Rasmalai

I tried making Rasmalai yesterday and they really came out well. I had kept them in fridge last night and had them now...they were soo delicious :) I made the rasogollas first, and then soaked them in milk. I got this recipe from
Manjula's Kitchen...an awesome site...you can check there too.

Here comes the recipe which yielded 12 Rasmalais ... :)

Rasogolla

Ingredients :

Milk - 4 cups ( 2% is ok)

Lemon juice - 1/4 cup, mixed in 1/2 cup hot water.

Water- 41/2 cups

Sugar- 11/2 cups

Method :

To make the paneer/chhana -

Boil the milk in heavy bottomed pan and stir continuously so that the bottom of the pan doesn't get burned. After it comes to boil, add the lemon juice mixed in water. When the curd starts separating from whey, turn off the heat.

Once the curd has separated completely, drain the whey in a strainer lined with a muslin cloth. I dont have one, so I use an ordinary handkerchief :P It works okay. Wrap the curd in the cloth and then rinse under cold water. This helps in removing the sourness of the lemon.

Then squeeze the cloth and keep under a heavy bottomed pan. I do not have that either, so I just keep the wrapped cloth in the strainer and keep on a deep bowl for about an hour which works the same way as hanging the muslin cloth. I have made Rasogollas twice before and this has worked well :)

This step is very important in making rasogollas.

To check whether enough water is out of paneer, take a small portion on your palm and rub with your fingers. After a few secs, you would be able to make a small ball. This advice is directly from the above mentioned video.

When its done, put the paneer on a hard and clean surface and knead for sometime to make a smooth soft dough.

Divide the dough in 12 equal parts and make small balls. Keep it round shaped for rasogollas. And press them lightly into shape of patties for Rasmalais. Since I was making rasmalais this time, you would find the shape of rasogollas a bit flat !!

Mix the water and sugar in a pressure cooker and bring to a boil. Then add the balls in the syrup and close the lid. My cooker doesnt give whistles, so after it started rocking, I put the heat in medium and cooked for 7 mins. The pressure cooker should be big enough because the paneer balls will double its size when they are done.

After 7 mins, keep it off the heat for about 4-5 mins and then put the cooker under cold water to release the pressure. Open the lid and take out the rasogollas !!!! :)

Rasmalai

Ingredients :

Rasogollas - as described above

For Milk syrup :

Milk - 3 cups, 2 % is fine ( I used fat-free)

Sugar- I used about 6-7 tsp (adjust to taste)

Cardamom - I crused about 6-8 whole cardamoms

Pistachios - sliced for decoration

Method :

After making the rasogollas/rasmalai patties, take them out of the cooker and squeeze them slightly and keep them aside. Oh they were soo hot !!

Boil the milk while stirring continuously. Add the sugar and keep stirring till reduced to about 2 cups. I added the cardamom powder and some pistachios after this step.

Then add the Rasmalai patties in the milk and cook for 5-6 mins. Pour them in a bowl and garnish with the remaining pistachios. Serve chilled !!

Enjoy !! :)

Update : After seeing these, the first thing that my Mom said was ," why so big" ?? I was a bit surprised and replied that the size was like this only in the video which I followed !! Actually in Kolkata, we used to have rasmalais which were small balls in milk syrup ...but seeing the size in the website, I thought probably I was confusing with something else. But after asking my hubby I was sure Rasmalai in Kolkata are very smalls balls indeed. So if some of you are wondering "why so big"... here lies the answer !! :P Next time I would make it smaller...thus would get many rasmalais. :)

Happy Valentine's Day with Moghlai Paratha

Hiiii ... I am back !! :-) It had been very busy past few months...hope all are doing well :) I started writing this post on Valentine's day but could not finish it. So I am not changing the heading :P I feel everyday should be Valentine's day because we need to make our loved ones feel special always !! :)

Sometimes I have this crazy urge to make something right now... so I search thru recipes over the net and rush to the kitchen !! :P At times I let my hubby know what I am upto....and even though he is feeling like eating something else...I convince him to try it out because I am craving to make it today itself !! :P Last night (read : day before V'day) was something like this...when I felt like making (and eating as well) moghlai paratha...so even though he was thinking of having American dinner, we decided to go ahead and have moghlai paratha and keep the other idea for tonight. So, that's how I made Moghlai paratha which actually came out very good :) Hmmm...let's see what happens tonight with the plan to make lasagna for the first time which we have not even eaten before. ( Update: I made it yesterday, recipe coming soon :D ) I made some new dishes in between which I will posting one by one and of course, visit my friends' blogs which is pending for loong !!

I searched through a few recipes for moghlai paratha and ultimately followed Dolon's recipe. Here is a link to her blog. Check out Sayantani's moghlai paratha too :)

I made a simpler version of aloor dum with small cubed sized potatoes first, which can be eaten as side for other breads also. Then I prepared the parathas.

Aloor-dum

Ingredients I used :

Potatoes - 3 big, chopped in small cubes

Onions- 1 large, chopped finely

Tomatoes- 2 medium, chopped in cubes

Green chillies- 2, chopped

Cumin seeds-1/2 tsp

Cumin and Coriander powder- 2 tsp

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Red Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri chilli powder- 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala powder- 1/2 tsp

Ginger-garlic paste- 1tbsp

I dint have cilantro, so cudn't use it. But it gives a nice smell when added before removing from heat.

Method :

I made this curry a bit differently than the way I normally make Aloor-dum because here the main dish was moghlai paratha and I wanted to start with that as soon as possible. Special aloor-dum is there for luchi na !! :D

Here is how I made it :

Heated 2 tbsp oil in pan. Added Cumin seeds when oil was hot and let them splutter. Added the potato cubes and fried them medium high heat. When they were slightly done, I added the onions and fried well. Then I added the ginger-garlic paste and kept stirring till the raw smell was gone. Made a paste with all the masalas except garam masala , with water and added to the pan. Kept stirring till oil separated from the side of the pan. Then I added the tomatoes and cooked in low heat till they became mushy.

After that I added one and half cup of water and let it boil. Then I cooked it in medium heat till potatoes were done. I sprinkled garam masala on top and covered with lid and kept it off heat for atleast 10 mins.

I made the curry before paratha as I would be using some curry as stuffing and also we could eat the parathas hot as soon as they were ready.

Moghlai Paratha

Ingredients:

All purpose flour/Maida - as much as needed

Warm water to make the dough

Salt to mix in dough

Oil

For the stuffing:

Eggs- 3

Onion- 1 medium

Salt

Green chillies

Black Pepper

Method:

I made the dough for paratha just like I make for luchi/poori, mixing the maida with salt and oil and kneading for about 5 mins. Then making a firm dough with warm water, as needed. I kept the dough covered with wet cloth for about 15-20 mins.

In the meantime I prepared the stuffing by beating the eggs and mixing with chopped onions, green chillies, salt and black pepper. Also, I smashed some potato curry in a bowl also to be used as stuffing.

Then I made balls from the dough big enough to roll out a roti of approx 8 " - it was the size of my 'chaki' (the round wooden board on which I make rotis - belan-chaki). But actually it led to small parathas after folding, so making bigger than this would lead to bigger parathas just like street side shops.

After rolling it, I put 1-2 tbsp of egg mix in the centre of the roti and added potato curry on top of it. Then I folded the round roti from four sides so as to cover the stuffing thus leading to a square-shaped paratha. I sealed the sides with wet fingers.

I already kept one skillet on heat with sufficient oil. Once it was hot, I put the paratha in it very carefully so that it doesn't open up !! Once the bottom side started browning, I flipped it over and then waited till brown spots started coming up. Once the parathas were done, I drained excess oil and served with potato curry and onion slices. It felt soo good to have these after such a long time !!

Today is a very special day for me...... it's my parents' anniversary.....Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad !! :)

Let me know if you have already posted other versions of this great dish in your blogs, I could add the link here with this post.

Take Care... :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !! :)

Dear Friends,

Hope you all are doing great and enjoying the holiday season to the fullest !! I have been very very busy lately, so disappeared from the blogging world...I didnt check my fellow bloggers' posts nor could post any comment...and sorry for not being able to reply to your precious comments !! They do mean a lot to me. I will reply to you all as soon as I resume blogging. I opened my dashboard after a loong long time now..and was overwhelmed by soo many delicious and mouthwatering dishes !! Specially, the cakes and cookies...yumm !!

My MIL has come here for the first time to visit us and to attend my husband's convocation :) So I will remain very busy till beginning of Feb....wont get the chance to post here as I have lab work 5 days/week...and then most importantly, final prep for my Residency journey going on ... :)

So, I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year !! See you all in 2010...I will be back with lots of new recipes and will visit all your blogs... :)

Till then, take care everybody...and Happy cooking !! :)

No-Knead bread !!

This is straight from Soma's e-curry.com ... I couldn't wait to make this bread the moment I saw it. Well...how about a no-recipe post for the no-knead bread ?? :P

Ok let's write a short-cut post :P ... please visit Soma's blog for the detailed recipe here for this very easy-to make-bread !! I followed her recipe exactly as she has written but had to make a few changes. I will write them in detail though !! :)

I don't have a 6-8 quart pot, so I used a 4 qt pyrex mixing bowl and covered with aluminum foil. Maybe, thats why the size of the bread was a little smaller.

And I did a BIG mistake...instead of keeping the mix in warm place for 14 hours, I kept it in the fridge overnight only to realize next morning, when I saw the mix hasn't risen at all !! Actually, I was pre-occupied with something the previous night and dint read that part properly !! I thought that it was gone !! Still, I kept the bowl for the whole day , this time in the unheated oven. To my great relief, I found the dough has doubled !! :)

Since, the bowl that I used dint have a oven-proof lid, I covered it with foil. Actually, my husband did this part...covering and taking out the HOT bowl from the oven before putting the dough in. Have to be very careful if you are doing this way.

Another thing that I noticed, the crust was a bit too hard after baking it for 15 mins uncovered. I should have checked it before that but since we were watching a movie while having lunch...I dint get up before the timer beeped !! :P

Next time, I will check after about 10 mins.

It did taste great- apart from the hard crust, rest of the bread turned out well. And the whole thing was over in one evening. We had some with butter...and then tried making bread pizza with rest of the 4 slices :)) (will write about that soon).

Oh another point, my bread didnt crackle as she has described in her post... I kept it in front of my eyes and watched it expectantly while it cooled down... is it because of the hard crust ?? I am not sure.....may be it will next time !! :)

I will be back with other recipes soon. Till then, take care everybody !! :)

Awards and Awards only !! :)

I have been bestowed with lots of awards recently by my dear blogger friends. But, due to lack of time I could not acknowledge them earlier. So, I would like to apologize for the delayed post. But, my heartfelt thanks to all my dear friends who thought of me while sharing the awards. This is really touching and I am flattered too !! :) Thank you very much........... :)

My sincere thanks to Shanthi, Indrani and Babli who passed the following awards to me... :)

Thank you very much dear Sangeetha for passing on the following awards to me... :)

All of you who have shared wonderful recipes for a long time here deserve these awards, but I think most of you have already received it. So I would like to share all these awards with some of my dear blogger friends :

Shaista, Aps, Sunanda, Jaya, Nithya, Soma, Arundhuti, and Vrinda.

Please accept them :)

Take Care everybody !! :)

Kanchkolar kopta / Green Plantain curry

After a loong time I am here again with a recipe :) I dont know how the days are just passing by.... the evenings quickly roll into nights while I keep on thinking what new dish to make for dinner soon after we have some snacks after returning from lab...and the weekend gets over in a jiffy . This is going on for last one month which made me soo irregular in the blogosphere. I missed many posts of my friends/fellow bloggers and could not post the awards as well that have been passed onto me by my friends here. But...at the end of the day...I am liking what I am doing ... got to learn many things in my lab and looking forward to another opportunity. But I am still waiting for the much awaited call !!

Anyways, first I would like to apologize to my friends for the delay in acknowledging the awards ... I will post them very soon.

Hmm...now back to the recipe...I cooked some new dishes in between...will post them one by one. I made Kanchkolar kopta for the first time few days back...it really tasted great...we had it after so long...its a great dish when planning for a vegetarian treat or just to relish at home with rice :)

Kanchkolar kopta / Green Plantain Curry

Ingredients:

Kanchkola (Green plantain) - 2

Corn flour - 1tbsp

Garam masala

Onion - medium, 1 and half - chopped

Green chillies - 2

Tomatoes-1 medium, chopped

Potato - 1 medium, cubed

Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp

Cumin powder-1tsp

Coriander powder-1tsp

chilli powder-1/2 tsp

turmeric powder-1/2 tsp

Kashmiri mirch- 1/2 tsp

Ginger-garlic paste- 1tbsp

Salt

Sugar-a pinch

Vegetable Oil for deep frying.

Method:

How to make koptas ~

Cut the plantains in half and put them in a pressure cooker with water and salt. I cooked for 2 mins after the cap started rocking steadily. Mine doesnt give whistles, but I guess it would be 1 whistle. After 2 mins, the bananas were still a bit tough and I had to work hard to mash them. Maybe next time I will keep them for 3 mins.

After they are done, remove the skin which already softened. Mash them nicely. Add half onion, chopped, green chilli, 1 tsp garam masala and some salt to the mashed banana. Mix corn flour so that it binds well when frying. Mix everything well to get a tight dough. Make small balls ( I got about 16 koptas) from it and keep aside for frying. Heat enough oil in medium high for deep frying the koptas/koftas. Put the koptas in batches and fry till brown. ( Mine should have been more brown, next time will do that). Put them on a paper towel.

** The koptas are to be added in the gravy just before serving, otherwise they will soak all the gravy. I had put aside half of them to be used one day and refrigerated the rest for using second day.

Gravy ~

Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan. After its hot enough, add the cumin seeds. After they crackle , add the onions. Fry them till they are soft. Then add the potatoes and fry them together. (Potatoes can be fried separately before adding onions, but I was in a hurry, so did it together). Make a paste with little water and the masalas except garam masala. Add it to the onion. Fry them very well till oil starts separating from the sides of the pan. Then add the tomatoes and cook till they become mushy. Add a pinch of sugar and salt. Add water and bring to a boil. Then cook in medium heat till it is done. Sprinkle the garam masala over the gravy and simmer for 2-3 mins. Then put off the heat and keep covered for about 10 mins. Gravy is ready.

** Few minutes before serving, add the koptas to the gravy. Enjoy with white rice or pulao !! :)

Subho Bijaya & Happy Diwali with Gulab Jamun :)

Shobaike janai Shubho Bijayar antarik preeti o shubhechha - Wish you all a very Happy Vijaya Dashami and Happy Diwali in advance. I have been waiting to write this post for a long time now, but wasn't getting the opportunity. Actually, I got the research volunteer position in the lab for which I have been waiting for last few months. I wanted to learn various lab procedures and get some research experience. Since I was done with my exams in August, I thought to follow-up there and ultimately got it around 3rd week of September. I joined there as a volunteer (as of now, thats the only option as I dont have work permit in my Visa) .Here they are working towards developing more effective vaccines for children !! :) I am going there 5 days a week - normal work hours....thats why got busy and couldnt post for long !! Hope this experience will help me in future :)

Ok, back to the post !! I made Gulab Jamuns at home for about 5-6 times now... these are so delicious...can be made anytime if you have the mix at home. I have always made with Gulab Jamun mix - mostly with ' Gits ' mix. The mix comes in both 100g and 500g packets... the second one is a lot more economic :D The method is given in the back of the packet.

Gulab Jamun / Pantua

• First make the sugar syrup - Add 1 cup of sugar in 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Then simmer for 5 mins so that the sugar gets dissolved properly. Keep off the heat. You can taste the syrup, if some more sugar needs to be added, it can be adjusted at this point.
• Slowly add 50-60 ml of milk (or water) to 100g of mix and knead into a soft and smooth dough. If needed, sprinkle some water to make it smooth.
• Make about 12-18 small balls ( it will become double its size after being soaked in sugar syrup - so the size depends on your choice). There should not be any cracks on the balls. If there is any, take some oil/water in the palm and apply on the cracks. they will become smooth.
• While making the dough, heat oil in medium . ( it should be in medium to medium low to cook the sweets properly ). These will be deep-fried, so add oil accordingly.
• When the oil is ready ( test with a a very small dough, it should rise to the top of the oil immediately), add the balls to the oil.
• Fry them for about 7-8 mins- the colour will become reddish brown.
• When they are done, drain the excess oil and keep on a paper towel for about 2 mins. In the meantime, fry the next batch.
• After about 2 mins, add the fried balls to the hot sugar syrup. Make sure there is enough space for them to expand.
• These are ready to eat after 40 mins to 1 hour. But can be kept in the syrup as long as you want !! :)
• Enjoy !! :)

See you again ... Everybody Take care !! :)

Boondi Laddoo

Shubho Mahalaya to all my friends !! :) Aaj theke Debi-pokkho suru -The festive season has begun....and everybody seems to be in a joyous mood :) Thats the essence of Durga Puja ... the most favorite festival of the Bengalis !! I have always been in Kolkata during Durga Puja till 2007. Then missing this auspicious occasion started for me too....though we will attend the Puja over here, but of course, "Probashe Puja" doesnt have the same charm. Nonetheless, we are waiting for the first weekend of October !!

I have got this link from a friend today : thought of sharing with you too :)

http://durgapuja-images.blogspot.com/2009/09/agomoni-gaan-collection-of-devotional.html

We had bought a packet of boondi few months back...to have with raita. So, when I saw the video for making boondi laddoo, I was immediately tempted to make that. Next time maybe I would make these from scratch :D

Here I am giving the recipe for making laddoos with store-bought boondis.

Boondi Laddoo

Ingredients :

Boondi - about 2 cups

Sugar - 1 1/2 cups

Water

Method :

Boil the water and then add sugar in it. Reduce the flame and let the sugar dissolve. Simmer the sugar syrup till it becomes 'one thread consistency'. Then keep it off the heat. Add the boondis. I had to soak the boondis for more than half hour because these were not freshly prepared, so took more time to absorb the syrup. When the boondis look soft, take them out of the pan , after draining off the extra syrup. When the temperature cools down a bit, take a handful of boondis and squeeze in between both the palms in round shape, about the size of a ping-pong ball...or the size you prefer.

After some time, the laddoos will become firm and ready to be enjoyed!! :)

Dinner with Naan and Punjabi Chole :)

I was wondering what to make for dinner yesterday night and decided to try making Naan at home. I wasn't sure how it will turn out, so instead of buying some chicken dish from the nearby Indo-Pak restaurant, I thought of making Punjabi Chole at home...as I ran out of veggies, chicken and eggs :P And thanks to the videos....I could make Naan at home successfully, thought not soo perfectly, ... and it was so soft and tasty :-) I got the chance to use the packet of yeast first time for this, which I had bought last week to make bread at home :-) I did make a loaf of bread btw - though without yeast- will post that recipe soon !! Now, we can have Naan at home anytime we feel like... ;-)

Naan

Ingredients :

All Purpose flour ( maida) - 2 cups

Active dry yeast - 1 tsp

Luke warm water - 1 cup

Salt - 1 tsp

Sugar- 1 tsp

Oil

Milk - 1/4 cup

Method :

Take the luke warm water and add the yeast in it. Add sugar, salt , milk and 1 tbsp of oil in the mixture. Keep it aside for about 10 mins. This will make the yeast active and help the dough to rise.

Take the flour in a big mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and make a sticky dough. I learnt that the dough should be very sticky and soft when you are making naan in oven instead of tandoor. To see how sticky it should be, you can check the video here . There is another version of making naan at home here , but since I dont have pizza stone, I dint follow that.

After making the dough, add 1 tbsp of oil to the dough and coat it thoroughly.

Cover the dough with a lid and keep it for about 20-30 mins. I kept for 25 mins.

The dough did rise,though not double, and was very very soft.

In the meantime, put the oven to its full temperature ... I put it at 500 degrees.

Take the dough and make 6 equal balls out of it. The balls were very soft and light and I had to use flour on my hands to prevent them from sticking.

Then put one ball on the rolling surface and press it with palm to make it bigger and then flip on both palms to give it the shape of a naan ( refer to the video for this :-) )

The baking tray that I have has raised edges...so I cudnt make it exactly like this and I kept them smaller to fit two naans in the tray. BUt it was perfectly alright for us to be enjoyed at home... restaurant -type perfection is not always needed in situations like this :-D

Put the tray to the closest source of heat, I kept in the lowest rack for about 3 mins. After taking it out, I turned the naans and kept again for another 30 secs to 1 min. And then.....it was ready !! :)

I chopped one clove of garlic and added on top of 2 naans to make garlic naan. But since both of us were hungry ... I dint invest too much time on this. Maybe next time... ;-)

After they are ready, smear one surface with butter and enjoy with your favorite veg/non-veg curry. :)

Punjabi Choley

This is one of the quickest curries that I often make with garbanzo beans ( canned chick-peas) and punjabi choley masala. But I have tried with normal turmeric/red chilli/cumin-coriander powder combination as well... and it tastes great too !!

Ingredients:

Chick peas - 1 can ( 130 g) ( boiled)

Onions - 1 medium, chopped

Tomato- 1 medium, chopped

Punjabi Choley Masala - 3/4 tsp

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Red Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Water - 2 cups

Method :

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan. Add the sliced onions when its hot. Fry them in medium heat till golden brown. Drain the liquid from the can of garbanzo beans and wash them thoroughly. Then add the chick peas and the spices to the onions and mix them well. Fry them for about 7-10 mins in low heat. Then add the tomatoes and cook till they become soft. Add salt as per your taste. Lastly, add water and cook in low flame for about 15 mins and take off heat when it reaches the desired consistency. Chopped coriander leaves can be added on top, I added some chopped onions.

Enjoy with Naan or any other Indian bread !! :)

Rainy Day Special : Khichudi and Tomato Chutney

Hello Everybody, hope all of you are doing fine !! Last 2 weeks I was very busy, so could not post any recipe. But I have prepared some dishes which I will be posting soon. I couldnt take some pictures with our camera as the charger was not working properly. So few, including these two, were taken with iphone cam, so the resolution might not be that good. My husband has bought a new digital charger and I hope to take good pics hereafter :)

Its been the same weather over here.... everyday hovering over 102 degrees !! But last saturday, when we got up in the morning, we were thrilled to see its raining , for a change !! :) My hubby immediately told me that we will have khichudi today !! Rain and khichudi.... its something which is incorporated inside us since childhood. Both of us just love to eat khichudi...whether simple or with spices...doesnt matter !! We had khichudi here even when it wasnt raining and the temperature was 45 degrees centigrade :P But last saturday was an ideal day to relish it.... so I made amish (with spices and onions) Khichudi along with aloo-kopir torkari , tomato chutney and fulkopir bora. It was an awesome lunch that day !! :)

I generally use basmati rice to make this, but completely forgot that day, instead used normal long-grain rice that I use everyday !! But nonetheless, it tasted great with the spices and ginger-garlic paste !!

Let me post the recipe now ... :)

Khichudi

Ingredients :

Basmati Rice - 1 1/2 cups

Moong dal - 1 1/2 cups

Water - 10 cups ( I have tried with 4 times water, i.e. 12 cups for 3 cups of total rice and dal in pressure cooker ... but it was a bit more liquidy, this time 10 cups touched the upper mark in pressure cooker ... but when it was ready, the consistency was perfect ... so for 3 cups rice+dal, 9-10 cups is fine)

Onion - 1 small/medium , chopped

Potato - 2 medium, cut into halves

Cauliflower - 8-10 florets

Peas - 1/2 cup ( I dint give this time)

Tomato - 1 medium, chopped

Ginger-garlic paste- 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 to 1 tsp

Cumin and Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Green chilli - 1, slit along the length

Bay leaf - 1-2

Salt

Pinch of Sugar

Oil and Ghee

** Khichudi can be made without onion, ginger garlic paste and the spices, and then also it tastes great. We generally have without these spices during Puja. In that case, just omit those and cook in the same way.

Method :

In pressure cooker, roast the moong dal till golden brown. Wash the daal and keep it aside.

Wash the rice very well and mix with the daal.

Add 1 tbsp of oil and fry the cauliflower florets till golden brown and then keep them aside.

Then fry the potatoes slightly and keep aside.

Add 1 tbsp oil and little ghee and when its hot , add cumin seeds and bay leaf ( tejpata).

When they start crackling, add the onions and fry them till soft . After that, add ginger and garlic paste and fry till the raw smell is gone.

Make a paste of the turmeric, cumin & coriander and red chilli powder with little water.

Add it to the onion and fry till oil separates out.

Then add the rice and dal and mix them properly. Also, add the potatoes, cauliflower , peas and tomatoes and mix well. Add about 1 tsp salt and a pinch of sugar.

Put 10 cups of water in the pressure cooker and taste for salt. I did it like this, had to add more salt . The salt was perfect this time.

Mix everything nicely and close the lid. Mine doesn't give whistles, so i cant tell for how many whistles it needs to be cooked. But slightly less than it needs to cook daal completely.

I cooked it for about 3 to 31/2 mins after the pressure regulator started rocking steadily. After it was done I kept it for few mins off heat and removed the lid.

Add 1 tsp ghee on top of it before serving !! :)

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients :

Tomato - 2 big, chopped into small cubes

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Whole red chilli - 1-2

Sugar

Roasted Panch Phoron - I made it as Mom told, by roasting panch phoron and then grinding them in the mixer.

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add red chilli.

Add the chopped tomatoes and cook till they get mushy.

Add sugar and mix with tomatoes well.

Add very little water so that the chutney doesn't become too dry. Keep on adding sugar till it tastes right.

Take off the heat and sprinkle the roasted panch phoron on top of the chutney.

Enjoy as dessert after rice or khichudi !! :)

Shukto : Entry for Shanthi Krishnakumar's Event

Shukto

Updated : 11th Sept, 09

I am back !!!! Its been long since I posted any recipe in my blog. It was a very busy and important week for us. Now, I will post all the recipes one by one that I prepared recently. But before I post any new recipe, let me complete this post first !! :)

Shukto is an authentic bengali dish ( vegetarian) which is bitter in taste, a very healthy dish as prepared with veggies and minimum spices and served in the beginning of a traditional bengali lunch. There are many variations , but I am giving the recipe which I have learnt from my Mother.

Ingredients :

Potato - 1, cut into cubes

Eggplant - 1 small, cut into cubes

Bitter Gourd - 4-5, cut into cubes, i used cut frozen pieces

Drum Sticks - cut into small pieces

Other veggies that can be added - green banana, papaya, beans, sweet potato, pumpkin, gourd (lauki) etc.

Can add vadi too.

Ginger paste- 1tsp

Oil

Salt & Sugar to taste

Mustard paste/ Posto paste (optional) - 1 tbsp

Milk (optional)- 2-4 tbsp

For tempering :

Panchphoron - 1tsp

Whole red chilli - 1

Method :

Nowadays, I soak mustard seeds overnight and then grind in my magic bullet, earlier it used to become bitter, but soaking the seeds overnight makes them soft, so the paste turns out great !! I do the same with Poppy (posto) seeds, but these doesn't need to be soaked overnight. Then grind them along with little salt.

Vadis must be fried first and then kept aside.

Then saute the eggplants and other veggies, bitter gourd being last. ( This step can be skipped and the veggies, except eggplant, can be added for steaming directly, ).

Keep aside the sautéed veggies.

Add panchphoron to the oil. Let it splutter. Add the Red chilli.

Add all the veggies with some salt. ( At this stage, very little turmeric powder can be added, I didnt use).

After mixing them properly, add little water so that the veggies can be cooked. Cover and cook for about 10 mins.

Then add little sugar , ginger paste, mustard/poppy paste and add the milk. Let it cook for some time. This dish has little gravy, so dont add too much water. After the veggies are almost done, add the vadis.

Remove from the heat when the veggies are completely done. Ghee can be added before taking off the heat, which will give a nice aroma to this dish.

Serve with white plain rice in the beginning of lunch.

[Original post : Hmm...this is actually a draft post, publishing it coz I need the URL :P

I came to know from Shanthi of shanthi krishnakumar's cookbook that she is hosting state special event and when I checked, I saw today is the last date !! The event is so interesting that I would really like to participate. But no time to cook today :P So I searched through my pictures and found one snap of 'Shukto' that I had prepared few months back. This is a traditional bengali dish that is served in all occasions.

I am sending this recipe for her State Specials Event .

I will be really busy for next few days, will be back with the recipe very soon. :) ]

Updates : I am very happy that I could participate in her event, and it is very sweet of her to give all the participants this "Participation award".

Thank You Shanthi. :) Hope to participate in your events again !!