16 June

সবাইকে জামাইষষ্ঠীর শুভেচ্ছা ||

Today in Bengal, Jamai Shasti is being celebrated. Jamai means son-in-law and Shasti means the sixth day of shukla paksh according to the Hindu calendar. This festival is predominantly celebrated in West Bengal.

The legend behind this festival goes like this - there was once a very greedy woman who used to eat up everything cooked in the house. When asked, she blamed it on the cat. The cat being close to Goddess Shasti, complained to Her about this. In order to teach the woman a lesson, Goddess Shasti hid all the children of the woman. Being punished, the greedy woman performed rituals before the Goddess and prepared delicacies in order to please her. The Goddess was eventually satisfied and decided to return all her children. Since then all women started performing the Shasti puja for the welfare of their children.

Just like every other Bengali festival, food is the most important part of the festival. The mother-in-law cooks a lavish feast for the son-in-law. Non-Vegetarian dishes dominate the platter with fish taking the obvious centerstage. 

But on this occasion, I am going to talk about a very versatile recipe today. You can use practically anything to go with this recipe - eggs, fish, prawn, paneer or even vegetables. Among vegetables this works wonderfully well with Potol (Pointed Gourd). I have made this infinite number of times and even made it for my office colleagues who loved it like crazy, so I know this little family recipe is a winner.

Unlike other Bengali Egg curries which has potato, this particular recipe is made without any potatoes. Its a rich, flavorful, sweet and spicy curry which needs very little time to whip up and tastes out of the world. This recipe is curated by my mom and took me a lot of time to perfect. Though it has a super simple ingredient list and procedure, the key to making this curry is frying the onions in the optimum way. It transforms the taste of the dish totally, if you do not fry the onions correctly. The other important thing is addition of jeera powder. I had started cooking this curry when I went to US and didn't have much experience in cooking. My mom would explain and guide me with the recipes over skype and I used to try and create something edible in my kitchen. For the longest time I would not add that small pinch of Jeera powder and always ended up wondering why this curry didn't taste as tasty as my mom's version. Very recently, one day when I saw my mom making this curry I discovered that the magic ingredient was that small hint of Jeera powder. It made the flavors bolder in the curry. And when this is done with seafood it takes this to a very different level. So even if it is your mom, they rightly say, chef's don't always give away the whole trick to a dish! My mother used to say the same about my grandma, so I know it :D.

You can make this with poultry eggs as well, but hasher dim (duck eggs) really take the taste of this dish a notch up. Duck eggs are pretty much just like chicken eggs, except they are larger and richer. They're higher in fat and lower in water content. The taste is more richer and creamier. It is a family favorite for us. Unfortunately in Pune it is very difficult to get Duck Eggs where I stay. Now a days though BigBasket is having the option but it is like super super expensive. I remember last time I visited Kolkata, I had bought a dozen Duck eggs from a villager lady in the local market and it was Rs.12 per egg as compared to Rs 6 for a poultry egg. Here is it almost 3 times the price in BigBasket. But when you have a special occasion like Jamai Shasti, you feel all too generous and feel like going gourmet. 

So here it is a lovely rich Egg curry to make for all those dinner times when you want to relish a delicious egg curry without much hassel. The whole recipe gets done in half an hour's time and thats one more reason I love it so much.

Check out a few festive recipes for Jamai Shasti from my blog

• Kakrar Jhal || Crab Curry
• Bangladeshi Mutton Tehari
• Dhakai Morog Polao
• Dak Bungalow Chicken
• Morich Mutton
• Bread Malpua
• Fulkopir Malaikari with Paneer || Cauliflower with Cottage Cheese
• Macher Matha Diye Moong er Daal
• Narkel Diye Cholar Daal
• Gobindobhog Chaler Payesh

Ingredients :

• Wok
• Pressure cooker
• Knife

Procedure: 

1.  Boil the eggs. I used a pressure cooker for the same. Keep a bowl in the middle of the cooker. Fill some water in the cooker, till 1/4th bowl is immersed.  Wash the eggs and smear some mustard oil all over the eggs. Place these eggs in the bowl and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Let the pressure die out then open the lid and put the eggs into an ice bath. 

Tip: Applying mustard oil on the egg surface prevents it from cracking during boiling in a cooker.

2. Remove the shells and make a few cuts on the egg surface. Coat these eggs with a pinch of salt and turmeric. Shallow fry the eggs for a couple of minutes till it gets a little color on the surface. Keep aside.

3. Slice the onions and slit the green chilies.

4. Take a wok and heat refined oil. When hot temper it with whole jeera. When fragrant add the sliced onions. Cook on medium heat with cover on. Keep checking occasionally and add a dash of water if the onion starts sticking to the wok. Fry the onions till they are soft and oil separates.

Tip: Frying the onions is the key in this recipe. It should be fried till fully cooked and oil comes out.

Note: If you are using this recipe for vegetables like Potol (pointed gourd) or Paneer, then temper with 2 cardamom and 1/2 inch cinnamon bark. Replace refined oil with mustard oil.

5. Add the dry masalas now - red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric, jeera powder. Add the sugar and salt. Add the slit green chilis. Cook for 5 more minutes till the masalas are incorporated.

6. Add 2 cups of warm water and give it a good stir. Add the fried eggs. Cover and cook till done.

Serve warm with steamed white rice or Indian Flatbreads.

6 June

My birthday month is here! And just one day to for for my birthday. I am excited for another lockdown birthday.

Meanwhile the unlock process has started in Pune. It feels like a Deja vu from last year. After a long time I heard kids playing in the garden of our society. I really really wish to travel somewhere this year, once the wave dies down. It has been too long since I have been on the road or on the mountain. 

A small health update, I got my first vaccine shot last week. And no it was not through the cowin portal. My company had setup the vaccination drive across all its centers and Pune was the first location. The process was super smooth as it was handled by the admin team of our company. Jehangir Hospital facilitated the drive in our Hinjawadi campus. They were administering Covishield to us.  One entire floor was kept for the drive and there was separate section for men and women. After the shot, the doctor gave me a strip of Dolo 650 and asked me to have one tab immediately and rest only if fever is there. I took the medicine and for the next 30 minutes we had to wait in an observation room for any adverse side effects. It had a doctor stationed, refreshments and some beds in case someone felt sick. I had no symptoms whatsoever in those 30 minutes. The certificate of inoculation was immediately available on the cowin site. 

Here comes the main part. I did not have any symptoms apart from some pain in the arm where I got the jab for next 8 hours. Around 8 PM I started feeling a little lethargic and tired. I didn't feel an appetite as well during dinner time. Therefore I ate moderately that day. Post dinner the feeling of lethargy increased and I felt sleepy and heavy headed. I went to bed early and around 12 AM I felt severe chills and body pain. In sleep also I was shivering badly. There was mild shortness of breath. I took the Dolo and went back to bed. As I tried to sleep I noticed I was developing shooting headache. After trying to lie uncomfortably for 10-15 minutes I got up and noticed the headache was better if I sat or walked instead of lying. But the problem was that I was super feverish and it was taxing to walk around. So I went back to bed and tried lying down once again. It was almost over an hour after which I felt the fever subside, but the headache was a constant even the next day. I had nausea, appetite loss, fever the whole of next day. Appetite was heavily impacted. So much so that I had to take a leave from office as I was unable to sit for long. The symptoms started subsiding towards the evening and by 8 PM I was feeling much better. I felt hungry too. No fever came during the night of the second day. 

Third day, the fatigue remained and I was getting tired with a little talking. I kept it as a working day but was resting frequently. The pain in my left hand remained the entire 3rd and 4th day. By the end of 4th day I felt getting back to normal again. I think mine is one of those rare cases where all the side effects of the vaccine manifested. Research says the side effects are more prominent in the below 55 age group of people and especially women. Later I got to know from one of my colleague who already was infected with covid sometime back, that the side effect of the vaccine was much worse than when he had actually contracted covid. A couple of other team members also confirmed they had similar symptoms. That is my experience of getting jabbed for the first time. I cant say that I am not scared for the side effects when I take the second jab, but then it has to be done. Will update my experience of second jab when the time comes.

Meanwhile to perk up my mood over the last weekend after such a terrible two days of bedrest, I thought of going back to baking something easy. When I was visiting my aunt in Mumbai on the new years eve during 2018, she took me to a pretty café and we bought some chicken quiche for ourselves. Actually it was my cousin brother who wanted to have quiche in the first place and that's why we went and got. I had never had quiche before that, and not even heard about it. It looked to me like a savory tart. The first bite into it took me to a different level of ecstacy. I was in love with the gooey creamy center oozing with deliciousness and succulent chicken chunks. They were mini quiches, of the size of my palm. That memory had been with me for the longest time now. Quiche was something on my checklist of to do recipes. 

This time, with the second wave of lockdown I stumbled upon a brand Unroll which had the answer to my pastry cravings. They have a wonderful selection of products ranging from Bake Puff pastry Sheets, Short Crust pie pastry Sheets, Cinnamon Swirls, Garlic Baguette, Cheese Garlic Baguette and more. Its a boon, if you want to bake a super delicious pie or a pastry puff in no time which is also failureproof! They were generous enough to share with me two of their products - the puff pastry sheet and the shortcrust pastry sheet. The delivery was smooth even in times of restrictions and the delivery guy gave precise instruction to me how to keep it frozen till ready to use. I loved the delivery experience. The products are available in Bigbasket or you can directly order from selected stores.

With the beautiful shortcrust pastry I decided to make a quiche. My dream of recreating that memory was just about to be true. And since I wanted a loaded quiche, I added spinach, mushroom and onions along with the chicken pieces. It turned delicious beyond my imagination. Both me and my mom were head over heels with the result. The short crust pastry was just too good as a base.

I didn't face any challenge even if it was the first time I was working with frozen shortcrust pastry sheets. I kept the pastry sheets at room temperature for approximately 60 minutes till the time when gently pressed with hand it left a dent and I could easily unroll it. After you do it for the first time you will be at ease. Though the packet instructions say not to freeze back the remaining sheet, but I did and it doesn't cause any issue when you use it again later.  

If while thawing you accidently break the sheet, don't fret, just bring the piece together and roll on them with a rolling pin gently to seal any breakage. I faced a minor challenge while removing the paper from the frozen sheet. It got stuck with the dough. So I rested the dough in the refrigerator for 5-7 minutes and after that the paper came out clean from the dough easily.

Ingredients :

• Skillet
• Fork
• Brush
• Paring Knife
• Rolling base and pin
• Pie Mold

Recipe Video

Procedure: 

1.  Preheat oven to 180 Degree. 

Note: I made this in the convection mode of microwave at 200 degree.

2. If you have frozen pastry sheet then you need to thaw it as per the packet instructions. It can be thawed in the refrigerator overnight or in room temperature for minimum 40-50 minutes.

Tip: When you thaw it at room temperature, keep checking the pastry sheets every 15-20 minutes whether its ready or not. Gently press the ball of your finger in the middle of one of the sheets. f your finger leaves an indentation, the pastry is ready to be used. 

Note: To thaw in the microwave, remove 1 pastry sheet from the box and outer wrapping and wrap in a paper towel. Microwave on HIGH for 15 seconds.

3. Slice the mushrooms and onion.  Wash the spinach and drain the water. Chop the spinach into medium size. 

4. In a skillet, heat oil and butter. When hot, add chopped garlic and a pinch of salt . Sauté for a couple of minutes.

5. Add chopped onion and spinach. Sauté them till the spinach starts to sweat, for a about a couple of minutes. Squeeze the water from the spinach and keep aside. 

6. In the same pan add a knob of butter. Sauté the mushrooms till they sweat and caramelize a little. Take it off the flame and keep aside.

7. Slide the butter cube into the same pan. Once hot add the chicken pieces. Add salt and pepper powder. Fry on medium flame, till the chicken is done. Keep aside.

8.  Now in a large mixing bowl crack open two eggs and add 1.5 cups of fresh cream, 1/2 cup milk, salt and Italian seasoning. Whisk it to prepare a smooth sauce.

Prepare the tart base:

1. Roll the shortcrust pastry dough out on a well-floured work surface until it’s approximately 12-inches in diameter. Transfer it to a 9-inch glass deep pie dish. 

2. Using your fingers, press it firmly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Then fold/crimp/ roll over the overhanging dough. Prick the bottom and sides of the pie crust all over with a fork to prevent the crust from bubbling. Place a parchment paper on top of the pie base. Add some pie weights ( beans, rice, sugar etc.) on top. 

3. Transfer the pie crust to the pre-heated oven and bake for 15- 20 minutes, until par-baked.

Assembling the Quiche

1. Now add a layer of mozerella cheese on the par baked quiche shell. 

Note: It is recommended to use mozzarella to get the gooey texture, but if you do not have mozzarella use any cheese of your liking. You can also vary the amount of cheese.

2. Evenly add the sautéed spinach, chicken, mushrooms and onion on top of the cheese layer. 

3. Now pour the egg mixture to fill out all the gaps

4.  Now cover it with aluminum foil and bake in the pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the eggs are set and a knife inserted in center comes out clean. 

Let it cool before serving. Sprinkle a little more Italian seasoning and serve with a crisp green salad on the side or some wine.

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).

April 25

Calcutta or Kolkata. A city known for its food and culture, where hospitality and love are synonymous with lip-smacking grub. Chowmin, fuchka, egg roll, vegetable chop, Moghlai, biryani - the list is endless. Bengalis staying out of the state, when visit their hometown, one of the primary agenda is to scarf down street food. The calorie counts can come later, but the street food cant wait. I don't think we have this many variety of street food anywhere else in the country, which Kolkata has.

The ubiquitous Egg Toast is known by several names in Kolkata. Call it Dim Pauruti, Dim toast, French toast the charm of this simple dish remains unaltered. I think for 25 years of my existence or even more, the only French toast I knew was the egg dipped breads grilled to perfection. And like me most Bengalis of the same era, had the same understanding, before social media told us, French toast was something sweet and cinnamony and was an elite dish!

Growing up in Kharagpur, the only snacks served at our home was the ones made by mom. When we went to Grandpas home during the holidays, then we would get a taste of some of the Kolkata street food like chop and egg rolls bought for the evening snacks. But back at home, it was all home made by my mom. She had become a pro at making different innovative snacks because both me and dad loved to eat. The egg toast or dim pauruti was one of my favorite snacks. And at times I would also ask ma to make the same for breakfast. She cut the bread into 4 pieces and then fried the egg dipped breads. Those squares were delicious with a generous dip into the blood red Maggi Tomato Ketchup and few slices of onion. 

When I went to college, I stayed in a girls PG in Salt Lake Kolkata. We had a set menu throughout the week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since my college was pretty far from the PG, I could never have 3 meals in a day as it was not possible to come back for lunch. Therefore on weekdays I used to eat the lunch for breakfast and then have dinner at night. Thus my weekday breakfast would usually consist of Mach bhat (fish rice) and a serving of veggies and daal. Some of you might think how can we eat so much for breakfast, but when you don't have an option, you get used to it. I still wonder why I didn't think of carrying the breakfast in a tiffin box and could have same for lunch, that way I didn't have to go hungry till dinner. It never occurred to me back then that I could flip the meals and stay full. 

So usually I would end up hungry by the time it was lunch. All my classmates apart from a few boys who stayed in a nearby PG, were staying in their own homes. So they would bring delicious homecooked meals which would fill the classroom during recess. I think that's one time I used to miss home a lot. Most of the days I would go hungry at lunch time as I didn't have a tiffin. and some days if my friends asked me to share their meal I would do that happily. But it felt like an obligation at times, so I turned down most times. My college was considerably new back then, hence the food they served in canteen was very limited. Mostly pre-packed snacks, biscuits and chips. So in the initial college years I never went to canteen.

After 2nd year of engineering, the canteen actually started serving some real food which was made to order. Most of my friends would hang out in the canteen at any given opportunity. But somehow I felt I was bad in a big group and introvert so I avoided going to canteen too. Plus, I had a notion that college canteens were meant for discussing politics and other affairs - which I was totally not interested in. It sounds so funny in my head right now that, I didn't even like to gossip much back then. I just kept to my studies and was a teachers pet you can say. I think I was a little weirdo back then :D

Then one day out of sheer hunger stepped into that place and ordered something which sounded familiar to me - the Dim pauruti. In fact I remember I was so elated to find it on the menu. It instantly reminded me of mom's egg toast. The dim pauruti that the canteen made was no where near to what mom would make, but when you are hungry, any food seems like a gourmet affair. The thick slices of bread dipped in minimal egg and vegetables tasted like an elixir. For the next two years, I was still not a regular in the canteen, but whenever I happened to be there, I would order the Dim pauruti for sure. 

Later on outside of our campus many food stalls came up. It happened when Sector 5 in salt lake saw the rush of development. But by that time we were almost in the fag end of our engineering years and visited college very less. But I remember one of the stalls which served Maggi, had become my personal favorite. But I will reserve that story for another day :)

I tried to recreate those memory filled days through this preparation. During this pandemic situation when you are stuck at home, all those old memories come flooding back unconsciously and make you remember all the bitter-sweet days spent decades ago with people some of whom have faded away with time and some who are still there to remind about the journey you had.

Preparation Time : 5 minutes