Traditional Sweet Bengali Chutney

Mishti Chutney or Sweet Chutney is an authentic Bengali dish. Usually we have it after finishing the main course and before consuming dessert; but there is no hard and fast rule for this. The recipe is very simple and requires easily available ingredients. I have used raw mango because this is summer time and Tomatoes which are easily available everywhere throughout the year. If you don’t get mangoes, you can make this with tomato only. Let’s get started.

Ingredients:
1. Tomato (3 medium size, cut into cubes)
2. Raw mango (1 cut into slices)
3. Dates (5-6 cut into small pieces)
4. Raisin & cashew nuts
5. Jaggery (2 tablespoon)
6. Green chili (2 sliced)
7. Mustard seeds (1/2 teaspoon)
8. Cumin seeds (1/2 teaspoon)
9. Fennel seeds (1/2 teaspoon)
10. Pinch of salt.
11. Mustard oil or any other oil (1 teaspoon)

Method:
1. In a heated pan, add a tsp of oil.
2. When the oil heats up, add the mustard, cumin and fennel seeds. Let the spices splutter.
3. Add the mangoes and tomatoes; sprinkle a bit of salt. Mix everything well so that the pulps absorbed the flavor of the spices.
4. Add a cup of water, mix everything well.
5. Add the jaggery and let it melt.
6. Add the dates, dry fruits and green chilies. Give it a good mix.
7. Add one cup of water and put the lid on. Keep the flame in low and let it cook for 7-8 mint. (Adjust the water as per the thickness you prefer)
8. Turn off the flame and let it cool down.

Enjoy.

Mo

Macher Jhol (Fish curry)

Mach means Fish and Jhol means curry, especially the curry which is not very thick. For many Bengali, fish is one of the most important food supplements. Fish is versatile; it can be fried, steamed, dried or you can simply make fish-curry. We, the Bengalis love it in every form and shape. In Bengal, traditionally, fish curry is made with Rohu, Catla and Hilsa. Since I live in Thailand, the typical fish used to make curry back at home is not easily found. So, today I will cook Sea Bass, easily available here at any local market or any gourmet shop.

Ingredients:
1. Sea bass fish (cut in to 5 pieces. In 5 piece I have used 4, I didn’t use the head portion)
2. Onion (2, medium size, sliced)
3. Tomato (2, medium size, chopped)
4. Ginger & Garlic paste  (1 tea spoon each)
5. Green chilies (4 nos)
6. Eggplant and Potato cut in to long pieces and fried. (Quantity as per your preference)
7. Cumin powder (2 teaspoon)
8. Coriander powder (2 teaspoon)
9. Red chili powder (1-2 teaspoon or as per your preference)
10. Paprika or Kashmiri red chili powder (1-2 teaspoon)
11. Salt to taste
12. Turmeric powder (2 teaspoon)
13. Coriander leaves.
14. Mustard oil (3 tablespoon)
15. Black cumin (1 /2 teaspoon)
16. Sugar (1/4 teaspoon)
17. Garam masala powder (1/2 teaspoon)

Method:
1. Marinate the washed pieces of fish for 5-7 mints with turmeric powder and salt. After that, shallow fry the fish pieces on both sides till they become a bit brownish. Keep them aside.
2. In a heated pan pour the mustard oil; add the black cumin seeds and let them splutter.
3. Add the onions slices and fry them. (You can add a pinch of sugar to this. It will help onions to get caramelized quickly and will give it a nice brown color)
4. Add ginger & garlic paste to this and keep frying.
5. When the onions will become translucent, add the tomatoes and cook it for 5 more minutes. Soon the tomatoes will melt down and the whole mixture will become like a paste.
6. Lower the flame; add all the dry spices and salt. Mix it well.
7. when the masala starts releasing oil, add water for gravy according to your preference. Also add the sliced green chilies.
8. Add the fried vegetables and fish. Cover this with a lid and let it cook for 5-7 mints in low flame. Let the fish absorb all the goodness of the spices.
9. Add garam masala (optional) and chopped coriander leaves in to the gravy mix it and switch off the flame.

It is perfect with a plate of hot steamed rice.

Enjoy.

Mo

Aloo Matar paneer (Bengali style)

Aloo matar paneer or Gravy with cottage cheese, potatoes and green peas is a very simple and tasty vegetarian preparation. There are many variation of this throughout India; we will do it the Bengali way. Let’s get started.

Ingredients:
1. Paneer (Cottage Cheese) -250grm
2. Potato/Aloo-1 Medium size
3. Panch-Phoron*- 1 tsp
4. Green chili-2
5. Tomato-1 Medium size
6. Cumin powder-1 tsp
7. Red chili powder-1 tsp
8. Turmeric powder-1 tsp
9. Salt to taste.
10. Mustard oil-3tbsp.
11. Pinch of Asafoetida
12. Ginger-1tsp
13. Kashmiri red chili powder-1 tsp
14. Green pea -Boiled 1 cup or you can use frozen also.

*Panch-Phoron is an authentic Bengali spice mix used in most of the Bengali vegetarian dishes. It includes Cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel Seeds, mustard seeds. All of these are mixed together together to make panch-phoron mix.

Method:
Cut the paneer and potatoes into cubes. Take a hot pan and fry the potatoes and paneer in a tbsp oil. Keep it aside for future use. Fried paneer becomes a bit harder and it adversely affects the texture of the dish. Add half a teaspoon of salt in a bowl of water and throw in all the fried paneer cubes, they will stay soft.

In a pan  pour one tbsp of mustard oil. Once the oil hot, add panch-phoron. Wait till the seeds crackle and add a pinch of asafoetida and ginger. Keep stirring the masala and make sure it doesn’t burn. Add the chopped tomatoes and give it a gentle stir. Let it cook for 4-5 minutes.

In the meantime, mix all the spices (cumin powder,red chili powder, kashmiri red chili powder, turmeric) with 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl and add this to the masala. Cook this in low flame for 1 minute; add salt as per your preference.

Finally add the fried potatoes, fried paneer cubes and green peas. Give it a gentle stir; make sure you don’t break the paneer cubes. Add a cup or two cup of water, depending on how thick you want the gravy to be. I have added 2 cups of water. Cook it for 5 mints in high flame. Break the green chilies into two parts and add them to the mix.

Aloo matar paneer is ready, serve it with hot rice or chapati.

Enjoy.

Mo

Chicken Kosha

Chicken Kosha is, has always been and will always be my favorite preparation of chicken. It’s a greasy and spicy chicken cooked in Bengali household on special occasions. Paired with Luchi, it’s heaven on your platter. You can also have it with Yellow Pulaw or even plain rice. Let’s get started.

Ingredients:
1. Chicken (1 kilogram, washed and cut into pieces)
2. Capsicum (1/2, Medium sized)
3. Onion (4, Medium sized, chopped)
4. Tomato (1, Medium sized)
5. Curd (1 tablespoon)
6. Red chili powder (2 teaspoon)
7. Cumin powder (2 teaspoon)
8. Bay leaf (1)
9. Green chili (4, sliced)
10. Mustard oil (8 tbsp)
11. Salt to taste.
12. Cinnamon (1 stick)/Cardamom(4)/Clove(2)
13. Garam Masala powder (1 tsp)
14. Ginger paste (1 tbsp)
15. Garlic paste (1 tbsp)

Note: Here I have used Bengali Garam Masala which is combination of Clove, Cinnamon and Cardamom. You can make your own by grinding them together.

Method:
Grind capsicum and tomato and make a thick paste of them.

Before we start cooking, we need to marinade the chicken. For marination add the dry spices (cumin powder, red chili powder), salt and ginger-garlic paste to the chicken. To this add the tomato-capsicum paste and mix the whole thing well. Add 2 tablespoon of mustard oil and give it another good mix. We need to keep this aside for 30 minutes at least.

Heat a heavy bottom pan and, pour 6tbsp of mustard oil. Once the oil is hot, add the sliced onions. Saute the onions till they become a bit brownish and then add the marinated chicken. We need to fry both sides of the chicken pieces for 7-8 mints in high flame. Lower the flame; cover it with a lid and let it cook for 15 minutes. In between you need to check if the chicken has become very dry; in that case, sprinkle some water, give it a stir and continue cooking it under cover. You need to cook till the chicken becomes soft and make sure you don’t burn the chicken. I like the gravy to be a bit greasy; so I didn’t add water at all and cooked the chicken in low flame. You may add water if you want your gravy to be a bit runny. Add a teaspoon of Garam Masala powder and give it gentle mix. Chicken Kosha is ready.

Enjoy.

Mo

Quick Biriyani with Egg!!!

It was raining heavily outside; raining since early morning; a well planned weekend was destroyed by this never ending rain. We waited till noon, but the Rain God showed no intention of slowing down. What a sorry day it was; only thing that could have saved the day was good food. Hence, we decided to order Biriyani from a nearby restaurant. I called up a nearby restaurant to order Biriyani only to know that they could not open because of water-logging throughout the city. But I was so desperate that I decided to cook my own Biriyani. It was an experiment which turned out to be an immense success. I am, going to share my recipe with you.

Traditionally, cooking Biriyani involves an elaborate process and takes a lot of time. Generally it is cooked with chicken, lamb or beef. On that rainy day, I did not have any meat at home but, I had eggs and Biriyani Masala handy; and I was desperate. I cooked my Biriyani in a pressure cooker. It’s definitely not the best way to cook Biriyani, but definitely the quickest and the end result is really good. The whole thing takes around 35-40 minutes to complete.

Ingredients:
1. Eggs (4, Hard Boiled)
2. Potato (1, Boiled and halved into two pieces)
3. Onions (2½ medium size chopped and ½ medium size sliced)
4. Bay leaf (1, small)
5. Clove (2-3)
6. Cardamom (2-3)
7. Cinnamon Stick (1-2)
8. Red Chili powder (1 teaspoons)
9. Turmeric Powder (½ teaspoon)
10. Salt to taste
11. Ginger garlic paste (2 teaspoons)
12. Basmati Rice (1½ cups)
13. Mustard Oil (2 teaspoons)
14. Biriyani Spice Mix* (1 teaspoon).
15. Tomato (1 small chopped)
16. Curry leaves (7-8 leaves)
17. Cilantro
18. Curd/Yogurt (2 tablespoons)

*Biriyani Spice mix can be easily found at your nearest Indian grocery shops

Steps:
Wash the Basmati rice and keep it aside. Shallow fry the boiled eggs and sliced onions with a bit of turmeric and keep them aside.

Heat the mustard oil in the press cooker without the lid. Temper the oil with bay leaf, cloves cardamom and cinnamon sticks. When the oil heats up and you can smell the aroma of the added spices, add the chopped onions. Sprinkle a bit of salt to make the onions cook faster. Fry the onions till they become translucent. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry the mix for 2-3 minutes. Then, Add the curry leaves to the mix and saute for another 2 minutes in low flame. Make sure you don’t burn the spice. You can sprinkle water when required.

Add the tomatoes and fry the mix while stirring constantly. When the tomatoes will become soft, add turmeric, red chili powder and the Biriyani mix. Soon the mix will start leaving oil. Add the yogurt/curd to this and mix well. Add the fried eggs (only eggs not the fried onions). Add half a cup of cilantro leaves. Gently mix all the things together; make sure you don’t break the eggs.

Add the rice and 1½ cups of water to the spice. Since we are adding water, we also need to add a bit of salt too. Adjust the salt to your preference. Give it a gentle mix and close the lid of the pressure cooker. Pressure cook it for 2 whistles. Your Egg Biriyani is ready. Garnish with the fried onions.

You can pair this up with a little bowl of curd or Raita. I like it raw, unadulterated.

Enjoy.

Mo