Coconut Chicken and White Wine Curry

Feeling the need of pulling warms clothes out of the wardrobe as winter is slowly setting in in Bangalore. With winter comes a range of problems including rough skin, dandruff and the constant shivery feeling. Fortunately and genetically I am blessed with good skin and never had to bother about pimples or acnes. Even during my adolescence when most of my friends suffered from recurring pimples and acnes as reaction to sudden changes of puberty, I could hardly recollect a day worrying on this. However, my skin is a bit sensitive to change of weather. After spending dry winter in Pune when suddenly I moved to humid Kolkata, I developed rashes all over my face. Sometimes during summer in Kolkata, I used to develop blisters on my face. It would all start from a simple scratch mark as if someone has scratched my face with nails. Then the scratch would swell up into red blisters. In USA once when I applied winter care lotion of an internationally reputed brand, my skin suffered eruptions to a degree I have never seen before. I remember attending an invitation of my hubby's friend and feeling embarrassed due to my dreadful skin condition. The winter care lotion reacted badly after one or two application leaving my face with a burning sensation and red scaly patch. Looking literally roasted in oven, I was worried sick if I was to have any permanent scar due to that allergic reaction. But thanks to the almighty, it got healed on its own once I quit the use of that winter care cream and from then on no matter how reputed that brand is, I don’t touch its skin-care products. One or two such aberrations apart, my skin hardly gave me any problem. For me, dandruff has been a constant headache and it aggravates every time in winter. I have undergone treatments in beauty parlours, applied dandruff shampoo three times a week and plenty of other things meant to cure me of white scales, but in vain. Dandruff would be gone for a week or two and return happily again. Somewhat out of desperation and annoyance at spending thousands upon futile treatments in beauty parlours, I scouted the cyber world in quest of a home remedy which is easily applicable with long-standing effect. For last two months, I have been dedicatedly using two remedies with a fruitful result. One is application of henna mixed with fresh yogurt and another is egg yolks mixed with dollops of honey. I must confess these two home-based remedies are bringing forth positive outcome. My hair fall has reduced drastically over last two months. Now back to the recipe, Coconut chicken and white wine curry is good to be rounded up for dinner if you want to eat and cook something different from the traditional Indian chicken curries. I have used pudina powder in my preparation, but you can use curry powder also. Ingredients:                               Cooking time:40 minutes ü  1 kg boneless chicken ü  1 large sized onion (chopped) ü  1 tomato (turned into paste) ü  1 cup of white wine ü  1 cup of coconut cream ü  2 tbs of whipping cream ü  2 cups of chicken stock ü  5-6 green chillies (optional) (turned into paste) ü  3 tsp pudina powder ü  2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped) ü  1 tsp ginger paste ü  2 tsp black pepper powder ü  salt to taste ü  White oil for cooking Method: 1) Rub salt and black pepper powder on chicken pieces. Heat oil in a non-sticky cooking pan. When oil becomes piping hot, brown the chicken. Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken and keep them aside. 2) Now into the same oil, add onions & chopped garlic. When onions turn translucent, add tomato and green chillies paste. Sauté for 1 minute. Add ginger paste, pudina powder. Sauté for few minutes. 3) Add wine. Sauté for a while before adding coconut cream, whipping cream and chicken stock. 4) When the mixture comes to a boil, slide in the chicken pieces. Cook covered on medium heat till chicken is cooked through and gravy thickens. Check salt.   5) Serve hot with steamed rice. Enjoy!

Kumro Chingri - Pumpkin with shrimps

Kumro Chingri is an authentic Bengali vegetable dish, but not for pure vegetarians ;) From medium to small, you can use shrimps of any size for this preparation. I used shrimps of small size. Ingredients:                                                Cooking time: 20 minutes ü  500 gm Pumpkins (Cut into small cubes) ü  250 gm shrimps ü  1 onion (finely chopped) ü  1 tsp ginger paste ü  1 tsp turmeric powder ü  1 tsp cumin powder ü  1 tsp panchphoron (a mix of five spices including cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds and black mustard seeds) ü  5-6 green chillies (slit in the middle) ü  2 tsp sugar (If the pumpkin is not sweet, add sugar) ü  salt to taste ü  White oil for cooking Method: 1) Heat oil in a cooking pan. When oil becomes hot, add panchphoron. When the spices begin to sputter, add onions and caramelize. 2) Add shrimps when onions become golden in color. Shallow fry the shrimps. Add ginger paste, turmeric powder, cumin powder & green chillies. Sauté for 1 minute. 3) Toss in the pumpkins. Cook covered on medium heat. To prevent pumpkins from burning at the bottom, add water (about 1/4 cup). 4) When pumpkins soften a bit, add salt and sugar. Continue cooking pumpkin on medium flame till pumpkins become mushy enough to mash. Use a spatula to mash the pumpkins. 5) Serve hot with roti, chapati or even rice.

Coconut Pabda Curry

We Bengalis love two things - food & travelling. Fish tops the list of our food chart. Coconut Pabda Curry is a delectable fish preparation, sure to win the hearts of all fish lovers. Below goes the recipe: Ingredients:                           Cooking time: 30 minutes ü  6 Pabda fishes of medium size ü  1/2 cup of coconut milk ( I used canned coconut milk) ü  2 tomatoes (chopped) ü  5-6 green chillies (slit in the middle) ü  1 tsp ginger paste ü  1 tsp cumin powder ü  1 tsp chilli powder ü  1 tsp turmeric powder ü  1 tsp garam masala powder ü  1 tsp sugar ü  Salt to taste ü  Coriander leaves (chopped for garnishing) ü  White oil for cooking For sauté: ü  2 dry red chillies ü  1 tsp cumin seeds ü  2 bay leaves Method: 1)  Rub salt and turmeric on fishes. Heat oil in a frying pan. When smoke comes out from the oil, add the fish pieces and shallow fry them. 2) Now heat oil in another pan. When oil turns piping hot, add the ingredients for sauté. When they begin to sputter, add tomatoes and green chillies. Sauté for 2 minutes. 3) Add ginger paste, turmeric powder, cumin powder & chilli powder. Sauté for 1 minute. Add coconut milk. Sauté for 2 minutes on medium heat. 4) Add water as per your need for gravy. When gravy comes to a boil, add garam masala, sugar and salt. Cook for 1 minute. 5) Slide in the fried fishes. Cook covered on medium heat for 2 minutes. 6) Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice.

Banana Cake

While preparing Banana Cake, keep an eye on two things. Firstly, banana should be ripe. The ones sold in the market with yellow skin are tasty to eat as raw, but in order to prepare banana cake; you need to ripen the bananas till they turn brown in flesh. Just keep them in open for two days and they will mature to ripeness. The soft, moist texture and sweetness of brown bananas are crucial to the cake. Secondly, don’t over mix the batter. As you add flour into the batter, just simple stirring couple of times till the ingredients blend in with each other and till no speck of flour remain in the mixing bowl is enough. Over mixing tautens the cake, making it rubbery. I learned it from my experience of baking a series of tough, cookie like cakes (:P) The below recipe can be used for preparing muffins also. Just substitute the normal baking tin for cake with muffin tray. Simple! Ingredients: 250 gms (about 2 cups) all-purpose flour (maida) 175 gm (about 1 cup) powdered white sugar 3 ripe bananas of large size (mashed) 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder 1 cup almonds or walnuts (roasted and shredded) (you can adjust the quantity as per your need) 1 tsp cinnamon powder 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup (about 150 gm) unsalted butter (melted and of room temperature) 2 eggs (whipped) Method: 1) Take two separate bowls. In one bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, sugar and nuts. 2) In another bowl, mix in mashed bananas, vanilla extract, melted butter and eggs. Whisk the mixture well to make a smooth batter. Then gently pour this wet mixture into the dry one, combine well till batter becomes thick. Please remember what I mentioned above, don’t over mix. Over mixing hampers perforation and resultantly, the cake would turn out tight and springy. 3) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degree F). Grease a baking tin with a spoonful of butter and pour the batter into it. Position the tray in the middle of the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Banana Muffins

It just feels like yesterday only when me and Debu met on a matrimonial website and now as if with the blink of an eye, we have spent 4 years together in our marriage. How fast time flies. Tomorrow being our 4th wedding anniversary calls for some celebration. Sadly, tomorrow is Monday and Debu has office. Stuck amid a busy schedule of project based work, it's difficult for him to take a day off. So I planned to treat him a special dinner on Sunday itself. To add a special gesture, I baked his favourite banana muffin as dessert. While preparing banana muffin, take care of two things. Banana should be ripe. The ones sold in the market with yellow skin are great to eat as raw, but not suitable for preparing muffins. Keep the bananas in open for two days till they ripen into brown flesh. The moist texture and sweetness of brown bananas are of the essence. Secondly, when you fold flour with the wet ingredients, don't over mix. Over mixing the batter leads to less pores inside the mixture tautening the muffin. By the way, the recipe described below applies to the preparation of banana cake also. Just use a normal baking tin instead of muffin trays. That's it. Ingredients: ü  250 gms (about 2 cups) all-purpose flour (maida) ü  175 gm (about 1 cup) powdered white sugar ü  3 ripe bananas of large size (mashed) ü  1 cup almonds or walnuts (roasted and shredded) (you can adjust the quantity as per your need) ü  1 1/2 tsp of baking powder ü  1 tsp cinnamon powder ü  1 tsp vanilla extract ü  1 cup (about 150 gm) salted butter (melted and of room temperature) ü  2 eggs (whipped) Method: 1) Take two separate bowls. In one bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, sugar and nuts. 2) In another bowl, mix in mashed bananas, vanilla extract, melted butter and eggs. Whisk the mixture well to make a smooth batter. Then gently pour this wet mixture into the dry one, combine well till batter becomes thick. Please remember what I mentioned above, don’t over mix. Over mixing hampers perforation and the muffins would turn out tight and springy. 3) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degree F). Grease the muffin tins with half spoonful of butter in each and scoop out the batter into them. Position the tray in the middle of the oven and bake for about 15 minutes till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.



Kumro Aloor Chakka – Potato Pumpkin Curry

'Dirty Picture' starring Vidya Balan, Nasiruddin Shah & the media tagged 'serial kisser' Imran Hashmi is coming on screen tomorrow. What I assume seeing the trailer of the movie is that the plot might revolve round a heroine sucked into the vortex of shoddy film-making. Vidya Balan caught notice by her laudable performance in Parineeta acquiring admiration from all until she turned herself into a laughing stock performing in a number of bad movies with roles and outfits not suiting her at all, like Kismat Connection and Heyy Babyy. She has traditional Indian features, therefore not all the roles are likely to suit her. She should show some prudence in choosing roles before audience shelve her for good. Hope 'Dirty Picture' would reflect her spark which went missing since Parineeta. Coming back to the recipe, Kumro Aloor Chakka is a tasty side dish to complement roti, rice and luchi. In my preparation I have used 'panchphoron' (a mix of five spices) for sauting, but some people use black cumin seeds or kalonji, hing to temper the oil. The taste of the dish varies with the change of ingredient. Another thing to note is if the pumpkin is not sweet, please add sugar as I did. Ingredients                             Cooking time: 20-30 minutes ü  400 gm pumpkin (cut into small cubes) ü  1 large potato (cut into small cubes) ü  1/2 cup of black chickpeas ü  1 tsp coriander powder ü  1 tsp cumin powder ü  1 tsp turmeric powder ü  1 tsp ginger paste ü  5-6 green chillies (slit in the middle) ü  salt to taste ü  2 tsp sugar (in case the pumpkin is not sweet) ü  1 tsp panchphoron ( a mix of five spices like fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fennel seeds and black mustard seeds.) ü  2 dry red chillies (cracked into halves) ü  White oil for cooking Method: 1) Soak black chickpeas in water overnight. Pressure cook until 6-7 whistles. Keep aside. 2) Heat oil in a cooking pot and when smoke comes out, add panchphoron & dry red chillies. When they begin to splutter, add potato cubes. Roast the potatoes lightly. 3) Add ginger paste, turmeric powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Saute for 2 minutes. 4) Add pumpkin, chickpeas and green chillies. Cook covered on medium heat for 5 minutes. If the mixture turns dry, add 1/2 cup of water. 5) Add salt & sugar. Cook covered until potatoes and pumpkins are cooked through. 6) Serve hot with roti or rice. Enjoy your meal.

Methi Dal

My mom in law being fonder of veg than non-veg cooks some excellent veg dishes. Every time when we visit Kolkata and stay in my in law's place, she treats us with varieties of veg delicacies. Knowing that I love cooking, she narrates the recipes as I keep eating. I have learnt a handful of veg recipes from her. Methi Dal is one of them.

Ingredients:                                Cooking time:30 minutes

1 cup moong Dal or green gram
 1 cup masoor dal or red gram
 1 cup of methi or fenugreek leaves
 1 onion (thinly sliced)
 1 tomato (chopped)
 3-4 cloves of garlic (minced)
 1 tsp turmeric powder
 1 tsp cumin seeds
 5-6 green chillies (slit in the middle)
 2 tsp sugar
 salt to taste
lemon juice extracted from 1 lemon
 White oil for cooking

Method:

1) Wash the lentils carefully with changes of water till they appear clean. Put them in pressure cooker with water 3 times the quantity of lentils by volume, add chopped tomatoes and turmeric powder. Fix the lid into the pressure cooker and cook on medium heat till one whistle. 2) Heat oil in a pan. When oil turns smoking hot, add cumin seeds. When they start crackling, add minced garlic and onions. Caramelize. When onions start changing colour to brown, add methi leaves. Sauté for 1 minute. 3) Add the lentils. Pour water as per your requirement for consistency. Add green chillies, sugar and salt. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. 4) Squeeze lemon juice before serving. 5) Serve hot with rice or roti. Have pleasure.

Oats Rava Dosa

I am very happy today. It's been a long while that I have not been in touch with some of my old friends. Last night I saw one friend, who was my colleague in Kolkata, in my dream with flashes of memory of the time spent with her. I had her number but it was not transferred to my new mobile from the old one. So I made sure that no matter what I would do the backlog and call her up. With that thought occupying my mind through the day, I called her finally in the evening. She didnot have my new number of Bangalore and for obvious reasons of not talking to me on phone for over two years couldnot recognize my voice. I played around a while telling her to take a guess before she finally guessed me right. It felt so nice catching up with old friends after such a long time. Back to our days in Kolkata, she used to literally dote on her brother and hardly missed a day without talking about him. This brother of hers is getting married this month on the same day that I celebrate my marriage anniversary - 21st November. What a coincidence !! and ofcourse telepathy. During our short conversation of 10 minutes she told me that yesterday only she was thinking about me. She was planning to collect my number through a common friend and invite me over for her brother's wedding. What a telepathy ! It works for me everytime :)

Okay now back to the recipe, well, as you must know by now if you refer to my earlier posts about oats that oats is very good for heart and for reducing cholesterol in blood. So here goes another recipe of oats: Oats Rava Dosa

Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1/4 cup rava or suji

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 medium sized onion (chopped)

5-6 green chillies (chopped)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp black pepper

salt to taste

white oil for cooking

Method:

1) Dry roast oats and rava separately on a skillet. Keep them aside. 2) Heat oil in the skillet and brown onions & green chillies. When onions change color to golden, take them off the heat and keep aside. 3) Into the same oil splutter 1 tsp cumin seeds. 4) Now in a bowl mix in all the ingredients of roasted oats & rava, all-purpose flour, caramelized onions, green chillies, cumin seeds, black pepper & salt. Add water and whip properly to make a batter of smooth consistency for dosa. Please note that the batter should be a bit watery, but not too much. 5) Heat oil in the skillet and with a ladle spread the batter proportionately on the skillet. Cook on medium heat and when dosa is cooked on one side turn it over and cook it on the other side. 6) Serve with chutney or pickles.

Sweet Mixed Vegetables

Well, this one is my favourite cause I can use almost any vegetable of my choice for this preparation without having to segregate, but since the dish is meant to be sweet, two ingredients are mandatory - sweet pumpkin and eggplant. If possible rule out adding any bitter tasting vegetable like bitter gourd cause I dont think that bitterness would go hand in hand with sweetness. 

Ingredients:                                   Cooking time: 20-30 minutes

100 gm eggplants (cut into small cubes)

100 gm pumpkin (cut into small cubes)

100 gm papaya (cut into small cubes)

1 medium sized potato (cut into small cubes)

1 carrot (chopped)

1 small sized cauliflower (split apart into florets of medium size)

1/2 cup of cabbage (shredded)

2-3 green chillies (chopped)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp sugar or more as per your taste

salt to taste

2 tbs coconut milk (I used canned coconut milk. Optionally, you may use cow milk also)

white oil for cooking

Method:

1) First chop all the vegetables. Then boil cabbage, potato, cauliflower, papaya with a bit of salt for 10 minutes. Drain the water and keep them aside.

2) Heat oil in a cooking vessel. When smoke comes out from the oil, add cumin seeds. As you hear the sound of cumin seeds crackling, add pumpkins and lightly fry them. Then add carrots and fry them on medium heat. Add cauliflower & papaya and fry till they all appear golden.

3) At this stage, add eggplants. Stir occasionally and cook covered on medium heat till eggplants soften a bit.

4) Now add rest of the other vegetables including potato, cabbage and green chillies. Add turmeric powder and mix in. Cook covered for 10 minutes on low heat. Stir occasionally.

5) Add salt, sugar and coconut milk. Cook covered on medium heat until all the vegetables are properly cooked.

6) Serve hot with roti or rice.