Aloor torkari - A simple yet delicious preparation

My mom used to call this dish aloor daal which means daal made of potato. This used to be one of my favorites in my childhood. The dish is simple to prepare and very delicious. It can be served with rice or roti or luchi(poori).

Ingredients:

• Potato(boiled)                 – 5 medium sized
• Onion                              – 2 medium sized, chopped(this is optional)
• Tomato                           - 2 medium sized, chopped
• Ginger                             - 1 inch finely chopped or grated
• Green chili                      - 4 finely chopped
• Cilantro                           - Handful finely chopped
• Kalo jeera(Nigella seeds) - 1½ tsp
• Tej pata(Bay leaf)           - 1
• Dried red chili                 - 2-3
• Turmeric powder             - ¼ tsp
• Chili powder                    - ½ tsp(adjust as per your level)
• Jeera(cumin) powder       - 1 tsp
• Oil                                  - 2 Tbsp
• Salt                                 - per taste

Method:
1. Peel the boiled potatoes and mash them roughly. You do not want to make a fine smooth mix, so keep it uneven and rough.

2. Heat oil in a pan. When hot temper with kalo jeera, red chili and tej pata.
3. Add onion and green chili. Onion is really optional in this recipe. Most of the times I would prepare it without onions but this is something I just wanted to try and it turned out good. So yes you can add onions, trust me.

4. When onion becomes translucent add the tomato and ginger and keep cooking.

5. When tomato is cooked and becomes mushy add the masala powders(jeera, turmeric and chili). Cook for another minute.

6. Add the mashed potato and mix well.

7. Add 2 cups of water. Add salt. Cover the pan with lid and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
8. This is an important step. You have to run to the patio garden and get fresh cilantro. (Did you say you don't have garden? Really? Well next time make sure you have a garden and you have cilantro in it) :-) 
Well, add chopped cilantro.
9. Serve with rice/roti/puri.

Jilebi/Jalebi - The curvy crispy sweethearts

It was Diwali of 2014, a very special Diwali indeed. Special because it was our first Diwali in our own home in Pune. A cousin of mine, my wife and me decorated our whole house with lights, candles, flowers, rangolis and also made a lot of special sweets and other food items. We made Narkoler nadu(naariyal ke laddu), Besan barfi, Chivda, shakkarpara and the very special jalebi. The celebration was so good, I still remember the very serene moments spent. The dark night, the pleasant and cool weather, the lights and candles everywhere in the locality, the sound and smell of crackers, which I am not very fond of but it sort of became an integral part of Diwali and cant think of a Diwali without it. 

I tried Jalebi the first time that day and it turned out very good. The shapes came well, the crispiness and the sweetness was just perfect. It added an additional joy in our celebration.

Ingredients:

• Maida(All purpose flour)  – 1 Cup
• Yogurt                            – ½ Cup
• Sugar                              - 1 Cup
• Ghee                              - For deep frying 
• Oil                                  - For deep frying 
• Milk                                - 1 Tbsp
• Kesar(Saffron)                 - Few strands

Method:
1. Mix maida, yogurt and little water in a large bowl. Whisk the mix until it forms a smooth batter of pouring consistency. The batter should not be very thick or very thin either.
2. Cover the bowl and keep in a warm place for fermentation for 12-15 hours.
3. Put the sugar in a deep wok/pan and add 1 cup water to it and cook on medium flame stirring continuously till the sugar dissolves.
4. Add milk. Collect the scums with a ladder and remove them. 
5. Add saffron. I didn't add saffron in my recipe. Keep cooking stirring continuously till it reaches one string consistency. 
6. Remove the sugar syrup from heat and keep aside.
7. Take the batter and beat it till the mixture is smooth(5-6 minutes).

8. Take a cloth to pour jalebi batter and give it shape. I used a handkerchief with a small hole at the center. You can use a Ziploc bag with a cut at the corner.
9. Put enough batter in the cloth.
10. In a deep bottom wok/pan heat oil and ghee in equal proportion for deep frying in medium heat.
11. Pour the batter giving circular shapes, 3 complete circles.

12. Fry till light brown and crisp on both sides.
13. Remove from oil and put it in hot sugar syrup and keep it dunked for few minutes.

14. Remove from the sugar syrup and put it in serving plate.

Chicken Kosha/Chicken curry - A dish which motivated me for years

When you eat delectable food all the time, you don't really understand the value of the cook and his/her culinary skills. Same was the case with me until I went to boarding school. It took me some pain and a lot of whining and cribbing trying to adjust to the food there in school, but I failed. Severely. Never could really eat full stomach. I used to miss my mom's delicacies every single day.

Chicken kosha is supposedly my specialty as per my friends and that is one of the reasons which kept me motivated towards cooking from time to time. I prepared this dish for the first time during my college days and my room mates were astonished at my culinary skills and head over heels in love with the dish. I still remember how during those days we used to plan parties with alcohol and foods and two items were always expected from me. My songs and my chicken. Although the chicken was never even close to my mom's but it always turned up pretty well. Kept my friends happy. Kept my reputation intact.

Whenever I go home now my mom makes sure it is me who cooks chicken always. I think she is planning to pass the legacy onto me and someday will share with me all her cooking secrets. But till then it is my recipe that is going to rule the kitchen.

Many of my friends ask me if there is any Bengali dish where potato is not used, because they do see me putting potato in almost everything. That's hilarious! Well that's our way of cooking and we bongs love potato. Even in chicken or mutton curry potato is added and the perfection of the potato matters. Yes it does! :-)

Ingredients:

• Chicken                     – 2 lb
• Potato                       – 1 cut into 4 pieces
• Onion                        - 3 medium sized grated or paste, 6-8 small sized whole or cut into halves
• Curd                          - 3 Tbsp
• Green chili                 - 6-8
• Ginger paste              - 2 tsp
• Garlic paste               - 2½ tsp
• Coriander powder      - 1½ tsp
• Cumin powder           - 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder       - 2/3 tsp
• Red chilli powder       - 1 tsp
• Garam Masala            - ½  tsp(this is mixture of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves)
• Mustard Oil                - 4 Tbsp
• Salt                           - to taste
• Tejpata(Bay leaf)       - 2
• Black pepper              - 8-10
• Whole cinnamon         - 2 inch
• Green cardamom        - 3-4
• Cloves                        - 4-5

Method:

1. Wash the chicken properly. Add 2 tbsp oil, salt, onion paste, curd, ginger paste, garlic paste, green chili, cumin power, coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric powder. Mix well and marinate for an hour. 

2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan till smoking hot. 
3. Add bay leaves, black pepper corns, green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves. When aroma of whole spice releases add the chicken mix, potato and keep cooking on high flame by stirring intermittently so that it does not stick at the bottom. Cook till water evaporates completely and the chicken is almost cooked.
4. Reduce the flame to medium and add the onion pieces and one cup water. Add garam masala. Cover with a lid and cook until potato is cooked and the onion pieces become translucent. 

5. Remove lid and cook til the gravy becomes thick.

6. The toothsome chicken kosha is ready to serve. Serve it with roti or rice. Me being a rice lover I prefer to have it with rice.

Pabda machher jhal - Nothing fishy about my Bong connection

Pabda machh(Butter Catfish) is a fish that Bengalis love. I was so excited to see it in a Bangladeshi store here in Sunnyvale, California. A friend of mine suggested me to visit the store to check the variety of fishes they have, and I still thank him for the life changing suggestion he gave me.
That day I stumbled upon the authentic Bong myself! A Bengali who starved for authentic sweet water fishes for months, lands into a store with almost everything that he can think of, he is no lesser than a kid in a toy store who wants to buy everything, literally EVERYTHING!  And yes I ended up buying Pabda, Rohu, Ilish, Puti. And when I got home I was not able to decide which one to start with again like a kid in Disneyland, not able to decide where to start from. (Well this is not just about kids, when me and my wife were in Disneyland, we were also so muddled about where to start from. We wanted to enjoy everything at the very same time.)
And that week, was a seafood festival at our home. My wife who is not very fond of fish had no other option but to start loving fish.

Well this is how I started with those fishes. Pabda machher jhal the first day.

Ingredients:

• Pabda maach                - 3 
• Onion                           - 1 large finely chopped or grated, I used grated.
• Tomato                        - 1 medium sized, finely chopped
• Green chili                   - 4 slit
• Ginger                          - ½ inch, grated or paste
• Green coriander            - 2 tsp finely chopped
• Kalojeera/Kalonji         - 1 tsp
• Tejpata                        - 1
• Salt                              - to taste 
• Mustard Oil                   - 3 Tbsp
• Chili powder                 - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder          - ½ tsp
• Jeera(cumin) powder    - ½ tsp

Method:
1. Smear the fishes with half tsp turmeric powder and salt and keep them aside for 15 minutes.
2. Heat 2 Tbsp mustard oil in a non stick pan/wok till smoke comes out. Now put the fishes in and fry them until they are done from each side. Remove them from pan.
3. Add the remaining oil in pan and heat. Temper with kalojeera. Add tejpata.
4. Add the slit green chilies.
5. Add onion paste and saute for 5 mins.
6. Add the tomato paste and saute till tomatoes are cooked and mushy.
7. Add ginger paste, chili powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder and saute until oil separates.
8. Add one cup water. Add salt to taste and cover the pan and simmer until the gravy comes to a boil.
9. Add fried fishes and chopped coriander and simmer for another few minutes.
10. Serve with hot rice. 

In my case the rice was already served, waiting for the fish to be placed in the plate. And oh yes, the drool splash was really hard to control. :-)

Karela aloo masala - The good Bitter best

Karela(bitter gourd) is not a very favorite vegetable of many. In my childhood I used to not like it much except when it is cut into thin slices and fried till well done and served with steaming hot rice and a dollop of butter or ghee.
I tried to try something different with karela and this is what I came up with which was an awesome dish. I prepared this for my mom when I went home and she absolutely loved it. She tried it many times herself she says, but never got the same taste as mine. Now that's really a complement and achievement when it is your mom saying it.
Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

• Karela(Bitter Gourd)  – 2 medium sized
• Potato                       – 1 
• Onion                        - 2 medium sized chopped
• Tomato                     - 1 Medium sized(chopped)
• Green chili                - 4 (chopped)
• Coriander leaves        - 1 Tbsp (chopped)
• Oil                            - 3 tbsp
• Coriander powder      - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder           - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder       - ½ tsp
• Red chilli powder       - 1 tsp
• Ginger garlic paste     - 1 tsp(Optional)
• Salt                           - to taste
• Lime juice                 - 1tsp

Preparation:

1. Cut karela into 1.5" long pieces. Cut potato the same way, long pieces.
2. Mix the karela pieces with a pinch of salt, lime juice and turmeric powder and keep aside for 15-20 mins. Similarly mix the potato pieces with turmeric powder and salt.
3. Put oil in a non-stick pan and fry the potatoes on high flame till golden in color. Remove from the pan and keep aside.
4. Fry the karela pieces on medium flame till they are tender and fried from outside. Remove form the pan and keep aside.
5. Put 3 tsp oil in the pan. When hot add onions and saute till onions turn pinkish in color.
6. Add tomatoes and green chilli and saute till tomatoes are cooked.
7. Add all the masalas and keep cooking until the masala leaves oil. 
8. Add the fried karela and potatoes. Add half cup water. Cover the pan and cook on medium flame for 10 mins until the mixture becomes thick and both potato and karela are cooked well.
9. Add chopped coriander leaves.
10. Serve with roti or rice.