MUSHUR DAL VEGETABLES MINCED CHICKEN CURRY

CHICKEN & EGG; THE TWO MAJOR GAME PLAYER IN FOOD-O-NOMICS!

I look around and see exactly this; it is chicken & egg that rules! I am unable to feel people's excitement with regards to these two food stuffs. What people understand by "Chicken & Egg is life", I do not get! Actually, the duo did not enter our family home until the mid seventies. My paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother never had tasted them. It is only when the parents reached Kolkata that they introduced the two in our home, chicken got a warm welcome among us siblings, egg did not. Duck Egg Curry was a weekly once affair in our home, I had my share of a "gota dim" only after marriage. I have always felt, it was never the question of affordability, it was the parents' habit, extreme control over finance! The sibling did not touch eggs then, we did not bother about it much. Because, both parents valued money; we never had to stop eating fish. The month end; each day of the month were same for us; we got to eat fish every day, at both meals! So, any day, a "chara pona maach" was dearer to us than a duck egg curry; "poultry r dim" did not enter our home until some 25 years back or may be it did rarely for only omelettes, rather "mamlets". 

ITS BEEN LONG THE BENGALI / INDIAN MIDDLE CLASS EMBRACED BREAD, EGGS, CHICKEN; WE COULD NOT CATCH UP PERHAPS!

The world outside our main door reached further heights; we did not know what a "bread & eggs" breakfast is; every morning, the first ritual in the kitchen was preparing a dough with either wholewheat flour or refined; else it was rice, seldom. Though we are Bangals; the earning parent and the sibling did not want rice in the breakfast; I loved but I had weight issues, was not allowed to! I loved handmade breads then too, the Sunday Night's chicken curry with thin chapatis is an experience to remember. When did I start disliking CHICKEN? It is not like that; it is this island's chicken that I do not enjoy. The garlic here too lack that smell. Taken together the chicken, onion & garlic variety here, a CHICKEN CURRY does not suit me. I still do not agree to quit. I keep experimenting with MURGI; which cuts would suit me, the combinations, etc. You can say, the idea of cooking a chicken curry with CARROT, BEETROOT, POTATO, GREEN BEANS, RED LENTIL is actually drawn from DAL GOSHT. I am not the kind who wish to be another contributor of dal gosht in the net after consulting twelve recipes of it, where is the thrill? So, I did this SOUPY CURRY and named it MUSHUR DAL VEGETABLES MINCED CHICKEN CURRY!

WHY THIS MINCED CHICKEN SOUP, OF ALL THINGS?

The reasons can be manifold; our inability to make salad our main food; fresh hilsa selling at a high price, that too coming from Myanmar; limited fish variety, of my choice; my severe allergy to make cooking a monotonous job; my affinity towards experimenting with food ingredients; and more! Yes, I do feel responsible towards contributing to the "what to cook and eat list" of the students living abroad, busy professionals or anyone who manages both home and work with elan. CURRY AND SPICE should take care of their needs too. I have always believed; Indians need not blindly follow the West, we can moderate our own age old recipes with a little of addition and subtraction, keeping the DISHES essentially Indian. Some days, we do not wish to cook elaborate; neither all of us have a full time help or very helping hand kind of family member. In such a scenario, an all-in-one, HEALTHY NON-VEGETARIAN CHICKEN VEGETABLES LENTIL CURRY saves us. We can have it with rice or any kind of bread. This home cannot have it with rice, so our help made us some parathas; I got pretty tired after the cooking & clicking part!

We also had egg plant / begun bharta on the side!

Again, my lunch today was green matar+potato curry, bandhakopir ghonto & porota!

MINCED CHICKEN : 250 GM

RED LENTIL : 3-4 TBSP

BEETROOT : 1/2 OF A STANDARD SIZED

CARROT : 1 MEDIUM SIZED

FRENCH BEAN : 3-4

CUBED TOMATO : 1

CHOPPED ONION : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP

SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 2-3

MINCED GARLIC : 1 TBSP

MINCED GINGER : 1 TSP

LEMON JUICE : 2 TSP + 2 TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 11/2 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 11/2 TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP

DRY MANGO POWDER : 1 TSP

GARAM MASALA POWDER : 1 TSP

BAY LEAF : 1

CINNAMON STICK : 2-3 ONE INCH STICK

GREEN CARDAMOM : 2-3

CLOVE : 4

BAKING SODA : A PINCH OR TWO [helps retain the colour of vegetables after been cooked]

SUGAR : 1 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 2-3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

We will wash and strain the chicken mince well! We will wash the lentil well too! We will take both in a bowl; marinate with 2tbsp of the lemon juice, some salt & turmeric.

We have all the chopped, minced, slitted vegetables washed & ready on the kitchen tap. We will marinate the carrot, beetroot, potato, French beans, with little of salt & turmeric! 

The potato we will marinate just five minutes before adding it to the cooking pot, else it gets black spots.

We will add each of them separately to the pot, hence kept separately.

We will heat the oil in a deep bottomed vessel, temper it with the bay leaf and the cinnamon stick, green cardamoms, cloves!

We will add the minced garlic & ginger and stir fry for a minute or two.

Thereafter, we will add the chopped onion and stir cook for 2-3 minutes.

We will add the beetroot pieces and, stir and cover cook for 5-6 minutes.

Then, we will add the beans & carrots, and a pinch of baking soda.

We will add the lentil & mince chicken, potato, cumin+coriander+red chilli powders and stir cook for 3-4 minutes.

We will add 11/2 coffee mug of water, stir and cover cook for about 20-25 minutes!

We will remove the cover, add the washed cubed tomatoes & slitted green chillies, dry mango powder, garam masala powder now, cover cook for another 7-8 minutes!

We will add 2tbsp of lemon juice, give a stir and it is done!

All the cooking is to be done in minimal to low heat!

Serve it hot with your choice of main!