Chenchki / Mixed vegetables

This is one simple dish that makes good use of any leftover vegetables in your fridge. Extremely quick to make, this has no added masalas.
The vegetables cook in their own juices .... hehehe .... literally .... and that is what that gives it that distinct flavour and taste.

I made this to have with puris on the weekend ... but ended up having it with something completely different .... in a place completely different too. The story is here.

Need : Vegetables cut into cubes ( I had aloo, kaddu, parwal, baingan ... can add a lot more), chopped onion, kalaunji, haldi powder, whole red chillies, a little mustard / any cooking oil and salt to taste.


How to: Heat a little oil. Add the chillies and kalaunji. Then add the onions and fry a little. Now add all the vegetables, haldi powder and salt.
Note I did not add any sugar as the kaddu / pumpkin will give the required sweetness.
Cover and cook till the vegetables are done.
It should be slightly mushy.
Goes great with hot rotis/ parathas/ puris.

Capsicum in besan

Honestly I do not know the name of this dish. I had it at a Maharashtrian friend's place and like more for the easy way it is done ... not to mention the time ... it can be made in a jiffy.

An extremely uncomplicated recipe, it is a life saver when you have no idea what to make or when you have run out of veggies or other stuff.

Need :

Capsicum / Bell peppers - 2 medium sized, sliced lengthwise,
Onions - sliced lengthwise
Besan / Gram flour around ½ cup
( you might need more or less depending upon the moisture released by the bell peppers and theonions )
Jeera / Cumin seeds - a pinch
Haldi / Turmeric powder - a pinch
Red chilli powder
Hing / Asafoetida - a small pinch
Cooking oil - 1 tbsp
Sugar - to taste
Salt - to taste.

How to :

Heat oil in a kadahi or wok. Add the hing and the jeera.

Then add the onions and fry a little.

Add the capsicums and fry till they turn soft.

Add salt and sugar now.

Now add the besan and keep stirring.

Add the haldi and chilli powder.

Keep stirring till the besan absorbs all moisture.

Sprinkle a little water if necessary and keep stirring till besan is done.

( If it gets too moist with the water, add some more besan ... but fry it well after that ).

Serve hot.

This will be a very dryish dish.

Great on the side with hot rotis and some dal.
I love it with dal & chawal too. :-)

Ilish Maacher Patla Jhol / Hilsa in thin gravy & a Meme

This jhol is made by my Nakakima (aunt) ... and is as simple a dish as she is a person. Innocent as a child and absolutely non-political (joint family or otherwise) she would always love to be around us kids. And loved every joke of ours. A complete misfit everywhere ... the family had elders to look into every matter ... from cooking to everything else. And we kids definitely did not need an elder in our escapades. But the best thing about my kakima is she never ever pretended to be smart or outspoken ... which is why I have always loved her. :-)

Sometimes she would make this jhol with aloo and baingan pieces ... a very thin gravy
It is only years later ... after I started to cook .... I realised that since the Ilish has such a distinct flavour of its own .... we really do not need anything too overwhelming to cook it. It would only spoil the whole dish.

I got my first Ilish of this season. And started off with nostalgia. :-)

Need : Ilish pieces (marinated in salt and haldi powder and lightly fried in mustard oil), aloo peeled and cubed, brinjal cubed in a little bigger size than the aloo, sliced onion,whole red chillies, paanch phoron, roasted jeera powder, haldi powder, mustard oil and salt to taste.

How to : Heat oil. Add the paanch phoron and red chillies. Then add the sliced onions and fry for sometime.

Add the vegetables and the haldi powder water. Add salt.

Cover and cook till the vegetables are done. Remove cover and add the fish pieces and a little roasted jeera powder. Cover and simmer for some more time.

Goes great with hot, steamed rice. :-)

I have been tagged by dear Jaya . And am doing this only for the dear person that she is.

Thanks for thinking of me Jaya.

Am really curious about who comes up with these things.

As I start off, am already bristling at that word in the first line .... Rule. Rule? Sigh. Ok ... go ahead .... rule.

now as per Rule ,
Pick up the nearest book
Goto Page 123
Now Find the fifth sentence
post next three sentence
Tag 5 People and acknowledge the person who tagged you

1st line .. errr Rule .... it does not mention which way .... left or right. I have my huge bookcase on my left ... and the small bookracks on the wall on my right. Ok girl ....think.

If I reach out to my left I will have more the numbers of books to choose from than on the right. Crichton and Mary Higgins, Conan Doyle and Khashoggi, even Sukumar Ray and soooooo many more .... all bore their eyes on me. Ruuuuuuun. So I reach out to my right.

Jerome K. and James Herriot dominate. But then Twain and Jack London are vying for attention too. And there goes Victor Hugo ... smirk,smirk ... coz my hand falls on the hunch. Eeeeeek!

But Rule .... Rule .... don't forget the next Rule.

2nd Rule I go to page 123.

3rd Rule ..... Ok .... sigh .... I do find a sentence ..... 5th sentence .... by now am wishing for a lifer.

4th Rule ... "post next three sentence " .... well .... help me somebody!

The creator of this 'book' meme has possibly never heard of singulars and plurals. Lord ... give me the strength .... lightly to bear ..... Ok .... ok ... almost done ... get going.
Here goes .... ".... of the eleventh century,the slated obelisk of the fifteenth, the round and naked keep of the castle, the square and embroidered tower of the church, the great and the small, the massive and the light. The eye was long bewildered amidst this labyrinth of heights and depths in which there was nothing but had its originality, its reason, its genius, its beauty, nothing but issued from the hand of art, from the humblest dwelling, with its painted and carved wooden front, elliptical doorway and overhanging stories, to the royal Louvre , which then had a colonnade of towers. But when the eye began to reduce this tumult of edifices to some kind of order, the principal masses that stood out from among them were these."

I wonder even more ..... who is going to get what out of this???? Is anybody at all going to read the above lines? And if at all somebody has so much time .... will they bother to even wonder what comes after this ????

5th Rule ..... heee heee heee, haaa haa haaa, my turn now to play spoilsport. I have to get back for making me type with one finger after all. ;-p

I have already acknowledged dear Jaya.

And am saving 5 more people this torture. Besides ... rules are meant to be broken :-))

So long folks !!!! :-)