Winter Khichuri with Vegetables

“Time and tide wait for no man”. As I remember these words there is the feeling nobody can stop time from moving on. The first month of this year has moved so fast almost eating up the first week, and as I realize the fact, the date reads ahead with every sunrise and sunset to make sure, day had come and gone.

No New Year resolutions from me, I feel happy to see friends and relatives follow this pattern of resolution…sticking to their words and no bad feeling if those words have been broken like the bone china cup slipping from my hand and crashing into bits and pieces.

The kitchen at home has no rest. Someone is there in the morning, sitting the saucepan filled with measured cups of water on the gas chullah for the morning tea. Then starts further kitchen activity breakfast, lunch, evening tiffin and dinner. Kitchen is the most visited place at home, that’s what I think and you may think differently.

Everyone at home likes hot khichuri, so I cooked this dish. My secret of khichuri...its easy to cook and one whole-meal cooked in a pan. There was a bunch of palang saag (palak, spinach), carrots, phul kopi (cauliflower) and potatoes. I decided to cook khichuri with these vegetables…turning it into a healthy dish. To go with this was Begoon (egg plant) bhaja.


For the Khichuri:

Rice: ¾ cup
Roasted Mung dal: ¾ cup
Haldi powder: 1 tsp
Jeera powder: ½ tsp
Dhania powder: ½ tsp
Red chili powder: ½ tsp
Tej pata: 2-3
Cooking oil or ghee
Salt to taste
Sugar to tast
Water: 3 cups (maybe a little more)

Vegetables I added:

Palak: 7-8 torn with the fingers
Carrot: 2 cut into long pieces
Cauliflower: 1 small
Potatoes: 1 only, peeled and cut into 4 pieces

Cooking it:

Wash the vegetables, dry and cut them.
Mix the rice and roasted mung dal. Wash and drain the water.

Heat ghee or oil in a pressure pan, fry the potatoes and cabbage florets till light brown. Take them out and keep them aside. Add the tej pata and the rice and dal and sauté. After 2-3 minutes add haldi, jeera, dhania and red chili powder and sauté for another couple of minutes. Now add salt and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add 3 cups of water ( a little more if you like a thin) and also the vegetables and mix them. Add the sugar, close the lid and after 4-5 whistles switch off the gas. Open the lid before serving. Add some more ghee when served on the plate.

For the Begoon Bhaja (egg plant fry):

Cut the egg plant into thin slice. Rub it with salt and haldi. Sprinkle besan (gram flour) over the pieces and mix it with the egg plant slices without adding water.
Heat oil in a kadhai for deep frying.
Drop in the begoon pieces and fry them till it turns deep brown.

Serve with hot khichuri.

Tomato chutney or even aam shotto (aam papad) chutney goes well with khichuri. Why, even sweet mango achar tastes good with Bangali Khichuri.

Thank god there was no grumble from either S or D with this unusual vegetable combination for the khichuri.

A sigh of relief.

Niramish Aloo Phul Kopi – Cauliflower and Potato Curry (Totally Vegetarian)

Monday and Tuesday, these two days of the week, I don’t cook non-veg dishes at home. I have been following this rule for quite sometime. Rule? A quiz(zy) word for my readers. This rule formulated by all of us at home. So no blame game to play and no regrets for a decision which we follow religiously. During these two weekdays, many a time I have to watch with greedy eyes when I see others savouring delicious non-veg food right before my eyes. Just joking, I’m not a glutton, just speaking out my thought.

In my Baperbadi (my mother’s place) care is taken to cook the veg and non-veg dishes separately. Fish, meat and eggs are cooked and put in the non-veg. meat-safe and a separate meat-safe for the veg. dishes. The kitchen is huge and there used to be Unoon (clay chulah) which burnt with coal fire. For most of the vegetarian dishes Ma never used onion and garlic and so with me.

As I broke the cauliflower florets I also thought about the phul kopi pakodas. Anyway it is time I share my niramish phul kopir tarkari with my readers.

For the curry you need:

Phul kopi (cauliflower): 1 (florets to fill one medium size bowl)

Potatoes: 4 big ones

Tomatoes: 1

Dhania powder: 1 tsp

Jeera powder: ¾ tsp

Haldi powder: ¾ tsp

Red chili powder: ½ tsp (as per your taste buds)

Cooking oil: 1 cup (I cooked with mustard oil)

Salt to taste

Sugar (Bong special taste): As per your requirement

How to prepare:

Wash the cauliflower florets.
Peel the potatoes, cube into eight pieces each. Wash and keep them aside.
Wash and cut the tomato and keep it ready for use.
In a bowl add the jeera, dhania, haldi and red chili powder and make a thin paste adding water to it and put it aside.
In a kadhai heat the mustard oil or cooking oil of your choice.. Tip in the florets and fry them till they start changing colour.
Once they are fried lightly take them out and keep them.
Add the cubed potatoes to the remaining oil. You can use more oil if no oil remains after frying the cauliflower. Stir the potatoes for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato and stir. When the potatoes take the pink colour and the tomatoes start giving out its juice, add the masala paste and stir. Now add salt and sugar and stir. Add little water if required to cook the masala.
Once the oil starts leaving the sides add water, sufficient for a thin gravy, and let it cook. Cover it with a lid. Stir it from time to time to see if the vegetables have been fully cooked.
Serve hot with rice.

I’ll be away for the weekend.

New Year wishes for you All. Have a nice time.

Easy Cake for December Closing

“If winter comes, can spring be far behind” as I relax I just recall this beautiful line from Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind. Long time I read this poem, no if I refresh my thought’s, maybe about a year back my friends daughter asked me about the ending line of this beautiful poem. This was sometime in the winter months, in Dec. maybe in Jan. What difference does it make as long as we remember such beautiful unforgettable lines from such great poets?

Winter is in full swing. My legs are feeling the cold, they are cold but I don’t like to wear my socks. Feel lazy to get up from the sofa, fetch my socks and wear them. Best, covered my legs with the shawl and I’m enjoying the book I’m reading.

As I read on I read about cakes and then I think of making one…quick and easy…and relish it with a cup of hot tea. The laziness disappears and I start with my work.

All I needed:

Eggs: 3

Maida: Same weight as the eggs

Sugar: same weight as the eggs

Butter: 100gms

Baking powder: 11/2 tbsp

Vanilla essence: ½ tsp

Preparation:

I broke the eggs into the mixie jar. I told you I wanted to make it quickly and easily. I had no time to powder the sugar. So added the sugar to the eggs and let the mixie complete the work. I used my fingers to see the sugar had melted completely. Poured the combination into a bowl.

Rest of it goes like this…

Now add the baking powder to the maida and put it through a sifter.

Gradually add the maida and mix it with a light hand using a wooden ladle. Make sure to mix it in one particular circular movement, either clock wise or anti-clock wise.

Melt the butter and add it to the batter. Finally add the vanilla essence. Grease and dust the baking dish. Pour the batter into it. Put it in the micro oven for 6-7 minutes. Check it with a knitting needle to see if it has been baked. Don’t take it out of the oven immediately. Let it stay in the oven for 2-3 minutes. The cake is ready.

It took me hardly half an hour to make the batter and rest of the time for baking. It was a quick feat indeed and the hot cake went well with tea. And Shelley’s poems, I love them…one of my fav poet.

Ilish Macher Tak - Hilsa in Sour Gravy

Ilish Mach is my all time favourite. Fried ilish mach…aha what a taste and that special aroma. When the fish is fresh from the market, I mostly think about Ilish bhapa. Bhapa ilish is easy to prepare but some people don’t like it. I was very disappointed that day when someone said bhapa ilish is horrible to taste. From that day I make sure to cook this only for those who can relish it.

Today as I read the Mourola macher recipe by Ushnish, I was relishing the taste of it in my mind. I love mourola mach. Reading it I felt I shall post my ilish macher tak I had cooked some days back.

This is a simple recipe where the taste of ilish dominates. For the sour taste you need tamarind and to go with it is haldi powder.

Ingredients:

Ilish pieces: 6-8
Tamarind: the size of a ping pong ball (soak in water)
Haldi powder
Red chili powder: a pinch
Dry red chili: 2 or even 1 if you don’t like some heat
Salt
Sugar
Oil
Egg Plant: 1 big size (optional) I didn’t have egg plant so didn’t add it.

Preparation:

Wash the ilish pieces.
Rub them with haldi powder and salt.
Soak the tamarind in water. You can use tamarind paste.
Heat oil in a kadhai. Fry the fish pieces, very lightly. Take them out and keep it aside.
If you have egg plant you can slice them into longish pieces and keep the aside. I did not have egg plant so didn’t add it.
Break the red chili into half and put it in the oil. If you are adding egg plant pieces, its time to throw them in and give it a stir. Add salt, haldi powder and a pinch of red chili powder and stir. Don’t fry the egg plants too much. Before it takes the dark pinkish colour add the tamarind juice and let it boil.
Add sugar as per your taste. It takes very little time for the egg plant to cook.
When the egg plant becomes soft add the ilish pieces. Let the gravy boil for a minute or two.
Now its ready to be served.
Ilish macher tak has a thin gravy which goes very well with rice and dal.

Ilish mach gives out oil so use very little oil for frying. If the ilish has given out its oil you can pour it out, add it to a little portion of the rice while eating. Add salt and get a different taste. For those who have not eaten this oil with bhat (cooked rice) they may not like the taste. A Bangal (those from East Bengal) likes it.

Wish you all A Happy New Year

Aloo Methi

I spend some time at night watching TV. With the Big Boss show coming to an end, just a wait and watch situation for me to know the winner. After a day’s work watching TV is just like a simple past time and of course some recreation. Yesterday there was a bunch of methi saag at home. My Baba always said, “One thing at a time and that done well”. Yesterday I felt the pleasure of doing two things at a time (watching TV and cleaning the methi saag), easy work, not a brain work indeed. But it doesn’t mean I say what my Baba said was wrong. You know watching TV is relaxing, and the saag can be separated from the stem without even giving it a look. A work which has the use of the mind and the brain will never give space for another difficult work. I firmly believe in what my Baba said. I think I'm being silly.

Let me move out of this and write about my  Aloo Methi.

Ingredients:
Methi Saag: 2 cups
Aloo: 5 medium size
Dry red chili: 3
Garlic: 5 cloves
Haldi powder
Red chili powder
Salt
Cooking oil

Simple preparation method:

Wash the methi leaves and let the water drain out. Once the water is totally drained out, chop the methi leaves and keep it aside.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. Keep them aside.
Wash the garlic cloves, crush them and put them aside.
Place a kadhai on the burning fire. Add 2 tbsp cooking oil. I’ve used mustard oil. When the oil is hot enough break the dry red chilies into half and throw them in. Add the crushed garlic soon after and stir it till the colour begins to change.
Now add the cubed potatoes and the haldi and chili powder. Fry it for 3 to 4 minutes cooking over slow flame. The potatoes will get half cooked by now.
Throw in the methi saag and give it a stir.
Now add salt to taste, stir and cover it.
Remove the cover and stir from time to time. Cook till the potatoes are soft and mixed well with the methi saag.

It’s ready to be served with hot roti, paratha and rice.