Sheet Kaal'er Sada Sobji - White Winter Veggies

Bengalis eat a lot of vegetables seasonally and winter is a big celebration of seasonal bounty. The markets in Kolkata come alive with a huge variety of produce ranging from new potatoes, deliciously tasty cauliflower, tomatoes, kohlrabi, radish, onion scapes, and lots more. It's not just the markets; every locality has its vegetable vendors setting up on street-sides and corners and there are vendors with 'vans' that cycle through the neighbourhoods calling out their wares, and they all offer the best of seasonal produce. It's like this all year round but my favourite is winter when, I feel, everything is a little more lush and delicious! 

This sheet kaal'er sada sobji is one of the best celebrations of winter produce. It's a simple preparation with hardly any spices where the vegetables do the work to make for something truly delicious. Pair it with hot phulkas or daal and rice and you will have a nutritious and tasty meal. 

Turnip

Kohlrabi

Radish

Bottle gourd

1 cup each, cubed, or less but in equal quantities. 

Green chillies 2-3

Nigella seeds 1/2 tsp

Mustard oil 1-2 tbsp

Sugar 1/2 tsp

Salt as required

Method

Heat the oil in a wok or kadai and chuck in the nigella seeds and a couple of green chilies split lengthwise. Once the seeds have sizzled add the cubed turnip first and sauté for a couple of minutes. Cook this recipe throughout on a medium flame. Cover the wok and let the turnips cook for a few minutes and then add the cubed kohlrabi. Once again sauté for a bit and then cover and cook for a few minutes. 

Follow the same process adding the radish cubes next and finally the bottle gourd. Take care not to brown the vegetables. Once all the veg is in the wok add salt, mix well, cover and cook on low heat till the all the veg is cooked through. It should all cook in its own moisture but if you feel the veggies are sticking add very little water. Sprinkle a bit of sugar and add a couple of green chilies, cover and cook for a further five minutes. 

You can also add cubed potatoes or even pumpkin to this dish if you like, it works very well. 

Serve with phulkas or as a side with daal chawal. 

Jhinge diye Moog Dal - Bengali Mung Dal with Ridge Gourd

Dal is a part of nearly every main meal in Bengali households. Every menu discussion begins with bhaat, dal, and bhaja, and then continues with the main attractions of the meal depending on whether it's a weekend, a special occasion, or if a particularly favourite ingredient - like the hilsa - is in season! However, it's not as if dal is a neglected item. Bengalis have countless recipes for dal and many of these feature a vegetable that's in season, especially paired with moog dal. Moog daal is lightly roasted till it becomes aromatic and is then cooked in many ways. One of these is with ridge gourd or jhinge.

Jhinge diye Moog Dal

1 cup moog dal

1 medium ridge gourd

2 tej pata (Indian bay leaf)

2-3 dried red chillies

1/2 tsp jeera

A good pinch of hing

2 inch knob of ginger

Sugar

Salt

Turmeric

Mustard oil

To begin, roast the moog dal in a dry kadai or pan on low heat till it changes colour and gets a slight reddish tinge and gives out a lovely fragrance. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Once it's cooled rinse the dal gently to clean off any dust and then boil it with some turmeric till the grains are cooked but still hold their shape. You can also pressure cook the dal but take care not to overcook it. 

Peel the ridge gourd, lop off the ends and then halve it lengthwise. Now cut into one inch chunks or into thinner slices. Wash and drain. 

Make a paste of the ginger in your mortar and pestle or mixer. 

Heat a couple of tablespoons of mustard oil in a kadai or wok and saute the ridge gourd pieces till they are nearly cooked. Do this on a medium flame. You can also put a lid so it cooks faster in its own steam. Remove the sauteed gourd to a plate or bowl. 

Add a bit of oil to the same wok if required and once the oil is hot chuck in the jeera and the hing. Fry for half a minute and then add the tej patta, dried red chillies, and the ginger paste. Stir for a minute till everything is fragrant.

Now tip in the boiled dal, add salt, and bring it to a boil. Once the dal boils add the sauteed jhinge or ridge gourd pieces. Add a good pinch of sugar and let the dal boil properly. 

Enjoy this delicious jhinge diye moog dal with plain hot rice. A piece or two of begun bhaja on the side will make it a perfect meal! 

Sheem Sorse - Bengali Style Hyacinth Beans with Mustard

Sheem or hyacinth beans are one of my favourite vegetables and I usually add them to chorchoris or a panchmeshali - each a style of mixed vegetables cooked in Bengali households. Like with most vegetables, there are innumerable ways to cook sheem and we all look forward to winter when you get the best sheem. 

Here's a pic of sheem and other veggies from last winter. 

Sheem Sorse or hyacinth beans in a mustard sauce is a delicious dish and is really easy to make. There's hardly any prep barring stringing the beans and halving them, and quickly chopping up a tomato. It nearly cooks itself! This is a vegan dish and is also a no onion and no garlic recipe. 

Sheem Sorse

250 gms sheem (hyacinth beans)

2 tbsp mustard powder

1/2 tsp kalo jeere/kalaunji (nigella seeds)

2 green chillies

1 tomato

salt

turmeric

mustard oil

String the beans and cut each one in half along its width. Wash and drain. Chop the tomato and keep aside. Soak the mustard powder in enough water to make a thin runny paste. Leave it to soak for at least 10-15 minutes. 

In a kadai or wok heat 3 tbsp or so of mustard oil. Once the oil is hot and shimmering chuck in the kalo jeere and the green chillies (slit or broken into half).

Saute for a minute and add the sheem.  Add turmeric and salt and mix everything well. Let it cook for a minute or so and then cover and cook on low heat for a few minutes till the beans soften a little.

Now chuck in the chopped tomato and mix well. Cover and cook on low heat till the tomatoes are soft. 

Pour in the mustard paste and mix again. Add a bit of water only if required and let it cook till the gravy thickens. Adjust salt if necessary.

Take it off the heat and drizzle a tablespoon of good mustard oil on top, cover the kadai and let it rest for five minutes. 

Serve with rice as part of your meal with daal, and a nice bhaja (veggies or fish fried in mustard oil with salt and turmeric) 

Shish Palong Chorchori - Bengali Mixed Veggies with Spinach Stalks

There's a veggie vendor in the market who stocks 'Bengali veggies' and I have devotedly started visiting his stall at least once a week. I keenly miss Kolkata in the winter and all that winter bounty that the veggie vendor there brings on his cart to our doorstep every morning. It is from him that I learned about so many seasonal vegetables that are eagerly anticipated once the temperature dips and Bengalis begin anticipating all the 'sheet kaal'er shobji'. Thus, finding a source so nearby for many of those winter goodies has been a real godsend! 

On my last visit I found shish palong - the stalks and inflorescence of spinach that has been allowed to grow and mature. 

Sayantani of A Homemaker's Diary  explains that this ingredient is very seasonal and comes into the markets around the end of winter - which is now. In fact, I saw these in Kolkata on my visits also at this time of the year. I have followed Sayantani's recipe for shish palong chorchori as much as I could as per the ingredients I had in stock. 

Here's how I made Shish Palong Chorchori

A small bunch shish palong

10-12 bori

1 potato

1 small onion

half a medium brinjal

10 broad beans or sheem

1/2 tsp panch phoron

1-2 green chillies

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp poppy seed/posto paste

2 tbsp mustard paste

salt

Mustard oil

First prep the vegetables. Wash all the veggies before you proceed. 

Peel and cut the potato into neat thick-ish chips or batons. Cut the brinjal into long pieces. Slice the onion. String the beans and chop into 3 or 4 pieces depending on how large they are. 
Separate the stalks and leaves of the shish palong. Cut off the hard base and woody parts of the stalk and discard, use only the more tender pieces of stalk. Cut the stalks into two inch pieces and halve the thick ones length-wise so they get cooked properly. Chop up the leaves and any flowers and keep them separate from the prepped stalks. 

In a kadai or wok heat a couple of tablespoons of mustard oil and fry the boris. This takes a minute at the most, remove from the oil as soon as they brown. Keep aside. 

In the same oil chuck in a slit green chilli  or two and follow it with the panch phoron. Let it sizzle and then throw in the sliced onion. Stir well and let it fry on low heat till the onion begins to brown. Add some salt and turmeric and then add the shish palong stalks. Cover the wok and let it cook on a low flame for several minutes till the stalks have softened somewhat. 

Now add the potatoes and other veggies except the leaves and flowers of the shish palong, and mix everything nicely. Cover and cook till the potatoes are done. You can add a little water to help it along. 

Add the posto paste and mustard paste, and salt if required, and mix everything well. Cover and let it cook for a couple of minutes and let the flavours blend in. 

Finally add the fried boris - I like to keep a few intact and roughly crush the rest before mixing them in. I used Kolai Daal'er boris (urad daal boris) sourced from Amar Khamar a bridge between consumers from all over the country and women farmers in Bengal. 

Serve this shish palong chorchori with hot rice. It's a wonderful addition to a typical Bengali multi-course lunch with daal, bhaat, a bhaja or two, and machh'er jhol finished with some rosogolla or other sweet indulgence. Bengali food is replete with vegetarian and vegan recipes and this shish palong is just one more gem from this wonderful cuisine. 

Jhinge Aloo Posto - Bengali Ridge Gourd and Potatoes with Poppy Seed Paste

I loved posto as a kid and would eat any vegetable cooked in it which very obviously became a convenient way for my mom to get veggies down my gullet. One day she had made just aloo posto with no veggies lurking in it. I was the first at the dinner table and since the others were taking their time to come I started nibbling at the aloo posto.. a little, a little more, a little more, and in some time there was very little left. I spread this around the bottom of the bowl to fool my parents into thinking there was plenty. Of course I got a sound thrashing and no dinner. But with a belly full of aloo posto I was quite happy regardless!

Jhinge aloo posto is a classic combination using ridge gourd with potatoes in poppy paste and I make it often. As with many Bengali vegetarian dishes the preparation is fairly frugal and the process simple with no heavy spices. Some families use turmeric and some don't. Bengalis can argue endlessly over which is the correct way or the better tasting dish, I'll stay out of the argument and cook it like Moni used to - without turmeric, letting the mustard oil lend a very pale yellowness to the final product. 

Jhinge Aloo Posto

4 tbsp poppy seeds
2 green chillies
4-5 cloves garlic (optional)
1/2 tsp nigella or kalaunji seeds
2 green chillies
salt
sugar
1 cup peeled and chopped ridge gourd or jhinge
1 cup peeled and cubed potato
mustard oil

Soak the poppy seeds for 30 minutes or so and then grind to a smooth-ish paste with a couple of green chillies and the garlic. You can leave out the garlic to make this purely satvik and niramish. 

Heat mustard oil in a kadai and chuck in the nigella seeds and the green chillies. Saute for half a minute and add the potatoes. Stir fry for a few minutes without letting the potatoes turn red/pink. Moni was particular about keeping the dish as white as possible. Reduce the heat and let the potatoes cook a little and then add the chopped jhinge. Add salt to taste and around a teaspoon of sugar, mix well, cover and let it cook till the potatoes are done. 

Now add the poppy paste, washing out the mixer jar with a little water to get every bit out. Poppy seed is expensive so don't waste! Stir to mix coating the veggies with the paste and then simmer open till the water has mostly dried up and the paste has lost its rawness. Drizzle a little mustard oil over, cover and let it sit for a few minutes. 

Serve hot with plain rice and daal. 

Aam'er Luchi - Mango Luchis from Pragyasundari Devi

It's no secret that I have started studying Bengali food seriously as of the last few years. I've been trying to learn as much as I can from every available source that I can find. And there's a lot out there! But there's one source that just sings to me, calls me back often, makes me work my way through the Bengali script instead of breezing through others that are written in English and are so much easier to follow - and that is my set of the two volume  Amish O Niramish Ahaar by Pragyasundori Devi.

First published in the beginning of the 1900s this book is like a text book and I have found it ideal as a learner who needed to understand the basics before venturing into the more elaborate stuff. From these volumes I have cleared many of my basic doubts, and understood a lot about the foundations of the cuisine in general.

I did a live demo of a recipe I learned from the book today and I'm sharing that here. The recipe is for "Aam'er Luchi" or luchi with mango. Luchis are the Bengali style of puris made with maida or all purpose flour in contrast to the more common whole wheat ones. Bengalis love white flour and we have many preparations using it. Here's the recipe for luchi. Aam'er luchi has not only aam or mango but a few other interesting ingredients as well and isn't just a luchi recipe with aam added to the mix.

I am reproducing the recipe given by Pragyasundori Devi in her book with no changes. This recipe makes around 20 to 25 luchis depending on how big or small you roll them.

Aam'er Luchi 

375 gms Maida (all purpose flour)
2 tsp ghee
30 gms chhana
3/4 cup mango pulp
fresh coconut milk as required (approx 3/4 to 1 cup)

ghee for frying

I made the chhana at home. You can also use really soft and fresh malai paneer.
I used the pulp from two smallish Hapus mangoes. After removing the flesh from the mangoes I whizzed it in my food processor to get a smooth puree.
I used coconut milk from a tetrapak. You can always use fresh if you prefer, or make some from coconut powder. Whatever works for you!

To make the dough for the luchis start by incorporating the chhana into the maida. Mash the chhana as finely as you can with your fingers pressing to flatten the granules as much as possible. Add maida a little at a time to the chhana and keep mixing and kneading till all the maida is used up. You will end up with a crumbly mixture. The chhana must mix with the maida really well so you ultimately have a smooth and lump-free dough. Take your time to do this step properly.
Once the chhana is mixed in well add the ghee and mix it in properly.
Next, start mixing in the mango pulp.

Once the mango pulp is mixed in start adding the coconut milk and knead till you have a soft dough. Use as much coconut as is required. Your dough should be smooth and soft with no stickiness at all. Knead the dough for several minutes, work it well.

  

Make small balls of the dough and roll out luchis around 6 inches in diameter. 

Heat ghee in a kadai and fry the luchis. Properly hot ghee will ensure your luchis fluff up nicely. Regulate the heat or the ghee will burn. 

Pragyasundari Devi doesn't mention what the luchis should be served with. My husband recommended we have them with something savoury. Luckily I had cooked a whole chicken in Indian spices with a nice gravy so we enjoyed the two together. I have to say it was a perfect pairing! 

Olkopir Dalna - Bengali Style Kolrabi and Peas

Olkopi or Gaanth Gobi is one of Kurush's favourite vegetables. I saw some lovely olkopi at the veggie shop today so I bought some. I've cooked it the Parsi way with coconut milk many times so I went to look at the first volume of Aamish O Niraamish Ahaar (in Bengali) by Pragyasundori Debi - my go to book for Bengali recipes. Volume One has the vegetarian recipes and I was quite sure I'd find something for the olkopi. There were quite a few recipes and I picked the recipe for dalna because I had all the ingredients at hand. 

Dalnas will have a reasonable amount of gravy so they can be paired with rice or rutis. You can serve the dalna as part of a larger multi-course meal or you can have it for dinner paired with rutis. 

Olkopi'r Dalna 

1 olkopi - peeled and cubed

1/2 cup green peas

2-3 green chilies

salt

sugar

turmeric

chili powder

dhania powder

4 cloves

3-4 green cardamom

1 inch cassia bark

2 tbsp curd 

ghee

1/2 tsp whole jeera

1 pinch hing 

Boil the cubed olkopi till cooked through, drain and keep aside. 

In a vessel heat one cup of water and to it add chilli/dhania/turmeric powders. Bring to a boil.

Add the boiled olkopi and a handful or more of fresh green peas to this. Also add 2-3 green chillies, broken into pieces.

Now chuck in 2-3 green cardamom, 4 cloves, and a inch of cassia/dalchini. 

Whisk 2 tbsp dahi and add to the pot. You can add a little more for a slightly thicker gravy.

Add salt and a tsp of sugar. Cook on simmer till the gravy is reduced and the peas are cooked.

In a tadka pan heat desi ghee. Add tadka of hing and whole jeera and once it sizzles add to the veggies. Keep the heat on low as the jeera can burn quickly and that will ruin the entire dish. Mix well, let it sit covered for a couple of minutes.

Serve hot with ruti/chapatis or rice.

Doi Posto diye Chalkumro - Ash Gourd with Curd and Poppy Paste

Chalkumro or Ash Gourd is a very common ingredient in Bengali kitchens and is used in a zillion different ways. I've never been a great fan of this bland vegetable and have therefore never cooked anything with it ever. However, in the last few years as I have explored Bengali cuisine with more interest I have made an effort to cook with even those ingredients I have hitherto found uninspiring. The chalkumro was in line and the last time I went to buy vegetables I picked up a large wedge of this white gourd.

I found this recipe on the Facebook group - Bangla Niramish Rannaghor contributed by Mili Banerjee. This is a fairly easy recipe - the only effort is in prepping the chalkumro.

Doi Posto diye Chalkumro

500 gms Chalkumro or Ash Gourd
150 gms fresh curd
3 tbs posto or poppy seeds
3 tbsp mustard paste
1 tsp nigella seeds
5 green chillies
mustard oil
salt
sugar
fresh coriander

Soak poppy seeds for 20 minutes or so and then grind to a smooth paste with 2 green chillies.
Soak 2 tbsp of Sunrise mustard powder or make 3 tbsp fresh mustard paste.
Remove the seeds and pith from the chalkumro, peel the outer skin, and cut the chalkumro into thin match-sticks.

In a large bowl combine the curd, mustard and poppy pastes and mix well. Add the cut chalkumro to this mixture and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes.

In a wok heat mustard oil. Chuck in the nigella seeds and the remaining green chillies and let it sizzle for half a minutes. Then tip in the marinating chalkumro, mix well, cover and cook for around 20 minutes on a low flame. Give it an occasional stir.

Remove the lid and add salt and sugar, mix well and then dry out the water in the wok stirring constantly. Cook till you see the oil released. Let it cook for a further few minutes and then take it off the heat.

Remove to a serving bowl and garnish with some finely chopped fresh coriander.

In Bengali households this will be eaten with hot rice as part of our usual multi-course meals along with daal, bhajas, and more. However, it also works well with simple phulkas.

Moog Daal'er Khichuri

My oldest memory of moog'er daal is of Didin perched on her stool in her kitchen at her electric heater stirring moog'er daal or moong daal in a large shining iron kadai. The clinging sound of the 'khunti' and the swish of the daal as she leaned over the table stirring continuously was a common occurrence in the mornings as she prepped for the day's breakfast and lunch. Didin didn't cook a wide variety of dishes nor did she make special festive foods to mark the different 'parbon' that came by every month. She didn't observe fasts on the shastis and ekadashis either. The Hindu calendar was not a big part of our lives in Kolkata or in Mumbai as Moni didn't follow any of this either. But she cooked for us every day and we looked forward to our visits to her house for there would be a steady stream of everyday food tempered with special treats of mangsho'r jhol, machh'er chop, khichuri and other delights.

Though Didin had a frugal repertoire in the kitchen she fed us very well and we looked forward to our annual trips to Kolkata where we'd be pampered silly by Didin, and all the mamas and mashis - my mother's siblings and cousins. 

The smell of roasting moog daal is something most Bengalis will identify with - it is the smell of home, of Bengal, of grandmothers and mothers, of comfort and comfort food. The moog daal I saw at Didin's house was tiny in comparison with what I saw in Mumbai. Each grain was the size of a pin head, so different from the longish grains I had seen in the shops in Mumbai. This is Sona Moog'er Daal, a variety that is grown in Bengal and is naturally, the preferred variety in Bengali kitchens.

40 years ago it wasn't available in Mumbai and there was only that much Moni could carry back from Kolkata when we visited. So we ate moog'er daal only in Didin's house, Moni rarely cooked it at home in Mumbai. Nowadays it is far easier to find regional ingredients in Mumbai - not only do large supermarket chains carry good selections of regional ingredients, there are stand-alone shops that have a captive clientele for whom they source ingredients. That's not all - there are quite a few online stores that specialise in such products and deliver pan India.

In Kharghar I am very fortunate to have Jambon Stores in Sector 20 which has transformed from being just another cold storage shop selling chicken, fish, cold cuts, frozen peas, etc., to a Bengali ingredients emporium where fresh stocks arrive every week by train from Bengal. And among all the wonderful products are varieties of rice and daal from Bengal including the beautiful small grained sona moog daal.

One of the most popular dishes made with moog daal is khichuri. While khichuri is a must at the Durga Puja pandal bhogs, cooked without onions or garlic, and paired with a delicious mix vegetable preparation called labra, it also shows up on home menus depending on the season. The monsoon is deemed khichuri weather and in the first week when the rains have just arrived, while the rest of the world celebrates with chai and bhajias/pakoras, we Bengalis rub our hands in glee looking forward to a plate of steaming khichuri with a variety of bhajas on the side.

Winter is also khichuri season but with beautiful winter vegetables adding their flavour - cauliflower, red carrots, green peas, potatoes are the top favourites in a "sheet kaal'er khichuri" or winter khichuri. Here's how to make it.

Moog Daal'er Khichuri

Moog Daal - 1/2 cup
Gobindobhog rice - 1/2 cup
2 medium potatoes
1 tomato
1/2 cup green peas
3-4 large florets cauliflower
1-2 carrots (optional)
4 Indian bay leaves/tej pata
1 tsp jeera
4 cardamom
4 clove
2" cinnamon
2-3 green chillies
2" piece ginger
salt
turmeric
jeera powder
dhania powder
Bengali garam masala
sugar
mustard oil
ghee
water as required

Wash the rice and leave it in a fine mesh colander to drain.

Roast the daal gently in a dry wok for around 10 minutes till the colour changes and there's a lovely toasty aroma. The daal should change from its pale yellow to a nutty brown. Roast it to a level you like, just ensure you don't burn it. Once roasted, wash the daal once, drain and set aside. Don't wash the daal very vigorously or repeatedly as you will lose all the lovely toasty aroma and flavour.

Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Cut the cauliflower florets but not too small as they will then disintegrate into the khichuri. Peel the carrots an cut into thick barrels, if using. Shell the peas or thaw frozen peas. Peel the ginger and smash in your mortar and pestle till relatively smooth. This barely takes half a minute so use fresh. Wash and chop the tomato.

Now in a thick bottomed vessel heat mustard oil. Once properly hot fry the potatoes, then the cauliflower and reserve on a plate. Fry the veggies till they brown a little. This frying helps keep them intact while they cook in the khichuri.

In the same vessel add a little oil if required and then add the whole spices. Let them sizzle and then add the chopped tomato and the smashed ginger. Chuck in the green chillies, broken into 2-3 pieces depending on their size. Cook everything on a medium flame till the tomato has totally disintegrated and everything is mixed well.

In a small bowl mix all the dry spices in a little water to make a runny paste. Add this to the pot, stir well and cook till the spices have lost their rawness and oil is released.

Add the drained rice to the mix and saute for a few minutes. Then add the washed and drained bhaja moog'er daal or roasted moog daal. Mix everything well, add salt and enough water to cook the khichuri. Once the mix has come to a boil lower the heat and add potatoes. Cook covered on medium heat. Once the potatoes are half cooked add the cauliflower, peas, and carrots. Add a teaspoon or so of sugar at this stage. Cover the pot and let the khichuri cook.

If you're using frozen peas add them at the end, in the last couple of minutes. make sure they are thawed properly before you chuck them in.

Stir occasionally so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel. Add warm water only if required. Cook slowly till done. Once the khichuri is cooked add a good dollop of ghee and a sprinkling of Bengali garam masala to the pot and stir it in. Taste for salt and adjust if needed.  The khichuri should be thick and porridge-like, not dry.

If you're vegan, leave out the ghee.

You can serve this sheet kaal'er khichuri with begun bhaja, potol bhaja, or a simple omelette with onions and green chillies in it. A fried papor/papad will make it complete!

Palong Shaak Ghonto - Spinach with Vegetables

Spinach/palak/ palong shaak is the leafy green that was cooked the most often in our house. On occasion we would eat laal shaak or red amaranth which I loved because of that fabulous colour it oozed onto the rice in my plate. Moni was not fond of cooking though she was a good cook and tended to make the simpler dishes that required less prep. So greens like methi never appeared on our dinner table. In spite of its frequent appearance at meals I never got tired of palong shaak and I cook it quite often too.

Palong shaak features in many Bengali recipes and this one with brinjal, potato and 'bori' (dried lentil dumplings that look like Hershey's Kisses in shape) is a general favourite. Like most everyday dishes, this shaak ghonto is quite easy to cook. This dish is also vegan.

Palong Shaak Ghonto

1 bunch spinach
1 medium potato
1 small brinjal
a handful of bori
2-3 dried red chillies
1 tsp panch phoron
salt
turmeric
mustard oil.

Chop the spinach, wash thoroughly in plenty of water and leave aside in a colander to drain.
Peel and cut the potato into smallish cubes.
Cut the brinjal into proportionate cubes.

Heat oil in the wok and fry the potatoes, brinjals, and the boris separately and remove to a plate/vessel.

Add a little oil to the wok and let it heat properly. Chuck in the panch phoron and the dried red chillies and fry for a few seconds. Don't let it burn.

Add the drained spinach leaves and mix well. Add salt and turmeric, stir to mix, lower the flame and cook the spinach covered for around five minutes.

Add the fried potatoes and cook till the potatoes are soft and most of the water has dried up.

Add the brinjals, mix well and cook for a couple of minutes. Finally add the fried bori, mix them in and take off the heat after a minute or so.

Serve the ghonto as an accompaniment to rice and daal, or enjoy it with hot chapatis.

How to Make Apple Pie

Some desserts are ridiculously easy to make and they're really delicious too. I made a slightly tweaked cheat's apple pie today for a potluck with friends. The theme was Chinese food and I spiced my pie with Chinese 5 Spice powder instead of just cinnamon. I also used ready puff pastry to top the pie as I didn't have the time to make short crust pastry this morning in time for the potluck lunch. Since no one complained about the pastry I'm confident the results were quite palatable!
Here's how to make an easy apple pie with ready puff pastry.

Apple Pie with Puff Pastry

4 red apples
4 granny smiths
1.5 tsp Chinese five spice powder or Cinnamon powder
3/4 cup brown sugar
50 gms butter
A large pinch of salt
A little milk
1 sheet puff pastry, enough to cover the pie
Vanilla ice cream to serve

Peel and chop all the apples into large chunky pieces. Don't chop them small as they will turn mushy when you cook them for the filling. 

In a large pan heat the butter. As soon as it's all melted add the chopped apples. Stir well to coat all the fruit with the butter and cook for a couple of minute on medium heat. 

Sprinkle the five spice/cinnamon powder and the brown sugar onto the apples, stir to mix evenly, add salt, and then let it cook for a few minutes till the apples are cooked but not completely mushy. Leave some 'bite' in the fruit. 

Pour the apple mixture into your pie dish and let it cool. 

In the meanwhile get your puff pastry sheet out of the freezer. As soon as it's soft enough to work roll it out till it's larger than the surface of your pie. Trim from one side so you have a large enough piece to cut out decorations to put on top of your pie.

Cover the pie and cut out flowers or any other shape from the trimmed piece with a cookie cutter. Place the cut outs on the pie. Brush the top with milk and bake the pie in a preheated hot oven - 200C- for 15 minutes or till the pastry is a lovely golden colour. 

Serve the pie with vanilla ice cream. You can have it hot or cold. 

Aloo diye Laal Shaak - Red Amaranth Greens with Potatoes

I always ignored the fresh greens section at the veggie shop frankly because I'm a lazy cook and the thought of spending endless minutes picking out a ton of leaves in prep put me off. But then with age comes patience (maybe) and better sense (bigger maybe!) and I bought a bunch of laal shaak or red amaranth leaves, also known as laal maath, tambi bhaji, etc.

Moni used to cook it quite often and I remember her insisting we eat at least a little of it, as she did with whatever she cooked especially the vegetables. We didn't need much coaxing to eat meats or fish! Of all the leafy greens she cooked the laal shaak was the most attractive - rice would turn a beautiful pink once mixed with the laal shaak and this miracle in the plate fascinated me. She would always add a generous amount of garlic and occasionally she'd cook it with potatoes. I never needed convincing when she added potatoes. The pretty pink batons would call out to me and I would even ask for more.

Like most vegetable side dishes, laal shaak is cooked with barely any spices and is done in minutes. And like most of our vegetable dishes the prep takes time.

Aloo diye Laal Shaak

1 bunch red amaranth leaves
1 small potato
4-5 cloves of garlic
2-3 dried red chillies
1/4 tsp nigella or kalonji seeds
mustard oil
salt

Pick out the leaves and the tender stems of the amaranth greens. Discard the thick, woodier or stringier parts of the stem.

Wash thoroughly and drain in a colander. Chop roughly or finely, as you prefer.

Cut the potato into thick matchsticks. Peel and chop the garlic (do not mince).

Heat the oil in a kadai and fry the potatoes till nearly done. Add salt and mix.

Push them to one side and chuck in the nigella seeds and garlic, letting them sizzle for a half a minute. Tilt the kadai if it has a flat base so the oil collects together and is deep enough for the garlic and nigella seeds. This way you don't have to add more oil.

Now add the chopped greens and a little salt and then stir well to mix. Cook covered for a few minutes till the greens are completely wilted and cooked through. Check that the potatoes are done to a nice softness. Adjust salt if required.

Serve the laal shaak with daal and rice, or with soft phulkas. We Bengalis usually have it as a 'bhaja' that accompanies the daal course in our traditional meals.

Sukto with Jukti Phool

Sukto is a lovely light stew of assorted vegetables with a hint of bitter. Flavoured with a bit of mustard and a hint of poppy paste, this stew also has milk in it and must be cooked very carefully. Though you can make sukto without the bitter element, many Bengalis believe that a classic sukto must have the bitter ingredient. I always avoided sukto thanks to the bitter flavour and never bothered to even see how it was cooked, turning up my nose and shaking my head this utter waste of effort! 

Over the last few years my interest in Bengali food has increased greatly - maybe I'm feeling the need to understand my roots now that I'm well into my forties and the attraction of other cuisines has paled. Somewhere I also feel great ignorance where Bengali food is concerned - it is after all the cuisine of my forefathers and I should know it in some detail at least. My frequent visits to Kolkata and the discovery of new ingredients at practically every visit to the market only fuelled my curiosity. The door to door vegetable vendor, seeing my interest, would bring new things to show me - pui mituni, kolmi shaak, shapla, kochu'r loti, bok phul, shish palong... the list is endless. 

My visits to Kolkata are now incomplete without a visit to Gariahat market, if only for a quick walk through just to see what's available. The last visit to Kolkata was for less than a week and I squeezed in a quick trip to the market on my last morning there. This time I discovered Jukti phool. 

Jukti Phool  Dregea volubis is also known as Sneeze Wort or Green Milkweed Climber. This plant is known to many Indian cuisines and has names in many Indian languages. In Marathi it is called 'harandodi' or 'naaksikani'. In Hindi it's also known as 'akad bel'. The Malayalam word for it is 'velipparuthi'  while in Gujarati it's called 'kadvo kharkhodo', and in Bengali it's also called 'tita kunga'.  See here for more details - http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Sneeze%20Wort.html

I'd never heard of this ingredient nor seen it but the tiny, pretty bunches of blooms were irresistible and of course I bought some. I asked the vendor how to cook it and he said to either stir fry it with a little garlic and plenty of potatoes or to use it instead of uchhe (bitter gourd) to make sukto. It's quite bitter, he warned, and I wasn't to try to eat it on its own.

Back in Mumbai I read several sukto recipes before I attempted making it for the first time. My mother loved sukto - or 'suktuni' as she preferred to call it - and I keenly missed her because it would have been so easy to just call her on the phone and learn how to make one of her favourite dishes. I wish I had paid attention on the rare times she made it... 

Anyway! Here's the recipe for the Sukto I cobbled together today. This dish has a lot of ingredients and therefore there's a good amount of prep to do before you start cooking so make sure you read the recipe from start to finish and make a shopping list before you go to get the veggies. 

Jukti Phool diye Sukto

Jukti phool - half a cup

1 small potato

1 small sweet potato

1 small ridge gourd 

1 small long brinjal or a chunk from a large one

7-8 green beans (yard longs/borboti or french beans, either will do)

7-8 papdi or seem (flat beans) 

1 drumstick

2" piece of ginger

2 tbsp mustard paste 

2 tbsp poppy seed paste

1 tsp panch phoron

1 tsp randhuni (ajmod seeds)

1/2 cup milk

mustard oil

water
salt

sugar

ghee

Wash the jukti phool and drain in a colander. 

Peel the potatoes and cut into thick batons. Peel the ridge gourd, discard seeds and pith, and cut into batons of the same size as the potatoes. Don't cut the vegetables too thin or small or they will disintegrate while cooking.
String the beans and cut into 3" pieces.
Peel the hard outer skin of the drumstick and cut into 5" batons.
Cut brinjal into proportionate pieces, not too small.
Grate or pound the ginger into a rough paste. 

Heat a generous quantity of mustard oil in a wok or kadai and wait till it's properly hot. Fry the prepared vegetables one by one for a couple of minutes each and remove to a plate or other flat vessel. 

In the same oil, after you've finished frying all the vegetables, chuck in the panch phoron, randhuni and grated ginger (add a little oil if required before you throw in the spices). Let the spices sizzle for a few seconds and then add the mustard and poppy seed pastes. Add salt and sugar to taste. Keep the flame low and stir well to cook everything. See that the pastes don't stick to the bottom of the kadai.

After a minute or two add a cup of water and the milk. There are different methods followed with the addition of milk - some recipes add it at the end of the cooking and some add it early. I added it at this stage. Bring the whole mix to a gentle boil and then add the fried vegetables. Mix gently and then cover the kadai and let it cook over low heat till the vegetables are done.

Once the vegetables are cooked switch off the flame and drizzle good ghee over the sukto. Cover and let it infuse for five minutes.

Sukto often has bori (vadi or lentil cakes) in it. My mom would fry the bori and then crumble it over the cooked sukto before serving. I didn't have any bori so I couldn't do that bit. 

You can make sukto without randhuni. It will taste different but no one will accuse you of cooking a sukto that's not authentic. So don't stress out over the randhuni. 

There are many variations to the vegetables in a sukto. Use whatever you have at hand - brinjal plantain, radish, potato, sweet potato, beans of various kinds, gourds, and something bitter, be it bitter gourd or jukti phool. Did you notice there are no spices here apart from the panch phoron and randhuni?

Serve the sukto as the first course of your meal with plain rice. Follow it up with daal accompanied by a couple of bhajas and then a light machh'er jhol and you'll be on your way to a proper Bengali meal! Or just keep it simple and have it with hot rice and daal to follow.

 

Mogri Aloo Subzi - Radish Pods and Potatoes

Mogri, moogri, lila mogra, lila mogri, rat-tail radish, radish pod - just a few of the names I've encountered for this winter vegetable. Somehow I didn't notice it at my local veggie shop all these months till I chanced upon it yesterday. I duly bought some as in another couple of weeks it's going to be difficult to find seasonal fresh vegetables as the temperatures are already soaring.

Mogri

The weather is pretty awful already and I don't feel like cooking elaborate or even spiced up dishes and nor do I feel like eating much - it's just too hot! The mogri was perfect for a light lunch paired with a simple Bengali style daal and plain rice. It works well with chapatis too.

Mogri Aloo Subzi

250 gms Mogri
1 or 2 potatoes
4-5 cloves garlic
1-2 green chillies
salt
turmeric
chilli powder
jeera/cumin powder
oil

Wash the mogri thoroughly and drain in a colander. Cut into 2 inch pieces. I found it easier to snip them with my kitchen scissors but you can chop with a knife if that works for you.

Peel the potato and cut into thin fingers. Peel and smash the garlic. Remove the stalk from the green chilli and break the chilli into 2 inch pieces.

Heat oil in a kadai - you can use any neutral oil or even mustard oil, I used peanut oil.

Once the oil is hot drop in the green chillies and the garlic and stir for a few seconds. Add the cut potatoes and cook over a slow flame for a few minutes till the potatoes are 3/4th done.

Add the chopped mogri and stir well. Add the spices and salt, stir again to mix the spices in, and then let it cook covered on a low flame for roughly five minutes till the mogri is cooked.

Serve with hot rotis/chapatis or as a side with daal and rice.

Pui Chorchori - Malabar Spinach Stir Fry with Vegetables

Chorchoris are light side dishes that liven up a meal and provide plenty of nutrition thanks to the myriad seasonal vegetables that go into them. The spicing is minimal, usually dried chilies and panch phoron, apart from the basic salt and turmeric though some recipes have cumin, coriander, ginger, garlic and even onions. As with most things, recipes and traditions vary from family to family, kitchen to kitchen. I like the chorchori with as few spices as possible and use just panch phoron and chilli, sometimes fresh green and sometimes dried red ones.

The vegetables in a chorchori vary with availability and of course the preference of the cook and those who will eat. The usual suspects include brinjal, pumpkin, potatoes, flat beans, white radish.. the list is endless. Pui Shaak or Malabar spinach makes the base of this version.

Pui Chorchori

2 cups Pui tender stalks and leaves
1 medium potato, peeled and cubed
1 cup red pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 cup brinjal, cubed

salt
turmeric
1 tsp panch phoron
1/4 tsp fennel
2 green chillies
mustard oil.

Separate the leaves and stalks of the Pui greens, discarding the wilted sticky leaves and the thicker hard stalks. Wash the leaves and the stalks separately. Wash really well. Leave in the colander to drip off excess water.

Prep the vegetables. Chop the pui stalks into small pieces (2-3 inches) and chop the leaves too.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of mustard oil in a kadai and once it's properly hot reduce the heat and chuck in the chillies, panch phoron and the fennel seeds. It will all sizzle.

Add the cubed potatoes and saute for a minute. Then add the pui stalks and the pumpkin pieces and saute for another couple of minutes.

Add the brinjal pieces, salt and turmeric and mix well. Cover and let it all cook on a medium flame for a few minutes. Then add the pui leaves and mix again.

Add half a cup of water, cover and cook on a low flame till the potatoes and pumpkin pieces are cooked through. Dry off the water and check for salt before you take it off the heat.

Serve the chorchori with daal and rice, and a bhaja for a perfectly light Bengali meal. 

I Eat Pulish'er Daal to Grow Up Fast!

I was around seven or eight years old, on yet another summer vacation trip to Kolkata. On a warm afternoon I was at Khukhun Didin's house discussing the menu for the special feast she would cook for us, my brother and I, her very honoured guests. The shiny kansa dinner ware had been approved (at Lokhi Didin's house we ate off banana leaves with terracotta bowls and water glasses) and now we had to fix the dishes we wanted to eat. We'd also go across to Ranu Didin's for another feast or she'd feel left out, wouldn't she?! This was the advantage of having three of my Didin's sisters living just a few houses away from her. 

Mutton would have to be on the menu of course, with mishti bhaat, machher kalia, and yes chingri maach would be good too, cooked in any way Khukun Didin fancied. Now that we'd finished discussing the main parts of the menu I condescended to approve the less attractive bits like daal, torkari, shukto (eewww we don't like it so it can't be on the menu, no way!) and the bhajas.  

Oh yes, bhajas were expected in large quantities, and only aloo please because though I was happy to eat begun bhaja the brother hated begun (brinjal) in any form. With bhaja was always daal - actually it's the other way around but our primary interest was the bhaja so that's how we looked at it. Once the bhajas were sorted we moved on to discuss daal. 

"Ki daal khabe?" Khukun Didin asked. What daal will you have? And I promptly answered "Pulish'er daal! Ami pulish'er daal khai, pulish'er daal khele taratari boro hoa jay!" Police Daal! I eat Police Daal because Police Daal makes you grow up quickly. She stared at me in fascination and then went into complete peals of laughter! After drying her tears of pure delight she asked me which daal was 'pulish'er daal' and I looked at her in amazement - such ignorance! She didn't know what pulish'er daal was! Of course I couldn't enlighten her and she eventually asked my Didin what pulish'er daal was.

Years later, when I was in my early teens and learning to cook, pulish'er daal was a faint memory when one day I suddenly remembered it and asked Moni which daal it was. She looked at me in amusement, tinged with her own memories of her efforts at making the two of us brats eat our food without fuss, and revealed - arhar daal or tuvar/toor daal. 

Even today when I cook arhar daal there's a part of me that still calls it Pulihs'er daal and smiles. 

Pulish'er Daal

1/2 cup arhar or toor daal

a couple of green chillies

1 onion sliced

1 tomato, chopped (optional)

fresh coriander, washed and chopped

1/2 tsp jeera

turmeric

salt

sugar

mustard oil

ghee

Wash the daal and let it soak for 10-15 minutes if you like. You can cook it without soaking too. Pressure cook the washed daal with enough water and around half a teaspoon of turmeric. The daal shouldn't become a mush, the grains should be cooked but remain whole. 

In a kadai heat mustard oil and once hot chuck in the jeera and the whole green chillies. Add the sliced onion and fry till the onion just starts going brown. Add half a teaspoon of sugar while frying the onions. 

Pour in the cooked daal and bring it all to a boil. Add salt at this stage. My mom would add chopped tomatoes with the daal, I don't. I prefer the daal without tomatoes. 

Once the daal has come to a good boil stir in a generous dollop of ghee and switch off the heat. If you're vegan don't add the ghee.

Remove to a serving bowl and garnish with fresh coriander. Serve hot with plain rice. 

Accompaniments with the daal are ideally a bhaja or two - this could be fried fish, fried potatoes, brinjals, pointed gourd, lady's fingers, bitter gourd, etc. 

Lomba Kaata Alu'r Torkari ar Luchi - Bengali Style Long Cut Potatoes with Puris

Sometimes breakfast demands to be elaborate. The usual toast and eggs or muesli simply don't make the cut and the heart demands something more. And then, if it's Kali Pujo, the demands are louder. Since I don't make luchis very often I decided Kali Pujo was a special enough occasion to put aside all thoughts of counting calories and carbs and to simply indulge. And thus we had luchi and alu'r torkari for breakfast today.

Now there are many different kinds of alu'r torkari, or potato preparations, that can be paired with luchis, the pale, pure maida Bengali puris. From a simple alu bhaja (fried potato) to a more elaborate alu'r dom, alu phulkopi, sada alu'r torkari, Bengalis have a wide range of options. One that my mom used to make very frequently was a lomba kaata alu'r torkari.

This is a very simple preparation with barely any spices or ingredients and is absolutely delicious. It's also quick to cook which makes it perfect for breakfast. Once in a way mom would make this early in the morning for our school tiffins too. She'd roll up luchis with the torkari tucked inside and put three or four rolls in the box, enough for me and my friends to have a high treat at tiffin break!

Lomba Kaata Alu'r Torkari

4 large potatoes
2 green chillies
1/2 tsp kalonji or nigella seeds
1 tomato
salt
turmeric
chilli powder
mustard oil
water

Cut the potatoes into matchsticks, not too thin. You can retain the peel, make sure you wash the potatoes really well.

Chop the tomato and keep aside.

Heat mustard oil in a wok or kadai and once it's properly hot chuck in the green chillies followed by the kalonji.

Once the kalonji finishes sizzling, add the potatoes.

Stir well to coat the potatoes with the oil and kalonji seeds.

Cover the wok and lower the flame, let the potatoes cook for a couple of minutes. Do not let the potatoes brown.

Once the potatoes are translucent add the salt, turmeric, chilli powder, and tomato and stir properly to mix well. Let it cook for a bit, a couple of minutes.

Now add enough water to just cover the potatoes.

Bring it to a boil and cook uncovered till the potatoes are done and the water nearly dried up.

This dish doesn't have a gravy, but don't let the water dry out completely. The gravy should be barely there, just coating the potatoes.

Serve with hot luchis.

Here's the recipe for Bengali luchi.

This torkari goes well with porota and with regular everyday rotis too. Mom made it for dinner paired with rotis quite often. On days when you'r short of ingredients this torkari can be a lifesaver. For me, this torkari is something I associate very strongly with my mother - memories of Sunday breakfasts and special dabbas for for school. Such a simple torkari, but so much more than just a torkari.

Aam Daal - Bengali Daal with Raw Mango

I spent a lot of time in Kolkata last year and the urge to learn more about everyday Bengali food became stronger and stronger as I spent time there. On previous visits I had bought many recipe books written in Bengali, some dating back to the late 1800s even, and the food I ate at my aunt's table motivated me to return to those books when I was back home in Mumbai. My list of dishes to try out grew and grew. Many of these I've never eaten before but they seemed interesting and I decided to try them out one by one as I read more and more about Bengali cuisine and its recipes in books, magazines, blogs and websites.

Since mango season is on and raw mangoes are still available I made Aam Daal, something ideal for summer. I also liked the idea of cooking with something in the correct season instead of randomly cooking without thinking. I felt I was, in a way, cooking like our grandmothers did.

Aam Daal

250gms masoor daal
1 tsp turmeric
1 large unripe mango
2-3 dried Kashmiri chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds
mustard oil
salt
water

Wash the masoor daal well and then pressure cook with enough water and the turmeric powder.

Wash the mango well and cut into large chunks or slices.

Heat mustard oil in a wok or kadhai and temper with the kashmiri chillies and mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds have finished popping add the raw mango pieces and fry on a medium flame till the mango pieces begin to soften.

Put the boiled daal (still in the cooker) on the flame and add the sauteed mangoes and spices to the daal. Add water as required and bring it to a boil and add salt. Stir well and let it simmer till the mango is cooked but still firm.

Serve with plain steamed rice and a vegetable.

Tometo'r Chatni - Bengali Style Sweet Tomato Chutney

Moni would make tometo't chutney quite often when we were really young and later on it sort of faded out of her kitchen only to be revived again when we started visiting her in Kolkata after she retired. She then had the time and the inclination to cook for us and loved making these easy additions to the typically simple menus that we demanded - mangsho'r jhol, bhaat, or daal, bhaat, maach bhaja, occasionally accompanied by a vegetable preparation of some sort.

Tometo'r chatni is ridiculously easy to make and is not restricted to a season like kaancha aam'er chatni or raw mango chutney. This tomato version is a more aggressively sweet preparation and often has raisins or dates or even both added to it. However Moni usually made the no frills version and that's the one I like best. In some ways it's a strange concoction because there's the sour tang from the tomatoes, there's sweet from sugar, and there's the strong flavour from mustard seeds and an underlying pungency or 'jhaanj' from the mustard oil it's cooked in. 

Tometo'r chutney is a sort of palate cleanser and at wedding feasts it is usually accompanied by papor bhaja- or  fried papad. The chutney makes its appearance at the end of the meal but don't mistake it for dessert. For dessert there will be an array of Bengali mishti and top quality mishti doi for sure!

Tometo'r Chatni

250gms tomatoes, chopped into small pieces

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 Kashmiri chillies

mustard oil

1 cup sugar or as required

20 raisins, cleaned

water

salt

In a wok heat the mustard oil. Once hot chuck in the mustard seeds and the chillies and let the seeds pop. 

Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a few minutes letting the tomatoes break down properly. Smash away at them with your spatula to help them along. Add a small amount of salt and stir. 

Once the tomatoes release oil again pour in sugar and stir to mix. Once the sugar has blended in and more or less melted pour in about  half a cup of water and bring it to a boil. 

Put in the raisins and let the chutney cook till it is thick but not sticky. It should have a sheen to it and should not look cloudy. 

Serve at the end of the meal.