CURRY AND SPICE: KHOYA BEET ER MALPUA

What is Malpua for the rest of India or in some parts of South Asia is Malpoa to us Bengalis... I wished to spell it Malpoa, then who does not want to get a place in the search options? I have to struggle for a place trust me... Anyway, these days I have turned a little sane.... by will or force whatever.... and consider the blog as a thing of pleasure! I am that born pessimist who in the mission to be an optimist learnt how to find out and cherish the simple pleasures of life! A Suresh Wadkar & Kamal Hassan fan that I am, I do sing with them often "aye zindegi gale laga le... hamne jo tere har ek gam ko gale se lagaya hai... hai na?"... Oh, that last scene of Sadma will remain etched in my heart as long as I live. I keep on raving about Bollywood & Tollywood, but I am fond of few Kollywood actors too... to name a few... Kamal Hassan, Mohanlal, Mammootty, Arvind Swami, Venkatesh, Nagarjuna, the long gone Shobha [you remember she took off her life in her early 20's, I was still in school may be].... Shobhana and dear Revathi .... One of my top listed loving diva will be glad to know that I liked Nagarjuna movies.... haha! Guess who she is? She is a precious pearl when it comes to natural acting... she does not require to act in fact.... I will not utter her name in this context ... I respect one's deep emotions.

Hmm, my deep insights or interest in filmistan in collaboration with my lack of grey matter made me what I am today... silly goat! I love films... stories associated with it, I love my "selective" friends who hone extreme literary and academic skills... I love my long long time friends, even those who could not make it big in life.... some of them left us too early... one was that Chanchal Sen... as our friend Swati says... "oor nirbhejal pran khola hashita moneporey".... I do not know how many of us will visit his home now, but he was the kind who put forth a friend's need than his own life! I remember when he died few months back... one of our college friend immediately posted a photo on how successful a corporate honcho he is ... It looked foul to me, why so immediate? .... I am pretty sure if this guy is in trouble, a Chanchal kind would be the first to run for help! It is good to be successful, we must work hard to achieve it... but we need not show it off when one is mourning... "death is not celebrated with wine, but with humbleness!".... I thereafter and till date could not respond to any action of that "high nose guy".... and felt he is no more what when I saw him last! Leave that... I have learnt to close my eyes to anything that does not appeal to me.... "Chanchal malpoa khabi? Khabo!".... "jhodi ektu disciplined hoti, poribar niye Maa Durga dorshon korti... bhabish ni oder katha"..... Here is for all my surviving "friends" and family, a KHOYA BEET ER MALPUA as a treat.... You see the above conversation with my deceased friend may be an exaggeration.... we get that license during a story telling session.... Had I been equipped with a decent vocabulary, I could have done it with elan!

I was actually all set to prepare beet stuffed patishapta.... to much of my disappointment those crepes were not working out properly yesterday .... may be I was lacking concentration, may be the husband who is travelling did not wish the wifey to have "patishapta" without him. What I wish to tell you, as I always say that I do not waste food! I will always do something else with the ingredients. Had I failed doing this KHOYA BEET ER MALPUA, I would have turned it into khoya beet er sandesh... Of the couple of bloggers who helped me immensely in shaping my blog, how much of tiny or non-entity it is..... one is the lady who blogs at "My Tryst With Food and Travel"... "mytrystwithfoodandtravel.blogpost.com"..... I remember her tofu-beet fudge done few years back. After she mentioned about my blog on one of her posts, my viewership increased. I have seen her getting back to people similar to my kind... who are not keen about interactions in public, not well known either! While using the beet root juice I had her in mind and some other Southern Indian friends... Beet as a juice is not for me... let me die in peace!

My request to this lady and those proud owners of big gardens to convey a message to some... "bonyo ra boney sundor, phoolera shorboto bhabei gachey athaba naibodye"..... I enjoy my life in my 1150 sq.ft. cage.... ask me why?.... Oh! a major part of the heart is still in DumDum... here too the metro rail station is 2 minutes away with an associating mall, wet market is 3 minutes away with an Indian minimart, Indian supermarkets only after 5 metro stations... "a jha chokchokey DumDum".... To be honest, it feels suffocating to be in a five star ambience at all times. I cannot be like those superficial elements who fed on their motherland, used it to fulfil their dreams.... until here is ok.... then spitting on the same plate which nourished us to be what we are today... is beyond the limit of acceptability to me.... I cannot play ludo with them neither with those who sit at one place and stagnate! Lets come back to the making of KHOYA BEET ER MALPUA.... since I cannot speak much about the history of the origin of beet root, the number of nutrients present in it or spend a considerable amount of time to do some eye catching photography on the dish .... I had to do all those irrelevant talking... we need fillers.... its a blog.... else I could share just the recipe on my business streams!

Planning a recipe with beet root and getting it is not a big deal here, the natives of this island eat beet root a lot without killing its nutritional value as yours truly! Just after leaving school forever, I discovered few strands of grey while standing in front of the big mirror at the maternal grandparent's home! My waist size increased, eye sight worsened, skin roughened.... The lethargic me was determined not to do anything with my body, wished to get a host body without sitting in front of a boy's family whose intention would be to measure each part of my body... length of my nose, strength of my eyesight.... Come on I did not wish to get a failure certificate from a boy's mother, I was born to be the queen of a household and treat the "kakimas & mashimas" with "sandesh... roshogolla...maach-mangsho".... Life is good man.... live it! To my daughter likes.... do not be like me.... eat right, do exercise to feel good, keep healthy and not to be someone's certified muse ..... do not look for a host body like me..... be strong enough to shelter others.... the only mistake I did in my life! To all the respected elderlies, if you can look beyond my face.... take a look at my palms.... they are not artistic, nails are shapely and I can treat you with "pur bhora kochuri" or "macher jhol" or "dudh puli" if not a crisp dosa, three layered cake or an afghani bread! The ongoing rubbish has to be stopped and the recipe of the dessert is to be shared!!

INGREDIENTS : [for the khoya-beet mix]

Beet Root Juice : 2medium cup
Milk Powder : 11/2coffee mug
Sugar : 1/2small cup
Ghee : 2tbsp

INGREDIENTS : [Final Step]

The Khoya-Beet Mixture
Refined Flour : 1coffee mug
Semolina : 1coffee mug
Milk : As required [to be used slowly to get the paste]
Sugar : 4-5tbsp
Black Pepper or Fennel seed : 1tbsp
Oil to deep fry...

PROCEDURE :

Soak the semolina / suji in milk for 1/2 an hour.

Add the refined flour and sugar, black pepper or fennel seeds.

Add milk little by little, and prepare a paste like batter, Keep covered for 1/2 an hour.

Take together all the ingredients mentioned in the khoya-beet mix section.

Microwave at high for 3 minutes pausing at every minute.

What we get is below, extremely yum... add some rice flour do an easy sandesh or use it as a filling for any sweet meat / pitha. I used it for malpua.