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. 

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.

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.

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. 

Aloo Begun or Easy Eggplant with Potatoes

Everyone has easy, quick to cook recipes for those mornings when you're running late and the lunch box is yet to be readied. A quick survey of the veggie box often reveals an uninspiring medley of bits and pieces because it's the end of the week and things have to be restocked. On such days it's the simple no fuss recipes that need just a few minutes of prep and are quick to cook that we all turn to. Like this Aloo Begun or Eggplant with Potatoes. No fancy ingredients and no complicated prep make it a big favourite for me. And since the hubby and I are both very fond of eggplant there's always some in my veggie box.

Aloo Begun

1 medium eggplant, chopped into cubes
2 medium potatoes, chopped into cubes
1 small tomato, chopped small
1 onion, sliced
1tsp ginger garlic paste
1 green chilli
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
salt
turmeric
jeera powder
dhania powder
chilli powder
mustard seeds
oil

Cube the eggplant and potatoes into equal sized pieces. Sprinkle salt and turmeric on the eggplant cubes and set aside while you prep the other ingredients.

Heat oil, I used mustard oil, in a wok or kadhai and fry the potatoes till they start to brown.  Cook on a medium flame and cover them so they cook. Once they are about half cooked remove to a bowl and in the same oil fry the eggplants. Stir well and fry till the eggplants start to soften. Remove to the bowl with the potatoes.

Add a little oil to the wok if required and let it heat up. Chuck in the green chilli and mustard seeds and once the mustard seeds have calmed down chuck in the sliced onion. Stir to mix and fry on medium heat till the onion start to pink.

Add the chopped tomato, ginger garlic paste, turmeric, chilli, jeera, and dhania powders, and mix well. Add a splash of water to prevent the spices from burning. Cook over slow heat till this masala mix starts to release oil. You can also add chopped fresh coriander at this stage, I didn't because there wasn't any in the veggie box. Use the stems for sure!

Put the potatoes back in the wok, stir to mix and then cook covered for five minutes adding a quarter cup of water. When the potatoes are done add the fried eggplant pieces, stir and cook covered for another couple of minutes. Add salt if required keeping in mind that you've salted the eggplants right at the start.

This simple subzi goes very well with rotis or parathas and is perfect as a packed lunch.

Chichinge Peyanj Bhaja - Snake Gourd and Onion Stir Fry

Moni (my mom) had a pretty limited repertoire in the kitchen but once in a way she would stir up something we weren't so familiar with. It is a fact that neither I nor my brother were great fans of vegetables and as a single mother she took the easier way out and cooked meats or fish just so we'd eat with a little less fuss. But as I grew up, and more so after I got married and developed an interest in food I started asking her how this vegetable or that was cooked - and with that began a journey of discovery for me of the myriad vegetarian delights of Bengali cuisine.

Moni and I agreed that cooking non vegetarian food was always easier - there was less chopping and prep involved. But there was a wonderland of food in the vegetarian component of Bengali cuisine and once I showed an interest she would cook more vegetarian things as she finally had a less fussy audience. The fact that the brother (starved of vegetarian food in Dubai, thanks to his own limited repertoire in the kitchen) was also now willing to eat his vegetables certainly helped!

One of the dishes she made quite frequently was chichinge peyanj bhaja or snake gourd stir fried with onions. This preparation is as simple as a dish can get and yet is as delicious as ever. As I learned more vegetable recipes I realised how frugal the ingredients would be and how minimal the spicing. Most everyday vegetable recipes in Bengali cuisine let the vegetable and its own flavours shine, as you will see in this simple preparation of Chichinge Peyanj Bhaja.

Chichinge Peyanj Bhaja

3 feet long piece Snake Gourd
2 medium onions
1/2 tsp Kalonji or Nigella seeds
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 tsp sugar
Salt
Mustard oil

Cut the snake gourd into manageable pieces and scrape the surface to get rid of the white outer skin. A peeler will dig into the flesh of the gourd and you will end up wasting a lot. A good scrape with a sharp knife works just fine. Cut the gourd in half length-wise and scrape out the pith and seeds with a teaspoon.

Now slice the gourd as finely as you can - a couple of milimetres thin is perfect. Slice the onions equally fine. You should have gourd and onions to the proportion of 3:2. The gourd reduces as it cooks so having equal quantities will unbalance the dish.

Heat mustard oil in a kadai/wok and once the oil is hot chuck in the kalonji and let it sizzle. Add the sliced gourd and fry on medium heat for a while. Once the gourd has started to soften add the onions, salt, turmeric and chilli powders and mix everything well. Add the sugar too at this stage.

Now all you have to do is be patient and fry till everything is cooked. Cover the wok with a loose lid and let it cook for a few minutes, coming back to stir once in a way. Once the snake gourd is cooked through let any moisture dry off and let the onions caramelise just a bit.

Serve with plain hot rice and a simple daal. It makes for a lovely light summer lunch.

This recipe, like many traditional Bengali recipes is also vegan.

Sun Dried Tomatoes - Make them at Home!

Considering how addicted I am to sun dried tomatoes and how often I make them, I'm surprised I haven't written about them on my blog. Well, it's never too late, is it?

I first tasted sun dried tomatoes from a bottle that Saee sent over. She'd made them at home and had sent some over for the hubby. Neither of them expected me to like them, let alone even try them. But I did. And I fell in love.

Sun dried cherry tomatoes preserved in olive oil with a few cloves of garlic is something you will always find in my pantry cupboard now. And I dry my own tomatoes, at home. They say a convert is always a greater believer and oh my God, I am!

While the scorching heat has been getting all of us down, there are some benefits to having hours of blazing sunlight. A chance to dry tomatoes and stock up! It's a very simple process and if you carefully follow some basic guidelines and are patient you will soon have your own stock of home made sun dried tomatoes. Here's what you need to do.

Sun Dried Cherry Tomatoes

500 gms cherry tomatoes
salt
garlic
olive oil

a sharp knife
flat metal tray
muslin or any really thin fabric
clean jars with tight lids

Buy firm cherry tomatoes. If they're squishy and over ripe they tend to get fungus while drying and your batch will be ruined.

Wash and drain the tomatoes. Pat dry with a soft towel or tea cloth. Spread out to dry for half an hour or so. You want no extra moisture on the tomatoes.

Halve the tomatoes into two hemispheres and then lay them cut side up on the tray. It's okay if they're a tight fit as long as they're not on top of each other. If space is short just use another tray or plate. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt making sure you get salt on all the tomatoes.

Put the tomatoes in the sun to dry. Leave them in the sun for two to three days till they completely shrivel up.

Make sure none of them have developed fungus. Discard the ones that happen to get fungus if there are just a few.

Cover the tray with a thin cloth at night to keep out insects. Don't use a thick cloth or paper - you want air to circulate through the fabric or the tomatoes might spoil.

Once the tomatoes are dried completely put them into a jar along with a few cloves of garlic. You don't need to peel the garlic, just pop them in with the tomatoes. Pour good quality extra virgin olive oil onto the tomatoes till they are submerged. Do NOT use pomace oil. Tap gently to release any trapped air bubbles. Shut the jar tight and leave to mature for a couple of weeks.

Sun dried tomatoes are a fabulous ingredient to have at hand. Use them in salads, add them to your bread dough, top on pizza, add them to a pasta sauce, make pesto with them... just go mad!

Marathon Bloggers

Lau Bori - Another Example of the Simplicity of Bengali Vegatarian Food

I have a cook who comes over twice a week to ensure my fridge has a good amount of Bengali dishes in it. I make sure she cooks something typically Bengali, that you would find served in any random Bengali household - those ubiquitous preparations that are mundane and simple everyday fare that would make most Bengali housewives laugh at my interest in them. For me these are not mundane as I didn't grow up eating them. For me most of these are absolute revelations.

Take this Lau Bori for example. Once she had finished cooking I asked the cook to give me two minutes of her time so I could write down how she made the lau bori. She rattled off the recipe in four sentences and I looked at her, amazed. That's it? Didn't you add any more spices to it? Or anything else? No, she said. That's it. Now taste it and tell me if you like it.

Lau Bori

1 small Lau or bottle gourd, peeled and cut into thickish matchsticks
1 potato, peeled and cut like the lau
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tej patta or Indian bay leaf
1/4 tsp kalonji or nigella seeds
1 minced green chilli
mustard oil
salt
turmeric
1 tbsp posto bori, or any other bori


Heat mustard oil in a wok or kadai and fry the bori. Drain excess oil and keep aside. In the same oil throw in the kalonji, green chillies, tej patta and grated ginger and fry for a minute. Add the cut lau and potatoes and fry well on high heat stirring nicely. After a minute or two reduce the heat and cover the kadai. Let the vegetables cook. Once they're around half done add turmeric and salt and mix well. Once again cover it and let it cook further. Don't add any water. Keep the flame low and let the vegetables cook in their own steam for another few minutes. Then add the fried boris and cook covered for a further few minutes till the lau and the potatoes are cooked though.
Garnish with finely chopped fresh coriander.

I enjoyed this with fresh hot rotis.

Bengalis have a rich tradition of making boris and there is quite a variety of these daal based dumplings that are fried and crumbled or scattered whole over many vegetarian dishes. I found posto bori in one little shop in Lake Market in Kolkata on my last visit. They're much smaller than other boris and in fact, look like white chocolate chips.  I hadn't a clue what I would do with them but fortunately the cook does!

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Peyaanj Posto - Poppy Seeds with Onions

Posto is one of those pillars of Ghoti Bangali (West Bengal) cuisine that I am a great devotee of. Every time I visit home in Kolkata my mom and my jethima make sure that it's cooked for me in some form or the other nearly every day. Most of you have heard of and even eaten aloo posto - it's served at most Bengali restaurants.

Apart from aloo posto there are a variety of other veggies that are cooked with posto like jhinge (ridge gourd), potol (pointed gourd) and begun (brinjals), to name a few. My favourite, however, is peyaanj posto - posto cooked with onions. The sweetness of the caramelised onions marries beautifully with the nutty smoothness of the poppy seeds and the green chilli adds a perfect spicy zing to the whole thing.

Peyaanj Posto 

1/2 cup white poppy seeds soaked for 15 mins, drained and ground to a paste with 1 fresh green chilli.
2 onions very finely sliced
2 fresh green chillies
salt
turmeric
mustard oil

Soak and grind the poppy seeds as described above.
Slice the onions really really fine. Sprinkle salt on the onions and mix well opening up the onion slices. Leave it to sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Squeeze out the water from the onions as much as you can.
Heat the oil in a wok or kadai  and fry the onions slowly till the start to brown. Drop in the green chillies. Sprinkle half a teaspoon of sugar to get the onions nicely browned and caramelised. Take care not to burn the onions or your dish will be ruined.
Add the posto paste. And now comes the fun bit - reduce the flame and cook the posto into the onions stirring slowly. Keep moving the posto around in the wok, it should not stick to the wok. Add more oil if required. This stage can take anything from 10 to 12 minutes so be patient. Eventually the oil will separate out and your peyaanj posto is ready.
Since salt is added to the onions you don't need to add any more while cooking.
You can add turmeric if you like or you can leave it out. The presence of turmeric in posto preparations is one of the favourite arguments among Bengali food connoisseurs and food enthusiasts.

Serve the peyaanj posto with a simple daal and plain white rice.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52      

Home made Tomato Ketchup

Last week I went for a Pantry Staples Class by Saee where I learned how to make some easy condiments, spreads, etc., which are all part of our pantry and which we invariably pick up on our weekly grocery runs. It was a revelation just how easy some of these are to make and the proof of that ease is the fact that I didn't even wait a week to try out one of the recipes!

Ketchup is something we consume in large quantities and it is on my shopping list very often. A recent discussion on a Facebook group revealed the fact that the immensely popular brand of tomato ketchup that I'd been buying contains barely 20% tomatoes. I checked the ingredients on the label and found that it contains 28% tomato paste. Just 28%?! What was the remaining 72% then? Since I had seen just how easy making ketchup was and I had the recipe at hand, tomato ketchup is what I chose to make.

I didn't get all the ingredients listed on the original recipe and have tweaked the recipe a little. However, the original recipe is superb and I will make that too. I'm sharing Saee's recipe here and I will mention what I changed in the recipe as I go.

Spicy Tomato Ketchup

8-10 large tomatoes, cubed
8-10 cloves of garlic
2 inch piece of fresh ginger
1 tbsp coriander seeds (I used powder because I didn't have the seeds)
2 bay leaves/ allspice leaves *
8-10 black peppercorns
4 bird's eye chillies (I didn't use any)
2 tsp red chilli flakes or powder (I used Hungarian smoked paprika )
2 tsp salt
5 tbsp sugar
200 ml tomato puree (tetrapak)
1 tbsp chopped celery stem
2 cloves

Wash the tomatoes and cube into large pieces. Place all the ingredients barring the sugar and the tomato puree, into a pressure cooker with 2 cups water and cook till the tomatoes are soft. Remember to chop up the ginger so it gets cooked through. I forgot and had to chop it and mash it later.

Once cooked let it cool. Discard the bay leaves.

Blend the cooked tomato mix in your electric mixer.

A note of caution - let the boiled tomato mix cool a little before you put it into your blender, especially if it has a glass jar. Don't fill too much or the hot liquid can splash out and burn you badly. While puréeing is an easy process it is one that you must do with a little care.

Once the tomatoes are blended quite smooth, pass the mix through a sieve. Press hard and coax as much of the mixture through as possible. You will need a sieve that has a reasonably wide mesh that allows the pulp to pass through. I didn't have one and ended up having to puree the mix seeds and all in my liquidiser. The sieved pulp is definitely better as the seeds can give the ketchup a slightly bitter layer of flavour. Sieving also ensures you get a really smooth ketchup as your final product.

Now pour the sieved mixture into a thick bottomed vessel and bring it to a boil. Add the tomato puree and the sugar at this stage. Let it bubble nicely and reduce the heat and let it cook for 30 to 45 minutes on a lowered flame. The watery sauce has to reduce and thicken. Taste it and adjust salt and sugar as required. The ketchup will thicken a little after it has cooled.

Here's what my ketchup finally looked like.

Decant into a clean sterilised bottle and REFRIGERATE.

This recipe uses no preservatives at all and the ketchup will spoil if left on your pantry shelf so refrigerate it without fail. If you're making a large quantity, divide into smaller batches so you can take it out a little at a time and use it up portion by portion.

If you can get your hands on these chillies use them for sure. They will add amazing colour to your ketchup. I couldn't get them for this batch but I really wish I had.

* My blogger friend Manisha pointed out that bay leaves are vastly different from Tej Patta (what we in India commonly call Bay Leaves). So in case you're a reader from Europe, America or anywhere outside India, you need to use what we call Tej Patta. There's no English word for it.

You can read Manisha's post about the difference between Tej Patta and Bay leaves here. There are pictures to illustrate the difference too.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52