CABBAGE WITH DRIED IKAN BILIS

The sky is weeping since the morning and I prefer a start with a sunny morning if not a sunny side up. Rain is a poet's muse; I like it too, for some unknown reason not in the morning. It causes more of depression in me; mornings should be bright. Anyway, news that are pouring in are not comforting. People already are facing pay cuts, losing jobs, what next? In this scenario, my "thoka togors" gave me some relief this morning. I came out of my room very late today. I went to sleep too late, in fact early this morning; then weird dreams always disturb my sleep these days. I was just lying on the bed so unwilling to get up which is rare. Because my men are very flexible and we have a Cristine, I can take such liberties. When Cristine was showing me the flowers, the man was already in his work station.

Food is that miracle which lifts up my spirit always, the reason why I cannot follow strict diet regimes. I am so unable to fit into any discipline; I know my health is at risk but really cannot start a day with smoothie. I do like smoothie, oats with fruits & yogurt; just cannot make those a regular habit. Yesterday, in the morning I had one chapati, omelette and a peanut butter toast.

I was chatting with the man, talking about the banana plant in my parental home in which neither he or his family has any interest. I was very happy given the brother have sent the photograph. All of a sudden I remembered we shifted to that home in Barrackpore on 10th of May, 1995 and it was the 25th year of my family living there. I felt let me blog about this non-vegetarian dried fish recipe with cabbage and dried ikan bilis / anchovy CABBAGE WITH DRIED IKAN BILIS that they may enjoy.

Our father forced us to move there from a crowded, bustled DumDum we never wished to leave. He hated DumDum and always wanted to live away from the city. Today he is no more, his wife plants a banana tree; the fruit he so loved. This lady has a very bad habit of chopping off trees, she has cut off a fruit bearing coconut tree as it's roots were growing wide & deep, one mango & a guava tree as local boys used to throw stones to get them, they broke the window panes. She grows a wide variety of flowers. Both me and the brother are so insisting on growing few vegetables on the terrace, she says they call in insects. The brother or his wife are not at all interested nurturing a single plant. I so love a fruit & vegetable garden. The tenants of few years there bought the adjacent plot which was our father's youngest brother's and they have already grown a couple of vegetables the brother says. I was occupied with this banana plant that I got late for a walk; Sundays I get them outside food and Cristine was out to transfer money to her family's account. I went to the mall opposite, got them nasi lemak meal from an eatery chain called QIJI.

Then again I went for my walk, came back and had home cooked food. I only prefer home ordered pizza; I believe restaurant food should be eaten fresh sitting there, else home cooked is the best. This morning, I had asked Cristine to prepare gram flour pancakes for me. India calls it "cheela;" my families never used to make or have.

I must say they are good. The problem is the men would want chicken / egg stew or curry with "cheela & thalipeeth" if served for lunch or dinner. They will never shout at me but would push off the plate. The man would ask Cristine to serve bread & omelette, the son would straightway get food home delivered. In fact, I suspect our boy has secret social media accounts and he may know about his mother's blog. On the day I wrote here the son has stopped home delivering food, that evening itself he called in home delivered food after two weeks. I asked the man if it can be a coincidence! If I ask our boy he perhaps would bang my head against the wall. Yesterday, when I asked for a hug, he had shut the door for the entire day. His father said "besh hoyeche." This kind of people I live with who never would wish me on special days neither would I have enough material to share with you. Could not the son help me with the technical side of my blog? He did it for his school I know. They off course do not stop me from doing what I like with the condition that they should not be involved. However, they both so loved this dish of cabbage with ikan bilis / anchovy; CABBAGE WITH DRIED IKAN BILIS more than me, I would have loved it more with dried Bombay Duck / lotey shutki. My family back home would enjoy it too except a few who cannot have dried fish.

INGREDIENTS : 

CABBAGE : 1 STANDARD SIZED
DRIED IKAN BILIS / ANCHOVY : 100 GM
SLICED ONION : 2 SMALL TEA CUP
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 6-7
GARLIC PASTE : 2-3 TBSP [CRUSHED GARLIC WORKS BETTER]
TURMERIC POWDER : 1 TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 11/2 TBSP
NIGELLA SEED / KALOJEERA / KALONJI : 1/4 TSP
DRY RED CHILLI : 1-2 HALVED
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 5-6 TBSP 

PROCEDURE :

Wash and soak the dried anchovies in a bowl of hot water. I only cleaned the head and stomach as much as possible, later felt discarding the heads totally would have been better. You can do that.

Discard the hard root end and the outer coverage of the cabbage. Wash and shred as fine as possible.

We have the washed slitted green chillies & liced onion, garlic paste ready in hand. If possible use 3 tbsp of crushed garlic instead. 

We will heat the oil in a wok and temper it with the nigella seeds & halved dried red chillies.

We will add the onion slices, fry till brown and add the garlic paste then, shall give it a stir.

We will add the turmeric & salt, slitted green chillies and stir for quiet sometime until the oil and the spice paste are separated.

We will add the red chilli powder and stir at low heat for 1/2 a minute. We can sprinkle some water if required to avoid burning of the spices!

We will add the dried anchovy now. I repeat again, it is better to discard their heads. We will stir cook at low heat for 3-4 minutes.

We will add 1 medium tea cup of water and put the heat level to medium. We will cover cook it for 7-8 minutes.

We will open the cover, add the washed and shredded cabbage. We will fold in well.

We will cover cook at the minimal heat for 30-35 minutes. Every 8-10 minutes, we have to uncover and stir. The cabbage will release water and that water has to completely dry.

We should be done and can transfer it to a serving bowl! Enjoy it more with rice and a little less with roti! We also had "dal o peyazkoli bhaja" on the sides.

GATHI KOCHU DIYE LOTEY SHUTKI

Yesterday was Akshay Tritiya and I missed the date. Many business families there in Bengal perform "Lakshmi-Ganesh" or "Ganesh" puja alone on this day. My memory of the day is of a prayer meet at the maternal grand parent's home worshipping Lord Ganesha and thereafter a grand meal with mutton, few kinds of fish to shukto, shaak, dal, bhaja as a starter. Invitees were mainly those who work in the maternal uncles' business concerns, few other guests. It ended with handing over each invitee a big, fat packet of a variety of sweets always ordered from "Adi Adhar Mishtanna Bhandar". So many memories are associated with that place. I so loved particularly the pantua, chanar jilipi, chanar murki and one unique sweet which was like darbesh but was totally white in colour. I never found that sweet in Kolkata, Raja Krishnachandra's city is definitely known for it's sweets, not alone sharpuria & sharbhaja but a couple of them. Not every year we could make it to that place during this time but few years when we were there, I ate like a monster on this day. Today, I had to do an occasion friendly fish, meat or sweet recipe. However, I am not willing to back out again from sharing this recipe of a non vegetarian side GATHI KOCHU DIYE LOTEY SHUTKI with gathi kochu / taro and loitta shutki / dried Bombay Duck. Both the main ingredients are so frequently eaten in my side of the family! I make my men eat taro. What you should always take care of is adding the tamarind to be sure there is no itching post eating. The taro we get here do not cause itching but still I make it a point to add a bit of tamarind juice towards the end.

Yesterday, I walked few miles and was able to grab few packets of muri & ghee. I ran out of muri, was not getting it locally and felt mad. I had to go to my old neighbourhood which also has two Indian Minimarts to pick these up. What I did not like was catching an MRT back home because it was raining and I already had two packets to carry back home. I am not the kind who is keen on showing buying power often; yet the inability to do a cheap buy when I wish to is depressing. Even more depressing is to watch the salt & pepper look of the eye brows, upper lips & chin growing more prominent. Parlours do not fall under essential services and they are closed. In this scenario, if you ask me to eat less, if you do not allow me to eat my kind of food; I will totally sink in a tank full of despair. I usually eat a fruit platter after having half of a vegetarian curry puff. This little sacrifice I can do for you, I rarely eat a full curry puff. What I bought yesterday shall be shared tomorrow in a public post to tell you that they are really essential for any middle class homes and I am not making unnecessary outings. What is my kind of food? Many of you have known by now, I am so vocal & descriptive about myself. One of such favourites is any dish with dried fish; specially with dried Bombay Duck and I prepare it with any combination of vegetables these days. Each one rocks totally in tune with our taste buds. This one with taro, dried Bombay Duck, onion, garlic, chillies and a good amount of oil GATHI KOCHU DIYE LOTEY SHUTKI is what rocked. In general, shutki maach rocks at this home if only you cook it our family way; for a longer period with a good amount of what are mentioned above.

INGREDIENTS :

TARO / GATHI KOCHU : 300-400GM
DRIED BOMBAY DUCK / LOITTA SHUTKI : 3-4
SLICED ONION : 1/3 COFFEE MUG
CRUSHED GARLIC : 1MEDIUM TEA CUP
SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 7-8
RED CHILLI POWDER : 2TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP
TAMARIND JUICE : 3-4TBSP [I ALWAYS USE IT WHEN COOKING YAM]
KALOJEEREY / NIGELLA SEED : 1/4TSP
HALVED DRY RED CHILLI : 2
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 1/3 SMALL TEA CUP [MY FAMILY ALWAYS USES MUSTARD OIL]

PROCEDURE :

Below are the pictures of Taro Root / Gathi Kochu & Dried Bombay Duck / Lotey Shutki respectively.

The hairy, brown, round vegetable at the centre is taro / gathi kochu. We will peel of it's skin and cut half. We will wash them.

In some cases, your palms may itch while washing them but not in all cases. You can wear gloves.

Once washed, marinate the taro pieces with some salt & turmeric and keep aside for few minutes.

Discard the head & tail of each of the dried Bombay Duck. Discard also the fins.

Now chop them into smaller pieces, wash several times under running water.

Now soak them in hot water for at least half an hour to soften and get rid of any dirt.

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the taro pieces until light brown. 

Take out and reserve to use later. Temper the same oil with nigella seeds & dry red chillies.

Add the washed crushed garlic and fry till brown. Add the washed sliced onion and fry till brown.

Now add the washed slitted green chillies and stir fry for half a minute. Add the dried bombay duck pieces discarding the water it was soaked in.

Fold in and cover. The heat level shall remain minimal from the beginning to the end.

After 12-14 minutes, open cover and add the rest of the turmeric, some salt and the red chilli powder.

Stir for half a minute and break further the dried fish pieces with the tip of your ladle.

Add the fried taro pieces now and fold in well. Add 11/2 medium tea cup of water, the tamarind juice and cover cook at minimal heat until all the water dries up.

It's as simple as that. We also had some "aam diye motor dal er tok and roshun phoron bhindi" alongside to go with steamed rice.