TATKA CHANA O MUSHURIR DAL ER DHOKAR DALNA

         

This CURRY was done sometime last May, then I forgot all about it. Yesterday, I was scrolling the Google Photos and found this FRESH PANEER / HOMEMADE COTTAGE CHEESE & RED LENTIL MIXED SAVOURY CAKE CURRY / TATKA CHANA O MUSHURIR DAL ER DHOKAR DALNA PHOTO; if we can call it so. DHOKA is a BENGALI style cooked LENTIL cake. I do browse my earlier blog posts from the previous years and find in them a lot of flaws; I mean, the recipes are okay but the pictures clicked are horrid and who told me to write so big irrelevant stuffs, anyway? Yet, when I see the number of visitors in each of my posts in those days, I cannot stop envying myself. They flocked in few thousands; now look at me! They reduced to a minimal number. Yet, I cannot be what I am not. How can I go against my nature and be communicative, participate in discussions, take part in contests, go out of my way and share other's works in my space? I find business associations very complicated and not my cuppa. I am about six years in to FOOD BLOGGING; yet did not not get who is whose friend, which post I should like and comment when. 

All this while, I knew what catches my eyes should get a hit; then, I learnt social media does not go by this simple rule. What I could do is try to understand what SEO, SERP are, how to use them to get my blog noticed among so many. Till date, I do not know the meaning of "algorithm", how it works. Earlier, I noticed some days, visitors from RUSSIA, GHANA, CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, ETC. visited in flocks; did not understand which recipes they were browsing. After the new BLOGGER feature came around, I can see those who flocked from the far off nations are not to be seen. My own motherland does not have any interest in me, they had shown so long I blogged only about paneer, baingan, kofta and likewise. Bengal itself does not allow me, they have their own reliable people who work as a group and hardly will allow anyone else to be seen. A couple of times it felt, people known to me have pressed the report button in different food groups, so that Facebook restricts me from posting my recipes in groups for a period. Yes, it strongly felt so. In a way, I feel happier now being myself, not being considered a threat to anyone. Sitting all day at home to post my stuffs at a specific gap is not my cuppa. The "bots" are very much responsible for my diminishing visits.

Anyway, because I could get rid of the number of visits per day mania, I can live my life! Yesterday, I was walking towards the Indian Market area to have "puttu & jilipi"; stopped midway and had a chicken biryani & blueberry syrup drink. Tomorrow, I shall visit the Bangladeshi shop for a boyal / wallago cat fish, then walk little further to have "puttu & jilipi." I really wished to do a fish share today, in fond memory of a very fine, internationally acclaimed, Bengali actor Soumitra Chaterjee. And why not? We have so grown up watching him; moreover our place of birth is same. Then, I felt let me do a VEGETARIAN FOOD share. This TATKA CHANA O MUSHURIR DAL ER DHOKAR DALNA may not be an authentic BENGALI RECIPE, but all the ingredients used are Bengali. In all, it is Bengali in essence and done in the lines of DHOKAR DALNA. We can call today's share FUSION BENGALI FOOD. You see, 2020 has seen many a deaths, even untimely deaths. Soumitra Chatterjee left us last week, a couple of notables did leave also in the same time period. Then, we cannot pay homage to each one, each time. I can only do it when I feel connected to the one who leaves us. That does not mean, I am not honouring the others. It means I have not learned about all the areas in my life or took interest in or I am culturally backward!

INGREDIENTS :

MILK : 500 ML

RED LENTIL : 1/2 OF A MEDIUM TEA CUP

CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1 TBSP

LEMON JUICE : 4 TBSP

CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP + 2-3 PINCH

BAY LEAF : 1

GINGER PASTE : 2 TSP + 1 TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1/2 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 11/2 TSP

ASAFOETIDA : 2 PINCH

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP

CINNAMON POWDER : 1/4 TSP

GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1/4 TSP

CLOVE POWDER : A PINCH

SUGAR : 1 TSP + 1 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

GHEE / CLARIFIED BUTTER : 2 TSP

OIL : 3 TBSP 

PROCEDURE :

Wash & soak the mushurir dal / split, de-skinned red lentil  in a bowl for an hour. 

Meanwhile, we will do the paneer / chana. We will take the milk in a vessel, switch on the gas oven and bring it to boil. 

Once the milk has boiled for 4-5 minutes at low heat, we will add the lemon juice mixed with 2-3 tbsp of water to the milk and stir. 

As it curdles, we will switch off the gas stove and strain it with the help of a fresh piece of white cloth. We will tie the cloth and hang for half an hour. 

Because we are not making rasgulla, we need not be particular. Then we will take the paneer on a plate.

We will strain the dal; do a paste of it in the blender.

We will heat 1 tbsp of oil in a wok and temper it with 1/4 tsp of cumin seeds & the washed, chopped green chillies.

We will stir it for 1/2 a minute and add 1 tsp of ginger paste. We will stir it for a minute.

We will add the lentil paste and a little of turmeric, salt & 1 tsp sugar.

We will stir cook for 2-3 minutes and add the fresh paneer and a little of cumin powder. We will mix the entire thing well and cook for 3-4 minutes more.

We will transfer it to a container and let it rest for 1/2 an hour.

We will cut it into desired shapes! We will heat the oil and fry them lightly.

We will heat the rest of the oil and temper it with the asafoetida, cumin seeds & a bay leaf.

We had prepared earlier a paste with 1 tbsp ginger paste, red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt and mix well. 

We will add it to the wok and stir for 2-3 minutes at minimal heat. We will add 1coffee mug of water; stir and bring it to boil.

We will add the cinnamon + green cardamom + cloves powder & sugar to the gravy and let it boil at low heat for 5-6 minutes.

Thereafter we will add the FRIED PANEER & LENTIL CUBES OR CHUNKS to the curry, the CLARIFIED BUTTER too.

We can enjoy the curry either with hot CHAPATI, POROTA or STEAMED RICE.

 

OVEN E NARKOL KISHMISH DIYE PAURUTI ALOOR SNACKER

Today is "BhaiPhota". Among us, on this day, we pray for our brother's health, peace, prosperity and long life. Be it a younger brother or the elder, it is the sister's pleasure to wish him or them with all her / their heart and buy some gifts for them. A plateful of sweets is a must in offer, besides meat & fish curries, luchi, polao. Its been ten long years, I have not given "phota" to my brother except in 2016, when they visited us on Kali Pujo & Bhai Phota.  It is an auspicious dot of a mixture of  red & white sandalwood, yogurt, eye kohl, ghee, rice grain to be put on the brother's forehead. I remember, how I used to prepare fresh kohl applying ghee / clarified butter on bel pata / wood apple leaves, held it on top of a burning diya / earthen lamp, the ghee would burn to get kohl.

My brother is not fond of sweets; I will not share a non-vegetarian recipe today. What to share then? I must share something that my entire family would love to have. For us, if it is not meat & fish; a SNACK works too good. An evening with TEA / COFFEE & VEGETARIAN OR NON-VEGETARIAN SNACKS works wonder. Such an evening always holds special in my life. I can prepare innumerable number of APPETISERS; each day one variety throughout my life and have them; I am not allowed to. But at least once a week FRIES & FRITTERS happen in our home. The son immensely loves TELEBHAJA, so does his mother; the father loves but keeps his health above his love for fried stuffs. Cristine says, "ma'am, so hot" but enjoys having. The fact my son is a single child does not mean  he will not be taken into the account in the family occasion; so here is a VEGETARIAN, HEALTHY, SNACK with POTATO, BREAD, RAISIN, COCONUT FLAKES, GREEN PEA, SWEET CORN, GREEN CHILLI, SPICES; just perfect for all my readers to have and treat their guests with. To avoid too much use of oil, I cooked it in MICROWAVE OVEN using only two tablespoon of oil. I named it OVEN E NARKOL KISHMISH DIYE PAURUTI ALOOR SNACKER.

It felt very satisfied doing it because it was done yesterday evening all by myself. It was a Sunday & Cristine's off day. We were watching "The Secret of the Saqqara Tomb" in Netflix, all of a sudden it felt I do not want curries, roti or rice for dinner. This idea popped up and by the time the high priest Wahtye's skull was in the hands of the rheumatologist, I was done with the prep work of the snackers to be made. It took an hour to do the preparation, then they slept in the refrigerator for over two hours. Thereafter, cooking them in the microwave, in grill mode was no big job! Then, one more movie Spartacus was going on but I did not watch it minutely, understood the reason for the downfall of the Roman Empire but. Besides the entertainment, this STARTER, OVEN E NARKOL KISHMISH DIYE PAURUTI ALOOR SNACKER caught our fancy. I also cooked some store bought chicken karage to go alongside. 

Except the hot salsa sauce, the rest of the sauces are me made; did you check my recipe of AAM SHORSHE KANCHALANKAR CHUTNEY, a no cook sauce made of mango, green chilli, black mustard? By the way, get this BREAD & POTATO snack RECIPE enlisted in your to do MENU list.

INGREDIENTS :

BREAD : 6-8 SLICE [I USED WHOLEMEAL]

POTATO : 3 MEDIUM SIZED

SWEET CORN KERNEL : 1 TBSP

GREEN PEA : 2 TBSP

RAISIN : 11/2 TSP

COCONUT FLAKE : 11/2 TBSP

CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 2 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1TSP

CUMIN POWDER : 1 TSP

CORIANDER POWDER : 1 TSP

DRY MANGO POWDER : 1 TSP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP

SUGAR : 2 TSP [BENGALIS WILL NEED THIS]

CHILLI TOMATO SAUCE : 2 TBSP [THIS MOISTENS THE MIXTURE]

OIL : 2 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

I had ground the bread slices with my hand, fingers to be precise. This will take 6-7 minutes.

I had washed and pricked the potatoes with a fork, took them on a plate and microwaved at high for 5 minutes.

Once cool, I had peeled their skin.

I had soaked the green peas, sweet corn kernels, raisins for 10-15 minutes.

I had added all the above to the torn bread, mashed the boiled potato, added the coconut flakes to it. I had folded in well all of them roughly.

Then, I had added the oil, chopped green chillies, chilli-tomato sauces, salt & turmeric.

I had mashed the entire thing well and tasted a bit. My Bengali tongue wanted some sugar to be added and I did, mixed well. We eat brown sugar these days.

I had torn smaller portions from the mixture and smoothen in between palms to form coin likes.

I refrigerated them for over two hours. Can you see the plateful sitting on the watermelon?

I had greased an oven proof plate with few drops of oil and placed the snackers on it. Mine is a convection mode microwave; I had placed the wired high stool inside it and on top the plate.

I had cooked them in grill mode for 10-12 minutes.

I took the plate out, turned them over.

I had again put them back on the wired high stool, cooked in grill mode for 4-5 minutes. They should be done.

We must serve and have the OVEN E NARKOL KISHMISH DIYE PAURUTI ALOOR SNACKER hot with different kind of chutneys, achar, sauces.

SOY MILK MOONG DAL ER PAYESH

 Those were the days in Kolkata when I immensely loved "MOONG DAL BURFI" / SPLIT DE-SKINNED YELLOW MOONG BEAN SQUARES cooked in ghee / clarified butter. Honestly, in pure Bengali sweet shops, they did not have much demand besides typical Bengali sandesh varieties, roshogolla & pantua. From our childhood to teen hood, there were not much non-Bengali kind of sweet shops in the suburbs of Kolkata. One day, whilst in senior school, I discovered those split & de-skinned yellow lentil sweets with finely chopped pistachios on top and thought of trying one. It was on that day, I fell in love with any SWEET made of moong lentils, gram flour too. 

Later while in college, I got more exposure; explored more kind of shops, Ganguram to all those in Hathibagan, and found solace in ladoo. Till date, I love them. If you ask me about the NON-BENGALI variety of SWEET I love; they are moong dal burfi, also the one we used to have in Kolkata supposedly made of roasted moong dal powder, sugar, ghee. Because I loved it, I also love semolina ladoo, besan ladoo; chandra kala & surya kala are a favourite too. May be because I am a ladoo in academics; I love any kind of ladoo, even those made with sattu; the mother used to do at times.

Today, I really wished to recreate Moong Dal Burfi in my kitchen and share. But with the kind of festivity around, I had to think of a GLUTEN-FREE share. So I cooked this SOY MILK MOONG DAL PUDDING; because I prefer a BENGALI touch in my shares, I named this VEGETARIAN DESSERT;  SOY MILK MOONG DAL ER PAYESH. The soy milk may have a little of sugar, but I used no amount of SUGAR, but only HONEY.

Today, I am not in the mood to write a long post, I did some necessary buys, sent our help home. I went for a walk; I was listening to some good old Bollywood numbers, romantic melodies I used to love and still love. When I am lost in another world far from practicality, I do not like thinking of "bazaar ghat" but actually I have some cooking this evening, I am going to meet someone tomorrow afternoon after a gap of three months; I need to cook for my family and that person. Tomorrow morning, I have to prepare a fresh batch of sandesh, a winter special BENGALI SWEET for a client who would come for a pick up around 12 pm. So, the practical world needs me!

About this SOY MILK MOONG DAL ER PAYESH, it is not as rich as MOONG DAL PAYASAM is. I have not used ghee or creamier, reduced full cream milk in it. Because I wanted a GLUTEN-FREE HEALTHY SWEET as today's FOOD SHARE, I used soy milk which after boil will never get thick & creamier. I felt, a KHEER would lessen my work without compromising with the TASTE, and the chopped DRY FRUITS were a must in it.

INGREDIENTS :

SPLIT DE-SKINNED YELLOW MOONG DAL : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP

SWEETENED SOY MILK : 750 ML

HONEY : 2 TBSP

GREEN CARDAMOM POWDER : 1 TSP

YELLOW FOOD COLOUR : 3-4 DROPS OF ICING COLOUR DID I USE

TOASTED & CHOPPED DRY FRUITS : 2-3 TBSP

PROCEDURE :

We are using the following few ingredients. Okay, I forgot to take in the cardamom powder container.

Let us dry roast the moong dal. This will take 4-5 minutes. Do not brown much.

Then we will take the dry roasted lentil in a pressure cooker and wash well under a tap.

Then, we will take 11/2 coffee mugs of water, stir and close the lid of the cooker.

We will put it on gas top and pressure cook at minimal heat up to 2 whistles. Meanwhile, we will pour the soy milk in a heavy bottomed bowl and put for boil at minimal heat. We will boil it for 12-13 minutes; it will reduce in volume but never get creamier.

At this point, I decided to make a kheer / payesh / pudding of it. 

Once boiled, we will take down the milk vessel on to the kitchen counter and open the lid of the pressure cooker when it allows us. We will mash more the boiled yellow lentil with a ladle or spoon.

Thereafter, we will add the boiled lentil to the boiled soy milk; stir it with a stirrer or beat to incorporate well the entire thing.

We will not mind a bit of grainy matters in the pudding.

We will now switch on the gas stove, place the vessel on it and cook at minimal heat, stirring it continuously. Be very careful, there will be a tendency of burn at the bottom.

After, 7-8 minutes of boil, we will add the green cardamom powder & yellow food colour and mix well.

Just, 2-3 minutes before taking down; add 2 tbsp of honey. Stir well for a minute and add half of the toasted chopped dry fruits!

Transfer the content to a serving bowl. 

Garnish with the rest of the toasted dry fruits once cool. This pudding tastes good when it's warm; can be had chilled too.