পাতলা চিতই পিঠা -- A Porous Rice Flour Pancake

 This is a traditional age-old recipe from the former East Bengal ( পূর্ববঙ্গ) that turned into East Pakistan overnight with India's independence, which became Bangladesh later in 1971. So, East Bengal doesn't exist any longer but East Bengal food culture is alive in India with the  Hindu Bengali community who fled to this side of the border after partition and gradually established themselves in India. And of course it is very much alive in today's Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh's hospitality and food is extraordinary. 

This pancake was a snack my Grandmother often prepared for my mother and her siblings to eat after they returned from school.

I have never been to Bangladesh, my ancestors' motherland, where they were the children of the soil since time immemorial. But I want to and I can keep the food culture alive.

I made this yesterday morning with the leftover soaked Gobindobhog rice and mug lentil for the day before. I manually made the paste on the traditional shil-norha, শিলনোড়া ( see the photo below). 

Shil -- the flat stone, Norha -- the small, cylindrical one

The Paste

I added salt, baking powder, shredded green chillies and onion, and more water into it and mixed very well. Beating the batter well is essential, too. The consistency needs to be watery. There can't be any lump left. 

The Batter is Ready

We need really very little oil to make this pancake. Just baste the pan with the oil of your choice. I used rice-bran oil. Pour some batter on the hot pan bearing in mind that the pancake will be very thin. The flame should be medium. Flip and cook both sides. It took about a minute only to cook one side. You will see and understand how long (or how quick) it will take as you do it. 

Note: 1) Traditionally only rice flour is used but I wanted to use up the soaked mug from the previous day. 

2) We serve it with some kind of curry/ meat dish but I was to have only the pancake; therefore I added green chillies and onion. 

Basamati Rice with Bitter Gourd!!!

 No normal person would add bitter gourd to mixed veg rice. But this is not a normal time. We are not having a normal life. Every day more than sixty thousand new Covid infections. These are only symptomatic and documented ones. Often we are at the top in the number of daily death, too. 

We are not going to the local market any longer. Supply of vegetables is less and infrequently. So, unlike a normal person, I prepared mixed veg rice with bitter gourd. Below are the ingredients. The egg is kept to show the size/quantity of the vegetables.

I cut the vegetables in tiny  pieces and sautéed them separately and later added them later them to the rice. Carrot and bitter gourd--- what an unusual combination.

I used Basamati rice. The process is similar with the other veg rice recipes I have here. Below is the final product and it tasted good. 

Khichuri with Very Little Vegetables

 

This is an example of my quarantine cooking.  Since lock-down started, we are consuming much less vegetables to make, in the beginning, my visit to fresh market, and now the visit of our domestic help to us, much less frequent.  

Today morning I made this khichuri -- the traditional Bengali rice and lentil dish -- with a few ground nuts and a small piece of carrot as you will see the ingredients in the pictures below. 

Usually we use at least the equal amount of rice and lentil and mostly more lentil than rice to prepare khichuri. But today I used relatively less mug lentil since we are having Dal with every meal nowadays. First I roasted the mug in hot wok and then washed it and kept it at one side.

In a separate pan I sauteed carrot, potato and the ground nuts in the seasoning of shredded onion and cumin seeds, adding turmeric powder, salt and coriander powder.

 I kept this at one side and started cooking the mug and rice together in water in a covered pot. I started on a high flame but reduced it as it started boiling. ( I had soaked the rice already for about half an hour ). After the rice and lentil are almost done, I added salt and stirred and mixed well and let it cook for a few more minutes. When both the ingredients are thoroughly done, I mixed the sauteed vegetables and mixed everything well and let it cook until the water dried up. That was it. I had a filling and satisfying meal. 

Cabbage Khichuri (Lentil Rice with Cabbage)

I prepared this in June and took photos but I have the time to post it now.
It is important for me to ensure that I don't spend long time in the kitchen and still have a balanced diet.
So, I often prepare an one-pot dish.

To make this cabbage Khichuri, I cut potato in small cubes and shred the cabbage manually.
I soaked rice, mug (yellow) Dal and musur Dal (red rentil) for about half an hour. You can soak it for a longer time. This yellow lentil is very special. We call it sona mug, a very tiny type of moong, of golden yellow colour. "Sona" in Bangla (Bengali) means "gold". It is not available outside Bengal, at least not easily available. I bring it from Kolkata.

I sautéed the potatoes and then added thinly sliced onions, cumin seeds, one or two dried chillies removing the seeds.

I added the cabbage and let it cook for a few minutes. I then added the spices: turmeric-, cumin- and coriander powder and mixed everything well. It's required to stir from time to time and let it cook without adding water. If you want it a little spicy, you can add a little chilly powder.
Now I added some peas. I get frozen peas from the supermarket near my house.

I have mentioned above that I soaked rice and lentils. Now I drained the water and added it all. Just like earlier, I stirred and mixe everything. And then I added salt and water. I cooked this in pressure cooker. I closed the lid and after six whistles I turned off the flame.
I was very hungry. So, I let the steam out by lifting the pressure. But usually I wait for quite some time and then open the cooker. In the meantime it completely stops sizzling and there is no air pressure inside. You should never try to open the lid of a pressure cooker immediately after removing it from the flame.  If you don't use pressure cooker, you can check progress from time to time and cook till everything is thoroughly cooked.

When I opened the cooker it looked like this from above. Under this upper most layer it wasas really soft.

Tamarind Rice (Puliogare)

Puliogare powder and the tamarind sauce: --

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)

Bengali Lunch for My Friend from Maharashtra

---- alu-bean bhaja, dimer jhol ar bhat
This year on the occasion of Diwali (the festival of lights), I was invited to have some special homemade Maharstrian delecacies at a friend's house. Her mother vited her from India and was actually staying with her when we met on Diwali. There after a really long time I had karaunji, chakli, chiwda, everything homemade! I never expected before that I would have a so Indian Diwali this year.
I also felt like cooking something authentic Bengali for them.
Unfortunastely Auntie left before we could manage some time to cook together.
So, I cooked for her daughter!
We had alu-bean bhaja (potato and green beans friend)and dimer jhol (egg curry).
Basically the same recipe I sent to BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/specials/2009/11/091126_recipes_nov2.shtml where it looked different because there it was "kasha" (very thick gravy)here it is jhol ("=gravy/sausse"), more liquid.

Peas and Sausage Fried Rice

Nowadays I go to gym because I eat like this:


This is my sausage fried-rice!
The meat in the sausage was from poultry.
I used butter instead of oil to make it tastier because butter makes everything yummy! This was a very successful experiment.

Russian Salad: My Version

This is my very own rice and schrimp russian salad.
I owe the idea to my Russian weekend, no doubt. But I have used grated carrot and mayonese instead of smetena

Chicken Rice

As I did not have much work, I felt that the day was not so fruitful. Actually, I got bored. So, in order to make myself happy, I decided to prepare myself this tasty gift. But I was tired. So, naturally this recipe is simple, easy and quick to cook.



Ingredients:
(Two servings)

4 chicken drumsticks
400 gm rice (you can use lesser quantity depending on your eating habit)
One medium sized potato – cut as shown in the final product
Onion 100 gm

Green chilli – chopped
Turmeric
Pepper – 1 teaspoon
Ginger powder – half a teaspoon
Cumin powder – half a teaspoon
Garlic – four/five cloves, crushed
Tomato – one small
Salt
Sugar – half a teaspoon (optional)
Cumin seeds – a pinch

Ghee (you are free to use olive- /ground nut- / sun flower oil. Please don’t use mustard- or coconut oil! Bongs and Mallus! Please excuse me!)

Cashew nut, cardamom, bay leaves – optional
If you like it a little too spicy, you can add red chilly powder too.

1) Marinade the chicken with salt, turmeric powder, ginger powder, chilly powder (if you at all use it)
2) Pour half a table spoon ghee in to the pressure cooker
3) Add potatoes
4) As soon as the potatoes start turning golden, add bay leaves and cumin seeds. Wait for a few seconds.
5) Now add chopped onions, garlic and green chilly.
6) As the onion turns golden, add the drumsticks.
7) Cook the drumsticks for some time; stir from time to time and make sure that the flame is not very high/ big otherwise it will burn the onion and other micro elements.
8) While the chicken getting cooked, wash it (But if you think you should soak it for, say half an hour, depending on the rice, then do that earlier.)
9) After the chicken is half cooked and chopped tomato. Stir a little and let the tomato get cooked.
10) Add rice. Now, since rice cooks much faster than chicken you need to know the rice well and understand when to add the rice to ensure the both get cooked together and the rice does not get overcooked. The rice I used needed four whistles to cook.
11) Add water.
12) I turned off the gas burner after four whistles.
13) Let the thing stand for a few minutes and then only open the pressure cooker.
14) Now it is ready to serve. Enjoy your meal.