CURRY AND SPICE: KAJU KISHMISH DIYE DOI ER MALPUA

Bengalis usually prepare Malpua / Deshi Pancake batter using reduced milk in addition to rice flour, semolina, refined flour. This time I tried it with doi / yogurt instead of milk. I must have seen somewhere, I do not save all of the beautiful food posts I come across each day, so you will excuse me if I do not give due credit to any. In some homes, kishmish / raisins are used in malpoa / malpuas, I added some cashew nuts too, they tasted good. You cannot call me a pro when it comes to preparing "pithe-puli".... what you see in the picture is pretty decent, what is not featuring in the picture is that each time I prepare malpua, at least the first 4-5 numbers of them would spoil, I mean they taste well but may get deformed or over fried. I just share them with Cristine with her permission. Early morning the son has started watching Formula 1 Races, his holidays are on and I so dislike retiring to the same cringed room where I have spent an entire night. His father too keeps the television set on 24/7 while at home but he never closes all the doors and windows and makes me feel the hell early morning. I still crave for our boy's company, next year at this time where he would be exactly? Would this island's universities have a sit for him? There is minimal chance, the son has no interest either.... his mother is in dilemma.... her concerns are important or her kid's dreams? Let me feed him all that he enjoys including this vegetarian sweet meat snacker or pancake KAJU KISHMISH DIYE DOI ER MALPUA.

Yesterday was a "family-filled" Sunday, the senior is back, did not have any stomach ailment after having frozen, stale "lokkhi pujor proshad"... I broke the rule and had to reheat the "khichuri and labra" which we are not supposed to. He took "porota o achar, malpua, naru, nyashpati" to the office today. I do not have the count how many malpuas I had in the past two days. Yesterday, I was chating with the man, sleeping and reading different interviews of the Nobel Laureate, I may not understand his field but enjoyed what he told a Bengali channel... that he enjoys listening to Ustad Rashid Khan, dance to the tune of Bollywood numbers, loves to cook and prepares awesome halwa and also finds it weird why the world is talking less of Esther "boudi" and more of him. Yet, I cannot go ahead with a pure vegetarian muffin recipe for our "bideshini boudi" instead she can have this Bengali vegetarian sweet snack or pancake recipe KAJU KISHMISH DIYE DOI ER MALPUA. I do not know why? May be my inner self is full of contradictions, may be I am different shades of grey, may be I am a Kolkatan first more than anything else, may be I am not in the habit of going out of the way to prove myself a liberated self, may be I love literature the most, may be breakages cause me heartbreak, whatever the reason be.

The son has retired to his room already, we do not bother him much as we can see how dedicated he is in getting a life he wants for himself, he however cannot be with books all the time. I asked his "mamujaan" to at least invest on a flat anywhere by the Eastern Bypass of Kolkata given the couple earns good in the Kolkata standard to which he told me he prefers staying in their big, no fancy "mafashali" home, more so because Ola and Uber comes to their doorstep these days, rest of the time he can drive. Imagine! He has no hunger, his didibhai wanted him to be hungry! Anyway, let us stop here today, I have another busy week ahead, need to prepare some snacks and sweets. Thereafter, I should be able to do some me kind of blogging "shutki, potoler shash er bhorta, etc."

INGREDIENTS :

SEMOLINA : 11/2COFFEE MUG
RICE FLOUR : 1/3COFFEE MUG
REFINED FLOUR : 1/2COFFEE MUG
PLAIN YOGURT : 1COFFEE MUG
SUGAR : 2MEDIUM TEA CUP [I USED STEVIA POWDER]
FENNEL SEED : 1TBSP
BLACK PEPPER CORN : 11/2TBSP
CASHEW NUT : 2-3TBSP [HALVED]
RAISIN : 2TBSP
OIL : 100 GM TO FRY + 2TSP FOR THE BATTER

PROCEDURE :

Let us soak the semolina in some hot water. This was a necessity in the Kolkata type suji earlier, now I see I need not have soaked it for two hours at all.

Now let us drain the water and add the yogurt, rice flour, refined flour and sugar [in my case powdered stevia] to the semolina.

We will whisk it well. Keep adding water little by little to get a paste like batter, in fact little wetter than a paste.

Let us add 2tsp oil, fennel seeds, black pepper corns to the batter and mix everything well.

We would keep it covered for an hour, open cover and add the cashew nuts and raisins. Fold in well.

After an hour we will heat oil in a wok. What shape of a malpua you want depends upon the shape of the wok and the amount of oil you are using. I prefer slightly flattened malpuas over the round and fluffy, so I use widened wok and less oil.

Once the oil is ready, use a round, deep spoon to take the batter and drop gently on the oil. If it splatters and break, you need to add some more of refined flour. Do not worry, the first few may go wrong.

Splash some oil from the sides on the open top as we do in case of poori.

Fry both sides very well. I have to be very careful at this stage, if its slightly overdone, the son does not eat. Our son is dark complexioned, I do not mind if he gets a darker wife. Only that I want her to be very caring and loving towards our only child, spend more time together instead of freaking around. He will have no one of his own after we take leave.