Merry Christmas Everyone.
Hope your day is filled with family time, fruitcakes and good food.
Be Cozy and enjoy...
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Often while I take my clients on market trips in Kolkata I tell them how thrift and foraging have always been a part of Bengali cuisine. But 'Always' is a big time span and I never was sure if this trend really existed in our style of cooking and if not, then when and why this desire of using scraps and peels of veggies and other ingredients came into existence.
Because of the fertile Gangetic plain Bengal always was the land of abundance and had a huge repertoire of plant based recipes. The narratives in the MAngal Kavya written during the time between 13th and 18th century has many citation of its rich heritage of vegetarian cooking. Later the Vaishnvaites and widows developed it further. Sometimes out of need and sometimes out of their mastery they created dishes that were as good and sometimes better than their non veg counter part.
It's amazing how smell can bring back much more than long lost memories. Often some scent on the road, fragrance of a specific flower or aroma of a dish makes us relive some old memory, it takes us right back to that moment. The feeling, the sound, the emotions just the way we felt at that very moment.
When Strawberries are in season you need to make something with them...well that's an assumption my kids always make. Every week when we go to the grocer, invariably 2 boxes of these ruby red fruit will come home. from their morning cereal to evening fruit bowl they just love to have a few pieces of it.
On the contrary the elders in the family are not very fond of the super tart taste of the Indian variety. Every time I make something they will pick out the fruit and give it to the kids. so this time I decided to make something that will not only complement the tartness rather make it indispensable. And this time also wanted to make a dish that does not need an oven or OTG. For all those readers who wanted something super simple, something that both kids and bigs can enjoy and something that is so so gorgeous that it could easily be the talk of your dinner table...let me introduce you to my no bake strawberry Tart.
After you finish gawking at it's prettiness do note down the recipe and make it to surprise your family.
The secret behind restaurant food is a few basic pre-made sauces. My brother who is a trained chef told me this many moons ago but I never tried until a couple of years ago.
We love to eat out and experiment, for which most times we do not opt for Indian restaurant. Rather we look for new joints serving world cuisine. but this rule does not stand when there is a good Dhaba in vicinity and no matter how much we convince ourselves everytime we are in a Dhaba we end up ordering a few favourites and this dry alu gobi dish always always tops the list.
There is something about winter that brings in some urgency in me to nest. I know, I know NEsting is associated with pregnancy and before you jump into any other conclusion let me make it very clear that am not expecting....not in my wildest dream would I dare to add one more candidate to this existing group of rioters.
So it's really about winter, really about the need to feel cozy and warm within your own home, that every year makes me yearn to tidy up, declutter and arrange my little apartment. and frankly I meticulously did it every year before the second child happened. I used to neatly pack the summer clothes and sun the winter woolens. Would display flowers in every corner and decorate the house with bright furnishings and colourful cushions...but not any more.
What is Fall without a few pumpkin recipes? Right?
Wrong. For us Bengalis pumpkin is a vegetable that is enjoyed year around. especially during the summer days when the most of the veggies cannot stand the scorching heat or the waterlogged months of monsoons, when most plants wilt due to root rot...pumpkin and it's close cousin bottle gourd grow bravely.
There were numerous times in my past when in our drought prone town of Santiniketan, most plants could not withstand the heat and withered yet we could still harvest pumpkins and bottle gourds almost every week. For us Bengalis it's a big source of leafy greens.
My kids are at a very impressionable age. Especially my three and half years old daughter. She loves watching cartoons and picks up things that catches her fancy, which means only two things. First, every now and then she comes running to us, points to a certain things and asks, 'will you please get me one of these?'. That's not hard as with time we have realised we can just smile and say Yes to make her happy. But the second part is little hard. Her demand to celebrate Western festivals the way her favourite cartoon characters do.
So for Christmas, she asks for cookies, milk for Santa and a big blingy tree. Which again was easy as following her big brother's demand we already had that at home. But I find myself totally clueless when she asks to celebrate Thanksgiving or Halloween. No one around me has ever done that and am just not sure what to do.
No self respecting Indian restaurant, anywhere in the World would miss out on having chicken tikka or butter masala on their menu. It might be frustrating and crib worthy for us Indian but in reality, anywhere in the World this will win hands-down as the most popular and loved Indian dish.
Happy Diwali everyone. May you all be blessed with a wonderful time with your family..May peace and wisdom Take over all evil through out the World.
Here is one of my favourite dessert, the rich, gritty, indulging Phirni , a must have for all Mughlai cuisine lovers. Being in Kolkata means you get to see a simpler form of Phirni everywhere. This does not have any nuts or other expensive ingredients but just plain unadulterated full fat milk, sugar and rice...thickened down over time, stirred with oodles of patience and finally flavoured with some green cardamom. But love you must have, to prepare this dish... because it's only love has that immense power to transform some simple pantry staples to such a rich fit for the king dessert.
Being the firm believer of 'Homemade is Best'...I though prefer to make them at home most times. That way you have complete control over the quality of the dish.
While I sit and write this I can hear many crackers bursting behind the verandah. Diwali, the biggest festival of India is certainly upon us. While most of you are busy prepping for snacks and sweets for the coming festivities I am yet to gather enough energy to start making some. There is something about Diwali, the hangover and guilt pangs of over indulging from Durga puja, The shortest holiday break and between exams in school, it makes you little skeptical to go overboard with these fried stuffs. But unless you start making them you really do not get the feel of the festivities.
This recipe of cocktail samosa is a regular one for my family. Whenever I get time I make a batch of The samosa skins or more commonly known as pattis. In Kolkata we are not lucky enough to get readymade samosa pattis or phyllo pattis so we have to make them. These are good for making spring rolls as well.
This recipe has three parts, Making the skin, making the filling and finally filling and shaping and frying. Hopefully my long term plan of making videos would be soon materialised to make a detailed post for this but if you follow my step by step instruction here, you would be fine.
I grew up in Santiniketan, an University town where most of the schools and colleges were residential. Every year when Monsoon will slowly make way to a clearer sky and white fluffy clouds will come floating, my friends living in the hostels would yearn to go home.
Nearing to Puja Maa would make a trip to Kolkata to bring us new dresses and in class we would start rehearsing for Autumn Drama Festival 'Sharodotsav'. Our evening cycle trip to Kopai, a small river outside the main town with it's banks covered in white pillowy Kashful will make us believe...pujo asche (durga puja is NEaring).
Santiniketan during any vacation means a very sad place, an unusual quietness taking over the otherwise busy university life. With all the students gone home, lesser tourists the streets would be empty of the usual cycles and rikshaws. As if to escape the loneliness, evening would come early making the uncanny silence take over the vast grounds and surroundings. The yellow street lights would flicker glumly making the shadows of the age old trees grow deep, dark and mysterious. The shops will close much earlier than usual and by late evening the small university town of ours would feel like midnight.
Sorry for being MIA for sometime. First the Sonny boy's half terms kept me busy and then had to travel all the way to home at Santuniketan for the arrival of the littlest bundle of joy-my Nephew. His arrival kept my hands and heart full. We returned a couple of days back, just in time to clean the house and prep for Durga Puja.
Thank you to all of you who mailed and messaged me to inquire about my whereabouts and asked for recipes. sorry again for not being able to answer in time. Hopefully now will be able to post the recipes you have requested for one by one.
Today am posting this delectable recipe of Bangladeshi Chicken Roast, A scrumptious, creamy, nutty, delightful gravy with big juicy pieces of chicken thighs in it. It's a staple at home whenever we need some pick me up without going overboard with cream, ghee or spices, we cook this.
I first tasted it long back in my childhood when maa's Bangladeshi friends from Santiniketna art college used to claim our kitchen on holidays and prepare a feast. I was very small then and it never crossed my mind to write down the recipe but Maa did. Many moons later, few years back when fellow blogger Archita cooked this dish for a fun competition and I was going gaga about how awesome it looks, Maa smiled and took out the hand written recipe for me to copy. Over Time I saw more recipes and tweaked it here and there.
South Indian roast recipes are one of my favourite ones. These dry, stir fry dishes are spicy and hearty and can pep up any meal within minutes. For me they are the perfect pick me up meal options on a grey, gloomy day like today when the overcast sky somehow makes you lazy yet you crave something spicy and comforting.
The hidden gem of Bangladeshi cuisine for me is not the Hilsa dishes or the Pitha rather this humble side dish of mash called Bhorta. Though in both Epar and Opar Bangla (West Bengal and Bangladesh) we speak the same language, crazy about our fish and rice and share the same sentiment when it comes to literature, cinema, art and craft but our cuisine somehwere is significantly different.
If you look into a Bengali thali you will find the rice is always placed on the left side with myriad types of fries, fritters, curries, boiled or fried mash of veggies or fish or sundried lentils, salt, chillies, wedge of lime and ghee on the right. The right bottom corner is generally left empty for the eater to mix his rice with the curries. I believe both Ghoti and Bangal cuisine follow the same norm but our plates completely miss these small mounds of bhortas the way Bangal's do it. They have a huge repertoire of bhortas or shiley bata as known in local language (ground in mortar and pestle) and can turn almost anything into a semi dry mash that brings your tastebuds alive with it's heavy handed use of chilies and mustard oil.
Age does queer things to us. It makes us do or like things that we never thought possible. otherwise I don't know how to explain the recent changes in my behaviour. I am pretty sure that it's age that makes me choose everything comforting or comfortable over all things fancy. That's true for almost everything. I now a days choose my cotton handloom sarees over fitted dress any day, in the hot and humid Kolkata weather I love my hair in a bun or plait than letting them down, have long ditched those heels which till a few years back I could not live without.
Before it's too late and raw mangoes completely disappear from the market for a year let me post this recipe. This grated mango and black chickpea pickle is the real thing. It's spicy, it's sour and so very good, just perfect with almost everything. Be it Roti, paratha or plain Dal chawal, the tangy bite from the chickpeas definitely pushes any meal a few notch higher.
Every year when I get invitation from Gateway Kolkata to attend their Hilsa festival preview I feel giddy. For many reasons I have stopped doing restaurant reviews as a blogger but this is one place where I love to go both personally and professionally and be amazed with their great food and hospitality again and again.
The mastermind behind any food festival at Gateway is, Chef Ashish. He has a penchant for experimenting with an acumen for marketing. It's his pure love for food that he has the courage to bring his experiments on table for taste testing. This year again he brought out something new, some he created with his kitchen wizardy and some he curated from the forgotten bylanes of Epar and Opar Bangla (Bangladesh and West Bengal).
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| Paturi |
The menu could be best described as a mix of Ghoti and Bengali style recipes with a couple of North Indian and continental flavours to cater to all taste buds.
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| Dhakai Ilish |
Clafoutis is a French baked dessert, quite rustic and homely in its baking but very satisfying to have as a light dessert. Light because it generally does not involve much fat and are always made with some stone fruit that adds to the sweetness and the flavour. In rural France this is often made with unpitted cherries which a slight bitterness and an almond like flavour to it, but pitted cherries definitely adds to a smooth mouth-feel which is preferred for desserts.
My Daughter is very happy these days. Ever since the driver left job to go to his native village she is very excited. Both the kids do not like car rides rather they prefer to commute on public transport. My son's joy breaks all bounds every time he makes me agree to ride a bus. Same with the daughter, her favourites are Auto rikshaw and rikshaw.
Since her play school is just 5 minutes ride from home, now a days I am picking her up in a rikshaw and everyday after school when her eyes fall on the waiting rikshaw outside the gate she starts jumping with joy. her joy is so infectious that even the Riksha pullaer or commonly known as rikshaw wallas starts smiling at her. Everyday she tries to persuade me to sell our cars and buy a Rikshaw for her to ride all day long. and every day I argue with her saying Baba has to go to office and we do not have anyone to pull the rikshaw. but am pretty sure soon she will ask her grandpa and brother to do the job for her.
No wonder I again decided to make it for Eid lunch this year. I was running very bsuy with my cooking Demo and and full fledged meal planning for my clients and had every intention to put my feet up for the long weekend. and thats exactly what I did. Just got out of my lazy cocoon on Minday late morning and whipped up this delicacy under 2 hours.
As promised here is one more recipe with Chichinge or Snake gourd.
This is one of my mother's loved recipe and like her while cooking it I dont follow any rule. Though this recipe has prawns, coconut and teeny tiny amount of mustard paste but you can change it as per availability or choice. Somedays I just cook it with a tempering of nigella seeds and green chillies and finish off with a drizzle of mustard oil and it still is the flavour bomb.
So feel free. If you are vegetarian omit prawn and cook with coconut and mustard. If you dont like coconut then just dont add...it's very versatile yet yummy.
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Everyday cooking, lately there is a lot of fuss around it. I have been hearing a lot about how time consuming, tiring and intimidating it is and whenever I have tried to argue, I have been dismissed by saying many things. Trust me I cook not only because I love to but mainly because I care.
And with little organising and planning it is very easy to whip up a simple, nourishing meal for your family. On a daily basis I try and experiment to bring in variation and do not do elaborate dishes unless and untill guests are involved. There is no rule, nothing is right or wrong. Good food comes in all textures and colours and but best one is the one that has been prepared with fresh, local and seasonal produce with lots of love and care, preferably following our own regianal recipes. which are precious ancient wisdom, that has been tested by time and have been prepared with lots of thought to suit our climate, body type and values.
For example this humble Chichinge or Snake gourd. It's an native to Indian continent and lesser known in the West. There was a time when people would buy and cook them regularly during summer. But now in the cities unless and until you are a cooking enthusiast they don't get any place in the weekly grocery bag. But this humble vegetable has a significant amount of fiber, vitamin and other nutrients.
Today my mind is foggy and the weather is gloomy...It's going to be a long night it seems and I just wanted to come to my blog for some comfort without saying anything.
So here it goes a simple recipe of Mourola macher jhuri or batter fried crispy Indian Carplet/ Indian anchovy. This is how my maa used to make it and it's perfect to start your kids on eating small fish.
As we all know small fish which are eaten whole with head and bones are packed with calcium and iron but it is extremely beneficial for small kids. It provides a rare source of micro-nutrient and essential fatty acid that is very important for health and survival of growing kids. Nutrients such as Vitamin A, Z and omega 3 fatty acids play an important role in brain development and micro-nutrients found in these small fishes especially Indian carplet is much more higher than in any other animal source foods.
It's always difficult to fall back on routine after a long vacation. I know am being MIA for quite sometime but I can totally attribute that to our long ailments. Which this time were really nasty. Someday we were not even able to get up from the bed. Our Immunity was at the lowest and so was our positive attitude.
Thank God to this fortnight of vacation in Bangalore that refreshed us. We loved every minute of it. Especially meeting friends and our small weekend trips. Though the traffic in Bangalore is absolutely killing but we truly enjoyed going out and eating at some of Bangalore's finest restaurants.
Though I thought of cooking and clicking a lot of picture while I was there but in reality nothing happened. I just cooked enough to sustain us and then just lazed around with a book and kettles of tea. The weather there was to die for and almost everyday we went swimming in the evening and then slept like babies till late morning. Poor Husband had office though and with the three of us sleeping so late he often had to scour the fridge for breakfast.
Remember that movie three idiots where drunken Kareena says to Amir Khan, tum Gujarati logo ka khana itna khatarnak kyon hota hai???? Dhokla, Fafda, handva, thepla...aise lagta hai jaise koi missiles hai ..." (why does the name of Gujarati food sound like dangerous weapons? Dhokla, Fafda, Handva, Thepla...sounds not like food but missiles).
Exactly my thought. I love Gujarati food especially their elaborate platters but the names always bring a smile on my face. while we were growing up we only heard of Dhokla, that quintessential sweet shop staple for breakfast. Yellow spongy squares of steamed gram flour batter soaked with a salty sweet spicy syrup and sprinkled with coconut and not so fiery fried green chillies. Seriously I can survive on this snack with some hot tea. but now with the globe opening up and people being interested in various cuisines more of Gujarati food are coming into limelight and more such names are being familiar. and I don't see anyone complaining.
It's Giveaway time friends.
My blog A Homemaker's Diary will soon complete 9 years in this bloggy world and to celebrate that I am here with a few Giveaway.
The first one is this set of two beautiful hand embroidered cushion covers from our Kantha Boutique Suryabartta.
In return all you have to do is
1. share your fondest food memory with me and
2. like my instagram page here
OR my Facebook page here
To do so You can leave a comment here or Mail me to ahomemakersdiary@yahoo.in.
Last Date 15th April'2017
Hope you all had a wonderful Holi celebration this year!
Ours was not that good and both hubby and I laid in bed and watched the festival of fun and frolic around colour go by. Yes both of us were down with Chicken pox after the daughter and thank God the Doctor this morning announced us completely healed. It was a complete nightmare as somehow we were very scared of this contagious disease and sent baba and the sonny boy to My brother's at the earliest possible. Even released the house helps in the fear that they might catch the bug. At the end it was just us managing the house and the little one.
Recipe writing is not easy. You got to trust me on that.
Accurately measuring each and every ingredient is difficult but more difficult is to find an englisg name for every recipe.
Especially Bengali recipes. Where we use so many methods of cooking that calling every dish a 'curry' just doesnot seem right.
As a kid we used to joke about how simple everyday recipes would sound gourmet when translated in English. simple Alu seddho, a homey dish when becomes mashed potato with virgin mustard oil sounds so posh and upmarket. but when it comes to true representation of the dish it needs a rather deep understanding to name it in English.
For example this bati charchari dish which is nothing but all ingredients mixed and cooked on very very low heat. What will you call it? It definitely not is a gravy dish, nor a steamed one or sauteed. This is a lazy dish where everything is mixed and cooked on slow fire. For some reason I associate such recipes to the women of the household.
Growing up I have seen the hustle and bustle of a traditional joint kitchen. Ours was a family of eighteen with additional live in maids and servants. The men of our family worked in the service sector, some Govt. servants some school teachers and all of them had to go out by 10 to attend to their work. Unlike other cultures we Bengalis strongly believe in having our macher jhol bhat before we head out of home for the day. So morning was the most busy time.
After a round of Cha and Muri for breakfast ( tea and puffed rice) The ladies will engage themselves to serve lunch on time. The day's veggie and fish will come home early in the morning and cutting veggies, washing fish, grinding fresh spices will take quite some time. Mother, grand mother, aunts all would share the job. so while on one stove the rice would bubble, on the other stove someone will prepare the spices for fish curry, one will pack snack box for the kids and other will arrange the table for the meal. It was busy yet functioned on some unique harmony.
It's that time of the year again when the weather is more whimsical than me during my PMS. Somedays it's warm beyond reason and makes us feel is it summer already in February but come morning the nip in the air makes you cold. As a result the kids are taking turn in bringing home some unwanted bugs.
First it was the daughter who came down with a bacterial infection similar to chicken pox. She had blisters allover her body and scalp without fever or body ache. Now that she is recovering Friday son came home with high fever and headache. On such days I dont feel like doing anything as there's nothing more heart breaking than to see your child suffer. Glad that they are small and are easily cheered on. A batch of cookies here and some drawing sessions there make them happy. and when their smile comes back I am assured that there's everything right with this World.
Having said that one thing that is naggingly worries me these days is this sudden changes in weather. Even five years back there were clear demarcations of weather. Spring came with full glory with a very pleasant weather and colours everywhere. Now not even winter stays for more than a couple of months that too has become so warm. Global Warming definitely is a reality, the quickly we recognize that the better.
The recipe that am sharing today has nothing to do with it. but the fact that with growing urbanisation these fruits might soon become a distant reality makes me sad. Also this year when I first saw them in the market I had this strange urge to make the pickle. I never had made it before as it was Maa who would make it year after year for us. She would ask her artisans to book trees so that when the fruits ripen she could take them home and make big batches of pickle to give to everyone in the family.
But not this year.
With a small bottle of her pickle still on the shelf I knew I had to make it.
I knew I needed to get it right.
So here it is, her simple recipe but without the magic of her hands. I wish I could recreate that...
Somethings in life do not need any introduction and that fits very well for this recipe. Macher chop or Fish croquet is one of the favourite snacks of Bengalis as it combines their love for fish and deep fries in one dish. These little croquet are made out of spiced fish and is coated in bred crumb for a crisp outer coating. It is said that these mighty chops were invented by some innovative cook serving to the British officials.
Kolkata, the city of joy is a mystery to many but I have a love hate relationship with this city. As a child I was awestruck with this city's splendour and glamour. Everytime we would visit from our small sleepy university town, the grandeour of the city with it's neon lights and big roads would mesmerise me. I will look at the building with big eyes from our car window and would think for hours about the kind of people who get to live there.
then adulthood happened and I moved cities to realise how dirty, clumsy, chaotic this city is. In Delhi I found solace in its queer quiteness of some areas and throbbing pulse at others. Later I was happy to settle in the modern and urbane Bangalore and when again I had to move back to Kolkata I could not wait to flee...
Now almost 6 years in the city and finally I can see it's hidden beauty, the very heart that beats in all its chaos and noise. It's not about the old houses, it's pompous history or the unique heritage of art and craft...Kolkata is special for its simplicity...the way it invites and absorbs every stranger...the way it is eager to make you a part of its own unique culture...yet the way it lets you be who you are...
Kolkata is pure magic.
and this is where I belong...
Chutney Pickle n Preserves
Gajar Gobi Shalgum Achaar (pickled Cauliflower, Turnip and carrots)
11:27 AM
Before shifting to Delhi I had no idea about the following three things. that parathas could be made with whole wheat flour, pickles could be made with vegetables and Parathas could be eaten on its own. I vividly remember the first time I was served paratha without any sabzi (curry). For me it was unfathomable. How could one eat a dry parathas without some wet curries!!! Back home our triangular paratha breakfast would always always be accompanied with some alur dom and I expected the same when after a hectic day of factory visit ordered some paratha for dinner.
I was residing in a hostel then, a hostel which was built on a facility started by an Ex Army Colonel, who totally wanted the building look like an Army barack with concrete bunk beds and no hot water even in Delhi's peak colder months. The appointed Ladies hostel warden served his mentality who we used to call Lady Hitler. She would not fumble a bit to fire an MBA student if we even went to our next room after the class. The facility of the ladies hostel, the behavious of the stuff and the food was pathetic to say the least but we tried to cope and devised some tricks to make our life easier. One of them was to get food delivered by the boys living in the adjacent building. There was a twi story hige brick wall that separated the two building. But there was a secret hole in that wall, a lose brick which only the student knew.
Sizzler, the once alien food to many is now a star in almost all good dining facilties. Especially in Winter when the air is redolent with the smell of fresh Komlalebu, comforting Boroline and that quintessential caramely aroma of Nolen gur we crave something sizzling hot. Something that will match the heavy thick air around us and make us feel comfortable. So what if the temperature never falls below 12C in Kolkata. We need to enjoy our short lived winter with as much winter specials as we can fit in the few days.
So when the invitation from Gateway Kolkata came to KFB, I was more than happy to say yes. Not only because I dint have any sizzler this year but also because I am a sucker of Gateway's Executive Chef Ashis's food. He never ever fails to amaze us with his trade.
The sizzler festival at Buzz, Taj, Gateway is on till 2nd February'17 as an A la Carte Menu. Available for both Lunch and Dinner.
For booking please call
The menu is as exciting as it could get. Neither I have heard of Southern chicken sizzler or Sheesh Touk sizzler. The platters were as exciting as their amazing taste. We were bowled over by the Kathal ke Gelawat sizzler platter and the Roasted potato with stuffed cottage cheese sizzler that they served in the Vegetarian section. All the sizzler platters came with some Jalapeno rice and their in house multigrain bread which was so very good that you can even finish the meal with that.
So when the invitation from Gateway Kolkata came to KFB, I was more than happy to say yes. Not only because I dint have any sizzler this year but also because I am a sucker of Gateway's Executive Chef Ashis's food. He never ever fails to amaze us with his trade.
The sizzler festival at Buzz, Taj, Gateway is on till 2nd February'17 as an A la Carte Menu. Available for both Lunch and Dinner.
For booking please call
The menu is as exciting as it could get. Neither I have heard of Southern chicken sizzler or Sheesh Touk sizzler. The platters were as exciting as their amazing taste. We were bowled over by the Kathal ke Gelawat sizzler platter and the Roasted potato with stuffed cottage cheese sizzler that they served in the Vegetarian section. All the sizzler platters came with some Jalapeno rice and their in house multigrain bread which was so very good that you can even finish the meal with that.
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| Roasted Potato with cottage cheese Sizzler platter |
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