Lau Chingri

Bottle Gourd with Shrimp

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Bottle gourd (lau) – 1 Kg

Shrimps – 200 gm

Salt

Sugar – half a tea-spoon

Turmeric

Green chilies – two small, sliced

Cumin Seeds

Bay leaves

Mustard oil (or sun flower- or olive oil)

How to prepare:

De-vein the shrimps and clean the heads very carefully. Usually we do not behead the shrimps ;) but yes, you can get rid of them since cleaning is not an easy task. Marinade them in salt and turmeric powder. Set aside for about fifteen minutes.

In the meantime, peel the skin off from the gourd and cut it into very thin and small pieces.

Now heat some oil in the pan. If you use mustard oil heat it enough so that the typical smell of the oil vanishes. Fry the shrimps and keep them in one side.

Add bay leaves, green chilies and cumin seeds to the oil.

Add the shredded gourd. Let it sauté a little and then stir. Repeat this. Add turmeric and stir well so that it mixes with the vegetable uniformly. Add salt. Stir and mix well. After adding salt water will start coming out from the vegetable slowly; you do not need to add water from outside; so, just cover it and let it cook.

When the vegetable is almost done, add the friend shrimps and half a tea-spoon sugar, stir and mix well and cover again and let it cook for ten more minutes.

Serve with steamed rice.

Next time I prepare it, I will make a better photo to replace the one above!

Mankochur Torkari

Taro Roots with Potato

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Taro root – 500 gm

Potato – 200 gm

Salt

Turmeric powder– one tea-spoon

Bay leaves (dried) -- two

Cumin seeds – a pinch

Green chilies – two small (sliced)

Ginger paste/ powder – half a tea-spoon

Cumin paste/ powder – 2 teaspoons

Coriander paste/ powder – half tea-spoon

Mustard oil (or sun flower oil) – one and a half table-spoons

Water

How to prepare:

Cut taro and potato in small cubes, wash with water and drain all the water carefully. Keep these in one side.

Heat mustard oil until the colour changes and the typical smell of mustard oil vanishes.

Add bay leaves, green chilies and cumin seeds.

Add the vegetables; add salt, sauté for some time, till taro starts turning golden by stirring it now and then. Add ginger paste. Stir a little. Add turmeric, stir and mix well. Add Cumin- and coriander paste/ powder, and just like before, stir and mix well. Add water. Add sugar. Cover and now make the flame small. Let it cook in low heat until the vegetables get tender. By then the gravy will also thicken. Serve with steamed rice or roti.

Begun Chachchorhi

Side dish

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Brinjal (begun, "eggplant") – 500 gm

Mustard paste – 3 tea-spoons 

Nigella – “black Caraway” (Kalo jeeray) – a pinch

Salt,

Sugar -- a pinch

Turmeric powder – half a tea-spoon

Mustard oil (or sun flower oil) – one tablespoon

Green chilies -- 2 small

Coriander leaves (shredded)

How to prepare:

Cut Brinjal into small pieces.

Heat oil. Add nigella and thinly sliced green chilies to it.

Add brinjal pieces. Add salt. Make the flame small. Cover. Let it cook till the brinjal becomes a little brown. Add turmeric. Stir well. Cover. Let it cook till the brinjal becomes soft. From now and then stir as the brinjal cooks.

Now, as the brinjal has become tender, add the mustard paste. Stir well so that it gets mixed well. Add coriander leaves. Cover and cook further for about 5 minutes. 

Serve with steamed rice.

  

Patisapta

The Famous Bengali Pan-Cake

Main ingredients:
Flour,
Semolina,
Milk,
Sugar,
Kheer (one can use grated coconut instead)
Sun flower oil
Important Note: In Bangla (Bengali language) "kheer" does not mean rice pudding but the thickened and sweetend cow milk. The Beangali synonym for what the rest of India calls "Kheer" is "Payes".

Soak semolina in milk for about half an hour. Mix flour and sugar very well to this mixture and make semi-liquid dough so that you can spread it over the pan. The ratio of semolina and flour should be 3::2.
I added a little cinnamon and cardamom into it. (It is Chrismas time after all!)

Put very little oil on the hot pan and spread it uniformly all over it.
Now add some dough on it and spread in a way so that it takes a circular shape. Add some kheer at one corner of it.

Then roll it. Patisapta is ready!

Luchi and Mangsho

I can't remember when I experienced luchi after I left West Bengal.
Luchi is a deep fried flatbread made of bleached wheat or maida and much more, much more than just something delicious to eat! Luchi means a puja (worship), a birthday clebration; luchi means a Sunday breakfast! When luchi is there, we know we are going to have payesh or halua and/or alur dom or mangso or alubhaja or chholar dal! Luchi is closely associated to festivity, to happy occasions! That is why I used "experience" instead of "eat" or "have".

In Germany I never prepared luchi or roti although I cooked for my friends often but always chose something I could cook fast, even though the preparation before cooking was long sometimes. Every time I had such a party, I wished if my sister could be there! So, I decided to cook chicken curry which was popular among my friends in India and abroad and luchi for dinner because my sister loves chicken and I missed luchi.

                                                               Luchi

                                             Murgir Mangsho: Chicken Curry
I bought sandesh and lal doi to have at the end. We, Bengalees, love sweets and our meals must end with some sweetness: madhureNa samapayet!

                                               Lal Mishti Doi and Sandesh
Not just in our food culture, the popular luchi has its well-desereved place in our literature as well.
Who among us doesn't feel nostalgic about the popular rhyme by Mohit Ghosh: "phulko luchi phulko luchi/ pet ta phule dhak/ phulko luchi phulko luchi/ peter bhitor phank!/ "?
But not all children can enjoy luchi since their parents cannot afford it. Examples are Apu and Durga, the young protagonists of "Panther Panchali" by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, another classic of Bangla (Bengali) literature: Apu felt happy seeing luchi on his plate as he accompanied his father to his disciples' house and sad too, at the same time, since he could not share it with her sister at home. Luchi is something they seldom had.

Pasta with Vegetables

Gesztenyepüré

Gesztenye means "chestnut" and püré is "puree".

This is my friend's favourite dessert. Even though I do not really have a sweet tooth, I too, had it.

It was good and not too sweet.