Low Oil and Low Effort Doi Begun

Which reminds me- I HAVE cooked something nice this year.

This is the traditional Doi Begun, but low oil and low effort, so subsequently a little low in taste- but true brinjal lovers not to be fobbed of with small things like that

I got tempted to make this after seeing my friend Mhashi's  FB posts during her trip to Calcutta, Doi Begun was one of the things she had and it did look tempting- the luscious begun fried to a rich velvety brown in generous lashings of oil, caramelised onions complementing the colour, and the creamy contrasting white curd.

I love brinjal and dishes cooked in curd and seeing this posted by a friend visiting Calcutta just got too much for me and something snapped in my head.

I went to Grains for Brains (yes that  is what the grocery store  here is called, not sure if somebody meant to be cheesy or not :P) and picked up all the small aubergine I could find.

Traditionally ALL bengali brinjal dishes are started by deep frying the brinjals. However, whenever I cook, in the interests of time, health (and to be honest I am genuinely afraid of deep frying, oil splashes and therefore a most unpractised hand), I never fry the brinjal- I just cover them in a little more oil and let it roast. Sometimes I cheat even more and let it boil.

I fried some onions till a nice pink turning to brown. Then I stirred in the brinjals, let them roast, got impatient and poured some water and let it boil. Roasted jeera powder, green chillies and salt completed the dish. Once the brinjal is cooked, beat as much curd as you want and pour it over the brinjal. Serve immediately. Chopped coriander and/or rock salt can be added as per taste.

Rogan Josh at Kashmir for you

I did not post throughout 2014 because effectively, I did not cook anything :-)

But I have eaten some very nice dishes indeed

Special mention to this Rogan Josh I had at Kashmir For You in Aroma Hotel, Sector 22 Chandigarh.

This is a little kiosk in a food court. They have the standard Kashmiri fare- Goshtaba, Rishta, Yakhni, Rogan Josh. They also had two things I have not seen on a menu before. Aab Gosht and Dhaniya meat (both in chicken and mutton). I had the Rogan Josh as part of a Thali, but I regret not asking for the Aab Gosht. Would have liked to see what it was about.

The thali included a bowl of rice, some onion with masala, a mutton curry of your choice, a roomali roti and a small bottle of Coke. While that sounds rather little for a thaali, however, the mutton is extremely filling and the pieces were excellent, with good tender chunks of meat (not just bone and fat as is often the case). The gravy was rich, red and extremely tasty, spicy and tangy. I lapped it up, literally.
Rogan Josh, at least the authentic version is made without onion, tomato, garlic, ie the traditional ingredients of Indian mutton curries. The gravy is mainly garam masala, chillies, possibly ginger, with the Rattan jot giving it the wonderful colour. This was indeed very good. The roti was nice and soft and enhanced the taste of the gravy. Unfortunately they don't have a picture


There is a stall next to this one selling Lucknow Biriani - Rs 450 upwards- but humongous servings. Wish I could take Umang here

Kopir Dom

A rather delicious and simple thing I made which worked well recently was using our family aloo dum recipe on phoolkopi( cauliflower)

Cauliflower is one of my favourite veggies but I rarely buy it because it often turns out insect infested. my mother is a better judge and when my parents were here, the best thing she did for me was to leave a lot of raw veggies cut up and ready to cook in my fridge.

This was the best gift Ma could give me because I love cooking but have a pathological dislike for buying groceries, and have sometimes starved on occasion as a result :-(, coupled with weird work hours and another pathological dislike of going to the ATM. Which combined with weird work hours makes ordering in also impossible. I have recently discoevered restaurants in my locality where you pay online and am totally having a party now :)
Cutting veggies takes up a lot of time and energy so since these were already pre-cut I really felt I could work well with them. I love the sight of clean fresh veggies and was quite decided about inviting ma back soon :P

But ultimately I kept it simple. This combination of masalas is used at home for making a very favourite phaataphaati aloor dom. Is often made when we invite a number of guests as it is tasty and easy to cook I suppose.

The recipe calls for shit loads of tomatoes , the more the merrier. I used at least six for an average head of cauliflower.

Heat some oil and drop some jeera and let it crack. Then come the green chillies,as many as you like. then drop in the tomatoes and let them turn into mush. (this is a magic moment) , I usually drop the tomato pieces in, turn the heat to medium high cover the pan and let it cook by itself for 2 mins, after which I violently attack and mash the pieces in the pan. So then once they are pulpy, put in some ginger paste and turmeric (if using turmeric) Once the oil separates, put in the gobhis, saute for two minutes, till they are nicely coated, turn the heat to medium and cover it and leave it to cook Keep checking from time to time and sprinkle with water till done. I also took a tablespoon of curd, mixed it with besan and added it. Not really sure if it added anything but the dish was nice and tangy sour from all the tomato, maybe the curd also helped. Before removing I added sugar and some of my aunts muri masala (bhaja masala).
Coriander leaves cut and chopped would complete this dish nicely, but I find them difficult to manage so I dont.
The original aloor dom is usually had in our home with those lovely soft triangular Porotas that only bengalis know how to make :)). I had the kopir dom with rice though.

Short cut eats

I haven't blogged for a while, because I haven't really cooked anything new for a long while that really, really stood out. Also for the last six months, I have been successively , slightly depressed, too lazy to buy good groceries, away on a wonderful work trip, sick and busy and wasting my time by umm.. watching cookery shows online.

I have however discovered lots of little short cut comfort foods that make life easier for me. I get back really late, too late for a proper meal or ordering in. I try to eat at work, but fixing myself a nice comfort snack is relaxing and sustaining.

These are some of the things I have been relying on:

Jhaal muri- thanks to my aunt who makes this AMAZING masala mix. I just mix some muri with mustard oil and this masala and snack on this at night. The best versions have cucumber, tomato onion and are dressed in tamarind or lemon juice.

Besan pancake type things : I have mixed besan with water to varying levels of consistency and tried frying the result in shallow pans kadais etc. With mixed results, but you can't really go wrong with fried besan :P

Then again you can, if the pan is too small and the besan remains thick and uncooked in the middle.

Unsuccessful pakode: I tried doing onion and brinjal ones- the brinjal ones did not get coated properly. The onion ones came out like pancakes. I am probably mixing my batter too thin.

Dahi ke kebabs : Ahh....these were lovely. Hang some curd - either put some curd in a muslin cloth or fine sieve and suspend it over a saucepan overnight, or just open some nice thick dairy  curd (Nestle is good) carton, eat a spoonful and leave it open a few days (in the fridge of course). The water floats to the top and you get a hung -curd like consistency.
Mix the curd with some amount of besan and whatever masalas you like- I like chat masala, green chillies, ginger, that kind of thing. Chat masala or black salt with curd is a winner. Now take small handfuls of the mix and fry them.

Eggs : I have started making these thick omelettes- using two eggs in a small frying pan. with chillies and cheese. They get a thick baked egg like consistency. Nice and filling

Mushrooms : Very easy to turn into killer dishes. Stir fry mushrooms with sme nicely browned onions, garlic salt and pepper, and then throw some sour cream in once nearly done. Adding herbs work well too. Mushrooms cook fast in their own juice and like all good proteins are v easy to cook and keep tasty with little attention. My father thought this was a gourmet dish. I served this with some neer dosas bought from my mallu butcher and panfried fish.

Sprouts : Mixed with lemon juice, my muri masala, green chillies. Have always been very fond of sprouts

Pasta : Made my own sauce by just sauteing a load of tomatoes and some garlic and spices, and blending it coarse. Tasted nice. Added some brinjal to the mix once too.

Saboodana Khichdi: Much easier and tastier than Maggi.

I also discovered this life saver thing called masala oats. I normally don't like cereal as they are always too bland or sweet. These are however catered to Indian tastes and are savoury/ spicy.

I also like keeping ready to fry dosa mixes in the house.

Of Frying Pans and Seared Chickens

I shifted from using my kadais to flat frying pans recently, the ones with raised edges.. those which look like saucepans with a growth impairment. The results, for some reason were amazing, an unbelievable improvement. Not sure about the science behind this as yet.. maybe an even distribution of heat?

I shifted to this after my recent Master Chef USA addiction. The contestants were using techniques with droolworthy names, pan-searing, braising, stir frying, pan fryinng(ok, am familiar with some of them). The common vessel seemed to be a flat bottomed pan and a lot of the more delicate meats seemed to be cooking pretty quickly on them too. 

The other factor was not being able to find my microwave grill rack. I had this sudden desire to grill some chicken in a different marinade every day of the week, but my grill rack has disappeared. Pan-searing or tawa frying seemed likely to produce somewhat related results. 

The first thing I did was winter stir-fried vegetables (separate post on that). They came out super-scrumptious. Then I shifted to the chicken. I got about 500 gms of de-boned chicken breasts (I prefer legs, but they didn't have deboned legs, and I thought boneless flat pieces would be easier to sear in a pan)- they look like flat strips. I cut them up smaller , divided them into sections and marinaded them as follows:

a) with soya sauce, honey, vinegar, salt and pepper- These were the first batch I tried searing in a pan. Searing basically involves keeping the chicken face down in a pan, and then once it browns turning it over and letting the other side cooked. Since these were the first batch I did, and I was REALLY sceptical about meat cooking in a really short time span, I kind of burnt this lot.. however the burnt part was easy to scrape off and the honey-soya sauce mix tasted good

b) Pesto and Yoghurt- Had a jar of rocket pesto which I mixed with some curd. These were the best of the lot. I had learnt my lesson the first time, that these were really small pieces and searing probably lessens the cooking time, so I turned them around and took them off the pan at what seemed like optimal times , and it worked. The chicken came out supple and tender which was  a big surprise, because usually I find breast pieces stringy, tough and dry. I realised that this could be because: the breast pieces usually take less time to get cooked through, so while cooking a chicken with an assortment of parts, by the time the tougher pieces get cooked, the breast is already overcooked. Hav decided to work with specific pieces in future. In terms of the taste of the marinade also this was a clear winner.. tasted a bit like reshmi kababs with pesto. I was even able to manage a little glaze with lemon juice :)

c)Normal tandoori mix- curd, ginger, garlic, red chilly powder, salt, jeera, mustard oil,aamchoor.. I didn't burn these but definitely overcooked them. The marinade tasted ok.. could hvae done with sharper flavours. Guess will have to figure out the science behind this too.. are any of the flavours undercutting the others?

I used up the chicken making a normal kosha chicken with onion, tomatoes, ginger and garlic (shredding WHOLE spices) but more in the nature of a stir fry, where I prepared the masala first (frying onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic)and then added the chicken and seared it.

So two more marinades still on the card, an orange/shredded ginger one, and a honey/mustard one

Stir fried mushrooms with cheese

I made some stir fried mushrooms recently which turned out pretty well. I used a recipe I got from a booklet which came with BBC Good Food India, compiled by Himalaya who are advertising their mushrooms, of course modifying it to suit myself.The original recipe also contained tomatoes and capsicums which I skipped, wanting to enjoy the full, unadulterated flavour of mushroom

I used:

2 packets of normal mushrooms
2 Onions
Several cloves of garlic
Chives
Black pepper powder
Cheddar cheese


Slice the mushrooms sometime before and lay them aside. Then chop the onions fine and start sauteeing them. While the onions are softening, grate the garlic cloves. By the time they are done, the onions will be pinky-brown. Now is the time to toss in the garlic. Let it fry and release it's flavour. I also tossed in some dried chives I possessed. Once these are nicely roasted, I put the mushrooms in, and stirred a whole lot. Then I covered the wok and let it cook by itself.  Mushrooms release a LOT of water, and are best cooked in their own juice covered on low heat. They remain nice, rich and meaty. I finished off with some black pepper powder and sprinkled grated cheddar cheese on top before taking it off the flame. The end result was extremely satisfying. The mushrooms were nice and rich, having been stewed in their own juice :P, and were tender without being soft.Black pepper added a kick. Tasted really awesome on bread , as a topping. 

Baingan ki Dry Sabji

Brinjals, together with cauliflowers have to be my favourite vegetables. I like the smell of both raw and cooked brinjal, their rich purple colour, their inherent rich taste which makes even a simple chachhari seem ...rich ..:)
My simplest go-to recipe is to just stir-fry them with Paanchphoron, but I wanted something a little less basic and something a little more ..like the hearty sookhi sabjis of north india which I love.

I followed the recipe from here, however, I did not fry the brinjals and potatoes beforehand(actually I did not add potatoes at all). That specially seems to fit the objective of this blog, which is mainly to produce eatable and more than eatable food in the shortest time possible. While frying the vegetables would definitely have added to the taste (in fact, most of my Bengali folks did not believe that brinjals could actually be cooked without being deep fried at first), it would  have resulted in a much longer, more laborious process, to say nothing of the quantities of oil that would have been required.

Ingredients:

Brinjals
Whole Ginger
Green Chillies
Red chillie powder (optional) or Deghi Mirch
Tomatoes
Jeera Seeds
Dhaniya Powder
Turmeric
Dhaniya Patta



Slice the brinjals into smallish pieces, whichever way you like. I cut them into halves and then slice them longitundinally and then horizontally. I find large or medium sized brinjals much easier to do than those tichy small ones.Rub some salt on the pieces (this apparently makes them absorb less oil) and leave aside.

Heat some oil and chop the tomatoes while the oil is heating. Once the oil is heated, drop the jeera seeds into the hot oil, and once they stop spluttering add the tomatoes and stir till mixed. Now add green chilies(though I usually add these first, however I tried it in another order here), give the tomatoes some time to get nice and squishy.. Meanwhile scrape off the ginger peel and grate it; revel in the fragrance. (it helps to have soaked the ginger piece in some water)
Now in a small bowl mix the grated ginger(should be paste like), the turmeric, coriander powder, red chillie powder with some water and make into a smooth paste. By this time the tomato pulp should have been squished out. Add the masala paste and stir till it becomes semi-dry and everything is well integrated. Now add the brinjal, stir it so that it is well coated with masala put the heat on medium high and cover it. Add salt, and keep stirring at five or ten minute intervals so that all the brinjals get the heat evenly. Add more oil if required. I like my brinjals nice and soft and mushy. While the brinjals are cooking, one can chop coriander leaves and put them in at the end, however this adds to the time spent in the kitchen.

Note: this dish tasted better a couple of days AFTER I made it, in a similar way to meat dishes.

Besan Wali Capsicum

The last couple of weeks, I tried two recipes and pretty much struck to the instructions for both, which is a bit rare for me, being really lazy to go through multiple steps etc. However these were very simple, so am writing them down before I forget. This one is the first. I followed the recipe from here , pretty much as described, only leaving out the coriander as I didn't have any and the hing (asafoetida) as I turned allergic to it a while back.

The capsicum in this recipe is cut in semi-cube chunks. IE cut the capsicum in 2 halves longitudinally and de-seed. Then cut into long strips and then cut them in a transverse direction.
Otherwise more or less as described, I roasted some besan in a kadai, then emptied it out. Then I heated some oil and allowed some cumin seeds and fennel seeds to crackle (the recipe calls for fennel powder, but not having any I used whole seeds) and added some dried red chillies. Looking back, I think I put in too many fennel seeds - they impart a slightly bitter taste.Once the spices were roasted, I put in ginger paste, turmeric and garam masala, and roasted the whole mixture till the whole spices had a nice dry crumbly coating. Then I put in the capsicum with salt and cumin powder and stirred till it was coated and covered it and let it cook. Once the capsicum was soft and turning from dark to bright and then to a sickly lizardlike green( meaning nearly done) I added the besan and amchur covered it again :). The besan added an extra touch, adding a nice gatthe/vadi like feel to the dish. Works well with chapatis. Capsicum is both easy to cut and cook, so apart from roasting the besan this dish is very easy and hassle free. It had a slightly bitter taste in parts, I am not sure whether this is a property of capsicum or the overdose of fennel seeds. Ms.Nishamdhulika recommends keeping the capsicum chunky but I prefer them soft.

The original Original Sin

Is when you grate boiled potatoes, dunk them into beaten egg, season liberarally with salt, pepper, herbs, anything that takes your fancy and THEN form them into roundels and lightly fry them in butter on both sides, AFTER of course having grated/broken some cheese on top. They didn't look like much so I didn't take pictures, but had one yummy Sunday dinner.


The basic inspiration was a lot of reading about rosti, latkes, other form of potato pancakes. These turned out to be potato omelettes instead but were still really really GOOOD.

Pumpkin something

I made something out of pumpkin today. I planned on trying out a Bihari recipe from BBC Good Food India's June issue, but it turned out that I didn't have most of the ingredients. Yeah even something as basic as ginger. Grocery shopping is my pet peeve and I will be more than happy when my mother comes and takes that over for a couple of weeks. I don't mind cooking two meals for her in exchange. The problem is a) the poor to pathetic quality of most vegetables in this region ( I think people here just don't eat well, or are not bothered) b)if two things you need are available at any given place then the third isnt. Ginger of course is available everywhere , so I'm just making excuses, when basically I forgot :). Sitting down and making a list never works because I promptly forget stuff while making the list, or I leave the list at home. I used to use a note taking app on my phone, which was good, since the phone is kind of surgically attached to one's palm, one can just jot down items as and when they occur to one.

So I decided to modify the pumpkin recipe to a great extent. Pumpkin is hellish to cut so I usually ask the vegetable seller to slice it longitudinally for me. I put these long slices into the microwave for ten minutes, with a little bit of oil (optional). They come out all nice and soft and that is when I slice them into little pieces. I used a tadka of kalonji (nigella seeds) and red chillies. I also used a lot of boris, (those bengali lentil globules/spheres?) which make any dish taste nice. People usually deep fry them, but being lazy I just dry roast them in the Kadai before frying the tadka in the same kadai. Once the pumpkins came out nice and soft I just sliced them and put them into the kadai with the tadka and the bori and added salt, rock salt and amchur and stirred it together and let it be there for some time. Didn't taste too bad, texture was interesting. Would have been better if I'd had the energy to peel the pumpkin, but they eat them with skins on in S. India it seems so I guess it doesn't poison me and peel is supposed to be good for you, roughage and what not.

My Pune trip from the culinary angle

I went to Pune two weeks ago for a very close friend's engagement. A co-explorer of cities, of seedy eateries, a fellow movie addict and a partner in crime, a loyal supporter. True to form, I had a nostalgic food fest (Marathi snacks are just so the ticket) and carried back a lot of khau. Two years of integration/assimilation into the Marathi community in JNU meant of course Bakarwadi, Masala Kachodi, Bharang(my friend Akshay used to get the best ever) , Chivde , Shrewsbury biscuits, Kayani's Cake, lovely vinegary-fiery green chillie pickle, shop-bought bright red Warhadi Thecha (I think it was Kelkar's), my friend M's mom's home made green chilly thecha with peanut chunks in it(I used to think she was a magician), Lasun Chutney, my favourite Shengdano Ki Chutney( I love peanuts). I ABSOLUTELY fell in love with Amba Lonche - I think Marathis have got the secret of how to make the most PERRRFECT mango pickle ever. Just the right levels of sour-salty-ness. It's not much publicised but I think it  is WAY better than the ubiquitous Punjoo or Tam / general Southie pickles you get on the market.

In fact their green chillie pickle is pretty damn good as well. I like the taste of whatever little daily Marathi home style cooking I have tasted as well- it's very simple but very different- the dominant tastes are peanuts, mild amounts of coconut and this secret masala called Goda Masala.

Leaving Delhi obviously felt terrible, the people and the camaraderie and the historicity and the lovely long foggy winters. Contributing in no small measure to this was the general Thecha- Lonche deprivation and the nostalgia for Bakarwadi - Chivda.There are certain foods which, as much as or more than the taste, also carry some very emotional associations. Usually one's native cuisine does this to one, for me a lot of  Marathi food and the sound of the language brings back memories of long nights maroing adda in and out of Lohith and Chandrabhaga, Mahanadi,complaining about boredom, mess food, lovely night walks,the thrill bike rides(my first ever encounter with bikes), learning a new language, going to watch a play in Marathi, which M tried to whisper interpret, and then admitted she didn't understand much either because it was a dialect instead of hoch Marathi, singing Dada Kondke songs. I kind of relived this this July for a bit with U and was happy that he listened with so much patience:) as well as accompany me to Chandni Chowk.

So to get to the food. Started off with lunch at Maithilee's house,really yummy cauliflower Sabji cooked by the lady who looks after her nephew. Was eating cauliflowers after ages given the general standard of cauliflowers here which try their best to convert you into an insectivore.As mentioned, the marathis use this secret Garam masala called Goda Masala, which make the simplest of recipes taste DIVINE. Together with this there was Methi Theplas and some Dal Rice(simple Dal, which I think they call Varan Bhath). In the evening M (whom I call Dory) started off on the usual food pilgrimage. Luckily didn't have to go too far as there is a competent Chitde's, a nice Konkani store and a super Halwai within walking distance from her place. We picked up Aloo Shev, Aloo Papad (which we finished in Pune), Shrewsbury Biscuits, a kilo of Bakarwadi, a kilo of Masale Kachodi, a bottle of Mapro's strawberry crush, Goda Masala(forget the brand), and a packet of Kepra's mango pickle. Also some Shengdana Chutney (peanut chutney) and Lasun Ki chutney(again forget the brand). We finished this expedition with some really nice Pura/ Puria? Chi Vadi and this thing called Matar Karonji (which was like a samosa patty but with a pea's stuffing) at Chacha Halwai's. The latter was so good I finished off the last one in the shop.
At dinner that night, M's mother yet again reminded me that she is  magician. Bharli Vangi -brinjals stuffed with peanuts and Usal, a sprouts dish.  The awesome thing about Marathi Ghar Ka Khana is that it is so simple yet so tasty. And of course it's the nicest thing ever when somebody so lovingly cooks for you.There was some very nice Upma the next morning for breakfast which we ate on the drive from Bombay to Pune(and such a lovely drive it is, rolling green hills and mist), Maharashtra does seem to have a lot of things which make it seem like an interesting place to explore/settle in. Beaches, sea, lush green hills, ruined forts, history, food. Nice people speaking a comprehensible language. What I don't like are the rains. I am a sissy who doesn't like getting messy. We stopped at Lonavla which is pretty, if only the rain hadn't killed it.
I won't talk about the engagement food much here, because that was nice, but standard north Indian party food type food... but move on after that. ...In Bombay, my friend P joined us together with a junior of ours, another Madhura. We went to Madhura's house afterwards, and then I wanted to go to P's house and say hello to her parents, whom I haven't met for ages. P lives in Borivali and I liked the ride ,from Thane to Borivali, it seemed like more of the Mumbai Pune highway landscape. And while people have raised eyebrows at my going to Bombay and not wandering around town, I'm glad I went, because her mom was so happy to see me and gave me a BIG hug, and who the hell wants to wander around dirt and mud while getting drenched. Had a nice chat, planned a future trip, next month, and then got fed royally by P's mother. Aloo Matar, which had a nice coconutty-peanutty feel, and paneer(aloo matar was a real winner)- and apart from the warmth it just feels so good to have tasty home cooked food without having to cook it yourself. Auntie also ground me fresh peanut chutney to carry back home and I was OVER the MOON. I left a box of chocolate fudge from Lonavla with them.

When I visit them I will carry some Ooty chocolates and Mysore Pak. I came back with super heavy bag full of food, and a smile and much love :)

and I had a fitting Samadhi for the remaining Khau last Sunday. Invited a bunch of people (about 6) over for evening snacks and put out the spread below. I had greedily polished off the Aloo Shev, and there weren't enough Shrewsbury biscuits to go around, and I ain't sharing homemade peanut chutney, till I get my grinder, but the rest was all there.
On the table there is Strawberry Crush,Chitde Chya Bakarwadi and Masala Kachodi,some Lakshmi Narayan Chivde which I got here from Total Mall,to supplement the theme, chikki and chocolate fudge from Lonavla, Varng (puffed rice mixture) and some Bong chanachur (Mukhorochak) which my mom had sent me with my meds and which luckily arrived that very afternoon. The Pongal-Sambar was my friend Pramila's tiffin, and I kind of regret not tasting it now. My friend Rekha who pampers us like crazy supplied the samosa and the jalebi from Bhikharam's, and the two bottles of wine which she had received as a birthday present. I had planned to make some Anda Bhurji or Sabudana Khichdi but didn't feel up to it, which was a good thing as there was lots of this stuff left over which was ultimately sent home with D( whom we call the son of Rajanikanth :P). I think everybody had a nice time cos they stayed till 10:30. Teas seem to be a good idea and maybe we will do more such.

Come to think of it, a cooking blogger who is also a pork lover shouldn't name herself after the most famous pig in literature.

Oh well.

A return to blogging and brinjals

I decided to return to this blog after nearly a year. I abandoned it because a) I kind of stopped trying out new stuff b) the blog template got really messed up c) I realised a lot of my cooking methods were completely unscientific and I didn't have the energy to re-write posts

A year down the line, I am more tech savvy, :P and with the encouragement of a good friend U decided to clean up this space. I am ALSO a quicker cook, and realised I didn't have to try exotic to get innovative. Just simple endless variations on the daily sabzis can lead to endlessly different tastes ( specially since I eyeball all my ingredients). I have ALSO resolved to try re-writing older posts. So here goes.

Of late I have ended up making a lot of dry sabzis (somewhat like stir fries) which require very little time to be spent in the kitchen.Just roast the seeds, add the vegetables, stir add masalas, stir, cover, go have bath, come back to find it almost/completely cooked. Set rice to boil in the meantime.  Standard lunches comprise this one veggie dish, rice and chicken if I have happened to have cooked any over the weekend. While shamelessly parochial about hardcore Bengali cuisine being the best for daily consumption(though while living at home I would turn up my nose regularly at said cuisine) I have decided that most of it is way too laborious and finicky for the average lazy woman who likes cooking as the means to an end. So I looked at a wide variety of recipes and found a lot of North Indian stuff which sounded surprisingly easy ( I think everyday, home-style North Indian food is super-yummy as well)... and now my cooking is a mish mash of everything and I just throw together whatever I feel like eating at that particular point of time. I am NOT very fond of Veggie Curries except for standard stuff like Dahi Bhindi or Shorshe Begun or Kopir Dalna, so I keep them dry. That way ..if I don't feel like making rice I can turn them into sandwiches or better still get hot rotis from the office ( Rs 10 for 4 rotis) and eat them with some pickle on the side.

My MOST  recent effort in this line was a rather pleasantly surprising brinjal dish

Now.. brinjal is without doubt my favourite vegetable, though cauliflower nearly ties with it. Due to it being an almost impossible task to find gobhi sans insects here (this is a part of India where I really think nobody even LOOKS at what is on their plate or dumps everything into some form of lentils) I have resigned myself to Gobhi-Deprivation for most of the year till I can shift to more congenial territory( I was MOST impressed by the vegetable stalls in Pune eg- LOVELY white cauliflower and ripe red ready to burst tomatoes, vivid purple brinjals- I should have taken a photo.:( )
So brinjals it is (and why do I keep getting a mis-spelling indicator?)
For this recent dish:

I chopped two mediumish brinjals into teeny pieces. Of late I am getting better at chopping things up teeny which I hated before. A decent assortment of knives goes a long way. Chopped into long strips with a big meat knife then into smaller ones with the thin onion slicing one.  Then I heated oil and let cumin seeds splutter. I tossed in the brinjal and coated it nicely with oil and the cumin, keeping heat high all the while. Covered it and sliced onions again into small pieces( it kind of grows on you, I guess :P. Also a useful skill to advertise when one is no longer a bachelorette-can be used as a deterrent ).Stirred in the onions, stirred a while till I got bored, turned heat to medium, put in an OVERDOSE of cumin powder( I am a moody cook) having got some cumin pangs that day, some amount of coriander powder, some salt, mixed in the spices, covered it and went and had a bath and stuff. Came back to find it almost cooked. Put in some amchur and let it finish. I charred it a bit- having picked up this trick on another cooking blog, which I will try to trace. Eaten with rice, and the next day with bread. Brinjal when properly cooked should be nice and soft and this WAS.

No hassle Bhindi

The best thing about Bhindi is that it is easy to CUT. Lay several of these side by side, hold them down with one hand and go chop chop chop with a knife.
They look a bit like lizards though...

This is the easiest recipe I can think of
Bhindi
Jeera(cumin) seeds & a bay leaf
Coriander powder
Amchur(mango powder)
Salt turmeric
Green chillies or chilli powder (optional)
Besan (optional)

keep the cut bhindis in the fridge for a couple of days. Somehow older vegetables are easier to cook, don't know why.

Heat oil and drop the cumin seeds into it. Once the seeds crackle, add the bhindi. Stir it well so that the cumin seeds get mixed with the bhindi pieces. Drop some coriander powder, salt and turmeric into this immediately, stir well again so that the bhindi is well coated with spices. Now put the lid on and simmer for ten minutes (or more depending on the quantity you are cooking)
After these ten minutes, come back to the stove, take the lid off, if the bhindi is 3/4 cooked add the aamchur stir and cover it up again..water can be added if necessary. After max 10 more mins of this process, the bhindi should be totally cooked. At this stage, add a miniscule amount of besan, stir it, let it be absorbed and take it off the stove. This dish however seems to taste better if it is kept for some time after cooking.
Don't have pics-due to reasons in last post. Anyway cooked bhindi is nothing great to look at-as mentioned, they look like lizards. Well cooked bhindi should be an unpleasant dark green in colour. To taste, it should be soft and squishy-this is not a deep fried dish.

Roast Chicken in Red Wine

I am short of pics at present, due to my smartphone conking out and me misplacing my camera charger.
In any case, I don't think I COULD upload pictures on this blog without my little Android. The integration is beautiful and seamless- Pictures taken on the phone are auto-uploaded to Picasa Web.. and Blogger allows you to directly add snaps from your Picasa Web Albums. Google is just SO the best.
Anyway, the smartphone should eb up and running again in another 48 hours. It's already been repaired, but I have very un-smartly left the charging equipment in the store. As my friend said, the phone needs to compensate for the user:P


To get to the roast chicken:
I had attended a gourmet cookery workshop recently where they had given me a bottle of red wine. I really don't like red wine very much, even though I have plenty of friends who do, so I decided to try out some nice recipe. I searched for Coq Au Vin.. but the authentic Coq Au Vin requires a load of ingredients which I don't have the patience to go buy- in any case this modified recipe turned out quite well, I think. The recipe below would benefit from caramelised onions.. I forgot to make and add those.




Marinade some chicken in red wine(tiny amount), garlic paste, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and leave it for at least overnight or even longer ( even more than 24 hrs is ok, it doesn't go bad)
The marinade should not be too watery.. that means a very minimal amount of wine.

Heat oil and once it starts bubbling put the marinaded chicken into it. It will start sizzling and let out fat and liquid....and let out an awesome smell that will make you want to stick your head into the pan.
You can add a small stick of cinnamon to the roasting chicken; this apprently makes it brown nicely. I think it also adds to the taste of the gravy

Cover it up and let the chicken dry roast, check on it every five minutes and when one side is nicely browned and looks about to char, take a LONG handled ladle( I find a ladle better than a spatula for this) and turn the pieces around and let the other side brown.

Once both sides have that nice browned look- should be smelling really nice by now-take them out of the vessel and keep them aside. At this point the chicken is ONLY HALF or 3/4s cooked.
Ideally put the chicken in some water-this water will absorb some of the fat and can be used to cook the dish later.

I now added some black peppercorns (Those round crinkly black pepper globules- I think they are called peppercorns) and a bay leaf and lots of chopped garlic( finely chopped) and roasted these in the oil-fat residue in the pan. once they kind of crush and start giving out  smells I added mushrooms and spring onions and fried these.

I did a really lazy thing with the mushrooms- I had ordered a pork dish the previous day which had mushrooms in it-I just fished these mushrooms out and added them after a thorough rinsing :P. As the original pork dish had been very mild, it was as good as using raw mushroom

and once these have browned, mix some red wine, soya sauce and cornflour in a bowl and return the chicken to the cooking vessel, add the red wine soya sauce mix-if you have soaked the half cooked chicken in water, then add this  water, else just take some water from the tap, and let the chicken simmer in this liquid.

Once the water boils off, the chicken should be completely cooked - we can add vinegar at this stage.

Salt can be adjusted to this dish any time according to taste. The runniness of the gravy depends on the amount of cornflour added..by mistake I boiled off the whole gravy.. but I think a slightly viscous sauce like gravy would taste awesome!

this dish is neither lengthy nor time consuming in terms of cooking time, but requires one to be present in the kitchen through the process, alert and dexterous..Ingredients have to be added at the right moments, and if the chicken is turned over too late it will char...so I intend to make it when I have the energy.

Lemon garlic butter

Chop some garlic into small pieces Slice a minute sliver of one lemon. Take a good generous dollop of butter and melt it in a pan and put it on a low flame. Add the chopped garlic as SOON as the butter starts bubbling. let it roast for 5 seconds..then take hold of the vessel, and hold it a few inches ABOVE the flames for some time- to make sure the butter does not burn. Let the pan get some heat, till the garlic is completely roasted, ie it should be golden brown and crunchy. Now squeeze the lemon juice from the lemon sliver into this, stir it well and serve. Salt and pepper can be added if desired.

This is a very nice twist on the usual butter. Tastes great on soft bread, and I think would go well with fried fish too. I think it can also be thickened to a sauce using cornflour, though haven't tried it myself. Once could also try marinading prawns in this and grilling them. 
Whole process should not take more than 5 mins, otherwise the butter will burn. the proportion of the three ingredients can be adjusted according to taste.

Pet peeves Or Things I Do NOT like to do in the kitchen

And are therefore things which will never appear here, unless written by a guest
1) Using a pressure cooker. The noise and violence of it scares me.  Plus have heard horror stories of it bursting without enough water. Like all gadgets it must have ben invented by a male. It is a great mystery to me, why men are so chronically incapable of inventing gadgets and tools, which are not NOISY
2) As a corollary to 1 - cook any dish, which cannot be done without a pressure cooker. No, this does NOT mean mutton. Mutton , or indeed any meat, can be cooked as well, if not better, if slow cooked on a low flame in some sort of pot or kadhai. Give it time, cos it will take 90 mins to a couple of hours, but then mutton is the soul of lazy lunches and dinners and is NOT meant to be eaten or cooked in a hurry.
3) Cook Dal. This follows directly from 1. Strangely enough, unlike meat, no matter how much I boil dal, I cannot get it soft and mushy without a cooker. Not much of a loss, because I dislike lentils in any case.
4)Dishes which need to be made piece by piece by piece by piece in loving detail. Ergo, Rotis are OUT. As are the other flatbreads, much to my sorrow. I MIGHT however one day make an exception for fish fries/cutlets
5) Cutting vegetables. Unfortunately there is NO way I can avoid this :(((
Cutting beans in particular, am grateful that I can generally find ways of avoiding it
6) Finding worms inside cauliflowers :((. But I still love to cook and eat cauliflower :)
7) Peeling potatoes. Sacrilege for somebody who is primarily into Bengali cooking...where it is added to every bloody dish, both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian... but I can and DO avoid it.In the face of criticism, I make pious remarks about counting the carbs and the calories :P

AND THE GREATEST PEEVE OF ALL:

Washing up the dishes, and cleaning the kitchen after cooking :)). I HATE HATE HATE these activities with a vengeance. Is blue collar drudgery in my book, after the skillful artistry of cooking. Feels like a demeaning come-down after actually creating a dish :(

Kadhi Pakode

Am caught up with intensive trainings at work, so even though I am still cooking and eating out with as much gusto as possible, writing takes a back seat.
I made some really nice Kadhi Pakode recently.. I say really nice because at least five-seven people said it was delicious, one of them a Rajasthani, no less!

the best things about Kadhi pakode, apart from its simplicity and guaranteed deliciousness are that a) it can be made in parts- ie, one can fry the pakodas at a much earlier date, and store them in an airtight container
b) Richness can be adjusted according to taste- therefore one can make it for everyday consumption as well as to serve to guests

I was lucky to chance upon this lady's website. She must be really nice, she updates vegetarian recipes which are really simple as well as delicious and is a godsend for the likes of me. Each recipe comes with a video as well, which I find extremely helpful.

My Kadhi Pakode is a take on hers- the changes I made were:
a) I left out the hing (asafoetida) as I seem to be allergic to it.
b)I added a LOT of coriander powder, which she has not done here
An additional suggestion:
Mix some salt and green chillies/chilli powder to the pakoda batter
The richness of the Kadhi depends on the amount of besan one adds, and also the quantity of water one pours in/boils off

I rather like the idea of adding a little bit of tadka roasted in ghee at the end:)
My pakodas turned out flat rather than spherical, but didn't taste too bad all the same.

Lemon butter garlic rice

Or funny fried rice :)

I made some lemon butter sauce, as i had said, but unfortunately there was nothing to eat it with, so I had to throw it away.. luckily, it's not very precious, and there was too much lemon in it anyway, so didn't feel too bad about it.

I made it in a saucepan.. which became naturally buttery. I returned the garlic pieces to it, and ws windering what to  do with it.... when inspiration struck.
I usually make myself a certain quantity of rice on a daily basis.. usually in a saucepan.. out of sheer laziness and a disinlination to do any extra washing up, I decied to make rice in the same pan.. kind of like kore dehi naa.. koto khaaraap hobe? So i just boile dosme water in the selfsame pan, and put the uncooked rice in.

Result.. ooh.. a dollop of heaven..:) Double the amount of water that I normally use was needed though.. so I don't know if it is due to the presence of the fat.. or just something to do with the rice itself..Either way, it was olfactory heaven :))

Uchhe chocchori or Bitter Gourd our way

and now for a nice light dish, to compensate for the decadence of the previous one...and to escape from the cholesterol police of course.

Karela has been a favourite of mine since I was a child. I used to happily eat boiled Karela, and Karela crisply fried with salt was heaven...(We bengalis like eating a lot of  vegetables, just fried in oil). As discussed before, I was much reviled amongst my cousins, since I was the model kid who not only refused to eat chocolates , but also had second and third helpings of karelas :P
In Bengal, one generaly gets two to three varieities of the karela.. the genteel, small uchhe, which is the most commonly eaten..I used to love ucchhe bhaaja, the korola ( the common karela) which I think is regarded as kind of plebian.. the large fleshy kaankrol..which at our house at least, would only be served fried)

Now I maintain that the secret of cooking gourds, is that they should be cooked very very light, with MINIMAL oil and spice. None of this ginger garlic nonsense thank you, and woe betide any person who says that gourds have no taste of their own. Whenever I hear this, my automatic reaction is, "sure, that's because only bengalis know how to cook them" As a result, I eat loads of gourds of different kinds, and if people must share my tiffin, they can take it or leave it.

the recipe I follow for karela chenchki/ uchhe chochhori.

Bitter gourds, as many as you like
A table spoonful of paanchphorn
turmeric
Salt
sugar
and my concession to letting my purist snobbery drop- a dash of amchur.

Cut up the bitter gourd into thin round slices. If  enthu, dice them into cmalleer slices after this.
Heat some oil in a kadai, and roast the paanchphoron. Revel in the fragrance. take a small small teaspoon-ish amount of the paanchphoron and keep aside
Add the bitter gourd, the turmeric and the salt. stir , stir stir like mad.

The bitter gourds will become slightly translucent after a while.Cover it up and let it be.
Four Karelas take about 30 mins to cook. After 30 mins, come back, if the vegetables, still need some more cooking ( bitter gourds should be COMPLETELY soft when they are ready) ie if they are still what we call kochkoche.. as in need some effort to bite, add some more water and cover for another fifteen minutes.Check if it is properly cooked
Take the paanchphoron that you had kept aside, and stir it in with the amchur and the sugar, mix thoroughly and turn of flame after two minutes
Once karela is properly cooked, the colour should change to a dirty-ish green from a nice dark green...
the reason why you add some paanchphoron later is that often whole spices lose their smell, once they have been boiled alongside the vegetable.

there is an even easier way to cook this
Boil the bitter gourd pieces . Drain and drink the water ( don't wrinkle your nose, it's good for you)
Heat the oil in a pan or a kadai, and fry the paanchphoron. Put in the drained bitter gourd, and add the turmeric salt and sugar, mix well, and let it roast for about ten minutes..this dish should be completely dry

Edit : Cooking time of course depends on the qty of the vegetable, as well as the size of the pieces they are cut into. I cook huge quantities at one go-hence the 30 mins!

Note: Re-reading this note- I realised at that time a) I cooked unnecessarily super-huge quantities for one  b) I cooked on really low heat. Therefore the 30 minutes. I cook on high or medium heat nowadays- though I have heard low heat is the best for health.