Elish Korma - Hilsa Korma

Our bedroom is west facing because of which the sunbeam penetrates our room towards the afternoon, which by the way rankles me a lot for though I don't sleep in the afternoon usually but sometimes while reading a book when the eyes feel heavy and I yearn for a nap, the heat of the sunlight forces me to remain awake, totally putting me out. Thanks to my engagement with an interesting book over the last week, I have taken to the habit of sleeping late but since hubby dear wakes up early in the morning for office; I too get up early keeping things ready for him. Because of the deprivation of required hours of sleep, I have begun to feel drowsy in the afternoon, but the bedroom blazing with sunlight interferes with my siesta and I snarl mutely in frustration.

 

Now I know an amazing way to channelize frustration into something positive. So there I go writing a recipe of a fish curry I cooked few weeks back. This Hilsa preparation needs generous amount of mustard oil, any addition of water might dilute the effect. So if you eat counting calories, this dish might not be what you are looking for, but taste wise, it is mouthwatering, completely singular in flavor.

Rui Posto - Rohu with Poppy Paste

Since morning today the sky outside is wearing a morose look, so much so that, around 7.30 am when normally the sunlight seeps into our bedroom giving us an indication to rise up, today we spinned out our sleep turning off the alarm clock every time it started buzzing, mistaking the gloomy sky outside for the crack of dawn, a tad too early to open eyes and get into our daily grind. By the time we finally woke out of our lazy slumber stretching hands and legs for the morning inertia to wear thin, we noticed the time ticking past 8 o'clock at which my husband jumped out of bed and with a lightning speed got dressed up for office, he had a meeting to attend.

 

Last week during our ritual weekly shopping, we bought a rohu fish, 2.5 kg in weight and about 1.5 feet in length, reason enough for you to check out my space for upcoming rohu recipes...lol....anyway, as I was saying under my supervision the rohu was cut into several curry pieces and then packed into 5 different batches for the benefit of sparing us the labour of sorting for every round of cooking.

Today I cooked the first batch, pulled out the freezing packet and thawed it under water. I was meaning to cook something tried and tested before like Rohu withFennel Seeds or Rohu Kajuri, but then the memory of eating a rohu curry, long back, at a friend's house fixed me on trying Rohu Posto and that my hubby drools over posto added a further impetus to press forward with the dish.

 

To enhance the richness, you may add mustard paste to the curry, but desiring to relish the flavour of poppy paste in its entirely, I gave the mustard paste a miss purposefully.

Chocolate Vanilla Cheesecake

Chocolate is sinful, we all know that but the knowledge cannot restrain us from indulging in the guilty pleasure of allowing lumpful of chocolates melting in the mouth, the pleasure of embracing the lapping sweetness is priceless. The first thing that chocolate calls to my mind is Mr. Willy Wonka, the eccentric chocolatier in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory whose ingenious chocolate creations take the world by surprise. The chocolate room so beautifully depicted by Roald Dahl is an epitome of edibility; from its pavements to grasses being edible, Mr. Wonka's statement only accentuating the assertion "“Everything in this room is edible. Even I'm edible. But, that would be called cannibalism. It is looked down upon in most societies.”

 

 

The centre of all attention was the chocolate river where the chocolate mixed and churned by the waterfall is the only one of its kind as proclaimed by Willy Wonka "No other factory in the world mixes its chocolate by waterfall."  The seductive and tempting way each candy, a piece of genius invented by Willy Wonka is described gets saliva dribbling from the reader's mouth. I have never read any other book that has chocolates painted in words in such bewitching manner.

Me and my hubby both being fond of chocolates always have few boxes of chocolates put away in the refrigerator which sometimes I toss into my cakes adding an extra richness or sometimes simply pop a slab into my mouth luxuriating in the succulent flavour, but the craving always remains insatiable.

 

 

The following recipe is of a no baking required cheesecake. What I find most appealing about the concoction is the base made from a good many chocolate cookies. The creamy texture of the filling accompanied by crunchy base makes it a savory treat enjoyed by all.

Banana Raspberry Bread with Walnuts and Butterscotch Chips

Winter is not a pleasant season that I look forward to anymore as I used to, in Kolkata and Bangalore. Winter is rather a dreaded season here when going out amid the bone-rattling cold wind sends a shiver running through my body and the chilly blast on my face makes me run for cover. Winter is yet to set in here with full force, but given that the previous year had witnessed very few sheets of snow, the weather forecast for winter this year is pretty rough with blizzard and frequent snow falls in the offing.

 

Of all the things that I hate most about the freezing cold here is the inability to stay alfresco, the stinging cold forcing you to bury under piles of clothes while barring you from walking in the fresh air or holding an outdoor picnic. I find it worse than the scorching summer afternoons of Kolkata when going out under the blazing sun poses an appalling affair, but despite the soaring temperature, summer does not confine one to home as severe winter does, not to mention a pall of gloominess enveloping the atmosphere.

 

With winter impeding the outdoor activities coercing people to soak in the warmth holed up in the cocoon of home by the fireplace, it is a great time to culture hobbies and arrange get-togethers at home, more frequently than usual. I have few plans lined up to utilize the captivity of winter to its best; one of them is fine-tuning my baking skill. Check out my space for more updates on baked goodies in the coming months.

 

Banana flavoured bakes are my favourite and after a recent thread on FB enlightened me about the usefulness of eating over ripe brown bananas, I have become fonder of it than ever. According to Japanese Scientific research, full ripe bananas with dark spots on skins produce a chemical called TNF which helps fight abnormal cancer cells. The riper the banana, the higher is the anti-cancer quality, a reason strong enough to include bananas in your regular diet. So go bananas with unbridled joy.

Potato Curry (South Indian Style)

Too many recipes are there in the pipeline to be downloaded and I am so busy wrapping up the last few pages of the book I am currently reading that I don't get enough time to post them. So I will try to keep the prelude short here in minimum words.

This Potato curry made in South Indian style infused with the fragrance of curry leaves is one of my favourite aloo preparations, I first having tasted it on our trip to Hampi. There was a small shack restaurant near to the hotel we were staying in Hampi with thatched roof and minimal furniture sparsely arranged inside that drew our attention in the very morning we reached there. Hungry and tired of the overnight journey, we were craving for a fulsome breakfast. Hence instead of searching for an aesthetically appealing and tastefully furnished eatery, we went into the one that was within our walking distance.

 

Twinged by the hunger pinch, growing larger every passing minute, we waited patiently for at least over 45 minutes for the breakfast to be served, the tea arriving within 15 minutes of our placing the order. The hot cups of tea in the cold wintry morning helped us remain tolerant to the delay while patiently counting minutes for the meal, which, at a time we were forced to think, was being arranged from scratch by someone rushing to the market to do the groceries few moments after we placed the order.

 

Notwithstanding the delay in serving, the food was really scrumptious. The potato curry accompanied by soft puffed-up puris made up for all the grievances and fumes that the long period of waiting caused in our minds. I swear this potato curry albeit simple in concoction is robust in flavour with high potency to win anyone's heart.

Murukku

Murukku also known as Chakali is originally a South Indian snack of bewitching flavour in spirals, ribbons made from rice flour, urad dal flour, moong dal flour and water, seasoned with an array of spices. Murukku available in diverse flavours - Sweet Murukku, Garlic Murukku, Spicy Murukku and the like is sold in all corners of India as a traditional treat to be savoured during festivals like Diwali and Janmashtami.
 

In Kolkata, Murukku is available in a selection of grocery stores round the year. We would buy the packets in bulk and stash them away in air-tight jars, serving them with tea when guests showed up unannounced. In Bangalore too, Murukku served the same purpose in addition to satisfying those untimely hunger pinches that rises especially when you are catching a movie on television at night.
 

To prepare Murukku, one item cannot be dispensed with - the mold. It has a number of attachments like the ones that come with icing tube. I have used the star attachment to obtain the desired spiral shape. You may use ribbon or any other single attachment to acquire the desired effect.

Alu Potol er Jhol

My mother in law, as I must have mentioned thousand times in my previous posts, is very fond of veggies preferring it over anything else, fish, chicken, mutton and the like. She, most of the time, abstains from adding tomatoes, onion or any other ingredient deemed as sacrosanct in cooking a delectable curry, yet bringing out a taste that far outweighs the ones cooked grandiosely with miscellaneous items.

 

This Alu Potol er Jhol that I learned from her is very simple in concoction, yet mouthwatering and hence one of my favourites because it saves me the pain of chopping onions, a loathsome task of any cooking arrangement. It accompanies chapati, roti and rice very well. Initially after marriage when I was not so fond of potols, my mother in law whenever we visited them would cook this dish helping a great deal in developing my taste bud for the veggie.

 

 

Egg Keema

Yesterday was Ganesh Chaturthi, the birthday of an elephant headed idol so adoringly worshipped in greater parts of India. The name "Ganesh Chaturthi" rings the same spell for Maharasthrians as Durga Puja does to Bengalis. Throughout Maharasthra, in the sanctum of one's home or the pompously decorated outdoor pandals, prayers are offered to the deity. It's a huge festival lasting up to ten days that brings people from all corners of India closer, irrespective of religion, creed and caste. Muslims take active participation in arranging the puja, same way as we have witnessed pujos taking place in some Muslim predominated areas in Kolkata.
 

In celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi, one of my hubby's colleagues who is a Marathi by origin held a small pujo in his home giving foodies like us a momentous opportunity to dig in with pleasure. Of the many delicacies, the sweet dish called 'modak' struck my taste bud precisely, reminding me of puli pithes with coconut stuffing inside soaked in milk that is very popular in Bengal. Through the discussion on Ganesh Festival, many a thing that was hitherto unknown to me came to my knowledge, making my heart yearn for actively partaking in the jubilation and excitement involving the festivity. I have seen visuals of the celebration being covered in news channels over the house of Bollywood celebrities celebrating the occasion in the most grandiose way possible, but have never witnessed the fervour myself.

My Mumbai and Pune stay were so short that I never got to spend a day of Ganesh Chaturthi there. I swear once I return to my country, I would definitely like to take a trip down to Maharashtra to see the madness through my eyes.

 

About the dish, keema is basically a dish cooked with minced meat. Since the following egg curry is concocted in a similar fashion of a keema curry, the dish has become popularly known as egg keema. For my own convenience I have finely chopped the eggs instead of grating as eggs sometimes crumble haphazardly under pressure of a grater.

Orange Raspberry Bread

Days before on the birthday of one of my hubby's colleagues, his wife "P' requested me to bake one cake emphasizing that she too wanted to lend a hand with the making, wishing to surprise her husband. Now the birthday boy has sugar problem that has turned him little fussy about eating sweets. So we planned to bake low calorie sugarless cake by supplementing sugar with artificial sweeteners, especially customized for him.

 

 

Though I would have loved to bake an orange flavoured cake topped with creamy layers of icing for the b'day boy, but at the last minute considering the amount of sugar in citrus cakes is in excess of normal non citrus cakes, I abandoned the idea and stuck to our original plan of baking a simple vanilla cake.

 

 

Respectful of the request that "P" wanted to chip in for the bake, I let her do whipping of the batter and other nitty-gritty required in the making of a presentable eatable cake. The turnout, though won havoc appreciation from the b'day boy more because of his wife's active involvement in the entire process, was a tad chewy in texture which I guess is common with anyone attempting at baking for the first time, but I was very touched by "P"'s effort to make the day special for her husband. When was the last time I made such an endeavour at learning something new just to make my hubby happy? Hmmmmm....sometimes silence is golden.

 

Kolkata Chicken Biriyani with a Twist

In Kolkata, my favourite haunts for biriyani were Ali Baba and Aaminia. I was a regular there, paying visit almost once in a week. Kolkata biriyani is little different from the ones available outside

Kolkata. Kolkata biriyani is simple in concoction, less colorful with white and yellow streaks monopolizing the color and one special thing is there that I have not seen added to the biriyani of any other region - egg. Yes, you read right, egg is the specialty in Kolkata biriyani. No matter whether the order is placed for mutton or chicken biriyani, the items supplementing the biriyani in its entirety are hard-boiled eggs and big chunks of potatoes.

 

In Bangalore, our favourite joint for the same was Arsalan. Throughout Bangalore there is an array

of biriyani chains serving the delicacy in flavours, different from one another hook, line and sinker,

but the one suited our taste bud absolutely was of Arsalan, completed with an egg.

 

The following recipe slightly varies from the traditional Kolkata Biriyani, precisely for it being more

colorful in appearance to the original. For color, I have used two colors - orange and yellow food color. Unlike the traditional one, I have fried the eggs. For biriyani masala, either you may prepare the masala on your own from the very base just like me or you may opt for the one available in the market, the taste varying quite a bit then.

 

Furthermore, I have chosen to cook biriyani in microwave but if you are more oven-friendly then do the same in oven at the temperature mentioned below.
 

Eggplant Cajun Focaccia Bread

Barfi has been a magical experience. In today's materialistic world when the value of everything is measured in terms of money, watching two people bound in selfless pure love is amazing. Some of the emotional scenes which could bring tears were projected in a way inciting laughter and that's what I find so fascinating about the movie. No unnecessary attempt made at moving the audience to tears, the movie pivots around the life of 'Barfi' played by Ranbir Kapoor and the mute world he lives in.

 

Ranbir Kapoor brought life into his character by his stellar performance, charming the audience with his effervescent cute smile, properly suited to the persona of Barfi. Priyanka too was good as Jhilmil Chatterjee, but I found her little overshadowed by Ranbir's powerpacked acting prowess, similar happening to Konkona Sen Sharma in Wake up Sid. I am very fond of Konkona and consider her as one of the very fine actresses among the current platoon of heroines, but she too looked pale before the charismatic Ranbir who with his outstanding performance stole the spotlight from her on the big screen. Ileana was looking ravishing in the movie, though I felt a little pile of flesh would have enhanced her beauty.

 

 

Shot entirely across a number of choice locations of Kolkata, Darjeeling and Purulia, the movie besides the lead actors was spangled by some of the all-time greatest side actors - Saurabh Shukla, Rupa Ganguly and the cameos thrown in by Jishu Sengupta and Haradhan Banerjee. Welded together, the movie offers sweetness, as described by my niece so beautifully, "of a slab of chocolate which long after it is melted in the mouth remains sweet in flavour."

 

 

Chocolate and Vanilla Creams

I am a devoted admirer of Ranbir Kapoor all of whose movies I have covered, until now. So it's obvious when his recent flick 'Barfi' is coming to stage, I won't like to miss it. Now Perrysburg is not New York that you get everything handy in close vicinity. So after a lot of researching, finally we have located down a hall, 100 miles driving distance away in Detroit where the movie is being screened. This is going to be my first movie venture in US.
 

I am a movie buff and in India, me with my hubby used to watch almost every of the new releases, especially in Bangalore where the entertainment options were limited within the malls, catching movie every weekend was a regular affair. Over here, mostly we watch movies on Netflix or buy the latest Hollywood flicks online on Buckeye cable connection.  Since we are fonder of watching English movies than Hindi, we have never missed much.

 

However, 'Barfi' is another story. I won't like making an effort of travelling to a faraway hall just to blow money on some stupid movies like 'Rowdy Rathore' or Salmon starrer 'Ek Tha Tiger' that can be watched anytime online when it hits the cyber world. But for 'Barfi' especially when the first day first show watchers are singing praise of Ranbir's exemplary performance and of the movie being first of its kind in Bollywood as regards artistic way of telling the story, I can't miss it for the world.

Tomato Basil Focaccia Bread

As my husband is snoring away the night sleeping by me and me, a night owl with my earphone hooked on to my ears, catching the peppy Hindi numbers being played in the radio station, I recall my bachelor days in my parents' home when I used to retire to bed every night with a pair of headphones plugged into ears, listening to the nocturnal programs aired on radio dropping off eventually, still wired. Hardly a gap of few years, and so many things have changed. I got married; my most beloved childhood companion breathed its last, my maternal uncle passed away and so many veritable other things have taken place, one after another.

 

I read somewhere "Change is the only thing that is constant." But we all pass through an age when we think that we won’t grow old, others will but we won't. However, time ticks by making us realize in due course as we step into the shoes of our parents and as the older generation dwindles into eternity in contrast with the younger generation growing into adulthood, we open our eyes as our parents did, years ago to the change. It's shocking how quickly time flies.

 

Anyway, deviating from the serious topic above let me share a recipe of Focaccia Bread that I recently baked. Focaccia is Italian flat bread that comes close to pizza in texture, though not the same. Topped with choice herbs and generous amount of olive oil, it is basically yeast bread processed through a laborious effort. I maintain yeast bread involves a convoluted procedure, really time taking and requiring patience in following through on the steps. So unless you are passionate about baking and willing to undertake the endeavors to taste the fruit of your labour, don’t try it.
 

Rohu Mango Curry - Rui Macher Aam Jhol

I have this strange habit of forgetting things. Sometimes half way through a conversation I lose the trail and stare blankly trying to recollect what exactly I was talking about, feeling embarrassed. Sometimes upon bumping into people known to me, I find myself unable to recollect their names and with a huge ear to ear grin talking rather animatedly than ever I try covering that up, lamely. Many a time in a fit of excitement of sharing a story with peers, I forget about the name of things addressing sofa, pavement, refrigerator and almost everything under the sun as 'thing'. But it never happened that I am baking a cake and I forget to add the most important ingredient of all - butter.

 

Yesterday I don't know which world I was in, I forgot, for the first time in life, to add butter to the gorgeous pack of cherry muffins I was enthusiastically baking. My one hour of hard work went down the drain because of that one slip up. At the first mouthful, I felt the coarse desiccation in the texture of the muffins striking hard on my taste bud. It is really bad when your muffins are dehydrated. Worst is I made the muffins in huge bulk to last us through the entire week on breakfast. What's more pathetic is to see my husband now dipping the muffins into a bowl of melted butter before putting into his mouth. Gross!!

Anyway, those of you wondering why I am talking about my futile attempts at baking muffins when my title implies a recipe on rofu fish to be covered, I just want to say, at times the frustration over callous goof-ups feels a lot more lighter when the pain is shared.

 

I have to confess, before trying the following dish out, I was a bit skeptic about the turnout. I have cooked Hilsa with Mango but never attempted the same on Rohu fish. Once in Kolkata when I didn't have much wisdom about cooking, in order to find out why Cabbage is cooked with rohu head only, I embarked on an experimental venture by trying out the same with bhetki head and hilsa head, and the turnout was awful, to say the least. After the two failed attempts, I came to the logical inference - cabbage combines well with rohu head only. Period.

Egg, Chicken Bologna & Cheese Stuffed French Toast

Life is a long road trip that puts us through a lot of hardships to test our perseverance, determination and courage and along the way we collect pebbles of memories; the pleasant ones bring smile to our face each time we cut back to those moments and those, not so pleasant, are pitched away to the farthest corner of our minds.

 

 Immediately after marriage when we shifted from Pune to Kolkata, I encountered adversities galore in terms of managing household on my own. One after another maids came and went, each giving me tough time regarding regularity of coming, cleanliness and most important of all 'reliability'. Nevertheless, the girl we hired to cook made a favourable impression on me. For the convenience of understanding, I would address her as 'B' through the rest of the article. So 'B' was very young, few years younger to me and unlike other maids who were all older and hence tried means to put me down, she easily made her way to my heart by her obedient and friendly nature. Infact, within a matter of few months, she managed to earn my absolute trust and I began to rely on her completely for every small errand.
 

At that time I used to be pretty careless with my stuff which I kept strewn all over the place. But not for a single time the thought that 'B' could pick away anything without asking me crossed my mind. I found her completely trustworthy and to some extent as I already used to give a lot of things away to her unasked, I never felt that she would breach my trust by stealing. My mother, however, heckled by and tired of her maidservants cherished a different opinion. She warned me a lot of time to remain watchful with my things when maids are around, but I, used to the habit of throwing every caution to the wind, ignored her advice most of the time until one day when a big burglary took place in a neighbouring flat two floors down in our apartment builidng that I first thought of being cautious. Continue Reading.

We all love French toasts, aren’t we? But hardly very few of us might have enjoyed French toast cooked the following way. It's one of a kind recipe and a toothsome treat on breakfast, more importantly breeze in preparation. What more can you ask for?

Date Walnut Cake

My hubby brought home a carton of dates a month ago. Not knowing what to do with them except using them in tamarind date chutney or making Khejur Pithas or Date dumplings, I most of the time chewed them in the morning with a glass of soy milk at breakfast. Soon I grew bored of this monotonous breakfast with dates and soy milk every day, so I planned to use them in my cakes. I scoured the cyber world looking for a simple yet scrumptious date cake, but none suited my fancy 100%. So I came out with my own recipe, the type that would work amazingly in satisfying the palate of my family and friends.
 

This cake turned out to be truly decadent, a pleasure to be had in a party with guests showering you with compliments on your culinary prowess.

Cheesy Peppery Mint Bread

Today is Friday. Friday reminds me of my stay in Bangalore and my service days in IBM. Friday used to wear a special look in our office. Many people including bosses worked from home on Fridays and we lesser mortals taking the full advantage of the opportunity sought to enjoy the day trying to spend maximum time in conversation with minimum heed paid to deadlines. By 5 o'clock in the evening, more than half of our bay would be empty with few poor souls still flicking the keyboards, busy in wrapping up the work as hurriedly as possible.

 

After office hour was over, the jubilation in the air over the weekend was palpable. Food courts in high rise malls and restaurants would be chock a block with young professionals enraptured in the orgy of Friday frolic. For me and my hubby, Friday night was the time to spend some cozy moments in a restaurant or indulging ourselves in some late night movies, either at home or in a theatre. Many a time, we would hop into our favourite Bengali chain of restaurants like Bhajahari Manna and Bangaliyana catering to our palate for Bengali delicacies. Friday holds an awesome charm to all the people involved in 9-5 job with two days a week as holidays.

 

Friday, however, didn't have such special appeal to me when we were in Kolkata, the reason being, I had to work half day on Saturday. Here in Perrysburg, every day seems like Friday for my husband's office is at stone's throw away distance from our home and he visits me for lunch and returns home by 5 p.m. After over 4 years of our marital life, this is the most peaceful period we are enjoying with each other. Touchwood!!

These Cheesy Peppery Mint Breads pictured below made their way to our dinner table last Friday night and we relished it with a bowl of soup. Just dip the bread once in the soup before allowing it to melt into your mouth. Ah bliss!!
 

Koi Macher Ganga Jamuna

The name Ganga Jamuna calls to mind two prominent rivers of India - The Ganges and its tributary river Yamuna. The Ganges revered as one of the sacred rivers to Hindu is conceived of as a salvation curing people of all their miseries. Hindus from all over India throng the Ganges to take a dip for cleansing all their sins. Yamuna also known as Jamuna, on the other hand, is held in high esteem as well, worshipped as goddess yamuna. One of the Seven Wonders of the World - Taj Mahal, the famous mausoleum erected by the emperor Shah Jahan while in mourning over his dead wife Mumtaz, overlooks the Yamuna River and the reflection of the same in the azure water of the river is a sight worth craving.
 

Koi Macher Ganga Jamuna is a traditional cuisine of Bengal. The uniqueness of the name is ascribed to its unique way of preparation. Two kinds of gravies are made - one tamarind based; another mustard based. One side of the fish, the one at the bottom would look black or dark brown in color because of being immersed in tamarind based gravy while the side facing the top would be dabbling with mustard based gravy. The taste is beyond description, something you have to experience first-hand. Bursting with flavours, the dish enriched by the pungency contributed by mustard and the combined sweetness and sourness lent by tamarind makes the meal one of its kind, scrumptious and full of flavour. 

Hilsa Mango - Aam Elish

Mango has a lot of memories connected to my childhood days. A huge mango tree in our garden was a cynosure of all eyes. Every summer when the tree full of blooms heralded the arrival of mangoes, a palpable wave of joys would rush through our hearts and we would be waiting anxiously for the moment when the blooms would break into fruits.

 

 

Back to our childhood days during summer months when school was closed for summer vacation, me and my cousins would play through the afternoons climbing the mango tree and sitting on its sturdy branches, sometimes suspending ourselves from an offshoot. For hours, we would engage in prittle-prattle seated under the shade of the tree. Those were some of the cherished moments of my life I had enjoyed to the full.

One of our favourite summer activities was to pluck some of the raw mangoes out that were within our grip and then feasting on them by peeling them carefully, chopping them into tiny pieces and then concocting a delightful mixture of mangoes, tossed in a bowl with tamarind chutney, salt, sugar and dry red chilli powder as a mark of celebrating the mango season. Within few minutes of putting the mixture together, the bowl would be swept clean, licked up of every traceable smear. Still, when my hubby brings home a carton of raw mangoes, I save some for making a similar kind of concoction with raw mangoes rubbed in tamarind chutney, kasundi, sugar, green chillies and a bit of salt. It just tastes heavenly beyond description.

 

 

Talking about Hilsa Mango, I have collected the recipe from a Bengali magazine. Although according to my sweet will, I skipped some steps mentioned as mandatory in the recipe, more or less, I have tried maintaining the originality.

For more such recipes on Mango, please click the links below:

Rohu Mango Curry

Aam Doi Bata

Mango Flavored Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding

Poppy Seeds Bread with Mango Glaze

Mango Cup Cakes

Aloo Potoler Dalna

In Perrysburg, there are hardly one or two Indian groceries selling seasonal Indian veggies. Potol is a rarity there; even if potols are available, most of them are puny, barely half inches in size. So for potols of eatable quality, we had to place special order for the veggie which then was ferried from the coast of New York to our cheerless area. Never thought a day would come when so as to satiate our palate for potol, we would have to count days waiting patiently for the call of the shopkeeper announcing the arrival of the same in their store, at last. Anyway, no matter how the potols are garnered to the table, what matters at the end is the delicacy cooked with it.

 

 

Aloo Potoler Dalna is a lip-smacking dish of Bengal relished with pleasure by all bongs. Dalna refers to thick gravy which is a bit sweet yet spicy in taste. It is not soupy and runny like the usual gravy of an Indian curry. It was a staple veggie dish in our home during summer months. My mother used to cook a range of potol delicacies including Potol Dolma, Doi Potol, Sorshe Potol and so on or forth. My father would buy potols in bulk and sometimes tired of eating potols almost every day we would lay our potol craving for the season to rest by not wanting to eat any more.

 

 

Tomato Soup with Cheddar Cheese

Tomato soup with Cheddar Cheese is an exciting variation of Tomato Soup posted earlier in my blog. I have few packets of cheese, the variety including cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, goat stacked up in the refrigerator for some months. Ever since I have been putting some serious efforts to weight reduction, some of the items that were regular in consumption at my home have been salted away for occasional use. Now that I have successfully shed some kgs and the change in appearance is conspicuous, I feel encouraged to try some cheese into my food.

I love tomato soup as it is, with or without cheese. But an addition of cheese boosts up the flavour noticeably. Teamed up with garlic bread or a bowl of salad, this is a great treat for dinner.