BENGALI CHILLI CHICKEN

 

ORIENTAL SAUCY CHICKEN IS BENGAL'S FAVOURITE!

Do I keep saying that our parents never took us out for fine dining? My / our first introduction to a CHILLI CHICKEN was the Bengali Caterer's version! Nonetheless to say, it was a horrible experience! Not all households would have the capability to book the Bijoli Grill Caterers or the Diamond Caterers or the Gupta Caterers. We were middle class Bengalis, went to attend invitations at middle class homes where the caterers would be local, naturally! All of a sudden, the Bengali households wanted a revolution in the food menu, ended up in a "jogakhichuri" combination; chilli chicken, fried rice, fish butter fry, shahi paneer, roshomalai, ice-cream kind of menu! Particularly, the chilli chicken was coated heavily with mixed flour. For many years,I knew the Orientals coat their chicken this way until I had it in Bar-B-Q, Park Street! I loved their Tutti-Fruitti too! I still remember their smiley faced, red moustached floor manager, later he became the manager of the restaurant perhaps!

I LEARNT TO MAKE A DECENT CHILLI CHICKEN!

Post Bar-B-Q, we ventured to the Tangra Restaurants, also Tung Fong and Mainland China several times, we loved their food! We love the authentic Oriental here too, although T say's this island's food is still different from East Asia! Post marriage, the two dishes I learnt to cook first were a matar paneer with lots of tomato sauce and a chilli chicken with less coating of a flour mix! I hardly did cook for my own parents, but my in-laws enjoyed having this chilli-chicken with ruti / chapati / roti / flat bread! It was good to have but it was kind of a funny affair to me! These days I see, Bengalis of West Bengal indeed eat "ruti o chilli chicken"! The thing is I learnt to make this homely MEAT RECIPE; ORIENTAL STYLE with kitchen staples in the mid 90's!

WHAT IS BENGALI CHILLI CHICKEN?

I am not clear where this recipe emerged from in the KOLKATA / BENGALI HOMES. I insist few of the middle class Bengalis knew the concept of fine dining! Moreover, the mother that we have would not travel in a 202 number bus to the notorious Park Circus area with her kids to have chilli chicken, neither our father would hire a taxi to take us for fine dining! Amazingly, he was used to all these in his pre-marriage days in Kolkata! Post my class-10, I ventured out to various eateries with our mother, never to eat a CHILLI CHICKEN! She loves her share of noodles, mostly soupy noodles with chicken & prawns, or either of the one! Later in life, we did take her out for these! She is fond of hot soups that Bidisha makes for her. Her son & husband who are not fond of Oriental food, would prefer a "chilli chicken o ruti" but! My son, our baby loves meat, in soupy noodles to mumma made Oriental chicken to a plain Bengali curry! What does he likes more between chicken & mutton; I could never make out; perhaps chicken! With this amount of love around for a homely Oriental chicken, here is my version of the BENGALI CHILLI CHICKEN, a NON-VEGETARIAN MEAT DISH done with few ingredients! T used to love soupy noodles & American Chopsuey in his 20's, these days he is into Japanese & Western selective food and of course Black Pepper Crab! I wish to chat with baby if he has developed a liking for crab, if he is able to afford a crab or salmon meal once a month! I wish to treat him with mumma cooked food, honestly! He is not telling us if he and his friends have started cooking or not, if they have, this RECIPE is a game for them! Well, the paneer salad you all see is complementing the platter, T had it too! This morning, I cooked noodles for the lunch box, for Cristine & my lunch!

I walked to the RKM today, sad to know we will not be allowed to the venue but can only view online! The mornings of the Pooja week, I like to spend there!There are other pooja happening here, this year we may go for a short while, although we are getting some death news recently!

INGREDIENTS :

BONELESS CHICKEN : 350-400 GM

CUBED ONION : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP

CHOPPED SPRING ONION : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 3-4

MINCED GARLIC : 1 TBSP

MINCED GINGER : 1 TSP

LIGHT SOY SAUCE : 1 TBSP + 2 TSP

CHILLI SAUCE : 1 TBSP [I USED CHING'S]

SESAME OIL : 1 TSP

VINEGAR : 2 TBSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/4 TSP

CORN FLOUR : 1 TO 11/2 TBSP

OIL : 5-6 tbsp

PROCEDURE :

I had cut the boneless chicken into strips and washed well!

I marinated them with 2 tbsp of light soy sauce, vinegar, crushed black pepper & little of salt!

I kept the bowl covered in the refrigerator for at least 5-6 hours! It gives me super soft fried chicken!

Meanwhile,I cubed, chopped, slitted, minced the required vegetables and washed them for use.

I took out the marinated chicken strips an hour before the cooking!

I drained off the marinade before adding the corn flour to it and mixed well.

Remember, we will not add any salt at this stage!

We will heat the oil in a wok and fry the coated chicken in batches just done and not really crispy!

We will take them out.

We will keep off some of the oil and leave only 2 tbsp in the wok!

We will add the minced garlic & ginger, fry until light brown!

We will add the cubed onion & slitted green chillies, soy sauce & chilli sauce, just a bit of salt!

I stir cooked for 2 minutes.

I added the fried chicken, chopped spring onions and the sesame oil; stir cooked for a minute.

I forgot to click the last step!

We had it with hot chapatis; yes, Bengal likes this combo!

SESAME OIL & SOY SAUCE RICE

This was our last night's dinner; the Oriental inspired rice with few vegetables, minced mutton shami kebabs done in grill mode without the egg coat, sunny side ups. You bet, it was a good way to feed the men some vegetables without overcooking. Had I served them a salad bowl of shredded cabbage, cherry tomatoes, spring onions tossed in different sauces; they would not have eaten. If they assured me with the comforting words, "give us meat and we will eat salads"; I would have happily complied, cooked meat everyday for them. I also do not like salads; I force myself to else my system won't  work. There is no word like force in their dictionary.

There were two bowls of left over rice from Wednesday night. This will keep happening if the senior's office is open. He goes for sudden official lunches; brings back his lunch box intact. He comes as late as 11pm without a single message that he will be late. Wednesday night, I was so hungry, yet I waited. I served the son dinner around 10pm, asked Cristine to eat; they retired to their rooms; I was still waiting. My calls were not answered. In this situation, I do not feel like eating; a fear grips in and I expect a call from the police or hospital, even from an unknown woman. I show temper once he is back, more when he says he does not want to eat dinner. Then, I never skip my meals out of anger or whatever. Why would I? Can I live without it for ever? Instead, I make him eat the same food with a little makeover. He cannot waste food. Yesterday night, I prepared this vegetarian, Oriental style SESAME OIL & SOY SAUCE RICE adding vegetables like shredded cabbage, cherry tomatoes, spring onion.

Our father and the man's mother had this habit of throwing away the food in anger. It is the last thing I will do. I am never in the habit of creating trouble for others. The mother-in-law tried a lot of these tactics to keep me under control, I never gave in; I have a life and I have to get out of this situation is what I knew. Our father was definitely a good human but did he ever think the trauma our mother had to go through each time he created such ruckus? She had to lose so much of her self respect wanting him get back in track. People who entered our family way later need not be judgemental about who is good and who is bad. I would ask them to do 1/20th of what our mother has done for the family and then give judgements. Because our father was not in the habit of supporting our mother in every matter; so he was so popular with some. Had the things be opposite; let me see what people had to say. Whoever gives you absolute freedom is always good.

The above is what I never allowed my mother-in-law to exercise on me. On days she had shown attitude which was regular when we stayed together; I would knock her door few times; no answer was just fine; I ate my food. Her loving big sissy and brothers' wives came; fell on her feet and made her eat. People who gather news about me from here & there should know all these. Our mother works all day, cooks, serves and eats her food. She is unhappy now that she has lost the liberty to go out often due to Covid19. If people find our mother troublesome, they had to live with my mother-in-law. What  is my brother's complain against his mother? "See didibhai, it's raining so hard and mani is in the terrace cleaning the fallen leaves. If she catches fever, the neighbours will complain and she will be taken to the quarantine centre, I cannot do anything!" It is a different thing man! However, I never say our mother is flawless, neither the rest are!

When people stay in honeymoon mood for years after marriage; I was going through all these with the husband sailing for months away from the home. Visiting my parents six days in a week was beyond my dream. Happiness, freedom did I taste in April, 2001 when we bought a 550 sq.ft.flat in Ashokgarh, Dunlop More! Oh! my God! Only in the recent years I came to know that my long time friend from college Nishi Pulugurtha lived just in the  opposite house. For six years, I did not know my friends' family stays there. I have always liked her being one of the few students serious about academics in an institution where everyone were relaxed except the economics, physics & chemistry departments, may be mathematics too. The Botany department faired well but was not really serious, I fell for a senior boy from the Botany department who I  never felt the urge to talk to; now cannot find him in FB. Anyway, for the same reason as Nishi, I liked the sweet, thin framed boy coming from Ishapore; who knew he will become such a rebel; anti establishment? Jaydip Sengupta's wife is one author Amrita Mukherjee; a journalist turned author! The journalist couple were  in Dubai, now settled in Kolkata with a young boy; Nishi will know better as they were from the same department, did university too together.

You can understand how engrossed I was bringing up our son in those years. In our six years of stay there; I have talked to my neighbours regularly, even to Nishi's landlord's  family standing in my balcony; they all knew I stayed with a tiny being alone. I knew they had two tenants downstairs; I even talked to the one Punjabi family, never met Nishi. I asked "Shoroshoti" about the residents living in the other side, she only could say "chout indian boudi ora." Many would know the entire Dunlop area has good number of Punjabis. I got my salwar suits sewed by the bhabis. I never wished to leave that area; never wished to admit our son to that new age school. I wanted to put him either in  St. James or DBPC but the husband wished to shift to the new sensation Rajarhaat / New Town area and put him in a new age school I did not want to. You see, none of these franchises can ever be like their main in RKPuram or even like the one in Vasant Kunj.

At that time, I was crazy about putting our son in one of the best schools of Kolkata. Till date I believe, if I had studied in Auxilium Convent or Loreto Sealdah, not even the one at Middleton Row, I would have done something in life. Please ask our Sourav Ganguly da why he shifted his daughter from the Heritage school to the Loreto, Middleton Row. Listen, we have heard Sourav never allowed his wife Dona to wear anything except saree, salwar suits. Does it mean he did not respect her wishes? Did not he defy his business tycoon family to marry Dona when he was not even a star cricketer? Coming to schooling; the good will always win in life, for us mediocre the school really matters. Till date my school does excellent result but students do not learn life skills there, they only study and score. The basic problem is with the teaching fraternity and the school management; they only take into consideration the first 7 to a maximum of 10 students in the class; the rest are like "porey paoa choddo ana." A teacher who discriminates violates the prime rule of being a good teacher. Oh Mani! how she sweated alone to put us in either one of these; Auxilium Convent, Loreto Sealdah, St.James, Calcutta Boys; ran from  pillars to post. We should have made her happy with academics; so I want the son to take himself up there; money comes second to me. Bhai did not fulfil my wish, the son has to. Come, let us share a more or less family friendly recipe, an Oriental style vegetarian SESAME OIL & SOY SAUCE RICE.

The father & brother are not fond of Oriental food. The father is no more, anyway I only serve chocolates to his photo on a regular basis, back home they serve everything he loved from fruits to fish; the brother will be happy to see the mutton shami kebab on the plate. I am waiting to see his favourite political party invading his kitchen one day and asking him to switch to vegetarian food; it will be a fun to see his broken self then. He will understand that the fascist, right wings never can get any good to the society, neither can a mad woman's poor, faulty administration & vote oriented politics; then who?

INGREDIENTS :

COOKED RICE : 2-3 COFFEE MUG
SHREDDED CABBAGE : 2 COFFEE MUG
CHERRY TOMATO : 6-7
CHOPPED SPRING ONION : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1TBSP
MINCED GARLIC : 2TSP
MINCED GINGER : 1TSP
LIGHT SOY SAUCE : 3-4TBSP
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 11/2TSP
SESAME OIL : 4TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Heat the oil in a wok. 

We had some cooked rice from the last night. You can cook it fresh.

We have peeled, washed and minced some ginger, garlic; washed and chopped the green chillies. They are ready on the kitchen counter; also the salt, light soy sauce and black pepper pot.

We have added the minced garlic & ginger to the oil and stirred at medium heat for a minute or until brown. We have added the chopped green chillies now and given a stir.

Then, we have added the shredded, washed cabbage and stirred at high heat for 3-4 minutes.

Next, we added the salt as required, the light soy sauce and crushed black pepper. We stir cooked at high heat for another minute and added the halved cherry tomatoes.

We gave it  half a minute of stir and added the cooked rice. We folded in well and stirred in high heat for 2-3 minutes. We may not require to add salt at this stage; if required, add little. I forgot to click this stage.

We enjoyed the Oriental styled rice with oven cooked shami kebab & sunny side ups.

VEGETARIAN DUMPLING

You have no idea or you may feel how happy I was to be able to do them finally from scratch, without any help. Each time I tried my hands on Tibetan momo or any dumpling, I was left unsatisfied. The edges seemed a bit hard of mine. Last April, one Sumita di here who herself is good cook told me that her Chinese origin neighbours also prepare dumplings throwing them into boiling water. The radar of my antennae caught it immediately, stored it in memory bank. I felt this would be easier for me than steaming because I do not have a proper steamer, I am too unwilling to buy one; not an electrical one, neither those perfect bamboo steamers. We hardly eat steamed fish, etc. why should I? Anyway, I am giving away all my useless buys to Cristine's home in Philippines- stir frying tawa, few cups, bowls, plates, the sailor man's t-shirts for her sister's kids, the sailor man's father's used shirts and t-shirts. Of course some new items would go. She did not order a courier box before X-Mas, says next month she would. She would bear the cost of courier, hence I am not pushing. 

I only requested her to come back after her vacation next December and renew her contract for two more years, else I would die of depression in an empty home, the husband has to fill six stomachs, he cannot sit at home with me. Neither, you would see me partying around, that is against my nature. I cannot get along with people, neither like crowd.... a visit to pubs every weekend with the hubby is not possible.... I can like that atmosphere only at intervals, not regularly. I know some people like me, I will live the way as they do; with totally disturbed sleep pattern; one cannot have the best of both the worlds. What I wish to learn from such people is their quality of not complaining; to acquire the strength to say that "this is my life and I have to live it." I am still not in a mind to go Bengali today, let me go ahead with this more or less successful venture of yesterday, a healthy vegetarian snack! 

May we call this VEGETARIAN DUMPLING? I mean if you do not mind having refined flour once in a while, you can consider it healthy. The filling is simple shredded cabbage, chopped carrot, onion, minced garlic, ginger sautéed in little of salt, black pepper, light soya sauce.

It took me few months to prepare what Sumitadi told me one way of cooking dumplings, throwing them into boiling water. The satisfaction is being able to do it from scratch without any help because it was Cristine's off day yesterday. My men hardly would peep into the kitchen but they did not mind me serving them lunch at 3pm yesterday. Do not look at the duo's photograph, I dislike it; a couple friend gifted it choosing a photograph I do not want myself to be seen as; with or without the knowledge of it.

This home cannot think of having a vegetarian lunch on a Sunday, I had grilled some store bought frozen Chicken Katsu too. The son's plate was ready to be served, the man's wasn't. He would not even get up and enquire, he was busy with wine with olives, had his share of VEGETARIAN DUMPLING with olives, chilli vinegar with garlic, chilli tamarind chutney. I refrigerated the leftover dough, asked Cristine to bring it to normal temperature this morning, knead with a bit of oil. I prepared four porotas to pack the husband's lunch box along with echorer dalna. His snack box had apple and sweets. Our boy is at home and look what he is doing; had gone after his mamujaan in this particular matter. He would not study in a routined manner, you cannot force anything on him just like his father.

The left over vegetarian filling would be going into a vegetarian noodle dish which the son would have with chicken, Cristine with egg. I would go to a food court at the back of our home to again have a banana prata may be after a good swim, my BMI always shows me as overweight.

What am I doing? I am writing a good recipe for you all whilst having a half  boiled egg, butter toast, ginger tea. The egg is causing me heavy feel.

The sun had shown in after few days, the thing is as long as the son is in the living room he would not let any amount of sun ray get in and sneeze all day and night.

Let us proceed with the recipe!

INGREDIENTS :

REFINED FLOUR : 1 & 1/2COFFEE MUG + little to dust
SHREDDED CABBAGE : 11/2COFFEE MUG
SHREDDED CARROT : 1SMALL TEA CUP
CHOPPED ONION : 1SMALL TEA CUP
MINCED GARLIC : 11/2TBSP
MINCED GINGER : 2TSP
LIGHT SOYA SAUCE : 3-4TBSP
CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
WATER : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 1TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Take 1 & 1/2 coffee mug of refined flour, some salt in a bowl, mix well.

They ask never to add oil to dough meant for dumpling. I added water little at a time to get a firm but smooth dough. This would take some 8-10 minutes. We would cover and rest it for half an hour.

Meanwhile, I shredded the cabbage and carrot, chopped the onion, minced the garlic & ginger; washed them all. Oh! Cristine minced the ginger and garlic before leaving home.

We would heat 1tbsp oil in a pan, stir fry minced garlic, ginger for 1/2 a minute.

Thereafter, we would stir fry onion until translucent.

Add cabbage, carrot, fold in well. Add salt as required, crushed black pepper, light soy sauce. Fold in well.

Cooking it would take 7-8 minutes. Transfer the stuffing to a bowl.

We would remove the cover, knead dough again for 2-3 minutes, tear off portions, smoothen between palms.

We would half fill a heavy bottomed vessel with water, put it on gas stove burner for boil. Covering it, we would proceed with making of dumplings.

They ask not to dust with flour, neither use oil. I was really unable to roll without dusting flour, I used refined flour for dusting, yet remained soft for a longer period.

Then we would use a round cap to cut sheets.

Then add filling with spoon, wet edges with little water, closed two ends.

By the time water starts boiling hard, we would through dumplings to boiling water. 

We would cover cook them for only 5 minutes.

We would gently take them out with a perforated ladle, store in covered bowl.

We would serve them fresh & hot with choice of sauces, chutneys, soups.

CHICKEN IN GREEN CHILLI SAUCE

How and why did this happen? Winglet, Wing Stick, Drumlet all in a bowl, a yellow coloured  green chilli sauce chicken? When guests come in, I usually do not add those pieces to the curry I am making to serve them. About the green chilli sauce, it was not a good buy. Even while at stay in Kolkata, I had seen store bought green chilli sauces could not satisfy my taste bud. The last one I got home with much of hope few months back but to my disappointment.... green chilli sauce instead of been hot had an overpowering sour taste. If I want a sour tone I would have a tamarind sauce, would not want it in a chilli sauce. I am planning at least three sauces and chutneys at home sooner, lethargy is not letting me get the ingredients together. I am too unhappy with the taste of "kasundi" we get here, I am not willing to get it from India fearing my dresses, specially sarees may spoil, neither I am willing to consult ten recipes of it to prepare mine..... So I would do something with raw mango that we get round the year, mustard seeds and green chillies, mustard oil, vinegar... and share the recipe too in due course. I would also prepare a better quality green chilli sauce. Quite irritated with the store bought green chilli sauce, I thought of using half the remaining bottle cooking with the leftover drumlets, winglets, wing sticks of the chicken few days after a get together. Thus this non-vegetarian, easy side dish of chicken CHICKEN IN GREEN CHILLI SAUCE was created. It is just fine for an evening to be served with some brown rice, onion dal, semolina fritters, paneer stuffed tomatoes. Even if you are not a non-vegetarian food enthusiast, you can manage a meal with the rest of the items. About the yellow colour in a green chilli sauce chicken, its more about the kitchen light, my poor knowledge of photography, it turned pale green after cooking actually.

It rains throughout the year here, but the monsoon is between October and February. During this period it rains more, climate gets a bit cooler. While many a country wrap themselves in heavy blankets, dab bottles of cold cream on their face and body, we just use a thin bed spread at night while the fans are still on. Yes, my skin  gets drier during this time and I fail to maintain a decent skin care regime. I never had an interest, now have totally lost it. I need to change my profile pictures in the social media forums because I think people should know how I look "now"..... that too requires some preparations like plucking off the greys from the eyebrows, colour my hair. I consider that too much of a job, specially when I an occupied most of the time with reading, cooking and having what I cook. 

All of a sudden, yesterday evening after a cuppa of fine Darjeeling and store bought namkeens, I felt like baking some egg free cup cakes and I did .... I must say cooking and reading gives me the utmost pleasure. The cup cakes went to their snack boxes today along with untimely mangoes.... sorry cannot resist myself from buying mangoes. What went to their lunch boxes is porota and okra tossed in crushed garlic. This foodie had to taste everything before sitting to write this post.... how obsessed I am with food. Within an hour I would have 4-5 table spoon of muri with half a mango, then around 3 pm I would have my kind of fish curry AAR DHONEPATA BATA JHOL with fox tail millet, around 6:30pm I must have coffee or tea with biscuits, around 10pm I would stop for the day having a dinner with fox tail millet and 3 items of what I cooked on Saturday. Even a Rujuta Diwekar cannot do anything to my ever expanding belly area which happens to be two tyred. A swimming session of 50 minutes and few miles of walk alternately cannot be proportionate to this pattern of eating. If I eat totally healthy, the joy of life would be gone. BTW, I did not like the taste of the namkeens, must do it at home sooner.

So all the above activities stores enough energy in me to share the recipe of this quick and easy non vegetarian meat dish CHICKEN IN GREEN CHILLI SAUCE. I remember there was very little bit of spices used in it, the major idea was to finish off the remaining green chilli sauce with an addition of few ingredients of which onion and garlic were a must. 

I although have a PAPAYA CHICKEN recipe in the blog which does not use onion and is yet so good in taste..... I learnt it from Sanak...  since marriage I saw him and his elder sister doing experimental cooking. Okay, Sanak's wife also does so, is a chicken-o-phobic unlike me, I do not agree with her way of life, never will but she earns more or at par with an average male here. We still bond over one factor.... we are submissive in nature.... so people get away doing anything, any damn wrong with us. I have decided to live my life without giving too much importance to the happenings around, my joy would be to live through my offspring's dreams. Sanak's wife cannot live without people hovering around her, even the kinds who bite her back, make her feel small. I can understand she needs people, an aura encircling her 24/7 .... so she gives in to all sorts of non-sense. 

I think we should not come in each other's way and preach to each other.... let us all live our life in our own ways .... giving a blind eye and deaf ear to anything that does not attract us. I have a track record of not talking to my little brother an entire day as a teen, I bathed him, fed him, combed his hair but forgot to converse. He was hurt and complained to the parents. To that girl people had to batter with choicest words, people who lack softness, gentleness severely. If they had to get the devil out of me.... I would not listen to what they wish, nor be warm towards them.... only cold and just formal. I do not wish to be called Ms. Angelic S anyway. Let us proceed with the recipe which is my pleasure always!

INGREDIENTS :

CHICKEN : 500GM MEDIUM SIZED
CRUSHED GARLIC : 1TBSP
SLICED ONION : 1SMALL TEA CUP
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 2-3
COARSELY GROUND BLACK PEPPER POWDER : 1TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2TSP
GREEN CHILLI SAUCE : 6-8TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 2-3TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Wash and pat dry the chicken pieces. Marinate with the crushed garlic, coarsely ground black pepper powder, little salt for 30-45 minutes.

Heat oil in a wok, add the sliced onions. Fry them until golden brown.

Add the chicken pieces without the marinade. Stir at high heat for 3-4 minutes.

Reduce heat to minimal and add the marinade. Fold in well and cover cook for 10 minutes checking in between. We cannot let it burn, if water does not release, add little water.

Open cover, add the green chilli sauce, the slitted green chillies and stir fry at low heat for 2-3 minutes.

Now add 2 small tea cups of warm water. Adjust the salt if required. Fold in well and cook uncovered at the minimal heat for 5-6 minutes.

Yeah we are done. Have fresh and hot with rice. We had some semolina fritters, paneer stuffed tomato and onion dal alongside. That is my kind of dinner, could be best if you substituted the chicken for a crispy fried river water fish.