aloo Phulkopi-r Chorchori (Dry Potato-Cauliflower Curry)

I just posted about making Bengali Triangular Paratha. The most common accompaniment to these parathas were aloo-phulkopir chorcori, especially in the winter when fresh cauliflowers were easily available in the market. Generally a breakfast of paratha’s and chorchori was followed by some nolen gurer sondesh.

This is super simple to make, fresh cauliflowers and green-chilies dominate the flavor. In today’s world it’s hard to fresh cauliflowers (or for that matter anything). We hunt our local farmer’s market to get our share.

Ingredients

• 3 – 4 medium sized potatoes cut into small cubes
• 2 cups small florets of cauliflower
• 3 – 4 green chilies
• 1tsp. nigella seed (Kalonji)
• 1tsp. turmeric powder
• 3 – 4tbsp. mustard oil
• 1tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Heat oil in a pan and temper it with green chilies and nigella seeds. Let them sizzle before you add cauliflower florets to it. Sauté for a minute or two till you smell the fragrance of cauliflower. Add potato cubes. Sprinkle salt, sugar and turmeric powder.

Mix everything well and cook on medium heat for 2- 3 minutes. Add half cup water and cook it covered on low heat till the vegetables are done. You may crank up the heat now to dry the excess moisture.

Serve with triangular paratha and nolen gurer sondesh.

Bengali Triangular Paratha

This was the most common weekend breakfast in our childhood. These parathas serves as great travel food. In our childhood we used to take them on the multi-day train journeys and now we wrap them in aluminum foils and take it on our road-trips. I have never seen other non-Bengali, Indian households to make them in triangular shape, and hence the Bengali qualifier in the post title.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour(Atta) + some dry flour for rolling
• 1tsp. salt
• 1tsp. sugar
• Oil or ghee as needed

Procedure

In a big bowl mix all the dry ingredients with your hand. Add 2tsp. oil and rub the flour with it till it takes a crumb texture.

Add water, little at a time and knead well to make a medium soft dough. Wrap it with a kitchen towel for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into equal sized balls – about a size of lemon.

Flour the rolling surface and roll each portion into a thick disc of about 6inch diameter. Smear the top surface with a drop of oil and fold the disc along the diameter to form a semi circle.

Smear another drop of oil on this half and fold over again. This will now take a shape of triangle.

Roll it with gentle pressure without disturbing its triangular shape. Parathas will be little thick so don’t roll it too thin.

Heat a tawa and place each paratha at a time. Cook each side on medium heat for 2 – 3 minutes before you turn. Gently press the paratha to spread the heat evenly. When the center of the paratha puffs up add a spoon of oil along its edges. Cook till you see light brown spots all over the surface. Flip it over and again add a spoon of oil to fry the other side. Remove after you see golden flecks all over.

Serve hot with alu phulkopir chorchori (dry potato and cauliflower curry).

Raita

Raita is basically a cool, creamy yogurt based condiment which is a perfect accompaniment for different kinds of spicy dishes. No wonder Hyderabadis famous for their spicy food, eat equal amount of raita with any of their servings.

Made by combining different ingredients with yogurt, raita is a must to soothe the palate and douse the fire .

Ingredients

• 2 cups yogurt
• 1/2 cucumber coarsely shredded
• 1/2 cup red onion finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely grated carrot
• 2tbsp. finely chopped cilantro
• 1tsp.  dry roasted ground cumin seeds
• 1/2tsp. chat masala
• 1/2tsp. chili flakes
• 1tsp. sugar
• Salt to taste

Procedure

In a bowl take yogurt and add salt and sugar to it. Beat it with a fork so that there is no lump in it. Now combine all other ingredients with the beaten yogurt and your raita is ready to serve.

Pyaji (Bengali Onion Pakora)

Curling up with a good book and some hot pakoras on a rainy day is unbeatable. In Seattle there is no dearth of rainy days, but the leisure time is hard to come by. This Monday I didn’t have anything to cook because there was enough left-overs from a weekend party. So suddenly at around eleven I had nothing to do and there was no one at home. Outside, it was cold and drizzling. A perfect occasion to brew up some hot Darjeeling tea, put on some nice Bangla music and have some Pyaji.

Ingredients

1. 2 red onions sliced into half moons
2. 1tsp. grated fresh ginger
3. 2 – 3 green chilies finely chopped
4. Handful of chopped cilantro
5. 1/2tsp. chili powder
6. 1/4tsp. turmeric powder
7. 1/2tsp. baking powder
8. 5 – 6 tbsp. besan (Chickpea flour)
9. Salt to taste
10. Mustard oil for deep frying.

Procedure

In a mixing bowl take onion, green chilies, ginger, cilantro leaves and sprinkle salt over it. Mix the salt thoroughly by hand. Leave it for 10 – 15 minutes. The salt will bring out the natural juices of the raw ingredients reducing the amount of water required for binding.

Slowly add besan and keep mixing it with the other ingredients. Once you have utilized all your besan you may need to  add little besan or water depending on the requirement to bind things together.

Add baking powder and mix it once more.

Heat oil in a wok till it smokes and then reduce the heat. Now using a spoon gently slide small amount of mixture into the hot oil. Try not to over crowd the oil. Fry on medium heat till all sides are golden brown and crispy. Remove and drain on a paper towel.

Sprinkle black salt all over and serve.

Egg Salad Club Sandwich

We are avid hikers. One of the challenge of a hike is to pack good food. You want to ensure that you pack something that is easily packable, non-messy, nutritious, tasty and at the same time is rich in good calories. Egg salad sandwich fits that bill perfectly. After a soul crushing hike, eating the sandwich at the top of a mountain with a view as below adds an extra dimension to the whole experience.

Ingredients

1. 3 slices white sandwich bread
2. 3 hard boiled eggs chopped
3. 2tbsp. finely shredded cabbage or lettuce
4. 2 tbsp. grated carrots
5. 1 ripe avocado peeled and mashed
6. 1 tsp. chopped fresh parsley
7. 2tbsp. mayonnaise
8. 1tsp. freshly ground black pepper
9. Salt to taste

Procedure

Add chopped egg into a medium mixing bowl. Add mayonnaise, mashed avocado, shredded cabbage, salt and pepper to it.

Combine all the ingredients well using your spoon stirring firmly.

Spread breads on a chopping board. generously soon the mixed egg salad onto one slice of bread. Spread evenly using the back of the spoon. Now cover it up with another slice of bread. Spread the egg salad mixture on the top surface of the second bread. Close the sandwich with the remaining bread slice.

Cut the sandwich diagonally across with a sharp knife.

If you are packing them for lunch, wrap the sandwiches in a cling film or take them in zip locks.

Prawn Pulao

Since today the world was supposed to end, I didn’t cook anything. But then it was lunch time, the world was still hanging around and we were hungry. So I dug into the refrigerator (which wasn’t stocked that well either because of the world ending and all). I had some frozen prawns and decided to make one pot meal.

Ingredients

1. 1lb. tiger prawns
2. 1/2 cup onion juice
3. 1 cup gobindobhog or jeera rice
4. 4,5 green chilies slit length wise
5. 1tbsp. grated ginger
6. 2,3 bay leaves or tejpatta
7. Whole garam masala (1” cinnamon stick, 2-3 cloves and 2 green cardamoms)
8. 4-5 tsp. ghee (clarified butter)
9. 2tbsp. sugar
10. Salt to taste

Procedure

Wash rice with several changes of water and spread them flat on a paper towel. Allow it to air dry for some time.

Marinate prawns for 15 minutes with onion juice and salt. Heat 2 tsp. ghee in a pan and fry marinated prawns on medium heat till they turn pink. Remove fried prawns with a slotted spoon and keep aside.

Add rest of the ghee to the pan and allow it to melt. Temper with bay leaf and slightly bruised garam masala. Wait till you get the fragrances of them. Now add green chilies to it and sauté for a minute. Remove green chilies and reserve them for later use.

Now add rice to it and fry on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Fry till you see all grains of rice glisten and are well coated with ghee. This step ensures that all the rice grains stay separate and will not become sticky when your pulao is done.

Add grated ginger, salt and sugar to the rice. Mix everything well. Pour one and half cup of war water to it. Cook it covered on medium heat till rice is almost done.

Remove the cover and add fried prawns and green chilies to it. Continue cooking till rice is completely done. Leave it uncovered and fluff gently with a fork.

This is a one pot meal and doesn’t require anything else to be served with it. 

Chicken Daak Bungalow

This recipe comes from another era, when people used to travel and stay in forest and daak (mail) guest houses that littered the country-side. The care-taker of these British era bungalows had simple kitchen at their disposal and in that they would whiff up simple yet extremely well tasting concoction of spices. They would use the simple mortar and pestle to pound the spices, this coarse spice mixture is the signature of this recipe.

A decade ago we had travelled to a small hill station called Kemanagundi from Bangalore. We stayed in a non-descript department of horticulture guest house. The caretaker literally ran and caught a chicken from the courtyard and prepared this for us with his hand ground simple spices. I still remember the fun of having daak-bungalow chicken under the light of lanterns, wrapped up in blankets to fight the bitter cold.

Today the daak-bungalow chicken has left the confines of the bungalows and is a common specialty item served in Bengali themed restaurants in Kolkata.

ingredients

1. 1.5 lb. chicken cut into medium pieces on bones
2. 3 medium potatoes cut into halves 
3. 2 medium onions cut into big pieces 
4. 7-8 garlic cloves
5. 1” ginger
6. 1tsp. turmeric powder
7. 5-6 whole red chilies broken in irregular pieces and crushed  
8. 2,3 bay leaves
9. Whole garam masala ( 1’ cinnamon stick, 2 green cardamoms and 2-3 cloves roughly crushed )
10. 1tsp. sugar
11. Salt to taste
12. 2,3 tsp. oil  ( I used mustard oil, you can go for any refined oil like canola )

Procedure

Clean chicken pieces and smear them with turmeric powder. Keep them aside.

Now take onion, ginger, garlic and crush them roughly using your pestle. If you have Sheel Nora then nothing like it. Use your nora (stone rolling pin) and you will be done in no time. Fine chopping and paste will not bring the flavor you want, so just crush them.

Heat oil in a pan and fry potato halves till they turn golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside. Temper the same oil with bay leaves and crushed whole garam masala. Let them sizzle for a while. Now add crushed onion, ginger and garlic to the oil and fry on medium heat for about five minutes.

Add chicken pieces to it and fry them on high heat for a while. Add crushed red chilies, salt and sugar to it. Throw the fried potato halves in and mix everything well so the chicken and potato pieces are nicely coated with oil and spices.

Pour about 2 cups of warm water and bring it to a boil. Cook it covered till chicken is done. Potato halved will also be cooked by this time.

Check the seasoning and adjust accordingly. Serve with a plateful of plain white ice.