TIL NARKOL BEGUN BATA

"Should not I concentrate on sharing easy, rustic, simpler recipes suitable for singles; students, working who live away from home; want to cook simple food back from college or office?" I ask to myself often these days. I have an intuition the weirdest member at this home makes secret visits to my blog. This is a day dreamer who sits and thinks sometime next year onwards may be there will be visits to my blog from new quarters, who will cook "curry-turry" from it. Coming back to the reality, I sit to think; how is it possible? My Blog has not travelled with time, who of this generation would at all take interest in "begun-aloo diye maacher jhol ba shojne datar chocchori?" People want quick recipes. I do not understand what is there to blog about cutting a packet of pasta, boiling it, straining and then cooking it in a sauce last week I had got from the super mart. If you are preparing a pasta from scratch following an Italian grandmother, preparing the sauce with fresh ingredients; the experience should be satisfying. I do not think I can ever make it, I am going more towards simpler cooking in my kitchen whose essence would remain "deshi" always. I will not switch over to anything else; never can.

Egg plant is a favourite ingredient in my kitchen; it comes home every week. If I had a little bit of sunny, green patch; I would have grown few vegetables. I do not blame our mother; she has cross passed 70, she works more than what her body permits; then she is too unwilling to take up any new interest after the father's death. I so wished if the brother had grown interest in planting some fruits & vegetables in their property. I am thankful enough that he knows how easy their life is just because our mother works all day. If he is a good son, his mother too is an extremely hardworking woman. None in that home until now has to spend any amount of energy for our mother. Even when she fractured her wrist to palm; no one had to do anything for her; she managed herself alone; okay with a cook for few months. I sincerely hope our mother leave this earth without giving any trouble to anyone or any chance to anyone to say "ami to eei sheba korechi. Aaj obdi karor gaye khete kichu kortey hoyni, shey akai shamley nei. Dosh thaktei parey kintu korey jai chupchap, kaukey byatibyasto korena; boshey sheba neoar kopal korey to asheni." 

Coming to egg plant, I do not know about it's health advantages, what I know is we just love it. The senior cannot have it fried; I have noticed he has a mental block at the sight of it's seeds actually. Never mind; I will make it edible for everyone in the family. I keep roasting eggplants / begun / brinjal and then combine it with different ingredients; give it a pate like look so that the man does not understand what it is. One such dish is this vegetarian paste / pate TIL NARKOL BEGUN BATA. It is done roasting the egg plant; then blending it with coconut, roasted sesame, onion, green chilli. Finishing it off adding salt and mustard oil makes it a superbly tasty vegetarian side to go with steamed rice and different variety of breads. If you wish to spread it on toasted bread, use olive oil instead of mustard oil.

I am waiting for my breakfast to arrive. No, a 12 hours of intermittent fasting does not help. Then a 14hrs span is so impossible for me. I mostly do my cooking experiments after 7pm. Yesterday, cooked a "mangshor ghoogni", shall blog about it later. I have many a recipes to be shared; just too hesitant to share something whose ingredients people may find trouble to get. Okay, I am having me made soda bread & tea stall peanut cookie with fine Darjeeling tea now.

What I do is I buy these biscuits loose, not in packets these days. Like I did not buy peanut butter this week; it has sugar man. I am scared having it regular, I will prepare it at home without sugar. I have to find out a good, easy recipe for peanut butter. That can happen later. At this time our most important job seems to be facing an uncertainty. I can be at peace only after I settle the most important aspect of our life as of now. Many around can completely understand my agony. The only relief is when I am in the kitchen playing with ingredients. This easy vegetarian Vegan, Glutenfree pate with eggplant TIL NARKOL BEGUN BATA is one such food venture that you would love doing and having with steamed rice, a variety of breads. Since childhood, I have been eating "bata, pora, sheddo makha" with different variety of vegetables. I need to ask the mother why she made them mostly in the night time. May be I know it now; for dinner I enjoy "etar bata, otar bharta" more than non-vegetarian food; I am totally in the family shoes. Would my baby remember his roots?

INGREDIENTS :

EGGPLANT : 1 BIG [ I DID NOT HAVE THE GIANT PURPLE ONES, SO USED TWO MEDIUM]
WHITE SESAME SEED : 1 TBSP
SHREDDED COCONUT : 1 SMALL TEA CUP
ONION : 1 MEDIUM SIZED
GREEN CHILLI : 2
GARLIC CLOVE : 1 BIG SIZED OR 2-3 SMALL INDIAN VARIETY
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 1-2 TBSP TO GARNISH, I USED MUSTARD OIL, YOU CAN USE OLIVE OIL

PROCEDURE :

Wash the eggplants and wipe dry. Rub it's body with few drops of oil.

Take it on a manual roaster and roast at minimal heat on stove top.

Take it down on a plate and let cool.

Meanwhile; discard the two ends, peel and wash the onion, roughly chop. Wash the green chillies. Peel off the garlic clove and wash.

Take off the skin of the roasted egg plants.

Take all the ingredients except the oil in a blender and blend at medium pace for 3-4 minutes with a pause in between.

Reserve it in a bowl and garnish it with your choice of oil. I added mustard oil and mixed it all to be able to have it with piping hot steamed rice one day and roti-paratha on the other.

It is always recommended not to store anything made with coconut for long. It spoils even if you are refrigerating it.

RADHUNI PHORON TOMATO DIYE MUSHURIR DAL O LAU ER CHOKLA BOTI

I was wanting to share this Bengali, combo recipes for years now. This keeps happening every alternating week. I did a photo feature two years back, was not willing to share that. Last month again I clicked them both and felt they are ready to be shared; there can be nothing better than simplicity. We eat different kinds, like last night we had some potato & cheese croquettes I made from scratch and grilled fish, my CHEESY POTATO CROQUETTES recipe had to be updated.

These are hassle free cooking, the men are happier with such vegetarian stuffs but I have a mental block, I must stay true to my roots. Honestly, anyway I would prefer a spicy "mocha ba echorer chop" over this. Now that I have learnt the trick to fry a cutlet without breakage, all these should happen often. We are actually to prepare the cutlets, refrigerate them for few hours before frying. These days my routine is to serve the family a lunch with stuffs I cook on a Saturday and cook something fresh for our dinner. Because I mostly serve vegetarian food for dinner, I have to be a bit extra cautious about what to cook. The men cannot have an all vegetarian rice meal. There has to be a meat, fish or egg curry along side. There obviously had a non vegetarian curry besides this RADHUNI PHORON TOMATO DIYE MUSHURIR DAL O LAU ER CHOKLA BOTI. It is a vegetarian combination; a lentil curry with red lentil & tomato and a vegetable dish with bottle gourd peels & sliced onion. Our families do not use onion in the dish but I do. I have seen use of onion enhances the taste of the dish. Moreover, the amount also increases using onion which however results into this little after cooking.

It is a cloudy morning, I think I should finish off my outdoor workout before a late lunch. I have just asked Cristine to take out banana, yeast etc. from the refrigerator; have some plans. Night time too I have to cook. I have to manage 1&1/2 hours for the outdoor activity. I think I am planning for years now to start with few rounds of "Surya Namaskar"  every morning; that is also not happening. What a lazy brat I am my readers have no idea. Yoga definitely has long term benefits, it is the best form of exercise; I just do not enjoy it. I was a teen when the first yoga teacher was deployed for me. Our parents were too worried about my lazy, obese self but they failed to be strict with my diet. Weight loss is 70% of proper diet and 30% of exercise, I believe in it. Those who strive for a slimmer self do not eat RADHUNI PHORON TOMATO DIYE MUSHURIR DAL O LAU ER CHOKLA BOTI with a plateful of rice but I am helpless. Okay, I eat it with millet these days but our son wastes even the little amount of rice served in his main meals that I have to eat his leftovers unable to let it waste. If someone have piled up biscuit and snacks in the room, if someone orders fries & fritters at 6:30pm in the evening, how can the one have proper meals? Yes, I am indulgent and stuff his room with food; the thought that tomorrow he will venture out and fetch for himself worries me. BTW, he and his father do eat these two Bengali dishes. The bottle gourd peel is cooked in many Bengali homes but I am not really sure if the ajmod / radhuni tempered dal is the mother's invention or she got the idea from elsewhere.

INGREDIENTS FOR VEG DISH WITH BOTTLE GOURD PEEL :

LAU ER KHOSHA / BOTTLE GOURD PEEL : OF ONE STANDARD SIZED BOTTLE GOURD
ONION : 1 STANDARD SIZED
DRY RED CHILLI : 1 HALVED
GREEN CHILLI : 1 SLITTED
NIGELLA SEED / KALOJEEREY : 1/4 TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/4 TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3 TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR RED LENTIL CURRY WITH TOMATO :

RED LENTIL : A SMALL TEA CUP
TOMATO : 2 MEDIUM SIZED
AJMOD / RADHUNI : 1/4 TSP [WIKI says radhuni is dried fruit of Trachyspermum Roxburghianum, a flowering plant; smells like parsley, tastes like celery. Honestly, until I had a blog, I did not require to know what radhuni is called outside of my family; some called it wild celery seed, I took it, now WIKI says it is this]
BAYLEAF : 1
DRY RED CHILLI : 2 HALVED
GREEN CHILLI : 2 SLITTED
SALT : AS REQUIRED
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/4 TSP

PROCEDURE :

We will cut the bottle gourd peel in fine strips; Cristine does her best with a knife. It is not possible for her or me to cut as finer as our mothers do with a "bothi".

We will wash it. We will discard the two ends  and peel the onion. We will wash it and slice it thin.

What I do is I take together both the washed & cut bottle gourd peels, onions in a bowl and marinate with salt & turmeric, keep it aside for about 10-12 minutes. Our homes boil the cut peels in water before cooking it. I did not feel the need to do it, may be the island's bottle gourds' peels are softer?

We have heated the oil in a pan or wok and tempered it with a bay leaf, halved dry red chillies and nigella seeds / kalojeerey / kalonji.

We will give a stir and add the bottle gourd & onion pieces. We will give a stir and cover cook at minimal heat now.

We will remove the cover every 3-4 minutes; sprinkle some water and stir. It may take some 15-16 minutes or more to be done.

We have to be careful to save the dish from burning. The reason why I add more oil than required. It helps avoid burning. Once done I take them out carefully leaving the excess oil. Okay, I admit one cannot be totally successful doing that!

For the dal; we will wash and soak the red lentil for an hour. If you boil it in pressure cooker, you do not need to soak it. I prefer to boil red lentil in a normal vessel.

We will take the soaked dal in a vessel, add two big cups of water, a little of turmeric & salt. We will boil it on stove top at minimal to low heat until done.

Meanwhile, we have washed the tomatoes and chopped them, washed & slitted the green chillies.

We will heat the oil in a wok, temper it with ajmod / radhuni, a bay leaf & halved dry red chillies.

We will add the tomatoes now and rest of the turmeric powder. We will stir for a minute and add the boiled red lentil.

We will add 2 coffee mugs of water and let the entire thing boil covered at low to medium heat for 8-10 minutes.

We will remove the cover, adjust the salt and add the slitted green chillies. We will let it boil for a minute or two, we should be done.

At any point of cooking, if we find the dal to be too thick, we can add some more water.

We usually have it with steamed rice, I believe both will go well with chapati!

GOLMORICH FLAVOURED NIMKI

This was the most frequently done salted snacks in my family. The old lady might have lessened the frequency of frying "nimki" these days, but this was the best way to shut our mouths asking for outside food for the next few days. "Nimki" still happens to be an affinity for me. It makes for an interesting snacks for the family too, specially the youngest member enjoys this in the midst of all that alluring fries & fritter packets competing in the market. Yes, I do allow him or rather a little indulgent about having outside food with moderate restrictive measures. Because our parents never allowed us hawker stall food, I can understand a child's wishes, disappointments. We must listen to their wishes too. Can you imagine, we were not allowed any  biscuit other than Britannia Marie, Cream Cracker until my 20's. Dadu used to carry so many varieties of biscuits on his weekend trip to that district town in Nadia, I particularly liked Nice. Way later, the parents allowed Priya coconut cookies, Britannia little hearts, Parle krackjack in our home, may be when I started attending college; that too rarely.

I mean it caused me irritation at times when variety food besides rice & chapati meals in our home meant again home cooked "naru, moya, nimki, pithe, shingara, payesh." I cannot remember a single incident in our life when we four dined out until we siblings started earning and treated our parents. The thought is quite irritating that the father only visited restaurants when his friends arranged, he never took initiative. If it was his call, then it was dhabas where he did not take his family much. If he went anywhere for day long, the mother had to pack food in different boxes. We did not have a car then that he would take us to a dhaba in the outskirts of the city. Our DumDum neighbourhood had a couple of Dhabas not suitable for families to sit & eat. They made heavenly dal tarka which either of the parents would pack & get home often, yes they loved it. On any of our tours, we would have such meals because the parents avoided rice meals outside home. Do you think they would ever step into a proper restaurant even while on tours? That is why the brother and me keep eating outside, keep changing brands of cosmetics.

One thing is true & important to note; because our parents are / one is still miser, controlled; they enever had to stoop low in front of anyone, to lay their hands in front of anyone in life. Any wife has to understand the husband's capability;  stand strong by him and not let him stoop low in th wish to compete with a well off neighbour. Wrong are those women who instead of earning accuses their husband of not earning enough. So, you know why I so loved potato wafers then but not anymore? Because we were allowed chips once every one or two months may be. When asked for chips, our mother fried jars of nimki single handedly without any help. She would get her kerosene run stove to the bedroom so that she could sit and fry them; simultaneously teach the brother. Our homes use nigella seeds for flavouring nimki; I used golmorich / crushed black pepper this time to prepare this Bengali, salted snack GOLMORICH FLAVOURED NIMKI! Rest, it only requires refined flour, a bit of salt & oil for this yum evening snack to be made.

Believe me I wished to prepare today's share with a healthier gluten free flour. I am not getting any millet flour, not even my favourite brands of wheat flour locally. Pillsbury Atta seems to me too refined to be called what India means by "atta." Even millet packets are scarce, I am getting 250gm from here, 500gm from there whenever they are seen. I cannot live on salads; I do not know what to do if they stop coming at all. Even in the early next month, I am not so keen on visiting the Indian supermarket. South Asians are most likely to flock there in hundreds and I am a diabetic who wishes to see her daughter-in-law or even the live-in partner. The husband does not stop me from doing anything; if I go there he would get angry.

Okay, Sunday is not the day I would want to chat with my readers. My fungus affected plants are waiting for me to spray a detergent solution, I will go out to get lunch for the family. If I ask the man to order online, he gives the responsibility to the son whose orders are weird; mumma thinks it is not value for money. She has to go, this way she exercises control on the finances alloted to her. No, I do not let the man go out at all. There is hardly any romance, love in this. He is the prime who has to feed six stomachs. If anything happens to him, I can still feed the family, how to bear the huge medical expenses? How to bear the expenses of my child's education. That is prime to me / us; we cannot shatter his dreams. We keep discussing these while watching movies & web series. When I say my job is done concerning the son, he needs you more now; he gets upset perhaps, starts shouting at me which other girls may consider abuse; I do not. There is nothing more truth than this to this fear monger. I go out or may be at an hour like 7pm I ask Cristine to get the flour tin, we together start doing a Bengali evening snacks, GOLMORICH FLAVOURED NIMKI. If you are doing it alone, it takes time. How could the grandmother, mother, most of the elderly Bengali ladies used to do it in bulk during Bijoya Doshomi, others for Diwali I wonder.

INGREDIENTS :

REFINED FLOUR : 11/2 COFFEE MUG
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 11/2 TSP
SALT : 3-4 PINCH
OIL : 2 TBSP + 1 TBSP + 150 ML approximately to fry
You can use ghee for kneading the dough instead of oil.

PROCEDURE :

Take the refined flour, salt, black pepper in a wide mouthed bigger bowl & mix well.

Add 2 tbsp oil to it and fold in well. Then rub well for 3-4 minutes.

Add water little by little and knead to form a firm dough. Add 1 tbsp oil again to the dough.

Knead it again for 2-3 minutes.

Cover it with a moistened, clean piece of cloth and refrigerate for an hour. Take it out.

Knead it again for 2-3 minutes. Tear off smaller portions and smoothen between palms.

Now we have to roll them round as we do for chapati; not too thin, neither too thick.

Now with a blade or knife, cut lengthwise strips keeping a gap. Cut into smaller pieces further. My diamond shapes do not get perfect.

Dust a plate with flour to store.

The most important part of this snack is the frying aspect. I have learnt it after several mistakes. We will not fry them in hot oil, they will burn & soggy.

We have to fry them for a longer period at a very low heat to get them crisp; always we are to adjust the heat & even switch off the gas oven at times and again switch on after a minute.

What we get are crisp, salted evening snacks that will remain crisp in an airtight container for a week. You should not refrigerate it.

ROSHUN KANCHALANKA O GONDHORAJ LEBU DIYE MURGI

I do not know where to start from; yesterday morning time 6:30 am I could talk for half a minute with the brother, thereafter until now I cannot connect anyone of the total of six handphones the family own. I only know they are alive but their trees & floral tubs are gutted down perhaps; the garage gate has broken. I believe in the almighty you know! I wanted to ask why He or She or them got so angry with the human kind, the nature's fury on us is still understandable. I was contained after talking to my brother for a while, okay they did not face any physical harm. Thereafter, I am not getting through them. Watching the amount of devastation, I felt broken by night. This morning it feels what might have happened that all of their phones are switched off? The man could talk to his sister yesterday night and his father called sometime back.

All my anxiety got channelised towards the father who is no more. He had always listened to people except his own family. So ardently we told going backwards to Barrackpore would be an absurd idea. What is so wrong living in a flat, back in 1995 the flat culture was already in operation. Moreover, in the interiors of DumDum, plots were available; not every neighbourhood had wagon breakers! He paid no heed to our request, he spoilt his hard earned money in all wrong ventures, "buying led machine er karkhana in Kanchrapara to picnic er bagan bari in Hoogly district to investing all of the amount he retired with in chit funds", he did blunders. If the mother or brother told anything; he retorted "amar taka ami ja khushi korbo." He was a good human being but that traces of family patriarchy has to work, na. The mother was not too wrong to say, "bongsher dhara jabey kothai; sudhu jhuri jhuri aam aar maacher golpo; na kono porashonar chol, na bishoi shompotti baranor cheshta." So many times the maternal grandfather told "we are bankers, why should we invest in fraudulent organisations?" T told "you open a consultancy if you so dislike sitting idle after retirement." He listened to none. I am pretty sure what he is saying sitting up there, "Barrackpore e ki keu thakena?" "Thakbena keno? Kolkatai ato bochor theke keu pichoi?"

This morning, I woke up to this; they are offered to my God Family whenever they show up. Not in a mental state to share an elaborate recipe, I decide on this easy, Bengali, light chicken curry ROSHUN KANCHALANKA O GONDHORAJ LEBU DIYE MURGI.

I can so feel how our mother must be going through, all her beloved babies lie scattered now. She will almost alone bring them together now and the brother will get angry with her. They will not understand her point of view; what amount of labour one has to give to maintain that amount of cleanliness & hygiene. This part I absolutely agree with her, personal & household hygiene is a necessity. Not that I indulge her, I keep telling " 25 bochor to thakley gaach pala, jhumri mashir goyal, drain porishkar, teler ghanir tel, atta koler atta kheye. Shomoyer sangey pa miliye choltey shekho na ektu; barita bechey amader flat er kachey ekta flat nao; Baguiatir bhetortao to ghoroa poribesh, ekdom DumDum er moto! Na toder odikey living cost onek beshi. Tachara ekta ektola bari holeo jetey pari. Arey ekta bari ekhon kothai pabey, ek kotir nichey hobena dam, bhai oto chap keno nebey? Oder ekta jibon achey, tumi nijer jed ta charo ektu. Na, oder to bolechi tora flat kiney choley ja, ami shiprar maa der niye thakbo. Come on, the brother cannot, he could not all these years; can't you respect this rare quality in him?" Every week, this is our conversation. That you have lived your life, let them live. Then all three of them starts saying "P r smriti jorano barita."

I can understand their dilemma; they being skeptical about living in a flat. I fear  they are not in the mentality to pay a fat amount as maintenance charge per month, fat amount towards cultural activities or pay high fees to the maids, pay some extra to the maintenance guards. Hence, they want individual home. Even I was exactly like this, the simplistic self. When I earned 1200 rupees giving tuitions, or earned 500 rupees teaching in a school in the early 90's, the father got me a savings account and trust me, I saved a good amount, used to buy small gifts for the family, T. Marrying T led me to a vision to raise the living standard, yet I could not traverse beyond a point. You will know this if you compare my home with those of our friends. "Amar poribar shoukhinotar mormo bojhena." So, you will get a chicken curry served in the   simplest of bowls at this home. This ROSHUN KANCHALANKA O GONDHORAJ LEBU DIYE MURGI is a curry with chicken I saw flooding the Bengali food groups I was part of few years back. They do not share recipes as such, few Bengali speaking food bloggers might have the recipe too, but I did it on my own.

INGREDIENTS :

CHICKEN : 1KG MEDIUM CUT [using fresh, country chicken gives the best result]
LIME LEAF : 4-5 [I used kaffir lime leaves available here]
LEMON RING : 4-5 [I used Bengal special Gondhoraj Lebu available here in the 
Bangladeshi shops]
SLICED ONION : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP [of 2 medium sized]
GARLIC PASTE : 11/2TBSP [of 1 normal sized Indian variety]
GREEN CHILLI PASTE : 2TBSP [of 7-8-10]
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2TSP + 1/2TSP
FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER POWDER : 1 TSP
LEMON / LIME JUICE : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
BAYLEAF : 1
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL - 4TBSP


PROCEDURE :

I prefer country chicken, whilst the men the fleshy, hi-breed ones. Because, I can eat only country chicken, they compromise. They even want the skin on chicken, but I cannot cook it, [shobetei ga ghulai amar.]

Anyway, wash the chicken pieces and marinate with salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric and the lemon juice. Keep aside for 1hour, I even keep it standing for 2 hours in normal temperature.

Meanwhile, we will get in hand everything else required. We will mix together the garlic+green chilli pastes+1/2tsp turmeric+salt.

Heat oil in a wok and temper with a bay leaf. Add the sliced onion and fry till golden brown.

Add the spice paste and stir fry at low heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the marinated chicken and fold in well.

Cover cook at minimal heat for 15-20 minutes. Check in between, we will not let it burn.

We will add the ground black pepper, washed lime or lemon leaves, stir for a minute and add 2 coffee mugs of water.

We will cover cook at low heat for 12-13 minutes, open cover and add the lime / lemon rings.

We will cook uncovered, at low heat for 3-4 minutes. We will switch off gas and discard the lemon / lime rings after 2-3 minutes; else the curry may turn bitter.

We had it with piping hot steamed rice with the freshly cooked chicken curry & the next day with hot chapatis. You can see, we also had "kola shaak begun diye, lau diye choto chingrir jhol, peyaz diye mushurir dal, peyaz shaak o aloo bhaja on that day."

INSTANT KHOYA O PAURUTIR MISHTI

 Those of you are following my work for a couple of years now may know that my take on home style sweets is the simplest. I do prepare  sweets & desserts on a regular basis at home but with fewer ingredients requiring less skills. Basically I lack skill, artistry,  just as I lack minimal sense of science, mathematics, good literature. I have less affinity towards learning. What I do is bypass all my shortcomings and take in hand something that suits my ability, that needs less of my sweat, skill, artistry, brain exercise. Take the example of this sweet with bread, instantly made khoya, coconut sugar, green cardamom powder, kewra water; I was so relaxed doing it! Yesterday evening, from 7:40pm to 8:45 pm I engaged myself doing this INSTANT KHOYA O PAURUTIR MISHTI. My moulds lay dormant in the dark corner of a kitchen drawer. One thing is they were not a good buy, the second is I lack patience.

Yesterday, back from my old neighbourhood with a fresh Jasmine Plant, I took shower and had food. Yes, I need three good meals a day besides that evening "cha-biskut." Else, the purpose of my life is lost. There is cooking some Thai sticky rice at this moment in a neighbourhood home; I can smell. All of a sudden I am craving for "fyana bhaat." I can do it anytime; it is a family love. The problem is I have limited amount of chinigura / kalijeera rice in stock, I do not wish to run out of it. It is unlikely that I will visit the desi neighbourhood right on 2nd June. I am planning a rice dish tonight with the ponni variety of rice, in retaliation of all those insult on an art called "biryani" [all in good humour]. If it tastes good, I shall share the picture in public, may not blog now. It is a very beautiful, cool, breezy morning. The clouds are inviting me to nowhere; I wish to be with them at this time.

On such a day I wish to go out for a long walk, let me see if I can finish quick with my blog post on this vegetarian sweet.

Yesterday, before starting with this sweet making exercise, I was in deep slumber. Most of the days I try to avoid it but yesterday I was tired walking in the sun, though had to take train way back home. The carriage got heavy; four small bottles of sugar free iced tea that particular 7-Eleven has in offer, a jasmine pot, white bread required for the sweet to be made and it was 3:30pm. I slept till 7pm, had a big "cha er dokan er biskut o cha". My biscuit stock is almost finished, the challenge is to resist myself buying them often. The brother has limited having it, then he prefers biryani after brushing his teeth. "na veg biryani te amader ruchi nei karo." Why I could sleep till late in the evening? Because I was confident that I can prepare the INSTANT KHOYA O PAURUTIR MISHTI without taking any stress. We did the vegetarian sweet with few ingredients like white bread, instant reduced milk, coconut sugar, green cardamom powder, screw pine essence. Cristine had more work after that; she had to prepare Tuna Sandwiches for the three of them. "ami korbo o na , khabo o na."

I was drinking chilled tea at 10pm and had dinner with, with, with; nothing but "badam bata, millet o tomato-shosha kuchi."

This morning, I had a noodle bowl, now feeling bloated. Thinking of going out before having millet with mutton and "shojne, aloo, beguner jhal. Walking helps me feel good, such an atmosphere should not be missed.

 Our mother loves such soupy noodles or rice bowls, fond of oriental food. The husband & wife had full fledged differences in all spheres; oriental vs moghlai, hollywood-tollywood vs bollywood-tollywood. Okay, they loved sports & reading in general. Our mother lost Shakespeare in her "shuchi bai spree." I do not allow myself that; Cristine is a necessity because I am not a "doshobhuja."

INGREDIENTS FOR THE INSTANT KHOYA / MAWA / SEMI-SOLIDIFIED MILK :

POWDERED MILK : 4-5 TBSP

FULL CREAM MILK : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER : 2TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SWEET :

THE INSTANT KHOYA / MAWA / SEMI-SOLIDIFIED MILK

BREAD SLICE : 8-10

FULL CREAM MILK : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP

COCONUT SUGAR : 4TBSP

GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1 TSP

KEWRA WATER / SCREW PINE WATER : 2-3 DROP

DRY FRUITS OR NUTS TO GARNISH!

PROCEDURE :

Cristine did cut and discard the sides of the breads which she threw before I could say anything. I then tore them and took in a blender.

 I had then added 1/2 small tea cup of liquid milk to it and blended at low power to get a paste. You must pause in between while doing so.

For the instant khoya; I mixed together the powdered milk, full cream milk and ghee / clarified butter.

I microwaved it at high for 1 minute; paused, stirred and again microwaved it at high for a minute or little less.

I had let it cool a bit and added the bread paste to it. I roughly mixed the two.

 I heated a non stick pan on stove top, added the mixture to it. I stirred it at low heat for 2-3 minutes and added the coconut sugar & green cardamom powder.

I folded in well, added the screw pine / kewra water and asked Cristine to stir it until the moisture dried 80%. This may take 7-8 minutes.

 Cristine transferred it to a plate, allowed to cool a bit. Then, I kneaded it well for 2-3 minutes.

Then I had washed and dried my hands. I applied a drop of ghee on my palms to grease.

I tore off smaller portions to shape them into simple sweets.

 Later, Cristine joined me in the venture. We will garnish the top with a choice of dried fruit or nut.

They always will taste best when eaten fresh but we have to refrigerate. My home is moody, they will have when they wish.