Its Bengali new years eve. Every big and small festival for the Bengalis is marked by special preparations. New years eve is just another such occasion for indulgence. 'Chingri macher malaikari', 'Potoler dolma', 'Echorer Dalna','Kochi pathar kosha mangsho', 'Ful-kopir shingara', 'Rosho-malai','Malpoa' and the infamous 'Rashogolla' ....the list is never ending and so is a Bong's appetite.

The summer months bring with is an array of fresh vegetables which are unavailable in winter. Most of the summer vegetables are of my liking like the Potol (parwal), Jackfruit, Raw mango etc. In Kolkata the list goes longer but in the western part of the country its limited to a few only.

I am not too fond of ripe Jackfruit but I go totally ga-ga over the unripe version of it. Raw Jackfruit or Echor is also known as 'Gach Patha' in Bengal the literal translation of which means tree goat. Echor is actually cooked with the same spices as we would use to cook mutton and the curry also tastes like meat only. So vegetarians who want to enjoy the taste of mutton without actually having it can have this curry.

The cleaning process is bit messy and tedious. But the aftertaste of the curry is totally worth the effort.

  Before cutting the raw Jackfruit, place a newspaper below, oil the knife and your  hands with mustard oil. Even oil the back of your hands. The Jackfruit secretes a sap which does not wash off easily and makes your hands black. Putting oil prevents these and also makes the cutting process easier. Also keep a lime slice handy. Cut the Jackfruit into horizontal circles and rub the lime where the sap starts coming out. This will liquify the sap and it will no longer be sticky. Then place the cut circles in water to avoid blackening. Now take the circles one by one and remove the outside skin and chop into small pieces and put back into the water.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (Includes cutting time)

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Serves:2



Ingredients: 

• Raw Jackfruit - 1/2 Kg weight 
• Bay Leaf - 2
• Green Cardamom Whole -3
• Cinnamon Stick - 2"
• Clove -3
• Black Peppercorn - 4
• Onion - 1 big chopped
• Tomato - 1 big chopped
• Ginger - 2-3" piece finely grated
• Garlic - 5-6 cloves finely grated
• Green chillies - 1 or 2 depending on your spice tolerance level
• Ghee - 2 tsp
• Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
•  Coriander powder
• Yogurt - 1/2 cup (whisked)
• Water - 2 cups (warm)
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste
• Mustard oil -2 tbsp
• Potatoes - 2 medium (diced)

1. Clean and cut the Jackfruit.  Pressure cook with a pinch of turmeric. Keep aside.

The food journey continues for me in Kolkata. There was a time during my childhood days when mutton came much cheaper than chicken. Thus Pathar Jhol was the regular Sunday Special in many Bengali household. The evergreen Dakbangalow Mutton Curry had retained its regal air through generations. With passing years the equation changed drastically. Chicken became the food for the common man and mutton was reserved only for some special occasions like wedding. Moreover people became more and more health conscious and started to do away with red meat from their meal as it increased blood cholesterol. But still how can you not love something which had formed an integral part of your growing up years. The taste which still comes back every time you see a picture of mutton curry.

More than chicken I love mutton. In Pune we don't get good Mutton in the area where I stay hence experimenting with mutton continues to be a far fetched dream for me. So when I visited Kolkata this time I coaxed Ma into making a mutton dish. We got some fresh red meat from the local market. And then began our discussion on what special dish to make with it. Since ma also rarely made mutton at home after i had left home so I was thinking of making something special other than the traditional Bengali fare. A  few recipe search and I knew a recipe I liked. It had the necessary royalty about it while being easy on the stomach - the Rogan Josh. But when I started reading about the Rogano josh I came across too many versions of it. But a bit more R&D let to the conclusion that the best traditional recipe of Rogan Josh was the Kashmiri Pandit style Rogan Josh, which is devoid of any traces of onion, tomato or garlic. Me and ma were speculating that without onion or tomato how would we arrive with a consistent gravy, but when the dish was finally prepared it had oodles of delicious flavoury gravy oozing with the regal aroma of mutton cooked to perfection.

The authentic Pandit style Rogan Josh consists of braised lamb chunks cooked with a gravy based on browned onions or shallots, yogurt  garlic, ginger and aromatic spices (cloves, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon). Its characteristic brilliant red color traditionally comes from liberal amounts of dried Kashmiri chilies.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes 

Marination Time: 2 hour

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Serves:2


Ingredients: 

Marinade:

• Mutton - 500 gm (Cut into 1½ inch pieces)
• Green Papaya - 1/4 tsp (finely grated) 
• Cinnamon Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Ground Green Cardamom  - 1/4 tsp
• Ground Black Cardamom - 1/4 tsp
• Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Ground Clove -1/4 tsp
• Ground Black Peppercorn - 1/4 tsp
• Ground Fennel Seed - 1/4 tsp
• Salt to taste

• Green Cardamom Whole - 2
• Black Cardamom Whole - 2
• Cinnamon Stick - 2"
• Clove - 2
• Black Peppercorn - 4
• Fennel Seed (Saunf) - 1/2 tsp
• Ground Asafoetida (Hing) - 1/2 tsp
• Dry Ginger Powder / Ginger Paste - 1/2 tsp
• Ghee - 2 tsp
• Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Ratanjot infusion - 1/4 cup
• Yogurt - 1 small cup (whisked)
• Water - 2 cups (warm)
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste (optional for balancing taste*)
• Refined oil - 1/2 cup

• Potatoes (optional*)- 2 medium (halved)

1. Clean the Mutton. 




2. Halve the Potatoes  and shallow fry them until edges turn slightly brown. In a pressure cooker , pressure cook the potatoes adding 2 cups of water for one whistle. Remove from the cooker and keep aside. Preserve the potato stock for later use in the cooking.
Note: This is an optional step. Being Bengali we simply cant do without adding potato in our meat dishes. Traditionally potato is not added. So it is your choice entirely.

3. Grind all the spices mentioned under marinade separately. Add the ingredients  to the mutton and mix well. Marinate the mutton for 2 hours.




4. Heat wok and add the cooking oil. Let the oil heat up until smoking.

5. Reduce the heat and toss in the Green Cardamom, Black Cardamom, Cinnamon Stick, Black Peppercorn and Fennel Seeds. You may coarsely grind the Green Cardamom, Black Cardamom and Clove before tossing it into the oil. Increase the heat.




6. Add the Asafoetida and immediately add the marinated mutton. Usually Asafoetida is added in water and then its added to wok because if you fry the Asafoetida for more time it will get burnt. But in this recipe we are directly adding the Asafoetida Powder to the oil, hence we add the meat immediately to prevent burning.



The authentic Kashmiri Pandit Style Rogan Josh does not contain any traces of tomato, onion or garlic. The Asafoetida  substitutes for the strong smell of garlic. And believe me it tastes much better. I am not sure if Hing would go well with any chicken preparation or not but you may as well give it a try and let me know.

7. Cook the mutton till caramelized and the meat had started to release oil. 


8. Add the ginger paste and fold into the meat well.

 The authentic recipe needs dried ginger powder. Since I did not have it so I substituted it with ginger paste of same amount. The dried ginger powder has a beautiful aroma which accentuates the flavor of the dish. So its always recommended to add dried ginger powder. But ginger paste also didn't alter the dish's taste.


9. Add Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder and toss the meat.

10. Add Ratanjot infusion in oil 

Alkanet is traditionally used in Indian food under the name "Ratan Jot" which lends the characteristic red colour to Rogan Josh. This root is soluble in alcohol, ether, and the oils, but is insoluble in water. So the infusion has to be made with oil. If you do not happen to have you can still prepare Rogan Josh only you will be missing out on the color a bit. Also if by chance have Red chilli powder from Kashmir itself it will help to a great extent. The last time I had gone to Kashmir I had got Ma a packet of Kashmiri Red Chilli powder. That had become her prized possession as its colour and flavour is unmatched to anything that we get in any other part of India. But even if you dont have either of the two go ahead and make the dish, since ratanjot doesn't have any flavour so the final taste wont change due to the absence of it.

11. Add the whisked Yogurt and fold into the meat. Adjust the salt and sugar in this stage.


The preparation will release a lot of oil in itself. Though it doesn't  contain any traces of onion or tomato the gravy will be slightly thick due to the Yogurt  and the spices. So people who prefer a bit of gravy in their meat do not need to worry.

12. Cover the wok and cook on low flame for 5 minutes


13. If you want to preserve gas and cook the meat quickly instead of cooking the meat on dum you can transfer the entire contents of the wok into a pressure cooker and add 2 cups of water or more as desired. Pressure cook the meat for 2 whistles first on high flame. Then lower the flame and let it cook for 15 minutes in the cooker without giving out any whistles. Once done switch off the heat and wait for the pressure inside the cooker to die out before removing the lid.

The Papain of the grated Papaya will act as a meat tenderizer and on top of that pressure cooking will guarantee a tender texture for the mutton. Please note, it doesn't change any taste or texture of the dish. It is just there for tenderizing the meat faster. For purists, you can skip this step if you feel this is non traditional.



14. Transfer the contents from the cooker to the wok again and add the boiled and fried potatoes. Fold in the meat and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

15. Add ghee and cook for 5-6 minutes. Turn off the flame.

Serve with Basmati or plain rice, naan or any kind of Indian Flat breads. 

Sending this recipe toPriya's and Spicy Treat's "Diwali Delicacy" event.

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.