Haat e Bajar e -- to the Market (II)

The Smiling Vegetable Seller

As we moved places the character of the haat changed, some places they were more sunny and open air, at others they were very clean and neat but their very basic underlying characteristics remained same. They also gave way to more local bazars, vegetable sellers sitting at residential road corners with their vegetables was a common sight.

Flowers for Prayer share a spot with Vegetables for Mankind

My Baba now preferred them than going to the haat. He would get everything he wanted right around the street corner. These small vendors did not have a complex supply chain system. The farmers in the nearby villages and suburbs took the early morning local train and brought their produce to a nearby train station. The neighborhood vegetable sellers sourced the produce directly from these farmers and sold it to the customers.


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The Not too Happy Fruit Seller

With the IT boom pushing middle class Indians towards more prosperity, the retail industry in India slowly started changing. Organized retailing, though late has started encroaching the Indian market and more and more air conditioned super markets selling grocery and vegetables are sprouting in the metros. Interestingly Nilgiri's Super Markets are the oldest retail chain in India, going back as far as 1904.

The Fish Guy by the Road

I myself hadn't seen an air conditioned grocery market until I moved to B'lore in the late nineties. I was so taken by them that I would go to Nilgiris or Food World just to pick up some small stuff. Vegetables there were too expensive by my standard but I loved their ambiance as did many of my generation. For the freshest of veggies we would make once a week trip to the Madiwala Bajar on weekends which had the same character and earthiness as the haat of my childhood but only in Kannada.

The Push Cart Vegetable Vendor or the Thela

Convenience shopping in the form of Supermarkets must surely be a boon for a lot of the urban Indian population who want to shop in luxury and comfort. They might not be the best thing for the small farmers, the kirana stores(local grocers) and the fruit & vegetable seller at the corner though. With big names coming in to the retail grocery chains they are able to support a more elaborate supply chain management system which pushes the customers still further away from the producer.

Following are some pics of a wholesale bazaar that Sra of When My Soup Came Alive sent me. Most of the vegetables sold here come from a 100km radius, she says.

Birds Eye View of the Market

In spite of the big names of the retail chains, my Dad and most of his generation will still think twice before paying for a bunch of Asparagus at Reliance fresh. He prefers the vegetable seller round the corner as do 60% of the Indian population living in suburbs and villages.

What do you prefer ?

Further Read on Organized Retailing in India

Photos courtesy of my Dad from India. I guess these are his favorite sellers.

Haat e Bajar e -- to the Market (I)

The early morning ritual on most days were very similar for middle class Bengali Men in the late 70's and 80's. A cup of tea, a quick browse through crackling pages of the Statesman or the limp ones of AnandaBazar and then a stroll to the nearby bajar for the fresh vegetables and fish of the day. Since we were not in Bengal at that time, it was a little different in our home. If I rewind to a morning back long long back, I see my Baba or Kaku or my Grandpa walking us to the school bus stop and then strolling on to the haat, see I said haat and not bajar, with two cloth bags and a reusable plastic bag for fish.

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The haat, if defined in words, is a weekly marketplace where producers and vendors bring in their produce or products, either directly or through intermediaries to sell to the customers. But that is just words. That is fancy enough to describe Dilli Haat. But there was a much more intense social aspect to haat which can not be defined and you need to go to one of the smaller towns and scour around for a real haat to understand.

Garlic and Dry Red Chili

The haat in my home town was not a weekly thing, it was an every day semi permanent affair. Most of the fish, fresh fruit and vegetable vendors would wrap up and go home when the sun went higher up and the customers were few. The more permanent ones like the potato seller or the one with garlic and mounds of dry red chilis lingered on till the late afternoon. They would take a quick nap on a jute bag laid out on concrete, play a round of cards if the heat hung heavy and humid for sleep, chat and wait, wait for people to come by.

Dusty Potatoes

My Baba would occasionally take me to the haat, on weekends. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it a lot, it wasn't an open air haat and it was a bit dingy. Smells hung in cloisters. The sharp acidic smell of green lemon, the raw smell of squished tomatoes, smoky musty smell of dried turmeric and dry red chili mingled with the sweat and dust. It wasn't very clean either, with rotting leaves under the feet and squashed tomatoes on the pathway, you had to be careful about your step.

Brinjal Corner

Baba had his own choice set of sellers and he would proceed towards them, neglecting the cries of others, touting better cheaper produce. He had a relation set up with his potato seller and he wouldn't break the tie for such trifles.

Green Lemon

The haat was zonal, divided into zones according to the produce. The fresh vegetables were on the fringes, the fish sellers were all together, the dusty potatoes and onions were towards the center. It was hard competition since you were selling lemons as green and juicy as your rival sitting right there at your elbow. I still do not know how they survived and maintained a friendly relationship sitting close together and selling exactly similar products.

As we went around picking things, talking, discussing the days news with the sellers, the cloth bags would get fuller. Depending on the season, there would be tender drumsticks peeping out or fresh bunches of coriander. And then we would go home, not worrying about whether the vegetables had pesticide or their genes were modified by science but whether Ma would appreciate the days pick or scorn at our choices.

If you have a local Food Market, a bazaar or a haat near where you live, send me a pic or post on your own blog and leave a comment.


Pic Courtesy my Dad from the haat of my childhood hometown. All theses photos were taken by him

Detoxifying Tea -- the Cleanse

Yesterday I had two uninterrupted hours to myself, bang in the middle of the day, a rare opportunity on a week day. I could have taken a much needed shower, cooked something more elaborate than serving up masoor dal, baked tilapia and aloo-gajar yet again or at least cooked something, anything. But did I do that ? No.

Instead I googled for "detox diet ayurveda 3 days". Don't ask me why. Maybe I overdid the Biryani that we got on Sunday and the body was sending toxic signals.At least I didn't ask for "detox diet in a packet". Ok hold on, let me google this. Guess what there IS a detox diet in a packet, what fun, packaged, processed and with all the chemicals.

But the ayurveda detox thingy is not easy. They don't do things fast, to do it the right way, you need 60 whole days, S-I-X-T-Y, who has that ? But they have a point, the body is like your child, no point hurrying it, it is best to go with the flow, to let things balance out gradually.

"A complete ayurvedic cleansing program includes 15 days of preparation and 45 days of actual cleansing. Ayurvedic healers recommend paying special attention to your diet during these two phases to avoid overtaxing your digestion and to enable purification to occur easily and completely. Maharishi Ayurveda does not recommend fasting or entirely liquid diets such as juices, because that may cause your digestive agni to become imbalanced."

Why Do You Need to Detox ?

According to Ayurveda, there are three different types of toxins that can impact the physiology: ama -- the waste product of incomplete digestion, amavisha -- the reactive form of ama i.e ama + other doshas and garvisha -- external toxins from the environment, exposure to chemicals etc..

Ayurveda recommends a program of internal cleansing at every change of seasons to clear the channels of the body of toxins that may have built up over the previous season. Detox is particularly recommended at the time when winter is phasing into spring.

The Detox Routine according to Ayurveda

The following is a general guideline of what to eat and to avoid during this phase.

To know more in details about the kind of fruits and vegetables that you can eat depending on your body type, check this Food Guidelines

Along with the diet you also need to follow a routine of sleep, exercise and massaging. And then there is the eating habit you need to follow, of never skipping a meal and eating slowly, chewing each morsel.

Basically "the Ayurveda Detox Diet is what your Mom has been telling you since you were six and you never listened until Google told you to".

But seriously what I like about the detox plan is the use of spices in cooking the vegetables.

"Ginger, turmeric, coriander, fennel and fenugreek help open up the channels of the body and support the flushing of toxins via the skin, urinary tract, colon and liver"

These were the main spices (along with Nigella seeds and mustard seeds) that were used in the everyday Bengali Food that my Ma made. She did not use garlic or onions much and neither does everyday home cooked Bangla meals call for that. Everyday Bengali food is light, subtly spiced, not much garlic, onion, red chili or cream and tends to retain the texture and taste of the vegetables. Ahh, if we could just add some fish to that detox diet, I could have sealed the deal

Main Reference: Ayurvedic Detox Diet -- Maharishi Ayurveda

Though I don't have the determination or resources to go on a sixty day detox diet right now and I need to use up the 20% discount coupons at the local restaurants, I decided to do my body some good by making and sipping the Detoxifying Tea throughout the day.

This is a very light and extremely easy to make tea. A big cup of this and small sips throughout the day will help you feel good about yourself and you will also get all the water. Just drinking this tea alone will do nothing to detox I am sure but here's to a better beginning.


Read more...

Detox Tea

Original Recipe

Bring to boil two quarts of water in the morning.

Add 1/4 t. whole cumin,
1/2 t. whole coriander,
1/2 t. whole fennel to the water and let steep for ten minutes with the lid on. I also added some fresh grated ginger and 3-4 Tulsi(Holy Basil) leaves.

Strain out the spices and pour the water into a thermos.

Sip throughout the day.

Disclaimer: I am not a Doctor. Biology was not even amongst my main 4 subjects in High School

Dry Roasted Spicy Chickpea Salad -- Going local ?

Prelude

I am the kind of consumer who is pro organic because my primary concern is safety in food. Though due to cost and restricted availability I do not buy everything organic.

I did not rely much on "local food" because I do not have access to good locally grown produce. The nearby Farmers market that I go to have lovely produce, very good price but produce is never ever seasonal. If I compare their produce to this Harvest Dates for Jersey, it can only mean produce there is NOT local. Neither is the produce there certified organic. I am confused.

During summer the only local vegetables that I have seen in limited quantity(as sold in Wegmans or Whole Foods) is Yellow Squash, Zucchini, Tomatoes and Corn.

So if I want to eat Local I have a choice of very few vegetables and that too only during 5-6 months of the year. Not practical.

After I expressed my own doubts about Local Food on reading Indosungod's very informative post, I read the comments and felt I needed to know more and re-evaluate my decision . I then ventured into a little more research. Disclaimer: The following is information that I have gathered over the internet and then my interpretation.

Why we should buy Local

Local is really important as a deep investment into your local economy and developing a relationship with the person who produces your food. Local food is also fresher and more richer in nutrients. Proponents of Local Food say "Local" is the new "Organic". In an ideal world food would have been "Local and Organic". There would be no other kind and no discussion.

Is Local Sustainable ?

While dreams of our future food system may rely on the romantic image of local farmers, the reality is: this model(Local or Organic or both) can't do what we need it to do, that is, feed billions of people. From TreeHugger. But really is there an alternative, organic farming method that is sustainable ?

But Is Local always Safe and Organic ?

This largely depends on where you are and also on the trust relationship you have with the grower. If I don't know the farmer or am not sure if there is a vigilant body checking the farmer's activity, I cannot be sure of his method of growing food. The CSAs or the CoOps are more trustworthy.(Read Times Article)
The trust and the local farming practice also also depends on the country where you are. We tend to think of only the Western World when discussing such stuff.

Local Farming and Environment

It is not necessarily true that Local Food has a lower carbon footprint. More than transport, methods of growing impacts "food miles". It is likely to be more environmentally friendly for tomatoes to be grown in Spain and transported to the UK than for the same tomatoes to be grown in greenhouses in the UK requiring electricity to light and heat them.(Read more)

Local Farming and Third World Countries

If people in developed nations are convinced to eat only locally grown food what happens to the farmer in the third world country whose income is from exporting his produce. Afghanistan produces some of the world’s tastiest fruits and nuts. If these do not reach the world market how does that country better its economy ?
Also take an ordinary farmer in India. The prices of locally produced food is usually higher because they are not subsidized. Because of WTO's free trade policies it will be very hard for a poor farmer in India to compete his local grown produce with imported ones. So then is local food only a privilege of people in wealthier nations ?
I don't have much knowledge on this and really would love to know more about how local farming works in developing nations

How does Local fare in a Global Flat world

Local had always been how produce was grown when I was a kid. Food was seasonal and my Mother did without tomatoes and cauliflower in summer and didn't make mango chutney in winter. We waited for the fruit and vegetable of the season and accepted nature's way. Now with world going flat food is not only non-seasonal, it has also gone global. So even if you have moved countries and shifted loyalties you can still eat your jackfruit curry for lunch and suck on an alphonso mango after dinner. How do you put a stop to that craving and go local ?

Conclusion as a Consumer

"If the average meat eater gave up meat once a week that would be the equivalent of eating all of your food local."
—James McWilliams, author of Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly. From The TakeAway.

Eat Organic and Local as and when you can but they truly might not be the answer to building a sustainable food system. For each of us eating local or organic may mean different thing and I think it is largely a personal choice.
I was reading a book by Bourdain and there he talked about a sushi place in New York, the most expensive restaurant where they fly in fish from Japan every single day. If patrons of this sushi place, the rich & the famous of NYC, drive a 3 hrs distance from the city to a farm to get their local produce because buying local makes them feel warm and fuzzy and "in with the crowd", I will think the idea is somewhere defeated.

References from

Wiki -- Local Food
Wiki -- Organic Food
Eating Better than Organic -- Times
TreeHugger
Food That Travels Well - NY Times

Now back to these lovely dry roasted chickpeas spiced with Indian spices. They are great as a snack and also makes for a very healthy and satisfying meal. That they look pretty is an added bonus.


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Inspired by Kalyn's Roasted Chickpeas with Moroccan Spice.

Dry Roasted Spicy Chickpea Salad

Wash canned chickpeas in several changes of water. I used a 29oz can of Goya Garbanzo

In a bowl toss garbanzo beans with
1 & 1/2 - 2 tsp Dry Mango Powder,
1/2 - 1 tsp Red Chili Powder,
1/2 - 1 tsp fresh Coriander powder(grind coriander seeds in your spice grinder),
little Kitchen King Masala(optional),
salt and
1 tsp Olive Oil

Heat oven to 350F

Put the chickpeas in a single layer on a tray and bake for 30-40 mins or so.

To eat as a salad, toss together the roasted chickpeas with some peeled and chopped cucumber,chopped red onions and finely chopped green chili. Drizzle 1 tsp olive oil and combine. Add salt and pepper if needed

This made for a very filling and also satisfying packed lunch for work. Though I suggest that it tastes better when had fresh off the oven and tossed as a salad.

Kolkata Egg Roll -- quick easy version

Vacation over for Big Sis S and kind of for us. Big Sis S proclaimed that it was her best vacation ever and why, 'coz she was allowed to stay up til midnight almost every day of last week. With a party almost every other day, a sleepover, a late night show of "The Princess and the Frog", dancing past midnight on New Year Eve and a birthday bash at her favorite jumping place, no doubt she had fun. It turns out Baby A likes a lot of hullabaloo and jumping. She was sleepy and yet dancing with the older kids on 31st.I had a very relaxed time too, watched "3 Idiots" and ate, ate and ate. Did I say I ate, a lot.

I seriously wanted to go on a diet of nothing but salads from Sunday but then D made these delicious egg rolls and I thought "the salad can wait to add woe to Monday morning blues, why spoil Sunday".

Egg Rolls are the most popular of all street foods in Kolkata. In fact "phuchka"(golgappa) and "egg roll" were the only street food that I was allowed to eat as an angsty teenager. "Phuchka" was more of a girlie kind of a thing and though some of my friends survived on a diet of "phuchka" and "tak water"(sour tamarind water), I wasn't one of them. When it came to egg roll it was another story. I can give anything for the authentic egg roll.

Even now when I go back home, the first thing I reach out for after the jet lag period is the egg roll at the street corner. That upsets my now mollycoddled tummy, I take entroquinols and after the dosage is done, again reach out for the egg roll.

All egg rolls or egg chicken rolls are not created equal and so do not spoil your senses by chomping on a egg roll at a tom-dick-harry place. If in Kolkata go out with a connoisseur to the right place. Hot Kati on the corner of Park Street was my personal favorite. Their rolls were oh so good. My Baba used to get egg roll from a place near home (some branch of Rahmania) which was also great. D's town has its own favorite egg roll stall and they swear by it.Every para(neighborhood) has their own famous egg roll counter and also their very own famous phuchkawala and you need to know the locals for that information.Update 01/07: Jhantu's Roll on the corner of NMC and Brabourne is another one that we would haunt often.

Here in the US, the Kati Roll Company in NYC makes great egg rolls. But everyone does not live in NYC so then what does one do ? You make your own of course. D makes great egg rolls, really really great. Not only me, everyone else who has had it, loves it. It is very close to the authentic one and his version is the quickest and easiest . He uses Kawan Malaysian paratha as the base and so no doubt he serves delicious rolls in less than 6 min flat.

Kolkata style egg roll is the perfect fast food in my imagination. Standing on the corner of a busy city street, biting into an egg roll, tearing the wrapper around, gulping a coke on the way back from work or college is something I would love to do maybe everyday. Ok, except the busy city part, that I don't like.

Get this recipe in my Book coming out soon. Check this blog for further updates. 

Follow this step by step recipe and you can make and enjoy yours too.


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Kolkata Style Egg Roll

Buy Malayasian Paratha. This is really IMPORTANT. The quality of the Paratha plays an important part in egg roll. If making your own paratha, make the dough with Maida(All Purpose Flour) and enough shortening so that the paratha is very soft and pliable, You can use tortilla or the regular parathas, but it WILL NOT taste the same. The Malaysian parathas are very soft and make perfect rolls

Heat a tawa or a griddle on the stove. Put the paratha and cook both sides. Remove and keep aside

Beat one egg + 1 tbsp whole milk + little salt

Smear the tawa/griddle/frying pan with little oil and pour the egg. Spread it out in a circle.

Once the egg is a little cooked on the edges, put the paratha on top

When the edges of the egg starts browning flip the paratha + egg.Give it a couple of seconds

Remove and assemble the filing. The filling goes only on the egg side.The standard filing for a Kolkata egg roll is thinly sliced red onions, thinly chopped green chili and thinly sliced cucumber. Squirt a little lime juice on them and put the filling on the center. Add tomato ketchup in a thin squiggly line along the center.

Roll, wrap it up in a foil or any paper, even newsprint and eat.


Check out other egg rolls around the blogs:

Sudeshna's Egg Roll

Mandira's Tortilla egg roll

Egg Roll Hangouts in Mumbai -- Kalyan likes fried onions in his roll


Trivia:The egg roll with chicken or other such stuffing is also known as kati roll. Kati roll is street-food originating from Kolkata, India. Its original form was a kati kabab enclosed in a paratha, but over the years many variants have evolved all of which now go under the generic name of Kati Roll.

Dim diye Palang Shak -- Egg-Palak Burji

Today I will be very honest with you, bare soul honest. A decade back I was not interested in cooking, at all. All that bovine poop about " smell of jeera bringing me solace" that I have in my About section, was well "bovine poop" to me. I never even dreamt that cooking could actually be therapeutic. Now eating was another genre altogether, that I loved. I sincerely believed Eating good was not only therapeutic but also pushed you closer to that non-attainable Nirvana.

It is not that I didn't know how to cook, I knew the basic dal, bhaat, macher jhol and also noodles and chili chicken. I did help my Mom to some extent around the kitchen but that was in fits and start and I wasn't one of those prodigies who bake cake at age 8 and biryani at age 12.Relatives in their right mind didn't often ask me to help out in the kitchen, for that I had that "prodigy cousin".

I started cooking for survival, once I moved out to my first job in Bombay. After a month of eating out, me and my room mate got a cute red clix stove and decided to venture out in the hitherto unknown land of homecooking. My room mate was worse than me, she claimed "she had never cooked before". So with my minimal repertoire, I started and every evening cooked either an egg curry or dal while roomy made rice.

There are mythical tales of my cooking from those days, which will make a nice story for a future post and so we shall hold onto them for now..

D, the husband on the other hand was a cooking geek, a freak of nature, the kind who chop vegetables in equi dimension and whose eggs boil just right each time, every time. He is and always was like Alton Brown (strictly cooking wise), very much into the techniques and science of cooking.

So while I was trying out new dunking techniques(another story !!!) in Mumbai and trying to cook with passion, he was creating a new following 998km away in another city. He was the self appointed chef of cooking morons who thought he was the domestic diva, just because he could make the perfect omlette and delicious chicken curry. I hope those morons learned survival skills on the way or got beaten up by their wife in later life.

Anyway to impress such people, this guy, the now husband twisted old recipes and created new dishes. One of them was Palak Burji, a spinach stir fried with eggs. This dish impressed me so much, that I decided to marry him and wrapped up my belongings and moved the 998km distance. Ok actually not this dish exactly but my cooking skills were so short of my own aspirations, that I was ready to marry any decent willing guy who would happily cook a good meal and clean up after that every evening and still maintain a decent paying day job.

That such "eagerness to cook & clean do not last forever" and "grass on the other side is always greener" and "people in glass houses...." is another proverb but who am I to complain, there is always Palak Burji aka Dim diye Palang Shaak and a guy who occasionally cooks and loads the dishwasher every night.

Egg-Palak Burji on toast for fussy 6 year olds

This Egg-Palak Burji is a very simple, yet excellent dish, too simple if you have frozen spinach 'coz that is the only way I have done this. If you leave the egg out, it is my Ma's plain old palang shak bhaja but she never had frozen spinach and she could also chop her spinach really really fine. So if you don't have frozen chopped spinach but can chop your spinach real fine you are good to go else pressure cook your spinach and coarsely mash it up before proceeding.


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Egg Palak Burji

Cook 3 cups of frozen chopped spinach in microwave for a minute or two. When the green is cool to touch, squeeze out any excess water. Note: If you don't have frozen spinach, you can use fresh spinach chopped really fine. Or you can cook the spinach in pressure cooker and mash it up coarsely

Heat Oil in a saute pan

Temper with 1/4 tsp of Paanch Phoron

When the spices start dancing around, add 2 cloves of garlic minced, 2 slit green chilli and quarter of a red onion chopped fine

Saute till the onion is brownish pink

Add the spinach and saute till spinach is no longer releasing water and is cooked. Note: With frozen spinach and microwaving this step is like almost pre-done. With fresh spinach which has been cooked in pressure cooker and mashed up, it might take a while for water to dry up

Move the spinach to the edges and add a little more oil to the same pan

Break an egg (or two) into it and vigorously stir till egg is scrambled up

Add salt to taste and combine to bring in all the flavors.

This goes excellently with some hand mate Rotis or Phulkas. I love it with Rice. For fussy 6 year olds, put it on a toast and garnish with some cheese.

Bhaja Moog er Dal -- sabji diye

I thought I was done with pre-holiday posting and could get on with my life with minimal cooking & much entertaining till the next week. Only 2 more days to a 4 day holiday weekend makes you feel like that.

But then there came the snow, and what a snowfall it was. Unlike the washingtonians who take their snow seriously and stock themselves up, we are more lackadaisical. We think, what will 12 inches of snow do to us as so we relax, until we see we are in deep sh** err snow and the pantry lacks bare necessities like onions and Marie Biscuit. Fortunately there were enough leftovers from the Friday night impromptu party, to tide over two meals. But the soul was still craving deep fried pakodas or something hot in a bowl.

What could a Bong female do in such a situation but make a bowlful of Bhaja Moog er Dal(Roasted Yellow Moong dal). She went an extra half mile, in her head, not snow and added cauliflowers and shrimp to it. That made it a bowl of warm, yellow goodness in the midst of a white snowy December.

In other news we have a Christmas tree this time, yeah our first time. The Christmas potluck party has decided to be hosted in our home and since we were asked not to cook anything except, ahem, Rice, the best we could do is bring home Christmas cheer in way of a cheap, $35 plastic tree. Sorry Charlie Brown, couldn't get a wooden Christmas Tree, this time.

Charlie Brown's Christmas on Hulu, free until Jan 1, 2010

And that brings on another question. Since Christmas seems to be all about Giving, how do you like Giving ? Do you like to Give where you are recognized as a Giver and can brag about it with a pink pin, a printed name, a plaque in your name or do you believe in selfless giving, where the giver actually keeps a low profile and giving is really about the other person and not you. Do you think 'Selfish' Giving is less moral and ruins the spirit of giving ? Read more...

Back to the Bhaja Moog er dal or the Dry Roasted Yellow Moong Dal, which with its nutty roasted aroma claims to be one of those landmark Bengali Dals. This Dal is rich enough to be served on important occasions like pre-wedding lunches etc. and also is served for comforting home lunches. This has a vegetarian version and a fishy version with fish head or a more international Bengali version with shrimp. The one here is a combination of the veggies and fish in form of cauliflower and shrimp. 

Get this recipe in my Book coming out soon. Check this blog for further updates. 

Bhaja Moog'er Dal

Roast the Dal Dry roast   1 & 1/2 cup of Yellow Moong Dal for 6-8 minutes at medium heat. You should not burn the dal in the process, as soon as you get a nice , warm roasted nutty aroma, you know you are done.   Note: Dry roast means, do not use oil, roast it dry. Wash the roasted dal in several changes of cold water. Cook the Dal You can cook the dal two ways. If using a pressure cooker, put the roasted and washed lentils in the cooker with double amount of water and a little turmeric. Cook for 3-4 mins at full pressure. If you are not using the cooker, put the dal with about 4 cups of water and a little turmeric in a pot on the stove top. Let it cook. The dal will bubble and froth, skim the froth. Add more water if necessary and cook till lentils are soft and edible but not mushy. This will take a good half hour to get cooked   Temper the Dal I have used cauliflower and shrimp here. You can make this completely vegetarian by using cauliflower and green peas or just green peas. You can also use greens like finely chopped spinach though peas and cauliflower are more popular choices. Clean and devein 8-10 medium sized shrimp, sprinkle salt and keep aside for 5 minutes. Chop quarter of a cauliflower in small florets. We need about 10-12 small florets. Heat Oil(or Ghee) in a soup pot/kadhai. Fry the shrimp with a little turmeric. As soon as they turn a light orange, remove and keep aside. Fry the cauliflower florets till they get little brown spots, remove and keep aside. Add a little more oil to the pot. About 1/2 tsp of ghee at this point works very well. Temper the oil with   1 tsp of Cumin seeds,  2 small bay leaf,  1" thin cinnamon stick,  3 dry red chilli. When the spices sputter, add   1 heaped tsp of fresh grated ginger or ginger paste. Saute for half a min and add the cooked dal. Add salt and mix well. If the dal is too thick, add about 1 and 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer and come to a boil. Add 1/4-1/2 tsp of sugar and mix. Add the cauliflower and shrimp, mix and switch off the heat. If you have not used Ghee as the cooking medium stir in 1/2 -- 1 tsp of Ghee and let the dal sit for 10 mins to soak the flavors before serving.   Note: I do not add ghee when I am making this for just us, so you can skip if you want but it does lend a lot of flavor. I like a slight hint of lime in my dal and so I added a tsp of sliced lemon grass to this dal. This is definitely optional but lends a nice touch. Eat this dal as a soup or with white rice. This dal goes to MLLA 18 hosted by Srivalli and started off by dear Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook

Aam Kheer -- sunshine in December

See how pretty it looks.

Warm, sunny happy that is what you would say looking at this delicious Aam Kheer or Mango Kheer and there is no two thoughts about it. It is magnificently delicious, if there was a phrase like that.

But warm, sunny, happy was not how my mood was when I was making it. Not the dish's fault really but mine.

My Ma used to make kheers like this very often, in winter she would add kamla lebu(oranges) to make the sweet, luscious kamola kheer, in other times she would add rasgulla to this kheer to make rosogolla'r payesh and during summer it would be mangoes to make aam kheer. Ok, actually aam kheer was rare, mangoes were much enjoyed as is.
The casual air with which she made it, made the whole process seem extremely easy and quick. You were lulled into the false belief that saying "Abra Cadabra" reduces whole 1 liter of milk to a quarter in a jiffy. And she even smiled at the end of that process, a smile of content.

Me, I have many virtues(ahem!!), sadly patience does not top that list. So Last Thursday when I started the process of reducing a mere 1 liter of milk around 10 at night, my mood had turned severely sour after the first 45 minutes. The milk was stubborn, needed to be babysat and craved much more mollycoddling than Baby A. The fact that I had had a long day and needed to be up by 6 next morning made me more edgy and I was throwing around angry looks and angrier words by 11.

D meanwhile was standing by the sink and calmly licking the lid and bottom of the condensed milk can in a manner which called for severe caustic remarks. A guy who doesn't have any respect for rules in the kitchen and that includes, the kheer maker gets to lick the condensed milk can, is a threat to the kitchen environment and needs to be dealt by K(Kitchen)PA if not EPA.

Finally around 20 past 11 the milk had reduced to half of its original, my Ma insists on reducing a little bit more, but I had reached my limits.

After a night in the refrigerator, the kheer had thickened a little more and it was just perfect the next day. This time I served a little differently by layering and mixing mango pulp only for the second layer (as in Serving Suggestion 2 in the recipe). It helped that I had only few guests so I could prepare a serving for each beforehand and then chill in the refrigerator. This aam kheer (mango kheer) was a major hit, it was such a creamy mango delight that people just loved it.

This is actually a very easy dessert, the only thing to keep in mind is not trying to start the process when time is a constraint or one is tired. This works very well made ahead though. So you can make the plain kheer a couple of days ahead when you have time and just serve it on the day of the party.


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Aam Kheer/Mango Kheer

What You Need

Whole Milk ~ 1 litre

Sweetened Condensed Milk ~ 1 can

Sugar ~ 1/3 cup or less

Mango Pulp ~ 1 cup. Either use fresh mangoes to make the pulp or use a canned one

Fruits ~ Small pieces of cubed mangoes if they are in season else a can of Dole Tropical fruits cut up in bite size pieces

Few strands of saffron

Blanched slivered almonds or Pistachios for garnish

How I Did It

In a heavy bottomed deep pan heat the milk

Bring the milk to boil and then stir it intermittently

Add a can of condensed milk and continue the process of stirring

When the milk has reduced a little add the sugar. Note: If you don't like too sweet avoid the sugar

Keep on stirring continuously at medium heat till the milk has reduces to almost half the initial volume. By this time the color of the milk would take on a creamy hue and it would have thickened. Continuous stirring is necessary else the milk may stick to the bottom and burn. This process of reducing the milk will take a little more than an hour at medium heat.

Add a few strands of saffron when the milk has almost reduced to the desired consistency

The consistency is now like smooth kheer

Pour in a serving bowl and put in the refrigerator.

Now to serve I do it two ways

Serving Suggestion 1: Once the kheer has cooled down, add 1 cup of mango pulp and mix well. While serving serve with cubes of fresh mangoes or if mangoes are not in season serve with any other tropical fruit. I have used Dole canned tropical fruits for this purpose. Garnish with blanched slivered almonds or pistachios and serve chilled. This is how it is done in Indrani's Aam Kheer

Serving Suggestion 2: Once the kheer has cooled down, divide in two portions.
To one half add 1/2 cup of mango pulp and swirl. The other half remains plain.

In a parfait glass or wine glass or a dessert bowl add a layer of the Plain kheer(the portion without mango). Add cubes of fresh mangoes or if mangoes are not in season any other tropical fruit. I have used Dole canned tropical fruits for this purpose.

Top this with a layer of the kheer with mango pulp

Garnish with blanched slivered almonds or pistachios


Similar Recipes:

Orange Kheer or Kamola Kheer

Easy Mango Dessert -- done in minutes

Paayesh -- the traditional rice kheer

Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken Korma

You know how prophecies come true. How when I said cook books weigh down on me while food memoirs don't I was actually treading into this little trap set out be me alone. Well so this Madhur Jaffrey book had family recipes towards the end which I initially didn't notice and then chose to ignore. The pace at which I was reading, I had already renewed the book thrice, paid an accumulating fine of $9 and was all ready to return it after the last chapter. But that was not to happen.

I turned the page, read the recipes, well some of them and thought let me try at least a couple before I return this. So I renewed the book again and there went 4 more weeks without me cooking a single thing from that book. Somehow the book & me were never on the same floor together, if I was in the Kitchen, the book was upstairs or in the basement or some place else but never at a hand's reach. Mostly it sat on the bedside table, the recipes beckoning to get cooked, while I paid some more fine.

Finally couple of weekends back there were some friends visiting and I wanted a chicken recipe simple and different. This is when I found Murgh Korma, a chicken dish made of yogurt and almonds tucked away among the few recipes in the book. The chicken korma sounded delicious, olde-worlde delicious, different from the Chicken Korma recipes out there, even different from Madhur Jaffrey's own Chicken Korma on the BBC site. I made it because of the simplicity of the recipe and because of the almonds. The dish turned out to be a reward, a deliciousness worth of 6 months of renting a book, not to mention the fines.

Here I have reproduced exactly the author's version of the Chicken Korma with Almonds in a Yogurt Sauce as in her memoir "Climbing the Mango Trees". She must have changed the recipe later to cater to a more western audience and a faster lifestyle. Try the original, it still is fast enough and the taste is worth it. I have added my own subtle changes in a separate section.


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Chicken Korma

What You Need

Ginger ~ 2&1/2" peeled and chopped

Garlic ~ 4-5 cloves

Almonds ~ 3 tbsp of blanched & slivered almonds

Yogurt ~ 1&1/2 cup

Garam Masala Powder ~ 1&1/2 tsp (Use your own or make one according to the author as posted here)

Corriander powder ~ 1 tbsp

Cayenne pepper ~ 1-1/2 tsp to taste

Onions ~ 2 medium

Cinnamon ~ 2" stick

Cardamom ~ 8 whole pods

Bay Leaves ~ 2

Chicken ~ 3&1/4 lb

Golden raisins ~ 2 tbsp

Cilantro ~ 3 tbsp finely chopped

How Madhur Jaffrey Did It

Put ginger, garlic and 1/4 cup of water in a blender. Blend until you have a smooth paste. add the almonds, 2 tbsp of water and blend till you get a smooth paste

Put Yogurt in a bowl. Whisk until smooth. Add the garam masala, corriander pwd, cayenne & salt. Stir well to mix

Heat Oil in a large saute pan

Put in the sliced onions and fry for 10-12 mins till reddish brown. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel

Now to the oil add the cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaves

A minute later add the chicken pieces, only as many as possible in a single layer. Brown the chicken pieces lightly on both sides, removing to a bowl when done. Do this for all chocken pieces.

Add the golden raisins. Add the paste from the blender. Stir and fry for 2 minutes

Now put in the chicken, the yogurt and the fried onions. Stir to mix and bring to simmer on medium heat. Cover and cook for 25-30 mins at low heat until chicken is tender. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve

How I Did It

Put ginger, garlic and 1/4 cup of water in a blender. Blend until you have a smooth paste. add the almonds, 2 tbsp of water and blend till you get a smooth paste. I went a little low on the ginger, I had almost 5lb of chicken and still the same amount of ginger. Garlic & Almonds I doubled because I had more chicken.

Put Yogurt in a bowl. Whisk until smooth. Add the garam masala, corriander pwd, cayenne & salt. Stir well to mix. I added both Kashmiri Mirch and Red Chili Powder.

I marinated the chicken with little ginger paste, garlic paste, lime juice, salt and a pinch of turmeric powder for an hour or two

Heat Oil in a large saute pan

Put in the a quarter of the sliced onions and fry for 10-12 mins till soft and pinkish brown. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel

Now add the chicken pieces, only as many as possible in a single layer. Brown the chicken pieces lightly on both sides, removing to a bowl when done. Do this for all chicken pieces.

Now to the oil add the cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaves

Add the rest of the chopped onions and fry till the onions are a pinkish brown

Add the golden raisins. Add the paste from the blender. Stir and fry for 2 minutes or till oil separates from the masala.

Lower the heat and add the yogurt. Stir to mix and bring to simmer on low heat. Adjust for seasonings. I add a little sugar at this point. Now put in the chicken. Stir to mix and bring to simmer on medium heat. Add water if you need more gravy. Cover and cook for 25-30 mins at low heat until chicken is tender.

Adjust for salt and seasonings. Garnish with the fried onions. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve

To Make Punjabi Garam Masala used in Madhur Jaffrey's recipe:

Put in a spice grinder
1 tbsp of cardamom seeds
1 tsp of whole black peppercorns
1 tsp of whole black cumin seeds
1 tsp of cloves
1/3 of a nutmeg
2" stick of cinnamon

Grind finely and store in an air tight jar. This makes about 3 tbsp of Garam Masala






Trivia: Korma has its roots in the Mughlai cuisine of modern-day India. It is a characteristic Persian-Indian dish which can be traced back to the 16th century and to the Mughal incursions into present-day Northern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Classically, a korma is defined as a dish where meat or vegetables are braised with water, stock, yoghurt or cream.

Paayesh revisited for Bhai Pho(n)ta

Bhai Phota(Bhai Duj in parts of Northern India) does not hold any emotional bonding for me. I have no brothers of my own, boy cousins were few & far, my Ma did not encourage neighborhood brother hood and so you are spared any sob story I might have.



But Bhai Phota was still something to look forward to because my Mamas(mother's brother), two of them would rarely miss a Bhai Phota and even catch the overnight train to get the dot smeared on their forehead by their sister, my mom. In anticipation of their arrival my Ma would knead, pound, chop, fry and turn up one dish after other. Dry sweets and savories like nimki, pyarakia would be done before hand and available for sampling a day ahead of Bhai Phota. On the day itself there would be more cooking and eating.

For the uninitiated let me tell you, Bhai Phota or Bhatri Dwitiya is the bengali version of the more well known Hindu festival Bhai Duj where in the sister puts a tilak(a dot) on the brother's forehead and prays for his long life while the brother does something like gifts etc. in return. The "Duj" comes from the fact that this is celebrated exactly two days after new moon, on the Dwitiya right after Diwali.

This is akin to Rakhi but I guess the mythical stories associated with both are different. Anyway the Bengali Male likes the Bhai Phota much better than Rakhi. He doesn't have the Rajpoot brother's bravado to promise life long protection to his sisters as on Rakhi.Instead he is happy being smeared with sandalwood paste, eating the delicacies, giving the sister a gift and then returning home with the shirt piece from Raymond's. The Bong sister on the other hand keeps her fast, does the cooking, puts a dot of sandalwood paste on her brother's forehead and secures her brother's future by sealing Yama's door. It doesn't matter that soon after she plies her brother with cholesterol laden fried goodies and shoves numerous sweets down his throat.

The Bong male when still a kid will go around the neighborhood, getting "phota" from 'hood sisters of myriad ages. In fact the demand for brothers is so high that D says, lunch and dinners would be booked in advance while all other time slots would be devoted to just being "dotted" and snacks. With such a deluge of sisters it is amazing that the Bong Male is successful in even procuring a wife in later life.

Dwitiya te diya fota
Tritiya te diya nita
Jamuna dey Jom ke fota
Ami diy amar bhai ke fota
Aaj hote amar bhaiyer Jom duare porlo kanta

To keep the essence of Bhai Phota alive, my two little daughters give Bhai Phota to their cousin brothers, the two cute twins of my friend N. This time Bhai Phota being on a working Monday we had the ceremony at their home. I made Paayesh -- Param-anna, the food of Gods. I also made a Murg Makhani while the rest of the delicious dishes were made by N's Mom.

I did not have Khejur Gur and since I am not too fond of Paayesh without the Khejur Gur flavor I was a little weary. The Paayesh turned out wonderful though. I used a few cardamoms this time and I also added a few strands of Saffron towards the very end. The saffron made it look very pretty and also lend a very nice flavor to the Payesh.

The recipe for Paayesh is exactly like the one I have before(Khejur Gur er Payesh). The subtle changes I made were as follows.

In absence of Khejur Gur, I added 2 cups of sugar all other measures being same

I added a few whole cardamom to the boiling milk

At the very fag end of the process, I added a few strands of saffron to the paayesh.

One Masala Sprite Please

This is just a "Hello" post with no pics. I haven't had any time to post and my Bhai Phota(Bhai Duj) post is languishing in the draft dungeon. I will be back soon, maybe in a couple of days.

Meanwhile have been eating a lot, a lot. That is what happens when you have too many festivals all conveniently scattered over a single month. Back from a Diwali party of Chole-Puri, Pav-Bhaji, Rasmalai and assorted tid-bits late Saturday night, Sunday we were all ready to go to a lunch spread of Cholar Dal, Enchor-Chingri, Maacher Kalia, maccher matha diye Bandhakopi and the works. Then Sunday evening was a birthday party. This one was special because the hostess is a super cook. Her mutton biryani is US famous if not the world. It was only sheer gastronomic power that made me down two plates of that heavenly biryani even after a late lunch. I couldn't even look at the numerous other items on the buffet table.

What helped afterward is her Masala Sprite, a lovely drink which makes you feel it is digestive(?) and triggers your brain to eat more biryani.

To make Masala Sprite, is very very difficult. It is not everyone's "dayen haath ka khel". Follow the instruction below carefully to prepare a glass of super zingy Masala Sprite

First know what is Sprite. You might have been born to someone like me who deprives their child of such pleasures.

Buy Sprite. A case of canned sprite or a bottle will work fine

Pour sprite carefully in a glass. This can get tricky. Too much will cause overflow and too little dissatisfaction.

Now add a dash of chaat masala, little salt and lime juice and mix well. You have to experiment to get the right proportion. Do the experiment before hand, do not take sips from glasses served to the guests

Have a drink

And lets raise a glass of Masala Sprite to Desi Pundit. I have been invited as a community member to their community -- "a community of top-notch desi blogs, based on consistently creative writing, distinct opinions, and user-friendly design" and I will share some of my selected posts with them in the future. Thanks to Patrix and the team at Desi Pundit for the invite.