Doi Diye Alur Dum - Simple Yogurty Alu Dum

An arctic wave of cold air is entering USA via Canada from tomorrow onwards, because of which the temperature is forecasted to be dropping down below 6 F, equivalent to -15 C. Last 10 days of salubrious tolerable cold is now going to be replaced by another round of shitty cold. This is just too much for me. Even yesterday evening when we went out with a pair of old friends to a park nearby the Maumee bay, the wind though frosty was not exactly unbearable, although my friends were shivering like a leaf as soon as they were out of the car but still compared to what is looming, the climate was of feathery comfort. Today evening after I came back home after an hour having spent in the outdoor driving and walking across a yard to the grocery shop, my head started reeling being unable to cope up with the sudden drop in temperature. One good thing that is coming out of this freezing winter is no matter what I eat, nothing is clinging on to my body. I am losing weight. Now an hour spent walking outdoor amounts to 2 hours slogging in the gym. 

Talking about eating, today evening my hubby came up with the request of having alur dum that my mother in law prepares at home. It's been a year I have not seen her and tasted the range of her delicious vegetarian concoctions the very sight of which makes me salivate. Couple of times when I had been to my in law's place, she cooked this tasty yet simple alur dum caked in yogurt almost nil of spices and served with kochuri, and I literally licked the plate clean.

Tetul Diye Masoor Dal

I used to be a dedicated avid player of community games on FB - Farmville, Cityville, Gardens of time etc. My addiction was so unbounded that in order to get some leverage over the other players, I had even made purchases of monthly packages to bag some extra points. I have over 50-60 friends added just for the sake of expanding my network of community players to remain ahead in the games. There was one of my colleagues who was equally in league with me in playing games. So what started on a note of helping my colleague to keep his gaming afloat later on turned into an obsession for me as well. Though late but finally God has knocked some sense of realization into me about the uselessness of playing these games on a continuity basis.  I have quit playing finally after being hooked for over a year time period because for all intents and purposes, logging into FB everyday just to play the games like a daily routine was useless, time which could be spent doing other productive work like reading and writing. Now I find my former enthusiasm inordinately preposterous. I must have been completely out of my mind.

The recipe of Tetul Diye Masur Dal I collected from a Bengali magazine that featured some of the traditional recipes of Tagore family on one of its editions. I tried one of the recipes covered there at home. Very light, healthy yet a gorgeous fulfilling dal, I just love it. 

Chicken and Spinach Donut

Few weeks back I wrote about how I could not tell rice flour and all-purpose flour apart because of their identical look and messed up a dish using rice flour in place of all-purpose flour confusing the two. Anyway, since then the jars of both the ingredients are kept on separate shelves with labels attached for clear identification. But what do I do when my husband keeps a glass I normally use while cooking to add water into the dishes filled with sprite on the kitchen top? Confusion is bound to happen, isn't so? as both sprite and water look alike. Just imagine my horror when I discovered that the potato curry I made with the effort of half an hour was on the brink of tasting disastrous just because what I added into my curry assuming water was actually a water look alike cold drink. My husband wanted to sip something cold after coming back from office, so he filled the only glass he caught hold of, rest being washed in the dishwasher, with sprite which he drank half and left the remaining on the counter top and went about his work, while I came into the kitchen to cook dinner. I set on to cooking Bengali aloo curry during which I felt the need to add a dash of water and there the glass containing sprite was within my reach, I grabbed it and plop it went. 

 

But here is the twist. Nothing what I was expecting happened, the taste having turned out exactly what potato curry tastes like with no trace of sweet tasting cold drink anywhere. The reason is cold drinks carries a lot of carbon-di-oxide diluted with water which just like water, if cooked, evaporates completely. Thank god, the dish meant to be dry in consistency and that's why the amount of cold drinks added was less and cooked till gravy dried up, I wonder what would have happened if the curry required gravy. Then the taste of cold drink infused gravy would have tasted nothing short of cough syrup and combined with potatoes and spices....well the very imagination bringing the pukish feeling back.

Strawberry Sponge Cake

Steven Spielberg is one of my most favored directors of Hollywood. Among all his movies, Schindler's List is a chef-d'oeuvre, one of his prized creations still evoking the same kind of amazement and anguish even 20 years after its release. During my first time watching the movie, I was not old enough to appreciate the directorial brilliance but still the scene of a small girl in red coat roaming around, indifferent to her surrounding, in the midst of chaos unfolding on the streets and later in a scene her dead body being piled on to a mass grave chalked an impression on my mind. Years later while watching the movie for the second time I was able to put together the fragments of what I understood from last time watching it to how brilliantly Spielberg had crafted the scene to pull the two worlds into one single shot; one caught in a web of mass destruction and another completely apathetic to the horror unfolding around. That during the shooting of the film, Spielberg was emotionally affected betrays in his statement: “America and Russia and England all knew about the Holocaust when it was happening, and yet we did nothing about it."

I have read and seen a lot a movies and novels based on holocaust and each one of them left me gasping in horror at the revelation of the macabre side of human character. Perhaps no other animal except the homosapiens unleashes such unimagined barbarity on its own kind. The last of Schindler's list survivors Leon Leyson died last week aged 83. It's strange of Leon to hardly have ever spoken about his experience of surviving the holocaust until this movie got released. Strange that he thought people would not be interested in his story. 

Over to the recipe, Strawberry Sponge Cake is a two tier cake sandwiched or stuck together with a layer of strawberry jam or any favourite jam or jelly of yours spread in between. Each bite of this cake is pure pleasure, taking you to seventh heaven.

Rosh Bora

I wanted to post some recipes of pithe or homemade sweets on the day of Sankranti itself, but somehow I couldn't make the time. I cooked a wholesome fare of an assortment of pithes - Rosh bora, Kheer Patishapta and Dudh Puli Pithe yesterday. So busy was I cooking and distributing them among peers that by the time I hit the sack, it was past midnight. Usually, I am a night owl having huge capacity to remain awake late into the night but I was so worn out, I fast fell asleep. Anyway, better late than never. So here I will be posting some recipes back to back. First one is Rosh Bora.

'Rosh' meaning syrup in Bengali and 'bora' meaning fritters, the two combined give hints of an ultimate homemade sweet in the making. Some people use few strands of saffron to enrich the flavor of the syrup which I gave a deliberate miss. I don't like the 'shahi' smell with traditional Bengali sweets; I am pretty conservative in that way. 

Happy Makar Sankranti Friends !!

Corn Sandwich

Days when I don't feel like cooking anything with elaborate preparation, I stick to making sandwiches, which are simple and less time consuming. One such sandwich is Corn Sandwich. It's one of my favorites, not because it tastes yummy but because of the time it takes. There was a time in Bangalore when we used to be in lot of rush in the morning due to both of us going to office, quite opposite to our present situation when I am sitting at home fulltime and cooking this and that delectable for hubby. Those were the days when getting a decent meal were enough for us, forget anything fancy. Anyway, so Corn Sandwich was one of the items regular on our menu for breakfast before running for office. This recipe is to help all the busy bees searching for some quick breakfasts during rush hour. Happy eating !!

Beans Luchi

Temperature here has shot up a bit turning the climate into more pleasant than I have seen in last two weeks. Finally, I can go out without suffocating myself under an inch thick layer of clothing. Right now the cold is soothing and beautiful, kind of reminding me of Kolkata winter when just a single woollen sweater suffices to keep your body warm. In Kolkata, winter was my favourite season, I so used to look forward to it. I have some beautiful memories connected with winter. One of the best memories was of my pet Bonnie jumping on my bed and snuggling with me on cold afternoons under the same blanket sharing the same pillow and, while he slept laying his head beside mine, his soft fur along the nape touching my face, the feeling was just magical. One should pet dogs to learn how to give affection. They are so loving, caring and affectionate that even without saying they do a lot of things touching your heart. 

Winter not only gives us a breath of fresh air from the constant humid and heat of Kolkata; it also brings joy to our palate when a lot of fresh winter vegetables including green peas, beans and cauliflower are aplenty in the market. Nowadays, however, due to improved cold storage system, almost all the vegetables are available round the year; but still the cauliflowers you get in summer don't stand in comparison with that of winter ones, the slimy bug that pops out at times while chopping the vegetable is proof enough of that. Fresh veggies make the air refreshing adding a healthy punch to your cuisines, preserved ones cannot beat that. 

Anyway, beans luchi is an innovative way to experience old luchis in a novel manner and is another way to make use of beans other than using them in salads or curries. They taste best with Peyazkoli Diye Aloor Torkari, though I believe they go well with anything.   

Peyazkoli Diye Aloor Torkari

Did you guys see Big Boss Season 6? I believe so far it's one of the most interesting Big Boss seasons ever. Though the show became a lot of more entertaining after Imam's entry and his 'nautanki' (drama) shot up the TRP rates all-time high, he was not a winning material and I am happy that he didn't win at the end. There were a lot of my friends totally gaga over Imam's madness, stubbornly having wanted him to win and if anyone reasoned against Imam why he should not win, they would start a severe argument from thereon in Imam's favour. Now they are all sulking with Imam's loss, unable to accept Urvashi as a winner. So lots of depressing status messages with unhappy comments are getting published throughout the day on FB walls and although I am enjoying reading them, but at times I feel they are just going overboard. A game is a game; it should be taken with a game spirit. Imam definitely was very nasty and rude to other inmates. His winning would have condoned nastiness sending out a wrong message to all. 

The smell of fresh peyazkoli is so refreshing na ? I have two back to back recipes involving peyazkoli. One is this delicious yet simple Peyazkoli Aloo preparation that sends a beautiful aroma wafting up through the house when it is in the making; another is a fish preparation which I would post sometime later after I am done with sorting out the snaps.

Rohu Fish Korma

I wish onion juice just like ginger and garlic paste could be available readymade in the market . A lot of time spent into extracting the juice from onion would have been saved to use otherwise. That brings in mind the era of our mother and grandmothers who in the absence of readymade spice powder used to grind spices painstakingly at home, manually, on a grinding stone which still is very much in use across Kolkata in traditional households. Now what is a grinding stone or popularly called in Bengal as shil nora, one not familiar with Bengali way of cooking might enquire. It is a pocked stone slab used for grinding an array of essential cooking items - ginger, garlic, onion, cumin, coriander and the like into paste. I have seen my mother grinding poppy seeds rolling the mortar back and forth on the shil nora, with her forehead covered with beads of sweat, while she paused every now and then rearranging the paste with the tip of her fingers to repeat the grinding process until poppy seeds were crushed into a wet pulp. Without the aid of modern day gadgets, cooking was definitely not a simple affair but still our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers smilingly managed cooking a wholesome fare comprising 10-15 dishes for all the members of huge joint families. Cooking on such large scale, every day, is simply out of our imagination now. 

My mother always criticizes our generation of women being so impatient with everything seeking immediate outputs on every effort and in pursuit of career and dreams putting the most important things of life on the backburner like family and relationships. I cannot quite disagree with her thought. It's true that women of our generation don't have patience coming close to that of our mother's generation who sacrificed every small desire for the sake of families with an ever-present smile and selflessness that has become a rarity now. However, it's equally true our ways of life are far more complicated than theirs and we cannot be blamed for the complication entirely because with the technological evolution and economic progress, the world dynamics are thrown into a whole new level completely different from that of our earlier generation. There are many aspects of life we now deal with that our mothers had never come face to face with. For example, there was a time when people with moderate earnings could build a house for themselves in the heart of Kolkata, however humble the structure may be, but in today's time erecting your own house in a plot purchased by you is almost unthinkable. With the population explosion and high inflation rate it has become a necessity for us to become more serious about our career and growth and contribute to family income, just to live well.

I believe our mothers were lucky in a way that they were born at a time when life was simple. Although all of us crave for simplicity in life, with the fast changing world simplicity and complete mental peace are two things elusive to many. 

Rohu Fish Korma is a very interesting recipe. Usually, Bengalis deep fry most of the fishes before making gravy with them, only exception being is Hilsa which is not deep fried to keep its juicy flavour intact. On the other hand, I have seen a lot of fish eating people hailing from places like Chennai, Kerala not deep frying fishes while cooking them. I think deep frying fishes before making gravy is a practice unique to Bengal. This is my first of such attempt at cooking rohu curry without deep frying the fishes. I must tell you the turnout was awesome. My finicky husband doubtful of how the taste would turn out while I was cooking it also ended up passing compliments on the end result. One thing you must be careful of is to show little generosity towards the amount of oil you use. 

Mulo Chingri - Radish with Prawns

 

In the wake of the recent horrific incident in Delhi, some womenfolk have suddenly been stirred

 out of their impassivity into sudden sympathetic mode on the ordeal of their less fortunate sisters.
 
Please don't misunderstand me, I am not being sarcastic and I am not generalizing women with my

remark. But my observations and experiences in life have shown me that women themselves don't

empathize with other women. Most of the time I have seen women, in group, either criticizing

harshly the one woman who has taken a bold step in voicing protest against something wrong or

playing the role of mute spectators, in a manner of complete indifference to something not

concerning them,  to the suffering of other women. For instance, take the rape case of Park Street in

Kolkata. Who labeled the lady in distress as prostitute? A woman chief minister, who being a

woman herself, can be expected to exhibit a minimum amount of compassion was the first person

to put the victim's character under scrutiny. Just because the victim, a mother of two, didn't act by

the rules demarcated by the society doesn't make her a prostitute. When the power holders of our

country try to lessen the gravity of a crime by publicly calling the victim a prostitute, it sends the

message loud and clear that rape on a prostitute is admissible and not liable to punishment. What is

the definition of a prostitute? According to the dictionary meaning, a prostitute is a woman who

sleeps with men in exchange of money, but in practical life the word is slapped on any woman not

following the set of conventions drawn by the patriarchal society. 'Prostitute', a word of humiliation,

is used as a very strong abusive word to denigrate woman. (To read the article fully, please visit the

link  highlighted.)

My bonding with mulo is getting stronger by the day with the discovery of such a variety of mulo

recipes. This one I collected from a friend on Facebook. She happened to visit my blog and was all
 
praise, so taking a chance of the moment I asked her to share a favourite recipe of her especially

something related to mulo, as I had a huge mulo at home awaiting to be slaughtered. She relayed

the recipe of this one which she claimed is quite regular in her maiden home. Nice!!!!

Alu - Phulkopir Singara

It was almost a daily routine for us while in Kolkata to have 2 singaras with a cup of tea or coffee 

in the evening. In Bangalore, not that too often but at least once a week, we would hop on to Hal 

Market to buy our share of bliss - singara, mochar chop, alur chop and the like. Each morsel of 

piping hot singaras were pure pleasure, one of the reasons why I found losing weight so difficult 

that time. Not that I am not struggling with weight still, a tad overweight is a byproduct of being 

foody after all  :)

Regarding the recipe, the filling of singara is very easy in preparation especially if you are

conversant with Bengali way of cooking. The filling varies a lot from one region to another; the

singaras sold in Kolkata differ a lot in taste from the rest of India. But more or less, the preparation

technique of putting the filling inside a pastry sheet and deep frying is similar everywhere. In case

you are not comfortable with kneading you may buy the readymade spring roll pastry sheet readily

available in the market. In fact readymade singaras are also available in packets. You just need to

bring them home and deep fry. So you may either grab the readymade pastry sheet or you may

knead pastry dough mixing together all-purpose flour, salt, a pinch of cooking soda or baking soda

 with required amount of water, the discretion is yours. For the convenience of time, I always prefer

 the first option over the other.

Narkel Posto Bora - Coconut Poppy Fritters

Narkel Posto Boda is a delicacy in Bengal, sold at overpriced rates in some restaurants across Bengal

and outside. I remember shelling out 200 rupees for a plate of 8 of these bodas two years back in

Bangalore. Posto is expensive compared to many other culinary ingredients; hence anything cooked

 with posto is a pricey affair. But if you manage to cook posto delicacies at home, you will feel fewer

pinches in your pocket. 

 

Narkel Posto Bora is one of the items I like to eat with a combination of rice and plain Butter

Masoor Dal. Although, you can have it as snacks in the evening with a cup of tea, but in Bengal it is

better served as an accompaniment to rice and dal.