Sweet n Sour

The long weekend that just went by(thank you Bank holiday) was long indeed. Two back to back dinners, going out for the third & planning for the fourth, the trip to Lord's one day & to Oxford the next, writing about the yatra, watching Dennis the Menace & The Spy Next Door, inviting friends over tonight, TGIF!- doesn't quite leave you breathless :) 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     What adds more tadka to life are the tongue-in-cheek Fb status updates. The best one lately that made me smile was Vinayak's. A suave Sales Exec with IHCL, our man operates out of the Pink City. Late March this year he found a common link among Shahid, Bips & himself. All three were looking for a new home! Whether they found theirs, I am still to be updated but that's Vinayak for you.Witty, upbeat, smart. And if you see his pics, you'll know this is one dashing dude the chain has on its rolls. Someone who enjoys a car rally as much as a literature festival & has the eye to spot peacocks trotting on a high wall, this earnest request to one and all on FB could only come from someone like him: people please, for heaven’s sake stop updating your status with news of losses and other depressing, nonsensical and whining messages. After an entire day of going through life's challenges, that is the last thing anyone wants to see or read. Sympathies to all in pain and all troubled, but really your updates will not erase them or remove your troubles. God bless !!!

The heartfelt God bless at the end of the message settles matters once & for all. Nobody is whining any more, not in public, at least! Taposi is another such inspiration. This child-woman declares her fortieth birthday with pride, looks ageless after sixteen years of marriage & two darling daughters, has retained her charming smile that so many of us lose down the line & wears the contentment of The Blessed. The same quiet spunky girl who had staged a walkout at the university exams when questions were out of syllabus, is now a seasoned wife, mother, teacher & home-maker. What better dish to cook for the two Kolkata-bashi than Sweet & Sour Maach. Fish, considered shubh, is a must-make on birthdays & other auspicious occasions in Bengal. 

                                                                                                      This fish dish is a slight variation from the traditional doi maach. This does use doi, curd, but the treatment of the same gives it a different flavour & taste. Try this yum recipe with plain rice. The easy cooking time makes the sweet sour machchli even more tempting! 

                                                                                         Ingredients:

1. 5-6 medium/large fish pieces

2. 1 medium onion- grated

3. 1 tbsp grated/paste ginger

4. 1/2 cup curd

5. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

6. 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds

7. Red chilli powder as preferred

8. 1 tsp turmeric

9. 1- 2 tsp sugar

10. Salt to taste

11. Mustard/Refined oil to cook

12. 1 cup water for gravy

                                                                                                                                          Method:

1. Marinate fish with turmeric & salt and leave aside for 10 mins.

2. Allow cumin & fenugreek seeds to crackle in hot oil and fry the onion & ginger paste.

    

3. When oil leaves the pan, add curd, sugar & red chilly powder and fry well.    

4. Wash the fish pieces(to remove the turmeric/salt coating) and saute them gently in the onion curd paste for 5 mins. 

5. Add water & salt and let fish cook in the gravy till done.

Decide on the water for yourself. Some families like thin gravy while others like it thicker.

And as young men take up the cudgels to make it a positive world & young women cross the fence with pride, let us give them our moral support and wish them well with festive fish.

                                                                                              Cheers, Vinayak! Happy Birthday, Taposi!                                                 

Anda Raita

Goodness abounds. Look around and you will find yourself surrounded by kind people. Practising random acts of kindness without expecting anything in return is the surest way of feeling good about the Self. Our Art of Living teacher had a word of caution, though. Be aware if the recipient is in need of your good deed. She had an episode to recount, to substantiate her point. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            In the last AOL batch, a participant finished the day's kriyas, brimming with joy at his enlightening experience. That day's home-work was to practise three random acts of kindness & report about the accompanying feelings in the next day's session. His first opportunity arose when he was about to cross the road. Seeing a frail, old lady standing next to him, he helped her cross the road too. And walked away without expecting a thanks. Before this amma could fathom what's happening, another AOL follower, sensing her bafflement, jumped to her aid & took her to the other side of the road. Visibly shaken, she wondered aloud why people were making her cross the road, she was just waiting there for her daughter!
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Obviously, the Chinese young man who helped Vineet hadn't attended any AOL course. When he saw Vineet trying to take the pushchair, with the little one in it, down the stairs at  Oxford, he lifted one end of it & helped him down. Picture this: father & child are at the landing posing for a photo; mother, Richa, is on the top of the staircase, positioning the camera. The smiles are just right & the Sony is about to be clicked when the good samaritan reappears, & amid protestations that they want to go no further, lifts the pushchair & takes it right down to the bottom of the staircase. Vineet has no choice but to hold one side & then thank the young man for his help. 
                                                                                                          We hold our sides as the couple regale us with this story over Vineet's promotion dinner. The Anda Raita the night before proved to be lucky. The news of his promotion came when we were hosting the couple the evening before. V relished the egg raita & said that this was a first for him. P loves eggs in any form; the curry patta seasoning on the creamy curd here only intoxicates him further. Try this recipe friends. All other forms of raita will take a back-seat till you tire of this one. And that wont be soon!
                                                                                                     Ingredients:
1. 4-5 boiled eggs - quartered
2. 1 1/2 cup yogurt
3. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
4.1/2 tsp cumin seeds
5. 1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
6. 1 pinch turmeric powder
7. 4-5 dry red/fresh green chillies
8. 3-4 stems curry leaves
9. 3-4 tbsp refined oil
10. Salt to taste
                                                                                                                                          Method:
1. Arrange the egg pieces in a shallow bowl.
2. Whip curd with salt & pour it over the egg pieces, covering them.
3. In hot oil, add asafoetida, mustard & cumin seeds &  chillies & let them crackle for 2 mins.
4. Add turmeric powder & curry leaves & let leaves sizzle to a dark brown.
5. Pour this seasoning, with the oil, on the egg & curd.





Served cold, this heavenly dish goes with any North Indian meal you are having. For those staying away from roti/chawal, have a big bowl of only raita. Will keep you cool till your next appraisal :)  

Looking for a promotion? Have Anda Raita. Or get invited to a friend's who makes it! Tall claims? Naaah. Ask Vineet!

Achari Machchi

As the Supreme Court issues order of 'no tinted film permissible in Delhi or anywhere else in the country', protesters pelt criticism on Fb as the Delhi Traffic Police updates its page with the news. TOI intended a pun with its headline 'Film ban from Friday but city clueless', almost making the reader think it was a ban on a movie! Dilliwallas are indeed clueless about the severity of the decree. While there was a lighter tint permitted on glass windows, the ban on any/all kinds of tint is sending tempers soaring. There are allegations that the traffic police might be misinterpreting the rule. In the scorching heat of (esp) Delhi, how can such an unreasonable law be passed is what users are left wondering. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         But a rule is a rule is a rule, is what we have grown up to learn. Starting from home to school to college to the work-place, if a rule has been passed by the ruling body, it is non-negotiable. Like it or hate it but you cannot ignore it has always been a way of life. The average man makes peace with the most unreasonable law with the 'stoicism of a cow standing in the rain'. Heart of hearts the conformist knows that it takes a world of undauntedness to rebel. In his daily grind of making the two ends meets, who has the time & energy left to fight the law? Who has ever won against the law-maker, anyway. Kuch hone wala toh hai nahi is as common a strain in the Indian peninsula as the nagging rain is in London.

Nothing like kaancha aam, raw mango, to beat the heat at a time like this. It will keep you cool to face all kinds of  garmi. Are you headed to Lajpat Nagar to get your tinted film removed? Pick up some raw mangoes on the way. Give some to the traffic police if he threatens you with a challan. Don't try greasing palms anymore. We are fighting against corruption, remember? Peel & grind the raw mango, marinate the fish pieces with it & make this tangy Achari Machchi. This finger-licking item will make you forget rules for a while. Sab moh maya hai, you'll mumble. And make peace with the Sun God :)
                                                                                                             Ingredients:[Check pic for measures]
1. Fish pieces
2. 1 raw mango - peeled & ground 
3. 11/2 tbsp mustard+posto paste
4. 1 tsp panch phoron 
5. Red chilli powder as preferred
6. 1-2 tsp sugar
7. Green chillies- slit & deseeded- to garnish
8. 1- 1/2 cup water
9. Salt to taste
10. Mustard oil to cook
                                                                                                                                      Method:
1. Marinate the fish with half of the raw mango paste & keep aside for 10 mins.
2. In hot oil, allow panch phoron to splutter. Fry sugar & rest of the mango paste. 
3. Add the marinaded fish pieces & gently fry them in the same pan.

4. Add water, mustard posto paste, red chilli powder & salt and let fish cook in the gravy till done.  
                                                                                                                                                  Keep the achari machchi with gravy or dry, as you like it. Garnish it with the slit green chillies.
Serve hot with plain rice.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Tip:
1.Use more red chilli than you normally do for other dishes. The sour mango demands it!
2. Do not fry the mustard posto paste. Cook it raw in water to retain its pungent tangy taste.
                                                                                                         As your mouth waters, the boiling temper about the tinted film gradually gets washed away. Wassay, Nitin!

                                                                                                        Thank u for the recipe, Momma :)

The Proof of the Pudding

The proof of the pudding is in its eating may not have too positive a connotation but this pudding sure does! And teemed with a thick slice of walnut cake it is like, uhh, meeting Jaya & Rekha together! Both equally elegant, both equally charismatic, both equally in love with the, err, Rajya Sabha! You cannot take your eyes off either of these femme fatales. They have it all. Beauty, dignity, the gift of the gab. When they take the stage, you are glued to the television set. When they talk, you listen. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          No wonder then, when Jaya vocalised that she wanted to change her seat #91 to some place else, the minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs, listened. Amidst whispers that Mrs.B wants to maintain her distance from rival Rekha(seat# 98) and hence the request, Shukla's office is leaving no stone unturned in finding another seat for the diva. Her former SP colleague, the late Brijbushan Tiwary, is smiling from above seeing that he is the reason that Guddi wants another chair. But back on earth, Bollywood fans are far from happy.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      What wouldn't we do to see two great actresses in the same frame? Not mouthing scripted lines. Sans their garish make-up. Being themselves. At least trying to. Talking of things of national import & not just waving chiffons in tulip gardens. The rest of the House would anyway provide us with enough masala for it to become a full-fledged blockbuster. We may not need a Masand or a Bhardwaj to tell us if it is a paisavasool movie. It has to be. By default.   
                                                                                                        As we wait to see the musical chairs in the RS, how about quickly making your Layered Pudding & switching on the TV? There promises to be drama! And this, dear friends, is no soap. This is a live-show. 
                                                                                                            A very simple recipe with ingredients most of us always have @home. Sweet, succulent and absolutely paradisaical. And no oil required :)
                                                                                                             Ingredients:
1. 2 cup milk
2. 2 eggs
3. 1 slice whole-wheat bread
4.  3/4 cup sugar
5. 1tsp vanilla essence


Method:

1. Blend the ingredients together.

2. Pour in a vessel & cover it.

3. Boil water in the cooker. Keep the pudding vessel in it & steam on medium heat for 20 minutes without the weight(whistle).

4. Keep in the refrigerator for 2-3hrs for pudding to set & cool.
                                                                                                                                             Serve cold. 

• The whole-wheat bread, being heavy, settles as the bottom layer. The light brown bread layer & the white egg layer gives the pudding its designer look!                                                                                                                                      
• Use white bread if you want it a single colour.

Insight: Bread is used to give body to the pudding. You can make pudding by just adding eggs to the milk.      









                              The proof of the pudding is, indeed, in its eating! Enjoy your dessert, folks. And let the stars be. 

                                                                    Very khoobsurat sweet-dish. Aapko nahi mili?                                                                                                                                      

Noto Kheer

Of the two types of people on earth, which type are you? Saver or Spender?  Take this simple test to find out.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                If milk curdles, do you:
A. Throw it away
B. Add lemon juice & make paneer
C. Make dessert out of it

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             If your answer is A, you are a happy spender in life's game. B suggests you are thrifty and like to save. If C is your option, you are a shaukeen saver. You not only save, you do it in style!

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Didun was a Type C. My gran. Nothing in her kitchen ever went waste. Not the curdled milk, not its water after it was separated, not the cauliflower leaves, not the skin of the raw potato. She was the quintessential lokkhi, ghar ki lakshmi. With her penchant for cleanliness, meticulous attention to detail and unparalleled culinary skills, her ghar was nothing less than a mandir. Every season the Gods in the thakur ghor wore new clothes that Didun had stitched for them. The accessories had to be replaced if the costumes were so her hands were full, now making ornaments for the Divine. After the clothes & the jewels, it was bedding for the Gods. Paash balish, side pillows, to prop up gonesh thakur or pillows for krishno thakur to rest his head, Didun's involvement with her god's family fascinated us all.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   No jar in the bhaandar ghor, the store, was ever empty. The moment the ingredients dipped, they were transferred to a smaller jar. The abundance attracted more abundance. We had never heard of readymade pickle in those days. Achaar, even amawat, sweet mango papad, were all made at home. And not just for the house. The neighbours got a lion's share from there. When Didun was not making Goja Jhiljhili, she was doing her crochet or keeping the family warm with her knits. Apart from teaching young girls how to keep their complexion flawless & hair glossy.

                                                                                                          While my ma mashi inherited most of her qualities, it's unfortunate that things have diluted down the line. While I would love to call myself a Type C, out of Ma's hearing, I have nothing to boast of in matters of the thread & needle. Or the aam papad or the nolen gurer sondesh. How type C then, you may demand. Scroll up the page, I'd say. Cz I make a delicacy out of the sour milk. Try Noto Kheer, frenz. Your kids will want the milk to curdle every second day:) We did!

                                                                                         Ingredients:

1. Curdled milk

2. Sugar

3. Pinch of cardamom powder

                                                                                                                                    Method:

1. Add lime juice/vinegar to the milk and boil to curdle it completely.

2. Strain the water & use it to knead aata dough. Rotis come out real soft!

3. Leave the chhana, paneer, in the vessel and allow rest of the water to dry.

4. Add sugar and elaichi powder, keep stirring till all water dries, noto kheer turns creamish and is the consistency shown(in pic). 

Take it a step further & set this mix in a tray. Cut out into burfi shapes when cool. Send me the pics when you do.

This rich desssert is to be eaten when cool. And shared with frenz if so willed.

                                                                                                    Mana says Didun would be proud of our Food Stall had she been around. I like to think she is, wherever she is.... 

Kofi Chingri

No way that I can know if anyone was keeping a hawk's eye on me to see if I was actually posting two recipes a day to make up for the lost time in the Highlands. If you, who is reading this, were, I thank you. It is for you that I am doing my 3oth post in a 30-days month. While Feb was my best so far with 42 entries this leap year, March fell short by one post. In a 31-day month, I posted only 30, then consoled myself that the Feb performance should cover up for the one down! Our Food Stall started on Jan 26th this year. Ok, so on second thoughts, Jan was outstanding. 11 recipes in 6 days :) 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This is the closest one can come to Bliss @ work. No one to report to, nowhere to go, no designer brands to flaunt. Work at your own pace, cook what you decide to, be your own photographer & blog designer, be your own time-keeper & own taster. I feel like Mr. Wemmick of Great Expectations! The satisfaction of seeing your own work online & the satiety on your family's face as they relish your cooking, the going places & reliving the experience as iThink about my yatra, far surpasses the satisfaction that an annual appraisal can ever give. Having been that side too, I know!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Had I been working for the papers, would I still be so content with writing? With somebody breathing down my neck to submit three articles in one day? Or pulling me up for a deadline not met? On an assignment to an exotic locale, would I be there in body and spirit or only half-heartedly, my primary concern being to produce a readable article that the editor passed without many cuts? Being sent to a wine-tasting sojourn, would I relish the drink or think of adjectives to describe it because my boss was friends with the vineyard owner? Rhetorical questions that make me smile. So here I am, doing my own thing, patting my own back & basking in my own glory when Rukma asks me, 'Is this your blog?'
                                                                                                  Work like you don't need the money; Love like you've never been hurt & Dance like you do when nobody's watching has come alive for me. For close to five years, I had this at my workstation & nobody understood the 1st part of this philosophy. Most never will. Not until they stop and take a hard look at their life. Juggle their priorities if need be. Smile a little more, frown a little less. See the good in others & not make back-biting their favourite past-time. 
                                                                                                        For now, with a heartfelt Thank You to all who have appreciated my write-ups & relished my recipes, I offer you this delicious prawn preparation from my mother's kitchen. Kofi Chingri. Prawns n Cauli. My veg frenz, please enjoy the aloo capsicum that was posted earlier today. 
                                                                                                                                         Ingredients:
1. 250 gms deskinned prawns 
2. 6-8 cauliflower florets
3. 2-4 medium-sized boiled potatoes- halved 
4. 1 medium onion- grated
5. 1 medium tomato- grated
6. 1 tsp ginger paste
7. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
8. 1/2 tsp garam masala
9. 1 tsp sugar
10. 1/4 tsp turmeric
11. 1 tsp ghee for flavour
12. Salt to taste
13. Refined oil to cook
                                                                                                                                          Method:
1. Shallow fry gobi & keep aside.
2. Allow cumin seeds to crackle in hot oil. Add the sugar & let caramelize.
3. Fry the onion & ginger paste & boiled potato.

                                                                                                                                          4. Add tomato puree & turmeric and fry till oil leaves pan.
5. Add the prawns, stir lightly & add salt & water, for gravy.
6. Allow gobi & prawn to cook in gravy for 5-7 minutes on medium heat.
7. When gravy thickens, add ghee & garam masala powder, let simmer for 2 mins & remove from flame.







Kofi Chingri tastes sumptuous both with rice & roti. Try it today!

And keep visiting your Food Stall, guys. You are the ones that make it tick!

Lau Ghonto

Didi is wrecking havoc in joy Bangla by limiting the reading of newspapers & viewing of television channels. Power corrupts & absolute power corrupts absolutely, said some wise man. We were not really keen to know the universality of the hard-hitting phrase but now that it has come alive, it is nothing short of a mortifying experience for the hapless junta. Summer or not, we always knew we were the mango people but to keep squashing us like we were boiled lauki is doing injustice to our potential. It only takes enough repression for the aam aadmi to became khaas. And then there's no telling what havoc a frenzied nation can wreck on the powers- that-be. Don't we have examples the world over?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The cooling shukto effect seems to have waned & didibhai needs more to keep her hassled self in place. You are right Di, autocracy does work in Indian homes. We were brought up under the perennial surveillance of the merciless parental gaze. We could not read Mills & Boon without hiding it inside the geography book, watch any scene where the actors so much as came close to an embrace and were expected to display guilt if we were caught doing either. But that was when we were at an impressionable age. Or so it was felt. That M&Bs can improve your command over language or watching films help a child grow into an ace film-maker are repercussions that you saw only a decade later. But tumii bhabo dibhai, how can you monitor what adults read? Or watch? Isn't that taking governance to insane heights? And then it'll extend to you deciding for all what they should eat/drink, wear, who they should befriend. What will happen to the famous rock-baji in poshchim bongo? Or the famous bangali adda?  And if you spend so much time on deciding these, what will happen to your michhils, strikes, that have made you so popular? 
                                                                                                        For the love of your jhandebazi that is your USP, let the bewildered Kolkata-bashi be. Let the intellectuals read what they want to. What harm can an Anandabazar Patrika do that another daily can't ? How can marrying into another party spell less of a marital bliss? These are non-issues didi. How about shifting your attention to where it is really needed? Like eradication of poverty & unemployment? Like creating a safe state so that denizens can breathe in peace? Like allowing companies to thrive so that WB retains its brains and not lose it to other states/countries?
                                                                                                      Have some Lau Ghonto & bhaat. Lau(ki), very good for the eyes, will give you better vision. And the maachcher mudo, fish head, known to instill intelligence in our upper storey, will help you get back the lost oopar mala. So very needed in a leader. Ma has especially made this for you didi. Please relish. 

Ingredients:
1. 1/2 lauki(bottle gourd) finely chopped
2. 1-2 fish head
3. 1/2 tsp cumin (zeera)
4. 1-2 bayleaf (tej patta)
5. 2-3 red chillies
6. 1/2 tsp ginger paste
7.  1/2 tsp bhuna masala (cardamom, cinnamon, clove, cumin & dry red chilli dry roasted & ground)
8. Salt to taste
9. Oil to cook
                                                                                                                                         Method:
1. Pressure cook lauki with salt & a pinch of turmeric. Strain & keep aside.
2. Deep fry fish head with salt & a pinch of turmeric and keep aside.
3. In the same pan, splutter cumin seeds, tej patta & dry red chillies. Add the boiled lauki, fried fish head & ginger paste and let the ghonto cook till water dries.
                                                     4. Add salt, sugar & bhuna masala, cook for 2-3 mins & take off flame. 

Lau Ghonto is the first course of a traditional Bengali lunch.                                                                                                                                                                           Served with plain white rice, this subtly flavored dish sets the mood for the the maach, mangsho, chaatni & misti doi that follow. 

As Lakshmi says, no one can hold a candle to Bengali cuisine. And she is a Shetty from Mangalore, mind you :)
                                                                                                Please mend your ways Didi & we promise you our unflinching support. Let aamar  Bangla become the shonar bangla of yore....