Such meals, exactly this kind of meals make me happy these days. "ekta shaak, ekta dal, patla korey maach er jhol"..... The mutton quality here is such that one has to use a lot of spices to over power that smell while the Kolkata variety requires only "ada-lanka-roshun bata" on a normal day .... Yesterday, all day I was cooking pure Bengali, vegetarian dishes to take for my friend's family and the visiting parent.... a total of seven dishes including a fish curry. I should be able to share the spread with my readers sometime tomorrow hopefully. It was a tiring day though Cristine is always by the side, but at the end of the day I was happy and not irritated. If you have studied my nature, I do not stress myself to please anyone, I only do it to that extent until when I can do it happily. To stress myself in the kitchen is a big no for me. The husband could not make it to the office yesterday for obvious reasons and I was just chit chatting with him while cooking. He is not the kind who would enquire what I am doing inside the kitchen all day, who I am cooking for.... Because I have not seen our father to intervene ever in household matters except for his sole decision to spend his retired life far from the city, I am at peace. After marriage, when I learnt to cook and tried my hands on Biryani occasionally while the husband was in town, the father-in-law was concerned about the gas consumption. It is obvious that Biryani making is time consuming and gas cylinders are precious in India. It used to cause me irritation because I have never seen all these at our home. However, it was the husband's father who I would ask for help for any odd job. So, one cannot get the best of both worlds. A couple's life is all about commitments and adjustments, I strongly feel its lot about respecting each other's personal spaces too. Else relationships are nothing but unnecessary burdens. Anyway, I have to wrap up quick today as I would be visiting a friend's home for a lunch session. I look forward to such meets if only the associates interest me..... I am so particular about my likes and dislikes.... my kinds should live an isolated life to avoid hurting people and displeasing her own self. If I am going to meet a friend's surviving parent, today is the best day to share one of the family recipe from my side of the family with prawns, overgrown / matured Amaranth stems [data] and potato, a non vegetarian, Bengali seafood dish DATA ALOO DIYE CHINGRIR JHOL.
I really do not know if this prawn curry recipe has travelled all the way from Comilla to Kolkata or not, I am just having it since childhood. This is exactly the copied recipe of what the mother used to do and I prefer it over "chingrir malaikari" any day. I know that today at my friend's home there will be a high end spread, even few years back the very thought used to delight me but these days I look for a "shukto, bhajabhuji, dal, loter jhuri"..... Oh! My God!I am totally under the family veterans' spell. I so could connect when my friend's parent told me last week about some personal preferences.... I tried to cook keeping that in mind. These are little gestures you must show people when they make an effort to touch your soul with some kind words. Taking care of the elderly generation should be kind of a sacred duty. Had I have been settled in Kolkata now, the sickly in-laws would not have required a cook, I would have send meals through my chauffeur but never would have stayed together. I would have preferred to stay in the same neighbourhood but not together, I cannot take instructions from someone else on what to do with my life and spend all my day talking "pee & poo colour"..... I will not wait each moment of my life for death like them, I will die a romantic doing everything I love doing.... spending enough time with my half soul "Neelohit" ...... it may so happen that at the edge of that brook in the midst of a wood, I may bid a goodbye to him trespassing to an unknown world where they say resides absolute peace.... my chosen number is 75.... rest is the Almighty's wish. Before that, I wish to discharge all my sacred duty towards my friend, my guide I am living with, say a sorry with a hug if I have done any wrong to him. "Neelohit" is a cult figure to me, invisible who can only be felt without whom I cannot survive I knew since my teens... "Sunil Babu" knew that, you must know too.
I so adore this particular parent of my friend.... full of life and positivity.... stays alone in Kolkata and always with a smile.... at least wears an infectious smile in public... love it. I am eager for a chat session, I am pretty busy in the morning you can see and do not even know if I can avail a free ride in Ipsita's car.... I do not like to make people wait for me. The kind I am, I would take an MRT ride to the nearest station, take a cab from there and may reach before Ipsita, this girl, my husband takes unnecessary hassles.... this island hardly requires a personal car. Anyway, my brother[s] has / have to have his / their meals with "shaak bhaja, pepe diye dal" today, let others try this light sea food curry DATA ALOO DIYE CHINGRIR JHOL with steamed rice. Earlier the father-in-law used to eat the curry sans the prawns, now totally barred given his allergic self.... even to most of the medicines. My side of the family has so many recipes with prawns.... it feels like bhai would say "amai feley tora chingri khacchish".... the in-laws hardly have any interest in food or anything per say. This is not called living.
STANDARD SIZED PRAWN : 500-600GM
POTATO : 1BIG SIZE
MATURED AMARANTH STEM / DATA : 4-5 LONG YARD? / STICK
GINGER PASTE : 1TBSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 11/2TBSP [IF FRESHLY MADE PASTE, THEN 2TSP]
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 2TSP
FENUGREEK SEED : 2PINCH
CORIANDER SEED : 2PINCH
WILD CELERY SEED : A PINCH
SALT : AS REQUIRED
KAFFIR LIME LEAF : 2-3 [OPTIONAL]
OIL : 4-5TBSP [I USE MUSTARD OIL]
PROCEDURE :
It so happened that when the mother was here few months back, I got surprisingly fresh maturely grown Amaranth Stems in the local market.
I strongly felt I must grab it, with it some fresh prawns and in presence of the mother let me refurbish my memory on this particular prawn recipe I used to love so much. So I did and Cristine cleaned them all. With the leaves I prepared "shaak bhaja" ..
De shell, clean the prawns very well and wash them thoroughly. It is always suggested to clean and keep the head & tail portion of prawns for an enhanced flavour & taste unless you have a kid as mine.
Add little salt and turmeric to it and keep aside. Peel wash and halve the potatoes. Cut each half into three equal pieces. Add little salt and turmeric to it. Discard the root ends of the amaranth stems and cut into finger length sizes. Very carefully peel off the fibre from it's skin.... very thinly... do not do away with the flesh. Wash and rub very little salt [it absorbs salt quickly, be careful].
Heat oil in a wok. Lightly fry the potato pieces in batches and take off. Fry the data / amaranth stem pieces and take off. Fry the prawns too in batches and take off. In all the three cases you will discard the marinade before frying.
Temper oil with the coriander + wild celery + fenugreek seeds. Prepare a spice paste with the rest of the turmeric + red chilli powder + coriander powder + ginger paste adding very little water. Add it to the wok. Never let the tempering to burn.
Keep stirring the spice paste at low heat for 2 minutes. Lower the heat to minimal and add 11/2 coffee mugs of water. Bring it to boil keeping the heat to the minimal.
Now add the lightly fried potato pieces and simmer at the lowest heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the lightly fried prawns and the amaranth stems, the kaffir lime leaves if at all using and boil for another 2-3 minutes. We are done.
We enjoy it with nothing else but steamed rice.
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