BEGUN ALOO DIYE SEA BASS ER JHAL

Sea Bass comes regular at this home ever since we relocated to this island from Kolkata. In Kolkata, we hardly ate Bhetki; the nearest family member of sea bass or barramundi. They say they are almost same but not totally same. Whilst in Kolkata, bhetki fillets used to come home occasionally for fish fries to be made. I think we have talked about it in my earlier blog posts. Here sea bass is found in abundance; very fresh and of good quality. We get it here in baby form, in sizes ranging from 500gm-750gm-800gm and very big sized above 3kg to 6-7kg, as I have noticed in the past ten years. Because it is a fleshy, less boned fish; my men are all game for it. They definitely would want me to get those big sized and store in the freezer, have for days just as we do with "rui-katla" / bigger sized Bengal Carps.

I, at all times cannot give in to the wishes of my men; though they are not at all demanding. I have a problem with cooking regularly fishes those of which smell, those I am not fond of or I am not used to eating since childhood. That is why for doing any fish curry with a pomfret or sea bass kind of fish, I buy in less quantity, cook and have fresh. When it comes to sea bass, I either buy the baby ones or a 600-700-800 gm sized, very fresh. This non-vegetarian Bengali Fish Curry with sea bass / bhetki / barramundi BEGUN ALOO DIYE SEA BASS ER JHAL ; that is sea bass curry with egg plant & potato using green chilli-mustard paste is done with a very fresh, medium sized sea bass. The same fish curry can be done using bhetki / barramundi too; I actually do not find any difference between them.

The more the senior of the men's returning date to the island is approaching, I am again into weird kind of thoughts.  Off course, I will be happy to be with him; but more than my happiness; our boy's safety and security is important to me. He will be in a very safe and secured environment but a mother's fear knows no bounds. I sit all day and think, think and think nonsense, endlessly. I wish we could stay in the same city as his. Yesterday, I was all alone post afternoon, to get some respite from the thoughts, I stretched my eyes through the horizon and froze that moment.

And this morning, I woke up to these bitter gourd saplings.

I have started liking to eat it but I could not have thought of growing bitter gourd plant at home. My men are travelling, they do not eat it except that the son eats crispy fried bitter gourds; they have no interest in gardening. Then who? Ahh! Cristine! She says that in Philippines; they eat bitter gourd leaves & green moong soupy curry. Okay done! At this home, we respect each other's wishes. Like, I will never force my men to have "puti maach"; neither they would ever stop me from cooking and eating it. Today, all day I have been day dreaming of "gorom bhaat with borshakaal er dim bhora puti maach er tetul tok". That is what happens when you do not visit Kolkata for over a year. For now I will satisfy myself with the tail end piece of that sea bass; gladly the curry, egg plants & potatoes with some hot rice. My men, Cristine always love the fleshy stomach pieces from this non-vegetarian, Bengali Fish Curry BEGUN ALOO DIYE SEA BASS ER JHAL.

INGREDIENTS :

SEA BASS / BHETKI / BARRAMUNDI : 6-8 PIECES
EGGPLANT : 2-3 SMALL SIZED
POTATO : 1 MEDIUM SIZED
BLACK MUSTARD SEED : 1 TBSP
GREEN CHILLI : 5-6
GARLIC CLOVE : 1
SALT : AS REQUIRED
ICE CUBE : 2-3 
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP
NIGELLA SEED / KALO JEEREY : 1/4 TSP
OIL : 4-5 TBSP [ FOR US IT IS MUSTARD OIL]


PROCEDURE :

Wash the fish pieces thoroughly; they should be cut pieces from a fresh fish; frozen fish may not give you the desired taste. Rub well with little salt & turmeric.

Soak the mustard seeds in water for an hour.

If the eggplants are small, cut off the stem end and just half; if little bigger, cut each into 4 pieces. Wash and soak in water.

Cut the potato into cubes. I do not always throw off the skin. Soak in water.

We will marinate the potato & eggplant pieces with little salt & turmeric only 3-4 minutes before frying them, else they get black spots on them.

Heat oil in the wok and lightly fry the potatoes first. Take out. Now fully fry the eggplant pieces and reserve on a plate.

Fry the fish pieces light brown. Do not over fry. Take out.

While doing the frying part; we will strain the soaked mustard seeds and put it in the blender along with the washed green chillies, garlic cloves, salt, ice cubes. We will blend all to a fine paste pausing in between.

[Salt & ice cubes do not let the paste get bitter!]

We will temper the oil with the nigella seeds. Add the chilli-mustard paste and 1/4 small tea cup of water. Add the remaining turmeric powder.

We will stir for a minute and add the lightly fried potatoes. We will add 11/2 coffee mugs of water and give a stir.

Then, we need to cover cook at low heat for 5 minutes. We have to open the cover and add the fish pieces.

We have to cover cook at low heat for 3 minutes. Then, we will uncover, turn over the fish pieces, adjust the salt, add the fried eggplant pieces and few slitted green chillies.

Now, let us cook covered at low heat for 2 minutes. Let us switch off the gas oven.

We will serve hot with plain rice. We also had on the side palonger dal / spinach lentil curry; til bata diye jhinge aloo / ridge gourd and potato in sesame paste; begun aloo diye palong shaak on that day.

ECHORER KALIA

I was all set to blog about a Garbanzo Beans & Minced Meat dish today. Then a death news jeopardised all my plan, I felt let me not do a non-vegetarian share today, let me pay homage to the departed soul of an aunty like with a vegetarian dish. I do not know if I can call this vegetarian side dish with raw jackfruit, good amount of spices, cashew nuts, raisins authentic Bengali or not. But yes, this "kalia" kind of curries indeed was made in our families with big sized Bengal Carp varieties occasionally, even earlier in the grandparent's home. I live it to the more learned to decide, let me share this Bengali Vegetarian Side recipe with raw jackfruit & dry fruits ECHORER KALIA; worthy of doing on an all vegetarian day and serve either with a pulao or fried rice as you see in the pictures or with any variety of hand made bread. It even may go with toasted breads. Some may remember it was a part of my tribute to our father's third death anniversary who was 74 at the time of his death.

About the person who left the world for the heavenly abode, we have a thin thread like childhood connection; I came to know about it only when her elder daughter got married to my man's higher secondary school's friend. Both her daughters stay abroad; the elder one in the Sugar Land area and the younger one in Canada. The elderly couple lived in Kolkata. The worst I felt is that the day before was her elder daughter's birthday, they might had a talk over phone. Even though we know such news are inevitable when our parents age, we are never prepared for it. There are birthdays, anniversaries around but this death had to have a mention.

Her elder daughter, who also happens to be our sister like had been helping my man all this while with valuable informations; where to buy stuffs from, what are the necessary buys for a hostel life, etc. Although we got a list from the university, where to get them at the right price was very necessary for my man to know. She called us, offered help and with her suggestions; they bought the stuffs. This was a big help in a land about which we do not know much; I am more concerned about it's ferocious winter, how the son would cope up with it. To pay a tribute to the girls' mother's departed soul, I could not have possibly gone ahead with a non-vegetarian share. Okay, we do have fish whilst we mourn but I preferred to share a Bengali Vegetarian Side dish with young jackfruit ECHORER KALIA today in the blog. If you skip adding the ghee, it becomes gluten-free. If you skip adding the ghee and yogurt, it becomes vegan, I guess. If served with rice dishes, my men would need a deep fried fish piece or tandoori chicken beside it; if served with naan or kulcha or porota; they can settle for a vegetarian meal one evening!

INGREDIENTS :

RAW / YOUNG JACKFRUIT : A STANDARD SIZED
CASHEW NUT : 8-10 HALVED
RAISIN : 10-15
PLAIN YOGURT : 1 SMALL TEA CUP
CHOPPED TOMATO : 1 MEDIUM SIZED TEA CUP
SLICED ONION : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP
GINGER PASTE : 2TBSP
GARLIC PASTE : 2 TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 2 TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 2 TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP
CINNAMON POWDER : 1/2 TSP
GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1/2 TSP
CLOVE POWDER : 3-4 PINCH
CINNAMON STICK : 1 INCH SIZED THREE
GREEN CARDAMOM : 2-3
CLOVE : 3-4
BAY LEAF : 1
CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
SUGAR : 1TSP+1TSP
GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER : 1 TBSP
OIL : 4-5 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

If we are buying a whole raw jackfruit, de-skinning is really an ordeal because it's skin is very thick and hard. I usually buy skinless, fresh raw jackfruit we get in the wet market here. On that particular day, I got a whole one. You can see how tough it was for our help to get rid of the skin with a knife; we cannot use "boti."

In most places these days, they cut of the skin for you and sell. I suggest you to get that and then dress.

After cutting off the skin, we had cut it into 4 pieces.

We had then cut off the very hard, inedible mid-section from each piece.

We had to cut them into smaller cubes then. If there are a bit matured seeds; we need to take out each seed and throw off the thin, yellow coverage. But this jackfruit was too young.

You can see, we had taken the pieces in a water filled bowl, washed them and again filled it with water. We had covered and kept soaked for few hours.

We had added some salt and turmeric to the water filled bowl and put it for boil at low heat, covered 80%.

When they boiled 70% to 75%, we took them on a strainer / colander.

We had let the boiled jackfruit pieces to cool. Meanwhile we had washed the chopped tomatoes and sliced onions. 

We had taken together the ginger+garlic pastes, cumin+coriander+red chilli+turmeric powders+salt in a bowl. We added 2 tbsp of water and mixed together to get a paste.

We had beaten the plain yogurt and sugar together. We had halved the cashew nuts and washed them. We had also washed and soaked the raisins.

We had heated the oil in a wok and tempered it with cumin seeds, bay leaf, green cardamom seeds, cinnamon sticks and cloves.

We had added the sliced onions now.

We fried them at low heat until golden brown and added the cashew nuts.

We had then added the spice paste and chopped tomatoes and kept stir frying for 4-5 minutes at very low heat.

Thereafter, we added the beaten yogurt and stir cooked at low heat for a minute or two.

Then we had added the boiled pieces of raw jackfruit and folded in well. We stir cooked it for 5-6 minutes.

Thereafter, we had added 2 coffee mugs of water and cover cooked it for 7-8 minutes at low heat.

Then we had removed the cover and added the raisins, 1tsp sugar, cinnamon+cardamom+cloves powders. 

We gave a stir and allowed the curry to boil for 5-6 minutes more. Its done. 

We had  added the clarified butter / ghee, and transferred it to a serving bowl.

We can serve it hot with rice and bread varieties.

MULTIGRAIN ATTA NIMKI

After over a week, I got back to writing a blog post. I would have started next week, then tomorrow starts "Ganesh Utsav", many Indians would worship Lord Ganesha for few days starting tomorrow. I felt, I have to have my contribution in the celebration. Its only a week my beloved men left home, I just cannot get you a dry fruit loaded sweet to prepare and offer it to your lord. Then, the question arises who will eat them? I try to restrict my sugar intake, I would prefer to indulge into having the pleasure of "Teh Tarik" and "Coffee with Milk & Sugar." If you had seen my "Janmashtami" Platter, I  tried to make a cut on the sweets I offer. My mother-in-law may say a new born baby cannot have nimki, yet. If we believe Gods have supernatural powers, young Ganesha or Ladoo too can manage the vegetarian fried snack MULTIGRAIN ATTA NIMKI.

In this homemade, snack item; I have used very few ingredients; multigrain flour, oil, salt, carom seeds, baking powder. Butter or Ghee would have imparted a great aroma but I did not use them, I though very much wished to use Ghee / Clarified Butter. They were good, I am having them with tea or coffee or just like that. That is the whole idea of getting some change in the menu list of my offerings to the God Family on any special prayer meet days. I am growing old with diabetes, hypothyroidism and a tendency towards a higher level of cholesterol. I do not invite a couple of families on such days for two reasons; I have stopped mingling with some and I have space crunch. I cannot entertain people who unnecessarily pinch you.

There are homes where every weekend food went, sent with love and care. People at that home if say they cannot have my food and make every attempt to tell me they are Brahmins and think only Brahmins should cook for the God Family, I should draw the boundary at some point. They never said a no when boxes full of "khichuri-labra" went from my home to their's. How will I know if they had thrown off my food or not; I will not allow any disrespect shown to my genuine effort. I never felt they cook any special, quality food during any puja being a Brahmin. I have the decency not to say anything straight on face but I will not allow people to cross the boundary; they are not my family that I have to tolerate. I do not like people who mince words. I do not use slang, what I can say is "get lost and learn to behave."

Anyway, this deep fried, vegetarian snack MULTIGRAIN ATTA NIMKI can be good enough to offer to the God Family. Bengalis do not usually make such offers but I enjoy watching the rest of India offering lemon rice to pakoras to nimkis during any festival. I have to follow those ideas. I totally love "chirey-khoi er murki", "murir moya" as an offering but I have to eat them all for a week after the prayer meet is over. I cannot take that risk at this time. Life will continue to be good if the son can study uninterrupted, stay healthy; the senior can come back home safely, back in India my family stay well without the virus attacking them. These are the assurances I want from the Almighty. I never miss gatherings, outings with gangs in my life; I do not enjoy them much, specially when they discuss people in their absence. Below is what I was doing this morning, sowing ripe chilli seeds.

I cannot remember how many attempts I made to grow chilli plants and failed. But I cook well. By the way, I always think snacks made with refined flour taste the best, okay it may not be a healthier option.

INGREDIENTS :

MULTI GRAIN ATTA / FLOUR : 1 1/2 COFFEE MUG
CARROM SEED : 1 TSP
BAKING POWDER : 1/2 TSP
SALT : 1/2 TSP
OIL : 3 TBSP + 50 ML TO DEEP FRY

PROCEDURE :

Take the multigrain atta flour, carom seeds, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Mix well and add to it the oil.

Rub well for 2-3 minutes.

Add water little by little and knead well to get a smooth and firm dough. This will take some 10-12 minutes.

Keep covered for 15-20 minutes. Remove cover, knead for 2 minutes.

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

Use the rolling pin to roll them big. They need not be perfectly round in shape.

With the back of a knife, cut into pieces. I was not in the mind to be very particular with the shapes. I am pretty sure you all will shape them better.

Heat the oil, I mean just warm it. The trick to get them crisp and keep them crisp for days lies in the technique of frying and the temperature of the oil.

Here we need patience and Cristine did help.

Add some of the uncooked snacks to the wok when the oil is warm and not hot.

Fry them in very low heat until golden brown. At times you may have to switch off the heat to adjust the temperature of the oil.

Place them onto tissue paper before putting them into a container. Do not refrigerate them.

DRAGON FRUIT FIRNI

This is a fruit I was skeptical about buying for few years after coming to this island. I tasted it only on flights. Hailing from a state that worships mango, jackfruit, litchi, watermelon; I found it's taste too bland; in fact dragon fruit seemed tasteless to me. It is only in the recent years, may be since last year I started getting it home and I so like it these days. I get fruits for myself that are low in sugar; I got very used to having them. These days, any amount of excess sugar in desserts is what I cannot take. Sweet and Juicy fruits will always remain my love but I am asked not to have them much. I forgot to have a whole mango fruit. It's always half for me; once or twice a week.

I do not deprive myself of tasting what I love. I had litchis in litchi season, get longan & rambutan too but in less frequency. This dragon fruit; the white or purple variety come for me alone, Cristine too eats I think. I serve the men apple, orange, grape, mango, pear; the common varieties. Banana goes to the son's smoothies. They definitely would have a dessert kheer / pudding made of dragon fruit, rice flour, full cream milk, sugar, honey. Flavoured with green cardamom powder, this DRAGON FRUIT FIRNI was liked by the family, it is a keep.

It is India's special occasion in two days. I am so caught up at this time that I could not think deeper what to serve on India's platter. Last month, a long time friend of mine who lives in the same neighbourhood in Kolkata as mine, told me they get a lot of dragon fruit in the Baguiati area  or may be in Kolkata. I was so surprised. Then I do a brief research and find states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra are doing dragon fruit farming these days, exporting too. That is wow. So, for a month I am planning to cook and blog about this vegetarian dessert DRAGON FRUIT FIRNI. I finally did it last Monday afternoon. Thereafter, when I sat on the sofa set letting it to cool before refrigerating, I saw a fellow blogger sharing a dragon fruit smoothie in the respective space. I just smiled; it is a coincidence off-course. I expect people to try both of our dishes or as per their food preferences.

INGREDIENTS :

PURPLE DRAGON FRUIT : 1 STANDARD SIZED
RICE FLOUR : 2-3 TBSP [I USED STORE BOUGHT]
FULL CREAM MILK : 350 ML
EVAPORATED CREAMER : 150 ML
HONEY : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
SUGAR : 2-3 TBSP
GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1 TSP
LIGHTLY TOASTED DRY FRUITS TO GARNISH

PROCEDURE : 

We will be using these few things to prepare the kheer / pudding / firni.

We will take 1 small tea cup of full cream milk in a bowl, add the rice flour little by little; whisk to incorporate well. There shall be no lump present.

We will take the milk in a deep bottomed vessel and put for boil at minimal heat.

We have washed, cut half, scooped out and blended the dragon fruit to a paste. 

When the full cream milk has boiled for 12-14 minutes; we will add the evaporated creamer.

We will give a stir and boil at low heat for another 10-12 minutes. We will stir every 2-3 minutes.

Thereafter, we will add the rice flour & full cream milk paste.

We will continuously stir at low to minimal heat at this stage to let the entire thing cook and incorporate well.

When it starts thickening, we will add the fresh dragon fruit paste and fold in well. 

It is not a citrus fruit, so there is no fear of curdling of the content. 

We will continuously stir and let it boil for 10-12 minutes. Dragon Fruit releases a lot of water. 

When the pudding thickens more, we will add the honey, sugar and the green cardamom powder. 

We will fold in well and stir cook continuously for 5-6 minutes.

We will let it cool completely before refrigerating it for at least 2-3 hours. It should always be served chilled garnished with lightly toasted dry fruits.