Ghugni -- a popular Bengali Dish of Garbanzo beans

We call garbanzo beans "kabuli chhola" ". Interestingly "chhola" is "gram" and "kabuli" in Bangla (Bengali) is the adjective of Kabul, the city in Afghanistan and so, means "something related to Kabul/something from Kabul". So, literally, it means, Gram from Kabul. I don't know if garbanzo beans came to us from Afghanistan but it is not the only bean we use to prepare this popular dish, ghugni; we also use Bengal gram, the darker and smaller sister of Garbanzo bean and also, dried peas.
The photo above is the breakfast my mother made yesterday. (I am at my mom's house because my father is undergoing a surgery.) My mother makes this quite often and serves with handmade ruti (the hindi word "phulka" or "phulka Rori" may be familiar to some of you!).

To prepare it, soak the beans overnight and then boil them until thoroughly cooked. Add salt in this process. We use a pressure cooker for this purpose.
Cut potato in small cubes. You can also prepare it without potato.
Heat oil of your choice and  add the potato cubes. Let them fry till they turn brown. Now add the seasoning: dried bay leaves (one or two), sliced green chilies (two to three), half a teaspoon of cumin seeds, finely chopped onion and crushed garlic. Stir everything well and let it dry till the onions turn golden. Now add turmeric- and cumin powder. (IIadd a little confused oriander powder, too, but that's optional). Stir well to mix. If you want tomatoes in this dish, add some, finely chopped, now (yesterday my mother didn't because my father is not suppsed to eat tomato but we sometimes do). If you add tomatoes, now let it cook for some time.
Add the boiled garbanzo beans now. Mix well. You might need to add a little more salt. Add water. Let it boil for some time and let the water reduce. You can also add a little garam masala powder towards the end.

Some like it really hot and spicy. They add some red chilli powder with the other spices. I don't prefer that.

Eggplant and Potato Curry in Tomato and Onion Gravy

It had been raining in Mumbai for days. I didn't have vegetables left in my kitchen. But my umbrella was broken. And it was not possible to dry clothes, so I didn't want to get out on the road. (In India we don't often use a drying machine and our hostel doesn't have any.) So, for a long time, as long as a whole week, I was eating mainly rice, different types of lentils and onion fritters (because I had some onions left.) So, I was clearly not having a balanced diet for many days.

Onion Fritters and Red Lentil Soup to go with Steamed Rice

Rice-Lentils-Chowli Beans Khichuri and Fried Potato

Eating some green vegetables became urgent. I asked my flatmate if I could borrow her umbrella and my list of vegetables started with "umbrella"! While leaving home for the market, I discovered that my flatmate wasn't there. She had to go out. Started walking in the rain, I got totally drenched as I reached my destination. It goes without saying that the first thing I bought was an umbrella. Then I bought vegetables enough for a week because I was planning a surprise visit to home.

Eggplant and Potato Curry in Tomato and Onion Gravy

I made an easy but delicious eggplant and potato curry to have with steamed rice.
Heating up some mustard oil, I added the pieces of potato first. Make sure that the potato is cut into small pieces, much smaller than the eggplant because eggplant is a softer vegetable and cooks faster than potato. After the potatoes turned golden, I added shredded onion and a little green chilies. If you like it hot and spicy, you can use for seaoning dried red chilli, too; in addition, you can also use cumin seeds.
After the onion was glazed, I added finely chopped tomatoes and turmeric-, cumin-, coriander-, and a little red chilli powder. I also added a little 'goda masala' which is a Marathi traditional combination of spices. I added the eggplant now, after everything else. I usually cut them in bigger pieces, bigger than the potato. I stirred and mixed everything well. Finally I added water and covered it with a lid and let it cook for about twt minutes. At this point you should lower the flame. But in our kitchen the flame is always low, thanks to no regular servicing for the oven in spite of several requests from us.
In about ten minutes it was cooked and the quantity of water reduced. I had it with steamed rice.

Cauliflower in Coconut Gravy

It's a vey easy and quick recipe. I prepared  this in a pressure cooker. I heated some mustard oil and then added some small pieces of potatoes into it. After those turned golden I added the cauliflower pieces. I stirred from time to time to make sure all the sides of the cauliflowers get sautéed a little bit. Then I added finely chopped tomatoes, let all cook stirring every now and then. Then  I added cuminn powder, turmeric,  coriander powder, goda masala, stirred and mixed well. Use garam masala instead of goda masala because today masala is not available everywhere. I added a little red chilli powder for colour but it is optional. Added coconut powder (bought it from the local supermarket) and salt. Stirred and mixed everything very well, added water and  closed the lid. After two whistles I turned off the flame. You can cook it in any type of container. After adding water cook till the vegetables reach the tenderness you want. I had it with steamed rice.

Jawl - Bhaat

Steamed Rice soaked in Cold Water, with Lemon and Fritters

        This is a summer delight! "jawl" means water. "Bhat" means cooked rice. So, literally, it is 'water-rice'.

Jawl-Bhat ("Water Rice"?!!)

          Indian Summer can be deadly, especially if you are outside under the scorching sun for a long time. Even indoors it is not really comfortable. Our entire house is not air-conditioned. We have ceilings fans and we have comforting food! Jawl-Bhat is one example!

To make Jawl-Bhat. I cook steamed rice, drain the starch and then, leave it to cool. Then I add cold water and salt and squeeze a lemon to it and mix everything well. Usually a green chili is eaten with it, too, which I can do without. (My taste buds are rather d-e-l-i-c-a-t-e!)
          Common side dished to go with this are thinly cut and fried potato, lentil fritters and / or onion fritters. You can check my posts for recipes of fritters.

Onion Fritter:-

http://kayhavingfeasts.blogspot.in/2015/08/onionfritter-i-crave-for-fried-food.html

Cabbage Fritter:-

http://kayhavingfeasts.blogspot.in/2013/01/cabbage-pakora.html

       
Plantain Balls:-
http://kayhavingfeasts.blogspot.in/2011/07/kanchkolar-kofta-curry.html

Jawl Bhat and Peaji and Lalshak (red leafy vegetable)

Stuffed Baby Aubergines (Bharali Vangi)

 Bharali Vangi (Stuffed Baby Aubergines): A Marathi Delicacy

           As I visited Mumbai about a month ago, I asked a friend there to recommend authentic Marathi(of the Indian state of Maharastra) vegetarian dishes. He did recommend this as we met, Bharali Vangi, and ordered many more famous Marathi dishes and did not let us pay, not even share the cost! 

           In Mumbai we had it with Bajri Roti ( handmade thin flat bread of millet) and I liked it very much. So, after my returned I searched for the recipe and watched a few videos on YouTube in order to learn how to prepare it. This is my first try.

Bharali Vangi

             "Vangi" means aubergine. "Bharali" literally means ''filled" i.e. stuffed. But believe me, the preparation is NOT simple.

Goda Masala

          This is a unique spice blend of stone flower, nagkeshar (mesua ferrea) coriander seeds, dry coconut, white sesame seeds, red chilli powder, turmeric, bay leaf,  cloves, and cotton seed oil, originally from the state of Maharashtra, in the western part of India different. The ingredients may slightly differ depending on different regions. 

M-- , who helps me learning Marathi language, gave this to me a few days ago as we met up to take a late afternoon walk in the British built part of Central Kolkata, where footpaths are wide and empty and clean, the areas are green and grand colonial buildings, some are of red bricks, proudly stand, and statues remind us the glorious sacrifices of our freedom fighters. It was a very rainy day, much to our relief. The sky was overcast and it was dark already in the late afternoon.  

          I was late to reach Esplanade where M-- was waiting for me. She felt sleepy and bought hot tea in a mud cup as I finally appeared before her. The first thing she did was dragging the Goda Masala packet out of her cotton fabric bag. She brought it for me from Mumbai. "Goda" means ''sweet". What do we say in Marathi when we meet a child? -- 'kiti god!' (with the 't' dental and the 'd', retroflex, literally, meaning "how sweet!"). Assuming the spice would taste something near sweet relying on this linguistic evidence, I, impatient with my curiosity, over-enthusiastically scooped out one teaspoon of Goda Masala as soon as I cut open the packet today and poured it into my mouth! And... uuuhhh.... no! I know... you are laughing LOUD at me now!

The Stuffing

The Ingredients of The Stuffing, and The Seasonin

         I chopped a medium sized onion, a large tomato, two small green chilies and a few cloves of garlic. I also chopped a small coconut. I sauteed all these in ground nut oil. I roasted about 75 grams of sesame seed and 50 grams of roasted ground nut that I ground coarsely. I also chopped half of a small onion thinly for seasoning which consists of mustard seeds, cumin seeds and a small green chilli, too. In the photo below you can see clockwise the tomato-onion-garlic-chilli mixed in the blender, sauteed coconut, the goda masala packet, roasted sesame seeds and coarsely ground ground nut in the tiny bowl.I blended all the ingredients in the photo above and the result is the paste below:

The Stuffing Ready

         Then I cut the aubergines (about 350 grams) as shown in the photo below. It is important to make sure that the head of the aubergine is intact. Then I stuffed  with the paste above. The second picture below shows the baby aubergines ready to get cooked. Don't they look beautiful? 

           Now I heated a little ground nut oil, added the seasoning and then the aubergines, let them cook for a little while and changed the sides slowly and carefully. I added now the paste left after stuffing, stirred very cautiously and cover the pan and let it cook for about 20 minutes. 

              I had it with steamed rice this time. But it goes very well with roti.

Soy-Nuggets Curry

I turn green with envy whenever I catch a glimpse of the variety of transition foods available to my vegan friends abroad. They have vegan cheese, tofurky (i.e vegan turkey), other vegan meats and even vegan fish. I have nothing!!! Not fair! Especially when it is not easy to become a vegan in India! Vegetarianism is common here but Veganism? What is it? Many people don’t even have the word in their lexicon.

I come from a piscetarian community. So, I never had meat as a part and parcel of my regular meals, unlike my friends in the West! And the only meat we sometimes ate at home was chicken. Therefore, giving up meat totally never seemed to me to be a difficult goal. But yes, like everybody else, I sometimes had a craving for non-veg food, though not very often. Soy nugget is the only plant based food, as per my knowledge, that has a meat like texture!

I do not know if soy nuggets are available in Europe or in North America but here it is pretty common.  I can buy them in cardboard cartons in every supermarket or at every local shop and with them, quite often, I make a spicy curry. Below is how I usually do it.

I soak the nuggets in very hot water for about 10 minutes. I add a little salt to that water, too but that is optional. I nuggets become soft and spongy and bigger.

As I let the nuggets stand in the hot water, I skin potatoes and cut them into big pieces, sautee them and keep them aside. I usually use sunflower oil to cook this. If you use mustard oil, it is mandatory to heat the oil up till its smoking point to get rid of the smell. I drain the water very carefully, as much as possible and then add them to the remaining oil and continuously stir and sautee. Soon I add some cumin seeds, two bay leaves, chopped green chili, finely chopped onion, a little turmeric powder, and a little cumin powder. I usually do not use red chilli powder but you can do, if you want it hot and spicy. And black pepper powder, too! “Some like it hot”! (Since the spongy nuggets are quick to soak the oil, you may skip sautéing them but I love oily preparations, especially when at home.) Then I add ginger- and onion paste and stir and mix everything well. It is important that the onion gets cooked very well! After that I add tomato puree and again stir and mix well. Then the potato and water has to be added. If you do not sautee the nuggets, you need to add them as the water starts boiling. Let everything cook for a few minutes. Depending on how thick the gravy you want, you can determine how long you should let it cook. You can also sprinkle some garam masala powder towards the end.

Peajkoli

I am back to writing. I was busy for quite some time with two language courses. I passed my Russian exam with a pyateorka i.e. band 5, the highest band in the Russian evaluation system, which was not easy and I am continuing learning with the final exam ahead in a few months. In addition, I'm brushing up my German and also preparing for a difficult English language test to check whether I have native-like proficiency! So, I have enough on my plate, no doubt! Does that mean, that I didn't have time to cook and my "plate" in its literal sense, was not so full? Not at all! Whatever happens, I make sure that there is foodgasm in my life!
In this post I am going to introduce "Peajkoli", one of my favourite winter vegetables. "Peaj", pronounced with the 'e' nasalised, means onion and "koli" literally means "bud"! Here is how they look like:

I cut these into small pieces, about an inch long or a little shorter, and add potato cut in small cubes, as you can see in the picture and sautee in a little mustard oil. It is fine to use rice bran- or sun flower- or ground nut oil. But if you cook it in mustard oil, don't forget to to heat the oil up till its smoking point to get rid of the odour.
Here is the finished product to go with dal ( red lentil soup) and steamed rice:

Mourola Machher Chachchori

Anchovies with Egg plant and Potato

Main course
Serves two

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Mourala fish: 100 gm
Potato: 50 gm
Egg plant: 50 gm
Green chili -- two small
Onion -- 25 gm
Turmeric
Salt
Sugar -- a pinch (optional)

Mourala Fish in Salt and Turmeric

sliced green chili, shredded onion, potato, egg plant

How to prepare:

Clean the fish. This will take considerable time.

Marinade the fish in salt and turmeric.

Cut the vegetables as shown in the picture above.

Fry the fish. Keep at one side.

Fried Mourala

Add potato to the oil and saute. As the potato starts turning golden, add the green chili and onion into the oil. Saute a little.

Add the egg plant. Saute. Stir a little. 

Add turmeric and salt.

Stir well to mix well. 

You may add very little water.

Cover the pan and make the flame small.

As the vegetables are almost done, add the fish. Stir to mix well.

Cover and let everything cook on small flame for about five more minutes.

Serve with steamed rice.

Indian Dinner in Paris

I decided to spend the weekend with my friend in Paris. I cooked this special egg curry and the spicy shrimps for dinner and she got wine for us:

Foodpuzzle: Tell Me, Dear, What You Ate Just Now!

I was thrilled to find soya nuggets here! OK, in Indian stores you can get everything but still, I was happy, thinking that now I would able to serve my friends soya in a form that is eaten only in India, as much as I have experinced.
So, this was my soya-preparation, "Soya Nuggets in Onion and Tomato Sauce", for our party yesterday!

Unlike in India, I cooked this without adding potao or any other vegetables since it was supposed to be a finger food, and not to accompany steamed rice or roti.
"What are those small balls?" --- my frineds asked me.
"Taste and tell me!" --- was my reply!
And...... nobody passed the test of taste!!! Ha Ha Haahh!

Kanchkolar Kofta Curry

Kanchkolar Kofta Curry --- Green Bannana Balls Curry / Gruenbannanebaellchen in bengallischer Sausse (pfewwwh --- translation, esskulturell unmoeglich!!)


Ingredients:
(For two servings)

Green banana – one
Potato – One medium
Cumin seeds – half a teaspoon
Coriander seeds (optional) – a pinch
Bay leaf – one big
Green chilly – one medium
Turmeric powder – half a teaspoon
Cumin powder – half a teaspoon
Red chilly powder (optional, if you want to make it really spicy)
Tomato – one small
Flour / besan (chickpea flour).
Sunflower oil (or mustard oil)
Ghee (optional)

Cook the green banana and potato until they are soft (completely cooked.)
Sauté finely chopped onion and shredded green chilly.

To make koftas:

Mash the banana and add salt, the sautéed onion and chilly, and a pinch of cumin powder to it.
Mix everything very well.
Make small balls of it.

Make the batter of flour/ besan.
Dip the balls into it and dip fry.
Now the koftas are ready. Keep them to one side.

To make the curry:
Peel and cut the potato into small cubes.
Add oil into the pan.
Add half a teaspoon cumin seeds, the bay leaf, torn into two pieces, into it.
Add potato. Sauté. As soon as the potatoes start becoming golden, add turmeric, a little cumin powder, cook for some time. Add tomato puree. Stir. Add salt. Stir. Add water and bring it to boil.
Add koftas. Simmer for a minute. Turn off the oven.
You can sprinkle a little ghee on top. But, this is optional.
You may not serve immediately. Let it stand for a few minutes. Let the koftas soak in the gravy.

Serve with hot steamed rice.

Drinks and Some Tiny Bites on Saturday!

My friends decided to have a party on last Saturday! Everyone was supposed to bring drinks. But I do not have a taste for drinks, since I am very loyal to pure German Leitungswasser (tap water), other than which I very rarely drink milk or black tea, or sweet wine and nothing else. So, I cannot pick up drinks ruling out the possibility of a disastrous choice. I decided to make something that could accompany the drinks.
I made two types of pakoras: 1) Crispy with rice powder, and 2) soft and delicate with potato, carrot and green peas (which could be called vegetable-chop in my hometown.)

For a change, I cooked something completely vegetarian for a party!!!
And I have never seen a better utilisation of a bath-tub before. (LoL!)

Chicken Wings in Onion Sauce

I cook chicken wings quite often. Chicken cooks fast and quite easy to prepare. So, at the of a tiring day, if I must cook, it is one of my favourite choices.


To prepare this, first I marinated the wings with salt, curry powder (typically, turmeric powder, when in India, a little red chilly powder, in onion paste for about 15 minutes. After that I sauteed the wings, with shredded onion, garlic, green chilly, in sunflower oil. Then I added the onion paste and cooked till the meat softened.

Shrimp with Peas

Ingredients:

Shrimp -- 100 gm
Peas -- 25 gm
Coconut -- half of one small
Red onion – one large
Garlic -- a big clove
Salt
Sugar – a pinch
Ginger powder – a pinch
Turmeric powder -- half a teaspoon
Cumin powder -- half a teaspoon
(Use curry-powder if these typical Indian spices are not available.)

Olive oil (or sunflower oil)
Green chilly – one medium
Red chilly powder (optional)
Tomato – one small (optional)

How to Prepare:

Chop 1/3 of the onion into thin slices. Grate the rest.
Shred the chilly and also the garlic.

Grate coconut. Keep it to one side.
Grate tomato. Keep it to one side.

Heat the oil a little and add chopped onion, garlic and green chilly to it.
Sauté till the onion start turning golden.
Add schrimps. (You can add them later also. I prefer frying them a little.)
Now add the spices, grated onion and stir and mix very well.
Now add grated coconut, stir and sauté.

Add salt.
Add grated tomato. Stir and mix well.

Stir and cook for some time.
Add water and the peas. (You can add the shrimps at this stage also.)
Boil till the peas are cooked.

Serve hot with rice.