Koi Macher Paturi

After almost half a year I am back to Kolkata for a vacation. It feels so much good. No office deadlines, no waking up early, no cooking dinner or doing the dishes, only having pure rest and lot's of food. Kolkata means dedar adda and jomie bhuribhojon. The mecca of Rasta food (Street food) Kolkata never disappoints me in its lip smacking egg chicken rolls, tangy fuchkas and spicy jhalmuris. But above all I look forward to indulge in myriad delectable fish preparations on each day of my stay. In the first week of my stay at my in-laws home my father-in-law made sure that we had a different type of fish everyday knowing well my love for it. In the following week my mom is making sure the same trend continues. Everyday there is a baina (request) from me and she happily obliges every time. i had a craving for Koi paturi from long so ma decided to make it today.

Paturi is a cooking process in which raw fish slathered in spice paste is wrapped in a particular kind of leaf and steamed together. Usually if you search on net the only paturi that you would come across is fish in mustard-poppy paste and wrapped in banana leaves, which is more of a Ghoti Cuisine. But the Bangal way of making a paturi has some variations. Koi paturi is made by wrapping the fish (smeared in Jeera paste) in a lau pata (Bottle gourd leaves). My maternal forefathers belonged to Faridpur in Bangladesh. This recipe of  Koi Paturi has been handed down through generations in our family and it still much in vogue.

My Dadu (grandpa) was a connoisseur of Traditional Bengali cooking. He knew his food well and loved everything that my Dida (grandma) made.  During Holidays when me and my cousin visited Dadur Bari, Dadu used to literally stuff us with so much food that it would usually lead to a tummy upset but yet he would never let us miss the pathar mangsho, Bhaja illish and Koi paturi. Food would be cooked in huge pots and pans and the entire family of 9 people would sit down together to eat. It was no less than a big picnic everyday during lunch and dinner. As the lids were taken off the amazing aromas would simply captivate us.Gone are those days of big family luncheon, but the recipes are still much alive within our family.

Note: The Koi I am referring to here is not to be confused with its Japanese namesake.

The first and most important step towards making this piquant recipe is getting the right kind of fish and leaves to wrap. The fishes should be as fresh as they can be and the lau pata needs to be tender enough.

Fresh Produce

Here is the secret recipe from our Kitchen.

Preparation Time: 40 minutes (includes cleaning the fish)

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves:2


Ingredients: 

• Koi Mach - 4
• Tender Lau Leaves (Bottle gourd leaves) -  8 (2 Big leaves  per fish)
• Fresh Jeera Paste (Cumin Paste) -  4 tbsp
• Green Chilli - 4 (withing the paturi) + 1 (in Jeera Paste)
• Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste
• Mustard oil - 3 tsp

1. Clean the fish. Make two 2" thin cuts into each side of the fish. This is for the spices to enter into the fish properly.

2. Marinate the fish with turmeric, salt and sugar for 10 minutes

Marinated Koi Mach

Fresh Lau Pata

4. Make a uniform paste of Jeera and 1 green chillies using shil nora or mixer.

Jeera paste

 You can add poppy paste also along with the Jeera Paste. Reduce the amount of Jeera Paste according to the amount of poppy paste that you are adding. In total it should be 4 tbsp. 

5. Smear the Jeera paste on the fishes uniformly. Adjust the salt. Keep it for about 5 mins

6. Drizzle the mustard oil on the fish and mix well

Fishes lathered in spices

7. Take 2 leaves at a time and place one on the other in opposite direction ( Suppose the first leaf tip faces you so when you place the next one it should face away from you.

This sweet and ravishing Bengali daal is a candidate for any special occasions or during festivals in a Bengali Household. It has a royal air about it and definitely not a everyday dish. It pairs up best with fulko luchis or motorshutir kochuri, but is also taken along with rice and vegetable fritters. The mild heat from the fragrant dried red chillies, the subtle sweetness from the assorted dry fruits, the crunchiness of the ghee fried coconut and the alluring aroma of the ghee and freshly grounded garam masala weaves a magic that makes everyone succumb to its delectable taste.  I may as well put it this way that this is the King of all Daals. Have it once and you will never forget its lip licking taste.

My mother didn't like coconut in her dishes hence whenever she used to prepare cholar daal it would be the simpler version without dry fruits and coconut. But it would also taste super and go with any of the day to day vegetables sides like chorchori or ghonto. Specially cholar daal with badhakopir ghonto was one of my hot favorites. Now a days balancing work and home becomes so tedious that to make such a lavish daal meticulously you need much time at hand. Which is why I rarely make this one. Also Cholar daal is a heavy daal because of the big list of ingredients that go into the making of it, hence cant be consumed on a daily basis especially in this age of highly health conscious people. But once in a while indulgence is allowed and much needed too.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves:6


Ingredients:

• Chan Daal - 250 gm
• Ginger -  2 tsp
• Hing Powder- 1 tsp
• Corriander powder - 1 tsp
• Jeera Powder - 1 tsp
• Bay Leaf- 2
• Dried Red Chilli - 2
• Tomato - 1 medium sized
• Fresh coconut - Palm sized piece
• Cardamom - 4
• Cinnamon stick - 1  "
• Clove - 4
• Kismis - 8-9 
• Turmeric powder - a small pinch
• Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp 
• Salt to taste 
• Sugar - 4 tsp 
• Refined oil - 1/2 cup
• Ghee - 4 tsp
  

Serve it with rice with Brinjal or potato fritters as sides.

I just love garlic. The raw pungent smell adds an extra kick to any recipe. Usually we always use ginger garlic paste for any conventional Indian curry. But that doesn't really bring out the flavor of garlic separately. Bengalis in general aren't such garlic freaks and in most Bengali preparations ginger has a predominance over garlic. But somehow I had loved garlic from the time I can remember.

When I was staying in San Diego I visited a senior of mine and she was one person who reciprocated my love for garlic. I believe she was an even staunch garlic freak because she declared that none of her dishes are without garlic. She is an amazing cook as well. I picked up a few tips of cooking with garlic from her. The day had ended with a yummy meal of hot chicken steaks marinated with garlic and olive oil, penne pasta and a glass of fine red wine.

Today while I was weighing my options for preparing fish curry, I thought of preparing something different. My mother used to prepare this simple garlic fish curry occasionally when I was small. It involves very less effort and yet the end result is quite delectable.

You can prepare this amazingly easy fish curry when you run out of options for fish curry or you simply want to treat your taste buds to something simple and light. If you love garlic then you will surely love this preparation.The garlic combined with spices and  mustard blends nicely with these mild flavors of the light and flaky catfish. It is simple but the flavors are amazing.



Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves:2


Ingredients:

• Asian Catfish (Magur) - 6 medium pieces  (the fish can be tilapia, catfish, bass, shad, carp)
• Garlic cloves - 15-20  
• Nigella Seeds (Kalonji) - 1 tsp
• Sunrise Mustard Powder/ Fresh Mustard Paste/ Kasundi - 2 tsp
• Green Chilli - 4
• Potato - 1 big
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp  
• Turmeric powder - a small pinch
• Salt to taste
• Mustard oil - 3/4 cup
  
  

  

This is the first fish recipe in my blog which is pretty unusual considering the fact that Bengalis and fish are almost inseparable entities. But for some or the other reason it took me so long to post the first fish recipe in my blog, hope will post many more soon. Keeping my finger crossed.

Biryani forms an integral part of of the menu for any special occasion in this subcontinent. Among Bengalis Pulao also is almost of the same stature but Biryani still takes the cake always. The basic difference between the two is the cooking technique applicable to each. Pulao or Pilaf(also known as pilau and plov) is delicately flavoured rice, sautéed in ghee and flavoured with whole spices like cumin, cloves etc and sometimes poultry, meat and shellfish are added as per choice. 

Biryani derived from the Persian word Beryan meaning fried or roasted is made from fragrant par boiled rice, which is then assembled with with variety of meat, seafood or assorted vegetables sealed and put on "dum" (cooking on very low flame, allowing the meats to cook, as much as possible, in their own juices and bone-marrow and the flavours of the spices are infused well) for an hour or so till the meat and rice is cooked to perfection. Biryani can again be categorised as Pakki and Kacchi Biryani. In Pakki Biryani you cook the marinated chicken, layer it with fragrant rice and cook it in dum. Kacchi biryani or ‘Kacchi Yeqni’ is a more enticing form of Biryani in which one puts the marinated chicken at the bottom of the pot,  cover it well with par boiled fragrant rice, layer the masalas on top of it and cook it in dum. Personally I always felt that Kacchi Biryani is more flavourful and succulent than Pakki.

I tried Biryani at many places, but got more and more disappointed so much so that I began to detest it. Since I am so choosy in the taste  I always shied off from preparing it at home thinking I will never be able to make what Dida  used to make. My Ma is also not a connoisseur of Biryani hence I could never learn how to cook it. This weekend while watching a chef prepare Biryani on a food Channel  I thought lets give this a try.

The Biryani they showed on TV had mint (!!!) and no way that was going to be a part of Biryani cooked in my Kitchen.So I customised the Biryani as per my taste. Finally after much anticipations and apprehensions that the chicken would remain uncooked when we tasted the Biryani at 11 pm, it tasted like heaven. It was beyond my imagination that the first try would yield such a superlative result, hence couldn't wait to share it with my readers.

We prepared the Kacchi Biryani. The list of ingredients may look as never ending but do not get intimidated by it, believe me each plays a big role into making the perfect-est Biryani. Also precision and patience is the key to get it right. When I say 45 min of dum it means exactly 45 min- not more not less. I used 1:1 ratio of rice and chicken, you can alter the ratio depending on your choice.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Marination Time: 4 hours
Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Serves:2

Cuisine: Bengali

Ingredients:

Marination:
Procedure :

Marination:
1. Wash and cut the chicken and lay them out in a mixing bowl.
2. Beat the yoghurt into a uniform paste and add it to the chicken
3. Take 1/2 a Nutmeg and pound it coarsely.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients mentioned under Marination and the pounded Nutmeg into the mixing bowl. Mix well.
5. Cover the bowl and keep it in the refrigerator for 4 hours or more.
Note: If you don't have that much time to spare even an hour of marination is fine. But I like the chicken to be marinated for longer hours as it soaks up the flavour better.

Barista (Deep fried onion):
1. Slice the onions longitudinally with a sharp knife. Separate all the layers with your finger so that they are not in cluster.
2. Julienne the fresh ginger piece in thin slices. The deep fried onion is usually known as Barista but I have added the ginger to it as well
3. Heat oil in a wok and add the onion slices. Fry it in medium heat and keep stirring it so that all the slices are evenly browned.
4. Once all the onions are even in colour add the ginger juliennes and fry for a while
5. Take out the fried onions and ginger from the oil and spread it on a Tissue paper. The extra oil will be soaked up by the paper and the onions will become crispy as they cool down

Kesar Milk:
1. Take the milk and add the Saffron strands to it. The milk will take on a yellow hue.

Kewra & Rose water( To be done before Assembling the Biryani):
1. Take the Kewra Essence and Rose water in a bowl and mix well.

Readying the Rice and Spices:
1. Wash and dry the Basmati rice. The better dried the rice is the lesser chances are that teh Biryani will turn out to be mushy. So take care to dry the rice.
2. Halve the medium sized potatoes so that you have 4 pieces of halved potatoes.
3. Shallow fry the potatoes for about 3-4 minutes and then keep them aside.
4. Pound the spices mentioned under "Spice Bag" coarsely. Take a muslin cloth of the size of a ladies hankie and place the pounded spices on the cloth and tie it in a pouch.

If you don't have a muslin cloth you can use a normal cotton ladies hankie just like me which shall yield the same result. 

7. Take a deep bottomed wok. The water measurement for cooking the Basmati rice will be given at the back of the packet. I used 600 ml of water. Put the water in the wok and turn on the heat. When the water becomes warm place two medium sized Bay leaves at the bottom.
8. Add the washed and dried Basmati rice to the warm water .
9. Add 2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of sugar in the wok and mix well.

The taste of this water will be the taste of the rice. Hence add salt according to the taste you want. I also added sugar to balance the saltiness.

10. Immerse the Spice Bag into the water in the wok. Cover the lid and boil it on high flame for about 7-7 minutes.
11. Par cook the rice (3/4 cooked). Avoid overboiling.
12. Drain the water and remove the "Spice Bag"
13. Take out all the spices from the Spice Bag and keep it aside in a bowl.
14. Take 1 tsp of ghee in a skillet and when the ghee is hot add all the dry fruits along with cashew and raisins. Fry for a couple of minutes and keep it aside.


Assembling the Kacchi Biryani:
1. Take a deep bottomed wok with a lid, preferably those glass lids from which you can see what's going on inside the wok.
2. Spread 2 tsp of ghee on the bottom of the wok.
3. Place the chicken marinade as a uniform layer over it.
4. Sprinkle half of the fried dry fruits over it.
5. Arrange the Partially fried Potato halves on it.
6. Sprinkle the punded Spice from The Spice Bag that you had kept aside.
7. Layer the parboiled basmati rice on top of it.
8. Sprinkle rest of the dry fruits and Barista over it
9. Pour the Kesar milk and Kewra-Rose water evenly covering the entire area
10. Take 1 tsp of yellow food colouring and spread it with a spoon in one particular area of the rice (1/5 rice)
11.Pour the ghee on top of all the layers generously and evenly.
12. Repeat the layers if you are left with chicken marinade and rice. For me only two layers were sufficient as I was cooking only 600gm of Biryani.
13. Roll the dough into a long strip. Cover the lid and seal the rim of the lid with the dough strip half on the lid and half on the wok . If you are using a glass lid it will also have a opening on top. Cover it with dough as well. Do not be a miser with the dough sealing as if you use less dough it may come off once the dough starts to get hard from the steam.

An alternate to the dough strip sealing : Cover the wok with a silver foil and place the lid on top. Though the dough strip sealing is more full proof.

14. Cook on high flame for 5 minutes and then lower the flame to minimum.
15. Place a tawa under the wok and cook the biryani for 45 minutes.

It's bad news if during the 45 minutes of cooking at any point you happen to get the awesome aroma of the Biryani. It simply means that your sealing has given away and it's time for damage control. Quickly prepare some more dough, let it be slightly watery, and stick it over the portion you see steam coming out. Since the wok would already be too hot hence the dough will immediately stick and become hard.

Serving:
Cut open the dough along the rim and you will be greeted with an aroma to die for!
Carefully mix all the layers so as to not break the chicken pieces. It will be a nice combination of yellow and white rice.
Arrange the piping hot biryani on a plate and garnish it with 3-4 slices of cucumber and top it off with the halved boiled agg.
The Biryani is a bit moist due to the presence of a generous amount of ghee and can be eaten alone. But if you want you can serve it with raita.


Vegetarians can also relish this Biryani. Substitute the meat or chicken with vegetables like cauliflowers, carrots, peas,potatoes or paneer. Just adjust the "Dum" time accordingly keeping the rest of the procedure same.

This Biryani is unique because it has the goodness of two cuisines : the perfect Bengali blend of sweet and spicy flavours and traditional Hyderabadi cooking technique. Try if and I bet you wont be disappointed.

This post is an entry for the "Awesome Cuisine's 2012 Favorite Recipe Contest" event.

The Pune weather has really undergone a lot of changes in the past couple of years. I remember 4 years ago when I was staying in Navi Mumbai, I had visited Pune along with my mother around the starting of November and God it was some cold. The moment we had come out of the temperature controlled comforts of the Volvo we were greeted by bone freezing chilly air. Hardly prepared for such a cold whether when in Mumbai it was still warm and toasty, we almost spent the entire weekend shivering.

Global warming, pulling down mountain after mountain to make place for 'chic planned cities', increasing vehicles and pollution, population burst have all contributed to the decline of Pune weather which was once as good as Bangalore weather. The outskirts of the city still enjoy the remnants of what once used to be hills, but sadly enough the hills are now dotted only with brick and mortar skyscapers rather than wild flora and fauna. We stay in Anandnagar which was once considered a remote part of Pune but very soon would be consumed by the tentacles of the rapidly growing city limits. Whenever we get some time in the evening we go to the terrace. The billowing lights all around does make it look as if Diwali never ceases to exist in Pune, but also makes us see the reality that even the remotest hilltop is not saved from human intervention. "Valley view" housing societies make sure they grab the best location in town so as to grab the elitest of clientele.

Year by year as the seasons are forgetting their original characteristics. Summer merrily eats away the monsoon seasons, the rains hardly make their presence felt and the the famous "gulabi thandi" of Pune- a season when your cheeks turn a shade of rosey pink have all gotten lost in transition somewhere. With December creeping in and the need to still put the fans on is quite a surprising thing. All over India, apart from the northern limits, winter seems to have forgotten its way. We spent the last weekend in Panchgani  but even at the hill station the temperature was like normal Pune temperature. Yesterday the papers had claimed that it was the effect of some easterly winds that was responsible for the high temperature and from today onward Pune would see a drop in the mercury. Considering the heat level yesterday I had hardly pinned any hopes. But when we woke up today morning at 7 am, the entire neighborhood was wrapped in a soft blanket of fog. I could barely make out the shops below. As I nudged through the window to really believe what I was seeing, I felt a waft of chilly air brush through my face. I recoiled as an instant reaction, my breath made a small circle of fog on the cold window. As I closed the window shut, I was smiling. Finally the time of cuddling inside a warm blanket with a cup of steaming coffee while watching a nice suspense movie has arrived. Today is also the much hyped doomsday 12-12-12. if I am lucky enough to survive the predictions of the Mayan Calender, I would look forward to enjoy each and every day of this lovely winter weather as long as it lasts.

Egg keeps your body warm, so winter is the time to try and experiment with a lot of egg preparations. So I decided to improvise on boiled eggs. Once again something really quick , easy and tasty. This recipe takes the best of both worlds North and South, maybe a dash of East and West as well.


Preparation Time: 5 minutes