Always a bride never the bridesmaid
Recently, I was watching the movie 27 dresses. I know it is an old movie. I am way behind on the hollywood and bollywood listings. The only time there is a massive update to the list is on my trips to india. In the age of 50inch tvs and multiplexes, majority of my movie watching experience is a 10inch screen in a pressurised cabin 30000 feet in air. I end up watching about 3 sometimes 4 time,technology and eyesight permitting. I decided make my veiwing experience better and enrolled in an online streaming website. Even with my faltering Virgin active (that was one failed branding exercise!!) braodband..the website worked! I had to watch some five hours worth of content to allow me a month’s free trial.So I diligently set about doing just that. Selected romance and more so chick flicks (did you know this is a bonafied category of its own) and set about watching one every day. What I came to realise was, I may have gained years, muffin waist and a few grey hairs, but I had certainly not lost the heart of a 16 year old. I can still get misty eyed at a common girl being courted by a prince, swoon over Mr Darcy and Mr Rochester and sigh over the ball gowns and dresses. The 27 dresses in the movie were hedious..a sort of allegory to the unplesant aspect of being
a bridesmaid one time too often. It must so tiresome. Times of India called Rahul Dravid ‘always a bridesmaid ..never the bride’. It was on some tour probably australian, where his test hundreds where trumphed by Sachin’s or ganguly’s. I am pitiful at cricket stats.
But I digress..i actually started with a digression (is there such a word??).
I was actually eating matar paneer while watching this, and I thought..have I ever eaten any item where matar (peas) was the bride not the bridesmaid. What I mean is where it is not aloo matar, matar paneer, methi matar malai...anything where the peas held their own and did not play second fiddle to the aloos, paneers and other veggies.
Try this for yourself. I could come up with two things only. Koraishutir kochuri and nimona. Nimona is a sort of curry made from fresh peas. I had a few times during my hostel days and I could not recall how it tasted. But koraishutir Kochuri...now there was something which got the tastebuds tingling. Koraishuti is essentially what bengalis call peas. Google failed me, when I tried to find out why such a big name for a small item?
Kochuri is any fluffed stuffed fried bread. So we are talking about a fulffed, stuffed fried bread filled with peas. Sounds like a rattle :-) ..yet is is awesum. One of the things you should have if you feel like indulging. On my bi-annual home visits during graduation this was an item which topped the to-eat list. Ma made it at least twice if not more. I loved it best with very (and I mean very) garlicky coriander chutney. Just coriander/garlic/ green chillies and lime juice with salt. Yummmm. It saved ma time to cook an accompanying veggie so I would get dollops of this chutney. The kochuris are not big ones. Broken in half they can consumed in two mouthfuls each. I would use it to enclose a big portion of Chatni and savour the taste. I am very good at chewing my morsels and I think I do it because of this fascination for food. I probably want to taste and savour the components before it goes down the pit of my stomach.
But those were the days when one did not think about the cosnequences of refined flour, deep frying or binge eating. I had not forgotten this kochuri and did try to make it on my own a couple of times. But the result was a FLAT bread with stuffing dislodged and leaking oil. I lost patience on my third attempt and ended up eating the stuffing as side dish and using the dough for making nimkis(which did not turn out well because of the wrong amount of moyan-crispiness)
So when ma was visting this time, I put this high on her to-cook list with an additional note that it should be cooked on a weekend to allow proper knowledge transfer.
She had a trick up her sleeve, the way that all mothers do. It was sprinkling of roasted and then grounded fennel,pepper and ajwain. It changed the equations of the taste from linear to quadratic.
Another trick that I learnt was not to be greedy and stuff a lot of peas mixture, It has to be just the a teaspoonful at a time. Also when rolling out the kochuri use a little bit of oil to avoid them sticking on the rolling pin.
All in all it turned out quiet a feast. With the pungency of garlic in the chutney vying for attention against the strong flavour of hing, it is a dance drama in every muthful.
One very good thing is that you can do the preparation on large scale and then store away the mixture and the dough in fridge. It can cherished over 2-3 days.
Here goes the recipe then.
Ingredients
For the Peas Mix
2 cups of peas (I blitz the frozen ones with some water in the microwave)
½ tsp asoeftida (hing)
3 green chillies
For Roasted powder
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
½ tsp ajwain
2-3 pods of whole black pepper
salt to taste (for the filling)
For dough
3 cups of white flour (Maida)
3 tbsp of any oil
¼ tsp of salt
Oil for frying
Add the salt and oil to the flour and crunch it in hour hands to ensure the oil is spread throughout the flour. Add enough (a whole thesis can be written on the amount of water required for dough!!) luke warm water and make this into a dough. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest while you get on with the preparation for the mix.
Add the defrosted peas with the green chillies into a food processor. If you do not have a food processor...you are joking right? Who does not have one in these days?..well I did not...till a year ago. The workaround is to crush the peas with something, a small bowl, the pestel mortar...although you will not get the smooth blend we are looking for. Whatever you use, do not add any water. The only water should come from the peas. Mix the peas with green chillies.
In a broad utensil add the oil and when it is warm add the asafoetida. Quickly spoon the mix into this. Now comes the patience part. You have to stir the mixture every now and then, depending on how good is the pan( which calims to be non-stick is). Slowly the moisture in the mix will vapourise and the mix will turn from a fresh green colour to a darker shade. On a medium flame it took me 15 minutes for this quantity of paste. If you are making more, then it would proportionally increase.
Once the mositure is all gone, you can add the salt and grounded powder (metioned in the ingredients- they should be lightly roasted and then ground to a fine powder.
If you need to adjust the hot quotient, add chilli powder at this stage.
Let the mixture cool.
Add enough oil in a deep frying vessel to at least cover one kochuri at a time. Let it heat up before you start rolling out the kochuris.
Divide the dough into calls the size of rasogulla, or lemons (the size we get in india). Slightly roll them out to flatten them and make into disks the size of 3cm dia. Spoon in little of the mixture, about ½ teaspoon into the middle and close the edges. Make sure nothing is coming out of the joint. Slightly massage it in your hands to spread the mix. Start rolling it out now, with a very light hand so the misture is not pushed out with vengence. Add a touch of oil if the dough starts sticking to the rolling pin. The 3cm dia should at least go upto 6cm. You know it is not rolled out properly if you can feel the dough thick at places. And you know you should leave it alone, if you start seeing the greenish tinge appearing below the dough layer...because that means the mix might come out. The first one will never puff up. Call it what you will, but it is similar to my ‘Laws of Dosa’ (another day about this- but in nutshell the first dosa will always stick to the tava). But preserve and learn and you will be rewarded
Do not overcook it, take the kochuris out of the oil as soon as you see bubbles on the surface of the it.
Well that is all there is to it, as Forrest Gump said. Easy said than done!
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