SHOBJI BHAAT O MURGIR KEEMAR JHURO

All my readers have known by now that I am not fond of chicken anymore. The moment a lot of spices, tomato paste, onion paste, butter or ghee go to the wok along with it, a feeling of aversion occurs inside. One reason may be that I am a typical Bengali, I always prefer a "halka jhol" with fish and meat. I am getting pissed off because I am unable to get that red colour to my mutton curry and keep it light. Ask me why? One cannot do that with mutton or lamb coming from the kangaroo land. To hide that smell, I cook it for way longer period with more spices and garam masala. The moment I add more amount of home ground "labanga, darchini, elach guro," the curry turns brown. Back in Kolkata, I can still eat chicken. Garlic and onion also has a role to play in this matter. Here the garlic variety we get has no scent. 

Chemical Fertiliser assisted farming  has robbed us of a part of our childhood pleasure with regards to food. Our mother used to buy coriander leaves only from the "choto khato chashi bhai ba mashi" who came to the DumDum Bazaar with small amount of their produce from Bongaon, Bashirhaat, Hasnabad, Shantipur. She never would buy those giant, dark coloured coriander bunches which hardly had any scent. This winter I did not visit Kolkata, obviously I am missing "khal-bil-pak theke tola shit er koi", "pukurer charapona." In Kolkata, you will get "koi maach", climbing perch in two different price range and sizes. The bigger sized are less priced and farmed which you should not buy. The smaller & medium sized are the real catch which sells at what price at this time I have no idea. Some ten years back, a good quality live climbing perch sold at 450-500 rupees per kilogram during winter. Here, the ones that come from Thailand and Malaysia are not near to the taste of those and the mother asked us not to eat frozen "koi". Its better to have pomfret, salmon, and for me there are "amodi, mourala, kaikka, magur." I do not know what would have happened if the husband had been posted in an unearthly place where Bangladeshi traders could not reach. They have to venture out from their own land because their own cannot provide them the basics. It is also true that they drove away my forefathers from their own land, no one can deny this fact. Anyway, here they do not provide people like me much. The frozen fish that come are of very poor quality which is not the case as in Australia, "Bahargaon" or UK. These Bangladeshi Brothers have told me so. 

The couple at this home have agreed on a point that Bengalis living for 3-4 decades in the "Bahargaon" are way more of a Bengali than those living for the same amount of time here. I see Bengalis gladly buying "joto samudrer maach" here if I chance to visit the wet market on a Saturday. The other reason is definitely  the size of this island, the reason why the smaller Indian Bengali Community cannot afford to get performers from the West Bengal Cultural Circuit often. Most of their fame and etc. depend on their tour of Bangladesh & "Bahargaon." I follow the WestBengal Cultural Circuit to a bit, I mean as much as possible online but do not usually go and sit beside them. I am no Shylock but I know pretty well whilst I attempt at it, they will have a "shartho naki" kind of feeling. Moreover, my studies say if I go and kiss them, they in turn will go and kiss my famous co-workers. This tendency I have seen in some among the Bengali circuit here in this island and I am strict about not trying to bring them into my confidence, will not. My work, which in this case are my recipes should speak enough volume. There should be nothing else but only food and her stories revolving life which should bring people to CURRY AND SPICE. I am to gift you every day cooking solution and here is one on the similar lines SHOBJI BHAAT O MURGIR KEEMAR JHURO. I cooked this combo meal last Saturday for our lunch. I have found that chicken if cooked with less spices can get through my food pipe a bit; rice if cooked with spices and vegetables, the latter gets through the rest of the family's. So why not share this non-vegetarian combo meal recipe with my readers?

Look at the time of the day! I so love early mornings, when I am awake and the rest of the surroundings sleep. I sip from my morning cuppa and soak in the silence or say the break of the silence as the birds start chirping is kind of a music to my ears. I thoroughly enjoy this moment every morning.

Do not categorise that man as a "poor husband", sleeping there is his choice because he is in love with his television set or do I snore? We both love to be an unconventional couple and truly so; "mathai matha thekiye chobi tola, roj niyom korey ghorey dhukey dorja bondho kora, loker shamney honey boley daka tarpor bari firey jhogra kora", we are not in this habit. Leave that, after sometime I engaged Cristine to thoroughly clean the weed from our greens.

There may not be anything called winter here but the routined barren look of the greens continue to remind me of a winter eons back. Did someone say to oneself,"there should come no winter in my lifetime when I would want to meet you, we will never cross each other at any juncture." In my me time I enjoy reminiscing, as much as I hate the sight of those "mukh bhyatkano shomudrer maach gulo" in some forum. Some people were born to negate each other. I run to the Bangladeshi & Indian Markets to feel happy looking at what I grew up having. In Turkey, I felt happy in midst of the spice bazaar, that tour took me to the pages about "nabik Sindbaad ba Sheherazad er Arobyo Rajani ba Aladdin er ashchorjo Pradip." Look at this home, still so much into dinosaur like in childhood.

Where was I? Okay, an overdose of religion causes so damage to one's self that I can never attempt to apply for a visa to visit Iran even if I wish to see the land. Fear took over the human kind. Where has the world come to? Can any Hindu think of taking up even a lucrative job offer in Iran today? I doubt. Let us do our bit to keep the humankind in track. I will do it my way without depriving anyone or using filth because I believe in peace and harmony.
Our today's share is a vegetarian main and a non-vegetarian side combo meal with chicken, rice, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, coriander, etc. I named the nutritious meal SHOBJI BHAAT O MURGIR KEEMAR JHURO.

INGREDIENTS : [MINCED CHICKEN DISH]

MINCED CHICKEN : 1KG
SLICED ONION : 2MEDIUM TEA CUP
MINCED GARLIC : 2TBSP
MINCED GINGER : 2TSP
CUBED TOMATO : 1SMALL TEA CUP
CHOPPED CORIANDER : 1MEDIUM TEA CUP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 2TBSP
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1TSP
CHAAT MASALA : 1TBSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2TSP
LEMON JUICE : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 4-5TBSP

INGREDIENTS : [THE RICE WITH VEGETABLES]

COOKED RICE : 3-4COFFEE MUG
CAULIFLOWER FLORET : 2SMALL TEA CUP
BROCCOLI FLORET : 2SMALL TEA CUP
CARROT CUBE : 1SMALL TEA CUP
ONION CUBE : 2-3TBSP
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 5-6
TOMATO PASTE : 1/2SMALL TEA CUP
CUMIN POWDER : 2TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 2TSP
AAMCHOOR / DRY MANGO POWDER : 2TSP
GARAM MASALA : 1TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2TSP
CINNAMON STICK : 4-5 OF TWO INCH SIZE
GREEN CARDAMOM : 4-5
CLOVE : 4-5
BAY LEAF : 2-3
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 4TBSP
GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER : 2TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Let us prepare the Minced Chicken dish first.

Take the mince chicken in a big strainer and wash under running water. Discard the water and take it in a bowl.

Marinate the chicken with salt, turmeric, lemon juice and crushed black pepper for an hour.

Heat oil in a wok and temper with washed minced garlic+ginger and fry them light brown. Add the slitted green chillies and sliced onions after a wash.

Once the onion turns golden brown, add the marinated chicken. Fold in well and cover cook at minimal heat for 7-8 minutes.

Open cover, add the tomato pieces and stir. Keep breaking the meat using the edge of the ladle. Again cover cook at minimal heat for 10 minutes, open cover and repeat what you did. Cover cook again for 5-6 minutes and check to see if the released water have dried.

Add the chaat masala and washed chopped coriander. Adjust the salt if only required. Fold in well and keep stirring at high heat for 3-4 minutes.

We are done. Transfer to a bowl.

About the Rice with Vegetables, we can use left over cooked rice or cook it fresh in enough water up to 70% done and strain.

We will wash the cauliflower, broccoli florets and carrot cubes after been cut. There after, we will marinate them with little salt and turmeric.

We will wash the green chillies too before slitting, the onions too before we cube. Also wash the tomatoes before getting the paste of it.

Heat oil in a pan and temper it with green cardamom, cinnamon, clove, bay leaf. Add the slitted green chillies and cubed onion. Stir for 3-4 minutes.

We will now add the tomato paste and stir for 2 minutes. We will add the cumin+coriander+aam choor+garam masala+a little of salt & turmeric powder to it.

We will stir the mixture for 1 more minute at low heat. We will add the carrots now and stir continuously for 3-4 minutes at minimal heat.

We will now add the cauliflower and broccoli florets and stir at low heat for another 3-4 minutes. Add the cooked rice gradually and gently mix using two ladles bringing them together. Add the ghee and fold in loosely.

We are done! Serve them together along with some salad. We had some baked onion rings too.

TIL KAJU BATA PANEER

It seems I have not shared a recipe with Paneer / Indian Cottage Cheese for quite sometime now. I keep cooking it however. What I do is that I keep a block or two of frozen paneer in the freezer and also prepare it at home on some days. The above platter was prepared on X-Mas Eve and my stock of paneer in the freezer is done with. Now, I am thinking of preparing and freezing paneer making it at home. Before that, I have to use up two packets of tomatoes I got home yesterday to prepare a tomato sauce. The store bought tomato sauce and sriracha are about to finish and I wish to prepare another batch of sauce a very simple way without consulting a single recipe about it. The preservative I use for my sauces is vinegar and only it. I so enjoy preparing sauces and pickles at home. The Indian style pickle I had prepared with green apple is tasting so good, I never thought that our kind of spices will go so good with green apple. I am very eager to share the recipe of it, the achar is taking sun bath at this time which is very necessary for Indian pickles. The idea of this blog is to give you a desi feel through it's shares most of the time, shares which will be easy to cook and great to eat. Keeping in tune with that, I had in the making a vegetarian side dish prepared with paneer, roasted white sesame & cashew nut, a bit of yogurt, onion, salt two-three days back. I named it TIL KAJU BATA PANEER.

The Sun is finally seen after 8:30am this morning, you never know all of a sudden it may go down and it will start raining. All my indoor plants are limping and panting. They are installed near the bedroom window pane for some sunlight. This is the problem of not knowing anything about gardening but wanting to have greens in your home. Ever since I have learnt that fallen hairs can be put in the soil which may provide nitrogen to the plants, I am tearing off my hairs literally in addition to the excess of hair fall each day. I never did think my hairs and eye brows may require any care or to be made up, they were naturally good. Now, it seems a basic care of skin and hair is required if not dabbing it with horrendous make ups so much. They say the clime in this island is congenial to causing severe damage to one's skin and hair; then there is the chemically treated water which perhaps have robbed me of half the amount of hair I owned some nine years back. I can forget all these losses and be at my calmest best when I am inside my kitchen holding a ladle. There I experiment with different ingredients, not so exotic ones though. In the process, I discovered this vegetarian paneer dish TIL KAJU BATA PANEER last month perhaps. It's simplicity and taste appealed to me and us so much so that I did it again sooner. Me and the son love paneer, Cristine says she enjoys paneer more than tofu. The husband eats it without a noise. He does not love paneer but particularly this one he had with the ghee rice skipping his love egg. So why not share the recipe? I have a near similar recipe already in my blog CURRY AND SPICE under the name SHAHI PANEER.

INGREDIENTS :

PANEER / INDIAN COTTAGE CHEESE : 250-300GM [should serve a family of 3-4-6]

WHITE SESAME SEED : 11/2TBSP

CASHEW NUT : 5-6

ONION PASTE : 2TBSP

PLAIN YOGURT : 2TBSP

GREEN CHILLI PASTE : 2TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 2PINCH

BAY LEAF : 1

CINNAMON STICK : 2-3 OF TWO INCH LENGTH

GREEN CARDAMOM : 2-3

CLOVE : 3-4

SUGAR : 1/2TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 4TBSP

PROCEDURE :

If you are using frozen paneer block or pieces, the first thing you should do is wash and soak the block or pieces in hot, salted water for 2 hours.

Thereafter, discard the water and wash the paneer block or pieces again. If you are using a block, cut them in to desired shapes. Add little salt to them and marinate.

Then what I did was that I dry roasted the white sesame seeds and cashew nuts together and added to the mixer-grinder. I had also added cut onion from 1 big onion peeled and washed, cubed, 2-3 washed green chillies, the plain yogurt. 

They were ground to a smooth paste adding a little of water. 

We would then heat oil in a wok and temper with the bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon sticks and green cardamoms. We will add the white paste, 2 pinches of turmeric powder and salt as required. 

We would then stir the paste for a minute and little more. It seemed amazing that the onion did not smell raw after the brief stir.

Now, we would add 1 coffee mug of lukewarm water and simmer at low heat for 3-4 minutes. We will then add the marinated paneer and 1/2tsp of sugar.

We would cook at the lowest heat for 3-4 minutes and take down.

We enjoyed TIL KAJU BADAM BATA PANEER with Ghee Rice, Dim Aloor Dalna, Soyabean er Tarkari. It would go well with any kind of bread!

OATS NOLEN GUR GREEN APPLE CAKE

So this was the cake I baked last week, the occasion was very very special. A beautiful cake had to come home, that much ability we have but its me who wishes to cook everything from the scratch on certain days. They are important dates in our lives that the world need not know. I want them to know how I want to celebrate such dates.  "I" because my men are anti-social media and do not like them to be used in live shows anywhere in public. Its my call and I do it in moderation to my benefit and convenience. Today is a day to relax at home with the family, the middle aged couple may feel very lonely sooner. If it is for good, we will survive the trauma too. I am just thinking how to keep alive my blog, I may not want to cook variety. In fact I may not need to as the husband is not a foodie. Until that situation arrives, there has to be a lot of cooking. Yesterday night too I cooked a very desi kind of platter as our pre x-mas dinner. My question to you is why do you have to be conventional during occasions? I mean why cannot I prep up a desi meal at home during x-mas or new year if ain't my friends from other community are joining us for dinner. I will share with you details about it tomorrow. Now let us share this vegetarian cake recipe with shredded green apple, date palm jaggery, oatmeal OATS NOLEN GUR GREEN APPLE CAKE which is been flavoured with cinnamon and nutmeg. 

What does my memory bank say about this day, I mean how an average Bengali would spend a x-mas? They go out for picnics [choruibhati] during this time of the year packing their bags with "JoyNagar er Moya, Komla Lebu, Cake Slices." They would have them in the bus, on reaching there  would be a breakfast of "luchi, aloor dum, jilipi ba roshogolla ba sandesh" and thereafter a lunch around 4pm with "mangsho bhaat, maach bhaja, aloo bhaja, chutney, doi" with no time to cook a vegetarian item. My earliest memory of x-mas is related to a small township in the Nadia district I was born in. That "city" has a Church which holds a or held a very important position in the cityscape running schools, a hospital and other charitable trusts. There stays a good number of average hindu converts who baked fresh, warm cakes I chanced upon to eat, the memories of "borodiner mela" in the Church ground is still fresh inside along with "rajbarir pujo" and "mocholman der parar mehendi gaach." Do not ask me about "club culture," I do not belong there. We do have friends from that section of the Bengali society but I will not work towards accepting their life. I will, I must incorporate a piece of me in today's share of the vegetarian cake which is the khejur gur, that is date palm jaggery. After using a good amount of shredded green apple in the oats cake OATS NOLEN GUR GREEN APPLE CAKE, the rest went to that bowl.

Green Apple comes to this home to be used in bakes or in smoothies for the junior most, its too sour to have as a fruit. Shall we proceed with the recipe? At one point you may feel you are having "oats er halua or halwa." It was dense & moist, not fluffy. I am not in the good baker brigade but I am a regular, amateur baker who shares only what comes out decent and matches the family's taste bud. 

INGREDIENTS : 

POWDERED ROLLED OATS : 1COFFEE MUG
SHREDDED GREEN APPLE : 1SMALL TEA CUP
BAKING POWDER : 1TSP
BAKING SODA : 1/4TSP
PLAIN YOGURT : 1SMALL TEA CUP
SHAVED DATE PALM JAGGERY / NOLEN GUR : 1/2MEDIUM TEA CUP
BROWN SUGAR : 11/2TBSP +1TBSP
CINNAMON POWDER : 1TSP + 1TSP
NUTMEG POWDER : 1/2TSP
SOFTENED BUTTER : 1/2MEDIUM TEA CUP [I used salted butter]
I USED 200 ML OF NESTLE OR MARRIGOLD FRESH CREAM TO TOP THE CAKE


PROCEDURE :

We have powdered the oats in an electric grinder. We have added the baking powder and soda to it and mixed well.

Cristine peeled and shredded two green apples for me. I washed them and rubble with 11/2tbsp brown sugar and 1tsp of cinnamon powder.

We had whisked the softened butter and date palm jaggery thereafter.

We had thereafter added the plain yogurt to the batter and whisked very well to make it lump free.

We had added the liquid batter to the flour mix and folded in well.

We then added the shredded apple and cinnamon + brown sugar mix, folded in throughly. Our batter for the cake is ready.

I preheated the convection mode microwave at 180*C keeping the low height wired stool inside.

We had poured the batter to a foiled cake tin till half and in four foiled cups up to half of each.

I baked them at 180*C for 24-25 minutes, the bigger tin first, then the four cups in a separate batch.

Once cool, I topped it with 200ml of Nestle or Marrigold fresh cream that has been whisked with 1tbsp of brown sugar. Done!

ALOO STUFFED OATS BOMB

This idea was hovering around for quite sometime and I finally prepared them last Saturday evening. We had our dinner with exactly what you see above in the picture. We had some dal and left over mutton meat from it's leg I cooked earlier last week. In fact, after giving a bite to these potato stuffed baked oats buns, I felt they can be best eaten as a snack with some chutney / achar / sauce. Thats what I did in the next morning, that was yesterday; a Sunday. In this home, the television set is on 24/7 on a weekend, I mean so long the husband is at home, it keeps on going. Even when he sleeps, it has to go on as a back ground music. Yes, some days I have my breakfast way too early and the not so much of a television enthusiast me gets hooked to it when such beauties come up, that is Sao Paolo. I was enjoying the acres of orchards in Brazil too. I do not know the proper timings of such shows, because the television set goes on and on, I get to see things of my interest, even cookery shows.

Besides the vegetarian snacker ALOO STUFFED OATS BOMB, I also had that raisin & cheese bread I get from the local bakery. In some food that he enjoys, our boy eats the raisins present in them too.  The filling I used is just the one I prepare my potato bharta as, you can choose yours. If you choose my way of doing it, you only win. Go less cheesy at times, it helps.

Last week was too much cooking and eating out. On Saturday, I cooked with everything leftover in the freezer and the vegetable box. I have clicked four pieces of this fish and five pieces of that, a little of this veg and of that, will share in public when my mood permits. At this moment, I am very eager to share this more or less healthy creation of mine, a vegetarian snack recipe today with you. There may be a number of similar recipes in the net but be assured, I have not browsed any of them. Else, I do not mind giving due credit to the sources. I could have prepared the vegetarian delight with bread, refined flour, wheat flour, semolina but I wished for a healthier, gluten free dish today for all the X-Mas revellers. I have at least twenty Bengali dishes in line to be shared, I am eager to but I value all my readers and the friends around, so I sincerely hope this healthier, very tasty snack recipe ALOO STUFFED OATS BOMB catches your fancy and you enjoy doing and having them. Because I am very particular about my taste bud and I wished to sit together with my family and enjoy the dinner, I prepared the filling in the lines of aloo choka. I have oven baked the stuffed oats buns to lessen the ordeal of our help, else the manual roasters on a stove top work better giving them a semi charred texture and look. Switching on the bake button, I could sit for half an hour, when the Filipino cleaned the kitchen top for a normal photography session. Let us proceed with the recipe.

INGREDIENTS : [FOR THE FILLING]

BOILED POTATO : TAKE 3 STANDARD SIZED AND BOIL THE WAY YOU WISH
CHOPPED ONION : 1/2SMALL TEACUP [OF ONE STANDARD SIZED]
CHOPPED CORIANDER : 3-4TBSP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 11/2TBSP
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/4TSP
MELTED BUTTER : 3TBSP
LEMON JUICE : 2-3TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED

INGREDIENTS : [TO SHAPE THE FINAL THING- A YUMMY SNACK]

THE FILLING
POWDERED OATS / OAT MEAL : 2COFFEE MUG
SALT : AS REQUIRED
BAKING POWDER : 1TSP
BAKING SODA : 2PINCH
PLAIN YOGURT : 3-4TBSP
WATER : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3TBSP + 3-4TBSP TO BRUSH

PROCEDURE :

For the dough, we have powdered the rolled oats in a blender. We will add the baking powder and the baking soda, salt to the bowl and mix well.

Add the yogurt now rub well for 2 minutes or so.

Add the oil now and rub well for a minute. Add water little by little to form a dough. A dough made with oatmeal will never be smooth, soft and elastic like the one done with refined or wheat flour. Do not worry if it looks tight, messy and you need to add more water. We will manage and win the game.

Cover the dough, wash your hands and mash the boiled potatoes adding salt and melted butter to it.

We had chopped and washed the lemon slices, coriander+onion+green chilli.

We will add them, the lemon juice, crushed black pepper to the potato mash and mix well. Our filling is ready.

Now remove the cover from the oats dough, give a loose knead. Please do not get disheartened if it feels tight and messy. If required, add a little water and knead.

Tear off small portions, make a space and stuff with the potato filling. Cover it with little of oats dough and prepare a smooth bun sized ball.

Grease you palms with oil for smoother balls. I did one, Cristine did the rest.

Grease a bake proof plate and place the stuffed balls. Brush with oil and prick all over them with a fork.

I use a convection mode microwave oven for my bakes. So, I keep the wired low stool inside while preheating. I preheated it at 180*C for 10 minutes.

Then, I baked them for 24-26 minutes at 180*C. In between I took them out to brush with oil.

If you want a browner look and crisper texture, you have to bake for sometime more.

We enjoyed a hearty meal with raita, dal, mutton and POTATO STUFFED OATS BOMB.

VEGETARIAN DUMPLING

You have no idea or you may feel how happy I was to be able to do them finally from scratch and without any help. Each time I tried my hands on Tibetan momo or any dumpling, I was left unsatisfied. The edges seemed a bit hard of mine. Then last April, one Sumita di here who herself is a very good cook told me that her Chinese origin neighbours also prepare dumplings throwing them in the boiling water. The radar of my antennae caught it immediately, stored it in the memory bank. I felt this will be easier for me than steaming because I do not have a proper steamer and I am too unwilling to buy one; not an electrical one, neither those perfect bamboo steamers. We hardly eat steamed fish, etc. why should I? Anyway, I am giving away all my useless buys to Cristine's home in Philippines- stir frying tawa, few cups, bowls, plates, the sailor man's t-shirts for her sister's kids, the sailor man's father's used shirts and t-shirts. Offcourse some new items will go. She did not order a courier box before X-Mas, says next month she would. She would bear the cost of courier, so I am not pushing. I only requested her to come back after her vacation next December and renew her contract for two more years, else I will die of depression in an empty home, the husband has to fill six stomachs, he cannot sit at home with me. Neither, you will see me partying around, that is against my nature. I cannot get along with people, neither like crowd.... a visit to the pubs every weekend with the hubby is not possible.... I can like that atmosphere only at intervals, not regularly. I know some people like me, I will live the way as they do; with totally disturbed sleep pattern; one cannot have the best of both the worlds. What I wish to learn from such people is their quality of not complaining; to acquire the strength to say that "this is my life and I have to live it." I am still not in a mind to go Bengali today, let me go ahead with this more or less successful venture of yesterday, a healthy vegetarian snack may we call this VEGETARIAN DUMPLING? I mean if you do not mind having refined flour once in a while, you can consider it healthy. The filling is simple shredded cabbage, chopped carrot, onion, minced garlic and ginger sautéed in little of salt, black pepper and light soya sauce.

It took me few months to prepare what Sumitadi told me one way of cooking dumplings, throwing them into boiling water. The satisfaction is been able to do it from scratch without any help because it was Cristine's off day yesterday. My men hardly will peep into the kitchen but they did not mind me serving them lunch at 3pm yesterday. Do not look at the duo's photograph, I dislike it; a couple friend gifted it choosing a photograph I do not want myself to be seen as; with or without the knowledge of it.

This home cannot think of having a vegetarian lunch on a Sunday, so I had grilled some store bought Chicken Katsu too. The son's plate was ready to be served, the man's was still not. He will not even get up and enquire, was busy with his wine with olives in them, had his share of VEGETARIAN DUMPLING with olives, chilli vinegar with garlic, chilli tamarind chutney. I refrigerated the leftover dough, asked Cristine to bring it to the normal temperature this morning and knead with a bit of oil. I prepared four porotas to pack the husband's lunch box along with echorer dalna. His snack box had apple and sweets. Our boy is at home and look what he is doing; had gone after his mamujaan in this particular matter. He will not study in a routined manner, you cannot force anything on him just like his father.

The left over vegetarian filling will be going into a vegetarian noodle dish which the son will have with chicken and Cristine with egg. I will go to the food court at the back of our home to again have a banana prata may be after a good swim, so my BMI always shows me as overweight.

What am I doing? I am writing the supremely good recipe for you all and having a half  boiled egg, butter toast and ginger tea. Then, one single egg is causing me a heavy feeling.

The sun had shown in after few days, the thing is so long the son is in the living room he would not let any amount of sun ray get in and hence sneeze all day and night.

Let us proceed with the recipe!

INGREDIENTS :

REFINED FLOUR : 11/2COFFEE MUG + 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP TO DUST
SHREDDED CABBAGE : 11/2COFFEE MUG
SHREDDED CARROT : 1SMALL TEA CUP
CHOPPED ONION : 1SMALL TEA CUP
MINCED GARLIC : 11/2TBSP
MINCED GINGER : 2TSP
LIGHT SOYA SAUCE : 3-4TBSP
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
WATER : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 1TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Take 11/2 coffee mug of refined flour and some salt in a bowl and mix well.

They say never to add oil to a dough meant for dumpling. I added water little by little to get a firm but smooth dough. This will take some 8-10 minutes. We will cover and rest it for half an hour.

Meanwhile, I shredded the cabbage and carrot, chopped the onion, minced the garlic and ginger; washed them all. Oh! Cristine minced the ginger and garlic before leaving home.

We will heat 1tbsp oil in a pan and stir fry the minced garlic and ginger for 1/2 a minute.

Thereafter, we will stir fry the onion till translucent.

Add the cabbage and carrot and fold in well. Add salt as required, crushed black pepper and the light soya sauce. Fold in well.

Cooking this would take some 7-8 minutes. Transfer the filling to a bowl.

Now, we will remove the cover and knead the dough again for 2-3 minutes and tear off portions and smoothen between the palms.

We will also half fill a heavy bottomed vessel with water and put it for boil. Cover it and then we will proceed with the making of dumplings.

They ask not to dust, neither to use oil. I was really unable to roll without dusting, so I used refined flour for dusting and it did not come in the way of keeping them soft for a longer period.

Then we will use a cap to cut the sheets.

I was doing few of them, then add the filling with a spoon, wet the edges with very little water and closed the two ends.

By the time, the water would be boiling hard and we will through the dumplings to the boiling water. 

We will cover cook them for only 5 minutes.

We will gently take them out with a perforated ladle and store in a covered bowl.

We will try to serve them fresh and hot with any choice of sauces, chutneys and soups.