CURRY AND SPICE: LAMB SHABU SHABU FISH FILLET TORKARI BHAAT

MAACH MANGSHO ALOO BHAAT; YOU ARE RIGHT! WE ARE BENGALIS!

You bet; all my ventures from this market to that market in the look out for "Essentially Bengal" or it's food is not valued at this home. My associates in the family heavily endorses fish and meat; its me who jumps over the wall at the site of a mocha / banana blossom or echor / raw jack fruit, potol / pointed gourd, etc; even rejoice at the discovery of ghatkol / kharkon pata in the island. Even, I cannot go without FISH & MEAT, but at least one or two vegetarian dish is a must each day in my house. This rule of mine creates a bone of contention among us; the family members. All they want on their plate is a RICE MEDLEY with fish, meat, some vegetables too which they can eat with a spoon & fork with their eyes fixed o the screen; television or the laptop! To me, the time of eating is auspicious. For a foodie like me, it is a holy ritual when my sole concentration should be o the plate. This dedication for food I do not see in my associate. One should honour food to remain in my good book! Yet, I keep cooking because it gives me pleasure. I feel no guilt forcing people at home to eat what I cook! Spending 5-6 hours cooking this dish; LAMB SHABU SHABU FISH FILLET TORKARI BHAAT with some meat, fish, carrots, peas, potatoes was no big deal because my own love it!

IT IS RAINING HARD; IT BRINGS FORTH A LOT OF MEMORIES; SO DOES A PLATEFUL OF MANGSHO BHAAT; MAACH BHAAT; ALOO!

Though the incessant rain, more this year is causing me irritation and giving my plants a tough time; it also brings in the memory of having hot khichuri / rice & lentil hotchpotch with maach bhaja / fish fry! Biryani was never a family thing, the family veteran started preparing it for few years now ever since my sibling fell for it! Biryani is an entire family love, my immediate family enjoys any rice dish that has meat or fish in it. I keep doing such ONE POT MEALS for them, never forget to include some vegetables in it. They eat vegetables with big chunks of meat or fish! They want to minimise my cooking time wanting to have an ALL IN ONE MEAL everyday. Then, I feel responsible to my tradition; to the word BENGALI! I must get lau shaak / bottle gourd leaves and stem and cook with aloo, bori or do a curry with spinach & vegetables. Amazing enough, I manage to feed those to my people, all they want is a good amount of fish & meat on their plate; some days a LAMB SHABU SHABU FISH FILLET TORKARI BHAAT. Life is all about adjustments!

LAMB SHABU SHABU CUT MEAT FISH POTATO CARROT PEAS RICE IS A COOL COUSIN OF BIRYANI; ONE DOES NOT SWEAT WHILST COOKING IT!

You may well ask me why a lamb shabu shabu cut in a Bengali kitchen? May be some day, I felt like buying a packet to do a MEAT & VEGETABLES HOTPOT, then it lay in the freezer for months. FISH FILLETS keep coming to my home; my kofta, kebab, cutlet, tikki making sessions get way easier! I had very little of the fish fillets left; carrots, green peas, potato are a kitchen staple! Instead of using each in separate dishes, I used all to prepare a wholesome meal. The family feels happy, I work way less in the kitchen! Most importantly, this NON-VEGETARIAN MEAT & FISH MEAL; LAMB SHABU SHABU FISH FILLET TORKARI BHAAT is a good way to wish those in my Kolkata family, who are celebrating! I had the plan to use dry fruits in the dish, I forgot to assemble them. Later, it felt dry fruits would have been completely unnecessary in the dish. It took me a lot of time to cook it but I did not have the pressure on me to use the perfect spices, this and that required in a biryani! I do not like amounting tension on me whilst cooking! I took extreme liberty while cooking the dish which is not possible in case of biryani; there is no space to experiment if you are cooking a perfect biryani!

INGREDIENTS :

COOKED RICE : 4-5 COFFEE MUG [I USED COOKED BASMATI]
LAMB SHABU SHABU : 400 GM

FISH FILLET : 250-300 GM

CUBED POTATO : 7-8

CUBED CARROT : 7-8

GREEN PEA : A HANDFUL

CHOPPED CORIANDER : A HANDFUL

CHOPPED TOMATO : 1 BIG

SLICED ONION : 1 BIG

GREEN CHILLI : 3-4

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP

SHUGANDHI MOSHOLA MIX / FRAGRANT SPICE MIX : 2 TSP [click on the title for the recipe]

CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/2 TSP

CINNAMON STICK : 3-4 TWO INCH STICK

GREEN CARDAMOM: 2-3

CLOVE : 4-5

CINNAMON POWDER : 1 TSP

GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1/2 TSP

CLOVE POWDER : 1/2 TSP

BAY LEAF : 2-3

LEMON JUICE : 5-6 TBSP

VINEGAR : 2-3 TBSP

SUGAR : 2 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

GINGER PASTE : 2 TSP

GARLIC PASTE : 2 TBSP

MILK POWDER : 2 TBSP

GHEE : 4 TBSP

OIL : 2-3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

The first thing to do is to wash the lamb shabu shabu cut meat and marinate it with vinegar for about an hour!

We will drain the marinade, wash again the meat thoroughly and marinate again with little salt, turmeric and 2-3 tbsp of lemon juice, half of the red chilli powder required!

We will cut and wash all the vegetables; get them ready on the kitchen top. We will marinate the potato & carrot with little salt & turmeric only 5-6 minutes before we add it to the vessel!

About the fish fillets; I have cut them into finger sized. I washed and marinated them with little of salt, oil, crushed black pepper and 2 tbsp of lemon juice; kept aside for 1/2 an hour!

Thereafter, I cooked them in grill mode for 10 minutes one side, 6 minutes the other; placing the oven proof plate on the wired, high stool!

We took off the cooked fish and kept aside for a later use!

We had tempered the heated oil with the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves and added the washed & sliced onions.

We have the ginger & garlic pastes ready for use!

Once the onions get caramelised; we will add the ginger & garlic pastes.

After cooking the mixture for 2-3 minutes, I had added some salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, the rest of the turmeric powder, cumin & coriander powders and stir cooked for a minute!

We had added the marinated lamb shabu shabu and folded in well.

We will cover cook it now until tender which may take about 50-60 minutes at minimal heat. We will close any outlet with a clove. In between we have to check; if the water released dries, we have to add little water!

Once the lamb shabu shabu pieces are tender, we will add the shugandhi moshola mix / the fragrant spice mix, cinnamon powder, green cardamom powder, cloves powder and fold in well!

We will add the chopped tomatoes, cubed potatoes & carrot, green peas; all washed!

We will again cover cook for about 35-40 minutes; by that time the lamb would be done and the gravy semi dried. We will add 1tbsp of ghee at this stage.

What I had to do next was to add the pre-cooked rice that had been cooked until 60% in enough water in which we added salt.

We had added the rest of the ghee on top of the rice, sprinkled the chopped coriander; pushed in the cooked fish and the whole green chillies!

I cover cooked it for 20-25 minutes at low heat. I was not particular about placing a pan underneath the vessel because there was enough gravy in the pot, neither we were cooking biryani!