Lasuni Chicken (Garlic Chicken- Indian Ishtyle :D)

Hi All,

After a long sojourn for about a week, I'm back once more with another very simple recipe which is widely cooked in my house...... its not only the simplest possible chicken dish to cook, but incredibly tasty. And Lemme assure you that even you have never ever cooked anything beyond omlette or maggi can cook this dish; its soooo simple. So lets see what you need for the simplest of all dishes.

Ingredients -
                                                      Chicken   pieces                               ---- 500 gms (washed & cleaned)

Garlic Paste                       ---- 2 heaped tablespoon
                                                                 (fresh Garlic if you please)
Turmeric                                           ---- 1 teaspoon
Ginger Paste                                     ---- 1 tablespoon
Tomato Ketchup/ Sauce                   ----- 50 ml
Curd                                                 ----- 2 tablespoon
Chili Powder                                   ----- 1 tsp
Fresh Chopped Coriander leaves     ----- 1 cup
Salt                                                   ----- to taste
                                                      Oil ( any white oil)                              ----- 4 tablespoon

Baas, Ho Gaya.

Now what you need to take a container, mix all the ingredients EXCEPT the coriander leaves and put it aside for half an hour. After half an hour all you need to do is to

take a pressure cooker
put the oil in the cooker and heat it
once oil is heated, add the marinated chicken pieces with all the masala to the oil, mix it in the cooker with a ladle to coat the chicken mixture with oil ( do this in high heat)
add the chopped coriander on the chicken, mix it well
put the lid of the cooker on, wait till the steam forms
then lower the heat to medium and let it give a single whistle.
Switch off the heat and let it stand.
Open and enjoy with phulkas or rotis .

Lau Bata Chochhori (Grated Lauki -Bottle Gourd) ki Sabzi)

Hi, once again I am back with another simple dish of mine. Even this is one of the simplest and brilliantly tasty dish to make and have. When we talk to lauki, a lot of us are quite skeptical about making a real tasty as well as simple dish out of that. But may be after you try this dish of mine, your outlook towards the simple lauki will change for ever. And oh, the best thing about this dish is that you use the entire lauki with its skin. You shall not waste any part of it.

This dish will once again effectively prove that


"DESI COOKING IS EASY!!!!!" :D 


Lets Start......


For this dish which serves 4, you will need

1. 1 lauki - about 800 gms
2. a handful of green coriander (Cilantro)
3. 1 tsp + 1 tsp mustard seeds
4. 3-4 cloves of garlic
5. 2-3 green chilies
6. 2-3 dry red chilies
7. 2-3 tbsp white oil
8. salt to taste
9. 1-2 tsp sugar

How to make : 

• Wash and grate the lauki (fine grating preferred).
•  Put 1 tsp mustard+ the coriander leaves+ green chilies+ garlic+ a little salt in a grinder and grind to a rough paste.
• Heat the oil in a pan + add the remaining mustard seeds + the dry red chilies to the oil 
• let it splutter
• add the grated lauki + the ground masala 
• Mix well 
• Add required amount of salt (remember you have added a littel salt to the paste earlier)
• cover and cook over medium heat
• mix from time to time
• once the lauki is cooked, open the lid and cook over high flame till all water (released from the lauki evaporates.
• Sprinkle the sugar and mix well
• Serve with white rice.

Tel Chhara Ghugni ( Oil Free Wtite Peas' "Matar" Snack)

Hi there, I am back once more with another favourite of mine. Actually this was a signature dish of my Mom, and people loved it. and believe me, its cooked without a single drop of oil and tastes just great and even a child can cook it; its so simple to make.

Today we are all health conscious and try to avoid oily food or use less oil in our cooking; surprisingly 30 years back, my Mom used to make quite a few dishes almost without oil, which I am going to eventually share with you. What we are going to cook today is GHUGNI, another Bengali signature dish which you can find in all parts of Bengal in various forms, but the basic ingredient remains same, that is Sada Matar or Safed Matar or Safed Bawatana or Dried White Peas. As a general cooking process, they are soaked overnight and then boiled. Thereafter, they are cooked in a variety of spice combinations and with aromatics like onion, ginger and garlic etc. etc. And the variations are also great and very tempting too. Just thinking about some of them is making me drooooooool :P

We have mangsher ghugni ( mutton ghugni); keemar ghugni (minced meat ghugni); alu diye ghugni (ghugni with small pieces of potaoes), to mention a few. All of them are terribly tasty, but are cooked with lots of oil and spices. Of course I am going to share the recipes of all those too eventually. But today its time for some HEALTHY OIL FREE COOKING.

Oh, before I forget, that this Ghuni is essentially a snack, but we Bengalis eat them as a snack and times as a side dish too, particularly with phulkas (roti) and even with bread. It may surprise many of you and will make a lot of us nostalgic if I mention the Pauruti Ghugni ( Bread & Ghugni) tha's available even today in a lot of Kolkata & Bengal's Chai ki tapri or road side tea stalls :)

Now for the recipe of THE GHUGNI.......
Serves 4-6

What you need is

1. Safed Matar - 500 g
2. A few Slivers of Coconut (optional)
3. 2 inch pc of ginger ( make a paste or grate it finely; either will do)

4. A few whole dry red chili or chili flakes if you dont want the trouble
5. Whole jeera (cumin)
6. Green Cardamom (chhoti elachi)- 1 pc
7. Cloves ( Laung)- 3-4
8. Cinnamon (Dalchini) - 1 small pc.
 9. Salt to taste

And for Garnishing you need

 10. Chopped onion
11. Chopped Green Chilies - to tas

12. Chopped Coriander (Cilantro to a lot of you)
13. Lime/ Lemon Jiuce
14. Black Salt Powder

Method is very simple :

•  Soak the Matar overnight or for atleast 8 hours. 

• Then wash them and put them in a pressure cooker, cover with water,
•  add salt (keep the level of salt low as we are going to season the Ghugni with Black Salt too before serving ).
• Add the Coconut slivers
• Add the juice of the ginger (that you have made a paste or kept grated) by squeezing or pressing it between your hands, or you can use a strainer and press the juice out.
• Put the lid and pressure cook it. If you are using a large pressure cooker, then wait till the 1st whistle at medium high heat and if you are using a small pressure cooker, then two whistles on medium low heat. Anyways, you will perfect it once you try it a few times.
• The peas should be well cooked but should not be too mushy. ( you should be able to identify them as peas.... :D)
• While the peas are getting cooked, don't sit idle dear. What you do during that time is that..... dry roast the dry chilies ( put them in a fry pan on a slow heat and roast them till they become crisp and start releasing their pungent smell and you start coughing :(
• then take the chilies out, let them cool and dry roast the jeera and elachi-laung-dalchini togather. Cool them and then gring them roughly.
• Do the same with the roasted chili also - i mean grind them roughly. ( if you are having chili flakes, then forget the chili roasting phase - you are lucky :)
• One this is done, your main worry is over. The rest is simple assembly only.

Assembly :

•    Take out the boiled Matar in a pan
•    Add the Roasted Chili Powder and the Jeera-elachi-laung-dalchini powder
•    mix well

 For serving, put them in individual katories or plates, sprinkle chooped onion, dhania, green chili, black slat and lime/lemon juice.

 Ummmmmmmm.........................Enjoy..... and tell me how was it.

                  

Subharambh...........

Another Cooking Blog????? Oh noooooooo!!! Pardon us pleeeeease......... 

Despite knowing that this will be the reaction of all those who may accidentally come across my blog never-the -less the ever optimist me started off with this venture, inspired and supported by a handful of friends who have complete confidence in me ( rather in my cooking) as even after making  Guinea-pigs  of them they have not only survived, but went ahead to encourage me to take this plunge. 

This space of mine is dedicated to those who are away from home, miss "Ma ka Khana" or "Mayer Hater Ranna" and are ready to burn there fingers a little in the process of becoming expert cooks themselves without much of a sweat (really; I mean it!! :)) 

I am an avid cook myself and am always looking for authentic recipes to cook and share. I accept that there are variations and options, but what goes on in the name of Authentic Indian food most of the times got me thinking.... and hence this Blog inspired by a host of friends, with whom I share my food. One more thing which I  have observed is that anything goes in the name of Bengali cuisine. I have found that the notion of most people when it comes to Bengali Cuisine is that of "Machher Jhol & Bhat" and Bengali Sweets. But let me tell you that the range vegetarian dishes cooked in a Bengali house is truly awesome and never-ending but simple to cook.

So here I am, a crusader for Indian food and particularly Bengali cuisine who shall try to bring to you the recipes that I have learnt in the past 20 years from Mothers, Grandmothers and the likes. What I can vouch for is the authenticity of each of the recipes as I have learnt them not from any restaurant cook, but from the homes of my friends, associates et al and I have made each of them and tried them out.

I shall end today's post with a sweet dish, though we bengalis start our food with something salty or spicy and preofer to end it with sweets, here I am breaking tradition and start with a sweet dish as I agree with the Cadbury Ad whcih says " pahle kuchh mitha ho jaye " :)

Kacha Aam & Phaler Chatni ( Green Mango and Fruit Chatni)

This is a very simple recipe that tastes awesome. All you need is

1 green mango

1 ripe but firm mango 

1/2 aanar or bedana ( pomegranate)

a handful of Kismis (raisin)

250 grams of sugar

1 komlalebu (orange)

1-2 drops of green mango essence

and that should be good for 4-6 people at least.

Once you have collected these items lets start off with the cooking. To make things fast, we shall multitask (or rather multicook). The entire process (preparation & cooking) should not take more than 20-25 mins.

1 - take a heavy bottomed pan and pour the sugar in it.

2- take 300 ml of water and pour on the sugar.

3- put the pan on boil and stir  the sugar. Once the sugar starts getting dissolved, reduce the heat and start  

    with the rest of the process.

4- peel the green mango and dice it in cubes (1/2 inch cubes should be good)

5- peel the ripe mango and do as above

6 - separate the inner of pomegranate and take out the pink/ red seeds 

7 - peel the orange take out the segments and cut them in small pieces.

Now we are ready for the rest. Once you see your sugar syrup boiling, and its has thickened a bit take a little in a spoon, cool it and check the thickness. When you see it's syrupy in consistency ( when you take a little between your two fingers it will be sticky) then add all the raw mango to the boiling sugar syrup. Let it boil for sometime (about 5 mins). Then take out 1-2 pcs of mango and check them. If you see that they have softened a bit, switch off the heat and let it cool. 

Once cool,add the essence, all the fruits to the mixture, lightly mix them and put it in the refrigerator. Keep it for at least 3-4 hours before serving so that all the flavours gets infused in the chatni. And remember, this chatni tastes best when cold.

(a tip: it tastes awesome if kept in the fridge overnight). So you see, its so simple to make, no spices needed; and how it tastes........ well make it yourself and let me know :)