Trainspotting

A(my better half ;-)) prefers home cooked food to anything else. I take is as a compliment to my skills, though I know that is taking it too far. It was one of those weekends when you plan to go out..but do not want a pizza bloating you up and spoiling the day. And so we thought we would have a brunch and then go out. I thought of making an Aloo tomato curry, but A(with his helping attitude) had already boiled the potatoes so I improvised and made this dry sabji. It is good for carrying over on journeys with methi thepla perhaps. I remember a version of this being a staple journey food.

In my childhood the annual holidays were spent in Calcutta, without fail and the journey used to take better part of 2 days. Of course in those days you really could not think of eating the railway food for fear of the after-effects. So apart from the mound of luggage needed for a month long stay , we would have an extra bag filled with eatables and specially prepared food which would not go bad in the scorching temp of 35°C. Oh and a big Milton water flask..:-) bisleri was way into future. I was always apprehensive and fearing the worst when my father disembarked to get that precious flask filled in. Even when I started travelling on my own I managed numerous journeys without getting down on the platform. Extreme I know!!
I will post these long staying recipes when I start trying them out. But for now here is the recipe for the quick and tasty aloo tamatar sabzi.






Ingredients

• 4-5 medium sized potatoes
• 3 tomatoes
• ½ inch ginger
• Jerre (Cumin seeds)-1tsp
• Holdi(Turmeric powder)-1tsp
• Lal Lonka gudo(red chilli powder) – 1 tsp
• Salt
• Oil.
  
  Boil the potatoes and peel them.Cut them lightly into ½ inch pieces.
  Blend the tomatoes with the ginger. You should not need any water during this , as tomato has a lot of water of its own.
  Heat oil in a vessel(ideally kadhai) if not a pan would do.
  Add cumin seeds. If lightly crushed would be good. Do not add powder.
  Add the tomato ginger paste and the green chilli sliced. Fry it for 5-6 mins on medium flame. Add turmeric powder and chilli powder. Fry for another couple of minutes.
  The test is to be sure the raw smell of the spices have gone...and the colour of the paste will intensify.
  Now add salt and add the potatoes to this.
  Mix well and cook by covering for 5 mins.
  Done!!Taste great with puris or luchi

Race with time...

Weekdays are days for fast foods...the total time interval between reaching home and going to sleep is a barely 3-3.5 hrs. We need to cook, eat, wash and catch on some news before within this limit. Anymore than 45 mins in the kitchen is a waste.

Over the last couple of years I have managed to find some shortcuts in the traditional recipes. Some learnt by mistakes...costing me double the time in kitchen , others..through more experienced cooks who generously share through their blogs.

This one recipe is something which I have found very handy at times when I have to entertain on a weekday. Its the traditional chole prepared with a difference. Whisk a quick raita and a mixed daal and it can pass for a good base of a weekday dinner. If you are preparing for yourself only, then you can skip the daal and raita. I always try to be availble for my guests instead of being in the kitchen. The aim is to be an effortless hostess... this preparation helps to a certain extent in that.

Chole the ragda style.

Ingredients (serves 4 people)
1. Chick peas - 250 gms
2. Onions - 1 large
3. Coriander/cilantro - 5 tsp chopped up
4. Mint leaves - 2 tsp chopped up
5. Green chilli - 2(according to taste)
6. Garam Masala - 2 tbsp
7. Cumin powder- 2 tbsp
8. Tamarind - approx 5-10gms ( not needed if you have any tamarind sauce, e.g. Tamarina by maggi)
9. Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp
10. salt- to taste

In the morning before you leave for work, soak the chick peas in water. Also if you do not have Maggi Tamarina Sauce then soak the tamarind separately in water as well. For 10 gms put int no more than 3 cups of water.

In the evening when you come back, first thing to do is put the chickpeas with water into a pressure cooker. if you want you can put in a slice of ginger and 2 cloves of garlic. Totally optional. After that sqeeze the tamarind to get most of the pulp and water. Just remove the residue and put the water on to a slow flame.

Now take some time and get fresh.

A good 15 mins later the chickpeas should have been done. Take out 1 cup out of it and keep separate. Add coriander and mint and green chillies to the cupful of the chickpeas and make a paste in your food processor.
Add some jiggery or sugar to the tamarind water meanwhile and stir it at regular intervals. When it thickens then mix some black salt(optional) and cumin powder to this.
Heat oil in a vessel.Add a pinch of cumin. And then the onion paste. Fry the paste till the raw smell of it disappears. Then add the chickpeas/coriander and mint paste prepared earlier. Keep stirring and frying this mixture. Add coriander powder and salt, keep frying. When the paste starts leaving oil through its sides, then add black pepper and then the remaining of boiled chickpeas. If you want you can make this a dry preparation or add the water you boiled the chickpeas in to make a sauce. Let it simmer for 10 mins on low flame.
After that add 3tbsp of the tamarind sauce you prepares or Maggi tamarina and garam masala and let it simmer till it reaches the consistency that you want.
Garnish with chopped coriander and tomato.

Singing in the rain

Its a depressing Sunday evening and I have taken a step when i thought i would never do. BLOG.
I have tried to keep a diary at different points of life and struggled with it.And blogging had never felt like an option. Why on earth would I want complete strangers to read something I do not want to share with my better half also!!. But I have a mantra in life. To try things out at least once. So here I am.
I owe this space to my stomach:-). My passion for food was dormant for the initial 18 years of my life.A good decade later I cannot identify with the girl who did not like to eat.
Today I have spent the better part of morning in the kitchen while the wind and rain beat an accompanying tune on the kitchen window. Sunday evenings are depressing and the British weather doesn't do much to alleviate it. Apart from reading books which allows me to escape , the other thing I can do is cook. So sundays are generally heavy on the cooking side.
Today was the first weekend after a quick trip to India and nostalgia made me more intent on trying to cook something new.
so it was Mochar Ghonto/Laal Saag and bangali pulao.

We somehow managed to find Mocha in UK. This is the first time I have cooked it. The taste was well worth the effort, or may be its the effort that made it tastier :-). I do not think I can claim credit for either the recipe or the effort in getting the ingredients. The recipe is courtsey my mom who was too happy to know I was undertaking the task of making 'Mocha'. The credit for finding the ingredient itself is due to my husband, who has discovered a sudden love for bangali food and which is why I have called this blog 'Notun Bangali'.

Also this is my first blog so I do not want to overrun my welcome 'word-limit'. A quick set of directions are given below. I do to do better than this in future. But for now my stomach statisfied, deludes my mind away from nostalgia. It helps me to look out at the bleak scene out of my window and still hum 'singing in the rain'.

Mochar Ghonto

Ingredients

1. Mocha- Bannana Blossoms (as shown in the photograph)- 1 medium sized
2. Aalo (potato) - 2 medium sized, either boiled and diced in big chunks or just cut into small pieces
3. Jerra (cumin seeds)- 2 tsp
4. Aada (Ginger) - 1 inch
5. Tej pata(Bay Leave)- 2
6. Laal lonka gudo (Red Chilli Powder)-1/2tsp
7. Holdi (turmeric)- 1/2 tsp
8. Oil - approx 3 Tbsp
9. Salt to taste

The largest portion of time is in preparing mocha, as other websites would also tell you. Well if you do not believe, you learn it the hard way. As I did.

Basically you need to peel of the layers and separate the florets.

As you go towards the centre, a dense part of the stem comes out. This can be eaten too, I am told. But as this was the first time I was cooking it , i did not take it.

Immerse the florets into warm waters with salt and turmeric.

Then pressure cook this again with salt.

The water that comes out is a pretty pink and enticing.

But throw it away :-) and press the mocha florets to get any remaining water out. Chop these up very finely.

Meanwhile prepare a paste of the cumin seeds and ginger.

The less water you use to make the paste the better.

In a vessel heat oil, add a few cumin seeds and the bay leaves.
Add the potatoes. (If boiled cook for 3-4 minutes on medium heat, if not boiled then fry till they start turning brown on edges).

Once potatoes are done add the ginger-cumin paste & turmeric and cook for another couple of minutes.

Now add the mocha and mix well.

let it cook for another good 5 mins. Sprinkle red chili powder and salt to taste.

You can also sprinkle a bit of lime juice.

Your labour of love is ready to be devoured.

Oh..forgot to mention, when you are preparing the mocha , you hands can get black due to the secretion. I had some advance warning and managed to limit the damage to just two fingernails. prevention is to keep your hands oiled and rub salt. Of course, you shouldn't cook mocha after you get a manicure :-)

P.S It would probably take another sunday evening to write about the recipe for laal saag and bangali pulao.