2 Ingredient Challenge with Makha Shondesh!!

Makha Shondesh/Sandesh is basically a grandma staple from Bengali kitchens that got lost in the race to become modern. It’s an extremely easy recipe, involving just 2 ingredients, and no fuss or elbow grease. I am sure it takes less time than your microwaveable cakes, it contains less calories than those mug cakes and has better nutrition than any pastry or cakes at all. So I bring to you all lovely people, a simple dish, which is as delectable as bongs themselves.

Ingredients

200 Gms paneer or cottage cheese.

2 to 3 Tbsp. of melted date or palm jaggery. In fact a friend pointed out date syrup, and even that works for this.

A mixer grinder

A splash of milk

A pinch of salt.

I bet you already have all these ingredients in home. Just whizz it up and believe me, you would just thank me for it. CHEEERS!!

 

FoodVood and What Not!

The other day I was shopping at a hyper-super store in my neighbourhood. It had everything starting from grocery items to pillows to rugs, every damn thing under sun available. As we made our way into the grocery aisles, I saw this young couple with a paper in hand, strutting from one rack to the other. A bit of a busybody that I am, I had to curiously overhear their conversations. The lady was diligently going from 1 rack to the other to find all Mexican things in the store. The guy was given tasks one after another to find an ingredient from the aisles surrounding them. It was fun to look at them. Finally the great Punjabi vein of the guy gave off the big words, “won’t it be better to make some samosas instead of enchiladas?” He was positively bummed, not the most fun part of a Saturday I believe. Plus the cost of every ingredient added up to a huge bill for him. After leaving the store, all he wanted was a samosa, and nothing else at all.

If this is a story that you have lived through a couple of times in your life, then you know how irritated you become after such a visit. And those ingredients that you bought in full packets of 500 gms to 1000 gms are still rotting in your cupboard, never used after that very first time.  So the need of the hour is to have these food delivery systems up which gives out pre portioned neat packets of raw materials, perfect for a couple who need to make and eat exotic, but don’t want to spend a weekend amassing the raw materials; and then storing the unused materials to rot. These delivery guys get you exactly the ingredients required to make a perfect candlelight dinner, without any hassles.

The owners of 1 such delivery system in Gurgaon got in touch with me for a review. They came with samples of many lunch ‘dabbas’ of exotic nature that they deliver to various offices nearby. But I was most excited to look at the kitchen kit that they bought along. They got me a kit for Mushroom Risotto, with pre portioned Arborio rice, mushroom, unpeeled garlic, salt, white pepper etc. The young owner seemed very enterprising. It was lovely catching up with him over a cuppa and homemade crackers. His food was decent, not at all oily. But the spicy quotient was a bit unbalanced which left many of the dishes flat. Fat and slim salad had an overload of garlic, and so I rather have that on toast as a bruschetta than alone as a salad. Similarly, the chilly paneer was really hot and needed something sweet to cool down! But I was most interested in the kit that was given. Arborio rice was of good quality. But the recipe card, though quite detailed with pictures of each step; had given a wrong recipe. Risotto for me is to be cooked bit by bit, splashing a ladle full of simmering stock. Not at all by cooking the rice first and then adding into a white cream based sauce. Never the less, the quality of ingredients really stood out. I just feel they need a bit more thought into the recipe. But for a start-up I think they have done better than usual. It is a good option to pre order lunch from their website, especially when in office you crave a new dabba now and then. They deliver in Gurgaon and can be reached at Foodvood.com. 

Veggie Bong Spl - Kumro Chokka

Celebrating the Bengali Legacy dishes with my twists this week- Poila Boishak Special....

Let me start today with a story. A story that the young me got really shocked to star in. Once upon a time, a big while ago; I met my man of dreams and together we went to seek a flat in the busy metropolitan Mumbai. Our offices were in Lower Parel, the southern neighbourhood of commercialised mill properties. It started as a humble neighbourhood, which fast became the most expensive part of the city. To us, it made sense to stay near our offices better than travelling in the maddening traffic up and back everyday. There were these humble 1 bedroom flats up on rent, a very basic setup but for a young love struck couple like us, it seemed perfect by many statures. The meeting with the landlady started with a question; “what is your caste?” The answer put a smile on her face. “Oh good, you are a Brahmin, our flat would be blessed. I am extremely happy to have you here, especially because we are also vegetarians.” I was perplexed. “Vegetarians?” I asked. She stared back blankly, “you are Brahmin na… then?” “Yeah, but we are Bengali Brahmins, we eat non vegetarian food as well. Is that a problem?” my husband asked. It took a minute for the landlady to overcome the shock. She calculated the copious amount of rent that we were about to pay her and then mumbled out, “yeah OK, the sin is for you to bear!”

I had met many such vegetarian Indians who have cringed upon us for being Bong Brahmins. Yes, the elite caste in every region apart from the eastern, comes with a preconceived cuisine of vegetarian delicacies. Nothing wrong in that I say, but the nose cringing and talk of sins is wrong. Wrong if you think so, and wrong if you feel we are lesser Brahmins than you. Every region comes with its history. Try to understand it and you would know exactly why we don't follow what you might. Bengal is prone to floods every year. Do you think it was a better idea for the whole sect to die hungry, rather than eat what was available to us at the difficult times? And yes, after that we chose to continue eating, respecting every single morsel of it.

A lot of our food revolve around fish, and it’s true. But another fact that is as truer is that we eat a lot of veggies too, some really exotic and exclusive to our region. A typical bong thali looks a bit like this- It starts with bitter vegetables, transcends into a leafy vegetable- Saag and then does it give way to the non-vegetarian fare. And I remember growing up like this. We ate a hearty amount of saag and veggies, and 1 pc of fish daily.

Today, I am going to write about 1 of the most classic vegetarian dishes that the Petuk Probashi Bangal me loves to eat quite often than not. It’s rather easy to put together, and respects the vegetable enough to keep its flavour clean. This is how I like to make it, my way.

Ingredients

200 gms Pumpkin, diced

1 medium sized potato, diced

2 tbsp mustard oil

1 whole red chilly

1 bay leaf

½ tsp Bengali 5 spices (Panch Phoron- a proportional mix of cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds and black mustard seeds)

Salt and turmeric to taste

A pinch of asafoetida (hing)

1 tbsp + ¼ th cup water

1/4^th tsp sugar

1 tsp cumin powder (jeera)

2 tsp coriander powder (dhaniya)

Optional

A big pinch of coriander leaf chopped to garnish

Method

Dab dry the diced vegetables and keep it aside.

Heat 2 tbsp. of mustard oil in a non-stick wok, till its smoking point. Add the dry red chili and let it burn until its black in colour, quite literally so. Trust me, the smokiness of this burnt chilly will impart such a contrasting flavour to the dish that you would most certainly be bowled over.

Once there, add the Bengali five spices and bay leaf to the oil and let splutter. Add the potatoes at this stage and let it sauté in the oil till it develops a golden hue all around. Now dump in the pumpkin along with a big pinch of turmeric and cook on medium flame uncovered to develop a beautiful colour all around. It’s important that the pumpkin is not covered or salted at this stage. We need to caramelise both the veggies well, taking utmost care to stir every once in a while.

Once its nicely golden and 50% cooked through, salt it to taste.

Dissolve the pinch of hing in a tbsp of water and add it to the hot pan. This is a unique step, but believe me it adds to the dish pretty well. Thoroughly mix it with the vegetables and cook for a minute till the aroma of hing wafts off.

At this stage dump in more water, stir and let it simmer on low flame till you prep the 3^rd unique step in the recipe- roasting dhaniya and jeera powder.

In a hot pan or tawa, dry roast freshly ground cumin and coriander seeds. Let them colour well, taking utmost care to not burn the delicate masala. Transfer it out of the tawa as soon as you feel the aroma pulsing through the kitchen, and set it aside.

Once your pumpkin is almost cooked through, dump in the masala and give it a good stir. It’s imperative that till this stage there is a bit of water in the pan which will cook down the roasted masala a bit. Otherwise, the masala would actually turn crunchy, and would mar the dish with too much of uncooked strong flavour. Once there, put the flame on high and while stirring constantly, let the water dry out.  Taste, season and serve it hot out of pan with steamed rice and an easy lentil curry.

Cheers!!

Unity of Flavours- Chicken in Wine and Couscous!!

Mayans had predicted that the world is to end by 2012. Well, we are in 2015; and the world is still going strong. But a lot has happened since 2012 where humanity was lost. Natural calamities do happen, but the unnatural ones irk me the most. And it’s not only about my country, it is happening everywhere in this world. Good, bad, ugly, don’t know what I am to make of this situation. But my blood boils when I hear of men entering a school or a coffee house or a newspaper office with machine guns. This jihad is not for me to understand. Can a religion justify violence against unarmed children or journalists?

The most discomforting of the recent updates for me was the Charlie Hebdo Massacre. Yes, I know to some extent the journalists took it a bit far with their right to free press. And even after repeated warnings, they didn’t really stop. They were to some extent to be blamed, but the tensions that followed were so uncalled for. I am in no mood to turn this article into a political drama. But being a journalist, I did condole their untimely deaths. A satire is supposed to be taken with humour. Such blood bath is really uncalled for, and gives out a message of opposite meaning.

A unity is difficult in this scenario, but the fact remains that French and Arabic are 2 of my most favourite cuisines of the world. The foodie in me was quite unhappy to witness all the unrest in the world. But well that’s life! So I decided to make a dish that united both of them on my dinner plate at least. I paired a perfectly simmered chicken in red wine sauce (heavily inspired by Coq-Au-Vin) with steamed easy couscous. It’s a dish which is continents apart, and yet it feels like a match made in heaven. Do try this simple recipe on a lazy weekend; with an additional bottle of wine to drink along while the chicken cooks!!

Chicken In wine sauce

Ingredients:

1 full chicken cut into big pcs, with bone

3 Slices of Thick Cut Bacon, chopped

1 Large Onion, chopped

1 Carrot cut into large chunks

6 Cloves of Garlic, peeled but not chopped

¼th bottle of Shiraz Red wine (or a bit more, no one is looking or cares really!!)

1 cup of water

¼ cup of dark rum

2 Tbsp of Tomato Puree

2 tsp of Fresh Thyme Leaves

1/2 cup of All Purpose Flour

2 Tbsp of Butter

1 Tbsp of Oil

A handful of Fresh Chopped Parsley or its Indian cousin- cilantro

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

In a large skillet (non-stick) over medium high heat, add the bacon and cook until crisp. While that happens, coat the dry chicken pieces with flour, salt and pepper well, and set it aside.

With a slotted spoon remove the bacon and add the chicken to sauté in bacon drippings. Fry the chicken for a few minutes or until golden brown on pretty much all sides. Set it aside.

If your pan is very dry, add 1 more Tbsp. of olive oil and sauté the onions, garlic and carrots for a few minutes or until they develop some colour. Salt and pepper the veggies to let it hydrate and get the stuck chicken bits away from the pan.

Add the dark rum to the pan and allow it to cook out for about a minute. Stir in the tomato puree and allow that to cook for another minute, while stirring the whole time.

Add in the wine and water, and bring it to a simmer; stirring in at times. Slide in the pan fried chicken and bacon; cover with a lid and let it simmer on low to medium heat for 30 minutes or so, until the chicken is tender.

Couscous with Spices and Preserved Lemon

I paired this amazing dish with Arabic inspired couscous. All I did was flavour the dry couscous with salt, pepper and fresh ground coriander powder. Mixed it well and pour the hot water on the grains till everything got emerged in the water and half an inch of water floated on top. I covered it tightly to let it steam well and double in volume. As an additive, you may chop some sundried tomato and/or preserved lemon to garnish the fork fluffed couscous.

Cheers!!