March 11

It is getting hot! Last year this day we were already under lockdown. It still makes me shiver at the thought of how overnight our world had changed. I remember on Holi last year which was on the 9th March, very few people had gone down to celebrate. We already heard the news of Covid spreading rapidly and some folks were already detected in Pune. I had skipped going down to play and just enjoyed from my balcony watching people play down. No one knew right form next day, it would be a different story.

A year has passed and not much has changed. In fact history is kind of repeating again. Maharashtra is again showing a spike and Holi is just round the corner.  Fingers crossed this time. Hopefully we will tide through with minimum impact.

Meanwhile due to the hot weather, now all my recipes are turning towards simple , easy to digest and soulful dishes. No heavy tadkas or oily food especially. The dish I am talking about today is a daal prepared with tender stems of bottle gourd. While adding bottle gourds to daal is a common practice, in Bengal we also like to add the stems and greens of Bottle gourd with the daal. The health benefits of bottle gourd is also present in its greens. It keeps your body cool and easy on the tummy. The taste and aroma is an added incentive. Bottle gourd pairs up fabulously with Motor daal. Yellow split pea lentil or motor is is a very common household daal in Bengal, but I have never seen it outside Bengal. It has a very typical aromatics which might not be pleasant to all, hence we usually pair it up with some vegetables to balance out the aroma. The daal that I used in here is sourced from Bengal. You can however check in your areas, at times there are some vendors who keep sourcing Bengali food items. During lockdown, many such vendors made there presence in Pune, which was one of the best things that could have happened in this phase. If you cant get your hands on motor daal, you can as well use masoor daal (red lentils) for this recipe. 

This daal goes best with steamed rice and some basic stir fried subzis, like potato fry or bitter gourd fry. But you can also enjoy it with any other vegetarian subzis.

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For 2nd Tempering :

• Dried Whole Red Chilli - 1
• Ghee - 1 tsp
• Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Procedure

1. Wash the daal and soak it in water for about half an hour.

Pro Tip: If you are in a hurry and don't have much time to soak daal before cooking, just soak the daal in hot water. It brings down the soaking time to half or less.

2. Meanwhile cut the tender bottle gourd stems into 2 inch pieces. 

Tip: Select the stems which are tender but fleshy, especially the nodes

3. Now in a pressure cooker, add the stems and some water to submerge the stems. Pressure cook for 1 whistle. Then immediately release the pressure by putting the cooker under running tap water. Separate the stems and preserve the water.

4. Now take the soaked daal in the cooker and add the preserved water from Step 3 and additional water to pressure cook the daal. Once the daal is cooked, give it a good stir with the spatula to break it down and make the consistency thick.

5. Add the boiled stems back into this daal.

6. Now in a pan add mustard oil. When the oil is hot, temper it with bay leaf, radhuni, dried red chillies till fragrant.

7. Add the boiled daal and stems into the pan. Add turmeric and salt and fold in. Cover and cook on medium till it gets a rolling boil.

8. For a second tempering, take some ghee in a pan. Once hot add one dried red chilli and 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder. Let it sizzle for about 40 seconds. Now pour it over the finished daal.

Serve it with rice and subzi of your choice.

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March 8

Happy Women's Day to all the wonderful strong ladies out there who are making a difference to many lives each day - be it at home or at work. Life would have been dull otherwise if we women didn't do what we do daily. Even if there is only one day celebrating us officially, we should actually celebrate ourselves daily. Among the hustle of every day life let us take out some time just for ourselves and do what we want and which makes us happy. There are days when I thank the almighty, just because I got a chance to sit with a cup of hot tea and do nothing apart from just enjoying those few moments of solitude, which are just mine. And then there are days wherein I feel super creative and do a lot of things in a flow and be thankful that I could complete so much in a day. Point is, happiness is relative but we still need to feel good about all the contributions we are making, big or small or even just by being there for our families. 

Work is consuming a lot of my time these days. And when this happens my blogging and social media activities do take a backseat. I am not much of a multitasker when it comes to social media and unfortunately after a while it tires me. In all those times, I focus on just making something new and capturing it for posterity. When the ebb transforms into flow again, then I write. Its a little weird indeed how a Gemini mind works at times. I clearly feel my twin mindset.

With the change in the mercury levels, the first thing that happened was change in appetite, especially during the warm afternoons. I was never a fan of roti, but mom prefers it on the menu during the afternoon. But when the mercury shoots up, I really don't prefer roti, as it feels a little heavy on the stomach. So unfortunately, last week my mom and I both were feeling a little under the weather and loosing our appetite to have anything which was spicy or with a lot of masalas. I wanted to have rice but something which was really easy on the stomach. Now from the time mom came down to Pune this time, she has been asking me to make pishpash. But I had always shrugged her off saying that its a meal for sick people lets have something else instead. Thus finally when we fit the requirements of sick people, I relented to her request of making pish pash, but I wanted to make a chicken pish pash instead of a vegetarian version ( you see my love for non veg, surpasses my state of sickness).

Pish-Pash is an Anglo-Indian one-pot meal from the 18th Century , where rice is cooked in chicken stock along with vegetables, small chicken/meat pieces and whole spices. If desired the meat could be substituted for green gram, moong or red lentil. Its name, in fact, is borrowed from the Persian term ‘to break down something’, pashidan. The word ‘Pash’ is of Old English origin, meaning to ‘smash’ or ‘mash’ in relation to mashed meat. This is a light, hearty and healthy dish and somewhat similar to Khichadi or risotto. The term pish-pash was first recorded by English writer Augustus Prinsep in the mid-19th century. He called it "a slop of rice-soup with small pieces of meat in it, much used in the Anglo-Indian nursery". It was considered food for the basis or for the sick hence traditionally this preparation has a mushy sloppy texture.

However, pish pash is one of those dishes that not everyone is aware of.  Certain households are pish pash eaters because they know about it or not pish pash eaters because they don’t know about it. But once you have it, you will definitely like it. Pish Pash features in the famous recipe book by Lila Mazumdar under the category of 'Food for the Sick'. It is such a versatile dish that if you make it as is, it can be a good nutritious diet for folks who are unwell. But if you want to jazz things up a bit then you may as well add some beresta (fried onions), a dollop of ghee etc to make it taste more biryani like.

The dish cooks by itself, you just need to have a little patience during the process. While it can be prepared in the pressure cooker, slow cooking the pish pash on a medium flame for about an hour ensures a beautiful taste and texture as you can control the ingredients.

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February 22

For me it was Mac Donald which introduced me to the world of french fries and potato wedges. Before that I used to hate plain potato fry which mom used to make as a side for all our parathas and pooris. I was like who eats just fried potato, where are other vegetables with it! Obviously the tantrums would die soon as there was no effect of my protests on mom. But in simple words I didn't like when potatoes were served without anything added to it. Then came the Mac D and I started loving the same fried potatoes packaged in small red packets and priced 3 times higher! Well we always value a product by its capability of how fast to burn a hole in our pocket! 

While potatoes are deemed as the fried food world pioneers, I feel sweet potato wedges are more amazing. Sweet Potato Wedges make an easy and a very delicious finger food! Made with just a handful of ingredients, these sweet potatoes will definitely become a favorite!

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February 20

I am a hardcore fishiterian..if that's a word. There has been hardly any occurrence where I have tasted a fish and not liked it ( apart form squid!). In fact I love trying out new fish variants and preparations all the time.  

Recently there was a day when I purchased a fresh bunch of mint for the market to make Strawberry Ghol and still had more than half of the bunch remaining. Mom wasn't too excited about the idea of making mint chutney ( we are really not that great mint lovers, apart from having it incorporated into some summer drink), so it was up to me to utilize the remaining leaves. 

I had a lovely fillet of Basa languishing in my freezer for some time because I had forgotten about it after pushing it to the back of my freezer! Finally I stumbled upon it again while rummaging through my freezer for prawns. I really felt sorry for the beautiful fillet which was practically frozen to death by that time. But nonetheless I was definitely not going to throw it away. 

Now when you have a dated fish, you need to cook it with something which will instill a little life into the fish like strong masalas - usually an onion gravy is a surefire solution to this kind of problem. But it would be a sheer injustice to put a fillet in a normal onion based gravy when it can e made into something a little more interesting. That's when I thought lets do some experiment with the fresh mint. The flavor of mint definitely qualifies as strong, and which would help in bringing a good amount of flavors into the very frozen fish.

It was a working day and hence I didn't have much time in hand to cook a fancy fish preparation. Something quick and easy which would go with daal rice was what I was aiming at. Thus came into existence this quick fire tangy and sweet recipe. It tasted so unique and chatpata that I can recommend this as a starter as well (However I do suggest when you make this recipe, use a fresh fish to get the best taste).. This is somewhat similar to Fish Hariyali which is a well loved dish of the Northern India.

Check Out the DIY Background I made for this shoot.

Check Out the DIY Background I made for this shoot.

February  7

After a very few tepid winter months, we finally are getting some cold days that too when we are now into February already. Days still don't feel cold but nights and early morning are sort of nippy. It feels lovely to wrap your palms around a steaming cuppa of chai in the morning.

Saraswati Puja  or Basant Panchami is just around the corner. When I think of it, as a kid I do remember my mom forcing me to wear warm clothes on top of the saree or suit which I would have meticulously chosen for this day. My vehement protests would fall on deaf ears, and eventually I would end up walking down the street with a pretty saree and a not so matching sweater on top. We weren't allowed to take shawls, because they weren't warm enough for children unlike it was for adults! I could never fathom why back then. And the simple standard reply to all our doubts would be - " when you grow up and have a kid of your own then you will know (jokhon nije boro hobi ar nijer baccha hobe tokhon bujhbi). Which essentially meant, that to understand the rationale behind this we had to wait for like 10-15 years. It didn't sound too promising, hence giving up protest was the only option. And thus, it means, we did have cold days even during the time of Saraswati Pujas. So when the days feel chilly now, it shouldn't be much of a surprise. But still I am surprised, because staying away from Kolkata for a very long period sometimes makes these memories.  

Today I am going to talk about Bhorta. Bengalis pronounce it bhorta, but for the non-Bengali population, it’s called as bharta. Bhorta or Bharta as it is known across many Indian states is just a mishmash of vegetables, herbs, pulses, seafood, meats or eggs or even a combination of these. Baigan Bharta is possibly the most famous of Bhartas which is equally popular in both India and our neighboring country Bangladesh. 

Bhortas (ভর্তা) are the simplest and ultimate comfort food in the Bangladeshi cuisine. Although they were invented among the Bengali Muslims, bhortas have become an indispensable part of national Bangladesh cuisine. It was mostly a rural or poor man's comfort food to begin with and the purpose was a no-waste meal out of things which were leftovers or excess. Thus bhorta became the default choice in the households, because it required minimum fuel, very little oil and no expensive spices.

They are served with rice or rotis (flatbreads). The standard elements in all kinds of bhortas are crunchy fresh onions or caramelized onions , green or red chillies and mustard oil.  To that, the other ingredients, may be boiled, roasted, steamed, even charred, are added to make a specific kind of Bhorta. As the saying goes- if you really want to relish a bhorta, never skimp on the mustard oil! Some of the most famous bhortas of Bangladesh include - aloo (potato), begun (brinjal), kacha aam ( raw mango), dal (pulses), chingri (prawn), lau er khosha ( bottle gourd skin), mach (fish) , murgir mangsh (chicken), tomato, ucche ( bitter gourd), shapla (water lily) and many many more. 

Just like bhorta, makhas are the comfort food of West Bengal. They are the quintessential, staple thing you would find on the menus in Bengali homes. It also gives us an excuse to be lazy at times and yet spin up something absolutely finger licking good. The makha involves a range of methods like mashing, muddling, mixing and macerating,  mainly by hand, to bring together a range of ingredients, flavours and textures and create a composite dish. Just like Bhortas, makhas are not usually served on special occasions or festivals. It was meant to be a homely food for day to day consumption. Now a days, you would find most Bangalis using the word Bhorta and makha reversibly. 

But slowly, the erstwhile rural food is now finding its way to the gourmet meal platter across the world because of its uniqueness in taste. Especially outside of Bengal and India, I have witnessed many fine dining Bengali restaurants serving an assortment of Bhortas  or makhas at the starting of the meal and non-bengalis enjoying it as much as we do. While doing some research about Bhortas, I came across an article which even talked about Avocado bhorta made by a lady from North Dakota. That itself talks about how adaptable this dish is and how far and wide it has now spread across the world. To quote cultural historian and writer Niaz Zaman from her cookbook Bosha Bhat To Biryani: The Legacy Of Bangladeshi Cuisine: 

"The liberation of Bangladesh led to a search for its indigenous cultural roots as well as its indigenous foods. Bhajis (simple sautéed vegetables) and bhortas had always been part of the Bengali diet…not something offered to guests or served at hotels. After liberation, however, Bengali foods were, so to say, rediscovered."

In addition to the standard ingredients that are added to the Bhorta, I love my bhortas with a hint of garlic and loads of fresh coconut. The character and taste it adds feels phenomenal to me. So the next time you have prawns and don't want to make an elaborate curry out of it, just bring together a few elements and spin up a droolicious bhorta to go with rice.

Now a days you would see me cooking many non-Indian dishes in my blog. But then after a while when I start writing about something from the Bengali cuisine, I feel this is the reason for which I had started this blog. To talk about my heritage recipes which might get lost in the folds of time and to keep them alive in these pages on the internet for someday someone to stumble upon and enjoy. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to talk about what is truly close to my heart and my legacy. 

Preparation Time : 10 minutes