Chholar Dal (Split Pea Dal)

This is a common dal part of vegeterian menu in Bengal. Usually served with luchi or puri. When I asked for the recipe making for the first time I remember everyone mentioning it's a dal where you use all spices unlike other bengali dals where you use specific spices for specific dals.

Ingredients:

• yellow split pea 1 cup
• 1 potato- diced 1"/1"
• chopped coconut
• oil for cooking
• salt, sugar per taste
• bay leaves 1-2
• 1 dried red chilli
• whole cumin seeds
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder

Recipe:
Soak the dal over night
I cooked it in my instapot for 8 minutes with salt and turmeric, discard the water (2/3rd cooked at this point)
In a separate frying pan add oil, add the whole cumin seeds, bay leaves and dried red chilli, whole garam masala (cinamon, cardamom and cloves) to hot oil
Add ginger paste, saute
Add the potatoes and coconut slices
Add the rest of the spices except garam masala powder
Add the cooked dal and saute until oil leaves the spices
Add water as you wish
turn the heat off and add the garam masala powder and some ghee. Mix, let it sit for sometime before serving

Potoler Dolma (stuffed parwal)

I am remembering a lot of fun memories while writing this recipe. When I first came to the US we didn't find pointed gourd or parwal in the west coast. I was literally so sad to have missed my most favorite vegetable, I even considered moving to the East Coast or to India for that matter. After that when we started getting parwal in the west coast I remember it was very expensive. I would still buy as much as I could and then we had all sorts of potol recipes for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, my husband wasn't that fond of potol as much as I was. Strangely for potol I have seen either people love them or hate them, usually no middle ground. One very popular potol recipe in Bengal is "potoler dolma" or stuffed potol. It is made with much bigger gourds. However, it is quite difficult to make dolma with the small gourds we get here, I still manage to make them once in a while. The stuffing can be either vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Usually, non-vegetarian dolma is served during wedding/reception lunches, made with fish or minced meat or prawn. While the vegetarian stuffing is made with the pulp (inside of a potol) mixed with coconut or some kind of nuts. This particular recipe is vegetarian. This is one of those recipes that require longer prep-time that cooking time. 

Ingredient:
Pointed gourd or parwal, about 6-7, inside pulp including seeds scooped out
Chopped onion 1/4th cup
Ginger 1/2 tsp for stuffing and 1/2 teaspoon for cooking
Green chilli- 2 or 3
1/2 tomato chopped
1/2 tsp cumin powder
Pinch of whole cumin for tempering
Salt and sugar for taste
1 tsp turmeric
Oil

Recipe:
With the help of a knife lightly scrape the body of the gourds
then cut one tip so we can fit the back of a spoon and scoop out the meat inside (like photos)
Grate the pulp with the coconut and and ginger
Smear the gourds with salt and turmeric and fry lightly until they are cooked and fried
To prepare the stuffing add some oil to the pan, add onion and fry well
Add ginger (1/2 tsp), and saute well
Add the grated coconut and fry well
Add salt and sugar per taste
Now fill the gourds with this filling once ready to handle
In a separate pan add some more oil
Temper some whole cumin
Add ginger and rest of the tomato
Add the whole chillies
After sauteing well add some cumin powder
Add a little water depending on how much gravy you want (I made this one very dry)
Add salt and sugar
Spread the gravy over the gourds

Shabu Makha (tapioca mix)

I was feeling extremely lethargic the whole day yesterday and didn't feel like cooking or eating. As I was thinking of making some sort of salad or one-dish meal that would be fast and easy, my mom reminded me of 'shabu-makha'. People that have grown up in Bengali households are most likely to be familiar with this dish, especially, those with grandparents. I remember this to be the staple food for my grandmothers on auspicious days or to break a fast. I used to look forward to those days for these special meals. Guests used to bring fruits as presents and my grandmothers would mix the tapioca with the fruits. Now if you think of it, tapioca is actually a very good source of carbohydrate which is rich in iron, and low in sodium. Therefore, it soothes a fasting stomach while at the same time providing a good source of energy. Anyway, it requires absolutely zero preparation time, so good for a lazy cook as well. That said it does require to be soaked in water overnight. So needs some planning time definitely.

Method:
Wash the tapioca in clear water and soak overnight
Run through cold water one more time before preparing
Add 2 tbsp of milk for a cup of soaked tapioca
Add half of a large banana or a small banana
Add some fruits, raisins and nut chopped per preference
Add grated coconut (I used the frozen one)
Sugar per taste
Mix everything together and let it sit for 10/15 minutes
Ready to serve

Bandhakopir Kofta (Cabbage Balls)

Cabbage curry is a well-known dish and all Bengalis probably make it quite often. The one that is slightly more unusual, is probably the cabbage koftas. Strangely, I don't remember having them in Kolkata. I remember having plantain kofta, and loving that over the plantain curry. But because of the complexity of the procedure I don't remember having much of that. As far as I remember, I had my first cabbage kofta curry in California. We used to call her grandma, and she was a well-known cook among friends and families. She was originally from Bangladesh and the kofta she used to make was out of this world. Unfortunately, my koftas are no where close to them. Now thinking of that I am wondering if this dish was more popular in east bengal. I used to make them very often right after I learned it from her. But just realized I haven't made them in a while, probably because they are time consuming.

Ingredients:

1 whole cabbage shredded and boiled
2 potatoes cubed and fried with salt and turmeric
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
2 green chilies slit lengthwise
2 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 chopped tomato
1 whole boiled potato
1 tbsp flour
Salt and sugar per taste
Oil for frying the koftas and cooking
Ghee and garam masala (optional)

Recipe:

Squeeze the boiled shredded cabbage very well and let it rest in a strainer for 2/3 hours until water completely drains out
To this cabbage add the boiled potato, a pinch of turmeric, cumin powder, half of the ginger paste, flour, very little salt (please keep in mind koftas will absorb salt from the gravy)
Knead it to a fine dough, that shouldn't be too soft or too tight, you can add more flour or potato if needed
Add oil to a skillet and shallow fry the koftas one by one
Add some more oil if needed for rest of the cooking
Add the bay leaf and cumin seed to the oil
Add the ginger paste, saute for one minute then add the tomatoes
Add green chilies
Add the coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt and sugar and saute until oil leaves the spices
Add desired water for gravy (the koftas will absorb some of the gravy and become almost double in size)
Add the koftas and fried potatoes
You can add some ghee and garam masala in the end 

Gathi kochu aar aloo (Potato-Taro Curry)

There was a time when I couldn't think of eating taro let alone making it of my own volition. The home where I spent most of my childhood had some sort of taro plant in the backyard. We used to have taro made in different forms. I remember how my mother would highlight its rich mineral contents every time we had taro. However, nothing could have changed my dislike for taro until a few years ago a friend of mine made some taro curry for us. I can't say that was the best dish I have ever had, but it was definitely worth trying at home. Then I thought of how I could make it so different, that it would wipe off that nagging childhood taste. Why not make it a little chatpata (hot-and-sour-flavor) than the usual way indian vegetable curry dishes are made. I came up with this recipe that I made a few times since then and yaaayyy, we added one more vegetable to the list that our family now has on a regular basis.

Ingredients:
4 cubed taro
1 big potato, cubed similar to the size of taro
1/4th cup onion chopped (optional)
1 tsp amchur powder
green chili chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Oil for cooking
Salt and sugar to taste

Recipe:

• Heat some oil
• Fry onion if using, then add taro to the pan and fry for a minute
• Cover and cook the taro until soft
• Add potatoes, cook until done, you can sprinkle some water to make sure it doesn't get stuck to the bottom
• Add the amchur powder, salt and sugar to it
• Turn the gas off, add the chopped cilantro and green chillies and cover for 2 minutes
• Serve with hot rice

Khoya Paneer

After a long break, I finally got some time to write today. Life changed a bit during this time, making my days busier. After making paneer for dinner tonight I suddenly felt a compulsion of sharing this recipe with you all. I have never made paneer this way before. After last weekend's biryani I had some left over khoya with which I could have made some dessert but as I am fighting an eternal war against my carb-craving, I decided against it. Hence, came up with this recipe.

Ingredients:
Paneer cubes (1 nanak slab)
1/2 cup green peas 
2 slit whole green chillies
1-2 tsp ginger paste (I added 2 tsp, you can add less if you like)
1/2 tsp garam masala (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom)
Oil
Salt and sugar as needed

Recipe:

• Heat some oil in a kadai
• Fry the paneer lightly with some salt. Keep aside
• Add ginger paste to the oil and saute well while sprinkling some water from time time
• Add the chilies
• Add the green peas
• Add the paneer back to the kadai
• Add salt, sugar and the garam masala
• Add about 1/4th cup water. Cover and cook for couple of minutes
• Your paneer should be ready to serve

Semolina and Coconut Pakora (suji-narkol bora)

In our childhood, I remember a lot of people used to snack after work, as in Kolkata most people are or at least were used to eating dinner very late like 9 or 10 at night. A lot of which included street food like shingara (samosas) or chop (fritters, patties). Because we eat dinner pretty early we don't get a lot of chance to snack except for weekends. This afternoon I had a dejavu of this particular snack that I was longing to have for a few days now. One of my grandmothers used to make it for evening snack. As we will have late dinner tonight because of my son's swimming class, I felt the urge to make this. Although, I seldom used to take a peek in the kitchen as a kid I somehow remember the taste and I believe I guessed the ingredients correct as it tasted exactly like it used to.

Ingredients:

1 cup Semolina

1/2 cup grated coconut (frozen ones will do just fine)

1 green chili chopped

Milk about 1/4th cup or as needed for the batter

2 tsp corn flour

Salt to taste

sugar to taste

Oil for shallow frying

Recipe:

• Mix semolina, coconut, corn flour, salt, sugar, chilies, with milk to make a thick batter
• Let the batter sit for half an hour until semolina absorbs some of the milk
• You can add a little milk if the batter looks too dry at this point, or a little semolina if it looks too runny
• Heat some oil in a flatter pan for shallow frying
• Fry the batter giving them a patty like shape
• Serve with tea

Mixed Vegetable with Mustard

Last night while I was looking to make some vegetables, I found a bit of everything in the fridge without anything standing out. That's when I thought of making mixed vegetables but a little bit differently than I usually do. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 Potatoes cubed

1 1/2 cup of each of the following vegetables, diced- pumpkin, ridged gourd, parval or pointed gourd (you can add as many variety as you want)

1 tbsp ginger paste

4 green chilies

1/2 cup sliced onion

1 tbsp yoghurt

1 tsp poppy seeds

2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp paanch phoron

Salt per taste

2 tsp turmeric powder

Oil as required

Recipe:

• Make a paste of poppy seeds, mustard seeds and the yogurt
• Heat the oil, add paanch phoron
• After it starts spluttering add the ginger paste to saute
• Add green chilies
• Add potatoes, add salt and turmeric, fry lightly, cover and cook for 2 minutes
• Add vegetables one by one in order of time required to cook the veggies, longer to shorter. Keep adding salt and turmeric as needed
• Add the yogurt- poppy seed- mustard paste when the vegetables are 80% done
• Cover and cook for 3/4 minutes
• You can add ghee if you like

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

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.

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

Butternut Squash Soup

For some reason unlike my husband, I have never come to love anything that tastes like pumpkin. Last weekend when I asked him to do the grocery I should have imagined spring is around the corner. He came home with this butternut squash that I wish tasted as beautiful as it looked. Knowing my aversion toward pumpkins he announced, "Don't worry, you don't have to cook this, I will". Although he is a well-intentioned fellow, unfortunately, it didn't happen.

Thinking what could I do to make it taste 'not' like pumpkin, I came up with this recipe, which turn out to be pretty yummy!! To go with it, I made Irish Soda bread. I followed Ina's recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/irish-soda-bread-recipe.html , only with my own proportions. you can find the bread recipe here.

Ingredients:
one medium butternut squash, cubed
oil
onion chopped 1/4th cup
ginger grated 1 tsp
butternut-squash soupSalt
pepper
thyme (fresh or dried)
cumin powder 1 tsp

Recipe:

• Heat olive oil in a dutch oven or a soup pot
• Add chopped onion to this, cook until translucent
• Add ginger, fry until ginger is cooked
• Add butternut squash, fry until light brown
• Add a little water, cover and let it cook. Check from time to time so squash doesn't get stuck to the bottom
• After squash is cooked well take it out and mash completely in a food processor
• Mix some water and strain. Don't take a fine strainer, then you will lose most of the vegetables
• Transfer back to the cooking pot
• Add salt, pepper and Thyme
• Add butter to your taste

Mushroom Asparagus Soup

While making dinner last night, I couldn’t resist the idea of sharing this original recipe, that came out so good. Although, after reading dozens of cookbooks, and recipe blogs, I am not sure how many of the recipes I can call completely original, as some recipes always make a mark and play like a tune in the head until you have learned playing that on the piano.

Here it is for you,

Ingredients:

White or crimini mushrooms
Asparagus
Onion
Ginger
Garlic
Oil
Thyme
Oregano
Salt
Black pepper

Recipe:

• ·      Blanch the vegetables in salted water. Strain, keep aside
• ·      Heat oil in a Dutch oven or a soup pot
• ·      Add onion, sauté until translucent, add sliced ginger and garlic, add salt and sugar to taste
• ·      Add the vegetables, saute for sometime
• ·      Put this in a blender and blend to a smooth paste
• ·      Strain and put it back to the stove on low heat
• ·      Add thyme, oregano and black pepper
• ·      Oh! Don’t forget the butter J

Serve hot with baguette or bread of your choice.