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.

Shrimp tempura - The deep fried devils

Shrimp tempura or Golden fried Prawn is a mouth watering sea food dish that qualifies for one of the best appetizers in my list. The calorie conscious me do not really indulge myself in deep fried items or as a matter of fact, any high calorie food. But fortunately(to few people) my tantrums and whines are limited to my home only. The moment I step out for eating I do forget all my consciousness. 
This is one of the dishes that we(me and my wife) have a lot whenever we eat out. I tried it at home and I was really satisfied with the outcome. 
This is how I did it:

Ingredients:

• Jumbo shrimps                 - 10 to 12
• All purpose flour(maida)   - 3/4  cup
• Corn flour                        - ½ cup
• Ice cold water                  - 3/4 cup
• Salt                                 - ½ tsp
• Oil                                   - to deep fry
• Chili powder                    - ½ tsp

Method:

1. Peel the shrimps leaving the tail tip intact. De-vein them. Make a couple of slits underside and stretch lengthwise in order to straighten the shrimps. I forgot to straighten my shrimps.
2. Marinate the shrimps with a pinch of salt and some chili powder and keep aside for 20 minutes.
3. Mix all purpose flour, corn flour, water, salt and prepare the batter. Do not bother about the lumps, they make it better.
4. Heat enough oil so that the shrimps could be deep fried.
5. Dip shrimps in batter, hold it by tail and put it in oil.
6. Fry turning sides until it turns golden in color.
7. Serve with your favorite sauce and a salad.

Fruit Custard - A dessert that shows you the route to heaven

Fruit custard has always been my all time favorite dessert. You don't have to worry much about the calories as it contains a lots of fruits and not much of unhealthy contents. And it is an absolute treat to your taste buds. The crunchy fruits with the creamy and milky substrate, ahhh, for sure it will take you to the heaven.

You can use any kind of fruits in it as long as it is not sour and is seedless. Make sure the fruits are chopped in a way to retain the identity of each and are not mushy. In my recipe I have used condensed milk. You can use sugar as well instead of it.
Here if my version of recipe:

Ingredients:

Custard:

• Milk                                              - 1.5 Liter
• Custard Powder(Vanilla flavored)   - 3 Tbsp
• Condensed Milk                             - ½ cup

Fruits(chopped):

• Apple                     - 1 
• Grapes                    - 20/25 
• Banana(peeled)       - 2 
• Pear                       - 1
• Pomegranate          - ½
• Sapodilla(Chiku)     - 2
• Strawberries           - 10
• Cashew nuts           - 10
• Almonds chopped   - 5/6
• Pistachios chopped - 5/6

Method:
1. Take the milk(keep half cup to be used later) in a heavy bottomed vessel and cook on medium flame. Keep cooking with constant stirs till it reduces to almost half.
2. While the milk is cooking take the half cup milk kept aside and mix the custard powder. Mix well till you get a nice texture and no lumps remain. 
3. Now add the custard mix into the milk being cooked in parts and keep stirring ensuring there is no lump formation. Cook for 3-4 minutes in low flame till the mixture thickens.
4. Add condensed milk or sugar and mix it very well. and your custard is ready. Allow it to cool down to room temperature.
5. Refrigerate the custard for few hours to make it chilled.
6. Add all the chopped fruits into the custard. You can add some whipped cream to make it creamier.
7. Serve in dessert bowls.

Bon vo-yage! And yes, when you meet Him in the heaven, do tell him that it was my recipe that got you there!

Bhapa Maach - An aberration could be a discovery. Eureka!

Maach is fish in Bengali and it is just not a food for us, it is an integral part of our life in many ways.
Bhapa means steamed. 
Bhapa maach is a famous authentic Bengali dish where the fish is cooked in steam with its ingredients. It is usually made with the most popular fish of Bengal, Ilish (Hilsa). Well he comes with a big price tag but we Bengalis can pay any price to take him to our kitchen.
I still remember the taste of scrumptious bhapa Ilish my mom used to make. Its been years I had that and all of sudden on the eve of Bengali new year I had this craving for that dish. Since Ilish was not an option here as I do not know where I could get it, I thought to use Salmon instead. And to my surprise the dish really turned awesome. All the fish lovers give it a try and trust me you won't be disappointed.

Ingredients:

• Salmon                     – 8 pieces(2" length)
• Ginger                      – ½ inch
• Green chili               - 5 to 6
• Mustard Oil               - 3 tsp
• Milk                          - 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder      - ½ tsp
• Mustard powder(traditionally we use yellow mustard seeds by soaking them in water for 30 minutes and then grinding into a paste)   – 2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Clean the fish. Marinate with salt and turmeric powder for 30 mins.
2. Mix the mustard powder, milk and 4 tsp water in a bowl and keep for 30 mins.
3. In the mixing jar put mustard mix, ginger, 2 green chili and prepare a smooth paste.
4. Smear an oven safe flat surfaced bowl with some mustard oil. Put the fish pieces on it in a single layer.
5. Pour the mixture over the fish pieces in order to cover all of them evenly. 
6. Add 3-4 slit green chili. Drizzle 1 tsp mustard oil on top.

7. Cover the bowl with an aluminium foil.
8. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.
9. Take a vessel/pan where the bowl can be placed for steaming. Put hot water in the pan and place the bowl on it.
10. Put it in oven and bake for 30 minutes. This is how it looked just out of oven.

11. Serve hot with plain rice.

Tres Leches cake - Best cake for my best half.

It was my wife's 20th birthday last week. Yes you read it right. Twentieth birthday. Well that's her age as far as I know! Anyways moot point. 
So I know lately she is quite in love with Tres Leches cake. She had it on different occasions and every time she had it I noted her expression going way louder than the Cadbury girl in that old add or Madhuri Dixit giving an expression after having Maggi oat noodles. No this time its not a moot point. So I thought to bring home a Tres Leches for the birthday girl. Safeway was the only option on my mind as theirs is one of the best. But then I thought why not try my hand on it. It was really been a while I had baked a cake especially since my wife had taken over baking. She bakes awesome and it was hard to bake for a person who herself is so good at it. But it was worth the try. She loved it and gave me a 5 star for my performance. The hard work paid off completely. And then seeing her so happy I asked her again, how old she turned on that birthday and the reply I got was, 20!


Well anyways, here is how I have prepared it:

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• All purpose flour(maida)        – 1 and ½ cup
• Baking powder                      – 1 teaspoon
• Butter(at room temperature) - ½ cup
• Sugar                                    – 1 cup
• Vanilla extract                      – 1 teaspoon
• Eggs                                      – 4
• Whole milk                            - ½ cup

For the glaze:

• Whole milk                         – 2 cups
• Sweetened condensed milk - 1 can(14 ounce)
• Evaporated milk                 - 1 can (12 ounce)

For the topping:

• Heavy whipping cream      – 1 and ½ cups
• Sugar                                - 1 cup
• Vanilla extract                  – 1 teaspoon

Preparation:

1.   Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a baking pan (I used one with 9" diameter X 2" height ).

2.   Mix all purpose flour and baking powder.

3.   In a big mixing vessel add the butter and sugar and beat using an electric beater until the mixture becomes fluffy.

4.   Now add eggs one at a time and blending well after every addition.

5.   Add the vanilla extract and milk and beat well.

6.   Add the flour mixture in 3 batches and beat until well blended.

7.   Pour batter in the baking pan and spread evenly.

8.   Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. Remove the cake and place it on a plate with few inches of sides. Allow it to cool.

9.   Pierce the top of the cake all over using a fork.

10. Mix together whole milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk. Pour the mixture over the cake slowly from all over. Refrigerate the cake overnight. This is how my cake looked the next day.

11. We are just one step away from the final devourable cake. Now we need to do the topping. Add the whip cream, sugar and vanilla extract using an electric beater and beat until soft peaks formed. 

12. Spread the topping evenly over the cake and on sides. Decorate the way you want to. Refrigerate till chilled. This is how I decorated first. And then again made bit changes to present the final product.

Note: In Spanish Tres means three and Leches means milk. This cake contains three types of milks, whole milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk and hence the name.

Malpua - The Bong way

Ingredients:

For batter:

• Milk                                     – ¾ Litre
• All purpose flour(maida)      – ½ cup
• Semolina(suji)                     – ½ cup
• Fennel seeds(saunf)            - 1 tea spoon
• Oil                                       - for deep frying

For syrup:

• Sugar                                 - 1 cup
• water                                - 1 cup
• Green Cardamom               – 3

Preparation:
1. Take all the ingredients for batter in a mixing bowl and keep mixing until a smooth           mixture forms. Make sure there are no lumps. Keep it aside for 1 hour.
2. In a vessel mix water, sugar and cardamom pods and cook them on medium heat stirring  continuously until you get a one thread consistency.
3. In a deep bottomed pan heat oil.

      4. Pour one ladleful of batter in the oil to form a circular pancake.

      5. Fry on medium heat. Flip it over when one side is done.

      6. Keep frying until it gets a golden brown color.

      7. When both the sides are done, take it out and put it in sugar syrup and let it immerse      for 30 seconds.

      8. Remove the malpua from syrup and serve hot.

    

Amrakhand - A must have dessert in summer, especially when the king fruit arrives.

Amrakhand is a dessert which in a summer day would not only satisfy your sweet tooth, it also would satisfy your hungry soul for sure. It is a perfect blend of sweet, sour and creaminess. It would arouse your taste buds so much that you will be forced to beg for more. And the best thing about this recipe is, it is very easy to prepare. :)

Ingredients:

• Curd                         – 1 Kg
• Mangoes                   – 3 
• Sugar                        – 1 cup(powdered. Adjust it based on sweetness of the                                               mangoes)
• Cardamom powder    – 1 tea spoon
• Pistachios                 - 10 Pieces
• Almond                     - 10 Pieces 

Preparation:
1. Take the curd in a muslin cloth and hang it overnight to get rid of the whey.
2. Whisk the hung curd(chakka) for 4-5 minutes until you get a smooth texture.
3. Make a puree of the mangoes.
4. Add the mango puree, powdered sugar and cardamom powder in the hung curd and mix them.
5. Blend the mixture until you get a smooth and creamy texture.
6. Freeze it for few hours.
7. Garnish with chopped pistachios and almonds.

I like to have amrakhand with puris. I think this combination goes really well.

Ras Malai - A delicacy my wife married me for!

My the then would be, when came to know that I can prepare Rasmalai(offcourse I bragged about it to impress), she didn't think anything else and all she knew was - she had to get married to me! At least for the sake of Rasmalai. And then within first 6 months of our marriage every week there used to come a taunt, "aaj sweetshop se rasmalai le aana, khane ka bada mann kar raha hai. Mujhe toh aata nahi banana. Kaun banayega mere liye.". And then one fine day I pulled up my socks and thought to put a stop to this torture. This is the outcome of it. For all those men who can take pain to impress their wives, would be's, girlfriends....here you go. :)


Ingredients:

• Milk                         – 1 ½ Liters
• Condensed milk        – ½ can(Optional) 
• Sugar                       – ½ cup
• Cardamom powder   – 1 tea spoon
• Pistachios                - 10 Pieces
• Almond                    - 10 Pieces 

Preparation:
1. Take around 10 rosgullas. Please refer to my earlier post to prepare Roshogolla.
2. Squeeze them gently to get rid of the extra syrup.
3. Cut them into halves and keep aside.
(This is optional)

4. In a heavy bottomed vessel heat the milk by stirring it continuously until it becomes half.
5. Add sugar, condensed milk and cook for another few minutes.
6. Add the pieces of rosgulla and cook for another 2 minutes.
7. Add the cardamom powder and mix properly.
8. Take it out in a serving dish and garnish with chopped almonds and pistachios and refrigerate for few hours until chilled,
9. And the rasmalai is ready to be served.

To all the readers - word of caution. This might increase the frequency of taunts. :) :P