Orange Chiffon Cake

While I love cakes and baking, it's hard to find enough excuses to bake a cake nowadays as we have got to watch our calories. I miss those teen-years when one could burn-off anything they consumed. Unfortunately in those days, I was not a big fan of the tedious chore of eating.
However, baking wasn't too common in Eastern India where I grew up. In my household, I have seen my aunts baking traditional english fruit cake in a pressure cooker on Christmas Eve or on kids' birthdays at the most. However, I have tried different types of cakes over the years and Asian cakes are among my most favorite. This cake I am going to make today is a fluffy orange flavored cake that I have learned from Stephanie George's Joy of Baking. However, I have reduced the portions to make a smaller cake, which turned out pretty awesome and serves well for 6-8 people. 

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks, 4 egg whites
Cake flour you can make at home by mixing .75 cup + 1.5 tbsp all-purpose flour or maida and 2.5 tbsp cornstarch
.75 cup or 3/4th cup superfine sugar
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp grated orange zest
1/4 cup vegetable oil
12 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
1/5 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

 Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 325F
• Grease a 2-3 qt. casserole type oven safe bowl (it's a good idea to use baking sheets at the bottom for softer cakes)
• Beat the egg-whites with a hand mixer or a stand-mixer until soft peaks form, add the cream of tartar or substitute with 4-8 drops of lemon juice
• Add about 1-2 tbsp sugar during the process (optional)

(A few tips for whisking the egg whites to the desired consistency is making sure the white is completely yolk free. Add the cream of tartar or citric acid after you get some bubbles in the beaten white. You can gradually add some sugar during or at the end of the process)  

• Mix the egg yolks along with all the wet ingredients
• Mix the dry ingredients including the rest of the sugar in a separate bowl
• Now mix everything together (dry and wet ingredients except for the meringue)
• After everything is mixed well, fold in the meringue or the beaten egg whites in the mixture
• Pour the mixture in the greased pan
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
• Take it out immediately on a cooling rack, or else the cake will lose it's fluff
• Serve when cold

Kucho Machher Bora (Small Fish Fritters)

We consume pretty much last bit of a fish. Also, in Bengal, you can have fish of different sizes that you can cook in different ways like frying them whole, making a curry out of fish head, making a curry with vegetables, making kebabs or even making fritters with very small fishes or fish pastes. Since we don't get those familiar fishes here I tried these small fish fritters which unbelievably tasted pretty similar to the onion fritters that we get in the street food stalls in Calcutta. 

Ingredients:
Silver Fish 2 cups
1 tbsp mustard oil
1 tsp vinegar
1 cup cilantro chopped
2/3 cup onion chopped
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 pinch ajinomoto
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp garam masala powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1/4 cup black pepper ground or to taste
2 tsp red chili powder or to taste
1 cup mashed potato
Salt and sugar to taste
2 tbsp gram flour
2 tbsp rice flour
1 egg (optional)
Oil for frying

Recipe:

• Wash the silver fish, squeezing all the excess water
• Mix all of the above ingredients except rice flour and gram flour
• Add the flours at the end as needed to bring it to the right consistency, you might want to add more if you think your batter is too runny or less if manageable
• Add 1 egg if the batter looks too dry
• Heat about a cup of oil in a pan for deep frying
• Make small flattened balls with the fish mixture

Fry them on medium heat, making sure fish is cooked from inside

Bengali Style Fish Fry

This one snack I can eat anytime. Battered fried fish. In Kolkata, you can find varieties of Fish Fry, marinated, battered or fried differently, with different names like fish fry, fish roll, fish batter fry, fish kabiraji, fish chop etc.. Even recipes of Fish Fry can vary from restaurant to restaurant. I have made Fish fry in different ways. Here is one of them. I will post some other fried fish recipes soon.

Ingredients:
For the marinade
2 Basa or Tilapia fillet, cut into thin slices, about 6 pieces
1/2 cup ginger-garlic paste 
4 green chilies
2 tsp mustard oil
1 egg
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ajinomoto
1 tsp black pepper powder

For making the fish fry and frying
Bread crumb and gram flour (or flour if gram flour isn't available) mixed in a 2:1 ratio, enough to coat all the fish pieces
Oil for deep frying

Recipe:

• Mix all the ingredients above and marinate the fish for at least 5/6 hours
• Add about 1 tsp corn flour to thicken the marinade
• Take the fish pieces out keeping as much marinade as possible
• Coat the fish in the bread crumb-flour mix
• Keep the coated fish pieces in the fridge for about 2 hours
• Take it out of the fridge about one hour before frying, so it comes to room temperature. That way you will have less crumbs in the oil while frying
• Deep fry the coated fish
• Serve with salad  

Begun Posto

Yesterday was a very hectic day for me. I was thinking of making something simple and quick for dinner. I found some Indian baby eggplants in the fridge that I kept for making bagara baingan the classic Hydrabadi recipe. But that wasn't an option since that's a pretty time-consuming recipe. So I thought of making begun posto (eggplant in poppy seed paste) but a little differently. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Indian baby eggplants about 6

1/4th cup of onion paste  

2 tbsp poppy seed paste made with 3 green chilies

1 tbsp yogurt

1 tsp cornflour

Salt and sugar to taste

Oil for frying the eggplants

1/2 tsp mustard oil

Recipe:

• Make diagonal slits in the eggplants, sprinkle some salt and turmeric, let it sit for some time
• Heat some oil, enough for deep frying the eggplants. Deep fry until 60% done
• Keep about 2 tbsp oil, discard the rest
• Mix the onion paste with the poppy seed paste, yogurt, corn flour, salt and sugar
• Add the paste mix in the oil, cover and cook for 5 minutes
• Add the eggplants and sprinkle some water
• Cover and cook until the eggplants are soft or completely done
• Add the mustard oil
• Serve with hot rice

Ilish Pulao (Hilsa Pulao)

Bengali new year is a big festival in Kolkata. In our childhood we used to celebrate the day by wearing new dresses, exchanging hugs and sweets, visiting shops that would distribute free snacks and sweets. Most households would make their signature dishes on this special day either with mutton or fish or luchi and so on. In my childhood, I remember my mom making fried rice and mutton curry, while my mother-in-law used to make mutton curry and pulao. I used to make pulao and mutton curry on this special day to continue the tradition of both houses. However, this time I thought why not make fish as we as a family like fish the most especially when my 5-year old suggested 'elish' (Hilsa). 

Some people like to cook hilsa pulao with coconut milk, while I like it without that.

Ingredients:

For Fish

Hilsa about 6 pieces

1/4th of a medium onion

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tbsp yoghurt

1 tsp red chili powder

2 green chili

1/2 tsp corn flour

2 tbsp mustard oil

Salt and sugar to taste

For Rice

Any flavored rice, 80% pre-cooked, about 6 cups

1 tbsp garam masala

1 bay leaf

3 green chilies

2 tsp ghee

Recipe:

• Heat some oil
• Make a paste of the above mentioned ingredients for fish
• Add this paste and cook till oil leaves the paste
• Add water as required while cooking the spice paste
• Add the fishes and cook till fishes are done
• Take the fish pieces out and keep aside
• Keep cooking the residue of the gravy until water completely dries out and leaves oil
• Add ghee and the garam masala along with the bay leaf and the green chilis
• Add rice to this
• fry the rice for 10 minutes on low heat
• In a separate oven-safe bowl put rice and fish on layers 
• Preheat the oven to 400F
• Cook for 30 mins before serving

Aloor Chop (Potato Patty)

Aloo'r chop is one of the quintessential bengali snack or street food. It will be hard to find a bengali who hadn't had aloo'r chop with tea and muri (murmura or puffed rice) during an evening chit chat session (or 'adda' as called in bengali). 

The concept of chop and muri was original to the north part of Kolkata, with chop or fried patties ranging from potato to vegetable, to banana flower, eggs, to mutton, to bread and so on. The patty is usually dipped in a batter and deep fried. for this particular recipe I made this a little healthy by adding some vegetables. 

Ingredients:
About 4 big potatoes
1 tsp mustard oil
3 tsp roasted spice blend (coriander, cumin, dried chili, roasted and blended)
1/2 onion chopped
1 1/2 tsp ginger chopped
2 chopped green chilis
1/2 cup cabbage thinly sliced
Salt to taste

For the batter

• 3 tbsp gram flour
• 3 tbsp rice flour
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt

Recipe:

• Preparing the potato
• Boil the potatoes and mash as finely as possible
• Heat some oil, and add the chopped onions and fry well until translucent
• Add the ginger and green chilis and fry
• Set the heat high, add the cabbage and fry until completely dry
• Add salt and the spices, stir to blend everything well
• Let it cool down and make small balls and then press a little to give it a flatter look

(You can add a little flour if you need to make the potato balls tighter)  

• Make the batter by mixing all the above mentioned ingredient. The batter needs to be very thick
• Heat some oil for deep frying
• Dip the potato balls in the batter and deep fry

Serve with muri or tea.

One Pot Chicken with Worcestershire Sauce

After a tiring day who doesn't want an easy and simple dish that will taste good. This recipe is inspired from a dish cooked by a friend who visited us. It's hard to believe how a dish this simple can taste so yummy.

Ingredients:
3 Chicken leg quarters
2 tsp garlic paste
Salt for marination
1 tsp black pepper or to taste
1/4th cup worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp stock
3 skinned medium potatoes cubed
1/4th of a big onion, cubed
1/2 big tomato cubed
Veggies of your choice, I took carrots, green beans, bok-choy


Recipe:

• Marinate the chicken with salt and garlic paste, 30 mins to 3 hours
• Heat some oil in a dutch oven
• Add the chicken pieces fry for 2 minutes, turn over and fry for 2 minutes
• To this add the onions, cook for 2 minutes
• Next add the cubed tomtoes, and cook for a minute
• Add the sauce and the stock
• Add potatoes
• Cover and cook till chicken is tender
• Add the vegetables one by one
• cover and cook for sometime or until the vegetables are done exactly to your choice
• Add some fresh pepper before serving

Serve in a soup bowl with some baguette, if you like. Perfect comfort food.

Lau (Bottle Gourd) Shukto

After making the lau luchi while thinking what to do with the rest of the lau, I found one Bitter Melon in my fridge. It reminded me of the chal kumro (Winter Melon) Shukto that used to frequent our kitchen during our childhood. This was made with a bitter tasting leaf from a beautiful flower, that we used to have in our garden, Shiuli, or Nyctanthes Arbortristis. In West Bengal, Shukto is essentially a mixed veg dish that is made with bitter melon, which in Bangladesh, sometimes may mean non-bitter or even non-veg. 

One of my grandmothers who happened to be a vegetarian used to make some heavenly vegetarian dishes at that time. A lot of which either I am unable to recall, or are lost forever with her. I am trying to revive as much as I can from my mom now.

Ingredient:
Shredded lau (Bottle Gourd), medium about 2 and half
1 bitter melon
1.5 tsp ginger 
1/2 tsp whole radhuni (a spice from Bengal close to celery seeds)
1/2 tsp radhuni blended with ginger
2 tsp spice (poppy seeds and mustard blended together) paste
Oil, salt, sugar to taste
Wadis or bori
Milk about 1 tbsp

Recipe:

• Heat oil in a pan
• Fry the boris and set aside
• Add whole radhuni to the hot oil
• Lightly fry the bitter melon with a pinch of salt in this oil
• Add the shredded bottle gourd
• Add salt and sugar, cover and cook till gourd is done
• To this add the boris 
• Now add the ginger-radhuni paste
• Stir for a minute or two
• Mix the spice paste with milk, and pour over
• Stir well. Cover and cook for 5/7 minutes
• Serve with hot rice

Lau'er Luchi (Bottle Gourd Puri)

Luchi is another delicacy from Bengal that no Bengali can live without. In Bengal Luchi is made with flour instead of wheat flour or mix of wheat and white flour like the rest of India. While I was thinking of making some variation of luchi to make it kind of healthier, I came up with this one mixed with bottle gourd. To my surprise it turned out very yummy. Hence sharing the recipe.

Ingredients:
About 3 cups flour and wheat (I took a combo of both about 1:1 in proportion)   
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 tsp sugar or to taste
1 tsp chaat masala or to taste
1/4th cup chopped onion
1/4th cup cilantro
1/2 tsp ginger
About 1 cup of bottle gourd shredded (I took 1/4th of a mid-sized bottle gourd)
Water for kneading
Oil for frying

Recipe:

• Mix all of the above ingredients except water
• Keep about a cup of flour aside and mix them bit by bit as you knead the dough
• Add water as you go, need very little water or the dough will be hard to manage
• Let the dough sit in the fridge for 30 mins or more
• Heat oil in a deep frying pan
• Make very little balls and try to roll them very thin
• Deep fry  
• Serve with Raita or Achaar

Kedai Makan

Since both me and my husband are big foodies, eating out is a big part of our recreation. I had always wished to share my restaurant experience with our friends or with folks that worship food. Beginning with one of the local favorites Kedai Makan. They serve Malay food. To tell you the truth I was kind of disappointed with the malay food we had here so far especially compared to the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Roti Jala

I wouldn't say Kedai Makan has a variety of selection in their menu like our other favorite Banana Leaf (I have reviewed the Banana Leaf, Vancouver  in another post), but the quality of food definitely makes us want to visit them soon enough.

Biriyani

The Roti (flat bread) Jala (net) was super soft and my 5 year old loved the look and crepe like taste of it. I loved the lamb curry served with it. I was impressed with the number of lamb pieces included for an appetizer. The biriyani was served with fried chicken, which taste close to Japanese Chicken Karaage than American fried chicken in my opinion. 

Singaporean curry noodle

This time my husband ordered a veg dish for a change, Singapore Tofu Curry Noodle. It was the only noodle without broth. Nice balance of the curry powder made it perfect. We hope to go back very soon.




    

Kedai Makan

Muri Ghonto (Fish head cooked with rice)

Bengalis are known as fish-lovers, to prove the point they make sure not to leave any part of the fish, including head, fish fat and bones. Today I am going to make  murighonto, a very special dish from the state of Bengal cooked with rice and fish head. Ghonto is made with different complementary vegetables cooked together with spices in a thick gravy. Fish head is used for non-veg ghonto. Traditionally carp head was used but I will be making it with trout head today. There are couple of things to keep in mind when making murighonto, first, it should not be fully dry as it's not a pulao. Secondly, the rice should be cooked very carefully, overcooking the rice will make it look like porridge. Here is the recipe for you. 

Ingredient:
Trout head about 5
1 cup Kalijeera rice
1/4th of a big onion
1 tbsp ginger pastePotato cubed, about 2 whole
Half big tomato puréed
1 tsp coriander powder1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp whole cumin
1 bay leaf
1-2 green chili slitted
Oil, salt and sugar per taste
1tsp ghee






Recipe:

• Preheat your oven to 400F
• Clean the head and marinate with salt, turmeric and oil for 5/10 mins
• Spray oil on a baking tray, add the fish heads to it, cook for about 25 mins or until the heads are cooked well
• Break the heads after cooling down
• In a frying pan or wok add some oil (traditionally mustard oil was used)
• Add whole cumin and bay leaf when oil is hot
• To this add chopped onions, when onion is done add ginger paste, and tomato puree, chili
• After tomato is sauted add coriander powder, salt, sugar and turmeric
• After sauteing the spices well, (when oil leaves the spices) add rice fry until rice turns light brown, Add potatoes and fry lightly
• Add some water (about double the rice), cover and cook
• Add ghee and garam masala when rice is done
• cover and cook for 2 minutes
• Serve hot with rice

Cooking Basics

Garam Masala is the queen of spices. It's a mix of three or more spices. The one I like to use has three whole spices in it, Cinnamon, Cardamom and clove. I like to dry roast them a little before grinding. Save it in a container for future uses. They can be used whole, added directly to the hot oil until aromatic.

Paanch phoron (5 spices) is a blend of 5 whole spices- kalonji or nigella, mustard, fennel, fenugreek and cumin seeds. In Bengal radhuni which is close to the celery seeds is used instead of mustard. Mustard is used in places where it's hard to find radhuni. Sam as garam masala, paanch phoron can be used whole or ground.

Cooking Basics

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