30th May

Yesterday I made a fancy chicken tart and my whole Saturday morning went towards preparation of the tart. That's how my usual weekends go. When I start with Monday, I promise myself that the next weekend is going to be a no-fancy-dish-weekend but by the time it is Thursday, I am already planning out what new thing to cook over the weekend. Which eventually translates to slogging all day long in the kitchen on the only two days I get off. I guess my love of food outweighs my love of loafing. 

But with much resolve form past two weeks I have started practicing no-fancy-food Sundays. This approach actually worked better than the resolution for no-fancy-food-weekends. Now I slog only on Saturdays to make a lavish spread, and Sundays are meant for rustic, easy peasy and healthy homely affair. Things which can be made in 30 minutes to maximum 1 hour. We have been having different khichudis or seddho bhat or maggi tossed with assorted vegetables and so on. I wanted to aimlessly look at the monsoonish sky and smell the flowers in the remaining time. Not to mention clearing the backlogs of photo editing, blogging, instagramming, reading, working on a novel, watching series and a gazillion stuffs which does make me feel like I need another weekend just to recuperate from all that!

The point is, that weekends do not look like weekends we used to have as kids. Now we are doing 'something' 24x7. Pure unwinding is never possible. So at least on a cooking front I managed to save some time. Since today is a Sunday, I woke up leisurely, had a cup of tea, leafed through the newspaper, fed the stray pigeons and then only I stepped into the kitchen. I had my plan straight - its going to be the super easy and super delicious Aloo Bhorta and Kolai Daal with Ilish Mach Bhaja. Hasselfree fare which everyone would relish. 

But once in kitchen I kept feeling guilty of just cooking something as simple as a aloor bhorta, so I decided to add a couple of hard boiled eggs to it. Why not glam up the regular bhorta a little? The doctors are anyway recommending everyone to consume eggs for natural zinc intake. 

I have mentioned earlier as well, that bhorta is a quintessential accompaniment in the Bangladeshi cuisine, but in the western side of bengal (in India) not so much. But still folks who have their roots in east Bengal love making bhortas even if they might not be as varied as their counterparts. Aloor bhorta is the most basic bhorta. In plain english, it is mashed potato sans the butter and cream. The mashed potato we have is a zesty counterpart with spiciness from chili and zing from mustard oil. 

The dish itself can be customized based on personal tastes—with or without the egg, raw or roasted onions, fresh chilies in place of dried, more or less garlic and so on. But one ingredient that remains a constant in any Bhorta recipe is the mustard oil. Its like the core taste profile of a bhorta and has no other substitute whatsoever.   

Check out a few of the dal recipes you can try this with

• Lau Data Diye Motor Daal
• Moong Daal Kalo Jire Diye
• Tetor Daal
• Aam Daal
• Kolai Daal 
• Masoor Daal

You can also try the other bhorta recipe

• Chingri Bhorta

Ingredients :

• Fork
• Boiling pot / pressure cooker
• Mixing bowl
• Knife

Procedure: 

1.  Boil the eggs. I used a pressure cooker for the same. Fill some water in the cooker. Keep a bowl in between and place the eggs inside the bowl. Pressure cook for 2 whistles. Let it rest till the pressure dies out. Open the cooker and place the egg in an ice bath. 

Tip: Coat the raw eggs in mustard oil before placing in the cooker. This prevents the egg from cracking while boiling. The ice water will help in easy removal of the egg shell.

2. Now prepare the seasoning . Chop the onions in thin slices, halve the garlic cloves. In a non stick pan, on medium heat dry roast the garlic. Keep aside. Then dry roast the onion slices. When they start browning and you get a charring smell, add 1/4 tsp of oil and sauté the onions. Keep them aside.

Note: Instead of dry roasting the onions you can use raw onions in this bhorta as well. It will give a different flavor which also tastes lovely.

3. On medium flame roast the dried red chilies, till the skin is charred. This gives a nice smoky flavor to the bhorta.

4. Wash the potato well to remove any dirt from the skin. Make wide slits in the potato (like hasselback potato). Boil for about 2-3 whistles in a pressure cooker.

Tip: You can keep the skin on or off as per your liking. I like both ways.

Tip: To prevent getting extra moisture into the potato there are 2 simple tricks. Either boil the potato with skin on. Or in the pressure cooker take water and then place a bowl in the middle with the peeled potato. Both the techniques prevent excess moisture in the potato.

5. The key to having a buttery smooth bhorta is mashing the potato when they are still hot. Take out the potato from the pressure cooker once cooked and with a fork mash them up quickly. Once its nearly mash, use your hands to give it the final smooth texture by kneading it.

6. Now add the charred chillies, roasted garlic, onions, mustard oil and salt. Give it a good knead with hands, breaking down all the big pieces of garlic or chilli.

Note: Vary all these ingredients as per your taste.

Note: Don't substitute Mustard oil with refined oil or olive oil. Mustard Oil gives the much needed zing to the bhorta which cannot be recreated by any oil Oil or substitute.

7. Cut the boiled egg into quarters and now add it to the mixing bowl. Mash everything together. 

Tip: If you want some texture of the egg, then don't mash the white portion of the egg too much, so you get a little bite when you eat.

To add a little freshness, you can add about 1/2 tsp of chopped coriander leaves. This is completely optional.

Serve hot with rice and Kolai Daal (Urad daal).

5 May

I was visiting my aunt in Mumbai in 2018 during the winters. My mesho(aunt's husband) was working in Nabard and fortunately just during the weekend I was visiting, Nabard had setup Nabard Haat, a fair-cum-exhibition of local handicraft where Local and rural artisans from different states showcase and sell their products in more than 100 stalls.  It was spread out in a very big ground and was a big crowd puller. Things like Madhubani painting, sattu, pickle, papad, khadi clothes, Sambalpuri saris, Kerala clay utensils, pulse etc. were selling like hot cakes. It reminded me of the Krishi Mela (agricultural fair) we used to have in IIT Kharagpur annually.  Since back in my childhood days, there weren't many entertainment zones around, we would really wait for this fair where people from the area would showcase any agricultural products. And my main motive to visit the fair was to have the lovely food it would have. It was also the first place I had tasted the Butter fried fish of the famous Benfish brand (Bengalis would surely understand the nostalgia in this!). 

It was in this Nabard Haat that I saw a little shop selling Kerala pots and pans. Immediately my eye hovered on the Meen Chatty sitting on one of the corner of the shop. I so badly wanted to purchase it. While my aunt deliberated whether it was an authentic Meen chatty, my mesho said since it was a Nabard organized event, these were authentic local artisans. Even though the price seemed a little expensive I got the desired Meen Chatty finally. 

The Meen Chatti or Kerala Clay pot has always sounded fascinating to me. The first time I had seen anyone cooking in it was Peter Kuruvita in "My Sri Lanka" Series. He would effortlessly cook fabulous dishes on these clay pots in stunning locations and I used to keep imagining how amazing the food might taste because it was getting slow cooked on a clay pot. The earthy aromas would surely infuse and create a magic in the dish. 

Due to its numerous health benefits, Ayurveda suggests cooking in a clay pot. The food being cooked in an earthen cookware makes it aromatic and retaining the nutrition, minerals that include calcium, magnesium, iron and phosphorus. Clay being alkaline in nature helps in neutralizing the PH balance of the food by interacting with the acid present in the food and hence acts as a natural detox. The porous nature of earthenware allows for slow and even cooking, while retaining the natural juices in food.

Now, every time I thought about cooking in that chatty I was like, I don't want to blacken or harm to pot and kept pushing using it. Eventually I completely forgot about it. And very recently while housekeeping I 'discovered' it. This time around I decided I had to use it, so I followed the standard seasoning steps for the pot and got the pot ready in a week. Since it was a Kerala pot, it was only justified that the first thing I tried had to be a Kerala preparation.

I fell in love with Kerala cuisine when I was staying in Navi Mumbai. I stayed there for many years but only at the fag end of my stay I realized there was a Kerala House in Vashi, which was not very far from where I lived. The anonymity of the place was attributed to the fact that it was tucked away in an  obscure corner behind the Raghuleela mall in Vashi. It basically is the Culture center of the Kerala state Government that has a canteen within the premises.  A no frill place, they serve authentic Kerala Sadhya and you can order a side of chicken or fried fish. But the meal is just outstanding. Even if you are not a Malyali you will definitely end up loving the simple food. I remember it would get crowded fast, hence if you wanted to have a meal you needed to be at the place soon. 

The next time I had Kerala food was in Kerala itself. We dissed the gourmet restaurants and would always wander to the local cafes serving fish curry rice and appalam (papad). The ambience might not be great, but the food would be really finger licking good. Kerala food also has some similarity with the Bengali food culture hence I loved it even more. Any cuisine which has a heavy fish influence is close to my heart. Just like the Malvani cuisine of Maharashtra.