Chilli gobi - Chilly Cauliflower in Homely style

The readers of my blog have already experienced my homely style chilly chicken. This one is similar dish with cauliflower. This is a Chinese preparation with some modification to make it healthy (aka less spicy) and suitable for Indian taste bud. It is easy to cook too. As in my earlier chilly chicken this recipe is even good for people who have high cholesterol.

This one is loved by my kids. Even my health conscious husband likes it. It takes little time to prepare. Hope you and your family likes it.

Preparation Time: - 10 min

Cooking Time: - 30 min

Servings: - 2~3 persons

Ingredients:-

1. 1 medium sized cauliflower cut into florets ( not small)
2. 1 big sized onion cut into cubes
3. 3~4 garlic cloves
4. 1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
5. 1 medium sized or 2 small sized capsicum chopped /cubed
6. 1 ½ tbsp Black Soya sauce
7. Salt  to taste
8. 1 tomato chopped
9. 1 tbsp Tomato sauce. You can use sugar also in place of this if you like.
10. ½ tsp black pepper freshly grounded
11. 2 green chilly slit lengthwise. You can also use Green /Red Chilly sauce here as per your liking
12. ½ ~1 tsp Lemon juice. This brings the tangy taste which kids will like
13. 6 tbsp vegetable oil ( I used Sunflower Oil)
14. 2 tsp Corn Flower / Arrowroot powder
15. 1 tsp melted butter (optional)

Preparation:-

1. Cut the Cauliflower into medium florets. Clean them by soaking them in salted warm water for 10 min.
   
2. Take a pan and start boiling sufficient water. Add the florets one by one and switch off the burner. Keep it there for 6~8 minutes.
   
3. Drain the water and keep aside.
   
4. Take a bowl and mix corn flower / arrowroot in water. This is required for the thick gravy. Keep aside.
5. Heat 6 tbsp oil in a non-stick kadai / pan.
6. Add the garlic cloves and after about 1 minute add the onion. Sauté in medium heat for sometime.
7. When the onion turn golden brown add ginger garlic paste and green chilly/chilly sauce.
   
   
   
8. Stir and fry for a minute and pour the cauliflower florets into it.
9. Add salt and Soya sauce now.
10. Stir continuously for about a minute and add capsicum and tomato.
    
11. At first it will produce a lot of juice - continue stirring and when the mixture looks dry put the corn flour mixture in it.
    
12. When the water starts boiling add the tomato sauce
13. Stir continuously - now add the lemon juice and black pepper
14. Cook for about 2 more minutes
    
15. Add melted butter (optional) and stir thoroughly for about 1 minute
16. Switch off the flame and your homely chilly cauliflower is ready
    

Serve it as a soupy starter before meal. This can be great accompaniment to hakka noodles and Chinese style fried rice. I served my kids with hot white rice also and they liked it.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.

Happy Republic Day

Best wishes for India's Republic Day for my Indian readers.

Beguner Kalia - Brinjal Masala Curry

If you are following my blog you may know that I am little bit biased towards Begun (Brinjal) and lau (bottlegourd). Here is one more Brinjal stuff from my kitchen. When I was young I used to visit my grandma’s place quite often and was fascinated by her cooking skills. She is one of my inspirations behind my blog. She also loved brinjal and used to cook this Begun Kalia often. This is a traditional Bengali dish which is yummy and smells good. This is a vegetarian dish and you can make it more strictly vegetarian ( Jain food) by removing the onion from the recipe.

Preparation Time: - 10 min

Cooking Time: - 50 min

Servings: - 4 persons

Ingredients:-

1. 1 large Brinjal about 400 gm.
2. 2 medium sized Potato – about 200 gm.
3. 1 medium sized onion
4. 1~2 green chilly or red chilly if you like it more spicy
5. 1 tbsp Ghee
6. Yogurt or sour curd – 100 gm
7. Salt and Sugar to taste
8. 1 ½ tbsp ginger paste
9. 1 tsp cumin powder or dry roast cumin seeds with dry red chili and grind to a powder.
10. 1 tsp whole Jeera /cumin seeds
11. 1 tsp turmeric Powder
12. 2 tsp Garam Masala
13. 2 Bay leaves
14. 7~8 tbsp Mustard oil. Since this is a traditional Bengali dish it is good to cook in Mustard oil but you can use other vegetable oil also.
15. ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves

  Preparation:-

1. Cut the brinjal and potatoes lengthwise and keep aside.
2. Take a bowl and whip curd and dry roasted cumin powder.
   
3. Mix turmeric powder and salt with the brinjal pieces and marinate for few minutes.
4. Heat oil in a non-stick kadai / pan and fry the potatoes with salt in 2 tbsp oil. Drain the oil with tissue paper and keep aside.
   
5. In the same pan add 3 tbsp oil and fry the brinjal. Drain the oil and keep aside.
   
6. Add ½ tsp ghee+3 tbsp oil in the same kadai /pan. Add the Bay leaves and whole jeera. Sauté for some time till the jeera crackles
7. Now add the onion cook for a little. A nice aroma of the combination should sooth your senses. Stir till the onion turns golden brown.
   
8. Pour the ginger paste and green chilly. Stir for a minute or so.
9. Put the whipped curd mixture and potatoes in it. Stir to ensure that the spices do not stick to the bottom. Cook around 4~5 minutes in medium heat or till the oil comes to the surface.
   
10. Add little water, salt and sugar. Cover the pan and cook for around 5 minutes.
11. Add fried brinjal pieces and continue cooking for around 2 minutes.
    
12. When the brinjal and potatoes are properly done add ½ tsp ghee, garam Masala and coriander leaves. Stir for few seconds and switch off the burner.
    

This is a Bengali side dish - so it goes well with hot rice.

Please note that the time described here is approximate as it all depends upon the Brinjal and potatoes. When I was cooking for the photos it took more time as my brinjal and potatoes were taking too much time to cook. Also please ensure that at the end the gravy should be thick for good taste. 

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.

Garlic cauliflower mash with herbs

My hubby fights with me on my blog recipes that they are not really very healthy as they contain a lot of oil. I argue that compared to other food blogs my recipes are with less oil and chilly and that makes them healthy. But in his opinion, only western recipes are healthy. I have a point that western recipes taste bland and some ingredients are not available in India. On Sunday morning our tiff on this subject reached maximum and my hubby cooked this recipe to prove his point. To my surprise, this one tastes great and definitely very healthy. However I pointed out that high cheese content makes this little unhealthy. Anyway our fight will go on but in the meantime I present his recipe here.

Preparation Time: - 15 min

Cooking Time: - 10 min

Servings: - 3 persons

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium cauliflower, head cut into florets. You can use half of large ones.
   
2. 5~6 cloves of garlic
3. 1 tbsp vegetable oil. I used sunflower oil but you can use olive oil to make it more healthy
4. 2 tbsp Full Cream Milk
5. ¼ cup grated cheese. If you get Parmesan cheese it is better but I use normal Britannia low fat cheese
6. 1 tbsp unsalted butter
7. Salt to taste. Rock salt is better for this one
8. 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
9. Herbs – If you get the fresh herbs you should use 1 tsp of chopped Rosemary and Thyme. Since it is not readily available in my area, I used a mixture of dry herbs which I bought from Nilgiri Supermarket. I used 1 tsp of the mixture which contains each of the above mentioned herbs.

Preparation:-

1. Boil the cauliflower in pressure cooker for 10~12 minutes. You can use a steamer pot in Microwave also if you are inclined towards Microwave. But boiling in pressure cooker makes it easy to digest.
   
2. Drain the water and keep aside.
3. Take a non-sticky pan and sauté the garlic in oil over medium heat
4. Take a high speed blender/food processor and transfer the cauliflower in it.
5. Blend in high speed for few seconds and then pour garlic, cheese, butter, milk, salt and pepper
   
6. Continue blending until the mixture becomes smooth. Put the herbs and continue few seconds more.
   

That’s all folks. Your low carbohydrate, high fiber healthy dish is ready. You can have this dish with bread and other western chicken preparation.

Please note that you can add onion and little chilly with garlic if you feel it to be too bland. If you do not love garlic so much like me or my family you can reduce the amount of garlic and add little ginger paste. This will make the taste tangier.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.

Nalen (Khejur) Gurer Payes - Bengali Style Pudding with Date Palm Jaggery

Yesterday was festival time for all of India – Poush (Makar) Sangkranti for Bengalis, Pongal in South India and Lohri in North India. In Bengal, availability of Nalen Gur (Date Palm Jaggery) makes it possible to sweeten up this occasion with what is called Nalen Gurer Payes (Bengali Style Pudding with date Jaggery). I remember, in my childhood, we used to wait for these winter months because fresh Nalen Gur is available in these times only. Nalen gur can be hardened to form something known as Patali or it can be used in liquid form to sweeten up our breakfast with almost anything.

Since this wonderful stuff is not available in Bangalore we bring it all the way from Calcutta to make this item. It takes a lot of time to prepare but the aroma itself is so good that you will feel all your efforts are rewarded.

Preparation Time: - 10 min

Cooking Time: - 40~45 min (depends upon the quality of the rice. Some of them gets boiled easily whereas some takes more time)

Servings: - 4~5

Ingredients:

• GobindoBhog or Jeera or Basmati Rice – 250 gm.
• Full cream milk – 1 L
• Milkmaid or Mithaimaid – ½ cup ( optional to make the mild thicker)
• 1 tbsp Ghee
• Raisins 15 nos.
• Cashew Nuts – 8~10 large sized
• 4 bay leaves
• Fresh Nalen Gur  (Date palm jaggery)  - 1 ½ cup ( I brought it from Calcutta in hardened form which is called Patali which is melted by heating )
• ½ cup sugar  (The combined amount of sugar and Nalen Gur depends upon your sweet tooth – my husband like it more whereas for me the above amount is perfectly right)

Preparation:-

1. Wash and Soak the raisins in a cup of water. Keep aside.
   
2. If you are using Patali (hardened form of the Date Palm Jaggery) like me then please heat the same in microwave or in a separate bowl with a little water in gas to make it liquid. Keep aside.
   
3. Wash the rice and drain the water. You may pour the rice on newspaper to dry.
4. Pour the milk in a thick bottom pan and boil it for 5 minutes
   
5. Take a separate pan, heat the ghee and first fry the cashews till golden brown. Drain and keep aside.
6. In the same pan add the rice and fry in ghee till they change colour to a dense white.
   
7. Pour the rice in the milk. Stir and mix well. Turn the gas to medium flame and stir continuously to prevent the mixture from spilling.
   
8. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes so that the rice becomes soft. Now this can take more time. depending upon the type of rice you are using. Gobindobhog takes a little bit more time than zeera rice or Basmati. You can take a few of the rice and check by pressing them.
9. At this point you can pour the milkmaid (optional) and stir to mix properly. I did not use this as I like the payes in less thicker form. But you can use it to your liking.
10. Now add the cashews and raisins.
11. Boil for another 5-10 minutes and then pour the sugar. Stir and mix it well.
12. At last switch off the gas and pour the jaggery. You can add directly the patali here but that risk curdling the milk and spoil it. Hence it is better to make the liquid jaggery earlier as described it step 2.
    
    
    
    
13. Again boil for 1~2 minutes in low flame.
14. Allow it to cool down
    

That’s all folks. Freeze and serve cold.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all eyes and ears.

Best Wishes for my readers

Happy Makar Sankranti, Pongal,Lohari to the respective people

Doi Maach - Fish with yogurt gravy

Doi Maach is an authentic Bengali preparation which is generally made when some festival is there or some guests need to be entertained. In my kitchen it is often made as my husband loves this dish. Though I have made it with Katla (Carp) this preparation can easily be made with other fishes like Rohu, Aar maach ( Cat fish) or even Hilsa. There are few varieties of this dish which can be broadly categorized into two types – one with Turmeric powder like me and another which is without it. Probably I can give the other recipe some day.

Preparation Time: - 5 min

Cooking Time: - 30 min

Servings: - 2~3 persons depending upon one’s appetite

Ingredients:

• 5 medium large Katla/rohu fish/aar/
• 1 Medium onions chopped
• Salt to taste
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp ginger paste
• 5 tbsp mustard oil ( you can use any vegetable oil if you do not like the smell)
• 3 tsp Ghee
• 2 green chilies slit
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt/curd
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp jeera / cumin powder
• 2 ½ tsp garam masala
• 1 ½ cup water
• 2 tsp sugar  (you can reduce this if you like)
• 1 ½ tbsp chopped coriander leaves

 Preparation:-

1. In a non-stick frying pan, heat 2 tbsp oil. Shallow fry the fish for about 2 min each side and keep aside. In a city like Bangalore you only get frozen fish and that is why you need to fry them first. If fresh fish is available locally then you may choose to not fry the fish.
2. In the same pan put the remaining oil and add 1 ½ tsp ghee. Heat in medium flame.
3. First add the bay leaves and then the onions. Fry till they turn golden brown. A nice aroma will fill your kitchen because of the ghee.
4. Now add the ginger paste and green chilies. Sauté for some time.
5. In a bowl beat the curd and add garam Masala, zeera powder and sugar. Mix thoroughly
   
6. Pour the mixture onto the pan. Put the gas burner on low flame and continue cooking till oil separates (about 3-4 minutes).
7. Add the water and mix well.
8. Add the fried fish.
   
9. Continue cooking in medium flame for about 15 min
10.  Add the coriander leaves and remaining ghee. Cook for another 1 min duration.

That’s all folks. You can have it with fried rice or white rice.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears and eyes.

Begun pora - Grilled Eggplant / Brinjal

As I said in my earlier post that I was in a hurry after returning from vacation to prepare something. Along with the Masoor Dal seddho I prepared this dish which is also a traditional Bengali preparation and can be made very quickly.

Preparation Time: - 5~7 min 

Cooking Time: - 30 min 

Servings: - 2 persons

Ingredients:

1. Eggplant/Begun - 1 big
2. 1 medium sized chopped onion
3. Green Chillies - 3-4, chopped
4. Mustard oil - 2~3 tsp
5. Salt to taste
6. Chopped coriander leaves – ¼ cup
7. Chopped ginger - 1 tsp

 Preparation:-

1. Wash the eggplant and tomato and pat dry completely. 
   
2. Take the eggplant and cut into two parts. Rub some oil (1 teaspoon) into it and put it on a chapatti roasting net on the gas flame. 
   
3. Rotate the eggplant after every couple of minutes. The skin will gradually become charred and a nice smokey aroma comes out from the eggplant. 
   
4. Chop the onion into fine pieces. Cut green chilies and chop some coriander leaves.
5. When the skin of the begun is completely burned cool it
6. Discard the skin after cooling and take the mushy inside part.
7. Knead it to make it into a smooth paste.
8. Take a large bowl and combine the eggplant inside, onion, salt, ginger, coriander leaves and salt with remaining mustard oil. Mix well.
   

 Serve hot with steamed rice or warm chapattis and enjoy!!!

As a note, I have seen my mother used to add crushed bori (Bengali sun dried dumplings - mainly from lentils) in this preparation. It makes it more tasty for some people. I, personally, do not like it but my husband has an opposite view. So you can try.

As always please feel free to comment, criticize and seek if any help is required. I am all ears.