Dim Narkel Posto -- Egg Curry with Poppy seeds and Coconut

Dim Posto or Dim Narkel Posto -- Egg Curry with Poppy seeds paste

Almost everyday I tell the girls, "Practice makes Perfection. You have to practice <*> everyday if you want to be good at it". Into the wild card goes everything from math, piano, gymnastics to combing hair. By now they have heard it so often that they turn a deaf ear to my gyaan.

Now I will let you on to secret. Though I give them this gyaan repeatedly, I don't always adhere to it. Definitely not when it comes to cooking.

I mean look at it this way. I am an adult! It is not for nothing that I have grown up to pay monthly bills and worry about them. I need some leeway, some pleasure out of this whole growing-up business, something that will make my adulthood worth it. And that is not to achieve perfection. At least not in my kitchen. For to be perfect in cooking any dish, I need to do it again and again and again. That is B-O-R-I-N-G. And then who is going to eat that same thing tell me?

So instead of practicing the same thing over and over, I fleet around from one recipe to another, jumping to add a tomato where it is not called for, posto aka poppy seed paste where unnecessary. My rutis can take whatever shape they want but I am not rolling them until they are round! Of course all of this fleeting around is bound within certain constraints like
a) has to be easy peasy
b) the end product will not be so wild that it will be untouched by my house humans.

Following this line of thought, I made something different with eggs few weeks back. A Dim Posto Narkol or Dim Narkol Posto or Narkol Posto Dim or whatever that required eggs, posto aka poppy seeds -- a Bengali's favorite spice, and coconut. Now my mother did make a Dim Posto and even a Dim Shorshe posto, so technically I am not crossing uncharted territories here. It is just that this Dim Narkel Posto is, you know different!

Try it. We loved it and even Big Sis who is no lover of eggs grudgingly admitted "Eita khub bhalo hoyeche"! She doesn't know about my personal policies on perfection yet. Don't tell them!

Enchor Chingri Malaikari

My grandmother's house in India had a wildly growing garden. Trees of all kinds grew around the age old garden, leaning over the solid brick parapet that surrounded the house. Guava trees with their albino limbs and pale green leaves, Jamun trees with marble sized juicy jamuns hidden in their leafy canopy, jackfruit trees where the jackfruits clung onto the tree like koala babies and loads and loads of flowering trees from shiuli to tagor.

Enchor Chingri Malaikari

I don't know who planted the trees or who take care of them, for I never did see anyone take care of them regularly. Once in a while my grandmother would get hold of some poor guy walking the lane on a solitary afternoon in search of  odd jobs and then she would entice him with prospect of food and easy money. That is how she got all her weeding done and kept the garden neat. But I never did see anyone spraying fungicide or pouring insecticide or do anything thing fancy in there. Most of the trees in that garden were old and big anyways and knew how to take care of themselves.

In that garden there was this Ka(n)thal gaach -- a jackfruit tree, where jackfruits grew in abundance hanging around the tree like koala babies. Since no one at our home was fond of ripe jackfruit smell, the jackfruits were plucked when they were green and young and called "Enchor" in Bengali. "Enchore paaka" was also a term often used when any adolescent tried to act smart-alecy. Given that it was actually a much adored vegetable, it was hard to figure out, that the term was not actually a compliment!

As a result of all this abundance of enchor, green jackfruit curry or enchor er dalna was quite a common dish at our home. Though honestly cutting green jackfruit, with all its thorns and spikes and sticky glue, was no mean feat and it would be an elaborate affair compassing couple of hours. As is the rule, I was not much fond of "enchor er dalna" as a child. The adults loved it. They called it "gaachh pantha", the vegetarian meat. Much later would I know that it tasted a lot like pulled pork. But at that point I didn't appreciate the soft fibrous texture of green jackfruit in a curry. My mother sometimes made koftas with the green jackfruit, like meatballs, the jackfruit boiled and mashed with potatoes and spices and then fashioned into spherical balls which were deep fried. They were soft and delicious, more after soaking in the spicy gravy. Now those I absolutely adored.

Nandini's Fish Curry with Lime Leaves -- Lebu Pata diye Maacher Jhol

I often hear people say that you don't make good friends after your childhood. That the best friends you make are the one you had since school or college. I understand the logic in there, that the friends you made in the age of innocence, unencumbered with worldly burdens or egos, are the true ones.

However, I have been extremely lucky to have found some good friends in all phases of my life. I found a very good friend when I was working in Mumbai and I am always indebted to her for sharing her love for reading with me. We would go second-book shopping outside Churchgate on Saturdays and she was the one who gave me a copy of "My Family and other Animals", thus introducing me to the magical writings of Gerald Durell.

N, is the aunt who dresses up my daughter for her Bharatnatyam performance as I am clueless

When I came to the US, and was desperately seeking a Bengali fiend, I found Nandini at K-Mart. Nope, she was not on sale. How I met her and what led to our friendship, is a saga on its own and I have even written about it in my book. If you are very interested, you can look it up in there. Slowly, I made more friends but had I not met N that day and braved myself to express my desperate need for friendship with a stranger like her, my life in US would probably be very different. Probably mundane and glitter free.
From her undying love for Shahrukh Khan to her obsessing about exercise, she keeps me informed about a wide range of things from Bollywood to weight-loss trainings, from the best sushi place in town to lebu-paata diye maacher jhol. Honestly, she is like the sister I never had !

KaanchaLonka Dhonepata Baked Fish

The weather has been amazingly warm for February in the last few days. Being from a warm country, I am not very fond of snowy winters, but such high temperatures scare me. With the new administration, there is little thought being given to global warming though it stares us in the face and even my 8 year old understands the impact it can have. If the EPA is not allowed to do the job it should, it is ultimately we, the humans who lose out in the long run.

We went snow tubing this past weekend. It was sunny and warm and the snow had turned to slush in parts. No one even needed a gloves or a cap.  The kids had a whole lot of fun but in a couple of decades we might have to do this whole snow world in a controlled environment indoors.

Now to this Green Chili Coriander Fish baked in the oven which is  much loved in our home. Big Sis is happiest when dinner is this particular fish dish and rice. It is also so easy to make that I don't have to do any prep work if the ingredients are at hand.

Surprisingly, this fish was inspired by a Lemon-Coriander Fish not from any Michelin starred restaurant but my Etihaad flight last year. I have not seen anyone else take their in-flight dinner so seriously, that too an in-flight dinner devoured in company of absolute strangers in a tight economy seat. But I had honestly liked the fish they had served with couscous.

It had uplifted my spirits even even when I was missing all the tyangra jhal charchari and golda chingri that I was leaving behind. As much as I like my golda chingri kalia, I know that it is not what I will rustle up for a weeknight dinner. For that, inspiration has to come from elsewhere. In this case, it was at 40,000 ft high!

Soon after I came home,I searched up the recipe and then tweaked it enough to make it kick-ass Bengali. Few green chilies will do that for you!

Thai Red Curry with Shrimp -- comfort food

Thai food is comfort food for us. Well at least for the two adults and the teen. Little Sis does not like Thai food!

Don't ask me how this is possible but the more I see my kids, the more I want to get their DNA checked. I don't know where they carry these traits from. So anyway for a long time all that Little Sis would eat at our favorite Thai place was their jasmine rice with a little bowl of ketchup+hot sauce on the side. I was okay with it as long as there was no impediment to my pad thai. As she grew older and became an active member in voting "Where do we go out for dinner on Saturdays?", she also became a vociferous opponent of our favorite Thai place. Imagine the horror. Instead of a nice bowl of Tom Yum soup we were being subjected to mac n cheese, how so ever gourmet it may be.

Only recently she has taken an infinitesimal amount of liking for Tom Yum soup which she eats with a side of jasmine rice. As long as she does not vote out our Thai place, I really don't care.

Now, since making a Thai Red curry is something which has a huge ROI, with little work to do and a huge return on flavor, I make a Thai red curry at home often. Little Sis does not eat it but Big Sis slurps it up. It really is a pretty simple dish to make if you have these two ingredients. Thai Red Curry Paste and a Can of coconut milk. I like the Maesri brand of red curry paste and have not tried other kinds.

To make a Chicken Thai Red Curry follow this recipe

Today we will make Shrimp Thai red Curry

Shrimp Thai Red Curry

Start off with 1 lb of fresh or frozen raw shrimp. If you are buying fresh shrimp, buy the ones without the head. Clean the shrimp which means take out the black thread like thingy on the back of the shrimp and rinse in running water. Toss the shrimp in salt and keep aside

Fry 1 small onion, chopped in pieces, cool and make a paste

Heat canola or vegetable oil in a wide pan

Saute the shrimp lightly until they change their raw coloring. Take out and keep aside

To the same oil add 2 cloves of garlic minced. If you have Thai Basil leaves, add about 3-4 of them too.

Once you get a beautiful flavor, add the Onion paste and fry for a minute

Add 1 red bell pepper and 1 green bell pepper chopped in medium sized strips. Saute for 2 minutes

When the Pepper turns soft add 2-3 tbsp of the Red Curry Paste. Saute and cook with sprinkle of water for the next 2-3 minutes

If you have bamboo shoots,add 1/2 a can of bamboo shoots. Saute

Add 1 can of Coconut Milk + 1/2 Cup of water. Mix well and adjust for salt. Let the gravy come to a simmer. I usually let it simmer at low-medium heat for 6-8 minutes as I see it helps the flavors to blend well.

Add 1 tsp sugar and cook to desired consistency. By this time the gravy will have a beautiful color.

Now add the cooked shrimp and let the gravy simmer for 2 more minutes.

At the very end add the Lime Zest or Kafir Lime Leaves. Serve with rice.



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Chicken Rezala -- a regal stew

Kolkata Style chicken Rezala | Chicken Rezala

The typical Bengali style rezala is a mildly spiced, fragrant, yogurt-based stew with chunks of meat. It owes its origin to Mughlai cuisine. This is my recipe of Chicken rezala, which is not exactly like the muslim restaurants in Kolkata but close.

Mutton Rezala recipe

September is close to an end. Pujo is upon us. And no has any time to breathe. I cannot believe that 8th grade and 3rd grade started in our home 3 weeks back. We are already done with "back to school" nights and summer seems to be a bygone affair.

This summer was special as my parents were here after almost 3 years. They are getting older and the visits less frequent. It is no longer easy for them to hop on a trans-atlantic flight and traverse continents. Both my girls goaded them into coming and once the flight part was put away, they were looking forward to their stay as much as us.
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We were lucky to do a lot of short trips around the home with them this summer. My father loves visiting places of interest and is comfortable with long walks, while my Mother has a bad knee which prevents her from walking more than a few yards at a stretch or standing for too long.

Thanks to my father, we re-discovered Philadelphia, surprisingly a city which we never thought of visiting unless it involved work or shows or passport office or such. But my Baba, wanted to visit Philadelphia this time and see the Liberty bell. So off we went on a Sunday morning. It was a gorgeous sunny day, one of those summer days when it is not too humid, and Philly treated us so well.

For me, the best part of Philly was the Reading Market. The covered market teeming with various food specialty shops, bakeries and people reminded us so much of New Market. I spent quiet sometime there, roaming around, not able to decide what to eat and then settled for guess what ? The Philly Cheese steak.

Another weekend we went to a beautiful sculpture garden, not too far from home. Again a place that we had always intended to visit but could never make it. The parents definitely enjoyed the sculpture garden with its unique pieces but the kids too had much fun.

Next up was the Dingman's water fall in the Delaware water gap area. Delaware water gap is beautiful with many natural jewels strewn across the area and Dingman's falls with its well constructed pathway was the ideal trail for my Ma. On our way back from the falls, we stopped by the Delaware river. The sky was overcast and soon a heavy shower rolled in. While everyone else ran back to the car, me, my Baba and Little Sis stood under the tree, breathing in the rain and gazing at the sheer curtain of rain falling on the Delaware river. It was a curious thing, how one person from each generation in our family stayed back in the rain and the other went back to the car like sensible beings.

This picture still takes me back to the day and I can hear the rain drumming on the river.

Next up was trip to the Great Wolf Lodge, a indoor water park, which had taken mythical proportions in our home by the dint of sheer marketing. I am glad we finally went and got it over with this summer.

In between we had guests, visits to the beach which is close by, movies and lots of cooking. Well honestly, my Ma was doing most of the cooking. One of the days, I made a Chicken Rezala for them. I usually make the Mutton Rezala as the goat meat packs in a lot of flavor to this otherwise light stew.

Rezala, is a very popular dish in Calcutta, a signature dish speaking volumes of Awadhi influence on Bengal's culinary history. It is a mildly spiced, yogurt-based stew with chunks of meat. To just call it a stew would be undermining this royal dish. It is not just any stew but a stew that is made regal by lightness of its gravy and the fragrance, which comes with use of Kewra and saffron. The best Rezala can be found in restaurants like Sabir's and Shiraz's in Kolkata. To have a plate of their rezala, the pale golden gravy with a thin layer of ghee floating on top and morsels of soft meat, and mopping it up with soft as mulmul roomali rotis is an experience that you would not want to miss.

I would like the add here Prtihs Sen's comments on Rezala here. She has a deeper knowledge on the subject than me and thinks the Rezala has its origin in the Afghani dish names Rasala.

"I would like to tell you my impressions about the Rezala. All muslim cuisine in Calcutta/Bengal is not Awadhi. It harks back many centuries -- from the 12th century onwards -- with the arrival of the Turks and Afghans in Bengal that established Muslim rule. and later ofcourse the Mughals. The Rezala I feel, the word probably originating from Rassala, is of Afghan origin, to be found only in two places in India actually -- Bengal and in the Rampur cuisine of central India, both very different recipes yet both Afghan strongholds at one time. Awadhi cuisine in Calcutta adapted it to fit into their offerings and while it is also found in Lucknow, its not a very popular dish there as it is in bengal. Awadhi rezalas add coconut milk or dessicated coconut." -- Pritha Sen

Deepshikha's Bengali Goat Meat Curry in Oven -- at Smokies

This Spring Break we went to the Smoky Mountains -- the Great Smoky Mountains. One of the few national parks in the east coast. I am a sucker for National Parks and after our Yellowstone trip last year, my secret desire is to visit all of them. Does not seem like that will happen in this lifetime with the money and time I have at my disposal but that does not mean I won't try.

But the Great Smoky Mountains did not happen out of my love of National Parks. It happened because that was the place decided for a mini reunion of our college friends from twenty years back. It happened millions of whatsapp chats, several hangout sessions late in the night and couple of Google spreadsheets later.

Each hangout was peppered with more serious issues than the last. Luchi or eggs and bacon at breakfast? Pathar manghso on Saturday or bbq? Cookies with tea or muri-chanachur? Pasta for kids or Maggi? Yes we are very focused like that.

Finally a beautiful 8 bedroom chalet in the mountains was booked, food items from goat meat to mustard oil, maggi to maacher chop were packed, and we were all ready for the 12 hour long drive to Tennessee.

If I am honest my first impression of the Smokies as we entered Pigeon Forge was that of deep disappointment. I had Yellowstone and Grand Canyon on my mind and had not expected traffic jams and departmental stores from Wal-Mart to Macy's at the throes of a national park. The fact that we reached on a Friday which was a holiday could have contributed to the throng of crowd.

The deck with the beautiful view

Once we managed to cross all the traffic lights and crawl onto the mountain roads, the traffic peeled off and feel of the forest came back. The path up the mountains had several switchbacks and took scary sharp turns. The trees grew closer and the air turned crisp. My faith in national parks was restored.

It was early spring and the trees were mostly bare except for the light green haze of budding new leaves and splashes of spring flowers here and there. After going through a couple of wrong turns and several phone calls to friends who were already at the chalet, we finally reached the house with a truly "breathtaking view". The Mountains rose right across from the house, its peaks swirled in the typical bluish haze that is quintessential to Smokies.

The kids had lot of fun on zip lines and horse back rides. We went to Jayell's Ranch where even the little ones could zip line on a shorter trail

It was much fun meeting friends after so many years, getting to know their kids, the better halves and generally indulging in what we call in Bengali as "bhaat" -- meaningless banter. Food and adda were the focal points in the backdrop of the mountains. It was fun to see the kids bond with their new friends and have  a great time of their own.

While we were discussing the menu in the days leading to the trip, and trust me it would always end up without a consensus, there was the question of how to cook the goat meat. Should we carry a Pressure cooker ? Will the kitchen have a large enough heavy bottomed pan to cook goat meat for twenty people ? Will Donald Trump be the president ? Should we move to Canada ? You know that kind of questions on which no consensus can be ever reached.

Smokies has lots of pretty waterfalls. We did the Laurel Fall and Grotto Fall hike. Each were approx. 3 mile round trip and easy hike with kids

At this point when everyone was arguing over chat and not really listening to anyone else, our friend from Ohio, Deepshikha said, "We will do the Panthar Mangsho(Goat Meat curry) in the oven. You don'y need anything else except for a largei-ish aluminum tray".

This was so profound that we all just stayed quiet until I mustered to courage to ask "if it tasted good". I shouldn't have. Asked that is. Deepshikha and Biplab are trailblazers in Ohio, investing a lot of time and effort in their local community, doing Durga Pujo and throwing lavish parties with tons of food. They KNOW how to cook mutton in oven and make it taste as good as kosha mangsho.

Maach Shaaker Bhorta -- from Hasina Ahmed and Hena

The best thing I love about  blogging on food for all these years is the people I meet via my blog and new recipes I learn from them. I could have probably learned them from other websites, some youtube video or even a cookbook. All of them excellent sources.

But when I hear it from a real person it is very different. It makes it more tangible, more real for me. I feel humbled that they share their precious recipe with me. Something probably handed down through generations or something they invented or something shared by their friends. That the recipe found a way to my kitchen from theirs, touched with all their love and turmeric makes it more precious.

I have been honored to have Rituporna's Chitol Maacher Muithya, Somnath's Raastar Ghugni, Indrani Bhattacharya's Kumro Begun Chingri, Ahona's Methi Maachh, Sunetra's Piyaajkoli Macch, Piya and Chandrani's Dhonepata Bata Sheem on my blog.

Today it is Hasina Ahmed di. I have never met her or known her and yet I would trust her recipes over any youtube recipe video.. Hasinadi had once introduced me to the different greens that we get at the Asian stores here in US. I was clueless about most of them and only after her gentle nudging did I start buying those strange-named greens and cooking them. A few weeks back, Hasinadi told me about a Maacch Shaak er bhorta that her friend Hena taught her. Over to her for more...


1. Tell us a little about yourself and your friend Hena

I grew up mostly in Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh. My family is originally from Noakhali. I moved to the USA twenty six years ago after I got married. Currently I live in a very small university town in western South Dakota and work full time (8-5). My husband and I love to try new food (especially ethnic food). Food is actually a very important part of your life. What you put in your mouth remains with you. Having a satisfactory (&healthy) meal is good for you both physically and mentally (my physician says so)

Hena and her husband owned a motel in a VERY small town called Hot Springs (2 hour drive from our town). She is a home maker and mother of two boys (11 and 6). They moved to SD from LA 8 years ago. They have sold their motels (to a Gujrati family) a couple of months ago and are getting ready to leave SD.


2. You are from Bangladesh. Do you still hold on to the food culture you had grown up with ? Assuming you are in the US, how do you do that?

Yes, I still hold on to the food culture I had grown up with and I have no plan to change it. Nowadays, you get all most all the ingredients (including khejurer gur) for your cooking in the South Asian Grocery Stores in the big cities. I usually buy my spices from Denver (400 miles from where I live). Actually it is easier to cling to your ethnic food culture if you live in a big city or close to a big city but it is a challenge for the remote and small town dweller like me. I try to be as much creative as possible

3.Bengalis have huge respect for the cuisine from East Bengal. What do you think makes such an impression?

I know our friends from Poshchim Bongo love our meat preparation (kabab, kosha mangsho, korma etc.) But do you think our fish preparation is better than yours? My observation is the Bengalis from Poshcim Bongo cook the best Niramish in the sub-continent. We, the bangals, eat meat regularly and that gives us a wider comfort zone as far as the meat preparation is concerned.

4. Give some examples of how you recreate the food of your childhood with American ingredients

Cooking meat here is not difficult at all. According to my mother, desi spices which are available here are much better (she probably meant less bhejaal) than their counterparts back home. Here is how I make my chicken tikka kabab (see the photo below).

I must confess that cooking vegetables in desi style in an area where I live needs a lot of creativity. During the ninety’s and last decade Broccoli was the magic vegetable. We tried to eat Broccoli at least once a week and I got tired of boiled broc (sometimes raw brocs).

I experimented for sometimes and now cook broccoli in the following ways. 1. Stir fry it with kalo jeerey and dry red chili phoron. 2. Peel the fat stems, cut them into match sticks and cook with shrimp and tomato. 3. Steam sliced broccoli florets on a pan and make bhorta.

I have a family recipe of ‘mishti kumro cooked with moong daal and narkel doodh’. Mishti Kumro is not available here. I replace it with acorn squash (I buy fresh and tender acorn from the farmer’s market in summer).
I use the bideshi vegetables but use desi spices and style to cook my vegetables. Here is another photo. Mushroom, zuchini, potato, snow peas and chayote squash cooked with shorshey and kancha lonka phoron. I also used home-made poriyal masala.

5. You introduced me to a lot of greens. Given that you have a love for gardening, do you also grow them ? Which ones are the easiest to grow ?

Gardening is my passion. I essentially grow flowers (roses outdoor and orchids indoor). But I also have a vegetable patch where I grow our desi vegetables (lau, pui shaak, lonka, long and small round begun, etc.) I grow korola and sometimes methi shaak in pots. Desi veges don’t grow very well here as it is very dry but I still try. If you are in the East Coast, or in Florida or in California, you can grow any desi vegetable that you want to. I use the methi shaak (that I grow in the pot) for cooking my daal. Lau in my vege patch (photo below).

6. So how do you make this Maacher Bhorta ?

My friend H gave me this recipe. Hena is originally from Sylhet. They call this dish Lye Bhorta and originally it is done with shorshe shaak or mustard greens

1. Telapia fillet -  2 (depends on the # of people).

2. Smear the fish fillet with pinch of turmeric , dry red chili flakes, salt and garlic powder (optional), and lemon juice, Leave it aside for 20/30 minutes.

3. 2 cups of very finely chop spring salad mix (original recipe says special 'shorshey shaak' available in Sylhet area). Note:I tried it with arugula and I also stir fried it with garlic, instead of keeping it raw.

4. In a bowl put
very finely chopped red onion (I used quarter of a large red onion),
green chili(4 hot Indian green chili)
one tablespoon of finely chopped dhoney pata/coriander leaves.
Mix well with hand, lightly pressing the coriander leaves and green chillies

5. Fry fish with very little oil. It should be on the crunchier side,

6. When done with frying, break the fish with your hand. Mix all ingredients and add salt to taste.. Sprinkle mustard oil and mix well. Try to mix with your hand. The Sylhetis call it 'lye pata bhorta'. You may skip onion if you don't like it raw. Hasina Di substitutes the mustard greens with organic salad mix. She says, " It became very popular in our home and we are having it almost every week. Though it is called bhorta it is more like salad."

We too loved this Maachh Shaak er Bhorta. I want to try it with different greens next. Thank you Hasina Di and Hena.


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Mete Chorchori -- Goat Liver Fry the Bengali Way

I don't know about you but I simple love goat liver aka "mete" in Bengali. Chicken liver -- not so much but Goat liver -- yum! My daughters freak out at the very idea that I am eating innards of an animal and refuse to even taste it. Having been fond of mete since a wee young child, I don't understand their reaction.

While "mete" was always thrown in when one bought goat meat back in the days, now I hear it has to be bought separately. The middle-eastern butcher shop where we get our meat does not always have liver available either but he obliges us on special requests. But then my daughters will not eat it so only rarely do we make a mete chorchori these days.

Now though I love mete, it is the husband-man who makes a mean mete charchari, a dry goat liver dish with spices and potatoes. He would make it often when I was pregnant with Big Sis and had a condition that made me anemic. Among the various food that were suggested to boost up my iron and RBC, were beets, spinach and goat liver.

I naturally preferred the goat liver. I mean come on, who wouldn't eat "mete charchari" when the doctor prescribes it in not-so-many-words?

However he refuses to give out a set recipe. So I took pictures to wing it later.

Though we prefer goat liver and make this only with goat liver, you can follow the same recipe for chicken liver. I find chicken liver needs more spices than goat liver, so adjust spices according to your taste.

This is the cast of characters,

As you can see, you need,
onion chopped in slices -- 1 and half onion
tomatoes -- looks like only 1 tomato to me, 
potatoes in cubes, 
garlic paste -- 2tsp, 
ginger paste -- 2 tsp, 
and green chillies -- lots of them

And of course the star -- Goat Liver (I had 1lb of it)

Our butcher chops up the liver in small pieces so all we have to do when we get it home is wash well.

Marinate the goat liver with
Turmeric powder
Red Chili Powder
Garlic paste -- 1 tsp
salt
a tsp of Mustard oil
and leave aside for 30 mins.

Heat mustard oil in a kadhai or saucier

Add the potatoes. With a sprinkle of turmeric powder, fry the potatoes until they get golden brown spots. Remove and keep aside to add later.

Temper the Oil with
1 Tej Pata
a 2" cinnamon stick
4 green cardamom
4 clove

When the spices pop add the green chilies and onion. Fry until onion is brown and soft.

Next goes in the tomatoes, 1 tsp garlic paste and 1 tsp of ginger paste. Keep frying until the tomatoes are all mushed up and the raw smell is gone.

Now add the goat liver pieces and fry the liver at medium-high heat. You might need to sprinkle water in-between if you see the spices charring. Continue frying. This step is called koshano and will take some time until you see the liver pieces changing color to a deep brown.

Add the fried potato cubes and mix well. Add 1/4th tsp of Garam Masala powder and give a good stir.

Now add very little water and cover and cook. Cook until potatoes and liver is done.

It tastes best with ruti or parota. And of course rice.

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Fish Kofta Curry -- and the summer that was

Updated on Apr, 2018 with this photo. Scroll down for recipe.

We are in the last leg, rather finger of the summer holidays. Four more days to go and school opens on Tuesday. It has been a long vacation and a surprisingly fun one. I think that is what happens when you set out with very low expectations. With our holidays(to Yellowstone, which I need to write about soon) done at the very beginning of July and no excitement of grandparents visiting, when we had looked upon the stretch of two months lying ahead of us back in July 9th, it seemed like barren two months of little fun. A lot of our and the kids' friends were also away in India for the summer and the prospect looked really bleak.

As is my habit, I am filled with utter remorse if  summer vacation is not "fun" enough and so I even had a panic attack or two and had I been born in the West I would have a shrink who could have profited by my state. The husband-man who looks down upon my attempt at concocting "summer fun" with utter disdain and thinks I am getting sucked in by Western ideas of "must-have-fun-in-summer" had his own set of panic at the prospect of getting dragged out in the heat instead of zoning out in front of X-files on Amazon prime.

All this panic and absence of "shrink" led to marital discords and two absolutely exciting summer months. Okay, not exactly exciting because of the discord but because we had so little expectations.

So what happened ?

Swai or Basa Fish in a Curry Leaves and Tomato gravy

Fish Curry with Tomatoes and Curry Leaves

This Indian Fish Curry recipe with Basa fish is our favorite. It has a strong flavor of methi seeds and kari patta and is delicious in a tomatoe-y gravy

The Swai Fish or Basa has become recently very popular here. They are from the catfish family and are mostly farmed in Vietnam. There are plenty of debates about fish like Basa and Tilapia as the "catfish war" goes on and it is up to you to decide whether you want to eat these farmed fishes or go for the more expensive wild salmon.

When I first had this fish at a friend's home, I really liked it as I felt that the Swai/Basa has a texture which complements the Indian gravy very well. It goes well with a mustard based curry, a coconut based one or the regular onion-ginger-garlic curry. My girls however did not take to this fish but me and D would enjoy it now and then.

And then one day I made this fish with tomatoes and curry leaves. Big Sis is a huge curry leaves fan and she liked it so much that she will now have Swai/Basa when cooked in this particular gravy. Now this gravy has nothing to do with Swai in particular and tastes as well if you are using filet of salmon or even any other white fish. Try it and I am sure you will like it.

For 3 filet of swai/basa in standard size. You can also use salmon or any other white fish like cod.

Wash the fish filet and pat them dry. Now cut the fish filet in cubes ~ 2" x 3". I think I had about 8-9 pieces

Dust the fish with turmeric powder, salt and then add 1 tbsp of olive oil and toss the fish pieces gently.

Now ideally the fish should have been fried but I don't do that. Too much work. Instead do this.

Put all the fish pieces in a single layer on a baking tray and put in the oven to "Broil". Now depending on your oven the time to broil the fish until it is golden will vary. It takes about 20-25 minutes in my toaster oven while in the conventional oven it is done in 10-15 minutes.
Note: With swai a lot of water is releases on baking so make sure that the fish is spaced out in a single layer on the baking tray.

For making the gravy, the most important thing you need is Tomato Paste. It gives a great color to the gravy. While the fish cooks in the oven, you can actually proceed with the gravy.

Make a paste of
1 large red juicy tomato
2 green chilli
1/2" ginger

Now heat Mustard Oil in a wok. I have also done this gravy in Olive Oil and sunflower oil.

Temper the oil with
5-6 Curry Leaves(Kari Patta),
1/4th tsp of Whole Methi seeds
1 Dry Red Chilli

When the seeds pop add
1/2 tsp of garlic paste
1 tbsp of Tomato Paste from can (like this one)
the tomato-chilli paste you made

Fry for a minute or so.

Now add
1 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch
a pinch of Turmeric powder

Fry the tomato paste until the raw smell is gone and you see the oil seeping around the edges. Around 6-7 minutes.

Add
1 tsp of Coriander powder
1/2 tsp of sugar

Sprinkle a little water and fry for a minute

Now add about 1 Cup of water, salt to taste and let the gravy simmer to a boil

When the gravy is simmering, taste and see if everything is right. If sugar or salt is needed adjust at this point.

Now add the broiled pieces of fish to the gravy and let it simmer for couple more minutes.

Garnish with few curry leaves and serve with rice



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Omeltte er Jhol -- Omelette in a Curry

This Omelette er jhol or Indian style Omelettes in a gravy, is one of my favorite egg dishes. There is something about an omelette basking in a thin curry and growing fat and pillowy, all so that you can bite into its softness and let the curry juice trickle down your throat. It makes an omelette far more sensuous than an omelette.

I don't know if anywhere other than in a Bengali home, an omelette is dunked into a gravy. Why you might ask ? I mean why can't you just eat an omelette like it is destined to be eaten?

For we like to change destiny, I say. For we see rainbow where you might just see a blue sky with white clouds. Nothing wrong with a blue sky and white clouds. But a rainbow adds magic. Just like the omellette in a jhol.

Now, there are many Bengali homes too where this dish is not the norm, like this dish was never made at my in-law's home and when I made it for the first time, they thought it was some crazy idea of mine.

But my Ma, has been making this for ages and I have always loved this slightly runny jhol with its potatoes and soft omelettes. Big Sis loves it much more than the regular egg curry aka dim er jhol and asks for it often. It is pretty simple to make too. Rice and omelette er jhol makes for a very comforting dinner for us.

Bengali Style Omellete er Jhol

First take 4 large eggs. Or more eggs if you so wish. Let us not even go into the conundrum of which comes first "Chicken or the Egg"

Now comes the difficult part. Break the eggs in a bowl, two at a time.

To it add
a tbsp of onion finely chopped
green chillies finely chopped
salt to taste
1 tbsp of milk
chopped coriander leaves(optional)
Beat them to a smooth mix

Now make an Omelette. Heat oil in a frying pan. Pour out the egg batter on the pan and swirl till the batter is evenly distributed and let it cook. Fold the omelette in half and cook both sides. Slide it out on a plate. When cool slice in two portions. You can also slice up in cubes or squares.

Making the thin gravy for Omlette er Jhol.

You can make a richer and thicker gravy if you so wish but we like a thin gravy.

Heat 2 tbsp Oil in a Kadhai/Saucier

Temper the Oil with
1 tsp of PaanchPhoron

When the seeds pop add half of a medium onion chopped fine + 2 green chillies slit along the length. Saute till onion softens.

Toss in 1 potato cut in thin half moon shapes. With a sprinkle of turmeric powder, fry the potatoes and onion until they turn golden. At this point the fried flavor of onion and potatoes will make you very hungry!

Next add a chopped tomato.

Add about 1/2 tsp of ginger paste. Fry for a couple of minutes. Tomato should be totally mushed up by now.

Meanwhile in a bowl add
1 tbsp yogurt
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp Kashmiri Mirch/Red Chilli powder
pinch of turmeric powder
and mix well so that you have a smooth paste

Add this masala paste to the potatoes in the kadhai and cook at low heat for 4-5 minutes.

Add about 2 cups of warm water, salt to taste and mix well. Let the gravy come to a simmer.

Cover and let the potatoes cook.

Once the potatoes are done, taste the curry and adjust for spices. You might like to add a little sugar to the jhol at this point.

Once the jhol/gravy is ready add the the omelette into the gravy and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Best served with rice.



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Aam Pudina Grilled Murgi -- Chicken grilled with Mint-Green mango chutney

Yesterday was the dress rehearsal at LS's dance class. Being an Indian classical dance you can well imagine the lengths one had to go to, getting the child dressed. But this post is not about the dance so let us not deviate.

I usually drop Little Sis off at her dance class and come back to pick only later. Yesterday however I had to stay back to check with the teacher if the dress and get up was okay or anything more was to be done. The place was full of little girls all in traditional costume and their Moms. Mostly the parent/guardian was female so I assume it was the Mother except for one whose Dad was there.

Now on other days I see many Dads doing the drop off and pick up but yesterday it was mostly Mothers. I guess it was because they were in charge of the costume and make up for the child. Now this particular Dad who was there yesterday wasn't just doing a drop off. He had come armed with full knowledge of what his daughter's dress and makeup should be and was not afraid to ask questions. His daughter, a little girl of probably eight was beautifully dressed but was missing a couple of fake jewellery.There were a few other kids who were missing the same.

The teacher handed them the pieces and said it has to be secured with safety pins. Most of the Moms were clueless and did not have any safety pin on them. I myself had just bought a box of safety pins the day before and the box was tucked away at home.As we were looking around, this particular gentleman fished out a box of safety pins from his bag and fixed his daughter's jewellery. He then also took out some bobby pins and fixed her hair. When all was done, he shared a few of the safety pins with us too. I was really amazed at how well prepared and organized he was compared to moi. Maybe it his wife who had packed the bag, maybe it was his super organized nature but he seemed like a pretty good Dad to me.

The resident Dad is an all rounder and I often get to hear how my life is extremely easy as the Dad chips in.I am happy to see that there are more of his kind.

Savory Puff Tartlets for snack -- on Spring break

I don't think I have ever written here about the trips, travels or vacations we take as a family. I don't fancy myself as a travelogue writer. I am never going to be in that high echelon. I haven't even read any travelogues in the recent years. If you have, can you recommend some?

Most of our vacations these days are planned around what people are saying on TripAdvisor. The times when the husband-man and me would pore over the Rand McNally to chalk the routes on a road trip and flip through AAA travel guides to narrow down on hotels and restaurants seems like from another era. Then there was surprise and an aura of adventure at every bend. Now we set out with a fair idea about what to expect. Down to the color of the carpet at the hotel.

These days the TripAdvisor is my travelogue fix where I can hear real people wax eloquent about a hotel's bed or grumble about lack of bacon at Quality Inn's promised breakfast. I love hanging around there and narrowing down my choices. Even if I don't have a choice, I sometimes hang around there, planning vacations I will never take. So anyway all this hanging around results in some sort of planning, and I felt it would help someone or even me in future, if I write a bit about our trips and vacations.

Now, I have forgotten most of the details that went into planning our former trips and so I will start off with our most recent trip down to Virginia and then Outer Banks, North Carolina. This trip however needed no planning. We were visiting friends who lived near Virginia Beach and then going to Outer Banks with them. They knew the area well and so I didn't have much to do really except RELAX.

Goalondo Murgi -- Steamer Fowl Curry

I have never had a Goalondo Murgi in all my childhood.

I do not know anyone in my family who has tasted this dish cooked by the boatmen on a Goalondo Steamer. That is kind of justified given that my family on the large is probashi bangali, meaning Bengalis settled outside of Bengal. Their ties to East Bengal might seem very very faint but quiet a few of my Baba's uncles spoke in a heavy "Bangal accent" and my Dad fondly remembers the single trip that he made to Dhaka as a young boy with his grandmother, who had her maternal family in that area. He did go on a steamer on his travel but he has never mentioned the Goalondo Steamer curry. I assume he did not taste it.

In the last couple of years the internet is however awash with the recipe of this rustic curry cooked by the Sylheti boatmen on the steamer that plied the Padma. A recipe with a story always intrigues me and this one had enough nostalgia and romanticism going for it. However I wasn't fully convinced  to cook it. Yet.

Goalondo Ghat is a small town on the southern banks of Padma, or rather the confluence of Padma and Brahmaputra, in Bangladesh. Way back in 1871, the Eastern railways established a train line from Kolkata to Goalondo. To go from Kolkata to Dhaka, one would take a train from Sealdah Station which would reach Goalondo ghaat after an overnight journey. There you would then change to a steamer which chugged on the waters of river Padma and traveled down to Naraynganj or Chandpur. Once at Narayanganj, you would then again take the train to Dhaka.

As we see, Goalondo was a major transport hub with daily service steamers connecting it to railway service in Narayanganj, Chandpur as well as to steamer services to the regions of Sylhet from where you could then proceed to the tea plantations in Assam.

A vivid picture of the journey is descirbed in this Handbook from 1913, "From the Hooghly to the Himalayas"
"From Goalundo to Narayanganj by steamer on the Padma, as the Ganges is called on its lower reaches, takes about seven hours, and as the boats are comfortable and the prospect always pleases, the journey is well worth making and serves as a introduction to the great system of waterways that is the main characteristic of this province. The amazing width of the river, the fights and shades reflected on its muddy waters, the vivid green of the fields of rice and jute that fringe the banks and recede into the mists of the far horizon across the flat alluvial plains, the thatched huts with hog's-back roofs - or huts modernized and ugly with the more water-proof iron tops—and the little clusters of palms and other trees - all this makes up a moving panorama that one may watch for hours untired."

I haven't been to Goalondo or on that steamer, but the stories and songs of these boatmen have been retold in many Bengali tales. Aided by literature and imagination, I can imagine the deckhands(also known as Khalasis) preparing their mid-day meal while singing Bhatiyali songs as the steamer plowed down the river. These were men probably from Sylhet or Chittagong, regions famous for their cooks. With sparse ingredients in hand they cooked a chicken and potato curry on the days they could buy dishi murgi or fowls at a bargain price. While they cooked with onion, garlic, mustard oil and lots of red chili ,the fragrance of steaming hot rice and the bubbling curry wafted around the boat, the flavors intensified by the boatmen's songs, songs of the joys and pains of the mighty river.

The life and curry that we romanticize now must have been a routine and mundane thing for those boatmen. As the curry gained popularity, the pise hotels around the ghaat started offering them to travelers. In those days murgi/chicken was taboo in most Hindu homes. For a long time, we weren't allowed to cook and eat murgi in my grandmother's home, though goat meat was allowed. So naturally the lure of the gorgore laal murgir jhol at these hotels and steamer was hard to resist.

Now I have tried two recipes of Goalondo Steamer Fowl Curry. One was guided by Pritha Sen's description of the curry as a "fiery, thin red curry with a layer of oil on top". She had done extensive research on the recipe and had deduced dry shrimp paste as the magic ingredient which the boatmen used.

Very logical, as dried fish(shukti) or dried shrimp paste was very popular among the Sylheti cooks and it was an inexpensive ingredient that could be carried on their boat journeys. I got a bottle of shrimp-chilli paste from the Asian Market but I am not sure if it is the right kind. I worked around what Pritha Di said but I am sure my Goalondo Fowl Curry was nowhere as good as hers.

The rest of the ingredients etc. was based on a recipe that Ahona Gupta gave me. She had found it on a cooking forum in FB and made it few years back. Her recipe asked for same ingredients but the shrimp paste. Other than that her recipe called for a more simpler method of cooking and also she advised against adding any water. However I did add water because you know what, the curry has to be a "thin red curry".

My curry was thin and tasted pretty good but didn't have the fiery red color, probably due to my skimping on the red chillies. Mine also tasted more or less like the Murgir Jhol my Mother or Mother-in-law cooks with the faint note of the shrimp paste adding a new layer. It has to be more about my cooking though as the recipes is perfect and I hope with more trials my murgir jhol gets the "gorgore laal" (fiery red) rustic flavor like that of the steamer fowl curry.


Method I


Start off with 1lb of bone-in chicken, skinned and cut in pieces

Make a paste of
5 fat cloves of garlic
1" of ginger
4-5 Dry red chilli that has been soaked for 15-20 mins(Note: My curry was medium hot, you need to use double the chilli to have a more spicy curry )

I made the paste using my mortar and pestle given that this was supposed to be a rustic curry. I am sure if the boatmen had an electric grinder they would have used that, so please take liberties and do your best.

Now grate 3/4th of a red onion and keep aside. I was lazy to grate and so boiled and then made a paste of the Onion. Also the onions I get here are really big in size, so 3/4th of my big onion would amount to 2 small onion.

Chop 1 potato in 4 quarters

Now wash and clean the chicken pieces. Marinate the chicken and potatoes with
half of the garlic-chilli paste
2 tbsp of Mustard oil
half of the onion paste
generous sprinkle of turmeric
little salt
Keep aside for 30 minutes to an hour.
Note: If I am not wrong, Pritha Di had asked for a little fish sauce in the chicken marinade which I skipped.

Heat Mustard Oil in a Kadhai/Wok. Be generous with your mustard oil

When the oil is hot, add
the rest of the onion paste
rest of the chilli-garlic paste
about 1/2 tsp of this dry Shrimp paste/dry Shrimp powder.
Saute the onion and spices until starts turning brown.

Add the potatoes and the chicken and saute for about 5-6 minutes.When the potatoes start getting a touch of color and the chicken has lost its raw coloring, add about 1 cup of water. Add salt to taste.

Let the curry come to a simmer. Now reduce the heat, cover the wok/kadhai and let the chicken cook in low heat. After 20-25 mins or so, lift the lid and there is a fair chance that you will see a slick layer of oil floating on the top.

Now open the lid and cook for 4-5 minutes more until the chicken and potatoes are cooked.


Method II


I marinated 1lb chicken and the potatoes with all the ingredients as above(i.e. grated onion, garlic-chili-ginger paste, mustard oil,, salt, turmeric powder)

Now heat mustard oil in a wok/kadhai.

Add the marinated chicken and potatoes. Saute for 8-10 minutes. Now cover, add a little water, salt to taste and let it cook until a layer of oil floats on top and everything is cooked.

Serve this thin curry with steaming hot rice, red onions slices and a twist of lime.




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Aloo Chingri PeyajKoli Chorchori -- those were the days

I don't know what has happened to my evening these days. With the kids getting older, you would expect that, my evenings would roll around like a glorious expanse of free time. Instead, there I am sitting at precisely 8:15 PM explaining place value to a six year old.

I have no clue how I landed in this morose place where six year olds need to be taught but apparently there is something called the common core curriculum, which is like going to make an Einstein out of each tiny tot who has ever passed through the holy grails of American Public School System. To step up to this whole new challenge, the fancy town we moved to because its schools if not best is better than many, has devised multitude of tests. These tests apparently test little children on things they know, things they do not know, things god-dang-six-year-olds could never know. You are not supposed to prep your kid for these tests but apparently everyone does. Except of course me who lives under the rock and some other hippie Mom who believes in karma.

And then I wander into one of LS's school classmate's birthday party and everyone is discussing how their first grader knows multiplication, division, decimals and what nots and I am like really, where was I all these years ? The hippie mom of course is peacefully exhaling and not taking part in this discussion about child prodigies, but she doesn't count. She has flat abs and amazing skin and her children eat flax-seed crackers.

Fish Batter Fry or Fish Orly -- Bengali Style

I think I have said a million times on my blog, that I have spent a big chunk of my growing up years outside Kolkata. And by outside, I do not mean merely the suburbs, the once quiet localities where now the city has encroached with malls et al. But I talk about  places still further, where if you boarded the express train at night after dinner, you would wake up just outside Kolkata with the morning sounds of "Cha-Gorom Cha-Cha Gorom" from the chaiwallahs. This is just to make clear that even though I have lived later in Calcutta later, I am not as familiar with the so-called institutions of Kolkata as many of you are.

For a large part of my childhood, Kolkata, remained the city of winter vacations,wrapped in embroidered Kashmiri shawls and smelling of rich brown fruit cakes. December was the only time of the year when we would be spending one whole month at my Dida's home, eating, lazing and generally having the kind of time which memories are made of. Somewhere nestled among the sun soaked winter afternoons in Alipore zoo, escalator rides at RBI and the Birla museum, there were also "biyebaris",  weddings of several removed cousins of my Mother's and the wedding feast catered during the occasion.

The menu at these biyebaris scored high above those in our mofussil towns and the one thing I liked most about them was the "fish fry" served with slivers of purple onion and mustard at the start of the meal. Fillet of fish, usually Bhetki, was rolled in a coating of eggs and breadcrumb and then deep fried, to make the brown, crunchy fish fry. This technique, I later learned, is called "breading". One bite in the the crunchy outer layer, revealed the sweet fish inside, taking you straight to food heaven.

"Fish Fry" was a rage in the late 70's and early eighties in Kolkata and a wedding feast was not complete without them. Other than the weddings, fish fry was also sold at some restaurants and my uncles would often bring them home, packed in a paper bag with tell tale signs of oil spots and an aura of fried food around them. This delicacy was not available in the town we lived and so after a year's wait, the breaded fish fry in Calcutta seemed as magical as a snowflake to the child in the tropics.

When I asked my readers on Facebook, to nominate a Bengali dish to represent "F" in "A-Z of Bengali cuisine", a huge number said Fish Fry. Totally after my heart. This delightful and delicious example of the Anglo-Indian influence on Bengali cooking definitely deserves to be featured in "F".

The Anglo-Bangla Fish Fry

However I noticed that a substantial number of votes in the same thread went for "Fish Orly" Some were more specific and said "Bijoli Grill's Fish Orly". Now Fish Orly, is a batter fried fish preparation which I had never been particularly fond of. I am not a Kolkata veteran and the few times I have tried the "Bijoli Grill Fish Orly" at Nandan, I have not been blown off my feet. Maybe it is just me but I found "fish orly" greasy and not a match to the crunchy breaded "fish fry".I am sure, I ate fish orly at the wrong places all the time, and that is the reason never really appreciated this masterpiece.

At that time I had no idea what an "orly" was supposed to be, but cooking makes you learn a lot of things and only last week I learned that -- "À l'Orly is a French cooking term used to describe a preparation method usually used with fish fillets. The fish is usually a white fish such as sole, perch or cod.The fillets are skinned, battered and deep fried."

By the early 90's "fish orly" and "fish butter fry" (probably a mispronounced "fish batter fry") had shoved "fish fry" off the Bengali wedding menus. Bijoli Grill caterers were primarily responsible for introducing Fish Orly to the Bengali palate and most people loved it . They raved about it. The only thing I liked was the rolling of the french sounding name on my tongue. It made me feel oddly Parisian without an ounce of idea that "orly" was a French cooking term. I was clearly the square peg.

After the Facebook comments however, I decided to look up the hoo-haa over "Fish Orly". The technique sounded pretty simple. I had some swai filet in the freezer waiting to go in the oven. All else looked good, so instead of the oven, the fish's fate were decided in the orly. "If the Universe conspires and so forth..." .

I marinated the fish almost same as in a Fish Fry, a tad simpler actually. Then for the batter, I used an amalgamation of recipes on the internet for "batter fried fish". Some suggested corn flour but I skipped it. Flour, eggs, water, baking soda was it. Maybe a little more of the baking soda would have made the coating more airy but I decided to stick to a pinch. On a cold winter evening, the hot fried fish tasted pretty good. The girls loved it to the hilt. I still found it oily and realized that it tastes best when had right off the fryer.

Maybe that is why I never liked it in all those years ?

Fish Batter Fry or Fish Orly

I had fillets of Swai cut in 10 pieces. Each piece was about a 3"x 2" piece or smaller. You can use fillet of fish like Bhetki if in India or Cod, Tilapia when Bhetki is not available.

Make a paste of
2-3 fat cloves of garlic,
1 tbsp of peeled & chopped ginger,
2 green chili
with little vinegar. This is the paste that will be used to marinate the fish.

Alternately marinate with
1 tbsp of ginger paste(homemade)
1 tbsp garlic paste

Put the fish pieces in one single layer in a shallow bowl. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste on them.

Marinade the fish pieces with
the paste from step 2,
1 tbsp of vinegar, 
squeeze of a quarter of lime
Make sure that all of the fish pieces are nicely coated with the marinade

Cover & refrigerate overnight. If in a hurry, half an hour to an hour is fine.

For the batter

In a bowl sift
1 Cup of All-Purpose Flour/Maida
a pinch of baking soda(approx. 1/4 tsp)
salt to taste
pepper powder to taste

To it add
1 egg beaten
1 Cup of  Water
1 tsp of vegetable oil

Whisk to make a smooth batter like you would for pancakes. Keep the batter aside for 10 minutes

Now heat enough oil for deep frying

Dip each piece of fish in the batter to coat and then deep fry in hot oil. Keep the heat to medium-high during frying. Fry each side for about 3 minutes each until the fish gets a golden coat.

Eat 'em hot.



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