One of my friends recently invited us to a dinner at her place where she served fish batter fry, another delicacy from Kolkata. It reminded me of so many sweet memories. As a lover of deep fried food, I used to look forward to fish batter fry in weddings and receptions. Another place where it became a custom to have fish batter fry was the Kolkata International Book Fair. There was a company called Ben-fish that used to sell varieties of fish-snacks in the fair. Although, many would argue about the quality of their products or fish, I cherish those memories and miss standing in the long queue for one of those batter fries.
Traditionally, batter fries are made from Bhetki fillets. Unfortunately, I couldn't wait to make them till I got some white fillets, therefore, I made them with the Salmon fillets that I had in the freezer.
Fish:
8 pieces (about 2"/3")
Marinate with salt, lemon juice
Batter:
4 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp gram flour
2 egg whites
2 tsp coarse ground cumin and coriander
2 tbsp butter
Salt to taste
2 tsp black pepper or to taste
Water as required
Recipe:
Heat oil for deep frying in a deep kadai or skillet
Dip the fish pieces one by one in the batter and deep fry until cooked
Serve with salads
I found some prawns in the freezer this morning. While thinking whether to bake them or cook them on stove top I remembered a prawn pulao that I once had at a party long ago. I distinctly remember the taste and smell of butter in the rice. It was cooked to perfection. It's somewhat hard to recreate the taste especially when something seems so perfect. Here, I went by the taste and the aroma from the memory lane. It turned out to be quite yummy. And as the French have figured out, the trick is, the more butter you add, the tastier it gets.
Ingredient:
About 10 large prawns, cleaned and fried
2/3rd cup grated coconut, lightly fried
1tbsp oil
1tbsp butter
Whole spices- bay leaf, black pepper, dried red chili
2 cups basmati rice, washed and dried
2 cups coconut milk, 2 cups water
Turmeric, salt, sugar per taste
Recipe:
Heat some vegetable oil and butter together in a deep skillet
Temper some 2 bay leaves, 2 or more whole dry red chilies and a few black pepper
To this add the basmati rice and fry until light brown
Add turmeric (1/2 tsp), salt and sugar per taste
Add all the coconut milk and water
Cook the rice on medium-high heat, adjust the heat as needed
Add the coconut and prawns, cover and cook for about two minutes
Serve hot
It's a hard for me to rule out salmon when I think of comfort food. Healthy, tasty, filling, and quick to make. It can be prepared in many ways, some of which definitely reminds me of childhood dishes. We had never seen salmon growing up in India. The only fish that could be compared to salmon was hilsa. It would also spend most of its lifetime in the ocean, then would migrate upstream to spawn. I personally don't find any similarity in taste between salmon and hilsa, but both have similar properties from a cooking perspective. Both take very little time to cook, and would become fibrous if overcooked. Therefore, I like to cook salmon in a traditional bengali way as well. As Shorshe Ilish (hilsa in mustard sauce) is a very popular dish in Bengal, I made Shorshe Salmon (salmon in mustard sauce).
Ingredients:
Salmon 1 fillet cut into around 2"/3" pieces
1 1/2 tbsp yogurt
1 tbsp mustard paste
2/3 green chillies slit
Salt and sugar per taste
Oil for cooking
1 tsp mustard oil
Recipe:
Mix mustard paste, yogurt, salt and sugar together, marinate the fish with the mixture
Add oil to the pan
Add the fish along with the marinade to the oil
Cover and cook in medium heat, after 2/3 minutes turn the fish pieces over
Cover and cook for another 2 minutes (avoid overcooking)
Add the mustard oil and the green chilies
Immediately remove the pan from heat
Serve with rice
It's been long since I posted my last recipe. Life has become crazy, literally. Especially with the kiddo at home for summer vacation and my folks around. It's fun but sometimes it can be too tiring. Cooking has taken a backseat now. I cook to eat instead of eat to cook nowadays. Hence, these days I am all for making one-dish meals. But one thing I realized years ago, that, simple or complex, it has to taste good otherwise we will eventually end up getting dinner from outside. I had some chicken quarters in the freezer last night, and I was craving for the chicken kabobs that we used to get in the San Francisco Bay Area. I miss those kabobs, cooked to perfection, with their juices intact, yummmmmm! Not a single day, do I remember them coming out dry or look too red, like we are used to seeing in many Indian restaurants. As the name suggests, it's hard to make perfect tandoori without a tandoor (traditional clay oven). This is what I tried and this was worth it.
Ingredients:
3 Chicken quarters
Tandoori spices, store bought
Ginger 2 tbsp
Vinegar 1 tsp
Red chili powder 1 tsp or to taste
Mustard oil 1 tbsp
Salt and sugar per taste
Ghee for brushing
Recipe:
- Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients except ghee
- Preheat the oven at 375F and bake for 50-55 minutes or until chicken is throughly cooked
- Brush ghee on both sides during baking to keep the chicken from drying
- At the end broil on each side for 2 mins or to your liking
Duck egg curry is considered a delicacy in Bengal. Since it isn't easily available in the US, I look forward to Summer when I could buy them from the farmers' market. Our cooking lady was allowed to make a very spicy duck egg curry, as it was prepared once in a while. I also prefer making it a little on the spicier side because of the powerful taste the eggs have. Here is the recipe for you.
Ingredients:
12 Duck eggs boiled
2 tbsp mustard oil
1/4 chopped onion
1.5 tbsp garlic paste
1.5 tbsp ginger paste
1 tsp cumin powder
.5 tsp mace powder
2,3 green chilies chopped
1/2 can tomato juice
Salt and sugar per taste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chili powder
Recipe:
Boil the eggs and cut in halves
Heat oil, add some turmeric, salt and red chili powder to color the oil
Add halved eggs to this oil to fry well. Eggs will take a beautiful red color
take out the eggs, add some more oil
Add onion to this oil, fry well
Add ginger garlic paste, and saute till oil leaves the spices
Add the dry spices
Add tomato juice instead of water to make sure spices don't get stuck at the bottom
Add green chilies
Add some water to this and bring to the boil
Add the eggs to this gravy, yolk side up
Take out the eggs carefully
Pour the gravy on top of the eggs
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
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
