CURRY AND SPICE

That was the first time I cooked mutton with black & white pepper; earlier this month. Oh! I may have done a Mysore style mutton pepper fry earlier that I had in Cameron Highland & Mutthu's Curry here! I have heard from many sources that black pepper paste gets a zing to a meat preparation. Bengalis in North Kolkata go gaga over Golbarir Kosha Mangsho which uses it. Unfortunately, I never tasted it till date. You all know our parents could not think of buying curries for us from the eateries, neither they had the habit of dining out in restaurants. When I left school, me and the mother used to go out, had food too, would get it for the brother. I remember we used to have bhature-chole in the Punjabi eatery adjacent to Golbari, we were regular at Madras Tiffin for dosas & idlis, even cutlets came from Maloncho but having Bengali curries outside of home was beyond any thinking. This continues to be now. We used to do so much of restaurant hopping during the man's sailing days; whenever he came home, never we went to a Bengali restaurant or eatery. May be only once we went to Woh!Calcutta and this guy ate Daab Chingri with naan.

The senior is absolutely against eating rice in a restaurant unless it is Thai Food. The son orders oriental rice plates for himself some days, I eat that in a food court, the man will not. I got the biggest compliment from him, "I come from a family who knows cooking; my wife cooks pretty good Bengali; why should I pay Rs.500-600 for a plate of "aloo posto" just for the presentation?" My personal wish is to visit a Bengali eatery in Kolkata than a restaurant; Kewpies to be precise. Okay, I see in Google, it has turned into a cosy dine-in and calls itself a restaurant. Who to go with? In Kolkata, I do not dine alone, the family there would say, "roj barite bangali khacchi." Even I think, a Bengali restaurant will offer you a Bengali styled, non-vegetarian mutton curry like this MORICH BATA MUTTON or a Gondhoraj Chingri; will they serve you a Kochu Shaak er Ghonto, roast & ground a kolai er dal / black lentil and then slow cook as the granny did or have that narkol-man kochu bata you see at far in the picture in offer?

I am in a hurry today. I have to go out in an emergency. I must finish off with the post as soon as possible. I was cooking in the morning. I did a potato & bell pepper sabzi to go with porota in the man's lunch box. I did not do bread friendly sides last weekend, right? My man is so less of a Bengali; likes shimla mirch, gobi, shalgom-aloo, kohlrabi-aloo sabzi with different bread varieties. Why do I even cook vegetables for hours; if not I may suffer from identity crisis. Like, yesterday night, he skipped his favourite fish head dal because there was mutton & dried fish. Arey, taste everything, only three dishes are served. He thinks, I over pack his lunch & snack boxes. No, chain smokers & tea / coffee drinkers lose appetite. He is one.

Okay, I baked a vanilla cake yesterday which has egg. I will taste it after sometime. It got so fluffy but I do not like the shape. I do have some good, basic cake recipes to share but I have to get a good reason to do the same. Till then bear with my deshi recipes; very rustic on some days, and one like this Bengali themed non-vegetarian mutton with three variety of peppers MORICH BATA MUTTON.

INGREDIENTS :

MUTTON : 1KG [THESE DAYS, I BUY THE FRONT LEG OF THE SHEEP MEAT AVAILABLE HERE, GET IT CUT INTO DESIRED SIZES]
GARLIC PASTE : 2TBSP
GINGER PASTE : 1TBSP
ONION PASTE : 4-5TBSP
BLACK PEPPER CORN : 11/2TSP
WHITE PEPPER CORN : 1/2TSP
GREEN CHILLI : 5-6
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP + 1/2TSP
VINEGAR : 3-4TBSP
BAY LEAF : 1 OR 2
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 4TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Wash the meat pieces well under running water. Marinate it with salt, 1tsp turmeric, the onion paste, the ginger & garlic pastes, vinegar, oil for at least 5-6 hours, refrigerated. If mutton, I refrigerate the marinated pieces in a closed container overnight.

Take out the bowl an hour or two before you start to cook.

Heat a pan and add all of the marinated mutton including the marinade. Stir at high heat for few minutes. Reduce heat to minimal.

Cover cook at minimal heat for 35-40 minutes, checking & stirring in between. A lot of water will release and it will dry in those minutes.

Meanwhile, we have pasted the washed black pepper corns, white peppercorns and green chillies together adding 1/4 small tea cup of water; more if required.

We will add this paste to the meat in the wok and stir cook at minimal heat for 6-7 minutes.

We will add 2-3 coffee mugs of warm water to the wok, give a stir and cover.

We will cover cook at minimal heat for 35-40 minutes again at minimal heat. We should be done. My family does not like fall off the bone meat, you cooking time may differ.

You can see, I also cooked small gar fish & potato curry / aloo diye kakila maacher jhol, split black lentil curry / mash kolai er dal; man kochu-shorshe-lanka-narkol bata / white yam-black mustard-chilli-coconut paste on that day!

I have pictures of fish dishes from two-three years back yet to be shared in the blog. However, I had chosen the curry I had done last week end for today's blog share. I never could think of using raw mango skin for preparing any dish. I saw somewhere recently about it's use and an idea quickly popped up in my head. The raw mango I used for cooking dal last week had it's skin lying on the kitchen top; I had only four pieces of Indian / Bengal Carp; Rohu to cook on that day. Everything was in coordination; doing the curry was a forty five minutes of job. I really do not get how people cook four dishes in forty minutes. They might have five hands or as I say, they are magicians. Frying four pieces of fish takes eight to ten minutes in my kitchen. We slow cook each side at minimal heat. I have shown Cristine how to fry things in my kitchen; she is quite impressed how aunty, our mother did the cooking; her super fast chapati rolling capability and super slow take while frying stuffs in minimal oil & heat.

The thing is, I totally forgot in whose post I saw the use of raw mango skin and what was the dish it was used in. It definitely was not used in a fish curry like this Bengali, gluten-free fish curry with a carp variety KANCHA AAM ER KHOSHA O MORICH BATA DIYE RUI / KATLA. Whoever you are, if you are reading this, tag yourself. I am also eager to know in what you did use raw mango skin. There is something so refreshening in a raw mango; because what we get in this island are not sour to the extreme, I love them. Our entire family has unquestionable love for ripened mango. Yesterday, I went to a different market, did not get good, ripe mangoes. I must venture out locally or to the Indian area for mangoes. We are avoiding Mustafa Centre, they get the Bengali variety Himsagar too. But the quality is so poor that I never could buy till date. Better are the cheap Thai & Indonesian variety or the Alphonso & some Southern Indian varieties available in the Indian area.

My yesterday's afternoon venture to a plaza largely meant for the Myanmarese was good, if not an out of the world experience. Of vegetables, I only could buy banana blossom & stem, rest were stale. I could get some "pabda & tyangra" and a very big packet of "lotey shutki." Those are smaller cat fish varieties Bengalis eat and dried Bombay Duck. Pabda is called butter fish in english. You know me, I could not resist myself, last night I cooked four pabda fish with very little amount of ginger paste and red chilli powder, a little of salt, turmeric, a slitted green chilli & nigella seed. That the fish stomachs did not tore off while frying them and we got the taste of a good Kolkata meal says that the fish was not so stale. While cleaning too, I felt so. I mean Cristine did, I had only shown. I guess, I can change the pictures of my blog post on "pabda with bori" tomorrow. That was done in Kolkata with the freshest of the fish variety, but the pictures are horrendous. Yes, I am very excited to cook the egg filled "tyangra maach"; if only they do not prove too stale. I can see the pleasure bites all of us in the family are taking on the fish eggs, the son so loves. Eggs however kill the real taste of any fish.

My stomach is rumbling; soft, semolina idli is here on my breakfast plate now. How do people skip meals? I will share everything in public tomorrow evening; the idli picture, my experience at Peninsula Plaza and what I made out of the produce bought. As of now, let us share the recipe of this Bengali style, regular fish curry with Indian Carp / Rohu, raw mango skin, green chilli, yogurt etc. KANCHA AAM ER KHOSHA O MORICH BATA DIYE RUI / KATLA. The onion had to be used because the otherwise fresh fish was sitting in the freezer for two weeks. You can skip if you are just back from the market, washing the blood from the fish pieces and the oil is heating on the wok.

INGREDIENTS :

ROHU / KATLA / INDIAN CARP : 4-5 STANDARD PIECE
RAW MANGO SKIN : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP FULL [of a standard sized mango]
GREEN CHILLI : 4-5
PLAIN YOGURT : 2-3 TBSP
SLICED ONION : 1 TBSP
GINGER PASTE : 1 TSP
GARLIC PASTE : 1/2 TSP
TURMERIC : 1/2 TSP + 3 PINCH
NIGELLA SEED / KALOJEEREY : 3-4 PINCH
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 1 OR 2
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3-4 TBSP [I USED MUSTARD]

PROCEDURE :

Get rid of all the scales and dirt from the fish pieces, wash thoroughly. I prefer running water.

Rub with salt & 1/2 tsp turmeric. Keep aside for 10 minutes or so.

Wash the raw mango skin pieces, 4-5 green chillies and take in a blender, add the yogurt. Blend to a fine paste; add little water if required.

Wash the sliced onion, drain the water and keep aside.

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the fish pieces; each side slowly in minimal heat. This will take 8-9 minutes.

Take out the fish pieces, add the nigella seeds in the same oil.

Add the sliced onions, fry until light brown.

Add the ginger & garlic pastes, 2-3 pinches of turmeric powder and stir fry at low heat for 2 minutes.

Add the raw mango skin, green chillies & yogurt paste, stir fry for nearly a minute at minimal heat.

Add 11/2 coffee mugs of water and bring to boil keeping the heat at low. Adjust the salt.

After the curry has boiled for 5 minutes; add the fish pieces and one or two slitted & washed green chillies.

Simmer at low heat, covered for 3-5 minutes. We should be done.

Get some rice, dal, a veggie dish, pakoras and salad and enjoy your fish meal. I also cooked a raw mango-red lentil curry & ash gourd with sun-dried lentil dumpling on that day.

This was our dinner last night. I had prepared some spinach koftas a week back, refrigerated to add some curry to it mid week and have with handmade breads for a dinner. I forgot all about it. Not even last Saturday I could remember. Yesterday noon time, on my walk I remembered all about it and had to cook and wrap it up by night. Thanks to the Almighty it did not spoil, it would have if I did not take the effort yesterday evening fearing Cristine is not there to help on a regular Sunday. After a siesta post a late lunch, I cooked a dinner for us, this cheesy rice & lentil dish, a vegetarian main dish CHALE DALE CHEESE BAKE was made as half a packet of shredded cheddar was lying unused for over a month. On the red bowl are some store bought frozen fish tempura I cooked in grill mode. With that an old blog post PALAK / SPINACH KOFTA CURRY gets updated with new pictures.

In this vegetarian rice and dal cheese bake, there is less frill. I mean instead of preparing and adding white sauce; I added some spicy cooked vegetable mix instead in the second layer, in the third layer again rice and on the top, the cheese. All these unusual proceedings, a "jirey, dhoney, aamchoor powder" in a cheese bake only because I wished to have a dinner together with the men. The shredded cheddar cheese suited me because it was not that melty self hugging the cooked rice & lentil grains tight and making my life miserable. It lay as a top crust, the freshly crushed black pepper made it fairly edible for me.

I will not chat here with stories from my kitty, we are a bit occupied today. Its good that the man is at home this week. I keep telling my mother not to complain with life, she has a son in the next room for 24/7 for the past three months, people live single without anyone to talk to in this pandemic situation, not even helps are given access. They do all the household works alone, visit the market to get produce alone and do not start complaining about life once the phone is on. We have to love life and be less critical. Anyway, I think the rest in my family would enjoy this vegetarian, main dish with rice, roasted yellow moong, carrot, green pea, corn, onion, green chilli, cumin+coriander+aamchoor powders, salt, shredded cheddar cheese CHALE DALE CHEESE BAKE. Yes, I did have it with the tempura fish, salad, kofta curry last night sitting with the men; but my lunch yesterday was better with "thor ghonto, kumror khoshar bhorta, dimer mamlet."

Now Cristine served me "porota & kofta curry" with my morning tea. She will not eat two koftas and we must finish all of it by lunch time today.

INGREDIENTS :

RICE : 3/4 COFFEE MUG [I USED BASMATI]
SPLIT YELLOW MOONG BEAN : 1/4 COFFEE MUG [I USED THE SONA MOONG VARIETY AVAILABLE IN WEST BENGAL, VERY SMALL GRAINED]
WATER : 2 COFFEE MUG
SHREDDED CHEESE : 150GM [I USED SHREDDED CHEDDAR]
CHOPPED CARROT : 1/2 SMALL SIZED TEA CUP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1 TBSP
CHOPPED ONION : 1/2 MEDIUM SIZED TEA CUP
SWEET CORN : 2-3 TBSP
GREEN PEA : 3-4 TBSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1/2TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1/2TSP
DRY MANGO POWDER : 1TSP
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1 TSP
CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

I had done the necessary chopping of the vegetables, taken them together in a bowl and washed. I marinated them with little salt and kept aside for 10 minutes, covered.

In a wok, I had taken the split yellow moong bean and roasted at minimal heat for 7-8 minutes.

I took the roasted dal in a deep bottomed vessel and washed. I added one cup of water and a little of salt to it.

I had put it for boil at minimal heat, covering 80% of it, else it would spill.

Once it is 40% to 50% boiled, I drained and added the washed rice I had soaked for 15-20 minutes in water.

In my case, the dal took less time to cook as it was small grained, bigger sized moong beans will take more time.

I added 1 more coffee mug of water, little salt, stir and cover cook at low heat until it turns semi-dry.

I checked 2-3 times in between.

Once done I switched off the burner, took the vessel down and keep covered for 10-12 minutes. When opened, the rice & dal volume will increase. I had to lock in the steam.

I heated the oil in a wok and tempered it with the cumin seeds. I gave a stir and added the marinated vegetables.

I added cumin+coriander+dry mango powders to it and stir cooked at low heat for 5 minutes. It was done.

I had taken a bake proof tray; added half of the rice to it and had spread the cooked vegetables on it.

Then, I had spread the rest of the rice and the shredded cheddar cheese on top.

I pre-heated my convection mode microwave at 200*C for 10 minutes placing the low wired stool on it.

I had covered the baking tray with an aluminium foil, placed it atop the stool and baked at 200*C for 20 minutes.

Once done, I garnished the top with the crushed black pepper.

I had served it with spinach kofta curry and fish tempura. You can get any side but serve everything hot.

I really have to say good things about this fried snack; I mean so far the taste is concerned, obviously I would not tag it as healthy. Some weekends I cook too much, then again throughout the week I experiment with a bread or a biryani. In such a scenario, the rustic vegetable dishes I cooked in the weekend gets worstly hit. So, last week I landed in such a situation. A Thursday or Friday arrived and three vegetable dishes cooked earlier remained as it is whilst I was to cook a fresh batch the on oncoming Saturday. I am not the kind who wastes food unless it is rotten; Cristine is a small eater who cannot be forced to eat extra. It is then the idea of assembling all the vegetable dishes with a new tempering and few spice powders popped up inside my head. I really did not expect the left over vegetable medley would turn out so tasty. I wished to do a samosa / shingara; got lethargic and landed onto an easier vegetarian, stuffed bread fried snack LEFTOVER VEGETABLES STUFFED PAURUTIR SNACK.

This is not the time for me / us to fancy about food, we have major areas to take care of that concerns the family's future. So, I stepped back from doing a more complex shingara, could not even shape the bread slices into cones. I did not want to put my head into anything complex in the kitchen that may eat up my time. Because I enjoy cooking, it is never a thing of irritation for me. I decide when to make cooking simpler in the kitchen; setting the priorities in life is important. At this time, I wish to spend more time with the family. I am staying so much at home that I did not go for a walk for few days now; the major reason for that in fact is the re-opening of the swimming pool down. Swimming helps reduce my upper body pain on the left side but it does not contribute much to weight loss. You can lose weight from swimming if only you swim for hours and do it fast. I swim in slow motion; my life itself is a dilly-dally; the brain is dull. A woman nearing fifty & menopause; who does a little of swimming or low intensity cardio ate three of those stuffed bread snack around 10pm at night!

When Rujuta Diwekar asks to eat rice everyday and pakoras too; I land in an awkward position. It is not that I do not believe her, her words are science driven is true. Then, she also prescribes intense yoga workouts & rigorous gym activities; weight trainings. If you are like me who falls tired after a 6-7 km of brisk walk, how can you or me eat what we want to? I do exactly this. I defy my health needs and listen to my heart and keep cooking and eating fried stuffs like this vegetarian bread snacker with a stuffing of leftover vegetables medley LEFTOVER VEGETABLES STUFFED PAURUTIR SNACK on a regular basis. With the sides of the bread slices, I did an upma. These days, I so love the Southern Indian kind of tempering with different dal / pulses, curry leaves that I grow.

That was yesterday evening, I sat on my tiny green corner with my sugar free, black coffee and biscuit box.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING :

I HAD THREE LEFTOVER VEGETABLE DISHES I HAD TO GIVE A MAKEOVER. THEY HAD POTATO, BELL PEPPERS, ASH GOURD, PUMPKIN IN THEM. YOU CAN MASH TOGETHER ANY LEFT OVER VEGETABLES YOU HAVE.

SKINNED, SPLIT URAD DAL / BLACK GRAM LENTIL / BEULIR DAL : 1/2TSP

CHANA DAL / BENGAL GRAM DAL : 1TSP

CURRY LEAVES : A HANDFUL

CHOPPED ONION : 1SMALL TEACUP

CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1TBSP

MUSTARD SEED : 1/4TSP

DRY MANGO / AAMCHOOR POWDER : 2TSP

GARAM MASALA POWDER : 2TSP

CHAAT MASALA POWDER : 1TSP

OIL : 2TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FRIED & STUFFED BREAD SNACK :

THE FILLING

BREAD SLICE : 10-12

OIL TO DEEP FRY : 100-150ML

PROCEDURE :

Mash together all the left over vegetables you have in store.

Heat oil in a wok. Temper the oil with the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add the lentils now stir until they are light brown.

Add the washed and chopped onions and fry till golden brown. Add the washed and chopped green chillies and the curry leaves. Stir for 1/2 a minute.

Add the mashed, cooked vegetables and fold in well. Stir well to mix.

Add the spiced powders and stir well for 4-5 minutes.

Let it cool.

Cristine had cut the sides of the bread slices. I had flattened each with a rolling pin, halved each and moistened the sides with water.

We will add some filling in the center and press a bit with the back of a spoon.

We will place the other half atop the filling and seal the sides with the back of a fork.

Actually, I did one or two to show Cristine how to get them ready, she prepared the maximum.

We heated enough oil in a deep wok for deep frying and deep fried each at a time until golden brown and crisp.

The frying part too Cristine did the maximum. Make sure you keep them on a tissue paper for sometime before serving.

Serve and have it hot with your choice of sauce & chutney; I preferred a plain yogurt to dip it and give a bite.

I felt let us end the week on a sweet note with a dessert share. It has to be easy to do, using few ingredients. It has to be good in taste is what goes without saying. "It tastes good" is a vague term I guess, what is tasty to others may not be acceptable to me and vice versa. I do not like bland food in general but so love clear, bland soups with a dash of freshly ground black pepper or this island's style chilli paste or chilli padi in soy sauce. So, it depends which section of food we enjoy or will enjoy what when; there is mood, there is health factors and so much more. I was never prone to sweets even post marriage. I could never think how our mother ate "ruti roshogolla diye". It was after I was diagnosed with high blood sugar, I found sweets interesting. I do not know if emotion, the mind has any connection with it or not. The thing is I crave for sweets these days but cannot have. I have seen my mother & mother-in-law taking insulin and it is not any kind of an inspiration. What happened is I cannot have too sweet stuffs these days. I may crave for a "jalebi or pantua" if not eaten for long. When I eat, I find them too sweet. So I prefer preparing sweets and desserts at home alternating sugar with honey, fresh fruits, etc. This vegetarian, sugar free steamed dessert CARDAMOM FLAVOURED HONEY BANANA BISCUIT STEAMED PUDDING is done on the same lines of simplicity. I used honey and banana instead of sugar & egg, my flavouring agents are usually natural. I prefer a nutmeg or cinnamon or cardamom powder over vanilla essence. Oh! how I love making steamed cakes & pudding.

It is election here today, I wanted a touch of this island and it's neighbours' in my today's share; something that the world can sit together and eat. Here is an interesting chilled dessert for you. Have it as it is or adding fresh fruit & cream atop or jam & jelly. You know I am that minimalist kind who hardly goes overboard. I like things simpler; okay letting go the steamed cake so bare was not really in my thought. I could have given it a better look. The problem is the senior of the men will eat any dessert in his own good time; that can be after 3-4 days. I have seen dressings and all do not remain that good even in the refrigerator after a day. I had got a big packet of Horlicks biscuit and did not like having it, neither the son who is moody about food. I used all the biscuits in a quick, easy, yum dessert as this CARDAMOM FLAVOURED HONEY BANANA BISCUIT STEAMED PUDDING. You can feel less guilt having it. Yesterday was my doctor's visit; my blood sugar level is under control, the blood pressure went high for obvious reasons. I am under mental pressure, not like the cool kinds in the world. Yet it was a joy having a meal sitting in the food court post the health check. On the better days in the world, I used to do exactly this every day, now it will not be a regular practice.

That is tofu, sautéed greens, steamed egg with minced meat, oriental chicken and glass noodles on my plate as a brunch and teh-o-kosong. Wherever I am going these days, I feel like heading back quickly to home and be with them, that gives me peace.

INGREDIENTS :

ANY SWEET BISCUIT : 500GM PACKET [I USED HORLICKS BISCUIT]
HONEY : 5-6 TBSP
BANANA : 2 SMALL SIZED OR 1 STANDARD SIZED
MILK : 11/2 MEDIUM TEA CUP
BUTTER : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP [MELTED]
GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1/2TSP

PROCEDURE :

It is better to take sweet biscuits for this, I used horlicks biscuit. We have to the grind the biscuits to a powder.

We have mashed the bananas and melted the butter.

We have added all the ingredients mentioned in the ingredients list above and mixed well.

We have greased a round cake tin with some butter and transferred the batter to it. We will tap it on the kitchen counter to level.

We will fill half a deep bottomed vessel with water and put it for boil on the gas top.

When it boils for few minutes, we will place a colander on it.

Just in the middle of the colander, we will place the bowl with the batter and cover it with a heavy lid to lock the steam inside.

We will steam cook it for 12-13 minutes at low heat, we should be done.

We will keep it at rest to cool; loosened the sides with a knife, over turn on a plate. We will refrigerate it for 2-3 hours before serving. You can dress it as you wish if you do not like it so bare.

It was a Sunday yesterday; Cristine is back to her usual routine of taking her off day and I am a lazy stuff. So you know I will not take in hand jobs that may require few utensils and finer human attributes; I severely lack patience, sincerity, skill. In the current situation, I am unable to concentrate too; I could not take in any of the movies that were streaming yesterday, neither could sit at one place for long. I came back from my usual walk around 2:50pm; had a good shower; ate my lunch; could not sleep. As the evening approached, I got restless. The man was sleeping, I avoid disturbing him for every single matter. He too hates cribbing. I do not mind, he has too many things to settle now and only he does it, I sit at a corner; crib and cry. I sit all day and shout at the larger than life virus; why cannot it leave us?

When the mind is shrouded with such thoughts; what can give some relief to a food lover who loves to cook is to do something with the available kitchen ingredients. That doing something cannot be too taxing on my nerves. What was the purpose of taking up this project with oats; MY ERRONEOUS YUM OATS BREAD? It was to feel relaxed; I engaged myself in that condition. Going against my nature, I had literally let down my hair and whispered to myself; "let there be wastage but I must see what comes out if I do not follow any rule of baking." I did exactly so. Around 9pm yesterday, I completed it; a no proof, no knead vegetarian oats bread. When you see the stepwise pictures later in this post, you will understand I took no headache doing it. This morning, I clicked it and the man took it in the snack box along with melon. His lunch box has chapati and cauliflower-potato, achar.

This is not the time I will chat with my readers much or romanticise with life. Some people are battling with life, lakhs are facing a trouble which was not required; to top that we have our individual troubles revolving this unfamiliar virus. Many of us cannot ever forget because of this virus, something went wrong in the family. Then, I believe no loss is more than a loss of life, that too at an age when one was not supposed to. That disturbs me the most. What I do is to stand amidst my tiny green patch and take a long breathe.

So, let us live and do not quit; we are not here to give in to defeats. About the vegetarian bake MY ERRONEOUS YUM OATS BREAD, it broke all rules of baking a bread perhaps; yet it tasted good and hence it got a place in the blog.

INGREDIENTS :

OATS : 1 COFFEE MUG
YEAST : AN 11 GM SACHET I USED
PLAIN YOGURT : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP
HONEY : 4 TBSP
SALT : 1/2TSP
WATER : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 4 TBSP
VANILLA ESSENCE : 1 TSP
ANY COMBINATION OF DRY FRUITS TO TOP IT!

PROCEDURE :

We have powdered the oats in a blender; taken it in a bowl. We have added the yeast & salt to it and mixed well.

Thereafter, we have added the honey and the plain yogurt to the bowl.

We have mixed it well and slowly added water to get a smooth paste. We added the vanilla essence thereafter.

After beating the batter well, I realised I forgot to add oil. I did it. You may add it along with the yogurt.

We have covered the bowl and kept in a warm place for an hour.

We have uncovered, the content did rise.

We have greased an aluminium foil tin with a little of oil and poured in the batter. We have to level it well.

We have topped the batter with some almonds, raisins and dry oats.

We have left it for 10-15 minutes.

Those of you who bake in the convection mode of a microwave; place the low stool inside the oven.

Preheat the oven at 180*C for 10 minutes.

Place the bake tin with batter on top of the stool.

Bake for 25 minutes at 180*C.

All night it lay on our dining table.

It is our breakfast today along with fruits.

Peanuts have to come on a regular basis to this home. The man wants it everyday with his beer; seldom does he ask for cashew nuts or other pricey nuts. I harbour no misery getting them cocktail nuts packets that consist of mixed dry fruits & nuts, I feel that would help them stay healthy and increase weight. But no, he does not want that. Never in life did he want to do something with his underweight; I could help if only people listened to me. The son too have developed a fondness for salted peanuts in the recent months. So it is always there in stock in this home. I prefer the Tong Garden's. Nonetheless to say, snacking with "muri badam bhaja peyaz kanchalonka" is a favourite pastime for me and the man while watching television, reading in my case. I see him reading in his i-pad, hardly does he touch print media which I enjoy more. When peanuts are in supply, why do not we do a peanut butter or a ladoo with it? I am very fond of peanut butter; then one day I read the ingredient list and see a good amount of sugar is used in the making!

What to do now? I am not fond of artificial preservatives, emulsifiers used in these spreads, jam, jelly, pickles. I have always felt in the past few months that preparing something similar to peanut butter at home is not a big deal. I felt if I am doing it at home, I will not use sugar and oil in it. Peanut releases it's own oil, I will manage with that. What can I use to moisten it so that it would not become like a Marathi peanut chutney? I thought. I had a few over ripe bananas, I used two of them and a bit of honey to prepare this vegetarian spread kind of CINNAMON FLAVOURED PEANUT BANANA SPREAD. I could skip using the honey altogether but our boy cannot have it without the honey part. Yes, he enjoys a variety of spreads atop his bread. The man will have it if served in his snacks box, at home he will not touch all these. Who eats peanut spread with wine & beer?

Yes, I know I am talking only food and not much about life recently. My home has to be settled before anything. The virus that has created ruckus worldwide is jeopardising our lives, future plans. I have to see my son settling down with his higher education peacefully before I can get back to the normal rhythm of life. Because I am of a restless nature; I would continue brooding over his safety & health. Unless this virus takes a leave from our lives, the world cannot be at peace. Looking at the death news of young boys and girls, a young WBCS officer and many similar, I suffer from breathlessness. What is this? Let us live. In this mental state, I am cooking simple and wish to share in the blog easy, quick & simple recipes like this vegetarian spread like CINNAMON FLAVOURED PEANUT BANANA SPREAD. Make it and have it spreading atop biscuit, bread, flat bread or as a side to dosa.
This is how I am having it today!

INGREDIENTS :

ROASTED PEANUT : 250GM [I USED STORE BOUGHT ROASTED & SALTED PEANUT]
BANANA : 2 SMALL SIZED OR 1 STANDARD SIZED
HONEY : 2TBSP
CINNAMON POWDER : 1/2TSP

PROCEDURE :

We are using these few ingredients.

We will take the required amount of the roasted & salted peanuts in a blender and pulse for 5-6 times. Then we will blend it at minimal speed for a minute. We will pause in between to scrape the sides.

Now we will add the banana pieces, cinnamon powder, honey.

We will lose tight the lid and blend at low speed for a minute pausing in between.

We will open the cover, scrape the sides. We will close tight the lid and blend at high for 30 seconds.

We should be done. I wished to keep the spread a bit grainy.

We will store it in a clean, dry jar and have it spreading atop biscuits, toasted breads, flat breads, as a side to dosa. If you are refrigerating it, bring it to room temperature before having.

It is a Friday and I know it is the second week in a row that I have not done any non-vegetarian share. Today, I could have but I finalised on this healthy snack. Later in the post, I will make you believe we can actually get a healthy, too good to taste, spicy & salted snack using only 2-3 tablespoon of oil. Most of the evenings, I crave for some spicy snacks with my tea & coffee. I keep different store bought snacks but I either fear to have them every day or do not at all like the taste. For the various variety of nimki / salted snack; it feels if I do them at home, I will enjoy them more. The thing is if I allow myself fried stuffs every evening, where do I stand? It is not only about my barrel shaped body, my health condition is definitely to deteriorate. Some days I cannot restrict myself; some ideas pop up in the head and I do not stop myself from executing it. If it is a weekday; me, Cristine and the son have it and reserve some for the senior to have at night. The day before I think I prepared this vegetarian snack; MINT & CURRY PATTA FLAVOURED BAKED SEMOLINA CARROT SNACK extremely flavourful and quite healthy .

I was thinking, when the son leaves home to attend college, whenever it is; I will stop getting varieties of snacks & biscuits to this home. The senior hardly have them; may be only over the weekend he would with his share of puffed rice or very rarely with tea / coffee. Cristine hardly wants to have snacks with her share of coffee, if it is pakora for dinner or lunch; she will have, her sir too. At this time, I find myself tied up with more important aspects in life; my barrel shaped body or the lipstick brand nothing stands any importance to me; I do not even feel like buying a dress which is my favourite pastime. But I do take care of my family, the necessary assistance comes from Cristine. Last weekend, I had some leftover edges of fish fillets. See, today morning I did a stir fried rice with fish, scallions, carrot, beans, garlic and packed the man's lunch box along with chicken tempura cooked in grill mode.

The only bad thing is the son has to have it after 2pm reheated, okay the chicken fritters will be freshly served.

I will also have the same lunch as them. But pretty late. After I finish my post, I will walk to the place that houses a few nurseries; buy some bigger pots I am running out of, soil too. I keep myself occupied with my areas of interest. That helps me! I am self centric and I am concerned of the wellbeing of my home, consider it as prime. When it gets disturbed, I too get disturbed but I never stoop myself as low as wanting some bad to happen in others' homes. If in my life I have done anything good that is not wanting anyone to suffer. The thing is people still would not spare you, they will run into your personal space to hurt you. I do not understand this trait in people, how abusing others bring happiness to one. I specially dislike those who speak ill of kids. But I find way to the light anyway. You will see in this recipe how I dumped every thing, from semolina to carrot to garlic, chillies, onion, lemon juice to fresh mint, curry leaves and carrot. It popped up in my head is true but cannot recall if I have seen similar something around. So many times it happened that I cooked and shared a dish in the blog that is not so common; then checked the net to find something nearest already exists. Till date, I could not call myself an innovative cook, some influences work inside. Come let us do this healthy snack that uses little amount of oil because I have cooked this snack / savoury cookie MINT & CURRY PATTA FLAVOURED BAKED SEMOLINA CARROT SNACK in my convection mode microwave. You can have it deep fried and call it pakora; I am that unfortunate who cannot always take this liberty.

INGREDIENTS :

SEMOLINA : 1 COFFEE MUG
PLAIN YOGURT : 2 TBSP
CARROT CUBE : 1 SMALL TEA CUP FULL
GREEN CHILLI : 3-4
ONION CUBE : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP FULL
GARLIC : 2 CLOVE
GINGER : A VERY SMALL PIECE
FRESH MINT : 8-10
FRESH CURRY LEAF : A HANDFUL
DRY MANGO POWDER : 1 TSP
CHAAT MASALA : 1/2 TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1/2 TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1/2 TSP
LEMON JUICE : 3-4 TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 2 TBSP + 1 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Take the semolina in a blender and dry grind it.

To it, add the washed, peeled, cubed carrot & onions; washed green chillies, fresh mint & curry leaves; peeled & washed garlic & ginger; cumin+coriander+dry mango+chaat masala powders; lemon juice and salt, 2 tbsp of oil.

At first, pulse it for 3-4 times and then blend at high for 2 minutes pausing in between.

Transfer it to a bowl and beat for 3-4 minutes. If you think you may find it difficult to shape them; add more of powdered semolina.

Keep it at rest for 10-12 minutes; covered.

Grease your clean palms with oil; shape them round and then flatten. You will do it better than me or even Cristine; do the necessary designs on top.

Grease a bakeproof plate with oil. Place them on it.

Mine is a convection mode microwave, so I placed the low stool required for baking stuffs inside and preheated the oven at 180*C for 10 minutes.

I had placed the plate atop the stool and baked the snacks at 180*C for 15-17 minutes.

I took the stool & plate out; placed the high stool meant for cooking in grill mode inside and atop it the plate full of the the half cooked snacks after brushing each with a little of oil.

I cooked it in grill mode for 6-7 minutes.

I totally loved the spicy, less oil, healthy snack with my tea / coffee; my family too.

This "My Style" also is a hired idea, it perhaps was hired some 16-17 years back from some magazine or a TV show in Kolkata. I was in a dire need of cooking an all in one healthy dish that could be mashed with freshly made rice or chapati and feed the son. I consider this curry a Bengali Stew thinking who else on earth adds turmeric, a bit of everything from ginger to garlic to a stew? I used to do the same curry in turns using fresh Bengal Carp, Chicken, Egg. I prefer the chicken & fish version of it, whilst the then toddler preferred the chicken version more, then the fish & egg. We would cook it less when the father would be at home after long sails. All of us three enjoyed it with toasted bread or chapati, not really does this non-vegetarian side; a light egg curry EGG STEW ; MY STYLE go with plain rice, you can try it with masala bhaat / spiced up rice.

I learnt this stew like curry from a need to feed our toddler healthy food as a substitution to cerelac, with gluten allergy he could not have milk powders except Pediasure. Think of a Kolkata around 2004-2005; how many knew about the variety of millets available except for samo rice which the Bengalis eat? At least, I did not! I was not among those learned few who have finished all the chapters in food anatomy and earned a distinction to downplay others. So, it was mostly rice meal for the mother and son, three times a day until one day I felt I may burst any day. I had no time to look after myself, my child's upbringing was of utmost importance to me. I just lessened the rice intake, started doing some breathing exercises. Because I love food too much, cannot eat bland all the time; have a very Indian taste bud; being slim is not my cuppa.

I think Southern India does it's stews using coconut milk, curry leaves, etc. At times, I do their way too, I am just not fond of using too much of coconut milk in cooking. I simply love narkol kora / shredded coconut. But our everyday cooking does not require coconut as such. I do not know much about history of food of any community; in my family coconut is pious and is a major ingredient in homestyle sweets. Oh! how I love the shredded coconut and black mustard, green chilli combination! But we need to cleanse our system at intervals. So, I cook this kind of stew like non-vegetarian curries using minimal amount of ginger-garlic pastes, whole garam masalas to flavour, onion, a little of milk towards the end. I do the same curry with chicken, Bengal Carps and with eggs like this one; EGG STEW ; MY STYLE.

INGREDIENTS :

EGG : 8-10
CARROT : 2
FRENCH BEAN : 5-6
POTATO : 1BIG SIZED
GREEN PEA : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
ONION : 2-3 MEDIUM SIZED
TOMATO : 2 MEDIUM SIZED
GARLIC PASTE : 1TSP
GINGER PASTE : 2TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
CINNAMON STICK : 2-4 HALF FINGER LENGTH
GREEN CARDAMOM : 2-3
CLOVE : 2-3
TURMERIC POWDER : 2 PINCH
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/2 TSP
MILK : 1SMALL TEA CUP AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
SALT : AS REQUIRED
SUGAR : 1/3 TSP
BUTTER : 1TBSP
OIL : 3TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Wash and boil the eggs in enough water for 6-7 minutes and let it cool.

Meanwhile, discard the ends, peel and cube the carrots. Discard the two ends of the beans and cut them lengthwise; discard the two ends, peel and slice the onions, peel the potato and make 8 pieces, cut the tomatoes. Take each in separate bowls and wash. Add little salt and rub well. [use cauliflower, I did not have].

Rub some salt in the egg pieces too after peeling. Heat the oil in a wok and temper it with the whole cinnamon, green cardamom, clove, bay leaf.

Add the sliced onions and fry till golden brown. Add the ginger-garlic pastes and stir fry for a minute.

Add the carrot & potato pieces and stir at low heat for 2 minutes. Add the French beans and stir for 1/2 a minute.

Now add the boiled and salt marinated eggs & tomatoes, turmeric, crushed black pepper and stir for few minutes. Lower the heat to minimal and cover cook for 5 minutes.

Open the cover and add 1 coffee mug of hot water, green peas. Bring it to boil and let it boil at minimal heat for 5-6 minutes.

Now add the milk & sugar, adjust the salt; give a stir and cook not more than 1-2 minutes.

Switch off the gas and add the butter, give a stir. Try to have it fresh.

[you can add a bit of cornflour to the milk before adding it to the wok, I did not].

I had some other plan for today; a Bengali Style non-vegetarian side to share in the Blog. I was wanting to go with full non-vegetarian shares this week. Then, I have seen I end up doing what the almighty wants me to do; the non-believers would say I am the servant of my own wishes. I am self centric and all my thoughts and wishes revolve around me and my closer circuit. I hardly look beyond to a broader perspective and totally ignore what others may want from me unless they have made me feel immensely happy. All of a sudden, yesterday evening I step back from my scheduled plan, searched Google Photo Album and decided on this photograph taken few months back. This is a spice laden, side dish with potatoes and bell-peppers, vegan & gluten-free; ALOO BELL PEPPER which is Potato & Bell Peppers / Capsicum cooked with few spices, onion, tomato, chillies. I served it with tawa sheermal, a mildly sweet flatbread I rarely do; always following the recipe of an Indian Celebrity Chef we have known since I was in my early 20's.

Its only 7:25 am in the morning, I am on with my Blog Share. I wonder when do I wake up actually these days. Every one or two hours after I have gone to the bed, I wake up. This keeps going on between 11-11:30pm - 4:30 - 5am. Finally, I leave the bed and come to the living room around 5:30 am in general. At this home, we do not follow any rule, regulation or routine. Today, I felt let me do it early, T would not be taking the lunch or snacks box this week. I am getting bored with no one to see around, no food to munch. All are sleeping and I try to follow the 12 hour eating window. That does not help me loose weight given I eat anything and everything in that 12 hours, between 10:30 am & 10:30 pm.

What you eat and the amount you eat is very important in any weight loss programme. I have forgotten when I last ate the amount of rice, breads I want to eat. Diabetes is such a silent killer. Always remember, what Rujuta Diwekar and her likes prescribe comes with clear instructions about what amount of exercise is to be done; a combination of yoga & strength training at least. I cannot push myself against my wish. One day, I swim for an hour, the next day I do a brisk walk from 5km-7km-8km. This does not help lose weight given my diet pattern. It cannot happen that I have prepared sheermal and would not eat it. I definitely would eat one with the vegan, gluten-free, spicy side dish ALOO BELL PEPPER; potato & bell peppers cooked in spices with onion, chillies. Had I have the liberty to fulfil my wish, it would be two to three sheermals on my plate for sure.

INGREDIENTS :

POTATO : 2 BIG SIZED
RED BELL PEPPER : 1/2 OF A BIG SIZED
GREEN BELL PEPPER / CAPSICUM : 1 STANDARD SIZED
YELLOW BELL PEPPER : 1/2 OF A BIG SIZED
TOMATO : 2 MEDIUM SIZED
ONION : 1 BIG
GARLIC CLOVE : 4-5
GREEN CHILLI : 3
CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
CUMIN POWDER : 1/2 TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1/2 TSP
GARAM MASALA POWDER : 1 TSP
DRY MANGO POWDER : 11/2 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

We need to half boil the potatoes. What I did was I washed the potatoes and pricked all over with a fork. I placed them on a microwave proof plate and microwaved at low for 2-3 minutes. This helped them to remain par boiled and not full. I allowed the potatoes to cool.

We will wash and cube the bell peppers discarding the seeds. We will discard the two ends of the onion, peel and cube it. We will chop the tomatoes discarding the seeds. We will peel the garlic cloves and slit the green chillies. We will wash them taken in separate bowls.

Now that the potatoes are cold, we will peel them, cube, wash again and rub little salt & turmeric on them.

We will heat the oil in a wok and temper it with garlic cloves, cumin seeds and a bay leaf. We will add the marinated potato pieces and stir cook at medium heat for 2 minutes.

We will lower the heat, add the cubed onion, tomatoes, bell peppers, slitted green chillies and stir cooked in the low heat for a minute.

We will lower the heat to minimal and add the cumin+coriander+red chilli powders. We will fold in well and let it cover cook not more than 2-3 minutes; else the crunch & colour of the bell peppers spoil.

We will open the cover; adjust the salt, add the dry mango powder and garam masala powder. We will stir cook gently for 1-2 minutes.

We should be done. It is a dish that goes with different kinds of breads.

I cooked this platter yesterday evening; a paneer dish, a fried chutney rice kind of; the water cress fritters and the salad is made by Cristine. Salad is eaten by Cristine & me at this home, the man eats salad only with meat biryani or tehari; not even salad, greens in raita actually. The son denies salad on his plate; eats tomato & cucumber in meat burgers, a single slice each of them. I believe, he would learn. We still had some cooked food in the refrigerator; a light curry with raw papaya, Hilsa head cooked with colocasia, two kinds of dal / lentil curry. Just a few omelettes would do. Then, I go by my wish. I wished to cook fresh; spend some quality time in the kitchen to put off my worries for the time being. It is also true that I wished to serve on my readers' plates a good vegetarian meal as this one DRY SPICED PANEER & CURRY LEAF CORIANDER RICE. On the side, we also had water cress fritters; this family so loves fries & fritters. I felt very bad when they lost their crispiness while I took longer time clicking them.

I started off late today. I was arranging the photographs. My mind is not in place at this time. The man is working from home today, we were just sitting silent; you cannot talk to them early morning. He does not entertain my anxiety ever, I wish they were a bit sympathetic towards my panicky self. It may be so it is their way of keeping me under control. I would have been happier if they had been a little softer in nature; they know how I dislike noise and anything that is loud. One day, they will realise had they listened to me, they would have been benefitted. If they do not listen to any of my words, how can they call me a nag? Anyway, this does not deter me from loving them sincerely, what I do I do it with all sincerity, direct from the heart. My love for food is also one reason why I never get bored or feel worked up whilst cooking. It is also true because of a Cristine at home to help, I can give such big talks. With her; preparing a nutritious, vegetarian meal DRY SPICED PANEER & CURRY LEAF CORIANDER RICE is not a big deal.

This is not the time in my life when I would want to prepare paneer / Indian cottage cheese at home. I always have a frozen packet at home. I use the Nanak or Kohinoor brand and willing to try the Milky Mist brand whose plain yogurt I so love. For frozen paneer, what I do is I soak them in salted warm water for few hours before using them in a curry. There is no amount of ginger paste, onion used in the curry or the rice. The rice dish has two cloves of garlic, you can well call it green chutney rice. The colour & texture of the paneer curry is from the ripe tomatoes used, the colour of the not at all hot Baba brand chilli powder. Below is how we had our pure vegetarian meal yesterday night.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CURRY LEAF CORIANDER RICE :

RICE : 1 COFFEE MUG [I USED BASMATI, THE AMOUNT SERVES 4-5 PEOPLE]
FRESH CORIANDER : 100-150 GM
CURRY LEAF : 20-25
GREEN CHILLI : 4
GARLIC CLOVE : 2
LEMON JUICE : 3-4 TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
BENGAL GRAM DAL : 2 TSP
SPLIT SKINLESS YELLOW MOONG DAL : 1 TSP
SPLIT SKINLESS BLACK GRAM DAL : 1 TSP
BLACK MUSTARD SEED : 1 TSP
DRY RED CHILLI : 4-5
OIL : 4TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DRY SPICED PANEER :

PANEER : 250 GM [SERVES 3-4 PEOPLE]
RIPE TOMATO : 2 BIG OR 21/2 MEDIUM OR 4 SMALL SIZED
CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 2 TSP
DRY MANGO POWDER : 1 TSP
GARAM MASALA POWDER : 2 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP
CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 2 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

I prepared the rice first yesterday. Let us share the rice of this green chutney rice kind of at first.

We have washed the rice and cooked it in enough boiling water up to 60% done, we strained it in a colander.

We have cut off the root end of the fresh coriander sprigs and roughly chopped. We have taken together the chopped coriander, peeled garlic cloves, green chillies, curry leaves; all washed.

We have drained the water, taken them in a blender, added salt, lemon juice and sprinkle a little of water.

We have prepared a smooth paste of them.

We have tempered the oil with the black mustard seeds, the dal varieties, the halved dry red chillies.

We have added the green herbs paste, stirred it at low heat for 1/2 a minute.

We have added the cooked rice and stir cooked at high heat for 3-4 minutes.

We will always serve the rice hot.

For the Dry Spiced Paneer recipe, there is hardly any work.

I used frozen paneer, so I soak them in hot, salted water for an hour or two. Discard the water there after.

We have chopped the washed tomatoes. We have tempered the heated oil with the cumin seeds and bay leaf.

We have added the tomatoes, turmeric & little salt to it.

We have sprinkled little water, cover cooked at minimal heat allowing the tomato pieces to melt completely.

We added the cumin, coriander & red chilli powders at this stage.

We have stirred it for 1/2 a minute and added 11/2 coffee mugs of water. We have cover cooked it at minimal heat; allowed it to boil for pretty 3-4 minutes.

We have added the dry mango powder, garam masala powder and gave a stir.

We allowed it to cook for a minute and added the paneer pieces.

We have let it simmer for 3-4 minutes; the paneer anyway would soak in the juices and thicken the gravy in minutes.

You can see we had a hearty vegetarian meal with DRY SPICED PANEER & CURRY LEAF CORIANDER RICE; Water Cress Fritters & Purple Cabbage+Tomato+Lettuce salad tossed in Vietnamese Lemon Grass Salad Dressing.

Doing a minced chicken & potato filled savoury snack was in the wish list for long. Back in India there is a practice of making meat filled chicken & mutton samosa / shingara which might had been a colonial influence. I mean was meat samosa being influenced by meat patty? No local shops usually sell it. Because we had been very very middle class and I did not even know anything about club culture or the food hunts in Park Street, I did not know if Flury's sold meat samosas besides sandwiches & patties or not. The institute I attended during my teens was within a protected area which housed a clubhouse that sold mutton shingara / samosa. I used to get those hot from the wok around 4 pm on some days, these days I surely had marked in the calendar to remind the mother next month; "mani, its one month already; when can we get again?" Once the confectioners like Tulika, Monginis, Kathleen opened their doors in the nook & corner of the Kolkata neighbourhood, pastries & patties became easily available to us middle class Bengalis.

I first entered Flury's after marriage, till date I am not comfortable spending that amount on a piece of cake or on a teatime fair. Does that mean I do not respect history, tradition? Not really, I am just conditioned that way. We always preferred buying patties & pastries from Nahoum's; go home, change clothes, take shower, sit under the fan and eat; eat for the next two days. The very rustic father did not have any interest about meat filled patty also, he was so contained with his "tiffin" with mango, banana, jackfruit, milk and beaten rice, popped rice, chapati or puffed rice. Why haven't I blogged about his favourite "kathal kheer" as yet? I fear the jackfruit variety we get here may not get us much of juice / nectar whatever. Before I decide on it, let me share a non-vegetarian savoury snack recipe CHICKEN SAMOSA / SHINGARA / CHICKEN STUFFED SNACK which we can do with whatever ingredients are available in the kitchen considering there might be 250-300 gm of minced chicken lying in the corner of our freezer all the time.

Though the local confectioners then in Kolkata got meat patties and savouries to the doorstep of the middle class Bengalis, we were not allowed them on a regular basis; for health reasons and also because of both our parents' extreme control on finance. We did not even have electric oven at home, so no question of our mother trying fish & meat patties at home. Fulkopir Shingara was what she would make during winters; egg & meat filled paratha rolls were a regular at home. Monthly few times, we did get samosa / shingara, rolls from outside, my most coveted ones still remains to be meat & fish cutlets; I love those in Kolkata. But you must know the right shops to buy them, else you fail to find decent amount of meat & fish in them. With food adulteration rampant in India, if one has the ability, they should avoid eating meat & fish from anywhere & everywhere.

For the present me, quality is a big concern. Hygiene was always a concern in the family; after a decade of stay in this island, this concern has multiplied. I have taken the mother's route, what she was in her hay days and try my hands on different kinds of sweets & savoury snacks, bread & rice dishes. I already have two Bengali and a mutton samosa / shingara / stuffed savoury snack recipe in the blog if I am not wrong. Let me add this new one, a non-vegetarian fried savoury snack recipe with a filling made of chicken & potato, spices CHICKEN SAMOSA / SHINGARA / CHICKEN STUFFED SNACK. Below is how we had it last Friday, that is my plate, we still have some to fry.

I keep eating around in the island, get outside food too but restaurant hopping on a regular basis is not my cuppa. I will not do that. I have ample time to try my hands on things that are within my limit. In fact, I make things simpler bringing them down to my level of convenience, hence seldom I get to use the authentic tag to my food. About this snack; the shapes are not exactly like the store bought. I shaped only one or two, Cristine did the rest. All the other jobs with regards to it is done by me but that shaping part is very important. I had to keep Cristine's contribution on record. This morning, there was practically no job for us. Believing in zero waste, I used all of the stale rice to prepare a potato-egg rice and packed the man's lunch box. His snack box has swiss roll and a ladoo made by me, I know it's rakhi poornima around. My brother can get happy with a meat samosa, not all who are celebrating, I have to balance the varied needs. Our lunch would be paratha / porota / flat bread; the son gets mutton on the side, I will have the bitter gourd bhaji, Cristine shall decide her's. Yesterday, for lunch I had got chicken chop meal for the men, I had "double dimer omelette & fried kangkong rice"; all the three of us had "doi maach" meal for dinner. Cristine again does not eat with us on Sundays.

It feels good to have used up the rice by morning; although the senior prefers his rice freshly cooked, never messy over cooked rice unless it is "fena bhaat" served.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHICKEN & POTATO FILLING :

MINCED CHICKEN : 250-300 GM
POTATO : 2-3 MEDIUM SIZED
GARLIC PASTE : 1 TBSP
GINGER PASTE : 1 TBSP
SLICED ONION : 11/2 MEDIUM TEA CUP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1 TBSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP
GARAM MASALA POWDER : 2 TSP
DRY MANGO POWDER : 2 TSP
CHAT MASALA : 1 TSP
CUMIN SEED : 1/2 TSP
CORIANDER SEED : 1/2 TSP
LEMON JUICE : 2 TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3 TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DOUGH :

REFINED FLOUR : 2 COFFEE MUG
NIGELLA SEED : 1 TSP
SALT : 1/2 TSP
OIL : 3 TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FRIED SAVOURY SNACK / SAMOSA / SHINGARA :

THE COOKED FILLING
THE KNEADED DOUGH
OIL TO DEEP FRY

PROCEDURE :

We have marinated the washed and drained minced chicken with a little of salt, turmeric, lemon juice and kept aside covered for an hour.

What I do most of the time with regards to boiling potato is; wash & prick each with a fork; take them on a microwave proof plate and microwave at high for 4-5 minutes, say for those 3 potatoes, I used this time.

We will peel and mash the boiled potatoes with some salt once they are cold. You can use any method to boil them.

We have heated 3 tbsp oil in a wok and tempered it with the cumin and coriander seeds. We have pressed the seeds with the back of our ladle.

We have added the ginger-garlic paste and fried for 2-3 minutes.

We have added the washed sliced onions & chopped green chillies and added to the wok.

We have cooked them until golden brown and added the minced chicken with the marination; folded in well and thereafter added the turmeric+cumin+coriander+red chilli powders.

We have folded in well and cover cooked for 7-8 minutes at minimal heat.

We have opened the cover, added the boiled potato and chaat masala, dry mango powder.

We have folded in very well and stir cooked the entire thing for 5 minutes at low heat. We have added the garam masala powder and some salt if only required and stir cooked for a minute or two.

We have transferred the prepared chicken & potato filling on to a plate.

For the dough, we have taken the flour, nigella seeds and salt together and mixed well.

We have added 3 tbsp of oil and rubbed well for 2-3 minutes.

Now adding water little by little; we have kneaded the flour mix to a firm, smooth dough.

We have kept it covered for 15-20 minutes, opened cover and kneaded again for 2 minutes.

We tore off small portions and smoothened each between our palms. We have rolled each onto small roundels and cut half with a cake knife.

We have applied some water at the corners and folded to join from the straight line side.

We have filled the pocket with the stuffing; and pressed the open ends to close.

I did one, Cristine shaped the rest.

Once done, we refrigerated it for an hour or two. We took them out just before frying.

We have heated the oil in a wok just little and never let it get too hot. We have added a few uncooked snacks / samosa / shingara at a time so that they can move around and we do not have a problem turning them over. You can see the oil is mildly hot.

Once done, we will keep them onto tissue papers.

It was still hot and crisp after 20 minutes of frying them only because of the right temperature of the oil and the right technique of frying. This is what I have learnt over the years.

I served it with tamarind sauce, Thai Chilli sauce and the salad with Vietnamese lemon grass salad dressing.

I felt either I share this frozen dessert recipe today or I shall wait for few more more months for a next year to come. Anyway, mango season got over in most of the countries. I am a bit of a selfish in this matter. We get mango more or less throughout the year in this island and when it is mango I hardly follow any advice with regards to seasonal eating. I have to buy if the price range & quality suit me, feed the family and eat it too. I do not look for the Bengali or the Indian variety either; before eating, I just see if they are fresh, ripe and sweet. I like frozen fresh fruit & yogurt combinations, may be more than ice-creams these days. Bottles of creams going into the ice-creams do not give me comfort. If I buy a frozen fruit yogurt for 2:50 Sing$, I also get to consume the unnecessary emulsifier, artificial colorant, preservatives. Moreover, a 100ml cup does not seem enough to me. Is not it easier to prepare them at home? This time, I made a gluten-free, sugar-free, frozen yogurt with ripe mango puree, honey, litchi pulp, fresh mint, plain yogurt; named the vegetarian delight FRESH MINT LITCHI FROZEN MANGO YOGURT. Leaving the freezing part, everything else takes half-an-hour to gather and get done.

There is a series of events this month revolving our lives; Eid, Rakhi Poornima, the National Day Celebration here in the island and the Independence Day Celebration there in India, Janmashtami too. I have everything recorded inside and would share friendly recipes that all of us can sit together and enjoy. Most of the D-Day shares will be vegetarian cooked in my kitchen. In any celebration, no one's plate should remain empty, I have to put something on your plate. What I cannot do is a series of appropriate shares for a fortnight revolving around the occasion; I am not an organised person and extremely moody. I cannot guarantee what would be my next action. Anyway, I believe my food shares are decent and after a long, descriptive blog post about a non-vegetarian stuffed snack; I should go ahead with a easy going, extremely yum, vegetarian, gluten-free, sugar-free frozen dessert recipe FRESH MINT LITCHI FROZEN MANGO YOGURT.

It again started raining. This year it feels there is too much of rain as compared to what is natural. The associated strong wind also is causing damage to my greens. I am literally craving for longer period of sunshines. But such a cool, cloudy weather is good for long walks and I am planning to walk down to the old neighbourhood after finishing off with the blog post. I am planning to cut my hair short not wanting to colour my greys anymore. To get an even grey look, the hair has to get short; hair studios here told no amount of bleach can get me an artificial salt & pepper look. I may bob it shoulder length. Before that, some chapatis have to be done to pack the man's lunch box with chicken, his snack box will have a blushing red & yellow pear and homemade ladoo. For the son's breakfast, I may do a quick, chocolate mug cake in microwave. Cristine would make both their lunch; "porota, omelette, aloo bhaja". Mumma will have her lunch outside, it can be a Yong Tao Fong; she cannot be at home before 3-3:30 pm probably. Thereafter, I may start with a new novel after over a month. Our life course is as simple as this.

INGREDIENTS :

FRESH RIPE MANGO : 2 STANDARD SIZED
PLAIN YOGURT : 200-250 GM
HONEY : 4 TBSP
FRESH MINT LEAF : 10-12
FRESH LITCHI PULP : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP FULL

PROCEDURE :

Wash the mangoes well, discard the root ends and peel off the skins. Squeeze the pulp as much as possible. If there is space in the surrounding, add the seed to the soil.

Take the mango pulp and the washed mint leaves in a blender.

Blend it at high for a minute to get a smooth puree.

Take the yogurt and honey in a bowl and beat well with a spoon or a hand beater.

Add the mango-fresh mint puree and beat again to incorporate everything well.

Pour the content on to a clean container. Peel off the skins of each of the litchi after washing. Take out the pulp and discard the seeds. Again, throw the seeds in the soil around.

Arrange the litchi pieces on top of the mango puree.

Cover it with a tight lid and freeze at least for 5-6 hours before serving.

This Eid-Al-Adha / Hari Raya Hazi Day, I wish to share a very simple, main dish or a snack idea that can go with any stews; vegetables, egg and meat or with any chutney or sauce of your choice. I am very fond of Indian Pancakes & Crepes, except dosa crepes. I specially love appam, never had tried my hands on it. The pancake recipe I am going to share today with you is done on the lines of appam. I have to practice a lot and with patience to perfect an appam. I also fear that long process of fermenting rice and lentil paste. What is funny is I used to prepare idli the very traditional way when the son was this little; even some decent, homely, less crisp dosas. These two were among his regular lunch box items. It is now I fear that 8-12 hours of fermenting process. I even forgot to do that decent dosa. I think, I will resume the traditional idli-dosa batter making process from next month. Until then, try this instantly made batter with packaged coconut milk, ready made rice flour to prepare some awesomely tasty salty pancakes RICEFLOUR COCONUT MILK INSTANT PANCAKE.

Not only I am growing old but every organ of mine is. Yesterday night, we had mutton and until now I could not digest it. I think instead of having four big pieces, I must limit it to two pieces. The problem has some mental connection too. If people sabotage me with pictures of fish I tremendously love in the day time, there is a possibility I may not have the meat as lovingly in the dinner time. I am almost fifty years now and I have to change my food habits; I have seen I am more comfortable with minced mutton, it cooks faster. I would not mind to say every two weeks, cooking mutton for over two hours is not worthy enough. The vendors here wants you to buy the full front leg and not portions. Four members eating about two kilograms of red meat in a week is not the right thing to do. We are not the extreme kinds who would survive on salads and soups either. It feels simple meals of "dal, maach, torkari, ekta shaak ba bhaja" should be enough for us "fifty-ish" people at home.

From now onwards, you will get more of simple affairs in my kitchen. Who would I cook for? I used to for our growing up boy, the man hardly fancy food. He can even do without dal, but I must do it, imagine myself having it sitting with my boy. I believe when he visits home on vacations, he would want mumma to cook dal for him. If I sit to express my emotional ups and downs I am experiencing at this time, I may not be able to finish the post any sooner. Let us instead share this vegetarian, Indian Pancake recipe RICE FLOUR COCONUT MILK INSTANT PANCAKE done with an instantly made batter.

INGREDIENTS :

COCONUT MILK : 200 ML [I USED COCONUT POWDER 100 GM]
RICE FLOUR : 11/2 COFFEE MUG
FRUIT SALT : 11/2 to 2 TBSP [I ALWAYS USE ENO]
SALT : 1/2 TSP
WATER : IF ONLY REQUIRED
GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER : 1/2 TSP [ YOU CAN USE MELTED BUTTER INSTEAD] [USE COCONUT OIL FOR A VEGAN VERSION]

PROCEDURE :

Take the rice flour & salt in a wide mouthed bowl and mix well.

I used packeted coconut powder, so dissolved it in hot water and had beaten pretty well.

Add it to the rice flour little by little and mix well.

Add little more coconut milk or water if required. The consistency of the batter need not be too paste like, never runny. Beat very well to make it lump free.

Keep it covered for about 45 minutes. Open cover and add the fruit salt to it. Mix very well and keep aside for 4-5 minutes.

Heat a fry pan on stove top very well. Add few drops of ghee and spread well, in fact wipe the pan with a moist piece of cloth. This makes your pan ready for the next 10-11 of the pancakes to be made.

Take a round, big, deep spoon to take the batter and gently put at the centre of the pan. Lightly spread with the back of your spoon.

Add 1/2 tsp of ghee from the top and turn over. Keep for 30 seconds and take off. Its ready to be served hot.

I served it with a dry chicken curry, coriander-yogurt chutney and a mustard paste-green chilli-raw mango sauce I have already blogged about.

Okay, for the green chutney; blend together washed fresh coriander sprigs, peeled garlic cloves, green chillies. Add it to beaten, plain yogurt and mix well. Add a tea spoon of dry mango powder and mix well. Serve it chilled.

I can say you will enjoy doing and having the Indian style rice flour & coconut milk pancakes.

Today is a very auspicious day, "Rakhi Poornima"; "RakshaBandhan." We have been celebrating this day in our home for many years now; ever since my brother turned five years old. In our family, "Bhai Phota" is given and a Rakhi is tied only after the brothers turn five. It is for ten years now we stay away from Kolkata and I wish my brother over phone. Once I finish with this post, I will call him, exchange wishes, pray to the Almighty for his long, healthy life. We are two middled aged siblings now, I will be turning 50 in few months. In this celebration, there cannot be any darkness, a little hurt that is caused is the thought that our's is a single child who have never experienced the depth of such days. In the case of this home, I personally have tried to include our child in the discussion of Indian Celebrations & Festivals; explaining to it their importance and significance in our lives; it has not taken much of interest. It feels a little sad to think that such loner kids never got a Rakhi thread or Bhai Phota from anyone, such days do not have any significance to a lone kid like ours'. In this scenario, I would always want them to have wonderful cohorts in future, may the bond of friendship be very strong and pure in their lives. On this occasion, I can only think of sharing a recipe, a dish that we can enjoy as a family, never is it possible to bypass the choices of any of my own. My brother cannot have too sweet stuffs, neither can I these days or allow my family to have too sugary stuffs. I use either brown sugar or honey to sweeten sweet meats without which life does not seem normal. Here is a wonderful, mildly sweet vegetarian sweet share for you; SUGAR FREE SEMOLINA & DRY FRUITS SWEET.

Our yesterday's lunch too was also what we enjoy, my brother too; KFC chicken meals. At night, it was egg meal, not something my brother is fond of but he has, enjoys egg roll I know! I definitely prefer egg over any sea fish these days. Given to choose between pomfret and egg, I will have a hearty meal with an egg curry, "shaak, dal, aloo bhaja." Our life will see some changes at this home. Cooking would get simpler for the major time period in the year. Wish the other senior member had been a foodie. It is also true that I have realised on reaching this age, I feel uneasy if I eat a little more. I love food; hence I do this blunder often but I am trying to control the amount of food intake in general. The other senior member is in control for many years now. I cannot discard fried stuffs entirely but I can put a control on it. Keeping the health factor in mind and my changed taste buds, I prepared this vegetarian sweet SUGAR FREE SEMOLINA & DRY FRUITS SWEET. I do not do a suji ladoo / semolina ladoo the way rest of India does, I find that usual way tough that requires expertise and too much use of ghee. I doubt if Bengalis can digest a copious amount of ghee. So, I prepared it in the simplest way you may take interest in. Yes, I used all the dry fruit varieties that I store at home.

INGREDIENTS :

SEMOLINA : 150 GM
ALMOND : 7-8
PISTACHIO : 8-10
WALNUT : 6-7
CASHEW NUT : 12-13
RAISIN : 10-12 [ I FORGOT TO ADD]
HONEY : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP SIZE [ OR USE AS PER YOUR PREFERENCE]
GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1 TSP
GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER : 75-100 ML [YOU CAN USE BUTTER TOO]

PROCEDURE :

We are using the following ingredients, just forgot keep the ghee tin in the frame.

Take the semolina in a blender and blend it to a powder. It would still remain a bit coarse.

Heat the ghee in a wok, not to the smoking point.

Add the powdered semolina, and roast for 4-5 minutes, folding in well. Keep the heat at minimal.

Ask someone else to stir and prepare a powder with the dry fruits except the raisins.

Add the powdered dry fruits to the roasted semolina.

Fold in well and roast further for 3-4 minutes. Add the green cardamom powder and fold in well.

Next, add the honey and fold in well.

Thereafter add 1 tbsp of ghee / butter and keep sprinkling water and keep stirring simultaneously.

Just sprinkle water sparingly, never add cups of it. Now we are ready to transfer it to a plate. At this stage we had to add the raisins, I forgot; you should not.

We will let it cool a bit but would shape them when still warm. We will grease our palms with little ghee before shaping them.

Cristine always gives the finishing touch of getting them superbly round.

They taste the best when eaten fresh. If refrigerated, they should be brought back to the room temperature before consuming.

I immensely enjoy cooking and having this bean variety. The reason is that, as compared to the other bean varieties like red kidney bean or red beans or black beans, it takes way less time to cook. I find it so hassle free to cook and too tasty it is; just like the pink, spotted variety of kidney beans. The black variety of kidney beans give tough time even to a pressure cooker. I have noticed any bean variety becomes rebellious when they are stored for long in the kitchen. This hardly happens in a non-Bengali speaking Indian home, they heavily eat bean varieties. In a Bengali Home like mine, it happens that they are sometimes not cooked for months. I ask myself why so? My men love bean curries with hand made breads or a fried rice. My brother takes rajma or chole curry in his lunch box every week. If the curry has minced meat in it like this BLACK EYED BEANS & MINCED CHICKEN CURRY, they simply would want to hug me. It is me who force on them "ilish er matha diye gathi kochu." Yes, I cook and click them, give me some time to get them in the blog.

This week all of us are at home. It feels good. I feel content knowing there may not be much fight between me and T if he works from home or in our retired life; given we have helps, the son does well in life and keeps hale & hearty. As I always say these days, I have grown old mentally, I absolutely discourage him to go for an upgraded living once back to Kolkata after few years. What I keep telling him is it is not required to at that age when we do not know who will leave the other when. I prefer money to be kept in the bank, safe & secured. I so assure him to totally renovate our present Kolkata abode before moving in, he hardly listens to me. I am been very honest when I say I no more crave to own a flat with a terrace or two balconies in a Rosedale like condo, whilst he wants a condo that has a swimming pool, club house and restaurant services; he always wanted to stay in Rukmani Parasmani or Silver Spring kinds. At this time I feel, they are no more my requirements. We never know how long we can spend together; this thought of mine one may find weird but I am a born pessimist. I had been on medication but I do not wish to. I want to be strong enough to bypass my mental illness and save the man's hard earned money from been wasted. I know my problem is not acute; it is superficial, it is an idle brain's fantasy. I cannot even tell my mother what worst thoughts are plaguing me concerning the son's decision to leave home for higher studies. I want to tell T but he does not wish to listen.

Yes, bigger sized prawns & salmon are coming home, even hilsa; minced mutton kebabs be made for the son, any mother would do so. Hostels and Canteens abroad are very good but the thought I cannot cook and feed my child is making me numb. The concerns for his safety and security in a foreign land is making me wild. I thank few friends who are constantly talking to me on this matter, sharing their experience or giving me valuable inputs with regards to him. I like it if they are not talking irrelevant to me. What is ripping me apart is the fact that I will truly get jobless now. Cooking would get so simple that I do not know how to spend time. Kitty Parties and Mall Hopping? I can never indulge in activities I do not enjoy. I may call friends in a group of 2-3 people maximum in this situation to chat and cook happily for them, I will call them in singles too or go out with one or two of them but never make it a ritual. I so love my sole ventures, that too is restricted because of the pandemic. I remain as simple as a woman who did not make cod steaks or fillets a regular visitor at home even for the son's sake or got hold of a 2 kilo sized hilsa to get her man's plate shine bright. The son perhaps have a bit of me within him, it was hilarious to see him sitting with the accounts of his hostel needs and expenditures. Hopefully, he would not turn to be a spendthrift and learn to value money. Mumma asked him not to ration food; eat normal, eat good. He may not be a spendthrift unless stronger influences plague his good will. I feel bad why I did not cook for my men such non-vegetarian meat and bean curry BLACK EYED BEANS & MINCED CHICKEN CURRY once every week? Instead, I forced them to eat very rustic Bengali vegetarian dishes they are not really fond of at all. But yes, they love me cooked "lau er chokla boti, mocha, each of the boras & pakoras, fresh lotey maacher jhuri, shutkir jhuri." I need not feel too guilty of imposing my food preferences on them, what do you say dear readers?

INGREDIENTS :

BLACK EYED BEAN : 100 GM
MINCED CHICKEN : 300-350 GM
CHOPPED TOMATO : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP
SLICED ONION : 2 SMALL TEA CUP FULL
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 2 TSP
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 3-4
MINCED GARLIC : 2 TBSP
MINCED GINGER : 2 TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 2 TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP
DRY MANGO POWDER : 1 TSP
GARAM MASALA POWDER : 1 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP
STAR ANISE : 1
BLACK CARDAMOM : 1
GREEN CARDAMOM : 1
CINNAMON STICK : 2-3 ONE INCH STICK
CLOVE : 3-4
BAY LEAF : 1
CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP
LEMON JUICE : 2-3 TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 5-6 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Wash and soak the black eyed beans in hot water for 3-4 hours, if in cold water, then overnight.

Wash and marinate the minced chicken with a little of salt & turmeric, lemon juice for an hour.

Drain the water and take the beans in a pressure cooker, add 2 coffee mugs of water, little salt and turmeric.

Pressure cook at low up to 1 whistle.

Switch off the gas and wait the lid to open normally.

Heat the oil in a wok; temper it with the black & green cardamoms, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cumin seeds, star anise and the bay leaf.

Give a stir and add the minced garlic & ginger. Stir fry for a minute and add the washed & sliced onions.

Fry for another minute and add the marinated minced chicken. Fold in well and cover cook at minimal heat for 10 minutes.

Open cover, add the chopped tomatoes+turmeric+cumin+coriander+chilli powders and stir. Cover cook again for 7-8 minutes.

Open the cover, add the boiled black eyed beans, a coffee mug of water. Stir and cover cook at minimal heat for 10 minutes.

Open the cover, add the dry mango powder + garam masala powder; adjust the salt. Stir and simmer at low heat for 3-4 minutes.

Garnish with chopped green chillies and onion rings. Serve hot with your choice of breads & fried rices.

This can be an wonderful snack idea with your tea / coffee. The question is how did I land at it? I actually come across a number of recipes each day, I follow so many wonderful food pages and bloggers. Some of the recipes appeal to me instantly, asap I know I will like it and my family too. That is when I try my hands on them. Either I get exactly what the original recipe says or I get something else taking a path which is convenient for me. Like this simple puffs are a result of following two different recipes, which were not at all puffs but croissants. I followed two croissant recipes and landed into a delicious, vegetarian, homely puff recipe EASY SNACKER PUFF. I always say, I do not bake like a pro. But what I share with you are fairly edible. Wow! the senior member at home who these days does not get time to have his share of fruits, sweets, bakes because of his evening time beer session and aversion to breakfast, took it from the container last evening and was having with his wine; Holy Jesus! was what I could whisper.

The sun shines very bright today. This year it had been raining way more than normal. Actually, it rains continuously between October and February in this tropical island. So, I am enjoying the sunshine that leaves a warm feeling on my skin. That sounds very contradictory sitting in a tropical clime; may be the layers of practicality in this world took a toll on my romantic self; I mean rain brings gloom to me and not poetry. Okay, it also makes me buy the herb our mother used to grow and batter fry them to perfection for us siblings, specially on Thursdays. We never were served cold food, she fried and served us immediately. So I do, I fried them for an hour; 9pm-10pm to get that crisp texture which stayed as long as for 45 minutes. Yes, I did click the pictures of it, shall get it in the blog; when I do not know.

I do not know if if I can update the blog in a routined manner as I was doing all this while. I mean that weekly thrice thing may not happen for sometime now. I will cook less and simple. However, Blogging shall continue in a slow pace. In the personal front, things will not remain the same from the next month. I have to get adjusted to the new normal in my life first; get used to living with a constant fear concerning my own; then only I can think about my blog statistics, etc. You already have 850 recipes to choose from if at all you wish to cook my recipes. When I set loose for sometime; I continue to chat with my readers on my business pages; mostly concerning food. What I will cook and eat everyday, where I go, the eatery I sit; the experience shall be shared on my respective pages. As of now, let us share the recipe of a very simply made, vegetarian bake EASY SNACKER PUFF with you all. It may not look perfect as seen in a confectionary or how a pro makes it but its good. To make it flaky, I had to use a lot of butter which I did not. It tasted like a butter croissant but I could not shape it like a croissant. I took ideas from the following Page & Blog respectively for it :

Tiffin Box [https://www.facebook.com/kidstiffinbox/]
Sally's Baking Addiction [ a blog that shares wonderful bakes. Well, a few of my westerner friends too bake equally well, they eat paneer, idli, dosa too]

INGREDIENTS :

REFINED FLOUR : 11/2 COFFEE MUG
YEAST : 1 1/2 TSP
MILK : 1/3 COFFEE MUG OR AS REQUIRED [ AT ROOM TEMPERATURE]
BUTTER : 2 TBSP AT ROOM TEMPERATURE + 3 TBSP MELTED

I USED SALTED BUTTER, IF YOU ARE USING UNSALTED BUTTER, ADD 1/2 TSP SALT TO THE FLOUR.

I FORGOT TO ADD SUGAR TO THE FLOUR, YOU CAN ADD SOME.

PROCEDURE :

Take the flour and yeast in a wide mouthed big bowl.

Mix well and add 2 tbsp butter at room temperature.

Mix and rub well for 3 minutes.

Add the milk little by little and keep kneading to get a smooth dough. This may take 7-8 minutes.

Cover it and keep in a warm place.

Rest it for an hour and open the cover.

Give a punch, knead for two minutes.

Tear off smaller portions and smoothen between palms.

Roll out each into round shape not too thin and cut into four pieces.

Brush each portion with butter.

Cristine shaped each one; we failed to get an exact croissant shape.

Grease a bake proof plate with butter, place the puffs on it and brush oil on each. Keep at rest for 10-12 minutes; they rise.

I use a convection mode microwave. I had placed the low stool required for baking inside and preheated the oven for 10 minutes at 180*C.

I placed the bake tray on it and baked at 180*C for 10 minutes. I took out the plate and brushed butter again.

I again placed it back atop the wired stool, baked at 180*C for 5 minutes. The finished goodie looked as below.

We enjoyed it with omelette and salad for our dinner. I suggest you to have it with jam, butter or as it is with tea / coffee.

Today is a day of celebration in this island. As a resident foreigner, it feels good to watch the revelling islanders all around. This year off course there will be no pomp and show. Yet, they will enjoy their own small way. This family may not enjoy the way they will but we at home do not believe in living isolated in a foreign land. From their New Year to the National Day, we just feel happy in their happiness. Being a food blogger, I always pay a small tribute to most of their major celebrations. I simply enjoy my stay here, got adapted to a couple of local food. I do not really get many local ingredients and try cooking local. I do not like the idea of buying a number of sauce bottles and seasonings without having much knowledge about them. If I cook noodles, instead of buying ingredients, I would prefer cooking a purely homestyle tomato broth and dunk the noodles and vegetables in it like this NOODLES IN A FLAVOURFUL TOMATO BROTH.

Yesterday, there was less cooking at home. Actually, I was cooking the Friday night too. My Bengali men are fond of North Indian Food if you ask their food preference with regards to India. I am cooking as per their preference now; this week more so because we had a guest yesterday afternoon.

That young lady visited us to chat with the family member who is leaving home in a short while. The thing is, our weird son is quieter than natural. He takes time. His attitude seems unwelcoming to most of the people, the reason why I did not call people home; else I could have called one family at a time in this pandemic situation to meet him. I felt there is no point calling people home whilst the son retires to his room and sits behind closed doors all through. People will not understand, most of us cannot understand or accept what is beyond the usual. This girl I know will not talk ill of his weirdly being. Our boy sat with her for few minutes and went off. She was chatting with the uncle like. The son does have his set of friends, never got them home even after my repeated requests that mumma wants to meet his friends. As per this girl, he will change once he starts staying alone in a foreign land, she told me "aunty, hum sikh letey hai sab kuch" once we are out of our secured cosy home. I told her if she agreed to visit our home in the past two years, they would have become good friends; it is good that she could keep aside her shyness and finally visit us. Okay, I clicked a photograph with her uncle but did not get a chance to do the same with our boy in the frame.

Noodles; is favourite with me, Cristine and the son. T eats it but does not prefer it more than a naan bread or a sashimi. But decades back there was a time he totally loved noodles; having it at home or in a restaurant. During our courtship days, we used to have a lot of restaurant hopping over noodles. He also loved chopsuey of the "Bahargaon." We have not eaten it for long. I have not thought of trying it at home. Anyway, on the day of this island's celebration; I preferred to share this home style noodles cooked in a flavourful, tomato broth done solely at home. I wished to keep this NOODLES IN A FLAVOURFUL TOMATO BROTH as simple as possible so that those of you who are of the same mentality as mine can do with whatever is available at home. I served it with chicken fries lightly coated in a corn flour & black pepper mix. Some days, I cook a platter that is totally loved by the entire family, this is one. I had to keep something my brother loves, those chicken fries. He is not so fond of noodles except for the "bangla chow chow" made of eggs, onion, green chillies, carrots, potatoes. We loved platefuls while watching "Jonny Soko and His Flying Robot" whilst in school!

INGREDIENTS FOR THE TOMATO BROTH :

RIPE TOMATO : 4-5 BIG SIZED
CUBED BROCCOLI : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP
MUSHROOM : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP
MINCED GARLIC : 1 TBSP
MINCED GINGER : 1 TSP
CUBED ONION : 1 SMALL TEA CUP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 2 TSP
MAGGI / KNORR CHICKEN STOCK CUBE : 1 [ALTERNATIVELY USE VEGETABLE CUBE]
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/2 TSP
SOY SAUCE : 2 TSP
SALT : 1/4-1/2TSP
OIL : 2 TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE NOODLE BOWL :

THE BROTH WITH MUSHROOMS & BROCCOLI
ABOUT 600GM-700GM OF NOODLE [SERVES 5-6 HEADS]

PROCEDURE :

We have done the cutting, chopping, washing, draining part.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the mined garlic, ginger & chopped green chilli.

Add the onion cubes, stir fry for a minute at low heat.

Add the cubed tomatoes, salt & red chilli powder.

Add 2-3 coffee mugs of water and give a stir.

Close tight the lid, pressure cook up to 3-4 whistles at minimal heat.

Meanwhile, we have got the broccoli florets & mushrooms washed and ready atop the kitchen top, the chicken stock cube too.

Once the pressure cooker opens naturally; whisk, stir and strain the soup.

Now put the vessel with the tomato soup on the gas top to boil. Add the chicken or vegetable stock cube.

When it simmers, add the freshly crushed black pepper & soy sauce.

After 5 minutes, add the broccoli florets and the mushrooms. Cook at low heat for 3-4 minutes. I think I over cooked the broccoli & mushrooms.

Now add the noodles to the simmering soup, stir and cook for 3 minutes at medium heat.

This is where I went wrong given I wanted the noodle bowl soupy. For that I had to boil the noodles separately and strain and then add the cooked noodle to this broth. Anyway, I lessened your work and mine.

The noodles tasted yum with the cornflour & black pepper coated fried, boneless chicken.

It is Janmashtami Celebration among many Indians a day after. I worship both the adult avatar of Krishna and his child version, Ladoo, my boy. Our son used to throw away his flute and remove him off his sit as a child. Every year, on this day I cook few dishes and do the offering. None of the year it is really a grand affair at this home, I do not have enough space. I do not have the required energy to cook a lot either. This year given the situation; I will do it in an even smaller scale. One thing I am very strict about is whatever I do, I must do it sincerely. Me cooked food goes wrong too but I do not take pride in it. In the next attempt, I try my best to correct the error.

It actually so happens that I do not usually attempt or may bypass difficult tasks. This is a very mediocre trait in a person and I agree I am one. I cook simple and I share simpler food in the blog. This vegetarian, Bengali dessert SUGAR FREE LUCHIR PAYESH suits the occasion, you can cook it hassle free and offer it to your God Family not only on Janmashtami but on any special prayer day.

Luchir Payesh used to be done in Bengali families with left over refined flour poori / puffed breads. People lived in joint families and it was not possible to count always or cook things in exact amounts; there were always sudden guests and there was no displeasure on part of the household welcoming them. "Bashi Luchi" / stale puffed bread had two uses, it was eaten with tea the next morning or it was made to a kheer / milk pudding; the later is what I am sharing today.

In our family, stale puffed bread was eaten with tea if there was any leftover at all. Ours' was a nuclear family already and our mother has always been a very organised person. She always has complete control over her pantry and kitchen. Cooking in bulk, throwing off food, allowing many people inside her kitchen is not the way she worked. I too cannot work in coordination with others in my kitchen; nor can be a help at others' homes.

So, you know, I had rarely seen our mother doing this dessert with stale puffed bread and boiled, thickened milk, sugar. Because, I am sharing the recipe on the eve of a special prayer meet & asking you to cook and offer it to the Almighty; I would ask you to do the pudding with freshly made puffed bread / poori / luchi. In my SUGAR FREE LUCHIR PAYESH, I used honey instead of sugar.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE LUCHI / PUFFED BREAD

REFINED FLOUR : 1 COFFEE MUG
SALT : 2 PINCH
OIL : 1 TBSP + 50 ML TO DEEP FRY

INGREDIENTS FOR THE PUFFED BREAD KHEER

THE LUCHIS / PUFFED BREAD
FULL CREAM MILK : 350-400 ML
EVAPORATED CREAMER : 150 ML
HONEY : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP [ADD AS PER YOUR PREFERENCE]
GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1 TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
TOASTED AND CHOPPED DRY FRUITS TO GARNISH

PROCEDURE :

To make the puffed breads, I had mixed together the refined flour & salt .

Thereafter, I added 1tbsp oil to it.

I rubbed the entire thing for about 2 minutes and prepared a smooth dough adding water little by little.

I had covered the dough for 15-20 minutes; removed cover; kneaded it for 2 minutes and tore of portions.

I had smoothened the balls in between my palms and rolled out roundels from each of them.

I heated the oil in an iron wok and deep fried each bread. The oil need not be too hot or allowed to be get cold. Constant adjusting of the heat level is required.

At this stage, it was difficult not eat them but cool to refrigerate.

I kept them in the refrigerator overnight. Next morning, I took them out and tore into pieces.

I had taken the full cream milk in a deep bottomed vessel. The evaporated creamer & honey are also ready atop the kitchen counter.

I had put the milk for boil adding a bayleaf. When I had boiled for about 8-10 minutes, I added the evaporated creamer.

I gave a stir and boiled it further for 10 minutes and added the cardamom powder and honey.

I kept stirring and cooking it for another 5 minutes. Then poured it on to a serving bowl.

I added the torn puffed bread pieces and allowed it to dunk.

Once the dessert got cooled, I refrigerated it for at least 3-4 hours before serving garnishing it with toasted and chopped dried fruits!

This is a fruit I was skeptical about buying for few years after coming to this island. I tasted it only on flights. Hailing from a state that worships mango, jackfruit, litchi, watermelon; I found it's taste too bland; in fact dragon fruit seemed tasteless to me. It is only in the recent years, may be since last year I started getting it home and I so like it these days. I get fruits for myself that are low in sugar; I got very used to having them. These days, any amount of excess sugar in desserts is what I cannot take. Sweet and Juicy fruits will always remain my love but I am asked not to have them much. I forgot to have a whole mango fruit. It's always half for me; once or twice a week.

I do not deprive myself of tasting what I love. I had litchis in litchi season, get longan & rambutan too but in less frequency. This dragon fruit; the white or purple variety come for me alone, Cristine too eats I think. I serve the men apple, orange, grape, mango, pear; the common varieties. Banana goes to the son's smoothies. They definitely would have a dessert kheer / pudding made of dragon fruit, rice flour, full cream milk, sugar, honey. Flavoured with green cardamom powder, this DRAGON FRUIT PHIRNI was liked by the family, it is a keep.

It is India's special occasion in two days. I am so caught up at this time that I could not think deeper what to serve on India's platter. Last month, a long time friend of mine who lives in the same neighbourhood in Kolkata as mine, told me they get a lot of dragon fruit in the Baguiati area or may be in Kolkata. I was so surprised. Then I do a brief research and find states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra are doing dragon fruit farming these days, exporting too. That is wow. So, for a month I am planning to cook and blog about this vegetarian dessert DRAGON FRUIT FIRNI. I finally did it last Monday afternoon. Thereafter, when I sat on the sofa set letting it to cool before refrigerating, I saw a fellow blogger sharing a dragon fruit smoothie in the respective space. I just smiled; it is a coincidence off-course. I expect people to try both of our dishes or as per their food preferences.

INGREDIENTS :

PURPLE DRAGON FRUIT : 1 STANDARD SIZED
RICE FLOUR : 2-3 TBSP [I USED STORE BOUGHT]
FULL CREAM MILK : 350 ML
EVAPORATED CREAMER : 150 ML
HONEY : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
SUGAR : 2-3 TBSP
GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1 TSP
LIGHTLY TOASTED DRY FRUITS TO GARNISH

PROCEDURE :

We will be using these few things to prepare the kheer / pudding.

We will take 1 small tea cup of full cream milk in a bowl, add the rice flour little by little; whisk to incorporate well. There shall be no lump present.

Take the milk in a deep bottomed vessel and put for boil at minimal heat.

We have washed, cut half, scooped out and blended the dragon fruit to a paste.

When the full cream milk has boiled for 12-14 minutes; we will add the evaporated creamer.

We will give a stir and boil at low heat for another 10-12 minutes. We will stir every 2-3 minutes.

Thereafter, we will add the rice flour & full cream milk paste.

We will continuously stir at low to minimal heat at this stage to let the entire thing cook and incorporate well.

When it starts thickening, we will add the fresh dragon fruit paste and fold in well.

It is not a citrus fruit, so there is no fear of curdling of the content.

We will continuously stir and let it boil for 10-12 minutes. Dragon Fruit releases a lot of water.

When the pudding thickens more, we will add the honey, sugar and the green cardamom powder.

We will fold in well and stir cook continuously for 5-6 minutes.

We will let it cool completely before refrigerating it for at least 2-3 hours. It should always be served chilled garnished with lightly toasted dry fruits.