Ucche Bhaate / Boiled and mashed Bitter Gourd and Potatoes

I have been back from my vacation in the US of A for over a month now. And yet have still not been able to get my mojo back to make a proper post here.
Not to mention the thought of laying a table and clicking a proper photograph sending shivers of laziness all over me.
I did try to look through my old photographs but could not find any one good photo that deserves to be presented here.
That propelled me to further procrastination .... which is very unlike me.
And then there is this case of writer's block.
No matter how much ever I tried, I just could not frame a proper sentence.

So I let go.
Thought that lack of enthusiasm will shame my writer's block into some creativity.
But no ... nada .... nyet.
Nothing happened.
So I tried to stay active on Instagram ... at least to stay in touch with the food world. But that too lacks diligence as of now.
Most of the time I keep going back to the memories of my trip and I just love going through the numerous photos and videos .... living and reliving every moment spent at Disneyland, Seaworld and Miami.
And when I am not doing that, I am trying to get the house back into some order.

The best thing that happened on this trip, though, was that I got to cook for the friends we stayed with for a day each.
One of them, who is B's senior colleague , mentor and a wonderful person, who I was longing to meet for long, is a vegan. And loves Indian food.
I cooked them a regular Indian meal of roti, sabzi, dal and rice. Our host was very happy that the meal was vegan .... a fact that even I had not noticed till he pointed it out.
We discussed on healthy food and how a full, home cooked Indian meal will fill you up well and yet you won't  feel overstuffed.
The other friend is a vegetarian too. And happily opened his kitchen to me.
I loved shopping for fresh produce at the local markets and coming back and cook with them.
Had an absolutely wonderful time.
Nothing can beat the joy that comes from cooking and feeding friends and family in foreign lands and in unfamiliar kitchens.

Coming back, we craved light food for a few days.
The real American cuisine has a lot of deep fried stuff on the plate and we found ourselves turning to more of Mexican food during our travels ... which is a little similar to our Indian food.
Or to Indian food most times.
In Orlando, we found some very good Indian restaurants and the food quality was fabulous.
And they delivered to our hotel too ... which was a boon, considering we used to spend the whole day, from early morning to late evening, walking the parks.
So after a very tiring day, hot food on your table within half an hour of ordering, was more than what a weary traveller can ask for.

Back home, I went back to a dal,bhaat, a makha and a bhaja routine happily. Since I did not eat too much of non vegetarian food in the US, except for some fried chicken wings once in a while, I did fill up my freezer with some good fish too.
So it was a halka jhol or a light maach bhaja on most days that accompanied my rice.

But it was the sheddho (boiled) and makha (mashed together) vegetables that ruled the roost. Extremely light, detoxing and just the right thing to get your taste buds some relief, these makhas or bhortas are perfect for a light meal.
I use a lot of vegetables, sometimes individually and sometimes mixed, to make these sheddho makhas.
All you need is some chopped onions and green chillies and some mustard oil for that kick of flavour. At times I throw in some chopped garlic too, depending upon the vegetable I am using.

If you want to make a proper bhorta, then just fry the boiled vegetable in a little oil along with the onions and chillies.
I prefer my bhortas not fried.

Here is one of those vegetable bhortas, with the Ucche / bitter gourd.
Perfect for cleansing your system as well your taste buds.

All you have to do is to boil some bitter gourd and potatoes.
Cool and mash them with chopped onions + green chillies + mustard oil + salt + coriander leaves.

This mash is usually eaten at the begining of a Bengali meal, with rice, since it has the bitter gourd and Bengalis eat a little bitter at the begining of a meal ... usually lunch.
Any other vegetable mash can be eaten along with the rest of the dishes in a meal.

Enjoy!!

Leaving you with a shot of Cinderella's castle, Disneyland.

Mushur Dal Sheddho / Boiled Masoor Dal

To me, summer means a hardworking sun.
Summer means new leaves and fragrant flowers on the mango trees.
Summer means that light, soothing breeze from the pond, in the afternoons, when the fans did not work due to load shedding.
Summer means the sweet, ripe mangoes that were plucked in the morning and kept on wet sand, for us children to wake up  from our afternoon nap and bite into.
Summer means yellow, mango juice stains on white frocks.

Summer meant waking up to the fragrance of the Bel phool ( Mogra flower ) plants under Thamma's window, near her head.
Summer means evenings with a balmy breeze.
Summer means that beautiful smell of dry, thirsty earth when I watered our garden with a hosepipe.

Summer means light food.
Summer means Ma's watermelon juice.
Summer means the bunches of sweet Lichu (Lychee) that Bapi brought.

Summer means Thamma's achars and ambols.

Summer means Dadu's house and paanto bhaat.
With aloo sheddho, dal sheddho, maach makha, bori bhaja and shaak bhaja.
With a drop or two of achar er tel or pickle oil.
Summer means lying on the cool floor of red cement, polished with time, in Dadu's house after a lunch of paanto.
And listen to the repeated creaks of the old fan, that slowly lulls you sleep.

Summer is made of things memories are made of.

I can go on and on.
Though officially summer hasn't set in, not yet.
But the weather outside surely spells summer.
It is extremely hot and given Pune's dry and humid free weather, burning hot is more apt to describe it.
But nature still is in spring and the trees are still bare.
New, baby leaves are yet to come.

And in these days, all I crave is plain steamed or boiled food.
As light as possible.
Given my way of cooking, food can't get any lighter in my home. But I still cannot stand a tempering of spices, leave alone frying pastes and making gravies.
Which is why I am resorting to plain boiled food.

In the Bengali way of cooking, plain boiled food can be made extremely tasty.
If you have made friends with the mustard oil, then you have won the battle already.
And if not, there is always ghee.
One dollop and a boiled and mashed vegetable, with some green chilli mashed in, it tastes like manna from heaven.
You have to try it to believe me.

I make this dal sheddho a lot, both during summer and winter.
Red masoor dal is high in protein and is very healthy.
In winters, I use it to make vegetable soups.
Or just sip on its water when plain boiled , with a drop of ghee or butter and some freshly ground black pepper.
Does wonders to a sore throat.

In summer, I jazz it up with some raw chopped onions and green chillies.
A dash of mustard oil is all that is needed for fragrance and that kick, to take it to the next level.
If having it with the paanto bhaat, I keep it thicker so that it is easy to mash.
And for eating it with rice, I keep it slightly diluted.
Like I did this time, when I made it for lunch.

The recipe is fairly simple.

Need :

Red Masoor dal - 1 cup
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Onion - 1 medium, chopped into very small pieces
Green chillies - 2, chopped
Coriander leaves - chopped ( optional , I use only in winters )
Salt - to taste
Mustard oil - 1 tbsp
Water - 3 cups ( use the same cup used for measuring the dal )

How to :

Boil the dal with the turmeric powder + water + salt in a pressure cooker.

Remove and cool a little.

Add the chopped onion + green chillies + coriander leaves.
Add the onions only when the dal cools down.

Top it with mustard oil.

Serve warm with rice.

Here is a picture of my light, simple lunch with the Dal sheddho, some Dharosh (Okra)  bhaja  and some biulir daler bora.
Post on Dharosh bhaja is coming up soon.

Enjoy!!

Rui macher bhorta / Rui maach makha

This is one of my most favourite makhas.

With summer being so tough on us this time, we have light food everyday.
And lunches were mostly of curd rice and  paanto bhaat (rice in water).
Back home, the paanto or the paanta bhaat .... made from soaking cooked rice in water and eaten the next day or the day after ... gets wonderfully fermented and developes a taste of its own.
But I have found it very difficult to ferment it well here in Pune. Mainly because of the cool weather that Pune has.

But this year, when it reached 39 degrees in April, the first thing I did was buy a kilo of boiled rice grains ... the thick ones that we use back home for everyday meals.
And an earthen pot.
Thamma used to make panto in an earthen pot. Not only does it ferment well, it stays wonderfully cool too.

And, for the first time in all my years in Pune, I could eat the real paanto.
I have wanted to make a post but was not possible this year. Maybe next year ... what with this global warming and all, I don't think Pune will retain its 23 degrees anymore on any other on coming summers.
So, next time. 

Paanto bhaat needs a lot of accompaniments to go with it.
Fried vegetables, fried fish, fried saag(leafy vegetables), lots of makha .... of either boiled or roasted stuff, fried boris, etc. etc.
And this maach makha or the maach er bhorta has been a childhood favourite of mine.

Summer meant Dadu's house, the whole  brood of cousins, gorging on sweet mangoes with sleepy eyes after a long afternoon siesta, after a cooling and tummy stuffing lunch of Thamma's panto.
And what variety of dishes!
While the aloo makha would be omnipresent, sometimes with the boris mashed in, this maach makha or bhorta was a must too.
All of us loved it.

I specially loved it when one of the kakimas or Jethimoni or Ma ... to whosoever the task was assigned to to ... sat down with a huge plate of crispy fried big sized rohu or the katla.
She would bend her head in full concentration to pick the fish .... no bones should stay back.
Big sized fishes had big sized bones and hence are easy to pick. But one has to look for that stray fine bone too ... lest there is a mishap while eating.
 She would pick the bones and pile them on the corner of the plate.
And I would quietly sit and watch.
As soon as a big sized bone was kept, I would pick it up and chew on it. And keep watching again.
I especially loved the bones from the joints ... they had juice to suck on too.

The house help would provide the other things like the chopped onions, green chillies etc.
After all the bones have been picked, the entire thing will be mixed well, with a little pressure from the fingers to lightly mash it .... to get the flavours all mixed well.
Then there will be a generous amount of mustard oil doused over the whole thing and a final mix given to round it off.

How I miss those summer days ... Jethimoni sitting on an ason laid on the kitchen verandah, bent over the plateful of fish, working deftly with her fingers. And I sitting quietly beside her, watching with  fascination.
Both oblivious to the sounds coming from the rest of the house and the kitchen.
And later, came my most favourite part.
After everything is done, Jethimoni would straighten up, pick up the plate in one hand and just before getting up, smiling, would hold out her hand for me to lick it a little.
With a nod, she enquires " all ok?" and I smile back with round, shining eyes "daaaarun!"

Even today, when I make this maacher bhorta, I lick my fingers at the end, just before washing my hands ... and Jethimoni's smiling face and enquiring nod dances before my eyes.

You can make this bhorta even if it is not summer and even if you are not having the paanta bhaat for lunch. This makes a great side dish with the plain dal bhaat too.

Need :

Rohu fish - 4 big sized pieces, fried crisp (you can check out here )
Onions - 1 big sized, chopped
Green chillies - 3, chopped
Mustard oil - 2 tbsp
Fresh coriander leaves - chopped 
Salt - to taste

How to :

Break and spread out the fish pieces on a big sized plate.
Pick the bones carefully.
(If you are making the fish keema, the bones are easy to pick since they stand out when cooked. Not so here .... so be careful. Which is why only big sized pieces are used for this. )

Give a little mash ... just to get it together but not make it into a pulp.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients and mix well with a light hand.

If you want, you can fry some boris, crush them and add them too for that extra crunch.

Serve cool. 

Here is my lunch plate with the macher bhorta that I made the other day.
I had made the chana dal with lauki.
But this goes even better with the tauker dal or aam dal and rice.

Enjoy!!


Check out my similar preparations -

Rui maach er Jhura

Maacher keema 

200th Post with my favourite comfort food of ...

... Dal, Bhaat, Aloo bhaate, Begun bhaja ... makha!

Ok ... first things first.

Dal - Lentils
Bhaat - Rice
Aloo - Potato
Bhaate - cooked in or along with rice ( or plain boiled )
Begun - Brinjal / Aubergine / Eggplant
Bhaja - fry / deep fried
Makha - Mixed together or ... as in here ... mashed up together.

I finally made it to my 200th post!
I know ... much as I want to, I have not been giving my blog enough time. I do not post as much as I should.
And on the top of it, instead of cooking and posting exotic and dfifferent recipes, I go ahead and post something as common as dal & rice.

But then, this is my favourite dish! And I have to have it in my blog! I love this simple meal so much that I celebrated my b'day this year with this meal ... instead of going out.
So my blog should have it too. :-)

First, the Dal.

I have taken the Mushur / Mushurir / Masoor dal / Red Lentils here. Cooked with the Paanch Phoron, this dal gets an unique flavour.

Ideally in Bengali homes, dals are cooked or boiled first and then tempered seperately. I cook directly in the pressure cooker along with the tempering. Saves time & energy.

Need :

1 cup Mushur / Mushurir / Masoor dal / Red Lentils
1 onion sliced lengthwise
1/2 teaspoonful of Paanch Phoron
( a mix of equal quantities of methi/fenugreek seeds, kalaunji/onion seeds, rai/mustard seeds, saunf/fennel seeds, jeera/cumin seeds)
A little turmeric / haldi powder
2 broken dry red chillies
1 Bay leaf ( I did not use it )
1 teaspoonful of Mustard oil ( if you do not like mustard oil, any other white oil will do )
Around 5-6 cups of water

How to :

Wash the dal and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker.

Add the paanch phoron and the chilles.

Add the sliced onion and fry well till onion is partly cooked and starts to brown.

Add the dal, haldi powder and salt. Stir well.

Add water, cover and set on low heat.

After 2 whistles, switch off heat.




Remove cover only after the pressure cooker has cooled.
Serve hot.

Second, the Aloo Bhaate.
Or the Aloo Chokha .. as it is known in certain parts of the country.



Since the rice usually used in the homes of Bengal takes a long while to cook ... and it is usually cooked in an open vessel and drained of the starch water, many a time vegetables would be thrown in to get cooked along with it. This way there was no need to boil the vegetables seperately. Potatoes are one vegetable that would be cooked regularly this way .. though other boiled vegetables taste wonderfully good when had hot out of the rice.

But I usually pressure cook the poatoes or run them in the MW Oven.

Need :

Potatoes
Water
Green chillies
Mustard oil
Salt to taste
Chopped oinions

How to :

To boil the potatoes :

Wash the potatoes well. Prick them with a fork all over or make a slight cut in each of them.

Take some water in a pressure cooker and add the potatoes ( they should be submerged in the water ).

Close cover and set to cook on low heat till around 4 to 5 whistles.

Remove cover after cooker has cooled.

Alternatively, you can take the potatoes in MW safe bowl and run them at 60 % for 5 mins.

Remove potatoes and peel them.

Mash them together with salt, mustard oil , chopped onions and crushed fresh green chillies. Remember to crush them ... no chopping allowed.

(If you do not like the flavour of raw mustard oil, you can use ghee ... just give the onions a skip).

This is wonderful when hot, but is equally tasty when eaten at room temperature too.
If you at all have some of the makha left, you an make aloo tikkis out of it ... only remember to remove the big pieces of green chillies.

Third , the Begun Bhaja.

Begun bhaja or fried Brinjal slices are a very common as well as favourite accompaniment to any Bengali meal. A favourite combination with the Khichuri or Luchi / Puris, they are enjoyed best right out of the wok, crisp and piping hot.
If you are health concious, you can grill it on a flat open pan too ... like I usually do. But once in a while, it is ok to indulge in some deep fried Begun bhaja ... especiall if it is raining outside and you have a plateful of smoking hot khichuri in front of you.

Need :
Fresh Brinjals / Eggplants / Aubergines, cut into thick roundels ( just make sure the brinjals do not have too much of seeds in them )
Salt
Mustard oil to deep fry
A little Turmeric / haldi powder

How to :
Apply salt and turmeric to the brinjals and keep aside.

Heat enough mustard oil to deep fry in a heavy kadahi or wok ... preferrable of cast iron ... but never of steel.

Slowly let in the brinjal pieces carefully ... they might splutter ( holding a big sized cover helps).

Let them cook till one side truns golden brown.

Turn them over carefully and brown the other side too.

Sometimes they need to be covered to cook well ... depends on the kind of brinjal you get.

Remove and drain on a paper towel of extra oil.


Serve hot.



Here's a plateful.

And here's how I like to have it ....
... Makha!
All mashed up together. :-)



If you have been patient enough and have reached here finally ... I'll tell you the reason why I love it so much.
My Mom used to mash everything up this way and feed me while I used to hurriedly get ready for classes.

And the love for that taste ... and the memories ... remain. Every mouthful would have a combination of flavours ... mild dal with sharp brinjal fry and some aloo with crunchy onions and sometimes the sharp heat of a piece of green chilli. :-)


Who wants a spoonful of home? :-)

I'll be around henceforth folks.
Take care all !

Ilisher Dim Makha / Fried Hilsa Roe tossed with onions and chillies

I know, I know. This Hilsa thing is getting way too much. My comments section too is reflecting this monotony.
Haven't heard from my veggie friends at all ( Updated : oooooops ... some of them ... not all :-) ) . And I don't blame them. But what can I do?

I have got this fish ... am cooking it ... am trying to eat it. Trying? Yes ... am done now ... no more Ilish for me the whole year now. But when I am cooking it after all, how can I not post the recipes?

It has been ages since I posted a recipe a day ... but I really want to get this over with now.

Unfortunately I have no vegetarian substitute to give for these recipes. So please bear with me ... there will be only a couple more posts on this ... promise. :-)

This time, since I got a huge bulk of Ilish roe, I made good use of it. After enjoying the plain fried roe, I still had some more left. So decided to make a makha (mix) with some fresh onions and mustard oil.

Makha is very common in Bengali cuisine .... rather ... daily meals. The raw mustard oil gives a perfect flavour and turns any bland and boring stuff to simply exotic to taste.
This is called the Ilisher dimer jhura too.

I really wish I had some fresh green chillies ... but I had run out of them. Instead I dry roasted some whole dry chillies and broke them on the makha. That turned out great too. But if you are trying this ... do make it with fresh green chillies.

Need : Ilisher dim / Hilsa roe, marinated with salt and turmeric, chopped onions[ and green chillies], whole dry red chillies, some mustard oil.

How to : Heat a little mustard oil in a kadhai / wok and fry the marinated roe.
Remove and cool.
Dry roast (or fry with a little oil) the red chillies.

Break the roe ... it will crumble easily. Now add the chopped onions [and the green chillies]. Crush the red chillies on it.
Pour a spoonful of raw mustard oil. Mix well.



Done!! :-)
Great on the side with plain rice.