BEULIR DAL ER GURO DIYE HING ER KOCHURI

This was our dinner last Friday. I try to wipe clean my Saturday cooking by Friday night and only the Aloo Potol er Dalna was left on that day. I did not wish to cook any extra dish and get tired on a Friday evening when I have a good amount of cooking on a Saturday. I do not know how people cook four dishes in forty five minutes, I or the family I come from cannot. For us cutting of the vegetables require hours; be it "mocha, echor, kochu shaak, thor, potol." "Guchiye Ranna" runs in the family and I cannot get out of it. Till date, our mother cooks two vegetables, one dal, a non-vegetarian curry for the day. The brother does not want to repeat for dinner what he ate for lunch. So I ask the mother to cook a few dishes on a day; say over the weekend given Bhai has become a pro when it comes to buying raw vegetables & meat, fish and she need not have to go to the market in the morning. The problem is she is getting irritated being jailed at home, she loves her freedom.

When the mother was here last year, she complained how she hates sitting idle all day. We know she does. I keep telling her to cook on Saturdays & Sundays and enjoy gardening rest of the days. Since childhood, I have seen she hates cooking in the evenings. Even at this home, what we eat for lunch is not served at night. Our mother does not like anyone else cutting the vegetables for her; size matters, cuts matter to her. After her late afternoon shower for the second time, she does not like soiling and cleaning again her kitchen counter; retires to her room, switches on the television and sleeps. If the daughter-in-law is at home, she does all the work for the evening, mani says. The problem is she alone has to take care of her parents too, juggling between two homes has become very tough for her; not everyone can employ a couple of helps for the aging parents. What I wish to tell both my mother & sister-in-law is that take a shift from "luchi, porota, aloor porota" and try such easy to go desi breads, a literally hand made beuli / urad dal / skinned & slit Black lentil fried puffed bread BEULIR DAL ER GURO DIYE HING ER KOCHURI; that is a vegetarian puffed bread with powdered black lentil, the dough flavoured with asafoetida, it is that simple.

I will call it Bengali because after eating it, I felt the Dakshineswar temple ground shops sell something similar but there definitely have refined flour in their dough. The entire Kolkata sells similar tasting pooris / puffed breads in the roadside stalls. I was finding it difficult to roll them with a rolling pin; the dough was tight, yet. The texture was not right according to me, felt soggy after I had fried three of them. Then I felt let me use my palms & fingers and I got them, Cristine too used her palms. The trick for their fluffier selves was me constantly splashing oil on top of each poori while frying them at low heat. Actually my bori / vadi / sun-dried lentil dumplings with the readymade urad dal powder were not satisfactory. What to do with the rest of the flour? I did these Bengali style vegetarian puffed bread BEULIR DAL ER GURO DIYE HING ER KOCHURI.

INGREDIENTS :

POWDERED BEULIR DAL / URAD DAL / BLACK LENTIL : 2 COFFEE MUG
SEMOLINA : 1/2 MEDIUM TEA CUP
ASAFOETIDA / HING POWDER : 1/4 TSP
SALT : 1/4 TSP
OIL : 3TBSP + 2TBSP + 100-150ML TO DEEP FRY

PROCEDURE :

Take the dal / lentil flour, semolina, aesafoetida  and salt in a bowl. Mix together well.

Add 2-3 tbsp oil to it and rub well for 2-3 minutes.

Add water little by little and prepare a dough which will take some 7-8 minutes. Add 2tbsp of oil and knead again for 3-4 minutes.

Keep covered for over an hour. Open cover, knead it again for 2-3 minutes and tear off smaller portions. Smoothen it between your palms.

Take each on your washed & clean left palm, flatten lightly with your washed right hand finger.

Heat about 100-150 ml or as required for deep frying each bread in a wok, not to smoking point. I add each bread at a time, I am not a pro.

Keep splashing oil from the sides on top of the bread, it automatically fluffs up in 30 seconds. Turn over and place on to tissue paper before serving.

I served it hot with a Bengali Pointed Gourd & Potato Curry; you can serve it with any curry, sauce, chutney. If invited, I would want to have it with the chutney that the kolkata roadside stalls do with stale rasgulla syrup; tamarind & red chilli flakes or a dry roasted spice powder.

MURGIR MANGSHOR KHICHURI

For the past two months I had been wanting to share this recipe with my readers; it was just not happening. Manghshor Khichuri / Rice & Lentil Hotchpotch with meat is definitely not a family thing; our family always have prepared vegetarian khichuri and served it with semi dry vegetable preparations & fries, fritters. Only in the recent years, I have known Khichuri can be made non-vegetarian too. Many Indian & South Asian Homes prepare this wholesome meal as part of their lunch or dinner deal. The good thing is we do not need to cook anything else if we are doing this Bengali style, gluten free, non-vegetarian rice & lentil hotchpotch with chicken MURGIR MANGSHOR KHICHURI.

I am feeling too lethargic since morning. Somedays I feel such, reason can be as stupid as my bowel system not working well for two days. This happens with idle brains. Why is it so when I ate bread & buns everyday, my weight was less than now when I am not eating them for a week. I will however eat a coffee cream stuffed bread bun with my tea now. Off course, the dry cake & "modon kotkoti" biscuits caused this weight gain. They are sensuous addiction, there are so many of such loves I sacrifice each day; puff pastries, sugar toast that the island make or the varieties that come from Bangladesh; Karachi Cookies of Hyderabad. Yet weight management never makes friends with me. May be because I ate a bit of rice with hilsa curry or bit more of millet than usual. Frustration crawls towards a food loving soul.

Life to me cannot be a dry toast and bowls of salad with plain yogurt every day. Neither, frustration be allowed to breed. A sixteen year old girl, popular in social media commits suicide. Do not I feel like slapping her? Did you think suicide will get you more popularity post death; your death will be romanticised, speculated, given an honourable status? I really want to ask her. At any given point, why cannot we think we live better than crores of our fellow beings? Because I am so unable to eat clean and exercise hard to get a happier self, I find happiness in other things. I wake up to my indoor plants every morning. They are arranged in the bedroom window pane in the time being for some growth. I got a tulsi plant again yesterday. Changed the set up outside our main door. My micro mini garden is much damaged due to continuous rain, wind, fungal infections. They do not flower; yet I do not lose hope; one expires, I keep adding to the family.

There is no stopping to live until life naturally comes to an end. Then, I have my kitchen kingdom which I keep busy all the time; this not at all a family dish with chicken, rice, red lentil MURGIR MANGSHOR KHICHURI is also a product of my kitchen. I have seen shares made around but cooked it using my own ideas.

INGREDIENTS :

CHICKEN : 500GM MEDIUM CUT
RICE : 1/3 COFFEE MUG [ANY NORMAL VARIETY, I USED PONNI]
RED LENTIL / MASOOR DAL : 1/2 COFFEE MUG
CHOPPED TOMATO : 1 SMALL TEA CUP
SLICED ONION : 1 MEDIUM CUP
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 3-4
GINGER PASTE : 2TSP
GARLIC PASTE : 1TBSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1TSP
LEMON JUICE : 3-4TBSP
CINNAMON STICK : 1 INCH STICK TWO OR THREE
GREEN CARDAMOM : 2-3
CLOVE : 2-3
CUMIN SEED : 1/4TSP
BAY LEAF : 1+1
DRY RED CHILLI : 2-3 HALVED
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 4TBSP + 1TBSP

PROCEDURE : 

Take the rice and red lentil / masoor dal in a heavy bottomed vessel and wash thoroughly. Add about 3 coffee mugs of water and keep soaked for an hour.

Wash the chicken pieces, boneless or bone on; drain the water and marinate with little salt, turmeric and lemon juice. Keep aside for an hour.

In a bowl prepare a spice paste with the ginger garlic pastes, little salt & turmeric, the cumin & coriander powders, red chilli powder adding 2tbsp of water.

On one burner, put the vessel with rice & dal and cover 80%. Cook at minimal heat, stir every 5 minutes, add little water if required to keep it runny. When half 70% boiled, add little salt, turmeric & the washed and slitted green chillies. Once done, switch off the gas top.

In the smaller burner, place a wok. Heat 3tbsp oil and temper with a bay leaf, the cinnamon sticks, green cardamoms & cloves.

Add the washed, sliced onions and stir fry till golden brown.

Add the spice paste now and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the washed and chopped tomatoes and stir cook until they melt.

Add the marinated chicken and fold in well. Cover cook at minimal heat for 10 minutes.

Open cover and check if water has released or not. Add a medium tea cup of water if otherwise. 

Fold in well and cover cook again at minimal heat for 12-15 minutes, checking in between.

Add the cooked rice and lentil now and fold in everything well. Add a coffee mug of water, mix and cook at low heat for 5 minutes or so. Switch off the gas stove.

In another pan, heat 1tbsp of oil, temper with a bay leaf, cumin seeds and halved dry red chillies, add it to the khichdi / hotchpotch / khichudi and fold in well.

We are done! I served it with "chak chak aloo bhaja or beguni" / ringed potato fries & batter fried egg plants. You can just manage with "papor bhaja."

TIL ER NARU

There was a huge feeling of satisfaction doing them yesterday. I was very poor with this particular ladoo with roasted white sesame seeds, jaggery, cardamom powder and a bit of sugar. Yes, it requires exactly those few ingredients, the real trick is the ratio of the jaggery & roasted white sesame, the right consistency of the cooked jaggery. Each time I was trying, I was failing at this point. Either I was adding too much of water to the jaggery or overcooking the mixture which turned crumbly on cooling. Yesterday too I was heading towards a similar fate but I was desperate to get the homemade sweet right. At one point, I felt miserable; won't I be ever able to get that sticky mixture so easy to form balls with? I thought.

Just before going to depression; all of a sudden I remember, I saw the family further beating the roasted white sesame in "hamandista", a very heavy iron mortar & pestle(?) This perhaps helps the sesame oil to release and bind together with the cooked jaggery well. Okay, I do not have a proper mortar & pestle and the useful memory did not strike in time; in the last lap before losing hope for one more time I pulsed the mixture for few minutes in the mixer and we got the right amount of sticky consistency first in my life. Thereafter, turning them onto homely Bengali, vegan, gluten free sweet meat with roasted white sesame seeds & jaggery TIL ER NARU was a cake walk.

I think the family has to do something here. I have noticed the very expert homemakers in my family are not so good with this particular homely sweet meat. The best were done in other homes. Then too, now too I think they may have expertise in homely, Bengali cooking, but making of this sweet & the setting of plain yogurt had not been so great in their hands. I remember the maternal grandmother's yogurt seemed more like butter milk; well I did not know what buttermilk is at that age; only have it in the recent years & enjoy too. Our mother sets better yogurt, its a regular at home. Shop bought yogurt in Kolkata or Bengal is not contributory towards good health; it is bought as a dessert which I consider the ultimate in dessert porn.

Its raining again, I do not like continuous rain, it causes more of depression in me. More because the wind and rain tend to damage my little of greens.

I believe sunshine gets us bountiful of happiness. We are getting it in the afternoon time for a small period. I am feeling more awkward today because the senior had to leave for office at 7am, I woke up at 7:18 am. I saw a coffee cup in the kitchen sink and his astray and knew he made his own tea or coffee and left in silence. Making his own tea or coffee is not a problem but I want to say a "tata" to him every day, as did to the father until the day before marriage. He was supposed to work from home this week but there was a change of plan. Something is special there and he is not carrying food either. Actually, I wake up around 3:30am, then go for a sleep again; today it was deep and I was in bed till late. He could have called me. I keep praying to my God to get some normalcy to my men; yesterday it was with something between moong dal halwa & payasam and pears; it was the occasion of Rath Yatra.

The vegan, gluten free Bengali sweet meat with roasted white sesame, jaggery TIL ER NARU could not be offered to God as it was cooked in regular utensils I use for cooking fish, meat, eggs for us. I am not a liberal soul as such, may be God is extraterrestrial to me?

INGREDIENTS :

WHITE SESAME SEED : 100-150GM
JAGGERY : 50GM
SUGAR : 2 TSP
CARDAMOM POWDER : 1/2 TSP
GHEE OR OIL : 3-4 DROP TO GREASE THE PALMS

PROCEDURE :

Here is how white sesame seed looks like.

Heat  a pan on gas top. Add the white sesame seeds and keep stirring to roast them. We will keep the heat at low and this exercise may take some 7-8 minutes.

We will transfer the roasted white sesame seed to a plate. 

We will add the jaggery and 2tbsp water to the pan and set the heat at minimal. Adding more water may spoil the game. We can sprinkle little if required. Breaking the jaggery chunks further in a mortar & pestle is good. 

When the jaggery chunks melt completely and get stickier, we will add the cardamom powder and sugar and keep stirring for a minute or two.

We will  add the roasted white sesame seeds now and stir to mix. We will take down; further cooking may turn it crumbly when cool making it difficult to form balls. I have learnt it from errors made.

Store it on a plate to cool. We have to shape balls while it's still warm. Fearing burns, I was perhaps a bit late and was facing problem after doing 2-3 of them.

Before going to depression with another round of failure; I used the mixer to pulse them for 1-2 minutes. Perhaps it helped release some sesame oil which got me a sticky consistency just perfect for round, shapely sesame balls. Grease your palms with ghee or oil before shaping.

Cristine gave the final finish, a smoother look.

They taste the best when eaten fresh but I have to refrigerate, my moody men eat when they wish to.

BUTTER TOSSED CHIREY BHAJA IN MICROWAVE

If I say I am feeling cold sitting in a tropical island in the month of June, I am not joking. The fan is switched off and I have wrapped myself in a bed spread. My "bori" batch is going to spoil, its raining for fifteen days now. I started off with the blog post late; the man is working from home today and I have no tension to finish off quick or whatever. For this freedom, I cook all day on Saturdays. None in the family apply this theory of mine, neither did I do so whilst my stay in Kolkata much. The son was young then. Now I do. Until Thursday, it will be just taking out at least three dishes for lunch and dinner each; cook rice or breads and eat. For breakfast, I keep buying and baking stuffs, do instant idli, appe, etc. The problem is to feed the senior breakfast on a weekday. If he is served mango, he still eats but I did not get mango this week; only litchi, dragon fruit, pear. The fun thing is if we had packed these same fruits and a cake in his snack box, he would have eaten but he has to skip breakfast whilst at home. The son is having luchi / puffed bread, fruit yogurt & dragon fruit.

I so fail to understand the senior till date. What I know well is I cannot repeat one thing more that two to three times; in that case he starts yelling at you. I tell him had it been these "new age girls", they would have not only seek a divorce but had gotten various other charges against you. Leave that. What got my concern is my addiction towards bread varieties for breakfast for the past several months which may not have proved good for my health. I will not spend extra bucks or go and hunt for keto bread. For the past two, three days, I had been trying to eat less and a bit healthy. This morning, I made this vegetarian, snack meal using just one bowl. Because I am a true heart Bengali, I enjoy beaten or flattened rice more than oats. Instead of frying, I roast or toast them in microwave adding a tea spoon of butter. I named it BUTTER TOSSED CHIREY BHAJA IN MICROWAVE.  Chirey is beaten rice in Bengali.

I have so many food photos with me whose recipe I wish to share with you. Then I must go by my whims. I wanted this easy to make snack to go to the blog today, I did. It takes few minutes you know, that too in a bowl. Thereafter, you can see I had it and dragon fruit for my breakfast.

Truly it feels less guilty. I just cannot skip meals neither do I think it is good for the body to do it. Last night I went to sleep thinking to have a fruit bowl this morning. Then I got skeptical if fruits & tea shall gel well. Actually, I research less, so never does comment on what is beyond my knowledge or capacity. What I can say is beaten rice may be just another form of rice, hence loaded with carb but I do not think it is too bad to have it in this form. We are not frying it in oil or took time to roast it in a wok on stove top. We can just add a tea spoon of butter, the rest of the cooking the microwave will do. We can add our choice of dry fruits & nuts to this easy snack BUTTER TOSSED CHIREY BHAJA IN MICROWAVE. I added walnut, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, raisins, roasted green peas.

INGREDIENTS :

BEATEN / FLATTENED RICE : 50GM
BUTTER : 1TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED TO SPRINKLE
BLACK PEPPER : 1/4TSP
DRY FRUITS & NUTS, SEEDS OF YOUR CHOICE, GREEN PEAS TO ADD

PROCEDURE : 

Take the beaten rice & butter in a microwave proof bowl.

Microwave at minimal heat for 30 seconds.

Take out and mix well.

Microwave at the lowest heat for a minute. Take out and add the broken nuts.

Mix well and microwave again at the minimal heat for 30 seconds.

Take out and add the salt & black pepper.

Mix well the entire thing and microwave again at the minimal heat for 30 seconds. Take out and add raisins, seeds, fried or roasted green peas, etc.

Have it with tea or coffee while it is still warm.

JHINGE PEYAZ DIYE MAKHAMAKHA KAJOLI

Kajoli is a much loved fish variety in both sides of my family. I checked the wiki and see it is called Gangetic Ailia / Ailia Coila in English. It is majorly found and eaten in the Indian Subcontinent. It is perhaps heading towards it's extinct, why not? There is a major shift amidst the new age Bengalis themselves to go for a quick curry with big, fat, less boney oily variety of fish or chicken or egg curry rather than to sit with cleaning a smaller variety of fish, rubbing the spices all over, cutting properly the vegetables to go with it. The later kinds are not kids' choice friendly either, so I cannot blame the mothers of not doing such kind of dishes often. Who has time today, people multitask. I accept that part. What worries me is that these homely, traditional dishes are vanishing from the scenario. That should not happen is what I feel. Keep the tradition alive at some corner of your heart, cook them once a month or once in two months.

Such dishes like this JHINGE PEYAZ DIYE MAKHAMAKHA KAJOLI is a gluten-free, non-vegetarian, Bengali fish recipe with a smaller variety of freshwater cat fish Kajoli / Gangetic Ailia, Ridge Gourd, Onion and very few spices. In my side of the family they do not always fry a fresh, smaller variety of fish; they marinate everything together, temper the heated oil and cook it slow covered without using water. They eat deep fried, smaller variety of fish though. In the in-law's side, they deep fry any smaller variety of fish and cook it with a couple of vegetables including potato. I have already shared one or two smaller variety of fish recipe as done in both sides of the family in the blog earlier, let me add one more. Actually Bele Maach, another smaller variety of fish is done this way more in our family; when I get to blog about it, I will search the english name for bele.

Yesterday, I went to the Indian Market to get some homely, near to the heart stuffs. It is still risky; yet I went and it was worth it. I got hilsa & rohu, I got pointed gourd perhaps after 7-8 months, fresh drumsticks too. I am happy. So what if the son does not enjoy these kind of dishes, I try my best so that he does not give up altogether. He enjoys crispy, batter fried smaller variety of fish. I do that and serve; to lessen my work, I will not cook a big pot of chicken curry and serve him everyday. That he enjoys Bombay Duck bharta & pakora, dried fish, banana blossom veggies & fritter, stuffed pointed gourd is because I did not give up. At a younger age, I also did not like a fish dish with a smaller variety like this JHINGE PEYAZ DIYE MAKHAMAKHA KAJOLI, now I crave for it. Good that we live in an Asian hub where we get similar variety of small sized fishes and I keep recreating traditional recipes with them. I firmly believe, one day the son will stop and look back, will take interest in his own culture; to be otherwise is so very wrong, utterly disgusting. I definitely do not have such acute problem with the man, he grew up in a very Bengali environment. He never ever denied his identity nor tried to prove what he is not. He loves his "ilish, katla, aar, manghso, deem" & Hemanta, Manna, western music, films, news channels all in the same length & breadth.

INGREDIENTS :

KAJOLI / GANGETIC AILIA / ANY VARIETY OF SMALL FISH : 400-500GM
RIDGE GOURD  : 1 SMALL OR 1/4 OF THE GIANT SIZED WE GET HERE
ONION : 1BIG
GREEN CHILLI : 5-6
RED CHILLI POWDER : 2 TSP [CHOOSE AS PER YOUR HEAT TOLERANCE]
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP
NIGELLA SEED / KALOJEEREY / KALONJI : 1/4 TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 1 TBSP + 3 TBSP [WE USE MUSTARD]

PROCEDURE :

This fish is very soft, single boned. It is not at all a problem to eat the bone, who will tell my son? If we cook it without frying, they tend to break; so soft they are. 

We need only our fingers to clean the stomach of each fish. If you want, you can cut the tail end a bit.

Now wash them gently and drain the water. 

Peel, cut half the ridge gourd / jhinge and further into strips length wise. Wash them.

Peel and wash the onion and slice it thin. Wash and slit the green chillies.

Add the washed ridge gourd strips, sliced onion, slitted green chillies and add to the bowl of fish.

Add the turmeric, salt as required, red chilli powder and 1tbsp of lightly heated oil, mustard oil preferably.

Rub well and marinate everything together. Keep aside for 12-15 minutes.

Heat 3 tbsp oil in a wok and temper with nigella seeds / kalojeerey.  Add the marinated fish that has ridge gourd, green chillies and onion along with the marinade.

Cover cook at minimal heat for 7-8 minutes. Open the cover, lightly fold in and cover cook at minimal heat for another five minutes. We should be done.

It only goes with piping hot steamed rice. One can try with millet too.

PEPE ALOOR SHUKTO

This is that light, soupy, vegan curry I have been wanting to blog about for long now. It was just not happening. I do not know how authentic Bengali it is, if other Bengali Homes do it or not. It used to be done in our family every week throughout the summer. I am a very disorganised person. I could have asked the mother at least yesterday if this vegetarian curry was done in their family or in our father's side or she had learnt it from any parent in our school. I call her, then forget to ask what is required. Now if I call, she will not take calls. In the mornings, she is busy with "jharu-pocha, gate e jol, snan, shokal er pujo, gachey jol." After mid-afternoon, she gets free. The major problem with her is her mania for cleanliness. Else, with two part-time helps, she need not overwork. Just now I have learnt a word that perfectly describes our mother, "fastidious."

So many times I try to tell her to be less judgmental and be thankful. She still expects me to do "mani-mani" all the time as before; how is it possible? I have a husband, a boy; they are my responsibilities, love. Love gets distributed proportionately; it's natural! I cannot be her; with only "baap er bari" on her mind. I know she is just waiting for the train services to resume and will risk life to travel in the Sealdah main line. I may sound selfish, our grandmother got sores cradling me. Then, one has to understand I have a family now and love & affection is learnt, gotten by inheritance and executed. "ja pelam, ja shikhlam, ta amar agami ke diye jabo." The baton is passed on naturally.

I never deny where I come from, my roots, the womb that nurtured me; that quality sperm that never will allow me to be dishonest, wrong the people. I just cannot satisfy her expectation level; I express my gratitude towards them through the recipes I cook and share. This light, soupy, non-spicy, vegetarian, vegan curry with raw papaya & potato, white sesame seed PEPE ALOOR SHUKTO is one such tribute to the family repertoire. The mother does it with poppyseed paste / posto bata which is banned in this island.

Whichever society I come from; I have always believed and maintained that post marriage, both the boy and the girl should build a separate home for themselves and take utmost care of both homes without any discrimination. I have always hated this concept of "cheler bari meyer barir mathar opor thakbey." Let us ease the situation or may be I am going to put you in a soup! You can keep wondering for the entire day & week; "how an overweight woman at 50 can eat four, carb filled meals in a day?" Okay, I really can. Yesterday, the man did not go to the office, he had a headache. We packed his lunch box with four flatbreads & chicken. I do not let them eat cold food if at home. So, I had two parathas with mango achar for breakfast, he had a mango bowl that went into his snack box.

For lunch, I had "shabu makha", sagoo+mango+banana+coconut+milk+little amount of sugar. I had a toasted bread with a piece of chicken too. They had paratha & chicken.

Around 6:30pm, I wished to have some outside snacks. Cristine got two salty buns for the son and we shared half & half of a salty bun & potato curry puff which is similar to samosa. The man will have nothing with tea, snack he has only when there are guests at home.

Thereafter, which middle-aged will have dinner? I had. Our dinner was mutton kosha and this light, vegan curry with raw papaya & potato, roasted white sesame seed paste PEPE ALOOR SHUKTO. It did not remain soupy anymore, may be the potatoes did not let it. I had them with pearl millet, they with fine basmati. I must have a bowlful of dal for lunch today.

Today, I felt I must put a check on the food intake, having oats appe made by Cristine in little amount of ghee. After having six of them, I want more! May have two biscuits.

Anyway, the plating you see is not totally fake. I mean I can have the vegetarian curry with rice, but I need a "rui-katla bhaja ba duto charapona bhaja" to have it happily. The men too must have a fish or meat curry of their choice to have it. Neither, our mother dared to serve it without fish or meat.

INGREDIENTS :

RAW PAPAYA : A SMALL SIZED OR 1/2 OF A STANDARD SIZED
POTATO : 1 MEDIUM SIZED
WHITE SESAME SEED : 2 TSP [YOU CAN USE POPPYSEED IF ALLOWED AT YOUR PLACE]
TURMERIC POWDER : A PINCH
RADHUNI / AJMOD: 3-4 PINCH [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 my family; some called it wild celery seed, I took it, now WIKI says it is this]

BAYLEAF : 1 SMALL
SALT : AS REQUIRED
SUGAR : 1TSP
OIL : 2TSP

PROCEDURE :

Discard the two ends of the raw papaya, cut half and peel off. Cut further and thinly cut off the inner line, likewise the seeds. Throw the seeds in  potted soil.

Cube them small. Peel off the potato. Cut half and further, get cubes a little bigger than that of the raw papaya.


Take them in two separate bowls and wash. Marinate with little of salt.

Now dry roast the white sesame seeds, take in a strainer and wash. Thereafter, prepare a paste of it adding a little water.

We have to be very careful about the amount of sesame & ajmod used, they tend to add bitterness to a dish.

Heat oil in a wok and temper with the ajmod & the bay leaf. Add the marinated raw papaya. 

Add a pinch of turmeric and stir well, reduce the heat to the minimal and cover. Cook until the raw papaya cubes are 50% done.

Add the marinated potatoes now and cook covered at minimal heat for 3-4 minutes.

Open cover, add the roasted white sesame seed paste, sugar, a little of salt and fold in well.

Add a coffee mug of water and cover cook at low heat for 5-6 minutes. 

We have it with rice, it should go with chapati too.