Curries & Stories: Side dishes

Last week there was a customer visiting one of our Pune offices from US. I was asked to anchor a few presentations for the customer for which I went to office - first time after November 14 last year. That was the fateful week when I got diagnosed with Sciatica followed by a very painful period of 3 months to recover. I think I will write about my Sciatica recovery journey in details so that it may help anyone looking for some light in the dark tunnel. But that's for a different blog. Let's come back to the present, when I was asked to visit office for the customer visit. The visit went really well as the customer was one of the most kindest and delightful personality, almost felt like he was just like Santa Claus by his personality and looks. So after wrapping up our presentation it was time for lunch. For all such corporate lunch events, usually our company has tie ups with various five star hotels who provide the food based on customer preference of cuisine. This time the food was from Sheraton grand, it was a complete Western platter - Chicken Steak in brown gravy, mashed potato, fish schnitzel and stir fried vegetable as salad. Looking at the brand name of Sheraton, my expectations rose and I was salivating at the thought of having a succulent piece of well seasoned chicken followed by some dreamy creamy mashed potato. In case if you did not know, I just love a good mashed potato, and this was the first time I was about to try one from a five star kitchen. It took just a bite of the mashed potato to abruptly crash my billowing expectations. The mashed potato was bland, grainy, dry and seemed like someone had just literally mashed a boiled potato and served. No where, I repeat not where it resembled a traditional mashed potato, which is supposed to be fluffy, creamy, melt in mouth gorgeous. The Chicken steak lacked seasoning and the gravy was just a lumpy mass. The icing was the fish schnitzel which had a very thin layer of fish and had become cold by the time it reached the table. The customer in fact asked me what was he eating, might be because he did not identify any of the dishes which were supposed to be made as per his palate. No offence to Sheraton Grand, but I felt mortified in front of my customer. At the same time I also realized the mashed potato I make at home is hundred times more delicious and authentic than the one served by the five star hotel.

So it was the obvious decision to share my version of mashed potato recipe with all of you. Mashed potato is like a Bengali Aloo seddho on a sedative! Hence I strongly feel all Bengalis would any day love a mean potato mash. This mashed potato can be enjoyed on its own or you may also make a traditional brown gravy to serve along. I would definitely recommend making the gravy as it just compliments the mashed potato and levels it up deliciously.

Preparation Time : 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 40 minutes

Serves - 2 adults

Ingredients :

For Mashed Potato

Potato - 2 big (skin on)
Water - for boiling
Milk - 1/2 cup
Fresh Cream - 3 tbsp
Butter - 2 tsp
Fresh Garlic - 3 cloves
Fresh ground pepper powder - 1 tsp
Salt - As per taste

For Gravy

Chicken Stock - 3 cups
Chicken bullion cube - 1
All purpose flour - 2 tsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
Butter - 3 tsp
Thyme - 1 sprig
Salt - To Taste

Mashed potato topped with brown gravy

Procedure - Mashed Potato:

1. Wash and rinse the potato, making sure there is no dirt on the potato skin. Make deep gashes on the potato to ensure it is cooked through. Now take enough water in a pressure cooker and add salt. Boil the potatoes in a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles with skin on. Adjust the whistles as per the quality of the potato.

Tip: Instead of boiling the potatoes with skin on, you can peel off teh skin, chop the potatoes in small pieces and boil in water as well. But boiling the potato with skin on ensures the potato does not get watery when mashed.

2. Once the potato is cooked drain the water and peel off the skin. This needs to be done when the potato is still hot so be careful.

3. Using a masher mash the peeled potatoes into a uniform texture. Use your fingers to feel any lumps in the mashed potato. If you still feel lumps then best way is to sieve the mashed potato through a steel strainer, pressing hard to ensure all lumps are broken down and the final mashed texture is lump free. Mash till you get a smooth, fluffy and light consistency. Do not mash too much as this will break down the starches more and make for a gummy texture.

4. While the potatoes are still hot you need to add the butter. If either the mashed potato or the butter is cold then you can put the mashed potato in the microwave for 20 seconds and then add the butter. This will help the butter to melt evenly. Mix well.

5. Now finely grate the garlic cloves and make it into a paste. Add to the mashed potato and mix well.

6. Now fold in the fresh cream and milk mixed together.

Tip: warm the fresh cream and milk a bit before adding to the mashed potato for best results. You can always add more butter, warm milk , fresh cream to get your desired consistency.

7. When everything is well integrated and the texture is silky and smooth, add the seasoning and the pepper powder.

Tip: The salt balance is the game changer in this recipe. You need to add the right amount of salt as per your taste to avoid it being bland.

Serving Tips: Mashed potatoes are served warm. So you can make mashed potatoes in advance and while serving warm it in the oven and add a few teaspoon of milk while you are reheating, then give it a nice stir and serve. You can top it off with some fresh herbs, pepper powder or some butter.

Procedure - Mashed Potato

1. Take a microwave safe mixing bowl and break the chicken bullion cube. Add milk and the chicken stock to this and give it a nice stir. Pop it into the microwave for about 30 seconds making sure the chicken bullion cube is dissolved well.

Check the seasoning in this mixture, sometimes the chicken bullion cube contains a lot of salt, so make sure you check the seasoning and adjust accordingly.

2. Now melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, thyme and whisk together till it turns golden brown.

3. Now add the stock mixture into teh saucepan and give it a good stir. Add pepper powder and stir constantly till the mixture comes to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and continue to stir until thickened. You will see they are slowly turning a shade of light brown. That's your cue to take it off the heat. Do a final taste test and you are good to go.

Serve it over your warm mashed potatoes, steamed chicken or rice and enjoy!

Additional Tip : If you have some leftover gravy then just fry some chicken cubes with salt and pepper and then pour over this gravy, cook for 5 minutes and you have a quick chicken gravy good to go with rice!

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25 September

Maharashtra is a land of unique local flavours. And still it is mainly known for its Vada Pavs, poha, pav bhaji and modaks. I know because I also belong from a different state by birth. People only know food items that are shown in the Bollywood movies but the traditional flavors of this land unfortunately is very limited to the locals. Thus even after spending more than 15 years in Maharashtra, I started understanding and exploring the signature regional cuisines of Maharashtra from only a couple of years ago. Mumbai being a melting pot of various cultures, I hardly came across a place claiming to serve authentic Maharashtrian Thali. I am talking about 12 years ago, it might also be that even if such a place exists in Mumbai I was unaware of. After spending a reasonable amount of time in Pune and due to some local friends and a few team lunch outs, I got exposed to the traditional fares which are uncommon to an outsider to the state. Now I really feel bad that I started exploring the beautiful cuisines of this place so late. Nonetheless, its better late than never!

Maharashtra is divided into 5 main regions : Konkan, Paschim Maharashtra also known as Desh - (Pune Division), Khandesh - (Nashik Division), Marathwada - (Aurangabad Division) and Vidarbha - (Nagpur and Amravati divisions).The coastline of Maharashtra is usually called the Konkan and boasts its own Konkani cuisine, which is a harmonized combination of Malvani, Gaud Saraswat Brahmin, and Goan cuisines. Besides the coastal Maharashtra cuisine, the interior of Maharashtra or the Vidarbha area has its own distinctive cuisine known as the Varadi cuisine.

The cuisine of each of these 5 regions are diverse and yet similar in many ways. From the coastal delicacies of the Kokan where fish curry and rice is a staple to the specialties of Deccan plateau and the fiery fare from heat of Vidharbha in the east, Maharashtrian food is truly unique. Quoting a food article, the North-Western region of Maharashtra which covers areas like Jalgaon, Malegaon and Nasik is known for its extremely spicy curries. This cuisine is called the Khandeshi cuisine which is the hottest cuisine of Maharashtra. Peanut oil, dry coconut and the Lavangi Mirch are the highlights of this cuisine. The curries are identifiable because of the red spicy oil that floats atop and is called 'Tawang or Tarri'.

There is a Maharashtrian Restaurant a little away from my place, where for the first time I got introduced to an amazing dish from Khadenshi cuisine - Kala Mutton. The burst of flavors and how succulent the mutton pieces were literally blew my mind! It was like nothing I had had before. Every inch of the mutton had a infusion of rich flavors from the whole spices, slowly cooked over the wood fire for hours. A bite of the piping hot bhakhris dipped in Kala mutton gravy with a slice of raw onions is something you need to try once in your life to know how heavenly it tastes.

From then on every time I visited the place, that was the dish for me by default. I am so much smitten with this particular dish that I had to try making this at home. I just had to! The main element of the dish of course is the Kala Masala. When you look at the ingredient list you might feel overwhelmed but that is the key behind all the beautiful flavors this curry has. It is definitely a labor of love! I can proudly say, that the mutton made with this kala masala tasted super amazing and everyone at home really loved it. Check out the recipe for the masala below. I will be posting the Kala Masala Mutton Curry recipe soon. Just as a side note, I did try making this with Chicken as well, it did taste amazing but no where near to the one that you get with Mutton. So if you want to try this out for the very first time, make a Mutton curry with it.

Checkout other accompaniment recipes on my blog:

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time : 40 minutes

Serves - 100 gm

Ingredients for Garam Masala:

White Sesame - 1 tsp
Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp
Dry Red Chilli - 4
Black Pepper - 10
Cloves - 3
Star Anise - 1
Bay Leaf - 1
Mace - 1/4th
Naag Kesar (Optional) - 4 to 6
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Black Cardamom - 1
Salt - 1/4 tsp

Ingredients for Kala Masala:

Garam Masala / Goda Masala - 1 tbsp
Onion - 2 medium
Green Chilli - 4
Khopra / Dried Coconut - 1/2 coconut or Fresh Coconut - 1/4 coconut
Fresh Coriander Leaves - handful, chopped
Garlic Pod - 10
Ginger - 1 inch
Red Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp

Equipment:

Kadai
Spice grinder
Iron Wok

Method for Garam Masala

1. Dry roast on medium heat all the ingredients mentioned under garam masala apart from the salt till they are fragrant. You have to constantly keep stirring it so that they don't burn.

2. Let them cool down

3. In a mixer grinder, grind all the dry spices into a fine powder. Preserve this for the next phase.

Method for Kala Masala

1. Cut off the head of the onion and make deep slits in the onion. Now over direct gas flame char the onions until they turn black on the outside.

Tip: I use the onions with the skin. The skin burns and adds a beautiful black color to the final masala.

2. Char the coconut and the green chilies over the flame. Cool everything down.

Tip: If you do not have dry coconut, you can use fresh coconut as well. The quantity will be half that of dry coconut.

3. Now chop the chapped onions , coconut and green chillies and transfer them into a mixer grinder jar. Add chopped fresh coriander, the garam masala prepared in phase 1, garlic pods, green chilis, salt, some water and grind all of these to a fine paste.

Tip: If you do not want to make the garam masala you can replace it with same amount of Goda Masala. But still I highly recommend you prepare a fresh batch of garam masala for better flavor.

4. Heat an iron wok and add 2 tbsp of ghee. Once the ghee is hot add 1/2 tsp of red chili powder. Give it a nice stir till fragrant.

Note: You can use any kind of wok but cooking the masala in an iron wok will ensure it gets a rich black color.

5. Now add the ground kala masala paste and cook over medium flame while stirring frequently. Cook untill oil separates, the masala becomes black and a little thick in nature.

Note : The masala in the picture is before it is cooked so it is still a lighter shade of black. Once cooked it will turn quite black.

You can use this masala to make Kala Mutton or Chicken Rassa. I will talk about that recipe in my next blog post. Stay Tuned!

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Breakfast is the most important meal of the day as it kickstarts your metabolism and keeps you charged up for the day. During childhood days I used to look forward to the weekends when my mother would prepare an array of feasts for breakfast which I would leisurely devour. Fluffy Luchis, tinkona porota(Triangular flatbread), Begun Bhaja(Fried Brinjal), Potol Bhaja(Pointed Gourd Fry),Cholar Daal (Lentil Soup), aloor dom and sometimes accompanied by sweets like Payesh (Rice Pudding), Kheer kodom, roshogolla, jilipi or Golapjam. I was never a fussy eater and loved traditional or experimental food likewise. During those days no one told us to count the number of Luchis we had or the number of sweets we pigged on. Calorie count was something unknown. The deep fried, dipped in oil stuffs were actually savored with extreme delight. Everything was considered healthy as long as you relished it. It was a convention to stuff you kids well which would help them grow – horizontally or vertically was not actually a concern area. Lean and thin kids were tagged as unhealthy and their parents made to feel like a social outcast as they didn’t stuff their kids enough. All foods were healthy, there was no concept of organic or farm fresh food to be safe and others to be unsafe.

I loved to eat and was always on a bit “healthy” side. I remember when I reached my teens and was suddenly going through this height surge, I lost oodles of weight. I had almost started looking like an anorexic. And every time I went to the local market with my dad or mom all the known uncles and aunties would twitch their nose in disapproval over my lean look. They almost indicated that my parents were probably having my share of food as well! But I was not that unhappy as I had started looking taller due to the lean frame and I could slip into any dress and look good. Unfortunately my lean look vanished as soon as the hormones came to be at peace. From then on it has always been a struggle for me to please the weighing scale.

Anyway as the years rolled by and our lives became superfast and enjoying a meal leisurely without a worry in the world became a thing of past all the new age food concepts started staring at us from the magazine covers and internet sites. “5 foods to boost a flat tummy” or “5 fruits to detoxify your body” and every other 5 tips in the world you could ever think of. Now we were talking of healthy breakfasts and wholesome cereals. White bread replaced by brown breads, full cream milk replaced by toned milk, butter replaced by margarine, cornflakes replaced by wheatflakes, more fruits and less fried food. Luchis and Parathas became a strict no-no anytime during the day let alone breakfast. We have now started becoming more English than Indian.

During such a time when you only have bread, cereals or oats as an option how do you pep up your breakfast course with something interesting. Trying out different type of egg white omelets is surely a good option. But if you want to have vegetarian and yet keep your protein intake intact you can always fall back on the most reliable candidate – mushroom. It’s the only non-meat that comes close to aping the flavors of meat. They are a powerhouse of nutrients and give a big health boost.
The humble looking button mushroom packs quite a few antioxidants than its other expensive variants. The great thing about mushrooms is that they are flavor sponges. They can soak up so much flavor that even while you store them in the refrigerator you should take care so that it does not absorb any smell from the other ingredients inside the fridge. The earthy flavors of button mushroom when combined with the right ingredients gives off amazing flavors.

There are many people I know who dislike the earthy smell of mushroom and hence would not eat them. Here’s a simple and delicious recipe of mushroom that is bound to even make the worst of mushroom haters appreciate the dish.

A blend of butter, garlic, vinegar and some herbs make this sautéed mushroom recipe healthy and full of flavor.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Cuisine: Continental

Ingredients:

Butter - 2 tbsp
Salt as per taste
Garlic cloves - 4 fat (finely chopped)
Pepper Power - 1/4th tsp
Button Mushroom - 100 gm
Vinegar - 1/4th tsp
Soya Sauce - 1/4th tsp
Oregano - 1/2 tsp
Chilli Flakes - 1/2 tsp

Procedure:

1. Wash the mushrooms properly and wipe them clean. Slice the mushroom in halves or quarters depending on the size.

2. Melt butter in a saute pan and toss in the finely chopped garlic. Wait for the heavenly aroma of butter infused garlic to come. The slightly pungent slightly buttery fusion. Add the pepper powder and saute for a second.

3. Add the mushroom and coat it with the butter garlic sauce. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add the vinegar and soya sauce and fold in. Vinegar will give a slight tanginess to the sautéed dish.

4. Add salt as per taste. Note that butter also has salt so add salt accordingly.

5. Reduce the flame to the lowest and cover the sauté pan. The mushroom will get cooked in its own moisture. Stir occasionally to ensure the mushroom or garlic doesn’t burn. Cook for 10 minutes till the mushrooms are cooked

6. Switch off the heat and toss the mushrooms with oregano. I had some leftover oregano mix from the home delivered pizza which I used here. And it really gelled with the taste.

Plate it in a serving dish and sprinkle some chilli flake over it. Serve the buttery garlicky mushrooms hot with buttered bread toast. Or simple have the sublime mushrooms on their own as a side dish with a chilled glass of Wine.

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When Sharanya asked me to do a guest post for her blog I was too excited reason being this was going to be my first guest post for any one. Writing for my own blog is one thing and writing for someone else is a totally different ball game together, there is a lot of responsibility attached to it. As the initial excitement subdued, I started to become jittery. Now the biggest job was to zero in on a recipe that would be good enough for a guest post. I had a lot of dishes in mind and was finding it difficult to streamline my thoughts.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of food is Bengali cuisine...of course it’s the cuisine which is most dear to my heart because I grew up with it. The Bengali's love for food is legendary. The variety of fish and vegetables are so diverse that anything can be combined with everything and a new dish can be created. Bengalis make ambrosial dishes out of the oftentimes rejected peels, stalks and leaves of vegetables. Ghonto, chorchori, chechki, labra, paturi, bhapa, jhal, jhol, kosha, bhate, chhyanchra, dalna, dolma,kalia, pora, shukto are some of the predominant cooking styles from this cuisine. Every dish gets its unique signature flavor and taste depending on the cooking method.

The eating method is as elaborate as the cooking method. Quoting Wiki "The Bengalis are very particular about the way and the order in which the food should be served. Each dish is to be eaten separately with a little rice so that the individual flavors can be enjoyed. The first item served may be a little ghee which is poured over a small portion of rice and eaten with a pinch of salt. Then come the bitter preparation, shukto, followed by lentils or dals, together with roasted or fried vegetables (bhaja or bharta). Next come the vegetable dishes, the lightly spiced vegetables, chenchki, chokka, followed by the most heavily spiced dalna, ghonto and those cooked with fish. Finally the chicken or mutton, if this being served at all. Chaatni comes to clear the palate together with crisp savory wafers, papor. Dessert is usually sweet yogurt (mishti doi). The meal is finally concluded with the handing out of betel leaf (paan), which is considered to be an aid to digestion and an astringent."

By now you would have a fair enough idea about how religious the Bengalis are about their food. Today I would like to write about a very humble and comforting recipe from Bengal.

I have been food blogging for over a year now. I had a G+ page which I never tried to explore. I used to remain within the frontiers of my blog until recently when one fine day I decided to understand the enigmatic G+. As I started browsing I became aware of "communities" and started adding them. The more time I started spending I became aware of the huge treasure trove of recipes being posted all around the world. One fine day I was invited by Sharanya to attend her ongoing event "Let's celebrate Halloween" that's how I gradually started interacting with her. A very sweet person whose cakes and pastries are equally sugary, delectable, mouth-watering, ravishing and I could go on and on. As much as I try to keep myself away from all this calorie filled yummies I still love to savor the delicacies with my eyes on Sharanya's blog. Her blog is very warm and inviting...it almost makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop. It's a very proud moment for me to be doing a guest post for a cordon bleu like her.

There are many restaurants claiming to serve "authentic Bengali" cuisine, but be sure the real essence of Bengali food can be only savored at a Bengalis home. Maybe as they say, hotel cooked food lacks the warmth and love of a home cooked meal. Among all the amazing dishes that are there the one that I am going to write about is just a simpleton in front of the other more famous counterparts. But still this inconspicuous homely dish has a lot of filigrees of memory associated with it and interspersed with the quintessential flavour of Bengali cuisine – warm and near to heart.

Two things are very commonly used in this cuisine – Mustard and Poppy seed. Mustard in the form of oil, paste, powder or as a whole spice and poppy mainly as a paste. Jinge Posto is one such dish which most of the bengalis are crazy about. The basic Posto preparation is made out of potatoes in a creamy poppy paste base. Variations include using onion, Ridge gourd, pointed gourd (potol/parwal), ladyfinger (bhindi), cauliflower(Fulkopi), yard long bean (borboti) etc along with aloo. Each version has a characteristic taste. My favourite is Jhinge Posto - soft jhinge and mushy potato in a clingy creamy poppy seed paste with a sharp flavor of Kalonji and some slitted green chillies building up the heat. Very personal and comforting.

Check out the recipe here. I am adding it here too.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Serves:4

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients:

Ridge Gourd(Jhinge) - 4 long

Potato - 3 medium

Poppy Seed - 50 gm

Kalonji (Nigella Seeds) - 1 tsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Green Chilli - 3

Refined oil

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

Method:

1. Soak Poppy seeds in a cup of lukewarm water for 20 minutes. The poppy seed will soak up the water. Grind to a fine paste.The longer you soak the seeds the finer will be the paste.

2. Peel the skin of the ridge gourd alternatively. Cut it lengthwise and then chop into half moon sized quarter inch pieces.

3. Peel the skin and dice the potatoes into cubes matching the size of the ridge gourd quarters.

4. Heat oil in a wok and fry the potato cubes till the edges start to brown. Add the ridge gourd and turmeric and a pinch of salt. Toss for a few minutes till the ridge gourd start to wilt.

Lower the heat, cover and cook till both potatoes and ridge gourd are cooked. Both will get cooked in the water of the ridge gourd. If it starts to stick sprinkle a little water. Take them out of the oil with a slitted spoon and keep aside.

5. In the same oil throw in the poppy seed paste. Saute for a few minutes on low flame stirring continuously till the water is dried up and the raw smell is gone. (Poppy paste will become bit crisp). Take care not to burn it as poppy seeds tend to stick to the pan. Take it out of the oil in a bowl.

6. Heat the remaining oil and toss in the Kalonji. When the spice is fragrant add the fried potatoes and ridge gourd. Fold in with the Kalonji. Add the sugar and salt at this stage. ( Ideally the dish is made slightly sweeter)

Note: If you want to add onion in the dish, add it along with Kalonji and saute it for a while. Add a little water to make the onions soft faster. Once onion is done add the potato and ridge gourd.

7. When the salt-sugar-heat level is adjusted add the fried poppy seed paste and mix well. Saute for a couple of minutes and cut of the heat.

Serve warm with steamed rice and Kolai Daal(Split Urad Daal).

PS: I am humbled by all the kind words that Sharanya had mentioned about me in her post. Thank you Sharanya once again for giving me this opportunity to write the first guest post for you.

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Malai Gobi

A lazy Saturday once again. But I was a woman on a mission today. I had to study for Advanced Software Testing Exam. I sat focused for half an hour then I I felt I had studied a lot and need to take a short break. I though maybe I will just log on to the net for 10-15 mins and take a look at the options available for a North Bengal Trip that we were planning and then back to studies. So I did a wee bit of searching here and there read a travelogue on Lava and then thought maybe I will just take a look at what was going on in my blog any new comments, visitors or anything else. And then I thought while I the blog page loads why don't I just in parallel load the last weekend trip to Lonavala pics on Facebook. Thus soon I found myself working on two browser windows and 10 opened tabs. It was also an important task you see, I mean I hardly get time to upload pics, checkout whats happening in the blog forums, say hi to my friends on FB and so on.

So I kept nudging the fat text book to one corner of the bed as I settled myself comfortably with my laptop and a packet of Aliva Milk Minis Apple Delight biscuits. Let me tell you here that I am totally in love with this little goodies that I accidentally found in the supermarket last weekend. They are yum and crispy sweet little things. Almost takes me back to the days when Little hearts Biscuit made its appearance into the market and stirred up a storm. Every time dad went to the market I would tell him to get me a packet of those sugar drizzled heart shaped biscuits that would actually melt in the mouth leaving behind a sweet trail and more longing. Somehow I felt in the later days the biscuit lost its charm, it no longer melted in the mouth and was a bit hard. Maybe my conception but it felt that way or maybe the initial euphoria had died down. But when I chanced upon these milk minis they made me very nostalgic. Today I gorged on the last packet and was wondering why I didn't get more of it. Anyway I will pick it up sometime next week again. All this time while I was at the net I had forgotten about time. When I looked at the clock it was already 12 pm. I had decided to have Maggi in lunch hence there was no hurry. I only had to take a shower and cook Maggi and laze around for the rest of the day. But then I started thinking of what I will be making for dinner. Something easy and quick of course. I thought why not make the vegetable right now, so that I will have a free evening as well. I looked into the freezer and a nice white cauliflower and a few capsicums stared back. Oops I had totally forgotten Saturday is my vegetable shopping day! Okay, so it was already late and I only had a lone cauliflower at my disposal. I took out the milk, curd and the cauliflower out of the fridge and prepared the easiest dish possible with them. Have a look at the recipe I'm sure you are going to love it.

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Banana or plantain is such a versatile thing, it can be curried, fried, boiled, made into cutlets or if ripe can be eaten as it is. I always pick up raw banana during my trips to the local veggie store. Raw banana is really light on the tummy and tastes delicious even with mild seasoning. Raw banana is also a good source of Vitamin C and Potassium while being low in Cholesterol I used to really love the raw banana fish curry Ma used to make. I remember almost every two weeks we used to have the curry and I never grew bore of it.

Pune doesn't offer a large array of vegetables as we get back home (Kolkata). Thus I had to literally cherry-pick the vegetables which would suite our Bengali palate and raw banana has become an integral part of our meals now. My favourite way is to have it in fish curry form or as banana chips. But just to try something different at times I make this really simple stir fry with commonly used spices and it makes a wonderful accompaniment to rice and dal. Enjoy the lovely Vegan Banana Recipe called Raw Banana Spicy Stir Fry.

Raw Banana Spicy Stir Fry

Preparation & Cooking Time: 25 mins
Serves:2

Cuisine: North India

Ingredients:

Raw Banana - 2 (medium size - mildly ripe preferable)
Asafoetieda - 1/4 tsp
Ginger - 1/4 tsp
Cumin Seed (Jeera) - 1/2 tsp
Carom Seed (Ajwain) - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder/ Chilli Flakes - 1/4 tsp
Coriander Powder (Dania) - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Dry Mango Powder (Aamchur) - 1/2 tsp or Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaf - 1 tsp (chopped)
Sesame Seeds (for garnishing)
Refined Oil
Salt (to taste)

Procedure:

1. I prefer mildly ripe bananas for this preparation as the partially ripe bananas impart a mild sweetness to the dish and can be directly used without having to boil at first. But if you have complete ripe bananas, then pressure cook the bananas for a single whistle with it's skin on.

2. Peel the skin off the bananas and slice them in roundels.

3. Sprinkle a pinch of turmeric on the banana slices to avoid blackening.

4. Add the grated ginger to the banana slices and mix well

Take the asafoetida in a small bowl and add 2 tbsp of water to make a uniform liquid paste.Using this paste instead of dry asafoteida directly in the hot oil, prevents it from getting burnt easily and preserves the flavor

5. Heat oil in a skillet and temper it with cumin and carom seeds. When they start to splutter add the asafoetida paste, rest of the turmeric, salt, chilli flakes/powder, garam masala, coriander powder and amchur powder.

6. Mix well and stir fry for a couple of minutes till the bananas are tender

7. Add chopped coriander leaves to the skillet and fry for a minute

8. Sprinkle sesame seeds and mix well

9. Serve hot with rice and dal. This will go well with sambar or rasam as well.

Note: You can alter the amount of Red Chilli depending on your spice tolerance level. Ideally this recipe tastes best in the spicy form.

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