Note: This gravy is supposed to get its color from the fried onions and is a turmeric less recipe.


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

Chingri (Prawns) and Ilish Mach (Hilsa Fish) are both candidates for any festive occasion in a Bengali household. Chingri is more versatile and is used in the mundane dishes like lau ghonto (bottle gourd medley), echorer torkari (raw jack fruit curry) or the more ornamental Chingrir malaikari. Now-a-days you don't get to see the actual jumbo prawns which we can find mentioned in many Bengali classics. Its more of  medium sized prawns being passed off as jumbo prawns at double price. I remember the last time I had real "jumbo" prawns was almost 20 odd years back in Taki at my Mashi's (aunt) house. It was a warm afternoon and the floor mat was placed along the balcony of the apartment, the typical arrangement for "paat pede khawa". We all kids sat down in a row and were served yummy "golda" (jumbo) chingri and steamed rice. The head of each prawn was almost the size of an adult's  palm. That was the last time I had truly relished a prawn dish.

My mom and dad both had shell fish allergy so whenever prawns was cooked at our household it was just for me and the recipe was the traditional dish with onion, coriander and jeera seasoning.I was super happy with that only and so was my pet cat who always sat by me during my meals for getting tid bits. As I grew slowly the shell fish allergy reduced for ma. That was a good thing as I wanted to experiment with prawns. Chingrir malaikari always turned out as a safer bet than daab chingri as it involves actual cooking in the wok so one knows when to adjust the taste if something goes amiss. Daab chingri involves a lot less efforts but if the proportion and steaming are not proper it can be a total failure at the end. And perfection would only come with practice. The tender coconut imparts and subtle and distinct flavor to the dish. The number of spices used for this recipe is so less that it would suit any palate. The soft and creamy gravy makes up for some lip smacking experience. Check out the following simple recipe of Daab Chingri below.


Preparation Time: 20 minutes


Cooking Time: 30 minutes
 
Serves:2


Ingredients:

• Prawns (Medium or Big with tails) - 500 gm
• Tender Coconut Pulp-  1 Small Bowl (200gm)
• Onion- 1medium (chopped)
• Ginger - 2" piece
• Garlic clove - 6-7
• Cardamom - 2
• Clove - 2
• Cinnamon - 1" piece
• Green Chilli - 2 ( or depending upon the heat level you can handle)
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste
• Mustard Oil - 4-5 tbsp
• Sunrise Mustard Powder - 2 tsp / Mustard Seeds - 3 tsp (soaked and made to a paste)

2. For this recipe to turn out correctly one would need medium to big size prawns. De-vein them, remove the head and keep the tails intact (again this is a personal preference to keep the tails)

3. I use the Sunrise Mustard powder to make the mustard paste. Just add 2 tea spoon Sunrise mustard powder to 2 tablespoon water and make a thick paste. Make this paste at least 10 minutes before you need to add it to the cooking.

For those who dont have the mustard powder, you can make a paste from mustard seeds.


4. Grind onion to a thick paste.

5. Make a paste of ginger, garlic and green chillies in a blender.

6. Grind the spices (cardamom, clove, cinnamon) coarsely using a mortar-pestle

7. Heat oil in a deep bottomed  frying pan. When the oil is hot enough toss in the ground spices.

8. When the oil is fragrant add the onion paste and ginger garlic paste. Add 2-3 slitted green chillies if you wish to. Fold everything and cook till the mixture turns a shade of golden brown. Cook on medium flame.

9. Once the mixture is done add the prawns and tender coconut paste. Cook fro a couple of minutes. Add a little water if required. Adjust the salt and sugar level according to taste.


10. Transfer the contents to a steel bowl, see that the contents are not coming out of the bowl. Drizzle 2 tsp of mustard oil on top. The bowl size should be so that you can easily put and take out the bowl from the cooker.

11. Keep a 5 litre cooker ready. Add 400 ml water to the cooker. ( check the water level it should be less than the bowl size you are going to put your daab chingri to cook)

12. Carefully place the steel bowl with the contents into the water bath of the cooker.  Close the lid and put it to cook on medium flame.

13. Cook till one whistle and wait for the pressure to die down before opening the lid.

14. Ideally it should be done at this stage and oil should float up. But if you still feel that the spices are not cooked enough, you may take it out in the frying pan and cook on medium flame for about 5 minutes. The dish will definitely be ready by now which will be evident from the aroma.

Serve the daab chingri inside a coconut shell or simply on the plate with steaming hot rice.


Sending this recipe to Priya's and Spicy Treat's "Diwali Delicacy" event,

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.