Niramish Chana'r Dalna - a Very Basic Bengali recipe

We always play down the vegetarian way of cooking a recipe, thinking that it will turn out plain= fika ranna/cooking.But there are umpteen ways of making a particular recipe and even a simple “ranna” /cooking that one craves for after having rich and high calorie food intakes, can very well be soul soothing and rewarding. Hold on to your thoughts, I won’t be doing  Ayurvedic lectures in this post – lectures giving info about – “pitta” or “vaat” or kapha “ implanting ingredients or their serious advantages- disadvantages  over non-vegetarian foods. Let’s not complicate things over here and stick to basic and simple. My basic is when we are done of eating too many rounds of non-vegetarian foods, one should slow down and eat food cooked with few ingredients or do the “niramish way of making a recipe” sans onion/garlic or even ginger, and using bare minimum spices. 

Niramish Chana'r Dalna with Narkol and Dudh 

Well, when I start with “niramish ranna”, people immediately conclude it with “chana” or “paneer’or should I say “poneer!”….so here is niramish chanar dalna sans onion+garlic+ginger.Although; ginger can be used in any niramish ranna/vegetarian preparation.

I really don’t know where I have first eaten this “chana” preparation. As per my faint memories,perhaps it was when my “Bodo Thamma” my real grandmother’s elder sister made this recipe. Like all the ‘widowed Vaishnavs”, we have seen her live a very down-to-earth life. But strange as it may sound, nobody even forced her to do it. It was her way of connecting with her god. She had an aura of calmness in her ever glowing eyes.Our family respected her for that and used to listen to her wise words, guiding us just like a north star on a dark turmoiled night. Although, I was just a pre-teen kid then, when she passed away, but I have a very diminishing image of her till today in my mind. A strict follower of lord Krishna, she had her various restrictions- white and pure clothes, short-cut hair , no make-up, jewellery  etc.And then making things even complicated, she used to eat only twice a day. Now, I would refrain from giving any other information about her, as some things should remain personal. This type of paneer recipe was again made on a “Puja” day in our parent-in-laws home. Although I can’t recall what spices were added at that time exactly, but it was a very basic and simple “niramish chanar dalna”, not even ginger+tomatoes were used.

 I guess my only contribution is to add narkol-coconut to the above to make it somewhat sweetish at this point. Now coming to this recipe. 

Niramish Chana'r dalna - a Very basic recipe to please God

This preparation comes handy if you have paneer blocks and coconut- fresh or even desiccated one for that matter .The sweetness of coconut merges well with the homogeneity of milk and paneer.Some even use whey liquid in place of milk. Some even may say after reading this recipe- as –“poneer, narkol and dudh with gravy”, I would say go ahead, what ever makes you feel happy about it and try making it in your kitchen as well. But then remember the original source where you first read it. My purpose of sharing this recipe will perhaps be achieved.

Now to the recipe

Niramish Chanar Dalna 

Recipe requirements

200 Gms of paneer cut into cubes

2 medium size potatoes cut into cubes

½ cup of semi-skimmed milk

¼ cup of medium desiccated coconut or fresh scraped coconut

½ tbs of coriander powder

¼ tsp of sugar

1 tsp of salt or as per taste

4-5 cloves

2-3 green cardamoms

2-3 dry red chilies

½ tsp of cumin seeds (optional)

3-4 tbs of cooking oil/sada tel

Method

Since I have used ready-made “paneer” block available easily here, so there is no need of using the whey liquid for the gravy. Instead we will dilute semi-skimmed milk with water and add later.However if you want to use fresh “chana” and the whey liquid then make “chana” beforehand. My tip is to have a small box of citric acid in your pantry for that daily home-making of chana.Few pinches of citric acid and the fresh home made “chana “is easily done. Vinegar can also be used to curdle milk to get “Chana”.

Put a saucepan on heat.At medium flame, first fry the paneer cubes from each side in 2 tbs of cooking oil. Similarly you can fry potatoes cubes. For this recipe I generally don’t even fry the potatoes.take them out.

Add rest of the cooking oil; add in cloves, cardamoms, cumin seeds and dry red chilles.Fry them for about half a minute at medium low flame or till they just start to flare up.

Now add in fried potato cubes. Add in coriander powder and salt. Fry all for about 2-3 mints at medium flame.

Now add in fresh “narkol kora” /scraped coconut. In place of fresh narkol, one can use desiccated coconut as well.

Add in water to the ¼ cup of semi-skimmed milk to make it about 1 and half ½ cup of milk. Now add this to the above.

Let it cook for about 8-10 mints or till the potatoes turns soft. Add in fried paneer cubes and cover the saucepan and let it cook for 3-4 mints. Turn off the switch and let it rest in and also let paneer cubes soak up some gravy.

Notes-

This is a lightest preparation of "niramish chanar dalna" and can be included as part of the “Bhog  Prasad”. However, if you want to jazz up further, then you may add ginger+cumin powder+ garam masala+tomatoes to the above.In place of sada Tel /Cooking oil , one can use pure desi ghee as well.

You may refer these recipes in net for the even more -spiced version of niramish chanar dalna- 

1.Niramish Chanar Dalna - at Homemaker's Diary

2.Chanar Dalna- at Whats on the menu

3.Chanar Dalna with green peas- at Ahaar

4.Matar Paneer at Spice and curry

Since today is Ganesh Chaturthi ...So Gannapati Bappa Moorya ....Happy Ganesh Chaturthi everyone...

Happy Cooking Friends

Blueberry Muffin on a sugar high Friday

There used to be a series – way back something called- “Sugar high Friday” where food bloggers used to share recipes that were something to do with sweets and sugars. Now after such a long gap, I really don’t know if that food blog event is still running or not ( I am always on-off from food blogging world that, many things go missing from my reading list and now it is a habit.) but I really want to remember that food-event, even though this muffin recipe was made long while ago , nevertheless sharing is what I believe in , so an impromptu blog post of blueberry muffin recipe on this very Friday. Lets see if I can do it next Friday or coming Fridays, something that even I am not sure of doing hundred percent either.

Actually with so many food blog events, I somehow have started having a dizzy feeling when ever someone utters the word “event”. Don’t get me wrong but with so many food blog events and their successive tenure, I find them intimidating, the mere mention and I want to run away. If you all can be little patient with me, I want to rewind the clock and look back when there were limited food-blog events and people still have choices to come up with recipes, good recipes and within their comfort levels.  Now with each passing days the definition of food-blogging is also changing, this open social networking systems have allowed us all to mingle with each other outside our virtual domain. And with this the main focus of having valuable, homely recipes is lost; we don’t even acknowledge the original source from where one is taking up the original recipes or even ideas. And ethics have now become a passing fashion tag or should I say hash-tag.
Our world has squeezed into being hash-tags. #- holidays , #-recipes, # kids, # food-blogs  etc……

But then each one of us have their own  justified way of communicating with “readers” (and I won’t use the word – “followers” here) but honestly where you draw a line …..

I know something I won’t be able to get along well, nor am I willing to float along with the flow. So, here I am, old fashioned way sharing a recipe with out putting it or mentioning it in any other social- networking sites beforehand. Please feel free to write how your world has changed for better using social-networking sites if not less.

Blueberry Muffin

Recipe requirements

1 and ¾ cup of self raising flour

2 free range eggs

½ cup of granulated sugar

¼ cup of cooking oil

2 tbs of spreadable butter

1 tsp of vanilla essence

2 cups of  fresh blueberries

3-4 tbs of yogurt

Method

Sift in self raising flour. Since we are using self –raising flour, we won’t be adding baking powder. In case you don’t get self raising flour then add in ½ tsp of baking powder and two pinch of baking soda to 1 and ¾ cup of plain flour.

Wash and clean blueberries and then coat them well with flour. If using frozen then generally I don’t really like to thaw them and I do add them as it is.

In a  big mixing bowl, mix in butter+cooking oil, and keep on adding sugar to this till all the sugar is used up. This should now look like a pale colour fluffy mixture. Add in vanilla essence.

Add egg one at a time mixing it through. It would be nice if you can take out eggs and yogurt prior to baking the cake at least about an hour.Add in yogurt also. If you see the mixture is curdling, then add in few tsp of flour to even out.

Now add in coated blueberries to the above mixture. Add in self raising flour and gently fold in, so that blueberries are evenly scattered within the cake batter.We need a gentle and caring hand for them , so just fold in.

Set the oven at 175 deg C. Now prepare the muffin tins. Line them up with muffin cases.Scoop out about a big dollop of this batter in a spoon and drop into each muffin cases. And bake them for about 15-20 mints or till they are golden on outside surface.This much yielded about 16-18 muffins, although I would assume them to be blueberries cupcakes rather than muffin.You can put a tooth pick in the middle, insert and take out to check if they are baked well or not.....if tooth pick comes out clean, your muffins are ready.You can put toppings or frosting as well.

If you want to make cupcakes or muffins in pressure cooker then here is this old post  -  way back in 2008.

Happy Cooking Friends

Jerk Chicken Fingers

I know many of you would have felt knee –jerk reactions during the semi finals of football world cup, well Brazil seemed to be loosing it out at that time and now it will involve many more knee-jerk reactions, jerking all the way from bottom- to –top. Although the management of the entire game schedules were spot on and impeccable and that I must add here. And, also we did get a knee-jerk reaction when we spotted a fox near the back yard of our apartment complex. Well, this is nothing new, it is indeed a common sight for many here, although for us it was the first time in broad day-light. We couldn't believe our eyes, dear daughter caught this moment with our point and shoot camera. And couple of friends have also told us that, if they keep rubbish outside in night, these foxes come and do hunt out food for them, making the well-kept garden messy all over. The sight of Lionel Messi would have been better not the foxes messy,let’s now be tight-lipped about it.

Well, this recipe of jerk chicken fingers is not at all that dramatic and knee-jerking as if you would start dreaming out of it. But, taste wise it is indeed very flavorful and can be considered over-whelming but not certainly knee-jerking, although it still will be called chicken jerk-“fingers” not chicken jerk –“knee”.Ok, please refrain ourselves from further imaginations and let’s say its good as gold to be a great finger food or party food/appetizers.

Coming to the recipe, jerk seasoning that I have used in this recipe comes here in spice packets, and that’s what globalization intends to do to you. I am sure you all must have heard about “jerk chicken” which has its origin somewhere in Caribbean island, and taking that cue, I made these chicken jerk fingers. There are plenty of recipes available in internet to make home-made jerk seasonings and use accordingly. One recipe is this and this- detailed recipe of jerk chicken and this-dry rub spice-mix.
I have used Kashmiri red pepper powder for that reddish color and also it does add little bit of spice also. However it’s not required strictly, a plain Jane type of chicken fingers with only jerk seasoning will also turn out flavorful, overnight marination of chicken pieces is recommended, so that spices can well incorporate inside chicken. Yogurt helps in tenderization of flesh and also as great base to bind all the spices well. If you are allergic to milk-products then you may skip it and use lemon juice or vinegar as well.
Now to the jerk chicken recipe

Jamaican Jerk Chicken Fingers or Tenders
Recipe requirements
Chicken finger fillets about 300 Gms
2 tsp of coriander powder
1 tsp of jerk seasoning
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of Kashmiri march powder/Kashmiri red pepper powder
½ tsp of freshly crushed black peppercorn
5-6 heaped tsp of thick Greek style yogurt or 2 tsp of lemon juice or any other souring agent
Method
After cleaning chicken pieces, pat them dry with a kitchen towel. We do get chicken finger fillets here, however if you don’t then you can make, cut strips from chicken breast pieces as well.
Now add in all the dry ingredients- coriander powder, jerk seasoning, crushed black pepper, Kashmiri red pepper powder (I have used MDH brand Kashmiri red pepper powder which seems to be little high on hot level and as well on color), for jerk seasoning I have used Rajah Brand and Schwartz brand so far and seems to be satisfied with the results. (Jerk seasoning originates from Caribbean cuisine, specially from Jamaica- a famous chicken recipe is, Jamaican Jerk Chicken , will update the blog with that recipe as well)
Add in salt as per taste and thick Greek-style yogurt also. Coat chicken finger fillets very well with the spices and yogurt mixture.
Now put on the oven at 200 deg C, set it at and grill the chicken fillets for about 20-25 mints or till they get nice smoky texture or are well charred.It would be nice if the tray is covered with foil. It also depend on the cuts of the chicken  fillets , so check out in between and keep an eye over the grilling process in oven.

Or you may bake the chicken as well. For that take out in mid-way, and if you need then coat those with cooking oil.I have never done that as we like to have it oil-free and grilled which turns out soft.You may use sour cream in place of yogurt as well which is even better gives a very smooth texture once the chicken is done.

You may use this seasoning to grill other vegetables like- zucchini, bell pepper, onions etc as well. Vegetarian can skip chicken or meat and use tofu or paneer to make Jerk tofu/paneer fingers, all other ingredients remain same.  
As usual we served along with cooked cous-cous and slices of tomato and cucumber.

Happy cooking and have a lovely weekend

Salmon with Lemon Butter Sauce

These days we are seeing lots of sunshine quite unlike of British summer, which makes us yearn for things which is so typical of summer that we are habitual of seeing in India, like chilling out with a cup of cold coffee or ice-cream sundaes or "mishti doi"etc and these  have become regular in our home. But then it’s not only about cooking, eating, drinking cold drinks, summer activities also includes going out in parks or having a nice picnic, now that I somehow can’t imagine myself doing that in typical Indian summer. Even though schools are still open and summer vacations haven’t yet started here, well actually it’s another week and we will be having school vacations here. And we all know once the school vacations starts all mothers across the globe, do become even more busier, making ferries to local library, parks and activity center, becomes almost a daily happening for them.

Sometimes, when kids do shift their attention, they do come up with great innovative things. These days loom bands have caught my daughter’s attention; apparently every kid these days seems to be hooked to it here, it is kind of a trend here. She is on a spree of making many bracelets out of it. She still has some left-over loom bands loops which incidentally, I hid it from her while she was away in the school. Now, she is up to the “lost loom bands project” kind of “Sally Bollywood” and had been searching the entire household. May be I will keep them as memento and gift her later on, once her interest grows out of it, just to have that surprise look on her face.

Now coming to this recipe which is as simple as it sounds. As you can see daffodils in the picture above, this was made in the month of March and was lying in drafts since then. But it’s good to be late than never, right. When you can get fresh –healthy fish and if a fish is salmon, and you add butter and lemon to it, you know how subtle flavors can be coming out from it. I always have liked the flavor of salmon. I just happen to add dried herbs for extra goodness, I was thinking of putting up dried parsley, as parsley is a great herb, extensively used in Mediterranean cooking, but I didn't had parsley, so used dried Italian herb which is what I got at that time, but to my surprise it turned out nice, since then I have made this many times and with dried Italian herb only. Garlic powder is included and so is red pepper powder, which gives bonus to the overall flavor without over-empowering the distinct flavor of the fish itself. If you don’t get salmon, shrimp or other white fish fillets can also be used in this place, replace butter with olive oil or may be any other oil like – corn oil, sunflower oil, to make it less saturated. But always remember our body does need butter as well, all it requires is moderate activity level to burn down that saturated fat, nothing less.


Just want to emphasize that all health foods might not be good for you, read here,  a striking story about a food blogger's eating disorders regarding  vegan foods.I highly advise consulting a nutritionist before you jump on to any sort of diet-plans or any type of drastic changes in your eating patterns.Remember loosing weight , also depends on how physically active you are, not just on what you eat.Sleep and rest is also necessary to restore lost stamina from your body.

Now to the recipe

Pan fried Salmon in Lemon-Butter sauce
Recipe requirements
3-4 salmon fillets
Half lemon, squeezed for the lemon juice
2 tbs of butter
¼ tsp of red pepper powder or as per taste or freshly crushed chilly flakes
½ tsp of garlic powder
¾ tsp of dried Italian herb powder
Salt as per taste
Method
Clean and rub salt all over salmon fillets. Keep aside for half an hour. We do get salmon fish fillets here easily and 3 or 4 fish fillets weigh roughly 400-450 gms.
Now melt butter in a fry pan, add in salmon fillets, and skin side down first. Fry them about 4-5 mints. Flip the side and do another 3-4 mints depending on the cut of the fillets or the thickness of the  fillet . Fry till it’s no more pinkish in color. Take out and drain.
In that butter itself, add in dried Italian herb, red pepper powder, lemon juice and salt if required at low flame. If you are using salted butter, there is no need of adding extra salt. Add in salmon fillets.

Now cover the fry pan and let it cook further 8-10 mints or till salmon is cooked. Sometimes, I skip frying salmon fillets and mix all the ingredients and melt butter in a fry pan then add in salmon+spices+dried herb and let it cook well in it’s own juices, I must add, it turns out even more soft.
You can even grill the fish and prepare the sauce separately and then drizzle the prepared sauce all over the grilled salmon fish fillets.

Happy Cooking Friends

Masala Baingan- Spiced Brinjal stir/fried recipe

For any tennis lovers, Wimbledon is like a pilgrimage and according to N Djokovic, the winning player himself– since he was 5 years old he always dreamt of playing in Wimbledon. And for us who are passive sporty enthusiast - read that’s me , visiting this place at least once, or just getting an opportunity to watch live match there, seems like an unreachable and distant dream/ “diba swopna” to be  precise.

Yes, it is, while we visited Wimbledon this Saturday, we never realized someday this can be real.We didn’t know, what will be unfolding for us there. It was raining, and pouring when we got off from our train in Southfields station, so we waited and waited till the rain slowed up slightly, making us comfortable enough to walk up to the venue. Somewhere I happened to read” if you wish ardently for things to happen, the entire cosmos conspires to accomplish your wish”. And it looks like things were falling to happen accordingly that day.
As we queued up outside the main entrance gate, chattering with a noble steward/helper there, about our chances of getting in, we had a faint hope that we might get inside. But, still not sure if we would be lucky enough to watch live matches there as it’s was wet all over there, so leave alone catching up final of men’s doubles match in centre court there.And did I add that tickets are not that easily available for final matches either. Dear husband thought, we should give it a try to get re-sale tickets to the centre courts, and it looks like even God was on a generous mood that day to accomplish our wish. We did finally get our tickets to get inside the centre court and when we placed ourselves there comfortably, we were happy to be part of the ongoing men’s double final match. From then onwards it was an exciting men’s double final match.

Although I felt tired after watching the game just in to the third set, but I couldn’t tell that for dear husband for sure. While me and my daughter were feeling little tired and hungry, we thought to call it a day, a day to remember forever. Once we were home, we came to know about the winners and their 5 set final match game, which almost felt like a long saga to me stretched over 3 and half hours. But still there were people all over in the court, cheering them throughout that match.Someday, I will try to stick up to the end as well, as for time being just a feeling to be there, watching a match in Wimbledon and that too finals make me feel happy, somewhere in corner of my heart. Both these pictures are taken with my mobile, it’s not that cameras are not allowed, but I forgot to take our camera….

As for the recipe, I try to make brinjals in many ways, adding them in traditional Bengali shukto, chorchori,fish curry etc.But on a whole with the stalk intact, this “baigan” preparation- north Indian style dry stir/fry recipe has been our favourite.These brinjals, for strange reason don’t make us have any allergic reactions like itch etc, which I wont say for the big-fat eggplants. Small ones and particularly these slender-long ones, once they are cooked seemed to absorb more flavor as compared to the big chunky ones. The dry stir/fry goes well with any rotis or paratha; we made methi parathas and also a main dish of salmon-potato-tomato spicy-tangy semi-dry curry, even when having paratha or rotis,  we still crave for fish curry, now I can't take out my Bengali genes..........

We also made “aam doi” to bask in to the glory of mangoes this season that we are getting here, although very limited and not from India I guess. The pulp of mangoes are mixed in with the preparation for mishti doi , just another way of having and flavouring mishti doi.Mishti doi recipe is over here and more precise detailed aam doi recipe Here.I would suggest to use thick Greek-style doi for setting "aam doi"....

We have mangoes in this recipe as well, not ripened but the dried mango powder or aamchur powder which is famous for adding tanginess to any gravy or are a great souring agent. Dried mango powder or aamchur imparts a nice tangy touch to this stir/fry. I wished I had used purple onions in place of white ones as they seem to soak up the spices more, but white onion is what I had when I made this preparation.Here is how masala baigan north Indian style is made in our home.

Masala baingan/ Spiced Brinjal stir/fry recipe
Recipe requirements
8-10 long Brinjal/Eggplants
2 medium size onions
3-4 fat cloves of garlic
2 tsp of grated ginger
Seasonings
1 tsp of Shah Jeera powder/ or cumin powder
1 tsp of Lal mirch powder/red pepper powder
½ tsp of Deghi mirch powder
1 and ½ tsp of  Dhania powder/coriander powder
½ tsp of Amchur powder/dried mango powder
Namak swad anusar/ salt as per taste or ½ tsp of salt
3-4 tbs of mustard oil

Masala Baingan, Methi paratha, salmon -potato-tomato tangy semi dry curry..

Method
Wash the brinjals and make cuts along the sides and then rotate it and have the cuts from other end, making it to open up a bit further down till the end of stalks, but still keeping the base of stalks untouched.Grate in garlic and ginger and chop finely onions and tomatoes.
Now marinate them with salt and turmeric powder. Leave it aside for sometimes.
Meanwhile heat up a fry pan, add in mustard oil, stir/fry ginger and garlic till they are charred well. Add in finely chopped onions. Keep on stir/fry till the onions shrink in size and add in salt also.
Now mix in all dry seasonings- red pepper powder+dried mango powder+cumin+coriander powder and Deghi mirch masala which I happen to use MDH brand.
Now add in finely chopped tomatoes, splash some water so that the spices don’t get stick up.
Add in marinated brinjals to it, mix in the spices well with the stir/fried onions, garlic and ginger. Put the flame to med-low and cover, cook the brinjals properly about 15-20 mints. Half way through open the cover and flip the sides to stir/fry other sides of brinjal.At this time if you see the masala has become way too much dry then splash some more water to it.

Once the brinjals have turned soft and it tends to release oil from the sides, switch off the flame and take it of. You can add some ghee at the end as well.

Happy Cooking Friends