Molor Chechki

Molor chechki (Radish dry fry curry)

Vegetables play an important role in organising a wholesome meal , molor chechki is one such interesting way to prepare Radish in a genuine Bengali way , its finely grated or in Hindi using Kaddokas , Grate them .We like eating this dish with warm cooked rice , although it is better with the white long radish found in India ,not the small reddish Radish of US which I must admit looks so cute .Grated radish is tempered with mustard seeds,turmeric powder, and cooked at low to perfection ..

here is the radish from kitchen Garden

Molor Chechki(Radish dry curry)
4-5 radish
1tsp of mustard seeds
3-4 green chillies
½ tsp of turmeric powder
Salt as per taste
Sugar pinch of
Cooking oil 2-4 tbs
Fresh chopped coriander leaves
Method
Wash Radish in water , grate them or Kaddokas ker lein..
Heat a kadai, add oil ,add mustard seeds and let it pop up.
Then add grated radish ,turmeric powder ,salt ,slit green chillies in between and add them too , cover and cook at low for 7-8 mints.
Add sugar now and if there is still some juice left cook at high till the juice evaporates stiring continuously.
Add fresh chopped corrinader…
Serve with Rice.
this one goes to Mandira for her Green Blog Project go here for more details GBP .
happy cooking and Bon Appetite.

Tayparir Chutney or Gooseberry Chutney



I love this fruit since my childhood , my Father will come home from markets with whole bunch of these fruits and in few seconds it used to be all gone .Me ,my brother and my sister would finish it off ASAP...this recipe however I tried making it first time is very much similar with the way we prepare Tomato chutney except I have given Taypaari in this .In addition ,I have also included khejurer Gur /Jaggery and Aamsotto to be little experimental.My father loved it a lot and I do hope you will also.

I got inspiration from Sandeepa'sBlog about this lovely fruit , and since then something I wanted to create out of it ..and here it is ..
these are the raw ingredients for chutney

Taparir Chutney.
Recipe requirements
3-4 cup taypari/Gooseberry chopped in between
Khejurer gur 1 small bowl crushed
Kish-Mish/raisins optional.
Sugar 3-4 tbs
Aamsatoo/Mango Candies some chunks

Method
Clean berries , and cut in between.
Now heat a kadai/saucepan and add oil, add the tayparis fry for 1-2 mints,give salt as per taste ,when the berries start to pop up ,add the sugar , cook for some more 5mints.
Add raisins and cook another 10 mints, until the desired consistency is reached ..
Add Khejurer Gur/Jaggery and stir in between. Breaking the lumps , all to be done at low .
Add aamshoto/mango chunks later in the chutney, take out in a bowl and serve.

This is it friends , do try making it and enjoy .
Happy Cooking ,Bon Apetite.

Palak Paneer For GBP

Palak Paneer For GBP


Spinach or as we know it as palak is high in mineral content , we should eat lots of green leafy vegetables .When I came to know about GBPbeing hosted by Mandira, I thought its really a nice and neat idea. let me also try making something straight from my garden , and I thought since Spinach is in the season , should try making palak paneer .This is a simple recipe for palak paneer ,It took me approx 30 to 45 mints to cook as I had to chop,peel and cut onions,garlic and ginger ..if you wish you can try it with the ready-made garlic /ginger paste .But as it says mehnat ka phal meetha, my phal was that my family liked it a lot ..

Fresh spinach straight from kitchen garden

Recipe requirements
1 bunch fresh spinach/Palak
Paneer 300 gms
2 medium size onions
5-7 cloves of garlic
1inch fresh ginger
1tsp of cumin seeds
½ tsp of turmeric powder
½ tbs coriander powder
½ tbs red pepper powder
2 tbs of butter
1 tbs of fresh malai /cream
2-3 tbs of oil preferably mustard
2 tbs of sugar
Salt as per taste

Method

Wash and clean spinach leaves in water, separate leaves only and discard the twig.
Puree the spinach in blender, make apaste of onion, ginger and garlic.
Heat a kadai add oil, add cumin seeds,let it pop up,add the paste and fry at low,
Add all the dry ingredients ,with some water and stir-fry at low for 5 mints.
Add the spinach puree and ½ cup of water and cook at low for 8-10 mints,add cubed Paneer also ,stiring in between..
At the end ,add butter and malai ,take out in a bowl and serve …I served it with Roti.

This one goes to a wonderful event Green Blog Project being hosted this time by Mandira.

Do contribute and let us all know whats growing in your garden..

Happy cooking and Bon Appetite.

Aloo Begun Bodi Diye Macher Jhaal

Bengali Fish curry (Aloo Begun Bodi Diye Macher Jhaal )

A very Bengali way of making mach'er jhaal with potatoes, eggplant and spicy urid wadis.This mach'er jhaal is one of our fav way of making fish curry specially with pona mach or rui fish.

Now to the recipe for Fish Curry

Fish curry

Recipe Requirements

Potatoes1-2 cut into long pieces
Brinjal/eggplant 1 cut into pieces
Badi/Bodi 7-8
Nigella seeds (Kalo jeera, kalaunji) 1tsp
Green chillies 4-5 (add less for spice)
Fish 5-8 pieces approx half Kg
Corrinader powder 1tsp
Water 1-2 cups (depends how much thick gravy you want , add less for thick gravy)
Oil for frying fish pieces
Turmeric powder 1tsp and some more for marinating
Salt as per taste in Gravy and for marinating the fish.

Method

Wash fish pieces thoroughly in water , marinate in turmeric powder and salt, keep aside for atleast half an hour.Discard the water that comes out marinating the fish after few times.
Heat a kadai/Saucepan better a Wok , add oil , fry fish pieces at med low , till brown on both side it will take approx 4 mints on each side .Fry all the pieces.Take out and keep aside ..

Fry the Badi (It requires a bit more oil , add more oil approx 2-3 tbs for better results)slowly at low till golden brown , take out and keep aside on another Bowl.
Now add nigella /Kalaunji/Kalo jeera seeds to the above oil for the Phoron/Tadka sauté them , add potatoes , Brinjal/eggplant pieces and add salt fry at low for atleast 5-7 mints stiring in between for even frying.
Add turmeric powder , corrinader powder to the above , add Fish ,water slowly , slit Green chillies in between , Add badi/bodi and chillies to the above gravy

Cover and cook for atleast 10- 15 mints at med-low or till the potatoes are soft.The brinjals will cook before potatoes , If you feel , you can add them at the time of mixing in water .

Add finely chopped fresh cilantro/Corriander leaves.

This is a wonderful recipe to cook Rui Maach or Pona mach.

We served it with warm cooked rice .

I have always ignored Pooja's event , but not this time ,She has come up with the wonderful theme for V-Day , more info here Theme of the week V-day This one goes straight to you dear Pooja.

some more recipes next time , Happy cooking and Bon Appetite.

Meet Our Kitchen Garden friends

Meet Our Kitchen Garden Friends

This is for the first time sharing you with lovely vegetables my mom has grown in her kitchen garden over the past few years ...


Pappaya well doctors say is a wonder fruit .


Banana Plant , regarded as auspicious in Hindu religion , And Mochaar Ghonto is one such relishing dish made from fresh Flowers of Banana.




a luxarious Cabbage grown in the Garden.



leafy vegetable Beet root.



Green vegetable Spinach


We Bengali's know it as Sojne Datta , or Drumsticks and is a very staple food during this period of year ..and the white flowers is also edible part . My Mil makes Delicious Sojne Phool/aloo torkari.





This is a healthy Brinjal plant or better we know as here in US as Eggplant.

This is a lovely Kitchen Garden, My mom is so passionate about .And watching this beautiful garden is always a pleasure for everyone.Plucking fresh vegetables is fun also ..

Happy Cooking and Bon Appetite.

Lao Ghonto

Lao/Macher Matha Diye Torkari (Bottle gourd Fish Curry)

Life is a journey, one moment here and some times later somewhere else ..
We enjoyed our short stay in US and now living here in my motherland India is always a pleasure..Its something in the air , the warmth of people and love and care , what more you want in life .





I have taken a good short break from blogging , and I must tell that I have enjoyed this break a lot , spend a lot of time with my family , visiting friends and relatives , reliving my wonderful growing years .. now I am here in my birth place Allahabad visiting my parents home..My mom is an excellent cook(every mother is and always will be) and needless to say , she started making some of the relishing and delicious foods since I came here ..she has an avid interest in Kitchen gardening also ..with some good space to cultivate vegetables , her kitchen garden is a pleasure to watch and pluck some good fresh vegetables and make it as is …
So friends , from my mom’s kitchen to you ..serving you some of the authentic Bengali food …

Lauki /Lao belongs to family cucurbitacea and is also known as Bottle Gourd, contains Vit C and Vit B complex,Lauki is considered to be extremly Pitta pacifying, the skin is generally pale in green colour and the inner flesh is white in colour.Pick the young gourd for better result,discard the hard parts, while cutting the vegetable.Lauki is used in making Raita ( a yogurt based tangy Gravy) and many Subzi also.

Lao macher modo diye ghonto (Lao fish curry)

Lao Ghonto
Recipe requirements
1 Lao/Lauki
2 fish head , throughly washed
5-6 green chilly peppers(add less for less spice)
¼ tsp of turmeric powder (just go easy on this , to add colour only)
Salt as per taste
Oil for frying fish head

Method
1~ Heat a kadai/saucepan, add oil for frying fish head , release the fish head slowly in the oil and fry at low on each side for 5 mints or till the fish is fried brown .

2 ~While frying fish, head will swell slightly , at this time flip the side and fry again for 5 mints at low .the better fish head is fried , the better the Ghonto/curry will be .But be very careful while frying it , because its often splutter a lot ..
3 ~Now add finely chopped lauki/lao to the above , add turmeric powder , green chillies split in between and salt as per taste , stir it slightly , cover and cook for 10 mints at low .
4 ~After some 10-12 mints , check for the softness of lauki/lao and now with the help of spatula/Khunti/Palta , break the fish head into bite size pieces and again cover, cook for 5-7 mints at med –low .
5 ~For our vegetarian friends , you can add Badi/Boda in place of fish head .

Some of the good friends from blogging world visited here , thanks for coming by and stoping here .
Thank you Sia, Trupti, Sandeepa, Mandira, Sailaja, Soumya,Krithika,Asha,Lera,Sumitha,RP and every body ,pls forgive me if I have forgotten to write about you …but I have loved your encouraging words and remarks .
Thanks once again to everybody reading this and spending your precious time here ..
Some more recipes next time , Happy cooking ,Bon Appetite.