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Curries & Stories

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The holiday season is already here and I am feeling very festive. I took a leave for two weeks and wanted to really have a laid back end of the year. Movies, baking, cooking, shopping and decorating are the major activities I am indulging into. I never knew baking could be so much fun despite being messy :P. 



Yes I am quite messy with the kitchen when I am baking. Still need to get the hang of the stuffs and do things systematically. Its usually the recipe sheet lying on one corner, newspaper laid out for straining the flour, mixing bowl, chopping board and ladles and whiskers , well the list is never ending. But still I'm in love with baking.


From the time I got the microwave I was planning on baking something savory, muffins to be precise. I wanted to bake something with my favorite veggies, but getting a good recipe was the main task. Then one i really liked which had mushrooms. Read it here. But then I tweaked it and added all the veggies I wanted or had in pantry. I wanted to add spinach but unfortunately it wasn't available in the house and I was lazy to go out and get it.

Find the recipe below. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed making it!


Preparation Time: 20 minutes  
Baking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 5 muffin
Cuisine: English

Ingredients:
  • Mushroom - 5 , finely chopped(filling), 1 - sliced (garnish)
  • Broccoli - 3-4 florets finely chopped
  • Zucchini - 4 gm, finely chopped
  • Garlic - 5 fat cloves finely chopped
  • Butter - 1 tbsp
  • Flour - 1 cup
  • Baking Powder - 1 tsp
  • Cheese cube - 1
  • Milk - 90 ml
  • Egg - 1
  • Refined oil - 30 ml
  • Salt as per taste
Procedure
1. Finely chop the mushroom, zucchini, broccoli, garlic. Keep some fine slices of mushroom aside for garnish. Take a pan and add the butter. When it sizzles add the chopped vegetables and saute till the raw smell is gone. You can add a pinch of salt just to cook the veggies faster. Make sure the broccoli retain its vibrant green color. Keep it aside.

2. Mix the flour and baking powder. I strained the flour before mixing. Grate the cheese and fold in. I kept 1/4th of the cube for garnish.

3. Mix the wet elements (oil, milk, egg) and whisk them in medium speed to make a uniform mixture. Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture and fold in. Adjust the salt level. Add the sauteed vegetables and mix well to make a thick batter.

4. Preheat oven to 180°C or 350°F. I used silicon muffin moulds. Grease the inside of the muffin cups with a little butter and use a ladle to pour in the batter into each mould. Make sure you leave enough space in the mould for the muffin to rise and take shape.Garnish the top with mushroom slices and grated cheese.


5. Bake for 15-20 minutes in convection mode in the pre heated microwave. The muffins will be done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Enjoy your muffins with green coriander sauce or any sauce of your liking.




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Winter is here and everything is already so beautiful. Winter is a time for going on a gastronomic frenzy as the produce you get at this time of the year are simply so fresh, flavorful and tasty. 

I am having a gala time in my kitchen exploring many new dishes, adding new dimensions to existing traditional dishes, creating fusion of Bengali and Marathi cuisine, its just too much fun! 

When I am alone I usually avoid preparing leafy vegetables as its a hell lot of hard work to clean them. At the same time I just love the greens. Give me any leafy vegetables and I am a happy person. But the amount of hard work deters me every time. This time since mom is visiting me, I dared to try out a number of leafy vegetables. Chola shaak or Chole ka saag or Harbhara is such a thing.

Mom says, I have had chola shaak as a kid. But by seeing the shaag I couldn't recollect. Only when I tasted it did I remember that I indeed had tasted it earlier. Usually other years we get the whole bush of Chola Shaak along with the green chola, but I didn't notice chola shaak being sold. The chola shaak which has chickpeas are not suitable for this preparation as the leafs are dry and hard. The shaak which is just sold separately needs to be picked for this recipe.

Actually I went overdrive with this leafy vegetable thing due to my colleagues who would bring different greens every day to lunch. Maharashtrian saak recipe usually has shenga or peanuts in it which I totally love but never tried making myself. So this time I thought lets make it the Marathi way. But then mom wasn't too confident neither did I have the time to look up in net. Hence we mutually agreed to do it the old Bengali way with fish. I had some good potions of Rohu in my pantry too so everything fell into place.

Once the dish was made and I tasted it, it revived a good lot of childhood memories. The earthy flavor of Chickpea greens really is out of the world. It goes very well with steamed rice alone. I finished my whole rice just with this and didn't even touch the other dishes. Do try this simple yet tasty preparation if you happen to get these leafy vegetable anywhere near you.

Preparation Time: 60 minutes or more 
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4
Cuisine: Bengali

Ingredients:
  • Chola Shaak/ Chikpea greens/ Harbhara - 1/2 kg
  • Green Chilli - 3-4
  • Jeera / Cumin whole - 1 tsp
  • Turmeric as required
  • Salt as per taste
  • Refined Oil/ Mustard Oil - 2 tbsp
  • Fish - 250 gm (Rohu  curry cut (peti) / Shoal fish head)

Procedure
1. Cleaning the shaak:  This is the most important, tricky and time consuming part of the preparation. You need to separate the leaves from the stalk as soon as you get it from market. Because if you keep it in fridge it will wilt and become difficult to separate the leaves from the stalk. 

Pic Courtesey : Internet
Separate the soft leaves and soft stalks from the hard stalk. Now wash the leaves. I usually take a big strainer and keep it inside a bigger vessel. Then I fill the strainer with the shaag and let the water run over it. The water accumulates inside the bigger vessel. And now you can dip the strainer two three times inside that water so that your shaag is clean and less water is consumed for cleaning.
2.  clean and marinate the fish/fish head in salt and turmeric for about 10-15 minutes. Fry them in mustard oil and keep aside.

3.  Heat a pan and add mustard oil. When its hot enough temper it with cumin and split green chillies. When the cumin is fragrant add the washed shaag. Add turmeric and fold in. 


4. The shaag will sweat and start reducing. Cook till all the water is evaporated. Adjust the salt.

5. Add the fried fish. With the spatula break the fish as small as you can and mix well with the Shaag.

Note: The dish can be prepared without fish as well. Fish is just to add an extra flavour to the already flavourful greens.

Serve it with steamed rice and daal.



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About me

I am a software engineer by profession and a writer at heart. Born and brought up in Kharagpur, I moved to the city of dreams Mumbai when I got my first job. Till then I had not cooked a single dish in my life. Not even Maggi or tea. My dad had a strong belief that his little princess never will be in a situation where she had to cook for herself. Hence I was not allowed to spend time in the kitchen till I was studying.


So when I faced the daunting task of living alone, dabbas came to initial rescue. After that I managed a whole year on just boiled vegetables and rice. And then I landed in US. The bounty of fresh produce and cooking ingredients available in the super marts eventually lured me into making my very first meal ever. There was no turning back after that. I finally discovered how much I was in love with cooking and being creative in the kitchen.


This blog is a humble attempt to present our culinary heritage to one and all and document some of the very traditional recipes which gets passed on through generations just by word of mouth.


So just sit back with a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy the curries and the stories related to each.


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