BOILED VEGETABLES MASH & BHARTA; MY FAVOURITE!
Long back during my student life, I would have rice in the morning before leaving for school. Starting Monday until Friday, I would have rice three times a day in spite of been an obese! In our family, it was a practice because the father too had rice before leaving for office. We would have it with vegetables boil & mashes, fries & ghee, lentils too for me & a basic fish curry for the father may be! The brother hated food & had to be force fed! T had fragrant rice-potato-eggs & ghee or butter his entire student life in the mornings, never showed up in his body! My son too was fed the same as his father until I landed in this island! The few years the maternal grandfather stayed with us until 1985, he definitely ate rice with a vegetable, fish, dal on the sides before leaving for office! He was not in the habit of eating outside food, would eat fruits & puffed rice in office I can remotely remember! The mother had a hurried morning with the toddler brother to handle. It was not an easy task, she did not get enough rest after Bhai's birth! These days after 4 pm she would retire to bed switching on the television. After finishing her chores, she would take the final round of shower for the day around that time & would not want to take on shoulder much of work. Only on Wednesday evenings, she would go to the Barrackpore station area to get garlands for the deceased family members & her God family, rest of the week her homegrown flowers are enough! At this time she is at our flat as her daughter-in-law is having summer vacation in the school. For her dinners, Mani would prefer these veg boil & mashes unwilling to have fish; even the grandmother would I had seen closely! In those days, I did not understand this point; today I get! I may not be willing to turn full vegetarian but I like vegetarian food these days. More because I do not like the meat varieties of this island; I did not enjoy the mutton curry last night, but liked the lentil fritters & jackfruit seeds, potato curry a lot! The later is sent by a neighbourhood aunty!
Inspired from Kakima's "sheem lau er dal", I would share a Bengali dish today that also has the same dal in the platter!
I WAS BUSY SHOPPING FOR MY CLIENTS TODAY!
And the culprit happened to be a chappal from Bata, Kolkata. They are not meant to walk long distances. Although I did not walk the full distance today, yet there had enough walking, now the legs are paining starting from the hip! I take the blame on myself for not wearing my walking shoes! I did not ask Cristine to accompany today & the trolly got heavier. I handed over everything to her & had my lunch at our neighbourhood mall! That's the advantage of staying beside the mall & a station! Anyway, I was not wanting to eat Indian food today! I had the fried fish & chicken bowl with mushroom sauce & rice; thereafter jelly & fruits with shaved ice. The chicken was smelling, to get rid of that I had the dessert!
Thereafter, I came back home, had a good shower & sat to write a blogpost! Tomorrow & Saturday would be very busy cooking for my clients! Also, tomorrow evening I got to cook for ourselves, every week I cannot allow ourselves to eat meat & party food alone! I would share in public what I would cook for ourselves this week!
WHAT IS SHEEM BHARTA?
As I say always, my family used to boil a couple of vegetables on a regular basis & have with piping hot rice, roasted dry red chilli, salt! Bharta / Mishmash too they cooked as per other Bengalis! Just that in it, the boiled vegetable is further mashed & enhanced with fried onion, chillies, garlic! Today, I want them everyday! Unfortunately, I am unable to eat rice or chapati in as many meals as I want! This SHEEM BHARTA is a vegan, gluten-free Bengali recipe with the vegetable, sheem / broad beans / hyacinth beans!
INGREDIENTS :
SHEEM / HYACINTH BEAN / BROAD BEAN : 10-12
SLICED ONION : 1/ 2 SMALL TEA CUP
CRUSHED GARLIC : 1 TSP
GREEN CHILLI : 3-4
SHREDDED COCONUT : 2 TBSP
NIGELLA SEED : 1/4 TSP
DRY RED CHILLI : 2-3
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/4 TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
SUGAR : 1 TSP [ I USED BROWN SUGAR]
OIL : 2 TSP + 2 TSP TO DRIZZLE ATOP [WE USE MUSTARD OIL]
PROCEDURE :
We would crush the washed & peeled garlic. We would heat oil in a wok & temper it with the nigella seeds, dry red chillies & the crushed garlic.
We would add the sliced onion, fry them till brown! We would then add the shredded coconut & fry until brown! After that we would add the boiled bean pieces & cook for sometime!
We would transfer them to a blender from the wok; add the washed green chillies, a little of salt & 1tsp sugar! We are to blend all to a paste!
We are to transfer it to a bowl & drizzle with mustard oil atop!
Unfortunatelly, i missed the broadbeans of this year. We traditionally cook it once in a year. Your broadbeans look abit different than ours but looks delicious. Have a wonderful and healthy day to you Dear friend. Greetings.
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