BANANA ORANGE OATS CAKE

AFTER EVERY SPECIAL PRAYER RITUALS AT HOME, I WOULD PREPARE SOMETHING WITH THE LEFTOVER FRUITS!

That too after some 15-16 days post the occasion. I love my choice of fruits but I am not supposed to have too much of them. The man would take a little only in his lunch boxes. The son ate fruits when packed in his snack box. I do not know really if he buys fruits for himself these days. Today, whilst on my morning walk, I saw a 11-12 year old boy in the school uniform having cup noodles. Such scenes make me get  angry at the parents. There isn't any excuse when it comes to parenting. Even if both the parents are working, it is not an ardent task to wake up early, prepare a butter bread toast or boil some noodles, broccoli, carrot, onion; season and feed the child and then send to the school. There is a primary school, a high school, a 7-Eleven outside of our back gate, such scenes are rampant; kids buying packaged food from the stores. I do not think the parents should have any excuse when their kids' health is concerned. I cannot thank the mother enough for teaching us the important lessons about home care through her tremendous dutifulness towards her family. For both of us family & kids are prime; we do not need much of resources to spend partying, chatting with friends. We only have weaknesses for buying saris which are not that pricey, household stuffs. In my case, I enjoy sitting alone in an eatery. I cannot just mingle with people. Most hilarious was a client, she gave me good business a few times and then almost claimed, placed a condition that I have to roam around the island with her. She  might have been a nice girl but I couldn't agree to that. Many a woman in this island made unnecessary calls without any intent to buy food from me. In business, I would seek profit and name, not friendship at all. A person of few words, I had to put an end to this. Although I love watching my friends party, sing and dance; I feel awkward amidst a crowd. There are many in the same food business, unfortunately, the Bengalis too want chole-bhature or idli-dosa on their plate instead of "lau-ghonto, chichinge-boti, dhokar dalna". Bengalis are those Indians who have forgotten their own food; they eat biryani, fish fry, chicken kobiraji, chicken and paneer masala day and night. At least the reels say that. 

WHY DOES OUR SON HAS TO PROVE HE IS DIFFERENT?

It feels he is in constant endeavour to prove he is weird and a rebel. Doesn't his mother pay enough attention to him that he has to behave this weird to get her occupied in his thought 24/7? Some 20 years back, all my friends would say he does all the weird acts to irritate me, that he behaves normal in my absence. Since then, until now; all my attention revolves around him, he doesn't need to do anything for that. May be for few years I became a bit absent minded, I curse myself for that. I should not have missed a single moment of his company. In fact, I need not curse myself, that happened because all of a sudden his father wanted him to be independent; I wasn't allowed to sleep with my child, bathe him, feed him, kiss him, hug him. What emotional upheaval I went through only I know, a void was created. I believe everything has a time, I need not had to be distanced with my playmate after a decade of staying with him alone, he was my only living play dough 24/7 whose childhood I shaped as per my wish. Nope, we are not in a strained relationship, it is our joint decision to keep our son's need our top priority. I do not like people talking about spending lakhs doing the interiors of their home but tell their kid / kids they do not have money to sponsor their kid's education abroad. However, they have money to buy property in two-three cities of India or buy jewellery for the spouse. That way I am proud of the underweight partner, I get angry when both my men ignore my emotional needs. I then keep myself happy cooking and eating. Yesterday, I ate those and gained 500 gm by this morning.

I had more rice than usual because the sides were dried fish, Hilsa fish and veg dal. More of wrong was to have two bowls of puffed rice and coconut. At night, I was to make appam, but the iron wok betrayed, the sides got stuck. The same batter was used in a non-stick pan. Having consumed a big amount of coconut caused me wind this morning, this keeps happening since my childhood. Too much of coconut consumed may cause acidity and wind in many, I am one of them.

WHAT IS BANANA OATS ORANGE CAKE?

I think this is the easiest and simplest of all the cakes I have made until now. Whatever I am unable to do is complex mathematics to me. All those three & four tier designer cakes are as complex as science, mathematics, geography taken together. But I love to bake and keep on doing that. Not only this vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan BANANA ORANGE OATS CAKE is easy make, we found it tasty too. I am  fond of using fruit juices in cakes, not really fond of dairy products, eggs, chocolates. All those chocolate rice & rainbow rice, sugar coated fruit strips atop a cake put me off. Fresh Fruit & Cream atop a cake is a love though the cream would have egg & dairy products in it. That too I avoid after the son relocated. To eat fancy stuffs you have to have an equally enthusiastic partner. He shows no interest, I too do not wish to spend on a choice of pastry only for myself. A Bengali mother would pause and think, "my child might be hesitating to have a 21$ meal in a choice of eatery or he may have skipped two meals to have that over the weekend! Let me wait until he gets a deserving job." However, mumma keeps buying from the Lazada, Shein, saris & kurtis while in Kolkata. This is the time and onwards I / we want the son's concern for us and attention. We are waiting for him to settle. We will see if he gets normal, else what to do, we would keep travelling from the Himalayas to the Kanyakumari. It is not right to complain about your kids unless they cause major harm to you. Anyway, I made myself something between "nonta suji and sujir upma" today, I cannot eat the gooey upma neither I had the patience of sprinkling a bit of water a few times on the roasted semolina to make what I enjoy.

I do not know why the son dislikes upma, poha, dosa. He would love  sausages, bacon, breads on his plate. His father too but he enjoys upma, chirer polao too. It is from him that we have learnt about upma in the early 90's. 

Few similar recipes from the Blog are DRAGON FRUIT CAKE, VEGETARIAN GLASS CAKE, STEAMED TAPIOCA CAKE

INGREDIENTS :

OATS : 1 COFFEE MUG

FRESH ORANGE JUICE : 1/2 COFFEE MUG

MASHED BANANA : 1/2 COFFEE MUG

SLICED BANANA : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

RICE FLOUR : 1/4 COFFEE MUG

CORN FLOUR : 2 TBSP

SUGAR : 4 TBSP [YOU MAY NEED MORE] [I USED BROWN SUGAR]

BAKING SODA : A PINCH OR TWO

BAKING POWDER : 1/4 TSP

OIL : 2-3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Mix together the orange juice and the mashed banana pulps. 

Take the oats, rice flour, corn flour, baking powder & soda in a bowl and mix well.

Add the wet ingredients, oil and the sugar to the dry ingredients, mix loosely. We do not need to beat vigorously.

Grease an oven proof bowl.  Add the batter, tap on the counter to level well. Arrange the banana slices atop.

Mine is a convection mode microwave oven. I did place the low height wired stool inside the microwave.

I preheated the oven at 160*C. I did place the bowl with batter atop the wired stool, closed the door and baked it for some 20-22 minutes. We were done.

Temperatures may vary in different machines. The cooking time may slightly differ in your's.

The only mistake I did was that I sliced the bananas thicker, I had to slice them thinner. If you are eating it fresh, there would not be any issue. If you refrigerate, the banana slices would darken if you wouldn't slice them thick.

VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA

I WOULD WANT TO TAKE A LOT OF PRIDE IN TODAY'S  RECIPE SHARE IN THE BLOG!

The urge to prepare a "dahi vada" platter occured last week. I was there at the East Coast for some work. Still on the bus, I could see a renowned fast food Indian joint, my destination was after 2-3 stoppages. I thought on my way back I would walk to have their chaat. I do not visit that side regular, I eat my first meal late, also the eatery was on my bus route. As planned, I walked to the eatery and ordered a plate of "papdi dahi bhalla". I have no complain about the taste and quality of the food, neither the ambience. But I am not the kind who would want to pay 13$ for one piece of vada / lentil fritter, six pieces of papdi / fried snack, some yogurt, 7-8 pomegranate kernels. Kailash Parbat gives a way big platter including roasted mirchi / fat chillies at that price. Shiv Sagar's 6$ plate houses two "Vadas", may be less decorative. Near the sea it is expensive they say, whilst the son was in school we thought of renting a flat that side. Then, I must stay near the Desi market area. Hence, we prefer always the North-East line, my choice to be precise. Anyway, after paying 13$ for a minuscule amount of "doi bora", I landed into this vegan & gluten-free "doi bora" platter. What is there not to take pride in it?

YESTERDAY WAS A BETTER SUNDAY THAN THE ONE BEFORE!

The man was back from the tour by the Saturday afternoon, we had a late lunch together with fried Hilsa fish. And the leisurely Sundays we spend together watching various stuffs on the OTT Platforms and pestering the son to talk to us. When he travels, a Sunday gets too lonely. But your work comes first because it fills our stomach. What puts me in tension is that he drives 5-6 hours each side alone and through a highway. Who knows if you can feel or not what tension means for a fear monger who suffers from anxiety disorder since the 90's. Whatever goes on my mind, I do not fail to cook well, feed others well, eat well. Last night, I cooked a noodle bowl for the two of us, I had some leftover broccoli, yellow chilli, green beans, used them. The man as usual refused any amount of vegetables in his noodles except for potato, onion, garlic and eggs. Our mother never considered potato as an important vegetable with nutrients, I unconsciously think that way though I love potato, unlike her. 

I forgot to click yesterday's lunch plate but how I loved homemade yogurt with the pomegranate kernels, any choice of fresh fruit with plain yogurt works for me. Then, I can have them as a post meal treat, not as a main meal. Today, it is Dol Purnima / Holi celebrations, the quickest thing I could cook for my God Family is that Whole Wheat Halwa. It is about a month that I am offering fruits to my God Family once in a day, in the other two meals they have brown or palm sugar. I stopped offering snacks thinking we do not eat salty snacks waking up in the morning. Who will eat biscuits every day or sugar crystals?

I used a lot of ghee and roasted the wheat flour, yet I believe I fail to make it as good as a North Indian Home. I love the Halwa varieties.

WHAT IS VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA?

It is that plate whose idea popped up from a sense of dissatisfaction and that it resulted into what I exactly wanted. In fact, I did not expect the Soy Pudding to taste this close to a plain yogurt, I purposefully bought a low sugar, plain flavoured one. I visited the FairpriceXtra to get a vegan yogurt, they stock Cocobella's and Reglan's coconut yogurt. They are pricey and I was skeptical about how a coconut yogurt may taste, at least I have tasted and like a soy pudding that is too light on your stomach. Then oven cooking some oats vadai adding some spices and soaked beaten rice was a cake walk given Cristine helped dressing the pomegranate. How I enjoyed assembling and having a plateful of this VEGAN GLUTEN-FREE DOI BORA !

I also had the fritters separately with my hot cuppa, thats how my men would prefer it. In fact, I have arranged the platter like this because my men wouldn't want a yogurt based chaat bowl. I believe this plate would suit the Iftar & Easter table too, next Monday, I can get the oats-banana cake for you.

INGREDIENTS :

OATS : 1 COFFEE MUG

BEATEN RICE : 4-5 TBSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2 TSP

CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 1/4 TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP

DRY MANGO POWDER : 1/2 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

CRUSHED CUMIN SEED : 1/2 TSP

BAKING SODA : 1/4 TSP [IT DID NOT FUNCTION MUCH]

SOY PUDDING : 300 GM [YOU CAN USE VEGAN YOGURT]

DATES TAMARIND SAUCE / CHUTNEY : AS REQUIRED TO GARNISH

CORIANDER LEAVES & GREEN CHILLI SAUCE / CHUTNEY : AS REQUIRED TO GARNISH

GINGER EXTRACT : 1 TBSP

POMEGRANATE KERNEL : 2 TBSP

GRAM FLOUR POTATO FRIED NOODLE  : 1 TBSP [AUTHENTICALLY THE BOMBAY SEV VARIETY IS USED, I BOUGHT ALOO BHUJIA]

OIL : 3-4 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Powder the oats. Soak the beaten rice in water for sometime, strain and add to the oatmeal. Also add 2 tsp oil, all of the powdered & whole spices, salt to it.

Mix them together very well, knead actually and them shape into patty.

Grease an oven proof plate with a little of oil and arrange the patties on it.

Place the low height wired stool inside the oven and on it the plate full of the uncooked patties.

I combo cooked, grill+microwave at C-02, 15 minutes one side and 5 minutes the other side.

Once they cooled a bit, I brushed oil on them.

To the lightly sweet, natural flavoured Soy pudding, I added a bit of salt and ginger extract, beaten well to get a near taste of our kind of plain yogurt. We must keep it for chilling in the refrigerator.

For the Dates-Tamarind Chutney, follow my this recipe BHAJA MOSHOLA DATES TAMARIND CHUTNEY Else I follow the late Tarla Dalal's recipe of it too. You can use store bought.

For the green chutney, you can paste together some washed coriander leaves, boiled and strained green chillies, salt or follow this blogpost of mine MINT CORIANDER CHUTNEY!

I always would buy the gram flour noodles, making them at home is a complex method, I never had been fond of them, also they are enemy to your weight loss journey. Authentically, they use Bombay style gram flour noodles for a chaat dish, I used Aloo Bhujia.

I would not apologise for the fact that the fritters are not fluffy, I have given you too tasty a snack so that you can forget making a chaat plate and just have them hot with less of guilt. Omit using the baking soda if you want.

 

VEGETARIAN LADOO CAKE

IT MAY NOT BE MY INNOVATION BUT I AM LOVING IT!

I am talking about the cake I am going to blog about today. I have seen "bonde paratha" doing the rounds in the social media, I have seen state of the art ladoo cake in the internet, I cannot be that decorative, neither can eat that amount of sweet. My initial plan was to get an oats cake to the blog today, but looking at the dates of various occasions around, it felt let me share something more of relevant to the Dol Purnima / Holi celebrations. Of course, this suits on an Iftar table. The oats cake can come for the Easter. The actual fact is that I have got a box of ladoo last week and only I had to eat them. Cristine is not fond of desi sweets, the man would not eat anything extra than the bread, noodle, pasta & rice meals the entire Ramzan month, he would have the breakfast and leave for the office without his lunch box, he would eat the dinner thereafter. There is no room for sweets after his limited intake of whisky or beer each night. Sweets & Fruits are only packed with his lunch box at this home. He had been travelling since yesterday morning. Cristine went for her off day yesterday. Tell me what to do all day? I too found the sweets too high in sugar, I cannot eat much of the store bought sweets, I can do them better. This idea to use the ladoos in a cake, popped up all of a sudden. I thought I need not have to add sugar either. It feels bad to eat something without sharing it with the son & the man. Also, the senior of the men would be travelling often now onwards, thats what he says. I cannot live without all my pleasures. Food gets me the necessary high.

AS PART OF OF MY PLEASURE TRIP, BELOW ARE WHAT I DID!

What I eat in a day is pretty alarming, they are all high in starch food. Within the limitations of my inability to eat clean, I try to adapt to certain healthy habits. I try to fry the potatoes in the air frier or in the grill mode using few drops of oil. May be I do not eat this amount of potatoes on a regular basis.

My lunch was broccoli-onion-pasta with a cheese slice atop yesterday. Even when I would have lonely meals, I would arrange it well. Because I am not a good pasta maker or pasta is not among my topmost favourite food, I had to eat a bit of oats+homemade yogurt+palm sugar post the meal. I even love too much a bowl of muesli, do not allow myself; the muesli mix would be high in sugar. At night, I preferred a vegetarian meal. How I love a "dal-aloo bhaja" meal. These days, I love my choice of vegetarian dishes too. I was also watching a series on Hoichoi, Cristine came home pretty late. And today is another day. I miss the early morning & evening time chitchat with the man. About the son, I had to let go for his good but his parents have be together at one place. The kids too are at peace when they see their parents are not fighting much.  And now let us see what I had for my first meal today. It was a blunder. I had soaked some small pearls of Tapioca to prepare "sabodana khichuri", the pearls melted almost. I prepared a paste of it, ginger, green chilli, salt, refined flour; added some fruit salt & water, made those dosa crepes. You can see some were rightly done, some weren't.

The measurements of the ingredients in a dosa batter is important, I want my dosa to be crispy & thin. I cooked that "aloo-peyaz-roshun bhaja" in the air frier using few drops of oil.

WHAT IS THIS VEGETARIAN LADOO CAKE?

As told in the beginning, I was finding the store bought ladoo sweet having too much of sugar, I use way less of sugar in my homemade sweets. After using the ladoos in this easy bake VEGETARIAN LADOO CAKE, I felt I made good use of what was seeming to me too sweet. What brings satisfaction to me is that I used few ingredients that are always present in our kitchen, even the flavouring agent is a natural cinnamon powder. I think I did not do anything, the cake got baked by itself. I do not think you need to add any extra amount of sugar in the cake batter, I did not. If you want you may add the sugar but remember, the ladoos or bonde whatever you are using are good enough substitute for the sugar.

Few other easy recipes from the Blog are these : STOVETOP COCONUT CAKE, BANANA FRITTER, MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE KIWI CAKE

INGREDIENTS :

REFINED FLOUR : 1 COFFEE MUG

LADOO SWEET : 5-6 [ALTERNATIVELY BENGALI BONDE 250 -300 GM]

BOILED MILK AT ROOM TEMPERATURE : 1/2 COFFEE MUG

PLAIN YOGURT : 5-6 TBSP

BAKING POWDER : 1/2 TSP

BAKING SODA : 1/4 TSP

CINNAMON POWDER : 1 TSP

OIL : 4-5 TBSP

I DID NOT USE SUGAR OR HONEY, YOU MAY.

PROCEDURE :

We will take together the refined flour, baking soda, baking powder & the cinnamon powder, mix well.

We will break the ladoo sweets pressing gently, if using bonde sweet then this step is not required.

In a blender, we with take together the milk, yogurt, oil and blend until incorporated well.

We will add it to the flour mix and beat well for 5-6 minutes.

We will add the maximum of the sweet balls to the batter leaving a little. We will give a stir and not beat.

We will grease a cake tin with few drops of oil and pour the batter into it. We will tap the cake tin on the kitchen counter to level the batter. 

We will add the rest of the sweet balls on the top layer of the batter, tap again.

Mine is a convection mode microwave oven, I did place the low height wired stool inside, preheated at 160*C.

Thereafter, I did place the cake tin atop the wired stool and baked at 160*C for 20-21 minutes.

Temperatures vary in different machines, the time taken may be less or more in your's.

Enjoy a slice with your choice of beverage.

 

PRESSURE COOKER MATTA RICE KHICHURI

 I HAVE FALLEN FOR THIS MATTA RICE VARIANT!

Few years back I got home this Matta rice grains that is cultivated in Kerala, loved it's taste. Most importantly, this rice grains being short length, round shaped & hard textured, we would feel fuller consuming less amount of it. Thereafter, I stopped getting it thinking I would eat only a cup of cooked rice every night, why to cook another variety separately for me? But in the past few months, some kind of   dissatisfaction was working inside me having the Basmati rice. I never enjoy my "dal & macher jhol" with Basmati rice. The man of this house wants only Basmati rice on his rice plate. The Barrackpore side of the family too eats Basmati. Earlier, in our younger days, Basmati rice was exclusive, was bought in our kind of middle class homes only for the fried rice, later for cooking biryani. Pulao always is done with the small grain, fragrant Gobindo Bhog variety of rice. In our home, some variants came from Assam too. After relocating to this island, I got to know about the brown, black, red rice varieties and many more of them. I wished to try getting each variety in turns but the man wouldn't eat. What is wrong in pampering the sole earning member in the family, given they do not ask for a lot? Pampering your children comes naturally & jointly in the parents. Arch feminists seem cruel to me, beating around the bush without getting to the core of the issue. I remember, the son did enjoy having fried rice made with the brown or red unpolished rice variants, Cristine too does. I used to cook a red or brown rice when the man travelled to the Malaysia. I stopped getting home different rice grain varieties after the son left home. What's the point crowding the small kitchen with edible stuffs unnecessarily? Also, we need to soak the Matta rice variant in water for few hours before slow cooking it. Keeping aside all the hesitations, I got it home few days back only for myself.

OF ALL THE GOPAL BHAR'S WIT & JOKES, I TOTALLY BELIEVE IN ONE OF HIS SAYING!

For the unversed, Gopal Bhar was one of the navaratnas at Raja Krishnachandra's court, the king of Krishnanagar, Nadia in the 18th century. I was born there, visited the palace every year, my early childhood memories are from that place only. Although, I was not given to read the booklets of Gopal Bhar's jokes, we grew up listening to them by default. One of his such story talks about the importance of the morning toilet rituals, that he told clearance of the bowel in the mornings is the most pleasant feeling for us. As a young girl of sixteen, with colours of romanticism shrouding my mind, the phrase might have irritated me. In our younger days, at sixteen; we day dreamed, blushed, smiled, lip synced our favourite numbers; toilet rituals were not in our thoughts. In the sunset of our lives, it is the most important thing, also there is a repent in my kinds of not studying well at the right time. And today, after few weeks my stored stomach waste got cleared too well. A feel good vive makes me happy & shining bright. This is the right kind of mood for me to go out somewhere but on Mondays, I wish to write a blogpost. The reason for this good bowel movement can be this matta rice mixed with Japanese greens, butternut squash, lentils. Of course greens help a constipated stomach and helps your mood get "furfurey". We indeed enjoyed both our lunch & dinner yesterday.

I am thoroughly enjoying my early morning walks these days. Also you get to see this just at the backside of your home. Nostalgia can be both good & bad for you. We have to control our thought process not to allow nostalgia affect us much. We cannot stop it visiting us at this age when we are almost done with our responsibilities. I do enjoy my present without much of an effort. I feel bad for those in suffering, a  little of guilt works inside knowing I hardly have any contribution getting here in a paradise of peace & security. But my intent is pretty clear, this island must give me a bit of earning to get me work for the needy.

My days are longer now but I do not get bored. Only tension is about the son staying far off. I wished to enrol to some online tuition platforms, do not know how to; they ask to deposit money, submit one teaching video. I do not like the complications involved. Cooking continues, even if is for the self.

It is that time of the year when the man would not carry his lunch box but have a breakfast and go. The problem is when to serve him a sweet, fruits, Bel er Shorbot then? He ate the leftover Khichuri today with a double egg omelette, would have dinner next.

WHAT IS PRESSURE COOKER MATTA RICE KHICHURI?

These days I want to evolve new recipes from the old thinking of these staying alone youngsters. They tend to eat out a lot. I am not against having outside food but that should not be a daily affair. For the past 3 & 1/2 years, mumma kept on warning the son about the consequences later in life, who listens to me? No one would believe that we do not exactly know what our son's diet is like. He eats cheese, bread, pasta, cornflakes, milk majorly, that we have seen. I am an Indian, I believe in the power of the "atta-bajra ruti" or a less spicy vegan, gluten-free rice, lentils, vegetables hotchpotch like this PRESSURE COOKER MATTA RICE KHICHURI over macaroni & cornflakes. My slogan is simple; eat fresh corns instead of cornflakes. To make this one pot vegetarian meal more nutritious and a symbol of integration, I have added butternut squash, Japanese Greens that look like pak choy, potato to the red Matta rice from Kerala. We had a fulfilling meal yesterday. You know our son grew up on such meals.

INGREDIENTS :

RED MATTA RICE : 1/2 COFFEE MUG

SPLIT SKINLESS MOONG BEAN : 1/2 COFFEE MUG

POTATO : 1 BIG

BUTTERNUT SQUASH : 200-250 GM[YOU CAN USE PUMPKIN]

JAPANESE GREENS]

TOMATO : 1 BIG

GREEN CHILLI : 3-4

DRY RED CHILLI : 1-2

CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP

BAYLEAF : 1

CUMIN POWDER : 2 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP

GINGER PASTE : 1 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

SUGAR : 1 TBSP [OPTIONAL] [I USE BROWN SUGAR]

OIL : 2 TBSP

A garnish of butter or ghee atop the finished dish takes it to another level.

PROCEDURE :

I am telling you this matta rice is good for relief from constipation, same are the Chinese & Japanese greens. But if you have a weaker stomach like mine, do not eat too much of greens. 

Wash and soak the rice in enough water for 2-3 hours. Wash & soak the lentils in enough water for an hour. Thereafter, take them together in a colander and let the water drain off. We need not dry them as in a pulao.

Cut the ends of the greens, wash well. Peel, cut, wash & cube the potatoes and butter nut squash. Wash & cut the tomatoes; wash & slit the green chillies.

Marinate the vegetables with some turmeric powder & salt just 10-15 minutes before adding them to the pressure cooker.

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker, temper with the halved dry red chillies, cumin seeds, bayleaf. Give a stir.

Add the strained, semi-dry rice & lentils, keep stirring at low heat for 7-8 minutes. 

Add the marinated vegetables, give a stir. Add the rest of the turmeric powder, salt, cumin+coriander powders, stir well and close tight the lid of the cooker.

Reduce the heat of the east stove to the minimal, wait until one whistle. Switch off the gas stove, let the lid open by itself. Add the sugar to the hatch-potch, stir. I have used brown sugar.

Serve hot with a choice of side. We must add ghee or butter to the khichuri before starting to eat.

MY STYLE KHUSHKA RICE

 WHY DO I FEEL SLEEPY AT THIS HOUR OF THE DAY?

I am struggling to stay awake, my entire being is looking for my soft pillow. It's been few weeks I go for my walks sometime between 5:30 am-6:30 am in the morning. I come back sometime around 7:45 am, I am not the kind who would remain absent from home at the time of the bread winner's departure for the office. Like today he took porota in his lunch box, I would do that. Sandwiches & Pasta Cristine would, I am poor at those. Post 10am, I would go for a swim, come back, take a shower, wake up my God Family pretty late, bathe & feed them. Thereafter, I feel sleepy but do not allow myself to lie down. I may cook something to update the blog, write a blogpost. Around 3:30pm, I perform puja for the second time, prepare my first meal of the day, have and sit to watch something. Cristine usually would do the night time prayer and put them to sleep. I have to start reading regular, everyday, like I used to do when young. What is not happening is exploring the island on foot in the day time. I do not feel like eating out regular like before, may be I have eaten everything that fits within my 10$ daily budget. But at least three days a week I have to pack my bag and get out of my home; a visit to the several parks, monastery, nearby islands is due. One cannot finish visiting the malls here in a lifetime, not eager to. I got pretty lethargic, need to pick myself up and set out. In between, I make several calls & text messages to the son but in vein.

YESTERDAY NIGHT I MADE A DISASTER!

Since last Saturday, I was planning to prepare broccoli flatbreads. Then what happened inside my head, I blanched, pureed the broccoli and tried some vegan & gluten-free dosa crepes for dinner yesterday. Not that they were turning out to be bad, I added too much of salt. We have less of salt these days. I had to have homemade yogurt with beaten rice sprinkling some brown sugar to satiate the irritated self.

I requested the man to have them, cooking rice or roti would have taken some time and he obliged without a noise. This is the beauty of my son and the man, they would not complain or trouble me. The son would keep the plate back on the kitchen counter and order food online. Mumma rewinds all his actions and misses him madly. He lives too far to travel regular. Our lunch yesterday was great with my preferred chicken-potato curry, red lentils curry, my favourite Aar Fish head with vegetables.

What I understood is that Dosa get best from a naturally fermented batter, those instant batters are not for a learner dosa maker like me. I am fond of Rawa dosa though they say it is done from an instantly made batter. We were watching the series Sunflower, season-2 on Zee5 yesterday, it's a thriller. Somehow, I missed watching the season-1. I am thinking of wrapping up the blogpost soon and watching it. We have watched the documentary about Sheena Bora's mystery too, so pathetic. I had a fulfilling first meal with "porota-aloor dom-achar". I love this low priced cake slices; butter, vanilla, marble varieties only when I am not willing to bake a cake.

I have a demon's appetite. Again at night I would have a rice meal.

WHAT IS MY STYLE KHUSHKA RICE?

There was a time I used to love Khushka Rice more than a meat biryani. But in Kolkata, the Biryani hunts would give you Khushka from the meat biryani handi itself if you ask for. I did not have an issue  about it because I eat non-vegetarian food. Khushka is the Biryani Rice. I used to buy it to have with homemade meat curries; chicken or mutton. It had been a wish since then to cook Khushka Rice / Biryani Rice at home. I wanted to know how it would taste without the meat juice getting added to the rice. I felt the vegetarians should also get a taste of the Khushka Rice. This I planned back in the mid "noughties", learnt this word today. The vegetarian, gluten-free MY STYLE KHUSHKA RICE was cooked yesterday. I had it with the leftover mutton & raw papaya kofta from last week.

It is too difficult to cook a vegan version of the Khuska Rice / Biryani Rice, it would not get anywhere near to the flavour or taste of the Kolkata or Awadhi Biryani we are used to as natives of Kolkata. We have to use onion, garlic, milk, yogurt in the making of it.Whilst researching about it, I saw this rice is popular in Southern India, I am sure the taste & flavour would be different from that of Kolkata. The spices used varies. I did not check with any of the South Indian Bloggers' recipes because I wished to be nearer to Kolkata about it's taste, texture, flavour. Although I am fond of Southern Indian Rice varieties, I do not get why they over boil their rice, we cannot eat that way. We want our cooked rice "jhorjhore". Let's do it. I believe had I have used mawa / khoya / semi-solidified milk in it, we could have gotten more authentic a Kolkata Biryani like taste. To save some time, I used the microwave in the last step.

Few other similar recipes from my Blog are as follows; CHICKEN BIRYANI, MICROWAVE MUTTON BIRYANI, GHOROA BANGALI POLAO

INGREDIENTS :

LONG GRAINED RICE : 1 COFFEE MUG [ENOUGH FOR 3 HEADS, I USED BASMATI RICE]

PLAIN YOGURT : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

ONION PASTE : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

GARLIC PASTE : 4 TBSP

GINGER PASTE : 2 TBSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP

KOLKATABIRYANI MASALA : 1 TBSP [TRY MY HOMEMADE - SHUGANDHI MOSHOLA MIX]

BAY LEAF : 3-4

CINNAMON STICK : 1 FAT & 2 INCH LENGTH

BLACK CARDAMOM : 1

GREEN CARDAMOM : 3-4

STAR ANISE : 1-2

MACE : 3-4

CLOVE : 4-5

ROSE WATER : 3-4 TSP

MILK : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP

OIL : 4 TBSP

GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER : 1 SMALL TEA CUP

PROCEDURE :

Let us cook the rice at first. Wash the rice grains well and keep aside for 15 minutes.

Take enough water in a deep bottomed vessel and put for boil. Once the water starts boiling; add the salt, the cardamom varieties, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves, mace, star anise. 

Gently add the rice grains discarding the soaked water. Once the rice is 60% done, drain the water.

In one cup, mix together the milk and the rose water. In another cup, mix together the onion+ginger+garlic pastes+the turmeric powder+some salt. In the third cup, beat together the plain yogurt, cumin+coriander+red chilli powder+the Kolkata style shahi biryani masala.

Heat the oil & half of the ghee together in a wok. Add the spice pastes mix and stir fry at low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the beaten yogurt+spice powders mix and stir fry for 4-5 minutes adding 1/2 small tea cup of water. Take down.

I was in a hurry, I cooked the last lap in the microwave oven and saved about 40 minutes. But I suggest, you slow cook on the stove top. For that, heat a tawa / fry pan, grease a deep bottomed vessel with enough ghee. Add the rice & curry in layers as seen. Add the milk+rose water from the top, cover with a heavy lid. Place the vessel on the frying pan, slow cook at minimal heat for 40-45 minutes.

I have greased a microwave proof bowl with the rest of the ghee. I added half of the cooked rice. I added half of the cooked spice paste, some milk+rose water mix. I purposefully did not add any ghee.

I again added the rest of the cooked rice, then the rest of the cooked spice paste. Actually, push the spice mix down a bit. Add the rest of the milk+rose water.

Place the bowl inside the microwave oven, cover with a microwave proof lid that has a small hole. Cook at low temperature for 10-12 minutes, we should be done.

Remember, every machine has a different temperature setting, the cooking time may vary a bit.

Enjoy it hot & fresh with your choice of sides. The sides can be meat, fish, veg kofta curries, even croquettes or fritters.