Aloo Potol diye Chingri Macher Jhol (Bengali Shrimp Curry)

Aswin is allergic to shrimps and that means that I stopped getting shrimp home for cooking about 3 years ago. I used to before we found out. The last time I bought shrimp was when I was pregnant with Lil A. I went through a phase of craving for shrimp and sharshe bata chingri mach. I would get shrimp, cook it, eat it all in one go. :)

Now that my parents are visiting, I have started getting shrimp again. We still try to finish it all in one session and be careful about spoons etc. It is more fun eating it together rather than consuming it all by myself.

My father recently made a old favorite that we grew up eating. Aloo Potol diye Chingri Macher Jhol or Shrimp curry with Potato and Pointed gourd curry. I saw some fresh parwal/potol in the Indian store and got some immediately.

The curry reminds me of my childhood when we would spend summer vacation at my grandparents and would spend most of the time with cousins playing and chatting. Outside in the morning and inside for the afternoon. No worries, no homework and no early nights to think about, just play, eat and sleep.

My father who made the jhol also talks about the making in this short podcast.

Ingredients
12- 14 Raw and deveined shrimp 

4 medium Aloo/Potato - cut in small cubes
5 medium Patal/Parwal/ Pointed gourd - cut it into 2 - 3 pieces
1 Tomato -pureed
2 Green chillies
1 tspoon grated ginger
2 Dry red chillies
1 tspoon coriander powder
1 tspoon cumin seed powder

1/4 tspoon asafoetida   
1/4 tspoon turmeric powder

1/4 tspoon garam masala powder
1/2 tspoon ghee

3/4 tspoon kalo jeere

5-6 tbspoon oil

salt to taste

21/2 cups water

 

Method:

Rub the shrimp with salt and turmeric powder and keep it aside for 10-15 min. Then shallow fry the shrimp in 2-3 tbspoon oil till it starts to turn orange. Shallow fry the potatoes next for 3-4 minutes and then the potol/parval. 

Put the rest of the oil in a sauce pan and temper it with the kalo jeera, red and green chillies.  Then add the pureed tomato and saute for a minute. Add the coriander and cumin seed powder next. Then add the asafoetida and turmeric powder and let it cook together till the oil separates. Now add ginger and cook for another minute.

Add 21/2 cups of water and salt and close the lid. When the gravy/jhol starts to boil, add shrimp, potato,and patal/parwal. Cook for 8-10 minutes till potato is cooked.

Add ghee and garam masala. Check the gravy thickness and take it off the heat.

Serve hot with rice.

Strawberry Spring Cake

 

It was the end of the week. I had a couple of hours before going out for tea and meeting a friend and his 4-yr-old. I thought about buying some cupcakes on the way. But Lil A was taking his nap and I decided to use the opportunity to scan the fridge.

I came up with some strawberries and a couple of eggs that I could use. The pantry had the rest of the stock for a cake. Hmm, I could bake a strawberry cake too, I thought and decided to try it.

I pureed the strawberries, and mixed in the cake, but didn't get any dramatic colors! Guess you have to use some food coloring for that pink/red color. It did have a faint strawberry smell, taste and some texture too.

The cake was eaten up by the 2-yr-old, the 4-yr-old and the adults too. I'm glad I tried this. It will be a go to recipe along with the other strawberry cake I baked for Lil A.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
3 tspoon baking powder
1 tspoon vanilla extract ( I got this new one from Whole Foods and it has a smokiness to it. Worked well.)
1/2 teaspoon salt
12-14 strawberries (reserve 2-3 for decoration, puree the rest with 1 tspoon lemon juice)
2-3 tbspoon powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

 
Method:

Preheat your oven to 350° F (180° C), butter and flour the pan and keep it aside. Beat the eggs and sugar until it becomes thick. Then slowly add in the oil.

Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt in the mix, and then the strawberry puree, little bit at a time. Beat until smooth, and then mix in the vanilla extract.

Add the batter into your pan, and bake for about 40-45 minutes till the toothpick comes out clean.

Cover it with powdered sugar, and sliced fresh strawberries and serve.

Murgi-o-begun, a guest recipe by Arijit Sen

Arijit is a dear friend of ours who is working as a journalist in North East India. If you live in India, you've probably seen him and his reports on CNN-IBN. Just a couple of days ago, Arijit was getting out of work when he texted saying he was going to try making murgi-o-begun.

I didn't have a recipe for him but had some ideas.

Me: hote pare

ittu tak diye (The recipe will need some sourness)

 Arijit: achcha...

 Me: tamarind nale lebu

  and maybe soy sauce (Either tamarind or lemon and soy sauce)

 Arijit: lebu ache

  soya sauce ache

 And we continued in this vein for sometime and off Arijit went and created his magic. He said that the curry came out great and instantly I knew that this would be a great recipe. So I pestered him till he gave the recipe and some pictures for ahaar. :) Thanks Arijit!

Here is how he made murgi-o-begun.

Ingredients:

(Arijit said that his measurements are approximate as he eyeballed most of his ingredients)

1 medium eggplant - cut in 1" round discs
1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts

1 medium onion - chopped

1 green bell pepper - chopped

1 tbspoon -sweet chilli garlic sauce

1 tbspoon lemon juice

1 tbspoon soya  sauce

1/2 tspoon turmeric powder

1/2 tspoon Tabasco sauce

1/2 tspoon sugar

dry red chilli ( I prefer it hot, so I added about 7 so adjust according to taste)

1 1/2 tspoon fresh grated garlic

handful chopped fresh coriander

1 cup water

4-5 tbspoon oil

Salt to taste

Method:

 Rub the eggplant with little bit turmeric and salt and then shallow fry the eggplant. Keep it aside. 

In a saucepan, heat oil and then add the garlic and onions, Saute for a couple of minutes, then add the dry red chillies. Then add the bell peppers and saute for another couple of minutes. 

Then add the sweet chilli garlic sauce, lemon juice and soy sauce and cook for a minute on low heat. Then add water and let it cook for another minute. Then add the eggplant, salt and the sugar and let it cook on low medium heat. 

 

In the meantime, in another pan, add the rest of the oil and shallow fry the chicken breasts till they start turning brown. Be VERY careful so that it does not become rubbery. 

Then add the chicken in the gravy and let it cook for another 12-18 minutes till the chicken is cooked. 

Serve hot with rice, roti or even bread. Enjoy!

Tetor or Bitter dal and a new series introduction

My parents are visiting and that means our menu has more Bengali food cooked by my parents nowadays. Whether it is regular macher jhol (fish curry) with salmon or mooger dal or special delicacies like this bitter or tetor dal and chingri macher malai kari, we have been relishing all of this and more regularly.

As I try to record my parents recipes, I have been thinking for some time now about how to add their personal touch to the blog posts. I thought about video, but they're not very comfortable with it and doesn't work. Then I started thinking about audio and the more I thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. When I spoke to them, they were open to the idea as well.

So I am launching a new audio series where I will have short podcasts with my parents describing the recipes in Bengali. This is very personal project. Just having their voices recorded for eternity telling me how to cook some of my childhood food is very dear to me.

It's the first one and has it's glitches, but hopefully it will get better. The podcast is a conversation between me and my mom about tetor dal.

Coming back to the tetor dal, I was never a big fan growing up. However as time passes, I have come to appreciate the dal and the karela and try to incorporate it more in our diet.And since my mother is here and is making it, this is the best time to record it on the blog :)

Even though it's called bitter dal, it really isn't. It's mild flavored dal with karela or bittergourd in it. 

This Dal is best enjoyed with rice and some green chilli or katcha lanka, and some veggie fritters. Mostly, it's served at lunch and is considered part of traditional Bengali lunch.


Tetor Dal

 Ingredients:

1 cup moong dal
1/4 lauki/lau (bottlegourd) cut in big pieces (should be about a cup and 1/2)
1 karela (bittergourd) cut in thin slices
1/2 tspoon methi seeds
2/3 tspoon cumin seeds
2/3 tspoon mustard seeds
1 bay leaf
2 tspoon grated fresh ginger
1 tbspoon ghee (clarified butter)
3 tspoon oil
2/3 tspoon turmeric powder
salt to taste

Method:

Saute the moong dal on medium heat for a few minutes till the aroma comes. Wash and then put it in a pressure cooker withthe bottlegourd pieces. Add 1/2 tspoon turmeric powder, 1 tspoon oil and salt to taste. Cook it to 3-4 whistles till the dal and lau is cooked.

Mix the bittergourd pieces with salt and turmeric and keep it aside for 10 minutes. Then heat 2 tspoon oil in a pan and stir-fry them till they are done. Keep it aside.

In a saucepan, heat the ghee and then add the bay leaf. Then add the methi seeds, cumin seeds and the mustard seeds in that order. Then add the ginger and saute for a minute. Add the bittergourd, and then the dal and let it all mix and cook together for 3-4 minutes.

Take it off the heat and serve hot with rice.

This tetor dal is going to The Well Seasoned Cook - Susan's 46th Legume Affair. Thanks Susan!

I have finally created a Faacebook page for the blog where we can have more conversation about food, recipes, and life in general. Please go to https://www.facebook.com/ahaarblog and "Like" the page. 

Artichoke soup

One of the things I've noticed about me is that when I get into a food show, the getting out is just as intense. After a while, it feels like I can predict their style, what kinds of food they will be making and  the predictable starts to feel boring. But there are gems you take away from the romance phase with a show, those are a keeper.

It was the same with Giada's show on Food Network. I watched it for a couple of months and then stopped, but found this artichoke soup recipe just amazing. Artichoke is not a vegetable I use often and even when I do, it's rather limited. So when I saw this soup recipe with artichoke combined with spinach, I just had to try it.

I ended up adding spices to the soup to suit my taste and also cooking the spinach with the artichoke. The spices were some sriracha sauce, some cumin and that brought out the tartness too.

While we had it as soup, Lil A used it as a dip for his toast :)

Here it goes -

Ingredients:

(recipe source: Giada at home)
 2 tbspoons olive oil
1 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped

1/4 tspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chicken broth
One 12-ounce package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
1 cup fresh spinach
1 tbpoon chopped fresh mint
1/4 tspoon sriracha sauce
1/2 tspoon cumin seed powder
Salt as per taste
Lemon wedges

Method:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and then add the onion and let it saute for a couple of minutes. Then add the celery and let it cook with some salt and pepper.  Cook the vegetables till they turn soft, then add the artichoke hearts. Add salt and cumin seed powder. Let it cook for a couple of minutes then add the spianch as well.

Add the broth and let it cook on medium-low and simmer until the artichoke hearts are tender, about 12 minutes. 

Puree the soup with the mint and sriracha sauce. You don't want the soup to sit with the hot sauce for too long. Add some additional broth or water if you want the soup thinner.

Squeeze a lemon wedge over each bowl of soup before serving.

Welcoming spring with Gazpacho

Even though the winter hasn't been bad, it still feels good to say spring is here. The temperature is in the 60s and 70s this week, Lil A is back at the park swinging to his heart's content and the tulips and daffodils are springing from the soil.

And the palate is changing as well. I want something light and flavorful, but gazpacho wasn't an inspiration from that. It was from seeing a loaf of artisan bread we had bough a few days ago becoming hard. I had two choices either make a bread pudding or try something else. And then I came across gazpacho while watching Anne Burrell on Food Network and decided to try that.

I didn't use tomato juice to puree the ingredients which gives gazpacho it's bright red color. Instead I used water, so my gazpacho looks more orangeish-yellow.

But it is super simple and the taste is just divine. The mix of salty, tangy and sweet is perfect and teams well with the freshness of the soup. Give it a try at least once.

Here is how I did it:

Ingredients

(recipe courtesy of: Anne Burrell)

4-6 slices of bread
1 1/4 box grape tomatoes chopped
1  onion, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper (or green) seeded and chopped
1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley(I used cilantro)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tspoon sugar
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
6-8 drops of Tabasco sauce to taste
3-4 cups water (depending on thickness)

Method:

Soak the bread in water for about 15 minutes and then tear it in smaller pieces. Mix it with tomatoes, cucumber, onions, bell pepper, vinegar, half of the olive oil, salt and pepper and garlic and let it all mix together and soak flavors. Set it aside for 40-45 minutes.

Then puree it all together. Mine didn't fit in one go so I had to do it in batches.  Keep it aside in the fridge for another hour.  Dice some pepper, onion and cucumber for garnish on top and serve chilled.

I had 30 min before I served it so it wasn't very cold but just as delicious.

Oven baked Kale Chips

What do you do when you get an extra day in February? Bake kale chips of course.  I have been hearing about it, seeing it on TEDX talk and on blogs, etc. so I took the leap and baked some kale chips.

Through trial and error I learned that the best temperature to bake the chips is not high, rather low and slow. I started with 350deg F and end up with 260 deg F.  By the time the kale is cooked, the water is gone and kale is crunchy, salty and oh so light. I feel I should warn you that it is addictive and no matter what time of day it is made, you cannot stop eating it. I had mine with a glass of wine after dinner today and the combination was ah so good!

 The real investment in this recipe is time depending on what temperature you bake the kale.

Ingredients:

Big bunch of kale (I used 1/2 of Trader Joes's precut kale)
1/4 salt (I added Himalayan pink salt)
dash of fresh black pepper
2 tbspoon olive oil

Method:

Heat the oven to 260deg F. Clean the kale taking away thick stems and making sure that the leaves are dry.

 Mix the kale with olive oil, salt and pepper and put the kale in a cookie sheet. Cook it for 15 min, take it out and turn it around. Put it back in the over for another 12-14 minutes till the kale leaves just crush nicely between your fingers.

Enjoy!

Dal parathas

Actually leftover dal parathas ! Last week when I peeked in my fridge there were two little boxes sitting wait to be picked up for the 3rd day in a row. So this time I did! One had a little bit moong dal and the other one was masoor. I mixed it up with some flour, grated onion, cilantro and salt and it made for some yummy dinner parathas.

Little A ate all his share with jam and we enjoyed ours with yogurt and pickle.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/4 tspoon bengali kalo jeere
2 tbspoons cooked masoor dal
3 tbspoons cooked moong dal
3/4 cup water
1/2 medium onion grated
bunch of cilantro chopped
salt as per taste
5-6 tbspoon oil for cooking

Method:

Knead it all together. First mix the dal, cilantro and onion well and only then start to add the water. Dal already has salt, so check and add more if needed.

Knead it to a soft dough and keep it aside for 30-40 minutes.

 

Divide the dough in equal parts and then make balls. Roll out the in circular parathas, use some flour dusting if it sticks, but not too much.

Heat a hot griddle or pan, cook both sides, put a tspoon of oil and cook till the brown spots appear and the paratha looks cooked.

 Serve hot with raita, pickle or jam! Enjoy.