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
You can also try the other bhorta recipe
- Potato - 2 medium
- Egg - 2 medium, hard boiled
- Onion - 1 medium, sliced
- Dried Red Chili - 2
- Garlic Cloves - 5-6
- Salt as per taste
- Mustard Oil - 1 tbsp
- Fresh Coriander Leaves ( optional) - chopped (for garnish)
- Fork
- Boiling pot / pressure cooker
- Mixing bowl
- Knife
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