AKHROT O PATALI DIYE STEAMED RICE CAKE

I remember I failed preparing our family recipe of "dhuki pitha" / steamed, fluffy rice cake last year. During this time of year I get nostalgic about the wide variety of "pithe-puli" my family prepared. They weren't restricted to commonly prepared "malpoa-patishapta or puli".... a variety were they which the family learnt from their stay in Assam, brought with them from their country of origin. The main ingredients used were rice flour, coconut, date palm jaggery. Date Palm Jaggery is that winter special jaggery I perhaps can never stop loving. I keep getting it from Kolkata every winter, the problem is these days food adulteration has reached such heights in my country of origin that getting a good quality of "patali gur" is tough. I come from a family that prepared date palm jaggery was made at home from date palm sap, it gets difficult for me to accept a bad quality one. That homemade liquid date palm jaggery tasted heaven. The grandparent's home had two big mud oven in their courtyard where grandma used to cook all vegetarian items, "chirey, muri, khoi, pithey-puli." Those giant mud ovens ran on natural fuel, "ghutey, pat kathi, kath-kuth".... cowdung cakes, dried jute plant sticks, dried branches of trees. 

You know, I follow few Bangladeshi Pages to keep up with that nostalgic feel, after me no one is to carry forward the family legacy, like the husband's maternal big aunt left us, with her vanished a lot of recipes. She hardly taught her little sister, instead they all pampered her to spoil. Watching my mother active self, hearing my mother learnt to cut live fishes including "shing, magur, koi" in standard seven, she told "I am the youngest kid and too pampered." Our mother says she was the eldest of six kids, she had to help her mother, yet she did her graduation and BEd, bagged a government school job.... oh! what a big mistake she did leaving it. So, knowing to manage home well is a quality, knowing to juggle both home and office is greater quality.... sleeping and chatting all day does not contribute anything good to one's life, it makes people crippled sooner! It is surprising how some accept an imprisoned life, totally depending on others. I am against it, I wish to die like our father, keep cooking like our mother until then. I will explore easier methods to recreate complex recipes like this steamed beauty with date palm jaggery, rice flour, coconut milk with an addition of baking powder and walnuts AKHROT O PATALI DIYE STEAMED RICE CAKE.

We loved the crispy fried smaller variety of fish yesterday night. I had shown Cristine how to marinate the fish, she patiently does all kinds of fries. The husband so loved that he did not touch his share of chicken. I get angry when they waste rice, where to keep the used rice?

We loved the meal yesterday night with deep fried battered fish, dal, bhadhakopi, salad. Today we have an official party to attend. Once I finish writing the post, I have to cook. I have to wrap up soon. I think the idea of this steamed cake popped up from my love for Filipino sweets and Malaysian Kueh. I am pretty sure that family veterans would have learnt to prepare kueh & puto cakes too if  such countries existed in their map. I find one variety of kueh similar to our patishapta. I cannot have them regular. This vegetarian, vegan, gluten free steamed cake with date palm jaggery, rice flour, coconut milk, walnuts AKHROT O PATALI DIYE STEAMED RICE CAKE will lessen your time of cooking and give you the feel of "puli pitha", to some extent of "dhuki" too.

INGREDIENTS :

RICE FLOUR : 1COFFEE MUG
BAKING POWDER : 1/3TSP
THICK COCONUT MILK : 200ML
DATE PALM JAGGERY : 4-5TBSP
WALNUT : 8-10
A LITTLE OF WATER

PROCEDURE :

We are using the following ingredients.

We will take together the rice flour and the baking powder. Sieving is better.

We will mix both well.

We will add coconut milk to flour, whisk. There shouldn't be lump. We may add little water to get that consistency. This home is not too fond of smell of coconut milk.

We will take water in a deep vessel, put for boil.

We will grease a cake tin with few drops of oil, dust with rice flour.

We will pour mixture to it, tap lightly on kitchen counter.

We will shred date palm jaggery spread atop, chop walnuts, spread atop. We would lightly tap bowl on kitchen counter top.

Place a wide bowl with holes, colander atop vessel when water starts boiling.

Place batter filled bowl right in the middle.

Thereafter, we would tie lid with towel, cover vessel, cook at low heat for 13-14 minutes.

We should be done.

We will have it fresh, if storing we need to keep bowl atop another bowl filled with water.... never to refrigerate..... it will turn hard. It will still turn hard, we will steam it for sometime either in the microwave or on the stove top if having later.

FLAKY POROTA

"Roti-Prata" is regular affair at this home, with less use of ghee / oil. We definitely love these soft, moist, "oporta muchmuchey" flat breads or porota that is used to prepare egg-chicken-mutton roll in streets of Kolkata. Many Bengali Homes do prepare such porota / flatbread adding both salt, sugar in dough. Reaching this island, I saw they make similar something. Starting to blog, I knew Kerala makes awesome porotas too. That awesomeness comes from kneading dough with lot of oil, sugar, salt, may be baking powder, in shaping balls. My kind of FLAKY POROTA uses less oil than is required, shaping of balls may be less accurate, yet I feel mine are worth sharing. 

It is not so that this home eats healthy, I am not actually comfortable about using lot of ghee, oil, butter, cream in cooking. An average Bengali will echo me, our stomachs are seasoned to "ada-jirey-lanka bata," I refer to majority of middle class Bengali, what they eat is my focus. My blog will always reflect what we eat at this home, environment I grew up in. My effort or wish will always be to connect my place of origin to my present. In fact, my Friday share would also reflect my mind. We should always act according to our ability, taste buds. Even if doctor prescribes us salad at every meal, we cannot, we will not. "Patla maacher jhol, shukto, patla korey dal" had been our health food for ages, I do not believe they kill you, every day having biryani is definitely wrong!

You see I am not in habit of faking much. I told you I will feed my men Parshe Maach beside chicken, I did. Mumma debones fish for son of the house, he eats them too. I definitely will not touch chicken when I have cooked my kind of fish.

I eat fish like a cat since age 6, the maternal grandfather taught me techniques of deboning fish. An Eastern Indian, an outwardly Bengali will be mad about river water fish. What is hurtful in that? I reach out to people with FLAKY POROTA too. At this home, low oil porotas / flat breads are made adding different ingredients. This was my  "khasta porota" without using sugar in dough, felt its worth sharing. I prepare basic "aloor dom" for my family with handmade breads, I don't go to work. You can choose any sauce or pickle to go with it. If you wish, get a salad too.

INGREDIENTS : 

REFINED FLOUR : 11/2COFFEE MUG + 11/2TSP
MULTI GRAIN ATTA FLOUR : 1/2 OR LITTLE MORE OF A COFFEE MUG
BAKING POWDER : 1/3TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3TBSP+3TBSP
GHEE : 1TSP FOR FRYING EACH FLAT BREAD + 2TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Take both flours in a bowl. Add baking powder, mix well. Make hole in middle, add 3 tbsp of oil.

Rub well for 2-3 minutes.

Add water little by little, knead to prepare dough, soft, smooth. It may take some 7-8 minutes.

Add 3tbsp oil to dough, knead again for 3-4 minutes.

Keep covered for 15-20 minutes with clean, moist, soft, white cloth. I am not particular, covered it with a plate.

Remove cover, knead dough again for 2-3 minutes.

Tear off tennis ball sized portions, smoothen between your palms.

Prepare paste mixture with 2tbsp ghee, refined flour. 

Roll out each balls into big roundel. We need not be too particular about round shape. Brush paste mixture all over.

Keep folding in parts, starting from top to bottom.

Start folding from sides to give round, ring shape to each of portions.

Once all are done, cover them for half an hour.

Heat pan on gas top. Remove cover, take one portion at a time on rolling base, press on middle.

Roll out round porota / flat bread shape. The excess amount of ghee makes it slippery, I failed to get them perfectly round.

Put one flat bread on pan. We will cook both sides well before adding 1tsp ghee to each.

They would look as below after being done!

Fry each in this manner. Take all of them together on plate. Press from all sides before serving. Be careful, do not burn your palms.

Serve with any side of choice or pickle or sauce.

TILBATA NARKOL DIYE PAKA SHOSHA

This picture was hidden somewhere, I discovered while surfing Google Photos. Cooking with ripened cucumber was not regular affair in family but Bengal eats it, some markets in Kolkata suburbs sell it, I have seen it selling at Baguiati Bazaar. The thing is "lau-chalkumro thaktey, paka shosha khabo keno?" The maternal grandmother cooked it tempering kalojeerey+tejpata+shuknolanka & bori+dhonepata, at times with head of smaller sized rui or katla[Bengal Carp fish]. She used this vegetable rarely whenever there was scarcity of "kochi lau ba chalkumro" on her kitchen roof top or in market. Until date I couldn't forget the taste. In most Bengali Homes, vegetables are cooked in minimal spices where variety of tempering worked wonders, "koshano" part, i.e. slow, cover cooking at minimal heat without using water is key to good taste of regular Bengali vegetarian dishes. 

About rest of India's food, Kolkata restaurants serves such good that this island's Northern Indian restaurants don't impress much. It's not their fault, where would they get quality chefs in this expensive island? I come from city of Munna Maharaj, don't tell me all Indian Vegetarian and Chicken or Fish dishes need have cream, butter. This is one reason why eating out has become less at this home. We eat what I prepare, if eating out we prefer South East Asian and Western Joints. Souther Indian food is served good here. 

If you enjoy cooking light, try this healthy vegetarian dish TILBATA NARKOL DIYE PAKA SHOSHA. I really do not know if over ripened cucumber is cooked this way or not with a little of grated coconut, roasted white sesame paste using a tempering of wild celery seeds, bay leaf, dry red chillies. Besides "kumro pui shaak aloor ghyat o dal", we also had meat or fish curry, else my men would need a bowlful of pakoras each to have a vegetarian meal or porota-luchi as we had last night.

It was vegetarian meal, they had it without noise, son had with sauce. All of us love our share of "roti-prata." We love noodles as well. At lunch, we had noodles with eggs, french beans, carrots, onions, garlic, ginger, green chilli, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, black pepper.

Its Monday, there happens to be lot of overeating, binge eating, eating rich food over week end. A Monday share should be this light, frill free, why not? Ripened cucumber sells island wide, natives here love it. Moreover, if you are lazy about cooking, you must know old cucumber cooks quick. This vegetarian curry soothe our stomach. Try my TIL BATA NARKOL DIYE PAKA SHOSHA, enjoy the side with steamed rice or roti.

INGREDIENTS :

OLD CUCUMBER : 1BIG
WHITE SESAME SEED : 2TSP
SHREDDED COCONUT : 2TBSP
WILD CELERY SEED / RADHUNI : 1/4TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
DRY RED CHILLI : 2
GREEN CHILLI : 1SLITTED
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/4TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
SUGAR : 1/4TSP
OIL : 1TBSP

PROCEDURE : 

Peel off cucumber skin. Wash, discard two ends, cut half from middle. Then cut lengthwise each half. Discard seeds, wash again. Use shredder to shred each half. Rub with turmeric, salt as required.

Heat wok, dry roast white sesame seeds, shredded coconut at low flame for 2 minutes. Cool, blend to paste using 1/4 small tea cup water.

Add oil to wok, heat it. Temper with a bay leaf, wild celery seeds, dry red chillies. Add shredded old cucumber. Fold in well, cover. Let it cook at minimal heat.

After 5 minutes, remove cover, you get to see that lot of water has released. Add roasted white sesame seeds, shredded coconut paste. Fold in well, cover cook at low heat for 3-4 minutes.

Remove cover, add sugar, slitted green chilli, adjust salt. Cook at low heat uncovered for a minute or two. We are done.

Enjoy when cold at room temperature with rice or roti!

TANDOORI MOSHOLAI MUCHMUCHE MAACH O DRY FRUIT BHORA MOONG DAL DHOKA

We had a relaxing midweek yesterday, the husband was at home, the weird boy was back from the school in time.... I was out for few hours but managed to cook up a meal for the four of us by 9:30pm. We have a lot of cooked food in the refrigerator but yesterday we had to have some fresh food. The initial plan was to go out or order through Food Panda but you all know how I enjoy cooking, more because Cristine helps so much. Or may be because I inherited the love for cooking from the family veterans of my side. I actually prefer eating out over the weekend. The men at home like this type of platter which has less of curry. Above is a meal that takes merely 11/2 hours but the preparation & arrangement have to be started early if you are aiming to serve it for dinner. The only thing missing was a warm dessert. I could not manage that. Maach Baja-Dal-Bhaat is one of the most common & loving staple for the Bengali kids of our times, my men love it too alongside a "big ball of aloo sheddo." We eat such meals at intervals but yesterday I did not wish to serve that minimal and why should I? I do not go out to work and come back home tired! Neither I am crazily lazy and in the habit of sitting all day and watching television or sleep. I enjoy what I do and this vegetarian and non vegetarian combo of side or snack TANDOORI MOSHOLAI MUCHMUCHE MAACH O DRY FRUIT BHORA MOONG DAL DHOKA. I served them with some Turmeric Rice and Cucumber+Onion Raita.

I love cooking that is an open truth now, that I would want to earn from this hobby of mine remains an unfulfilled wish till date. Blogging cannot be the major engagement for life, it should be my hobby. From end 2020, I do not wish to be called a mad, old, useless lady. That is when frustration creeps in, mediocre people will have this at one point in life, they lack the ability or guts to take risk, neither can they go and get into menial jobs. The reason why I could not continue to be a victim and take odd classes in a school when I knew I can teach better, neither I had the confidence to take up classes in the secondary section. I keep on telling people who allow me to that if you had already taken a long break from job, do not go and settle for less, start something of your own. 

At this moment, it feels like how beautiful it is to be able to do something from home without paying allegiance to anyone. I cook with that same feeling of freedom, the liberty to use ingredients of my choice inside my own den. I did exactly that yesterday night and got these two vegetarian cum non vegetarian beauty TANDOORI MOSHOLAI MUCHMUCHE MAACH O DRY FRUIT BHORA MOONG DAL DHOKA. See, I can give big talks on freedom may be because my man supports me, I know in what circumstances one has to compromise at the work place. What I do not understand is why should a professional.... an engineer or a doctorate should work for peanuts.... that feels too much of an insult to the concerned self. I must find out something for myself next year, then mumma has to keep herself free to travel to her baby in a day's notice. If you think too much, you get crazier. So, let us cook, eat and share. BTW, here is my plate;

INGREDIENTS FOR THE TANDOORI MASALA MARINATED FISH FRY :

ANY FLESHY BIG CATCH : 6-8 STEAK [I USED BENGAL CARP]

TANDOORI MASALA : 1TBSP [I USE EVEREST BRAND]

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP

LEMON JUICE : 4TBSP

CORN FLOUR : 2TBSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 6TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DRY FRUIT YELLOW MOONG BEAN CAKE :

SPLIT YELLOW MOONG BEAN DAL : 2SMALL TEA CUP

CASHEW NUT : 2TSP

RAISIN : 1TSP

CUMIN SEED : 1/2TSP

GREEN CHILLI : 1 OR 2

TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP

SUGAR : 1TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 5-6 TBSP TO FRY

PROCEDURE :

Let us prepare the DRY FRUITS MOONG LENTIL CAKES at first.

We will wash, soak split yellow moong bean in hot water for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, drain water, take dal, green chillies, ginger extract in blender. Blend it to fine paste, add little water if required. We can never get that texture that our mothers, grand mothers got doing it in "shilnora." 

Heat oil in wok, temper with cumin seeds. Add lentil paste, sugar, salt, turmeric powder!

Give a stir, add roasted chopped cashew nuts, raisin!

Fold in everything well, keep stirring fast for 2 minutes. There should not be any lump left.

Transfer entire thing into a greased bowl. Let cool, let it set for some half an hour. Turn it over a plate, cut into desired pieces, fry in little oil. But this time I cooked them in microwave+grill mode for 10-12 minutes at C-1, 300 power! We need to place bake stand at first inside & on top of it greased grill plate with lentil pieces!

 

Let us do SPICE MARINATED FRIED FISH.

Wash fish pieces, marinate with salt, wash thoroughly after half an hour! Marinate with turmeric, lemon juice, red chilli powder, tandoori masala. Keep aside for an hour. 

Just before frying, add cornflour, coat well. Heat oil in wok, fry both sides well.

I served & had both alongside plain rice, ghee, salad.