Cardamom Flavoured Shreekhand with Mango bites

S had a craving for shreekhand, upon his request I was all set to make the good old shreekhand, the way my mom makes it. I was a bit tempted to make aamkhand but stuck to usual plain shreekhand but added a zing to it by serving it with ripe mango chopped finely.

Ingredients:

1 litre milk
1-2 tsp curd/buttermilk/juice of half a lemon
4-5 tbsp sugar

3/4th tsp cardamom powder
1 small ripe mango, peeled and finely chopped
A generous pinch of saffron soaked in 1-2 tbsp milk
2-3 tbsp chopped nuts ( I used almonds)

Method:
Boil the milk and set it aside to cool.
Add 1-2 tsp curd/buttermilk/lemon juice to the milk when it is tepid, stir gently cover and leave it for 5-6 hours undisturbed.
After the milk has curdled, pour it on to a muslin cloth, tie it up and hang it for 6-7 hours. By doing this all the whey from the curdled milk drips down and you are left with thick cheesy residue.
Transfer the cheesy curd to a bowl add sugar, saffron infused milk, cardamom powder, and mix thoroughly (you could use a hand blender) to get a smooth texture.
Check for the sweetness and adjust the sugar according to your taste.
If the shreekhand is very thick add a spoon or two of cold milk mix well.
Refrigerate and serve chilled garnished with nuts and mango pieces.

P.S: Friends I’m taking a short break of about a week. Wouldn’t be able to visit your blogs and leave a comment during the break. I will surely try to catch up with all the lovely recipe posts that I’ve missed. Enjoy and Happy Blogging :)

Doi Potol and something to share...

Bengali’s love potol, English name for which is Pointed gourd. Since the potol aloo combination is a common sight in most of the Bengali households, I guess Bengali’s favourite side dish is aloo potoler tarkari ;)(potato and pointed gourd stir fry) Being a non-Bengali I wasn’t knowing about the existence of this adorable vegetable, I was familiarized with this member of the gourd family by S.
Last evening I picked up a packet of fresh Potol and wanted to make something different from the usual. Upon googling I came across this fantastic webpage created by Sutupa Ray, All Bengali’s and non-Bengali would love this :) coz it’s an ocean of Bengali recipes and much more. A big hug and even bigger Thanks to Sutapa for this wonderful one stop web page. Here’s the link check it out.

http://sutapa.com/

I got the recipe for Doi Potol from one of the sited blogs at Sutapa’s page. I have made very negligible changes in the original recipe. The original recipe calls for ground ginger, I used ginger garlic paste and the powders and spices a wee..bit more than the actual measures.
Next the peeling method, it calls for fully peeled Potols with a slit on either edge. Instead I peeled each potol half inch apart and then slit the edges. I came across this peeling tip at Indranis blog Appayan, to get a clear picture here’s the link
http://indranid.blogspot.com/2009/04/aloo-potoler-tarkaripotato-parwal-curry.html
Thanks for the tip Indrani I was dying to try it out :)
Now for the recipe:

Ingredients: 250 Gms Potol/ Pointed gourd
¾ cup curd, whisked
½ tsp red chilli powder (I used Kashmiri mirch powder)
½ tsp turmeric powder
3 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin leaves
Salt and sugar to taste
Pinch of asafoetida
2 tbsp ghee (I skipped this one)
4 tbsp oil

Dry Grinding:
4 green cardamoms
4 sticks of cinnamon
*Grind these two ingredients to a fine powder and set it aside

Method:
Wash and clean the potol
Peel it and make ½” slit at both ends (do not cut them into halves).
Rinse them in running water and drain.
Heat 2and ½ tbsp oil in a Kadhai and fry the potol one by one and set it aside. (DO NOT USE THE SAME OIL) discard the used oil; wipe the Kadhai with a kitchen towel/tissue.
Heat 1 and 1/2 tbsp oil in the Kadhai add 1 tbsp ghee (I gave it a miss) bay leaf, asafoetida, cumin seeds sauté for a minute.
Add ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, salt, chilli powder. Fry the spices.
Keeping the flame low add curd,potol, sugar and sprinkle some water cook uncovered for 5-6 minutes stirring occasionally.
Taste and adjust the salt and sugar accordingly.
Add ghee(I gave it a miss) and ground dry garam masala, mix so that the masala coats the vegetable evenly.
Cook till done.
Serve hot with rice or roti.

P.S: This dish comes very close to Doi Mach (fish in yogurt gravy) in taste, so I loved every bite and morsel of it :)

Wheat Flour Veggie Dosa

Wheatflour dosas usually have a mix of one or two other kinds of flours which goes in to make the batter. Here is the recipe with a difference. This dosa is made with just plain wheat flour (atta) and some veggies thrown in here and there. I was a bit doubtful, whether the batter would be too thin and would get stuck to the tava/ dosa pan. It worked out just perfect. S and I loved the taste of it. One thing that has to be taken care while pouring the batter on to the tava is DO NOT Spread the batter like the regular dosas, instead pour it like u do the pan cake batter, and spread it just a little ..
Here’s the recipe for Wheat dosa.

Ingredients:

1 cup Whole Wheat flour
1 medium carrot, grated
2-3 tbsp spinach, finely chopped
1 medium tomato, deseeded, finely chopped
1 green chilli, minced
½” piece ginger, grated
2 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped
Salt to taste

pinch of sugar (optional)
Oil for frying

Method:

In a mixing bowl mix all the ingredients with just enough water to make the batter a little more liquidy (thinner) than the normal dosa batter.

Heat a tava/dosa pan preferably non-stick pan, using your finger tips sprinkle some water on it, once the water begins to evaporate pour a ladle of batter and slightly and lightly spread in circular motion in the centre of the poured batter.

Dot the dosa with oil around its rim close and cook it for a few minutes. Check for the doneness by lifting the dosa slightly with the spatula.

Once it is nicely browned, flip it over to the other side and cook it in the same manner.
Repeat the same method for the remaining batter.
Serve the wheat flour dosa with chutney,pickle or side dish of your choice. It tastes brilliant with plain curd too :)

Banana Pancakes and an Award

Banana is such a wonderful tasting fruit and I love it's flavour in desserts and cakes. I had come across the recipe of Banana pancakes in one of the issues of Good House Keeping, I had it earmarked that moment itself and have made it a couple of times. But with oats coming into picture the pancakes and other breakfast dishes were totally sidelined :)

The other day I was looking for a particular recipe in my book shelf ...I restumbled into the Banana pancake recipe. And Lo! like an old craving which sets in I was longing to have them right away. That's when I decided to make it for breakfast on Sunday. I made it for breakfast yesterday and yum yum......should I say more :) here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup flour

3-4 tbsp caster sugar/sugar powder

1 cup milk

1/2 cup yogurt/sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1-2 large bananas , pureed

50 g unsalted butter

salt to taste

Method:

1. Sift together flour,sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. Whisk together milk, yogurt, eggs, vanilla essence,banana and lemon zest. Add wet ingedients to dry ones. Mixing only until just combined. Don't over do it.

3. In a large non-stick frying pan, melt 1 tbsp butter on medium-low flame heat until it bubbles.

4. Pour about 1/4 cup of pancake batter . cook 2-3 minutes until bubbles appear on top and underside is nicely browned. Flip and cook on the other side until golden brown.

5. Wipe pan with paper towel/tissue, add more butter to the pan and continue cooking pancakes until all batter is used up.

6. If you are feeling more indulgent serve with extra slices of bananas and a drizzle of honey/maple syrup/dates syrup.

7. to Keep the pancakes warm while you serve, heat it for a few seconds in the microwave .

LOVE YOUR BLOG AWARD :)

Varunavi of 'My Kitchen's Aroma' has shared a lovely award with me, this one comes with a set of rules. here it is

The rules:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs (Only if you like)

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blog.

As they say rules are meant to be broken :)I'd like to share it with all my foodie blogger friends, It's extremely difficult to choose only 7, I love all the blogs I visit :) . So friends please feel free to carry it along with you! I'd be more than glad if you do :)

Tried and Tasted :)

Hello everyone, Thanks so much for ur warm B'day and New Year wishes in my previous post. It was really overwhelming!:) In the last 2-3 weeks I've been trying out some more of the recipes that I'd bookmarked. I loved the outcome of my trials and I've decided to have a post dedicated to 'Tried and Tasted' recipes :) atleast once in a fortnight or month. I am learning so many things with regard to cooking as well as cooking tips, not only that it's much beyond the kitchen....it has improved so much of my general information about food, places and so much more and thanks to you all.

Enough of the chat getting back to my tried and tasted recipes...here take a look!

Deepa Hari's: Mushroom pepper fry, S doesn't like mushrooms as much as I do...but I was dying to try this one...made the ditto dish with yam...it was yummmmmmmmmmy, thanks deepa.

here's the recipe link

http://deepaskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/03/mushroom-pepper-fry.html

Lisa's: Red chilli and vinegar paste, I made very less quantity ... this one is simply superb in curries, here's the recipe link:

http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/2009/04/red-chili-and-vinegar-paste.html

2. Black and yellow chickpeas in sweet and spicy sauce: yet another killer from Lisa's Kitchen. This one was a grand hit at home. Here's the recipe link

http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/2008/11/black-and-yellow-chickpeas-in-sweet-and.html

Thanks for the wonderful recipes Lisa:)

Soma's Saffron Yogurt Mousse with rose-petal-honey: I was floored by the look of it in her blog and started the procees of making it that very day, though I made a very small quantity, S loved it so much that he has asked me to make it once again...all thanks to Soma, here's the recipe link

http://www.ecurry.com/blog/desserts/saffron-yogurt-mousse-with-rose-petal-honey/

Here's another look :)
Shoba's Healthy bitter gourd fry: believe me it was yummy...am planning to make it more often :) Thanks shoba for the lovely healthy recipe.Here's the link

http://anubhavati.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/healthy-pavakkai-fry-healthy-bittergourd-fry/#comment-520

I even tried Asha's: Carrot pickle.....I goofed up big time :( (I'll try again to get it right and post it next time(have some funny doubts to ask her :))

Last but not the least a special mention to Varunavi, who's passed on a cutie putie award to me..she's also generoulsly shared it with all her blogger buddies, Thanks dearie. I'll metion in detail about it in my next post :) as it comes with a set of rules. This post is as it is getting lengthy enough.... I think it's time I pull my brakes...lol see you all soon There's more to come!

Have a great weekend!

TC

Naboborsho Celebration and a Birthday!

New Year Greetings to all of you! wow! Celebration is in the air! Along with Poila Boishak celebration it was birthday time at my place! Yup ….your’s truly celebrated a quite b’day with S at home. We did a simple pooja, went to the temple and then S was off to work, promising to come home early. Mean while I made a simple menu comprising of milk kheer, baby brinjal curry, Raita, olkopir (knolkol) dalna, rice .While I was cooking I got loads of phone calls n messages to convey both B'day and New Year wishes...wow! it was such a happy day!

We had a great lunch in the afternoon and chatted about a lot of things from the past. S told me about the Bengali cuisine and new year celebration back at his native, the dishes made for this day and the get togethers they had on this day and we chatted for about half an hour and he had to rush back to work. S told me that he’d cook fish for dinner specially for the B’day girl ! that was really sweet of him!

S kept his promise came home early and I assisted him in cooking. He made my favourite Doi Maach (fish in yogurt gravy) it was sssssssssssssuperb! B’day cake was store brought (yes we had cake cutting and all ….) S suddenly sprang up with the idea of having a candle light dinner, I was game with him…so we both arranged a cute candle light spread …hmmmm something was missing! S ran to the store for coke…lol it was like rush hour! At last all was set and it was dinner time. Both of us were so so hungry after all the work…that we could wait no more. It was a great feeling to have candle light dinner at home…with home cooked food. We ate till we could eat no more….here I just echo Varsha,it's so true after having heavy food…u feel so sedated, lazy and just want to crash down and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…tha’s what we did watched news for a while and had a good night sleep! It will be a celebration to remember. Here are the recipes of the dishes prepared for the celebration….Read on

Baby Brinjal Curry

Ingredients:

5-6 Baby Brinjals
2-3 tbsp oil
1 tsp panch phoron (a proportionate mixture of whole spices like fennel, cumin, fenugreek, onion seeds, and black mustard)
¾ cup chopped onion
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp coriander powder (dhania)
1 tbsp cumin powder (jeera)
1 tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
2-3 tbsp tamarind paste/pulp
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
1 1/2 cups water
Method

Cut the baby brinjals lengthwise up to the stem (keep the stem intact)

Sprinkle some salt and set it aside.

Heat oil in a Kadhai, add panch phoron and when the seeds begin to crackle, add onions, ginger garlic paste, fry till the oil separates.

Meanwhile, mix coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder, tamarind paste, sugar, salt in 1 ½ cups of water and mix well.

Add this to the Kadhai and cook for about 2 minutes till a good flavour emits from the masala.

Add the baby brinjals and cook till they are done.


Recipe for Doi Mach Ingredients:

500 gms Carp or similar fish, cleaned
100 gms mustard oil or any other cooking oil
4 cloves
4 green cardamoms
2” piece of cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1” piece ginger
1 small bulb of garlic
2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1 tsp red chilli powder
100 gms yogurt/sour curds
2 green chillies slit
Salt and sugar to taste


Method:

Smear 1 tsp turmeric powder and salt to the fish pieces and set it aside.

Grind ginger, garlic, onion into a fine paste, set it aside.

Beat yogurt with half a cup of water till smooth and set it aside.

Heat oil in a Kadhai/wok and lightly fry the fish pieces and set it aside.

In the same heated oil add cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and the ground onion paste.
Fry lightly till slightly brown.

Mix the remaining turmeric powder, red chilli powder in 2-3 tbsp of water and add this to the Kadhai/wok. Sauté, see to that the paste doesn’t stick to the pan.

Now add the yogurt and stir, add one more cup of water.

Add salt and sugar to taste and adjust according to ur taste.
Add the green chillies and cook till excess water evaporates and the gravy begins to boil.

Finally add the fish pieces one by one gently into the gravy and cook on high flame till the oil begins to float on top.

Take it off the flame and serve it hot.

Olkopir Dalna from Sandeepa's blog here's the link for the recipe
http://www.bongcookbook.com/2007/02/olkopir-dalna.html
I had made it once earlier S liked it very much so I made it again on the Bong New year :)

Thanks Sandeepa for the wonderful recipe.

The Milk kheer I made was the same I had posted in one of my earlier posts here's the link for the recipe.http://therecipehunter.blogspot.com/search/label/Milk%20Kheer

Mixed Vegetables cooked in Coconut gravy

Coconut based gravies are richly flavoured and aromatic. I’ve been a huge fan of Kerala cuisine ever since I’ve tasted puttu, avial, and crab delicacies actually the list is endless ;). I have tried some coconut based recipes at home and some are made pretty often, one such dish is vegetables in coconut gravy from Tarla Dala’s cook book, this dish is very simple and heavenly in taste. I have made some changes to the basic recipe. Here’s the recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups boiled mixed vegetables (French beans, carrots, potatoes, peas)
1 cup thick (coconut milk diluted with 1 cup water)
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 cup chopped onions
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ cup chopped tomatoes
11 tsp lime juice
Salt to taste
2-3 tbsp oil For the masala:
½ cup grated coconut
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tbsp cooked rice
1 tsp chopped green chillies
4 garlic cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1 -2 cloves
2-3 whole black peppercorns
1 whole dry red chilli, broken into pieces

Method:
For the masala, dry roast the coconut, curry leaves, rice on the tava on a low flame stir continuously, until it turns light pink.

Add the green chillies, garlic, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, and red chilli stir for 2-3 seconds and remove from the flame and cool.

Remove from the flame, cool and blend to a fine paste using little water. Set it aside.

In a Kadhai/wok heat oil and add onions and sauté till translucent then add the tomatoes, curry leaves turmeric powder, salt and stir till tomatoes are mushy.

Add the masala paste and cook on a low flame till the rawness fades off. Next add coconut milk, vegetables and stir well. Add a bowl of water if you want more gravy.

Check for salt and adjust if required. Cook it on low flame till it comes to a boil. Switch off the flame. The mixed vegetables cooked in coconut gravy is ready to be served.