BUTTER TOSSED CHIREY BHAJA IN MICROWAVE

If I say I am feeling cold sitting in a tropical island in the month of June, I am not joking. The fan is switched off and I have wrapped myself in a bed spread. My "bori" batch is going to spoil, its raining for fifteen days now. I started off with the blog post late; the man is working from home today and I have no tension to finish off quick or whatever. For this freedom, I cook all day on Saturdays. None in the family apply this theory of mine, neither did I do so whilst my stay in Kolkata much. The son was young then. Now I do. Until Thursday, it will be just taking out at least three dishes for lunch and dinner each; cook rice or breads and eat. For breakfast, I keep buying and baking stuffs, do instant idli, appe, etc. The problem is to feed the senior breakfast on a weekday. If he is served mango, he still eats but I did not get mango this week; only litchi, dragon fruit, pear. The fun thing is if we had packed these same fruits and a cake in his snack box, he would have eaten but he has to skip breakfast whilst at home. The son is having luchi / puffed bread, fruit yogurt & dragon fruit.

I so fail to understand the senior till date. What I know well is I cannot repeat one thing more that two to three times; in that case he starts yelling at you. I tell him had it been these "new age girls", they would have not only seek a divorce but had gotten various other charges against you. Leave that. What got my concern is my addiction towards bread varieties for breakfast for the past several months which may not have proved good for my health. I will not spend extra bucks or go and hunt for keto bread. For the past two, three days, I had been trying to eat less and a bit healthy. This morning, I made this vegetarian, snack meal using just one bowl. Because I am a true heart Bengali, I enjoy beaten or flattened rice more than oats. Instead of frying, I roast or toast them in microwave adding a tea spoon of butter. I named it BUTTER TOSSED CHIREY BHAJA IN MICROWAVE.  Chirey is beaten rice in Bengali.

I have so many food photos with me whose recipe I wish to share with you. Then I must go by my whims. I wanted this easy to make snack to go to the blog today, I did. It takes few minutes you know, that too in a bowl. Thereafter, you can see I had it and dragon fruit for my breakfast.

Truly it feels less guilty. I just cannot skip meals neither do I think it is good for the body to do it. Last night I went to sleep thinking to have a fruit bowl this morning. Then I got skeptical if fruits & tea shall gel well. Actually, I research less, so never does comment on what is beyond my knowledge or capacity. What I can say is beaten rice may be just another form of rice, hence loaded with carb but I do not think it is too bad to have it in this form. We are not frying it in oil or took time to roast it in a wok on stove top. We can just add a tea spoon of butter, the rest of the cooking the microwave will do. We can add our choice of dry fruits & nuts to this easy snack BUTTER TOSSED CHIREY BHAJA IN MICROWAVE. I added walnut, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, raisins, roasted green peas.

INGREDIENTS :

BEATEN / FLATTENED RICE : 50GM
BUTTER : 1TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED TO SPRINKLE
BLACK PEPPER : 1/4TSP
DRY FRUITS & NUTS, SEEDS OF YOUR CHOICE, GREEN PEAS TO ADD

PROCEDURE : 

Take the beaten rice & butter in a microwave proof bowl.

Microwave at minimal heat for 30 seconds.

Take out and mix well.

Microwave at the lowest heat for a minute. Take out and add the broken nuts.

Mix well and microwave again at the minimal heat for 30 seconds.

Take out and add the salt & black pepper.

Mix well the entire thing and microwave again at the minimal heat for 30 seconds. Take out and add raisins, seeds, fried or roasted green peas, etc.

Have it with tea or coffee while it is still warm.

CHIREY O ALOOR TIKKI

This was part of our dinner last night. Not that I did not have cooked food in the refrigerator but I wished for some snacks on our dinner plate. The reasons are a few. Two of our childhood buddy had / have their birthdays; yesterday and today. I must blog about something the entire classroom can sit together and enjoy. Today is not the day I should blog about the tamarind chicken I so enjoyed. Come on, some of them are friends since age three, long before I stepped into that institution. I did not wish to go ahead with the "doi pomfret or lau diye chingrir patla jhol" because the virtual world seems a big family connected together over some common interest. The birthday boys would have loved to have some "dimer jhol" but it was the same classroom they left and thereafter entered a "Gujju girl" who fed me bread upma / pulao for the first time in life, I so loved.  I had to go vegetarian but not with "pat patar jhol." Also, my family has to be taken in. 

Since yesterday morning, I was planning this. I went out for my walk, did some groceries, came back and took shower. Me and Cristine again set out for the Indian super mart to pick up certain things, bought more unnecessary stuffs; I mean did I at all require that tamarind sauce and Bakharwadi? I prepare better tamarind sauce at home. We had a very late lunch about which I would want to talk in a public post, we were back home around 6pm. After that, doing the  preparations for this vegetarian snack with flattened rice, potato, green pea, corn, chillies, spices CHIREY O ALOOR TIKKI was not a big deal. The only loss was I had to skip my swimming session, I was not willing to go for it either. So long the government or the condo management are allowing us to use it, I would. This island is managed by very efficient people at all levels; I trust them.

The man came home yesterday with the news of "work from home" for quite sometime now. Such a fear has taken over us I could not rejoice and say "ki moja!". It sincerely feels that I want everything to get back to normal; let people work, eat, merry, travel freely. This is the man who from day one has asked me not to gulp all the news coming from different quarters but to follow the instructions of the WHO site.

INGREDIENTS :

FLATTENED / BEATEN RICE / CHIREY : 100-150GM
POTATO : 2MEDIUM SIZED
GREEN PEA : 2TBSP
SWEET CORN : 2TBSP
RAISIN : 11/2TBSP
CHOPPED ONION : 1TBSP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1TBSP
CHOPPED CORIANDER : 1SMALL TEA CUP
CUMIN SEED : 1/2TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1TSP
AAMCHOOR POWDER : 2TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/4TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3TBSP + FEW DROPS TO GREASE THE OVEN PROOF PLATE OR 2TBSP IF YOU PAN SEAR

PROCEDURE :

Wash the beaten rice well and drain the water totally.

Wash, boil, peel and mash the potatoes well.

We have discarded the roots of the coriander, chopped and washed them. 

We have discarded the two ends, peeled and washed one medium sized onion; chopped it. 

We have washed and chopped 3-4 green chillies. We have washed the green peas and sweet corns too. 

We will wash and soak the raisins in hot water for 1/2 an hour.

Following are the few spices we are using, forgot to click the oil pot.

Heat the oil in a pan and temper with the cumin seeds. Add the chopped onion & chillies and stir for 3-4 minutes.

Discard the water from the raisins and add to the wok along with the sweet corns, green peas, turmeric powder.

Stir well for 2-3 minutes and add the washed chirey / beaten rice. Add a little of salt and stir cook for 2 minutes or so.

Now, we can add the chopped coriander and fold in well.

Thereafter, we shall add the boiled & mashed potatoes, cumin+coriander+aamchoor powders, adjust the salt and fold in very well. We will continue to stir cook for another 3-4 minutes.

The entire cooking has to be done at low heat. 

We shall transfer the mixture to a plate to cool down a bit.

We will grease an oven proof plate with little amount of oil, then prepare medium sized balls and flatten between palms. Place them on the plate.

If you have a convection mode oven as mine, place the low height, wired stand inside. We shall place the metal plate atop it.

We will cook one side in the microwave+ grill mode for 8 minutes & take out.

We will turn over and cook in the same mode again for 4-5 minutes. We should be done.

If you are doing in a pan; heat 2tbsp oil in a pan and place the tikkis, cook each side until lightly brown or more if you want.

I served them fresh & hot with a choice of sauce or chutney!

CHIRER MURKI

You see I am yet to get out of that aura that a lamb kebab creates... we had Middle Eastern Food yesterday and this family is a fan of it... I was thinking of writing a poem on my love for kebabs, then felt that for two days I am telling people that I will be blogging on this healthy sweet snack CHIRER MURKI ... I should! I do not have any problem switching from a kebab to an authentic Bengali primitive food as this... I love food in general. The men took burgers in their lunch boxes and mangoes in their snack boxes. What are you thinking.... I should not have given it to them after a dine out yesterday? I know, but after a weekend... Mondays make me feel very lethargic. There were some store bought chicken burger patties ... deep fried them and added mayo, cheese slice, tomato slice to the bread and packed. I scolded myself .... the husband is better... the son removes the lettuce and tomato from the burger and eats. Anyway, I do not pack all these for them more than twice a month.... but they eat a Mac Meal every week... I cannot do anything about it. What I do is that I prepare a varied kind of fried rices & pulao or chapati / ruti / porota .... stuffed or otherwise and feed them. 

Yesterday evening, when I was wearing a dress I discovered that I am looking like a football... I am not getting any motivation... food rules my life so much.... The mother or both the parents were worried since my childhood that how the daughter got to be so lazy in a sports loving family... This morning I sat with these sunflower seeds.... have to lessen the carb intakes.... My favourite old Dr. Chang told me last to last week that we cannot be too strict with diet in this island where there is food everywhere... what we can do is follow a moderately strict routine from Monday to Friday and indulge over the weekends.... which I was doing some 2-3 years back... I do not know why I cannot overcome the lust for fried, unhealthy food. Some really good clothes in stock are lying in the dark corner of the wardrobe.... many I had given to Cristine's sister... Cristine is "tomboyish" and wears only half-pants, trousers and t-shirts. When I landed in this island and gradually lost some 11 kg, I did buy some really short and bare frocks... Then one day someone inside asked me to look at the mirror.... I felt disgusted... they just do not go with my persona... I am so unable to carry them... Then, if you have a husband like mine he will say... " S... if you are wearing a spaghetti strapped dress.... do not put a shrug on it... no one is interested in your legs and arms".... I get even more irritated.... to me not all eyes are purified and gave away packets of dresses to Cristine for distribution... I am not a rich lady but this is a reason.... I wish to shop a lot of salwar suits, saree and long dresses this time from Kolkata... By the way, I sit just like this and write my posts on a week day morning.... not that my men are disturbing in nature.... but I prefer seclusion while trying to concentrate on something!

The husband got this MacBook Air specifically for me... so that I explore and learn something! You all know me, I only use it to write blog posts. He got me this when I asked for a pair of diamond earring .... imagine who I live with! This computer box is a fearful thing to me, the reason why I sit at home.  I left the job at the last school for this reason.... I hated those routine works of preparing lesson plans... what is the need of it, damn it. A teacher and student's interaction should be free flow... it comes from within... a teacher will do some home work prior to the next class and never read from the text book.... just use it as a reference.... Many may remember Bengal's syllabi and way of teaching in our time.... students mugging up ten years question paper and vomiting in the answer scripts.... that does not create leaders and think tanks.... and that faulty education system gets dumbos like me a master's degree with pretty good numbers.... useless... absolutely!.... I am happy that the son is in a different system and doing it all by himself... and his friends too are doing better without a private tutor for each subject. When the husband was a friend long back.... he used to say looking at the interviews of the "first boy or girl in Madhyamik".... 'do not they feel shy to say that they had nine private tutor for each of nine subjects? It is the teachers who should get the award!' Today I feel it is true in a way!

The above does not have any connection with today's food share, perhaps loving to eat CHIRER MURKI since my childhood made me a nut.... Had the mother fed me some "brahmi shaaker juice" .... I could have got a clue why the two trains criss-crossing each other stopped at a point instead of taking their own courses. Only KC Nag's Alzebra book saved me you know!

Anyway, I may not have learnt Mathematical Equations at all.... neither Life's Equations .... toughest seems the Social Media Equation .... Until six months back I thought we should like those posts that seems beautiful to our eyes.... gosh! It turned out to be something else! I am the kind who says to herself.... "nikuchi koreche liker.... beshirbhag jinish dekhbo na, bhabbo na, like botamey angul choabo na"..... Instead I go out for walks, go down and enjoy the ripples, will do until the residents complain of a rhino playing water polo in the swimming pool .... and yes.... take some silly clicks... Not sharing them? Ok, will do that when my mood permits! In between all these.... my cooking venture continues... in fact takes the lead! One such day, I prepared this CHIRER MURKI ... During our childhood, I saw the grandmother made tins of them .... 'Chirer Moya' was what I was up to this time.... but one needs a bit more expertise to bind together the cooked mixture of flattened rice or beaten rice and jaggery.... so the lazy me went ahead with a murki. My men will not touch it... its a personal favourite snacker. CHIRER MURKI requires few ingredients to be made...... beaten rice... the thicker, chewy variety....good quality jaggery, peanuts, ginger extract, camphor powder a bit, shredded coconut ... thats it.

INGREDIENTS :

Chirey / Flattened or Beaten Rice : 250gm [I used the thicker variety]
Jaggery / Anker Gur / Bheli Gur : 75gm [I used a bit of coconut rock sugar & sugar crystals too]
Toasted Peanut or Mixed Dried Fruit : 2-3tbsp
Ginger Extract : 2tsp
Camphor Powder : 2pinch

Ghee / Clarified Butter : 1 tbsp
Shredded Coconut to garnish when you eat

PROCEDURE :

"Chirey takey kulotey niye ektu jherey nao"..... Most of us do not have a "kulo".... so we will take a big strainer .... add the beaten rice to it and .... hold it with two palms and move it in slow, circular motion for 2-3 minutes.... 

Heat a clean wok not used for making curries or anything that uses turmeric to moderate and add the clarified butter; add and dry toast the beaten rice & mixed dry fruits for 3-4 minutes. Take down and keep in a bowl.

Now heat the same wok again! Add the jaggery, coconut rock sugar & sugar crystals, a small cup of water. Keep stirring and whatever scum deposit atop we see, we have to remove and throw away that!

We will add a bit of ghee now if we wish to!

Once the jaggery gets sticky which may take some 7-8 minutes of slow cooking, we will add the ginger extract & camphor powder, mix well.

Let us add the toasted chirey or flattened rice now and fold in very well so that each grain of the beaten rice is coated well. 

Switch off the gas. Transfer the entire amount to a bowl and keep in open until it cools down.

Now, we can keep it in a clean, airtight container for 4-5 days without refrigeration. 

Whenever you wish to pour some amount on a bowl, garnish with shredded coconut and enjoy... get a cup of tea for yourself if you are someone like me!

CHIRER LADOO

I wished to prepare something easy, fuss free, simple ahead of Diwali, something with whatever ingredients available in my kitchen without killing much of my time. During this festive season, we are quite busy cleaning every nook n corner of our homes, decorating them with diya, arranging for "rangoli" / powder colour painting or whatever in whatever way we can. Actually, Rangoli is not exactly a thing of our community, but it looks too beautiful if done properly! I like those made with flowers but I am not an artsy person! Alpona; that is patterns painting is our kind of Rangoli, our maternal aunts had been really good at.

I am loving to roam around the Diwali Bazaar that is held here every year, it gives the feel of a home away from home. Colourful diyas, painted pots, wall hangings and all kinds of home decors are flooding the market. It feels like buying them all but they are pricey. Besides all these, we need to prepare some homemade goodies too. This time it is Chirer Ladoo / Flattened Rice Ladoo for me.

There had been the practice of preparing Chirer moya among us, grown up eating them made with whole flattened rice and jaggery. Mine is a different one, a simplified and quick one. Done with few ingredients, it is tasty! I am sad being unable to do exactly the family recipe of chirer moya!

INGREDIENTS :

Chirey / Poha / Beaten Rice : 200gm
Skinless Roasted Peanut [unsalted] : 2tbsp

Cashew Nut : 10-12
Jaggery : 3 tbsp
Sugar : 1 tbsp
Green Cardamom Powder : 1/2tsp
Raisin : 10-15

Melon Seeds / Char Magaz : 2 tsp

Milk Powder : 2 tbsp
Ghee : 2 tbsp + 3 tbsp

METHOD :

In a wok, heat 2 tbsp of  ghee. Roast the peanuts at a very low heat. They should not burn.

Add the chirey / poha / beaten or flattened rice and keep stirring at low heat for 3-4 minutes. Switch off the gas stove and let it cool.

Grate the jaggery or crush them with a rolling pin. Wash and soak the raisins for 1/2 an hour.

In a blender add the roasted beaten rice, peanuts, cashew nuts, jaggery, sugar, 1tbsp of ghee and the green cardamom powder. Grind them to a coarse powder.

Transfer to a plate. Strain the water from the raisins and add to the mix, also 2 tbsp of ghee & the char magaz / melon seeds.

Grease your palms with ghee & shape them into round balls. This is a bit crucial part!

Our flattened rice ladoo is ready within an hour. Store them in airtight container & refrigerate the extras!