Tomato Soup for the Soul

We're off for a short trip to see Dholavira and I was in the process of emptying out the fridge. I had a pile of tomatoes among some other assorted vegetables. I'd just made pull apart bread rolls this morning and I thought soup would be superb with them. Thus tomato soup made its appearance at lunch today.

Sometimes all you need are a few fresh ingredients and a simple recipe to create a soul satisfying meal. This tomato soup definitely qualifies.

Tomato Soup

1 kg ripe tomatoes
2 potatoes
2 carrots
1 large onion
1 tbsp celery, finely chopped
salt
pepper
butter

Peel the potatoes and the carrots and cut into chunks. Chop the tomatoes and discard the stem roots. Put the whole lot into your pressure cooker along with a cup of water, the chopped celery , salt and pepper. Once the cooker whistles lower the flame and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Switch off and let the cooker cool down and release pressure on its own.

Mash the boiled vegetables with a wooden spoon. If you have a moulee legume you can run the soup through it. Alternatively just whizz it up in your blender or run it through a sieve. Do be careful if you're doing it in the blender - the hot puree can splash out of the jar and cause bad burns. Don't fill the jar beyond half its capacity.

Finish the soup with a dash of butter and scatter some finely chopped celery. You can also sprinkle some cheese for extra flavour.

We had the soup with the pesto rolls and it was a lovely lunch indeed!

Pesto Pull Apart Rolls

I have been looking through the past recipes done by the bread baking group We Knead To Bake to do one for February. I also wanted to make a bread to welcome the hubby home - he'd been away for a few days. It's also a working day today so I wanted something quick and easy. The Herb and Cheese Pull Apart bread that they did in January last year fitted the bill perfectly. This was the first bread the group did together at the start of WKTB in 2013.

I browsed around to see what the other members had done with this recipe and chose to follow Saee's recipe for Pull Apart Pesto Rolls. I had plenty of pesto in my fridge and this would be a great new way to use up some of it.

I'm reproducing Saee's recipe here. I haven't tweaked it at all.

Pesto Pull Apart Rolls 

200 gms Maida or white flour
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp sugar
3/4 cup warm water
2 tsp butter
1 tsp salt
extra butter for brushing
3-4 tsp pesto

In a small bowl or glass mix the yeast and sugar and pour the warm water over. In a separate bowl or directly on your work surface measure out the white flour. Make a well and pour in the yeast sugar mixture and start bringing the dough together with your fingers. It will get sticky but will come together very soon. Knead it on the counter top for a bit.

On the side take the 2 tsp of butter and the salt and combine them together making a smearing movement in a tight circle using your fingers parallel to the surface. Once the two are combined and the butter looks light and foamy work it into the dough. Once you add the fat the stickiness of the dough miraculously disappears.

Knead the dough well, stretching it as you go, for a good 10 minutes. Roll into a ball and place it in a bowl to raise. Cover with a damp cloth and leave it somewhere warm. It will double in 20 to 25 minutes max.

Remove the dough back on to a floured work surface. Punch out the air and knead for a minute. Roll it out into a flat oblong not thinner than 1/4 cm. It doesn't matter if the shape is not perfect. Spread the pesto evenly across the flattened dough going out to the edges.

Roll the dough carefully into a log. Cut the log into nine pieces and arrange them in a 9 inch round baking tin. Leave it to rise for another 20 minutes. Remember to leave some space between the rolls so they have room to rise.

Once the rolls have doubled and look squashed up next to each other pop them into your oven and bake for 20 minutes at 200C.

The tops should be a nice light golden colour. Brush the rolls with butter while they are still warm. Cool completely and they will come out of the tin very easily.

The same basic bread recipe can be used with a variety of fillings - Nutella, herbs and cheese, finely diced bacon or ham with cheese... just use your imagination and enjoy yourself!

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

We Knead to Bake #2 2014

Gajar ka Halwa - Indian Carrot and Milk Pudding

It started towards the end of October - as the weather cooled in the north I saw picture after picture of the delicious red carrots flooding every food group board on Facebook and more often than not, people were making gajar ka halwa with those carrots. 

I have always disliked Gajar ka Halwa. Once again I have a seemingly stupid reason for my dislike. My dad liked to cook and as most men, especially in those days, he was not into making mundane daal, bhaat, torkari, but liked to cook up the fancy and complicated stuff. The fact that slave labour (me) was available inhouse was an added benefit, I'm sure! And so gajar ka halwa featured often. 

I would be duly sent upstairs to our neighbour's house to get their grater. It was a big red plastic bowl with a white grater that fitted on as a lid. 30 years ago it was unusual and uber cool. Anyway, I hated that grater because I'd be the one stuck grating that mountain of carrots. Okay. Honestly, it was probably just a kilo of carrots but to a 9 year old it was a mountain. I'm not surprised that I remember nothing about the process of making the halwa apart from the grating. I seem to have deleted it all out of my memories! 

Well I am past 40 now and I like to think I have grown up enough to get over the trauma of grating those mountains of carrots. And so I set out to make gajar ka halwa myself. No. I didn't grate any carrots - I got my cook to do that part of the job ;)

Having seen tons of Gajar ka Halwa posts on Chef at Large on Facebook I asked for a recipe. The answers were instantaneous and I had a whole load of fool proof recipes to choose from. Ultimately the Hubby selected one that he felt was the most authentic one and it appealed to me too because it had no short cuts.I like to do a recipe the correct way the first time and only after that pare down the method for an easier version for future use. 

Thank you Harpreet Bedi Chadha for sharing your recipe. 

Gajar ka Halwa (with my own tweaks)

2 kg Red carrots, grated

2 lts full fat buffalo milk

5 green cardamom, seeds removed and reserved. 

Pure ghee, as required

Sugar - roughly 1 cup. Use more or less according to how sweet you want the halwa to be

15 blanched and halved almonds

20 raisins and 10 cashew nuts for garnishing. 

Take a thick bottomed largish vessel to make the halwa. 

Put in the grated carrots and the full fat milk and bring both to a boil. Pound the cardamom seeds gently in a mortar and pestle or under a rolling pin and add them to the boiling carrot and milk. Reduce the flame and let the milk get absorbed into the carrots and reduce. 

Stir every few minutes ensuring that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel. This is going to take a few hours so there is no option but to be patient. Keep stirring every five minutes or so.

In the mean time you can peel the blanched almonds and halve them. Put them aside. Heat a little ghee in a separate pan and fry the almonds very lightly. If you're using raisins or cashews, fry them too. Drain out the excess ghee and leave these aside. 

Eventually the milk in the carrot-milk mix will reduce and you will get to the final stages of the halwa. 

Add the sugar and stir well. The sugar will dissolve and the halwa will get watery again. 

Stir away patiently till the halwa reaches a nice thick halwa-like consistency. If you like you can add a few of the raisins and a few nuts (chopped) to the halwa. Pour in the ghee too. Mix well and your halwa is ready. 

Remove to a pretty bowl and decorate with the remaining nuts and raisins. 

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Focaccia Caprese - My grand entrance into the We Knead to Bake baking group

Everyone knows I practically live on Facebook and I'm fairly active on a few food groups and have loads of food obsessed friends. I started noticing the same breads appearing on my timeline last year. Once it was a Hokkaido Milk Bread, the next time it was Bialys, then suddenly everyone was making doughnuts! I asked Saee about it because she seemed to be part of these mass baking events, and she told me about the We Knead to Bake group.

Some time last year I attended a bread class conducted by Saee at the APB Cook Studio run by Rushina and it was there that I finally realised that bread was not such a scary animal after all. In fact, bread was more flexible than cake which needs more precision. I tried out a bread or two now and then but on the whole I gave in to my lazy self and didn't stir too much.

Then suddenly we acquired a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. There was no way I could leave that just sitting on the kitchen counter doing nothing - I had to find things to make where I could use it. Bread and the We Knead to Bake group popped back in my mind and I dashed off a request to join. Aparna told me I had to wait for the new year to begin as that was when the round of bread baking would start.

2014 finally came and I was part of one more activity. A new bread every month sounded reasonably doable and since I lacked neither equipment nor easy access to ingredients, I was more than ready. Luckily for me the first bread for the year was a focaccia - an easy bread, perfect for beginners.

Aparna chose Focaccia Caprese as the bread for January.

I followed the recipe to the T and pressed the KA into service to do the kneading. I looked on in delight as the dough came together. However, as I watched in wonder, I did have some doubts. I remember stretching the dough in the bread class and though the KA was twisting the dough I didn't feel convinced that that was good enough.

I was right. I ended up with a disastrous leathery bread. My bread mad husband ate every last crumb but I knew that it hadn't worked. So I attempted it again on the next weekend. This time I just did the very initial mixing in the KA and once the ingredients had come together I took it out and hand kneaded the dough for a good 15 minutes. What a difference it made!

Here's the original recipe from The Kitchen Whisperer that inspired Aparna to choose this focaccia.

This is what I did.

For the Bread -

3.5 cups maida
1.5 tbsp sugar
2 tsp Instant Yeast
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup very good EVOO
1.5 cups warm water

Herbed Oil for brushing -

1/4 cup very good EVOO
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp minced fresh garlic
salt

For the topping -

1 large ripe tomato
1 pack Amul Mozarella/Pizza Cheese
Fresh Basil leaves
EVOO


In a clean bowl simply whisk together the herbed oil ingredients and keep aside.

I put all the bread ingredients barring the warm water into the mixing bowl of my stand mixer. First I started the machine on the Stir mode using the Dough Hook just to mix things gently and to prevent the flour from flying around in a cloud. After a minute I increased the speed to 2 and poured in a cup of warm water in two batches. I added a little more than another quarter cup of water till the dough came together into a ball and didn't stick to the sides of the bowl. I switched off the mixer and took out the dough to knead it by hand.

I kept warm water with me as I kneaded, pushing and stretching the dough and wetting my finger tips just a little to keep things going. After about 15 minutes of kneading I felt the dough was soft and just very slightly sticky, and quite smooth. I could stretch it about a foot without it snapping into two.

I oiled the mixer bowl with some EVOO and put my ball of dough to rise, covered with a pretty kitchen towel. The weather being slightly chilly I put the bowl in the microwave and left it there undisturbed. I DID NOT put on the microwave - just parked the dough inside.

After an hour or so the dough was nicely risen and as instructed, I divided the dough into two, flattened them out two cookie sheets and left them to rise again. In 20 minutes they were nicely puffed up. I poked dimples into the bread and slathered them liberally with the herbed oil mix.

The focaccia took about 17 minutes (at 200C ) to get a beautiful golden sheen. I forgot to take it out early enough to add the topping so the final bread was a little darker than I would have liked. Anyway, the bread was taken out of the oven and slices of mozarella and then tomatoes were piled on with a further lashing of herbed oil. The breads went back into the oven, this time at 220C for another 5 minutes.

I had perfect Focaccia Caprese and we had just that for dinner. The olive oil is the backbone of this bread - use the best you can find and I promise you, you will be quite happy to eat this bread on it's own.

Pork Shops in Mumbai - well, some of them

I love pork. I love it so much I started a group, The Porkaholics, on Facebook just to connect with other pork-mad people and drool over porkalicious pictures, photos, recipes and exchange information.

Many, many months ago I thought of doing a round of pork shops in Mumbai and simply putting together a list in one place, on this blog. However, I took the lazy way out and simply created a document on The Porkaholics page and left it at that. That was a good thing because many members added information and we have contributions not just from Mumbai but from all over the country!

Still, the blog post was due and here it finally is. The entire credit for all the research on this one goes to my friend Jubal who happily drove me around the city and helped me locate as many shops as we could. In fact, he'd sat with his Dad and Mum and compiled a list of shops and where to find them before we set out.

This list is far from complete but it was such fun wandering around Bombay, locating shops in alleys and by lanes, driving around from New Bombay till Mazgaon, and seeing much more than just the pork shops themselves.

The first shop we went to is the one where Jubal and his family regularly shop at, called Himalaya Cold Storage. This one's on Nahur road in Mulund.

This is the list of goodies available

And this is the man in charge, Mr. Kishore

I asked Mr. Kishore about other pork shops and he mentioned his brother's shop in Vikhroli. Another brother runs a shop in Vashi and that one is called Hilton and is very well known in all of New Bombay. An interesting thing that Mr. Kishore told us was that his family was in the pork business with many shops all over the place including one in Dahisar. The family shops can be recognised by the shop names - all of them begin with 'Hi' after his grandfather's name (which unfortunately I have forgotten)

The Vashi shop, Hilton Cold Storage is in sector 17. The phone number is 27880899 and the address is Shop no. 34, Raikar Bhawan, Sector 17, Plot 9, Vashi.

For those in Navi Mumbai Hypercity in the Inorbit Mall stocks a few imported cold cuts and a good selection of frozen pork products like Sumeru ham, bacon, sausages, and some other brands too. If you're in Nerul there's an excellent shop just outside the railway station called Modern Cold Storage. Tel - 27701582. This shop stocks fresh pork along with a good range of frozen and processed meats.

In Kharghar there is Jambon Stores in Sector 20.

Hilltop Cold Storage is in Vikhroli.

Jubal and I drove to Vikhroli and found D'souza Cold Storage which is bang opposite the church. Hilltop, pictured above, is just around the corner.

Jubal's Dad had highly recommended a shop in Sakinaka on the Pipe road. We hunted high and low and finally found the shop. The only tragedy was that it was no longer a pork shop but was selling Tshirts instead. Fortunately Jubal is the persistent type and he asked around in the neighbouring shops if there was a pork shop nearby and we hit gold!

After walking through an old wada like building we came upon a village neatly tucked in the heart of the crowded Saki Naka area. In this little village was the St.Anthony Pork and Meat Shop.

After our little adventure in Saki Naka we drove on towards south Bombay. It was afternoon and many of the shops on our list were closed. They would reopen in the evening.

We found the Wadala shop open. Poona Farm Products is another wonderful shop that stocks not only fresh pork and a variety of frozen pork products, they also sell pork vindaloo, sorpotel and a few other cooked goodies.

Further south at Dockyard Road we discovered a municipal market that houses a massive fish section, and separate mutton, beef and pork sections! Unfortunately the shops were closed for the afternoon. The place looked quite clean so if you're in the area or nearby don't hesitate to go there. Just ask anyone in the area and they will be happy to show you where the market is. It is across the BPT road that is parallel to P D'Mello road.

We doubled back and went to Kalina to nail down another pork shop. Modern Fresh Meat.

There are many, many more shops all over the city. Quite a few of them are listed here on this document that I have created on The Porkaholics page.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Not Quite Traditional Sorse Narkol Chingri - Prawns in Mustard and Coconut

My sister in law, K's sister, is quite fond of the few Bengali dishes she has eaten at my house and it was quite natural that I would cook something Bengali when she's coming for lunch. She and her kids love prawns and so I decided to make Sorse Narkol diye Chingri or Prawns cooked with Mustard and Coconut.

The mustard and coconut combination is a classic Bengali combination and it is magical with prawns. My recipe is not traditional at all but is my own tweaked version. It's easy, it's delicious, and I usually have all the ingredients at hand.

This is a simple preparation with a few ingredients and that is why it can be tricky, especially with the mustard paste. Be sure to soak the mustard powder before you add it into the prawns. I use the Sunrise mustard powder that's popular in Bengal. I have also had success using the Atlas brand mustard powder which is great for making table mustard and is easily available in Mumbai. Even bottled kashundi works quite well. However, English or French style mustards are not options.

The same sauce can be used to cook fish and paneer too.

Sorse ar Narkol diye Chingri

Prawns, shelled and de-veined
salt
turmeric
chilli powder
jeera or cumin powder
green chillies
2 onions, finely minced
sugar
garlic paste
mustard paste
coconut milk
mustard oil

Marinate the prawns in salt and turmeric powder.

If you're using mustard powder to make your paste soak in water and make a thin batter like paste 15 to 20 minutes in advance.

Heat oil in your wok or kadai and let it get really hot. Reduce the heat and add the green chillies. Slit them if you're okay with the pungency or leave them whole if you just want the milder flavour. Add the chopped onions and fry slowly. The onions must not brown. Add a sprinkle of sugar and let this cook on a relatively low heat for a good five minutes. Add garlic paste and cook for another minute.

Now add the marinated prawns, a dash of chilli powder and some jeera powder. Stir well and let it cook for a minute or so.

Pour in the mustard paste and and stir. And then pour in 200 ml of thick coconut milk. Add a little water if you want a thinner gravy.

Bring it all to a boil and let it bubble till the prawns are done. This should take 3 to 4 minutes at the very most.

Serve hot with plain rice.

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

Kosha Mangsho with a Bahraini Twist

Kosha Mangsho is one of those quintessential Bengali dishes that you will see on every Bengali restaurant menu and is usually in the repertoire of most Bengali housewives. However, it's not something my Mom ever made and I was introduced to it somewhere in my 20s in a small Bengali restaurant  called Radhika in Pune. Since then I have seen and eaten many versions of this dish and have wanted to try making it myself too.

There seem to be two fundamental points of difference with Kosha Mangsho - a thick minimal gravy versus a a thinner jhol like gravy, and cooked in a pressure cooker or cooked directly in a wok or thick bottomed vessel. Somehow I have always preferred the thicker less gravy version and the non pressure cooker method is after all, the real way to do it - so that's what I did.

I have an inherent inability to follow rules and it was the same with the Kosha Mangsho. Even though I hadn't ever made it myself before, I didn't want it to have the typical Bengali taste and flavour. I was in the mood for something different. So I decided to use the technique and play with the flavours.

I went through my spices in the pantry cupboard and chanced upon the Bahraini Spice mix that my fried Jubal had shared with me. This spice is a beautiful blend of the usual garam masala spices with the added zing of dried lemons that is typical to the area. It works wonderfully with pork and with goat meat and I was sure it would make a killer kosha mangsho.

Here's what the spice bottle looks like. the black streak that you see at the top of the bottle is the dried lemon. You have to empty out the bottle and mix everything up really well. Sorry for this sorry looking image!


Kosha Mangsho with Bahraini Garam Masala

1 kilo goat meat, cut into small pieces

150gms fresh curd/dahi

salt

turmeric

jeera/cumin powder

ginger garlic paste

Bahraini Garam Masala 

mustard oil

3 large onions, chopped really fine

1 star anise

3-4 cardamoms

3 inch piece cassia bark

3 bay leaves

mustard oil

4 potatoes, cut into quarters

Marinate the meat in the first six ingredients and let it sit for as many hours as possible. Marinate overnight if you can, or at least 4 hours. 

I used a thick bottomed biryani deghchi to make the kosha mangsho and it worked perfectly. Use a thick bottomed kadai or wok or just use your pressure cooker as a pan. 

Heat about half a cup of mustard oil till it smokes and then reduce the heat. Fry the potatoes till they are nicely red and then remove and keep aside. In the same oil throw in the whole spices keeping the heat at medium so you don't burn them. Add the finely chopped onions and fry well for about five minutes. Keep the heat on low and let the onions cook slowly. Add half a teaspoon of sugar and stir well. Don't brown the onions, just let them fry slowly till the edges start to turn colour. 

Add the meat pieces one at a time without too much of the marinade. Reserve the marinade. Zap up the heat and braise the meat well. Keep stirring because you don't want to burn the onions. Coat the meat pieces well with the onion mix and braise for five minutes or so. This preparation needs some attention so be prepared to stir and stir! 

Once the meat is well seared you can reduce the heat to medium and add the reserved marinade. The curd in the marinade and the onions will both release water as will the meat so don't add any water to the cooking pot. Use a frugal quarter cup of water to wash out the marinade that's stuck to your bowl and keep it aside. Once you've added the marinade give it all a good mix and cover the pot. Reduce the heat as soon as the liquid in the pot starts to bubble. Let the meat cook in this steam undisturbed for about 10 minutes. 

Add the marinade wash water, give it another good stir and braise covered for another five minutes. You have to keep coming back to stir and add water, very little at a time. This process continues till the meat is cooked. Depending on the quality of the meat this could take anything from 45 minutes to an hour. Add the potatoes when the meat is about 80% done. If they get cooked too soon, remove them to a plate and add them again later. That's what I did. 

Your kosha mangsho is ready once the meat is cooked through and is tender. 

Serve the kosha mangsho with luchis, parathas, or even the wonderful Malabar parathas. 

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Pantry Staples Class with Saee

Most cooking classes these days are about cup cakes, bread, desserts or cuisines like Mexican, Thai, and the ever popular Chinese. Learn 5 easy pasta recipes, 6 simple salads, 3 desserts in a jar recipes, 5 healthy main courses -  the list goes on and nothing captures the imagination any more. And one day Saee said she was thinking of doing a Pantry Staples class - I leaped up at the idea and told her I was coming for sure.

Saee's been taking bread workshops for a while now under her own My Jhola brand and even has customised classes where an interested student can Bring Home My Jhola and learn in the comfort of their own kitchen using equipment that they have instead of an overly professional and sometimes intimidating studio kitchen.

The Pantry Staples Workshop was one of the most informative and fun workshops I've been to in a long time. We made

Spicy Tomato Ketchup
Basil Walnut and Parmesan Pesto
Pumpkin Seed butter
Saffron and Cardamom Lemonade Concentrate
Strawberry Vanilla Jam

The hubby loves jams and has a collection of home made jams sitting on the shelves. His mum made jams at home and his sister makes some amazing jams too. Saee regularly sends over jams that she's made as do other foodie friends like Rushina. In fact, US based food blogger Niv Mani also brought over some of her own home made jams all the way to add to his jam collection! When I saw the Strawberry Vanilla Jam on the list for the workshop I knew I had to attend this one :)

Gourmet foods can easily be made at home and Saee's workshop was a demonstration of just how easy some of these are. You don't need any fancy equipment or gadgets, neither do you need any special utensils or vessels. We're also becoming more aware of the presence of artificial preservatives and flavourings in commercial foods and many of us would like to be able to cut those right out of our diets. This workshop showed how easily that can be achieved.

Most ingredients are now commonly available and are not prohibitively expensive any more. Basil, for example, is now available with most local vegetable vendors and if, like me, you shop online it's not a problem at all. It's the same with almost all the ingredients that we used in the workshop so one doesn't have to worry about not being able to make the same stuff at home for lack of ingredients.

I came home with a bag full of goodies and a head full of recipes. The biggest surprise for me was the Pumpkin Seed butter. I have a million food related hangups and can shut my mind to a whole lot of things. If there's a healthy label attached, it doesn't help matters. I didn't expect to like the butter and though I was interested in the process of making it I was fairly confident it wasn't something I was going to try out myself. Well, I have changed my mind. This is something I could easily enjoy slathered on toast in the mornings!

Here's a look at what we made-

Walnut Basil Pesto with Parmesan



Pumpkin Seed Butter

 Spicy Tomato Ketchup

Chunky Strawberry Vanilla Jam

Saffron Cardamom Lemonade

(Lemonade Photo Credit - Saee Koranne - Khandekar)

Keep your eyes peeled for Saee's next workshop. Trust me, you will learn interesting things and you'll have a whole lot fun too! 

Marathon Bloggers Project 52 2014

Masala Kheema

Both K and I love mutton kheema (minced goat meat) and our favourite way is to cook with potatoes, carrots and peas. This is one dish that regularly features on the Katy's Kitchen tiffin menu and is not very different from what I ate as child at my mother's very Bengali table.

A simple every day sort of dish, you can enjoy it with hot rotis, parathas or even with rice if it's made with a little gravy.

Masala Kheema 

500gms kheema marinated in -

vinegar
salt
turmeric
chilli powder
jeera/cumin powder
ginger garlic paste

1 large carrot, peeled and diced into small cubes
1 large potato, peeled and diced into small cubes
1/2 cup green peas
2 onions chopped fine
1 large tomato chopped
1 tbsp garam masala powder or a meat masala powder
oil
3 - 4 green cardamoms
3 cloves
2 medium bay leaves
1 stick of cassia bark, couple of inches
1/4 tsp shah jeera
2 tbsp tomato ketchup

Marinate the kheema for at least two hours.

Heat oil in your kadai or wok and throw in the whole spices and once they have sizzled add the diced carrots and potatoes. Fry till the potatoes begin to turn colour. Add the onions and a couple of green chillies and fry till the onions start to brown. Throw in the chopped tomato, stir well and then add the marinated kheema. You will have to stir the whole thing for four to five minutes to mix everything well and to break up any clumps of kheema.

Now add the dry spices and a splash of water so the dry powders don't burn. Blend in the spices including the garam masala powder. Add the green peas along with a quarter of a cup of water and then cover the vessel. I use frozen peas. In case you're using fresh peas add them in earlier along with the onions and tomatoes.

Reduce the heat and let it simmer. It will be cooked through in another five minutes or so. Taste and adjust salt if required. Add the tomato ketchup and stir to blend in nicely.

Serve hot with rotis, parathas, pav or even rice.

29 December 2013
Marathon Bloggers

Schezwan Mushrooms - A Cheater's Dinner

I had originally planned to make Garlic Mushrooms, one of the easiest recipes in my repertoire - except for the part where you have to peel and chop about an entire pod of garlic. As I stared at the mushrooms and tried to get enthusiastic about peeling garlic I suddenly remembered the container of Schezwan sauce that Chef Raunak of Soy Street. Vashi, had given me a few days back. It was the absolute answer to my prayers!

The Cheater's Schezwan Mushrooms

Button mushrooms
1 large onion, roughly chopped
Schezwan Sauce from your favourite Chinese restaurant or ready made from a jar
cooking oil
salt

Wash the mushrooms thoroughly and get off all the mud and grit that's on them. Chop into quarters.

Heat a tablespoon or so of any neutral oil in your wok. Once it's hot chuck in the chopped onions and fry for a couple of minutes till they turn translucent. Now add the mushrooms and fry for a while. Reduce the heat and let the mushrooms cook for a bit. They will release a decent bit of water so you won't need to add any. Once the mushrooms are nearly done and the water has dried up put in at least 2 - 3 tablespoons of the Schezwan sauce. Add some of the oil too.  Turn up the heat and mix the sauce and the mushrooms really well.

Serve with hakka noodles or a simple fried rice.


29 December 2013
Marathon Bloggers

Aloo, Motorshunti diye Phulkopi - Cauliflower with Potatoes and Peas

Cauliflower is my favourite vegetable and this dry spicy version is one I make really often. It is perfect for a Sunday brunch paired with parathas and works equally well as a side dish in an elaborate lunch. I have also used this same recipe as a stuffing for samosas with spectacular results.

I don't claim this to be a traditional Bengali recipe or that it is authentic, but it is more or less, what I have been eating since my childhood with minor variations. This is my version.

Aloo, Motorshunti diye Phulkopi

1 medium cauliflower, broken into florets
1 medium potato, peeled and cubed
1 handful green peas
1 large tomato, chopped
a green chilli or two
5 cloves garlic
1 inch fresh ginger

turmeric
salt
chilli powder
cumin/jeera powder
garam masala powder (I use Everest)
2-3 cardamoms
2-3 cloves
2 small bay leaves
mustard oil or your oil of choice

Heat the mustard oil in your kadai or wok and chuck in the whole spices - bay leaves, cloves and cardamom. Add the cauliflower florets and fry well. Throw in the cubed potatoes when the florets start to turn slightly brown. Turn the heat down to medium and cover the wok. Stir every 3 -4 minutes so the veggies fry evenly.

Once the potatoes look half cooked move the veggies to make a well in the centre. Let the oil trickle into the middle and drop the split green chillies in. I do this in an attempt to use less oil. It hasn't affected the taste adversely at all!

Make a paste with the garlic and ginger. Or use a tablespoon of ready made paste.

Now add the tomatoes and the ginger garlic paste along with the dry powdered spices and salt. Mix well and throw in the peas too. Add about a quarter of a cup of water, cover the wok and let it cook.

You can add more water to have a wetter gravy version or leave it absolutely dry - it's up to you. Both taste great. Serve with rotis, parathas or even puris or luchis.


29 December 2013

Marathon Bloggers 

Tales of Kansha and Dhyarosh Bhaja

The last time I went to Kolkata I came back with a few treasures. Nothing fancy, just stuff that my mother and her mother before her used in their kitchens. An assortment of bowls, glasses and little platters, all in bell metal or kansha.

 Kansha is widely used in Bengal and one of the highlights of our summer vacations in Kolkata was eating out of the shiny golden plates and drinking out of the heavy curved kansha glasses.

I would often demand an elaborate meal just to eat out of the whole set - the plate in the centre piled high with hot rice with a blob of ghee or butter, a ball of aloo bhate or mashed potato mixed with mustard oil on one side, a couple of slices of begun bhaja and even a little pile of crisp fried uchhe or karela. There would be a line of gleaming kansha bowls arranged around the plate - daal, sukto, machher jhol, aloo/potol/jhinge posto, mangsho'r jhol, chatni... a full fledged Bong feast for the thoroughly spoiled grand daughter!

I couldn't bring back more than a few as these vessels are quite heavy. However, Mom arrived with as many as she could carry and now I have quite a collection. On my next trip to Kolkata we plan to go through my Didin's (grandmom's) camphor chest and I will have pick of the treasures within.

Among the pieces Mom has brought is a wide open mouthed bowl called a kanshi. I remember this, and many more like it,  being used every day. Didin would collect the sliced or chopped vegetables in these (sometimes all the requirements would be piled up in one) and the kanshi would also make an appearance on the dining table with a jhol or torkari in it. Since it has a flat base and a wide open mouth the kanshi was often used to serve machher jhol or fish curry - the shape was convenient as the delicate fish pieces would be easier to lift out and serve without breaking.

The kanshi that has come to me has become a part of my daily cooking utensils. Every time I use it I feel connected to Didin, my Mom, and to the many women before them who have handled the very same kanshi.

Today I made a typical Dhyarosh Bhaja or fried ladyfinger/bhindi among other things for lunch. Of course I used the kanshi to pile up my prepped veggies and then brought out one of the kansha batis or bowls to serve the finished dish.

This preparation is one I saw very often at Didin's house. Incredibly simple with just a few ingredients, this is a fine example of Bengali vegetarian cuisine where simplicity and flavour go hand in hand. Usually served with daal, dhyarosh bhaja is just one of the many varieties of bhaja (fries) that accompany daal in a traditional Bengali meal.

Dhyarosh Bhaja 

25 Bhindi cut into small roundels
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 green chilli
4-5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
mustard oil
salt
turmeric powder

Once you have prepped your veggies heat mustard oil in a kadai or wok. Add the mustard seeds and let them crackle and pop. Then chuck in the chopped garlic and reduce the heat so the garlic doesn't burn. Add the green chilli. After a minute increase the heat and then add the onions and the bhindi to the hot oil. Stir around nicely and let it all fry. Sprinkle turmeric and salt and mix. reduce heat to medium and cover the wok and let it cook for 2 -3 minutes. Open lid and stir. Cover again and leave it to cook. Check after a few minutes and ensure that it doesn't burn. Give it a stir every time you have a look. Once the bhindi is cooked your Dhyarosh Bhaja is ready.

Serve with hot rice and daal.

 
29 December 2013
Marathon Bloggers