EASY-MADE STRAWBERRY JAM

                   

ONE WHO LOVES TO EAT CANNOT REAP THE FRUITS OF  INTERMITTENT FASTING?

A frustrated soul's realisation is that. I am doing it for over four years now. I remember I started with a 14 hours of intermittent fasting a few days before the son left home for his higher studies. I have seen others doing it too. When I compare the results, I see I did get some benefits but I continue to remain an overweight. I blame myself. Even after an eighteen hours of intermittent fasting, I should not eat more than just enough. I fail to draw the line most of the days. I end up having three chapatis instead of two, while the weight watchers would eat one. I have to pay the price. Last night, I tried roomali roti following chef Sanjot Kheer's video recipe, there had one extra dough ball. I thought let me have one extra chapati, I did and this morning my weight jumped to an excess of one kilogram. When I eat, I remain happy, I get upset once I stand on the weight machine the next day. The thing is how much I try a roomali roti, it does not get as thin as this variety of bread should be. I got nearer to it whilst making it for the man. While doing mine, I ended up cooking three normal chapatis because I am impatient, making a roomali roti requires a good amount of patience.

A roomali roti also requires practice. I did not follow the chef's instruction, I did not use milk for preparing the dough. The more I was stretching the sides of the roti, it was going back to the square. To roll a bread as thin as a paper / handkerchief is not just anyone's job. Our lunch yesterday was fish and rice.

THOUGH DISAPPOINTED ABOUT AN WEIGHT INCREASE, THERE WAS SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT THIS MORNING!

Our tiny plant rack arrived from the Shein Official. The only problem about online buy is that I lack the idea about the size, measurements though clearly mentioned. I do not wish to buy high end stuffs, will order more of them.

These small buys make me happy, let us see if it can take the weight or not.  My resolution of cutting the amount of food intake for the next few days was forgotten by the afternoon, look at my first meal.

What is the point doing an intermittent fasting if I eat all of that at one meal that we are supposed to have at three meals? But I cannot stop following this, it has controlled my blood sugar level, I am just unable to control my food cravings. I have nothing else to do except for cooking, eating and talking about my food-ventures! The weekend's excess food intakes are causing weight gain and the food stocked at home, else I came back  from the USA with a reduced weight even after eating out once a day and cooking well there. Here, you get food every hundred metres and there is no-one to monitor me.

WHAT IS THIS EASY-MADE STRAWBERRY JAM?

I had the best strawberry jam in a hotel in Shimla back in 2008. The boutique hotel was made of solid wood in the backdrop of a forest, they told the jam is made of the local produce and is organic. We grew up having homemade jam, jelly, pickle though a bottle of Kissan Mixed Fruit Jam was always there at home. We did not have much of bread, both of us siblings ate jams on the biscuits; tons of them we had but only Britannia Marie and Cream Cracker. The parents did not allow any other variety, they compensated with the abundance of Amul Butter, Kissan Mixed Fruit Jam and one day the mother herself started making Jam & Jelly. She would use guava, pineapple, mango. Did we know about strawberry then? I cannot even remember if our textbooks had pictures of strawberry in them or not. Once we re-located to Barrackpore, I saw strawberry at my university's friend Juthika's home. She had immense love for the terrace gardening, their terrace had the rarest of the flowering and fruiting plants she used to get from the Horticulture. Sharing a common interest, Juthika and our mother got closer, she used to visit our home even after my marriage. She had a late marriage and went to stay in the city of my birth. Her husband is a doctor there who my maternal uncles knew as they were wholesale medicine dealers, then I forgot his name, eventually lost all contacts with the quiet girl, she was supposed to meet our youngest maternal aunt, it did not happen I think. I would love to reconnect, our mother too forgot the bylane to Juthika's home, she was the younger of the two sisters. I remember her mother who was too quiet, their well designed big home, her father dying suddenly of diabetes and some of the secrets she shared with me. Now that my brother has renovated the home, I feel like going and staying for 2-3 days. The son too needs to go and stay, the man who also loved to go and stay in Barrackpore for few days doesn't even visit them, good old days. The mother stopped making jam & jelly once in Barrackpore. I keep making them for myself, one of my favourite food is having a toast with a layer of butter and then a layer of jam on it. I have forgotten the thin line of difference a spread, jam and preserve have; let me call this organic, vegan, gluten-free condiment an EASY-MADE STRAWBERRY JAM. One of my blogpost has that difference mentioned in details, I did read about it somewhere. 

Few other similar recipes in the Blog are APPLE GRAPE JAM, PEPPERY MANGO JAM, PEYARAR JELLY

                  

INGREDIENTS : 

FRESH STRAWBERRY : 250-300 GM 

SUGAR : 5-6 TBSP

LEMON JUICE : 3-4 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Trust me, the recipe is as easy & simple as you see, that too using three ingredients.

Discard the green leafy section attached to the fruit, wash well rubbing the body of the fruits.

Chop each of the fruits and wash just once or you may not. I took them in a blender and blended coarsely wanting a jam like texture. If you want a preserve, do not blend the fruits.

I took the blended fruit and the sugar in a bowl and placed on the stove top. 

There is nothing much to do in this recipe but we cannot move from the kitchen, we are to constantly stir the mixture else it would burn from the bottom.

We have to discard the foam formed on the top, Once the mixture starts to turn darker, we would add the lemon juice. This would not let the mixture harden when cold.

We would keep stirring until the watery texture goes away. Any liquid residue may spoil the jam sooner.

I am loving it on my toasts, you would too.

PINEAPPLE SEMOLINA CAKE

FOOD IS NOT ONLY ABOUT THE TONGUE & TUMMY; IT ASSOCIATES US TO MEMORIES, TAKES US TO A PERIOD!

I never did like puffed rice, not even post marriage. When other Bengalis praised about and finished bowls after bowls of muri with chanachur & chop; I would have the chop or shingara alone. In the present day too, I am not fond of the favourite Bengali pairs like "muri o chanachur; muri o chop". I developed love for the "muri-chirey-khoi-aam, muri-chirey-khoi-kathal, muri-chirey-khoi-kola, muri-narkol-gur, muri-khoi-chirer moya". These were the snacks our grandmother & mother prepared and stocked at home.

Weight watchers would not eat these, but I cannot ever stop having these. My hanging belly stagnate at one place. I am not taking pride in it, I am just unable to quit my favourite fruits, snacks. The little I could do is that I am using less amount of oil, lessened a bit the amount of carb intake. I tend to eat a plateful of rice if I get a choice of fish, mutton, vegetarian dish on the side.

Last night, I got disappointed, my yeast bread did not get fluffy, there formed no pockets and I would not call them pita. The man enjoyed, asked for more. I do not know if the son sources handmade breads from outside once in a while.

Last evening, I was watching "Dristikone", my mind was not into making some decent roti. I wasn't getting to watch it anywhere, all of a sudden I found the links for the movie in three parts. Recently, I enjoyed watching Lapata Ladies too. Heeramandi is a periodic substance, I do not have the energy to sit through.

YESTERDAY, MY BROTHER DID SEND THIS.

Bhai was excited about that watch style Punjabi button his company Nippon gifted on the Father's Day. How happy the father would have been if he got to see this, both the parents love / loved watches. Neither I, nor the man or the son wear a watch. 

His photo takes me back in time, so does certain food bowls. He had extremely sharp features, his face resembles a woman younger to me. Not in my circle; she is beautiful, I am not. Yet, I do not feel jealous of her, my man says she has  both spine and personality, no one can deny her physical beauty. She might not be soft spoken but she does not seem to me a tricky self. I do not like tricks played with my stupid self, the reason I mingle less, I do not even with my long time friends. What they say, what they do; why they do like that I do not get. I am only interested in my son's academic & career path, of that of the other kids around. Food remains important in my life. This entire morning I was updating few earlier blogposts, did not like one; recooked that platter quickly, luckily everything was there in my kitchen. I am truly a passionate food blogger, if only I had the technical knowledge required to make it a famous one, to take it to more of people. Last April, we travelled to the son, just three days before that I payed this tribute to the father.

Cristine takes care of him and our home when we travel. Your parents would always remain a part of your journey. I ask the son to pick up certain qualities of both his maternal & paternal grandfathers. Both the grandmothers did a lot for him too. I got my family's support bringing him up, life got mundane for us after he left home. Parties and crowd regular is not my thing, homely get-togethers I do like.

WHAT IS PINEAPPLE SEMOLINA CAKE?

Oh! I find semolina cakes incredibly tasty and easy to make. In fact, semolina is a choice ingredient to me, I make idli, cake, salty snacks with it. We like the halwa made with it, not the other gooey stuffs. The son had so much of "sujir payesh" as a toddler that he doesn't touch anymore upma or halwa made of it. He does not enjoy chirer polao, nonta suji kind of tiffins, sandwiches took them over. But the son loves paratha varieties, pulao way too much. Why am I delaying to get my version of "nonta suji" to the blog? I have to soon. Today, there is a birthday in the family, among the friend circle and then there is the Eid Celebrations. This vegan PINEAPPLE SEMOLINA CAKE suits all the celebrations. I would not buy ingredients worth 50$ to cook a dish, not for a cake at all. Also, I am repulsive towards dairy products. I had a bowl of pineapple in the refrigerator, it's paste alone was good enough as the wet ingredient. I had no compulsion to get a vegan cake, it just happened. Unfortunately, it isn't gluten-free, I wasn't willing to work too much on a Sunday morning for a gluten-free version. A cake using fruit salt suits me.

Few similar recipes from the Blog are : STOVETOP SUJI APPLE CAKE, SPICED OATS COCONUT DATES CAKE, PEYARAR JELLY, PINEAPPLE ICE-CREAM WITH WATERMELON

INGREDIENTS : 

SEMOLINA : 1 COFFEE MUG

SWEET PINEAPPLE CUBE : 2 COFFEE MUG

SUGAR : 1/2 COFFEE MUG [I USED BLACK SUGAR]

OIL : 2-3 TBSP

ENO FRUIT SALT : 2 TSP

VANILLA ESSENCE : 1 TSP

PROCEDURE :

You can see this is a few ingredients cake, I enjoy doing frill free stuffs. At first I thought of baking an oil-free cake, later used a little of it. 

We would take the semolina in a bowl. We would blend the pineapple to a paste. I did not use a strainer to get the extract.

We would add the pineapple paste, sugar, oil to the semolina and beat well.

We will add the vanilla essence and beat again for 2-3 minutes. We would keep it covered for half an hour.

Thereafter, we would add the Eno fruit salt and immediately stir and mix for a minute. We are to transfer the batter to a greased & flour dusted cake tin.

In my convection mode microwave oven, I inserted the low height wired stool and preheated the oven at 160*C, it is the set temperature in mine.

Thereafter, I placed the cake tin with batter atop the wired stool and baked it for 25 minutes at 160*C.

The cake is supremely moist and fluffy.

 

BENGALI LOW SPICED HYACINTH BEANS

I WAS CAUGHT UP WITH SOMETHING HALF OF THE DAY!

Who knows if it was anything fruitful. If you do not consider cooking as something essential, you may say I was doing nothing. I got in hand some juicy, fresh, red tomatoes of the same size at the Tekka Centre last Saturday, right there I decided I would cook them with the big red chillies resting in the refrigerator. One who does not love food or enjoy cooking would not feel the pleasure. Doing that, I got to update an old blogpost TOMATO CHILLI SAUCE! This time I have used corn flour to thicken the sauce, feels I have got the right consistency and taste. I have used way less amount of sugar than the store bought ones. There is nothing synthetic used in the process.

It had been a satisfying experience for me. My only regret is that I could not turn my passion / hobby into a profession, at least I had to earn a bit from it. That requires entrepreneurial skill that I lack. I was getting irritated at the fruitless talks with the unknown. I thought the Bengalis of this island would ask for the rustic Bengali Food from me, I would supply them that. I would get to earn some and get them the feel of their grandmothers' & mothers' kitchens. Why did they need to talk beyond this, put condition before me to be their friends? I only wished for 3-4 orders per week that would fetch me a decent amount. I did not expect to earn a living from it, neither wanted to sweat in return of peanuts.

YESTERDAY OUR MICROWAVE OVEN COULD HAVE GONE HAYWIRE!

It was entirely my fault but the first thing I do in such a scenario is accuse Cristine. Yesterday, she was not at home and my voice was on a higher pitch. I felt she did not place the disc properly after washing. The man as he had been always, defended Cristine and asked me not to accuse others, that I might have set the temperature higher than is required. He was right, I was heating the egg rendang whose gravy is thick, I had set the temperature at 1&1/2 minute at a time for two eggs. One egg blasted with a thud, the egg yolk stuck to the upper wall, the gravy scattered all over. The cleaning took me about 20-25 minutes. At least the machine was working, it is only few months old. I am usually cautious and heat like this; 30+30+30 seconds. I have a one track mind, any fear revolves around the son; if he is using his machines properly, if they are in good condition. He has to be in regular contact with us and speak clear, he does not neither his father insists. When did they care for me, they take me for granted. All these did not stop me from eating, post lunch I had my favourite fruits. At night, I made some semolina puffed breads. 

Amidst all of the mess, I forgot to take the picture of my lunch plate. I do not do intermittent fasting over the weekend, I eat multiple times instead. Food is Love Unlimited.

WHAT IS THE BENGALI LOW SPICED HYACINTH BEANS?

Sheem, Shem, Flat Beans are the other names. In both sides of my family, most of the vegetarian recipes are done with minimal spices. Unless it is a "dalna", we do not use much of spices in "chocchori", "ghonto", "bhaja". I think it holds true for the entire Bengali Community's cooking. I see in other communities how they use spice powders whilst marinating a vegetable for a fry, our fries simply have a marination of salt, sugar, turmeric powder. I do like the spice laden vegetarian dishes the non-Bengali speaking community prepares but I love most the typical Bengali rustic vegetable dishes these days. One of them is this vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan bowl BENGALI LOW SPICED HYACINTH BEANS. I have garnished it with fried sun-dried

 lentil balls I prepare at home. I never did enjoy a vegetarian dish when young, not even as an adult. After relocating to this island, I cook them and love having them. I am done with my first meal today, a huge plate of noodles that Cristine made the way I like, that with chillies & onion dipped in vinegar, carrots, peas, egg scramble, crushed black pepper, salt. 

Here are the few other Bengali homely vegetarian recipes from my Blog; DAL ER BORA DIYE MOCHAR GHONTO, NOTUN ALOOR DOM, TIL NARKOL POTOL!

INGREDIENTS : 

FLAT / HYACINTH BEAN : 250-300 GM

SUN DRIED LENTIL BALL : 6-7

SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 2

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2 TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

NIGELLA SEED / KALOJEEREY / KALONJI : 1/4 TSP

BAYLEAF : 1

DRY RED CHILLI : 1 [HALVED]

OIL : 2 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Wash the flat beans well. Cut little on both the ends. Strip off the fibre from the inner side thinly from one end to the other. [Excuse my poor English]

Cut each of the bean half or into 3 pieces. Wash again and drain the water. 

Marinate them with the red chilli & turmeric powders, salt as required. Keep aside for 10-12 minutes.

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the sun-dried lentil balls, take out.

Temper the remaining oil with the nigella seeds, bay leaf and the halved dry red chilli. Add the marinated vegetables along with the marinade.

Give a stir and cover with a lid. Set the heat at the minimal.

After, 5-6 minutes, remove the lid, else the flat beans would totally lose the colour. We will cook it at minimal heat stirring every 2-3 minutes. 

When it is almost done, we would add the washed and slitted green chillies, 1/2 of the lightly crushed fried sun-dried lentil balls and give a stir.

After about 2-3 minutes, we would take it down, transfer to a bowl and garnish with the rest of the fried sun-dried lentil balls / bori.

We usually have it with steamed rice, it would go equally well with chapati.