Mango Ice Cream and a Birthday

Cook's Hideout completed 5 years this month. I created this blog as a hobby and a way to document my cooking trial and errors and I'm happy that I'm able to do just that even today. I've met so many incredible food bloggers along the way in the past few years and I've more virtual friends than actual real-life friends. I think about some of them who have stopped blogging over the years and wonder what they are up to now. I have to thank Srivalli for organizing the blogging marathons that keeps me on my toes and makes me post everyday, bonus being getting to know new bloggers and their amazing blogs. Thanks to my family for their patience. Thanks to each and every one of you who come to my blog for your encouraging words. I hope to keep going on many more years to come.

Mango ice cream is something that I absolutely adore and thought would be a perfect recipe to post for the blog's birthday. It used to be a delicacy when we were growing up, only available during summer time. I’m not sure if the situation is still the same in India, but here in the US, Indian groceries carry Mango pulp all through the year making mango ice cream accessible any time you want it.

I already posted a Mango ice cream recipe couple of years back, but this time I wanted to use the cornstarch thickening method that I’ve used for my vanilla ice cream to make it creamier and less icy. The end result was this creamy and delicious ice cream with no added preservatives, but filled with yummy mango goodness.

Ingredients:

Mango puree – 2½ cups

Heavy cream – 1 cup

Whole milk – 2cups

Sugar – ¾ cup

Cardamom powder – 2tsp

Cornstarch – 1½tbsp

Light Corn syrup – 2tbsp

Cream cheese – 3tbsp, softened (to make ice cream scoopable)

Method:

• Whisk cornstarch with 3tbsp milk in a small bowl and set aside.
• Add the rest of the milk to a sauce pan along with cream, corn syrup and sugar. Bring to a boil; lower the heat and simmer the mixture until sugar dissolves, about 5-6 minutes.
• Add the mango puree and simmer for another 2 minutes.
• Take off the heat and slowly stir in the cornstarch slurry, mix thoroughly and put it back on flame.
• Return to boil and cook on medium flame until the mixture thickens a little, about 2 minutes.
• Take the mixture of the heat, whisk in the softened cream cheese and cardamom powder.
• Allow to cool completely; chill for 4 hours or overnight.
• Once chilled, follow the ice cream machine’s instructions to make the ice cream. Enjoy!!

Spicy Cauliflower curry (Masaaledar Phool gobhi)

I can't believe it is the last day of BM# 5 and I can't believe that I posted everyday for 2 weeks. Big thanks to Valli for organizing this marathon and choosing interesting themes. So for day 7 of the marathon, I thought I'll make something from "660 Curries" cookbook by Raghavan Iyer.

This is a simple curry with cauliflower and tomatoes and can be cooked within 30 minutes. Goes great with rice or roti.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1 medium head, cut into 1" florets

Red onion - 1 small, thinly sliced

Tomatoes - 4, medium or 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes

Garlic - 3-4 cloves, cut into thin lengthwise slivers

Ginger - 2" piece, julienned

Ground cumin (jeera) - 2tsp

Ground coriander (dhaniya) - 2tsp

Red chili powder (Cayenne pepper) - 1tsp

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Chickpea flour - 2tbsp

Salt - t0 taste

Cilantro - for garnish

Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan over medium heat; add onions, ginger and garlic and sauté until onions start to caramelize, about 8-10 minutes.
• Add cumin, coriander, chili powder, turmeric and salt. Cook for about 30 seconds.
• Then add the tomatoes, cauliflower and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil. Then lower the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until cauliflower is tender, about 12-15 minutes.
• Sprinkle in the chickpea flour and quickly stir into the sauce to thicken it slightly. Allow the sauce to simmer, uncovered, for another 1-2 minutes to thicken further.
• Stir in chopped cilantro and serve.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up on the final day of the marathon.
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Root Vegetable Curry

For day 6 of BM#5, I made this root vegetable curry with yam, potato and carrots. I saw the recipe in eenadu.net and wrote it down in my diary and have been meaning to make it for quite some time now, finally yesterday I made to post for the marathon.

I thought the use of coconut milk in the curry gives it a different dimension, almost a Keralan twist to the dish. It is mildly spiced with the sweetness from the carrots and coconut milk and slight spiciness from the green chilies. I used frozen yam/ suran/ kanda and it made making this dish in 30 minutes possible. If using fresh, microwave all the veggies to cut down on the cooking time.

Ingredients:
Yam/ Suran/ Kanda – 1 cup chopped
Potato – 2 medium, chopped
Carrots – 2 medium, diced
Onion – 2 medium, chopped
Coconut milk – ½ cup
Ginger – 1tsp, grated
Green chilies – 2-3 (use more for spicier curry)
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – 8-10
Bay leaves – 2
Cinnamon stick – 1” piece
Cloves – 4
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan; add bay leaves, cinnamon stick and cloves and once it start smelling fragrant and aromatic, add onions and turmeric.
• Sauté until onions turn translucent, 6-8 minutes.
• Next add all the veggies, salt and ½ cup of water. Cover and cook until the veggies are tender, should take about 15 minutes.
• Next add coconut milk and bring to a boil. Simmer for another 2 minutes and turn off the heat.

Serve with steamed rice and dal.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today.
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Spinach-Cabbage Lentil Curry (Palakura-Cabbage Pappu kura)

I know the title is a little misleading, how can a dish be a pappu (dal) and a kura (curry). I wonder too!! My intention was to make a dry curry with moong dal, but ended up adding a little too much water as I wanted to make the curry in 30 minutes, but ended up with a very mushy dal. To add insult to injury none of the pictures I took came out good. But it tasted awesome. Well, in the spirit of blogging marathon, I’m going to post the recipe and the picture, but I’m going to redeem myself and make a better looking curry soon.

I usually make this curry with just spinach, but this time I only had half a bag of baby spinach, so I added half a head of cabbage to make enough curry for 3-4 servings.

Ingredients:
Spinach – 3 cups, chopped
Cabbage – ½ of a medium head, about 4 cups chopped
Moong dal (Pesarapappu) – ½ cup
Garlic – 2 cloves, roughly chopped
Green chilies – 2, slit vertically
Turmeric – ¼ tsp Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Urad dal (minapappu) – ½ tsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Dry red chilies – 2, broken
Curry leaves – 8-10

Method:

• Soak moong dal in water for about 5-10 minutes (up to half an hour if you have time), in the mean time get the veggies ready.
• Heat 2tsp oil in a sauté pan, add tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter add moong dal (drained), spinach and cabbage. Add turmeric and mix well.
• Cover and cook on medium flame stirring occasionally until dal is cooked through and cabbage is cooked through, should take about 15-20 minutes.
• Season with salt and cook for another minute. Serve with steamed rice or roti.

Usually there’s no need to add water to cook the lentils since if are soaked and both cabbage and spinach give out water while cooking. I wanted to finish the dish within 30 minutes, so added about ¼ cup of water along with the veggies which ended up making my dal too mushy. Ideally this is a dry curry where should be able to see the dal whole.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up for Day 5 of BM#5.
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Chayote Gravy Curry (Chow Chow Gravy Curry)

Today, day 4 of BM# 5, I have a curry that can be made in a hurry in the pressure cooker. Chayote/ Chow chow/ Bengaluru vankaya takes a little while to cook on stove top, but takes just minutes to cook to tender in the pressure cooker.

I didn’t know chayote is a widely used vegetable in Latin American cuisine and it is also eaten raw in salads and salsas. Another thing that I didn’t know that even the root, stems and leaves of the chayote plant are edible. So there you go some wiki gyan to start a conversation at your next party.

Coming back to the curry, I used MTR brand curry masala that I bought recently and it gave the dish the bright orange-red color and subtle masala flavor that was not too over-powering. Dish was mild and not too hot which is how I like my curries, but my husband on the other hand prefers spicier dishes, so increase the amount of curry powder and red chili powder if you want a spicier curry. Also curry powder can be replaced with garam masala, Kitchen king masala would be awesome addition too.

Ingredients:
Chayote/ Chow chow – 2, peeled and chopped
Onion – 1 large, finely chopped
Tomato puree – ¼ cup
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Curry powder (I used MTR brand) – 1½ tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Ginger+Garlic paste – ½ tsp
Cashew butter – 2tbsp
Milk – ½ cup (optional)
Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Urad dal – 1tsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – 8-10

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a pressure cooker, add tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add the onions and sauté until lightly browned around the edges, takes about 6-7 minutes.
• Add turmeric and ginger+garlic paste at this point; mix well and cook for 1 minute.
• Add tomato puree and cook for 3-4 minutes.
• Next add cashew butter, red chili powder, curry powder, salt and chopped chayote. Mix well; add ½ cup of milk or water, no need to add too much water since chayote gives out moisture while cooking.
• Close the lid and pressure cook on medium flame for 2 whistles.
• Once the pressure drops, open the lid and serve hot with rice or rotis.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today.
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Lau Bori (Bengali Bottlegord Curry with Vadi)

This is such a simple dish and can be whipped up in less than 30 minutes. After trying all these Bengali recipes here is my high level summary: most of the vegetarian curries (that I tried) do not have onion or garlic and are tempered with spices like cinnamon stick and/ or bay leaf and seasoned with grated ginger Bengalis absolutely love their poppy seeds. Well this curry doesn’t include poppy seed action, but the other 2 points from my summary hold true. This is another recipe that I got from Sandeepa’s Bong cookbook and I followed the recipe to the T.

Ingredients:

Bottle gourd – 1 medium, peeled and chopped into ¼” pieces
Tomato – 2 medium, finely chopped
Ginger – 1 tsp, grated
Green chilies – 2-3
Ground Cumin – ½ tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Moong dal vadi – ½ cup, fried until golden brown
Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Bay leaves – 2
Cinnamon stick – 1” piece
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan; add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add the tomatoes and cook covered until they turn mushy.
• Add chopped bottle gourd and turmeric and sauté for 2 minutes.
• Next add ground cumin, red chili powder and salt.
• Cover and cook, stirring once in a while, until the veggie is completely cooked and the curry is dry, takes about 15 minutes.
• Crumble the fried vadi on top and serve with steamed rice.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today.
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Spicy Colacasia (Sookhi Arvi Curry)

For day 2 of BM# 5, I have a quick and easy arbi/ arvi/ chamadumpa/ colacasia fry that I made for our weekend lunch and it turned out spicy and yummy. My mom makes really good chamadumpa vepudu (arvi fry) that are crisp and delicious. I’ve tried a number of times, but my curry usually ends up being mushy and not crisp. I think the arbi that we get here are a little too mealy and disintegrate when boiled and I might be boiling them a little too much too.

When I saw the recipe and the drool worthy pictures in Pure & Simple cookbook by Vidhu Mittal that I borrowed from the library, I wanted to give the dish a try. My all time favorite dish with arbi is this curry with peanut-garlic sauce from 660 Curries by Ragavan Iyer, but this dish turned out equally good and can be made within 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

Arbi – 8-10, medium sized

Ajwain (Carom) seeds – ½ tsp

Hing (Asafoetida) – ¼ tsp

Red chili powder – ½ tsp (add more if you want more heat)

Ground coriander – 1 tsp

Amchoor powder (dry mango powder) – 1/4 tsp

Salt – to taste

Method:

• Pressure cook arbi for only 1-2 whistles. Once the arbi are cool enough to handle, peel them and squish them or flatten them a little bit with your hands, this will give the veggie more surface area to brown and turn crunchy and yummy.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan; add ajwain and hing; once the seeds start to splutter add the boiled and flattened arbi.
• Add the dry masalas and salt and mix to coat the veggie uniformly. Cook on medium flame until golden brown crust forms on both sides, this will take about 5-6 minutes.

Serve hot with steamed rice and dal.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Aloo (& Begun) Posto

I’m joining the 3rd group for Blogging Marathon# 5 with “Curry in a Hurry” theme. Thanks to Valli for letting me join the group again or in other words letting me continue the marathon for another week. So for the next 7 days I’ll be posting different curries that can be made within 30 minutes.

30 Minutes is the most I have on a week night to cook before all of us get cranky with hunger. I try to keep things simple and try to make dishes that don’t need too much baby sitting or lot of prep work. Here’s one such dish that I made from Sandeepa’s Bong Cookbook for last week’s Bengali marathon but couldn't post since I already had my 7 Bengali recipes.

Eggplant/ Brinjal is my absolute favorite veggie and potato-eggplant is one of my favorite combos. My mom makes simple vankaya-bangaladumpa kura (potato-eggplant curry) that is simply out of this world and it doesn’t even have any masalas or anything else to jazz it up; it’s just the veggies cooked with salt and curry powder. It’s just yumm.. After using poppy seeds in these dishes, poppy seeds have become my new favorite ingredient. These seeds are tiny but the creamy consistency they give to the dish is simply fabulous.

I had some eggplants that needed to be used up, so I added them too to make this Alu beguni posto. I hope alu posto purists are not going to pelt me with potatoes. This is my way of combining my favorite ingredients and I’ve to say the end result was “Moja” (delicious in Bengali???).

Thank you Sandeepa for correcting the name of the dish.

Sandeepa's original recipe here:
Ingredients:
Potatoes – 3 medium, peeled and diced
Eggplant – 4 medium, chopped
Green chilies – 3-4
Dry Red chilies – 2
Poppy seeds – ¼ cup
Salt – to taste
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Method:

• Grind poppy seeds into a smooth powder or if your blender needs some help, sprinkle some water to let the blade moving and make a smooth paste.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan, add cumin seeds and once they start to splutter add red chilies and sauté for 30 seconds.
• Next add potatoes and eggplant; sauté on medium-high flame until potatoes turn lightly brown around the edges, about 5-6 minutes.
• Add poppy paste and turmeric, mix well to coat all the veggies.
• Add ½ cup of water, salt and green chilies; lower the heat to medium; cover and cook until the veggies are cooked through, about 10-12 minutes.

Serve with rice and dal for a complete meal.

Lets check and see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Jayasree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Cool Lassi(e), Harini, Vaishali, Suma
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Kamalika, Srivalli

Bengali Aam Kheer (Mango Kheer)

For the last day of blogging marathon#5 I wanted to make a Bengali dessert/ sweet. My dad worked in Burdwan, West Bengal for a year or two and when he visited us he would bring back containers filled with Rasagullas for us to enjoy. Those were the best rasagullas I’ve ever tasted and I don’t think any of the canned or the restaurant ones come even close. I wanted to make rasagullas for the marathon, but didn’t have the time to make them.

Many of the Bengali desserts are made with chenna or sweetened paneer, but with the limited time I had I decided to make this equally delicious and decadent Aam Kheer (Mango Kheer) . Why didn't I ever think of adding mango puree to sweetened and thickened milk to make this divine dessert. So simple, yet so sophisticated and the taste is just out of this world.

Recipe adapted from Sandeepa's Bong Cookbook. I've to thank Sandeepa for all the Bengali dishes on her blog and we had a great time making and eating these delicious dishes. I changed the original recipe a little bit to use up the leftover evaporated and condensed milk I had after making this. I only had 2% milk on hand, but I don't think that affected the taste or consistency of the end product.

Ingredients:

Milk - 2 cups (I used 2%)

Evaporated milk - 1 cup

Condensed milk - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1/4 cup (optional)

Saffron - few strands

Ground Elaichi (Cardamom) - 1/2 tsp

Ripe mango - 2 medium

Method:

• Heat 2% milk with evaporated milk in a heavy bottom sauce pan and bring to a boil.
• Add condensed milk and sugar (if using) and continue to simmer on medium flame stirring continuously until the milk thickens and reduces to about half of the original volume, takes about 50 minutes - 1 hour.
• Add saffron and elaichi to the milk mixture in the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove from heat and cool completely.
• Chill in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours.
• When ready to serve, puree 1 mango and mix with the kheer. Chop the other mango and garnish the serving dishes with cubed mango for a double dose of mango goodness.

This was probably one of the best desserts I've ever made with mango. The kheer had a thick, almost dulce de leche consistency and taste and the sweet mango complements the kheer in a great way. This is a must try for all Mango lovers.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala

Luchi with Aloo'r Dom (Bengali Maida Puri with Aloo Curry)

For Day 6 of BM#5, I wanted to combine my bread making skills from BM#4 with the regional theme for BM#5 and make these Bengali maida puris. My puri making have improved after my mom sent a puri press to do the hard work. So now all I have to do is make the dough, press the puris in my puri press and fry the, up; really simple. Only thing is I don't like to deal all that oil afterwards and hence my reluctance to make anything fried.

Well today I made these yummy puris for lunch and the three of us ate all the puris. I felt so full and sleepy that I had to take a 2 hour siesta, which happens very rarely.

Recipe adapted from Sandeepa's Bong Cookbook.

Luchi:

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1½ cups
Whole wheat flour - ¾cup

Shortening or oil - 2tbsp (I used crisco)

Salt - ½tsp

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl until oil is evenly distributed in the flour.
• Add water a little at a time and form a stiff but pliable dough.
• Cover with a damp paper towel and rest for 30 minutes.
• Divide the dough into small Indian lime size pieces (limes & lemons in the U.S. are HUGE) and make them into smooth balls. Roll each ball into a not to thin, not too thick disc of about 3-4" diameter or if you have the puri press, just press the dough into a disc and place on a plate.
• Heat enough oil in a pan for deep frying. Oil should be really hot before making the puris. Slide one disc slowly into the oil and it should sizzle and if the oil temperature is right, it will rise to the top in matter of seconds. Press lightly on the top with a slotted spoon to make the puri puff up. flip and fry on the other side for 30 seconds. Remove on to paper towel lined plate and enjoy hot with Aloo'r dom or any other side dish.

Puri puffing up pictorial:

Aloo'r Dom (Bengali Dum Aloo):

Ingredients:

Small red skin potatoes - 8-10, boiled and peeled

Onion - 1 small, ground to a coarse paste

Tomato puree - ½ cup

Bay leaves - 2

Hing (Asafoetida) - a pinch

Ginger - 1 tsp, finely grated

Yogurt - 2tbsp

Ground Coriander - ½ tsp

Garam masala - ½tsp
Red chili powder - ½tsp (or to taste)
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan; add bay leaves and hing and once the oil gets fragrant add onions and sauté till they are lightly browned.
• Add the ginger paste and cook for another minute.
• Next add tomato puree, cover and cook till oil leaves the sides of the pan.
• In the meantime whisk the dry masala powders in yogurt and set aside.
• Once the tomato mixture is ready, take the pan off of the heat and slowly whisk in the yogurt mixture. This will avoid curdling of yogurt.
• Put the pan back on heat and slide in the potatoes (I cut them into half as they were little big, but if you have tiny potatoes use them whole), season with salt; cover and cook on low flame until the water in the gravy evaporates and the masala coats the potatoes.
• Enjoy with Luchi.

My son loved the puris and enjoyed them with some raspberry jam and we enjoyed them with aloo'r dom for a delicious Bengali menu for lunch.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala

Mishti Doi - Bengali Sweet Yogurt

For some reason when I think about Bengalis I picture them discussing about politics while eating their puris with something sweet over breakfast. I always thought Bengalis are food lovers and eat a lot of sweet dishes. I have no clue when and why this image formed in my mind. But after reading this wiki article, I probably did get my information from a reliable source.

Quoting from Wikipedia: “The Bengalis are great food lovers and take pride in their cuisine. A meal, for the Bengali, is a ritual in itself even if it only boiled rice and lentils (dal bhat), with of course a little fish. Bengalis, like the French, spend not only the great deal of time thinking about the food but also on its preparation and eating. Quips like “Bengalis live to eat” and “Bengalis spend most of their income on food” are not exactly exaggerated.” I’m not sure if this the norm even today, but this is how I like to think of them.

At the same time if I think of people from Andhra, I picture them talking about movies over a cup of tea or coffee, but never with real food. I don’t think food plays such an important role in our households, even though I wish it did, but I can't think of my dad going to the market everyday to get produce. My mom shudders even today when asked about the grocery shopping that my dad used to do more than 20 years ago. He would come back home with load full of veggies every week from his trip to monda market (Secunderabad) and to my mom's despair there was always at least 1-2 kilos of beets. Not the small dainty ones, but cricket ball size hard ones. My mom never liked beets and she would let them "almost" go bad before she cooked them. Then she completely took over grocery shopping when we moved into our house and the farmers market was at walking distance. I don't she ever buys beets now.. (Now that I think about it, I've to ask her to confirm).

I digress... Coming back to Bengali cuisine, a traditional Bengali meal is very elaborate with about 5-6 courses starting off with something bitter like shukto and ending with something sweet like this Mishti (sweet) Doi (yogurt).

I'm not sure how the mishti doi is made traditionally, but this recipe from Hare Krsna takes about 3-5 minutes of hands on time and is probably the easiest and yummiest dessert I've ever made after this one. The end result tasted like dulche de leche to me, but my yogurt-intolerant husband said he could taste the yogurt in it. I had to strongly disagree, but the good thing is I get to eat all the mishti doi that I made and I'm loving every spoonful of it.

Recipe makes 4 7oz. servings.

Ingredients:

Condensed milk - ½ of 12oz. can

Evaporated milk - ½ of 12oz. can

Yogurt - ½ cup or 4oz.

Elaichi powder (Cardamom) or milk masala - 1tsp

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 300°F.
• Blend both the milks and yogurt together with an immersion blender or in regular blender until frothy.
• You can either mix elaichi or milk masala into the milk mixture or sprinkle on the top like I did.
• Pour the mixture into individual 7oz. ramekins or a circular or oval baking dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil, place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes turn off the oven and leave the ramekins in the oven undisturbed overnight.
• Next morning take them out of the oven and put them in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours before serving.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala

Shukto - Bengali Mixed Vegetable Curry

For Day 4 of BM# 5, I made this mixed vegetable Bengali curry which interestingly includes bittergourd along with other veggies. Again recipe courtesy Sandeepa's Bong cookbook. In Andhra bitter gourd or kakarakaya is usually used mostly by itself and as far as I know is rarely cooked with other vegetables. So when I saw this recipe I thought it was very unique (at least to me since I've never tried this combination of veggies before) and wanted to give it a try. The veggies are cooked with mustard and poppy seed paste which gives the curry a totally different dimension. The dish turned out delicious in a very interesting and different way.

I followed the recipe to the T, except that I didn't have green beans on hand, so didn't use any. Also I added 2 dry red chilies to the blender when grinding the mustard and poppy seeds to add some heat to the curry.

Ingredients:

Bitter gourd (Karela) - 1 medium, diced

Ridge gourd (Beerakaya) - 1 medium, chopped into half moons

Plantain (Raw banana) - 1 small, chopped into half moons

Potato - 1 medium, chopped into half moons

Japanese Eggplant - 1 medium, chopped into half moons

Ginger - 1" grated

Moong vadi - 1/2 cup, fried until golden brown

Milk - 1/3 cup

Salt - to taste

For tempering:

Methi seeds (Fenugreek seeds) - 1/2 tsp

Bay leaves - 2

Hing (Asafoetida) - 1/4tsp

For the paste:

Mustard seeds - 2tbsp

Poppy seeds - 1tbsp

Dry red chilies - 2

Method:

• Soak mustard seeds and poppy seeds in water for at least half an hour. Then drain the water and grind to a paste. Since the amount was so little, my blender blade didn't make a very smooth paste. I tried my best and gave up at the end.
• Sauté each veggie separately until lightly roasted about 3-4 minutes per veggie. Remove and set aside. Sauté bittergourd last.
• Add 2tbsp oil in the same pan; add methi seeds, bay leaves and hing and once the seeds turn reddish and hing starts to smell fragrant, add all the sautéed veggies. Add the ground mustard paste and grated ginger. Mix well.
• Next add milk, salt and 1/2 cup of water. Cover and cook till the veggies are tender and the water is all absorbed.

Add the fried moong vadi before serving. Serve hot with steamed rice at the beginning of the meal to cleanse the palette and get your digestive juices flowing.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala

Bengali Egg Curry (Dim er Dhoka)

For Day 3 of BM#5, I made this yummy Bengali egg curry. Eggs are beaten and steamed to make egg cake which is then chopped and added to delicious gravy. Recipe adapted from Sandeepa’s Bong Cookbook. This is my third recipe in a row from Sandeepa’s blog which is filled with ton of yummy Bengali dishes that are easy to make and her posts are always so much fun to read. So if you haven’t already, do check out Sandeepa’s blog.

Coming back to the egg curry, I followed the recipe, but had to make slight changes to suit our palette. Here’s how I made it.

Sandeepa's original recipe here.
Ingredients:

For the Egg Cake:

Eggs – 6

Red onion – 1 small, finely chopped

Green chilies – 2, finely chopped

Coriander leaves – ¼ cup, finely chopped

Ginger paste – 1tsp

Milk – 3tbsp

Salt – to taste

Baking powder – a pinch

For the Gravy:

Red onions – 1 medium, finely chopped

Tomato puree – ½ cup

Panch phoron – ½ tsp

Ginger + garlic paste – 1tsp

Cashew butter – 2tbsp

Ground cumin – 1 tsp

Ground coriander – 1tsp

Red chili powder – ½ tsp

Sugar – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Method:

• To make the Egg cake: Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add all the other ingredients and whisk until combined. Grease a stainless steel container with cooking spray and pour the egg mixture into it. Cover and steam in a pressure cooker (without the whistle) for 5-6 minutes from the time it starts to give out steam. Open the lid after 3 minutes and unmold the cake and cut into bite size pieces. Set aside.
• To make the gravy: Heat 2tbsp oil in a large sauté pan; add panch phoron and once the seeds start to splutter, add onions and sauté until lightly browned around the edges.
• Add g+g paste and cook for 1 minute or until they don’t smell raw anymore.
• Next add tomato puree, cover and cook on medium flame for 5 minutes.
• Add spice powders, sugar and salt along with 1 – 1½ cups of water to make the gravy. Let the gravy come to a simmer, whisk in cashew butter and add chopped egg cake pieces. Simmer the curry for 8-10 minutes or until the gravy is thickened. Serve with rice or roti.

I served the curry with rice and a Bengali style moong dal (recipe coming up tomorrow) for a complete Bengali meal.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala

Bengali Bittergourd Curry with Poppy seeds (Uchche Posto Jhuri)

I was never a picky eater, but when I started thinking about how I felt about bitter gourd when I was young, I don’t have a distinct memory of either liking it or disliking it. May be my mom wasn’t feeding it to her kids, because she knew we wouldn’t like it or maybe she masked the bitterness and made us eat it, I have no memory whatsoever.

But one distinct memory I have was eating stuffed karela at our dear neighbors place; karelas were stuffed and tightly closed with kitchen twine and then sautéed until golden brown (may be in a batter—don’t remember that), but I remember them just melting in my mouth with no bitterness at all. I guess that was when I started really noticing and liking this bitter veggie.

I don’t mind slight bitterness anymore, but personally I try to take out as much of that bitter taste as I can by pre-cooking the gourd with yogurt or tamarind and then using the veggie as needed. For today’s Bengali dish for BM#5, I picked this delicious bitter gourd dish from Sandeepa’s Bong cookbook. I have to say this is one of the best karela dishes I have ever made. It’s a dry curry and the poppy seeds coat the bitter gourd and give them an almost creamy taste when eating. A must try for all Karela fans.

Did I mention the original recipe only has 5 ingredients, but with my pre-cooking the ingredient list grew to a whopping 6 ingredients that includes salt too.

Sandeepa's Original recipe here.
Ingredients:
Bitter gourd/ Karela/ Kakarakaya – 4 medium, diced
Poppy seeds – 3tbsp
Dry Red chilies – 3
Yogurt – 2tbsp
Salt – to taste
Mustard seeds – 1tsp

Method:

• Grind poppy seeds in a spice grinder or small food processor either dry or with very little water.
• Mix yogurt with chopped karela, ½ tsp salt and ¼ cup of water in a microwave safe container; loosely cover and microwave for 5-6 minutes or until the veggie is almost tender, but not completely cooked. Drain and rinse. Squeeze the water completely from the veggie and keep aside.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a sauté pan, add mustard seeds and once they start to platter, add the cooked karela and sauté on medium-low flame until completely cooked through and slightly browned around the edges.
• Add the poppy seed powder or paste; mix well so that the veggies are completely coated with the powder.
• Season with salt and cook for 5 more minutes until the flavors meld. Serve with steamed rice and enjoy.

Let's check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up today:
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Priya Suresh, Srivalli, Usha
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Vardhini,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets: Harini, Suma, Veena
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Aarthi, Kalyani, Pavani, Shylaja
Summer Coolers: PJ, Vaishali
Under 15 mins Quick Breakfast: Sushma Pinjala