Chingri Bhorta or Chingri Mola -- spicy prawn pate

Chingri Mola | Chingri Bhorta

Chingri Bhorta or Chingri Mola is a spicy prawn paste, made with tiny, small shrimps cooked in mustard oil and then mashed with green chillies and raw onion. This recipe is my adapted version of the original.

This Chingri Mola or Chingri Bhorta is a huge favorite with me and my older daughter. It is shrimp so what is not to love honestly.

As simple as this dish is, it was not something that my Mother made. Bhortas or baatas, which means anything that is mashed or made into a paste, was not very popular in our urban home, except for the few vegetables that were steamed and then mashed. So say like, aloo seddho/aloomakha or mashed potatoes, kumro bhaate aka mashed pumpkin.

Most of the baata or bhortas in Bengali cuisine is attributed to the Bengalis from East Bengal or Bangals. And that is why whatever baatas I have had is at my in-law's home, be it Kaanchakolar khosha baaata or Phulkopi or Mulo r paata bata

The Bangals, or the Bengalis who immigrated from Bangladesh during or just before partition, are known for their distinctive cooking strategies. They are also known for their enterprising habit of using every bit of vegetables and fish in a dish and not wasting even the peels. I am not sure why people from this region of Bengal are more prone to making baatas etc while the folks from West Bengal are not.

It could be that the immigrant Bengalis were more careful about not wasting food and making the most of what they had. It could also be because Bangladesh was a river state with frequent flooding, so people tried to make most of the vegetables they got during those periods of rain and flood. In both situations, the idea was to stretch to the limits of what little you had.

This particular Chingri Bhorta or Chingri Mola however is not something that my MIL made either. I first heard of it from a friend who described the "Chingri r Mola" that he had at his friend's house in Midnapore, West Bengal. It was made with tiny, small shrimps in their shells, too tiny to remove the shells or tails. These were cooked in mustard oil and then mashed with fingers. Slivers of chopped raw onion and green chillies were then added to them and mashed in together. The friend reminisced how delicious the Chingri Mola tasted and how his friend's mother who pressed the tiny shrimps with her fingers into a coarse paste had magic in those fingers.

This sounded so exciting that I started cooking this chingri mola at home. However the one major thing that we lacked here was the tiny shrimp. We only had the bigger prawns here. So I  adapted the recipe a little. I use medium sized shrimp and make a coarse paste in the mixie. Of course the flavor of those tiny shrimps caught from the local river is missing but we make do with what we get don't we ?
I have also added a second step where I  saute the shrimp paste in mustard oil with nigella seeds, green chillies and onion to make it drier. I think this definitely boosts the flavor and also makes it a dish which you could serve at parties.

Tomato Kasundi -- adapted from Leela Majumdar

Tomato kasundi | Tomato Kashundi

This Kasundi is great as a dip for anything or a dressing for your cucumber-carrot salad. It has more of a tangy tomatoe-y taste than a mustard-y taste. Be generous with the mustard oil and you won't be disappointed.

Aam Kashundi

This Tomato Kasundi recipe is adapted from one of my favorite cookbook of all times. It's in Bengali by my favorite author Leela Majumdar. For those who don't know about her, she is a very famous author of Bengali literature and most loved for her writings for the young adults. Her books like "Podipishi'r Bormi Bakso" or "Monimala" are legends in their own times. Her memoir "Paakdondi" still remains in the list of my favorite books. She also happens to be Satyajit Ray's aunt.

I am not a big time cookbook reader. Never was. My recipes are mostly from friends, families and now blogs. My mother too never had a cookbook as far as I can remember. Cookbooks were not the "in thing" in those days. However she used to often copy recipes from magazines like Jugantor or Sananda and write them down in a diary. We both loved reading the recipes in colorful pages of Sananda or Femina those days. And of course the Personal columns :-p

The first cookbook I ever bought was just before I moved to US. It was a bengali cookbook by Bela De, very popular in those times. It had lots of recipes and was very cut and dry but useful. The recipes were written just like my Mother would say if you asked her how she made a particular dish -- a little of ginger and some cumin seeds. It gave you a basic framework and you took it from there.

Along with Bela De, I had bought another book, not because I wanted to learn the recipes (though they are excellent) but because I was a(still am) huge fan of the author Lila Majumdar. By then I had read all of her writings and when I landed one afternoon at the Dasgupta book stores in College Street asking if I had skipped reading any of Lila Majumdar's books, they gave me her "Ranna r Boi".

To be honest, I wasn't too enthusiastic. I had hoped for an unpublished manuscript maybe. But then I started reading it without the intention of cooking and started loving it. Her words in the introduction of that book became my mantra.  She wrote recipes in a conversational tone, again missing out on the measurements, but they were honest. They told you about substituting ingredients and things like "You can use this instead of this but it won't taste as good :-D". I read through that book often when I felt homesick in those early days in a foreign country. I cooked from it too but mostly I just read those recipes for pleasure.

"If you have to eat to survive then why not try to eat well. And eating well  means eating food that looks good, tastes good, is nutritious, inexpensive, easy and takes little time to cook "

I was craving for some Aam Kasundi or Mango kashundi  but did not have any mangoes. So I settled on Tomato Kasundi. I have adapted this Tomato Kasundi recipe from the book. The ingredients are as she suggested. It made for a very delicious dip. This Kasundi has more of a tangy tomatoe-y taste than a mustard-y taste. Be generous with the Mustard Oil and you will not be disappointed.

Kolkata Mishti Doi -- Bengali sweet yogurt

Kolkata's Mishti Doi | Laal Doi

Mishti Doi is a sweet yogurt that is very popular in Bengal. The yogurt has a reddish tinge due to simmering milk for a long time and caramelizing sugar. This recipe gives both an oven as well as a non-oven version to set the doi.

In my childhood, Kolkata was the land of two kinds of "doi" or yogurt.

Tok doi -- the regular tart yogurt, white in color, which we always had with a sprinkle of sugar and the only kind available where we lived.
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Mishti Doi -- a reddish tinged, sweet and creamy yogurt served in small earthenware cups. This was only available in Kolkata in those days and was high on the list of our things-to-eat during our annual visits.
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Some people called this "laal doi" or red yogurt because of the reddish tinge. Some stores went all fancy and branded it as "Payodhi". My Baba was a huge fan of this one and since we didn't get mishti doi where we lived, he had it almost every day during our Kolkata visits.
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But still basically two types of yogurt.
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Last year, when I went to Balaram's outlet in MishtiHub, I was confronted with myriad varieties of yogurt. There was "Kheer doi" , "Aam or Mango Doi", "Baked Doi" (which seemed to be bhapa doi) and then our "Mishti Doi".
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This was all very good but the "Mishti Doi" was white. I mean no reddish tinge ar all. White as if it was washed in Surf Excel!! I squinted and looked at it from all angles but it looked nothing like that "laal mishti doi" of my childhood 😩😩. (It tasted very good though).
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I even asked the servers at the store about the color, and the young men gave me weird looks and said "Mishti Doi has always been white".

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Now for me Mishti Doi is always reddish with a caramel tinged color. It is said that the original Laal Doi attributes its origin  to Nabadwip's Phasitala, and Kali Ghosh. Kali Ghosh and Hari Ghosh were two brothers, who used to make curd and whey. They would boil buffalo milk and let it simmer in a gentle fire for a long time, to thicken and condense it. The milk took on a reddish tinge as it simmered and thickened. This milk was then sweetened and used to set Yogurt. Later the store bought Mishti Doi always had a layer of dalda or some kind of fat reddish in color on the top. It was really delicious!!

When I saw this reddish colored Misthi Doi made by a friend last week, I knew I had to make it. However I got the red color by caramelizing the sugar.
I basically used the same recipe as I have for my Bhapa Doi but I used caramelized sugar instead of Condensed milk. Also this was not bhapa so there was no steaming. I did not do the water bath in the oven that I do for my bhapa doi. Instead I kept the oven temperature low at 200F and kept this yogurt to set in the oven for 2 hrs. A lower temperature and longer time is better.

Few points to Note:
1. I used Evaporated Milk in this recipe so my process was fairly quick and easy. If you are using Whole Milk, you have to reduce the milk.
2. My sugar got caramelized a little bit more. I should have stopped a few secs early.
3. I think adding 2-3 Tbsp of Condensed Milk would be more to my taste for this Mishti Doi.
4. This tastes best chilled for 3-4 hours.

Narkel Posto Bora -- inspired by Mitan Ghosh

Narkel Postor Bora

Yesterday I got a delivery slot from Costco on Instacart. Yessss!! Never thought things like this will give me so much joy.

If a month ago to this day, you would have asked me what was the greatest accomplishment in life? I would have fumbled. Now I know the answer. Getting a delivery slot on Instacart after trying for a whole week! That is my major accomplishment.

The husband-man is kind of the nonchalant types and is ready to go to Costco once a week at least. During this quarantine he misses Costco the most I think. More when he is stuck at home with all of us all the time. However I don't want to go out in the next two weeks since our Governor keeps saying that cases will peak in our state in these two weeks. Honestly, I don't think anyone knows the correct model that predicts the peak but given that we have been in lockdown for 3 weeks now and the curve hasn't flattened, this better be the peak!

So I am trying to get essential grocery items home delivered and it has not been easy. Delivery slots are never ever available and harder to get than winning a lottery.

However I am not going to complain about this lockdown at all. It has given me time to relax a little both mentally and physically. We are also connecting with friends a lot over Zoom and Hangouts. We even celebrated our favorite twins' 14th birthday over Zoom.

We have had  Virtual chai time with the neighborhood ladies on Zoom, each with our own cup of chai in our own favorite corner.
No one had to make 8 cups of chai or wash all those cups or clean house before guests were coming😂😛
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We have even had Zoom morning meetup with college friends from different parts of the world which has not happened before because weekends are always busy.🤩
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Every day now, I have the time to video chat with my parents 2-3 times a day. 💕
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LS's Bharatanatyam class with 14 others girls and teacher is via Webex. I don't have to drive her to class and I can now watch her dance😍

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We had enough time to watch movies like Tootsie, Murder on the Orient Express, Wajda  so far🎬. Not many but this is a rare occasion in my home. The four of us hardly have time together or if we do, each wants to spend that little free time doing their own thing.
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The girls are baking and even cooking a lot, making lunch for themselves almost every weekday. Lil Sis has become quite the baker with her steady supply of banana muffins for our breakfast and is often seen making pasta for lunch during the week.
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I have never had better weekends!! And never as connected as with social distancing in place!
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This is a difficult time indeed and my prayers for all who are suffering. But for others, whose only fallout of the pandemic so far, is quarantine, we really have NOTHING to complain about.

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Now today I made these Narkel Posto Bora aka Coconut Poppy seeds fritters after drooling over my friend Mitan's photo of the same. Mitan is a talented designer and also an amazing cook. Every day of this quarantine she has been luring us with her food.

Since Posto is nothing but Xanax for us Bengalis, I finally gave in and made these following her recipe. Since I am running low on Posto, the addition of coconut was a very welcome idea. These are so good and makes you feel so happy, that you will exude positvity when you make them


What You Need

Grated Coconut -- 1 Cup (we get frozen grated coconut. I have defrosted and used that)
Poppy seeds -- 1/2 Cup

Green Chilies -- 2-3 chopped fine
Kalonji/Nigella seeds -- 1/2 tsp

Maida/AP Flour  -- 2 Tbsp

Mustard Oil -- 2-3 tsp

How To make the Paste when you have a good mixer

Soak the Poppy seeds in little water for 10-15 minutes. Strain the poppy seeds

In the mixer jar add
1/2 Cup of Poppy seeds with a little water
Make a paste

Add grated coconut to the above. Now blitz to make a fine coconut+ poppy seeds paste

How to make the Paste when you only have Magic Bullet which is not working at its best

Bring out the Coffee Grinder, it is an inexpensive and a familiar feature in a sambar smelling, begun bhaja greasing grad student apartment (I hope!).

Put 1/2 cup of Posto/Poppy Seeds in the coffee grinder and make a fine powder, as fine as the machine can without burning up that is.

Transfer the powder to a bowl. Make sure it's not too grainy.

Add approx 2-3 Tbsp of water to this powder and try to make a paste.

Now in your Magic Bullet jar, add 1 Cup of grated Coconut. With a splash of water make a paste.

Add the Posto/Poppy seeds paste to the Magic Bullet Jar and blitz to make a Coconut-Poppy seed paste.

Now make the Bora aka Fritters

The paste will look a little runny. There is no way you can make bora(fritters) with them. So add a little Maida/AP Flour. Depending on how much water you added while making the paste, you might need Maida anywhere from 2 tsp to 2 Tbsp. Mix well.
Note: If you happen to have a good mixer or a sheel or anything where you can wet grind the posto to a fine thick paste, you might not need the flour.

Next add the chopped green chilies, kalonji and salt to the Coconut-Poppy seeds paste

Grease a flat pan with few drops of Mustard oil and put on the hob. Very little oil is needed to make these, 2 tsp at most.Mustard oil is the oil of choice here. If you don't have that again weep and use Canola.

Shape a flat fritter/tikki/bora kind of structure with your bare hands, it will be irregular and just hold its shape. Put it on the pan and let it cook at medium heat. Once the edges have browned flip. Now it will be flippable. Do the other side till both sides are nicely browned.

You can have these just by themselves or with rice. Tastes awesome. Ok, you already know that.

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ChurMur from Calcutta's Phuchkawala

ChurMur from Calcutta's Phuchkawala

Churmur | Kolkata Phuchkawala

Churmur is a very popular road side snack in Bengal, served by the Phuchkawalas

We have been in official quarantine now for just over a week. The schools have been shut down for two weeks.

Online classes are going fine. For the high-schooler, it is more regimented with defined periods from 8AM to 1PM every weekday. She has online quizzes and loads of assignments to complete, keeping her busy during the day. Major plus for her is she doesn't have to wake up and catch the school bus at 6:30 in the morning. She gets a good nights sleep finally.

For the 6th grader, online classes are from 9AM to 1PM but it's bit flex and most days she finishes her assignments by noon. Every other day from 4pm to 5PM she joins her gymnastics team. On Sundays an hour long dance with the group.

In all, I see that they are getting little more time to relax and that is helping them. Hope the schools learn something from this and reduce the work load for the kids after the quarantine.

Food has not been a major issue at home yet. We are low on meat and fish but the girls are okay with that. For dinner, I am trying my hand at Rotis and Parathas these days. I am not good at making them but since evenings are no longer rushed, I am learning. Also I see that with Roti, it is easy to have a meal with just one more dish, which is a great advantage.

Lunch for me on a work day is usually light and quick. Of all the groceries I did before lockdown, there were 3 boxes of Golgappas I bought. Yes, what foresight :-D

So some days my lunch can be just this. This tangy, spicy, lip-smacking ChurMur!! For all others it doubles up as snack.

Churmur is a very popular road side snack in Bengal, served by the Phuchkawalas. For us, standing around our favorite Phuchkawala outside the College gates, it was usually the last stage of the Phuchka rounds, when we have had enough of phuchka and now wanted the phau phuckas (the free ones) crumbled into a ChurMur.

Chur-Mur if you say it aloud, rolling around your tongue is the sound of crunching of crispy golgappas. A plate of spiced and boiled potatoes, some boiled kala chana, raw onions, green chilies, green coriander leaves, spicy sweet and sour tamarind water and topping that some crumbled crispy Phuchkas. That's ChurMur for you. An explosion of tastes and flavors in your mouth.

I haven't had a street side Phuchka for years now, but I do pray that those favorite Phuchkawalas get back into business soon and serve their unique Churmur, dirt and grime be darned.

Baansh diye Dim Malaikari -- Egg Malaikari with Bamboo shoots

W are in the middle of a surreal time. 5 year later when I come back and read this post, I don't know how I will feel. In the beginning of February, when we were discussing Coronavirus, we discussed it lightly, never even fathoming how it would turn our life upside down in a few weeks.

We thought it we are careful, washed our hands, everything would be ok. Maybe a thousand people or so would get infected but they would recover. Surely the government had a plan. We were far from China, an entire ocean and many countries lay between us. The virus wouldn't travel here.

And then early February, we heard of the lockdown in Italy and it hit home a little closer. We were in beautiful Italy only two years back. I had a friend in Italy with two little kids who would update about how they were house bound and not allowed to go outside. We started worrying but still thought, this was Italy,  still far away from us.

Next it was Washington and California and a neighbor panicked as her son worked for Amazon in Seattle. We told her to calm down and that nothing will happen.

Then cases started happening in New Jersey around March 5th. SAT was canceled.

We had a Holi party in our neighborhood on March 7th, still unaware of the looming pandemic. The husband-man was still traveling the week of March 8th, though I panicked. Instead of flying, he drove to DC on March 10th for a meeting. Things were getting tense. There were many more cases, now in the low hundreds. I was still going to work, kids were still going to school. No masks could be found.
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By March 11th things started getting crazy. Some people in my county had got infected from a Biogen workshop they attended in Boston. The school started sending Covid-19 regarding emails. On March 12th, many of us Moms decided to keep the kids home from school and asked the School Superintendent to take a step towards closing schools. They were still unsure. No word was there from the Governor about school closures. The administration was still waiting to hear from them.
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on March 11th I did a grocery run of 2 stores -- Wal-Mart and ShopRite. I couldn't find Lysol Wipes or hand Sanitizer anywhere. It was as if our life depended on a bottle of Purell Hand Sanitizer. That was the solution to all problems. Some folks thought Toilet Paper was a solution to all problems and started hoarding those!! Later at night, I went to CVS, our pharmacy store and found 2 cans of Lysol spray.

On March 12th, I did a grocery run of 2 more stores  -- the Indian Patel and Costco. I needed Rice and Rusks and Maggi. I wasn't hoarding but we were hearing that things can go bad and we need food for at least a week. There was no chicken in Costco or Hand Sanitizers. The employees were ruffled and didn't answer questions. No one was wearing a mask. The atmosphere was borderline festive. One of the infected person in NJ wasn't doing well
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After much coercing and panic calls, on March 12th, the husband-man told his co-workers that he was going home, and it was best everyone else did the same. Some people were unhappy. Some had flights to catch. He drove back home sometime around midnight.
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On Friday, March 13th, the kids went to school. I went to work. Cases in NJ were rising. Around mid-afternoon, the schools sent an email declaring school closures for the next two weeks, until March 31st. Classes would start online. Our office said they would do a soft closure where we would still have to go to work 3 days a week but would rotate the WFH schedule so that too many people weren't together.

Om March 14th, Saturday, the kids were happy that schools will be closed next week. LS was still playing with her neighbor friend. they spent a lot of time together doing crafts and riding bikes. It was okay we thought.
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On March 15th and 16th, I went to work. I wiped down all surfaces with Lysol. We all kept 6ft distances. Then we were told that offices will be closed until March 31st and we would be working from home. Most people complained. They didn't like the idea of WFH every day. I thought it was great!

It's been TEN days since and the end is nowhere near.
Cases In US have gone up like crazy upto 85K infected.
NJ alone has 6000+ cases.
I am afraid to step out. When BigSis had a cough for the last seven days, I worried so much.

There are lots of plus that is happening too. More in the next post.

I had no idea that Bamboo shoots were used in Bengali Cuisine until I saw Pritha Di's photos of a "Haansh diye Baansh" or Duck with Bamboo shoots. I knew they are popular in North-east India in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur but never knew about the Bengal part of it. Looks like bamboo shoots are a traditional food of the indigenous Jumma people, or the hill-people, in the Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh also.

Now, I had a can of Bamboo shoots at home, waiting for a Thai curry. But I thought what the heck let me make an egg curry with coconut milk and bamboo shoots instead, in true blue Bengali malaikari style, only this time with bamboo shoots added. 

So here is delicious Baansh diye Dim Malaikari aka Egg Malaikari with Bamboo shoots. If you don't have the bamboo shoots at home, don't step out to buy them, you can make this without them too.

Sharmila'r Chhana'r Jilipi -- the North American way

Chhanar Jilipi

Chanar Jilipi | Chhanar Jilipi | Paneer Jalebi

Chhanar Jilipi (or Paneer Jalebi) is a typical Bengali sweet made with fresh Chana (Cottage Cheese), Khoya (Milk Solids) and Maida, deep fried in oil and then soaked in sugar syrup. No wonder it tastes delicious. It is very similar in taste to two similar Bengali sweets called Ledikeni and Pantua which have similar ingredients and taste but differ largely in shape. The Bengali Chanar Jilipi is unique because of its Jalebi or pretzel kinda shape.In my non-traditional recipe for Chanar Jilipi, I have used a shortcut with  Ricotta and Bisquick , and that suits me perfectly. These are so, so good that just writing about them makes my mouth water.

Jump To Recipe

Some days I think that the Nobel Committee should introduce a new category in their awards.

The Food Nobel.

I bet, it would be won almost every year by one or the other Bengali in North America. Don't get riled up because I said North America. The Bengalis in India have so much readily available that the common man doesn't need to innovate, they can simply go to the store or make a trip to the home of ma/masi/pishi/jethi.

Truth be told, the amount of research and innovation that goes into recreating a much loved childhood favorite, a traditional Bengali recipe, a forgotten food that lingers in nostalgia; with local ingredients and limited resources, by the Bengali community living away from Bengal, parallels no other.

After discovery of fire and wheel, I have never seen the saying "necessity is the mother of invention" so directly applied anywhere else.

You want to eat mocha'r ghonto and there is no grocery store selling Banana Blossoms ? Raid the asian stores and get soy bean sprouts to make a faux Mochar Ghonto
You want the Rui diye Doi Maach that your Mom made but can't find Rui? Get salmon and make the most of it.
You want to make Enchor er Kofta but have no time or expertise to deal with a actual raw Jackfruit ? Get a can and make this shortcut but delicious Enchor Koftas instead.

This Chhanar Jilipi is one more of those brilliant innovations and this time shared by my friend Sharmila. They are delicious and perfect and if she didn't let me onto her secret, I would have thought she was Balaram Mullick or Bhimnag's granddaughter carrying forward their secret recipes. She has many such expert patents in her repertoire and if you are particularly nice, I can cajole her to share some more!

It was very, very generous of her to share her innovation (which deserves a Nobel) and satisfy our sweet cravings for a favorite childhood mishti. This Chhanar Jilipi is so good that I have made them about 4 times now and the last time I made them, my friends went into a nostalgic trip remembering their Mother's jilipi or favorite sweet shop's creation.

Chhanar Jilipi (or Paneer Jalebi) is a typical Bengali sweet which holds its place is a few ranks above the Ledikeni, which in turn is again a rank above Pantua. All of them are kind of similar except for the shape.
Ledikeni or Lady Kenny, named after Lady Canning, is a light fried reddish-brown sweet, cylindrical in shape and made of Chhena and flour and soaked in sugar syrup. The Chhanar Jilipi has the same ingredients but has Jalebi cum pretzel kinda shape. It is the shape which makes them unique.

*Traditionally Chhanar Jilipi in India is with Chhana and Maida. However Sharmila decided to go the Ricotta + Bisquick way, and that suits me perfectly. These are so, so good that just writing about them makes my mouth water.

Khejur Gur er Rasogolla in Instant Pot

Khejur Gur Roshogolla

Today is a day that will go down in history. Well, at least my history.

First, because I pulled out the InstantPot from the caverns of the Pantry and found it still smelled of mangshor jhol made a month ago. Well, the second part is not historical. That I pulled the IP out and put it to use was a historical moment.

Second, I used the InstaPot for something that was worthwhile finally. I used it to make Khejur Gur er Roshogolla !!

There are two people who are directly or indirectly responsible for this. Our friend, Kaushik, the master roshogolla maker who makes roshogolla making seem as simple as a magician taking a rabbit out of a hat. Second, is our other friend Deepshikha, who champions the IP and finally pushed me to use it.
And then my Dad, who sent photos of  "Notun Gur Utsav" -- a festival celebrating the new date palm jaggery that is a product of this season. The sight of those delicious sweets, sondesh, patishapta, pithe puli would send anyone to depression

I was seriously craving some khejur gur er roshogolla aka rasgullas in date palm jaggery syrup, after seeing the photos they shared and had to make some. This time around , the process really seemed far more streamlined and easier. I think it was practice that made it seem so.

The roshogollas came out soft, juicy and spongy both times I made them. The Khejur Gur I had got from India during my November visit was not the best quality but even that added a beautiful flavor to the syrup and to the roshogollas.

Also, I can now totally understand those stories about folks who went to a wedding and ate 100 roshogollas straight from the bhiyen (the sweet maker's set up). The fresh, spongy, roshogollas with no additivies, hot off the syrup are really delicious and kind of melt in your mouth. I, who am not a big sweet fan, had 20 today. Yes TWENTY!!!

The Indian Vegetable Stew or Bangali r Sobji Jhol

Come fall and then winter, my feed gets populated with soups. Every one is making a soup. And I agree, they are delicious and warm and perfect for those chilly winter evenings.

My grudge is this.

If you can have a bowlful of Minestrone Soup and take a photo and post recipes and raise a whole lot of brouhaha, why not have a bowl of Sobji Jhol ?

What you ask is a Sobji Jhol or Indian Vegetable Stew? It is a light soupy dish with a medley of vegetables. In winter, that would be cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, green beans, green peas in their pods. But then there is no set recipe, it can be anything you want to add.

This jhol was in the background of all dishes that my Mother cooked throughout the year. In one form or another it always arrived at our dining table.

The vegetables in the jhol would tell you the season you were in. Winter always made brighter with tightly packed fair cauliflower, orange carrots, ruby red beets, green pearl like peas in their pods.

The spicing determined by time and my Mother's mood. Sometimes it would be freshly pounded cumin and ginger, on other days a sprinkle of Kitchen King from a box. It was "everything goes" kind of a dish and how we loved this runny, soupy dish with some rice.

I make a big pot of this "jhol" or vegetable stew often. Mixed with rice and a squeeze of lime juice, my girls happily eat the vegetables. I can eat a big bowl of this just by itself but it does taste best with some rice.

The Indian Vegetable Stew or Bangali r Sobji Jhol

The Vegetables

Cauliflower -- Chop 1 Cauliflower in medium sized florets.

Carrot -- Chop 1 big Carrots in cubes

Green Beans -- Trim and Chop 12-15 green beans in 1" pieces

Cabbage -- 1 Cup of chopped cabbage

Green peas in pod -- a fistful, washed

The Indian Mirepoix

Onion -- 1/2 of an onion chopped in small pieces (Optional. I skip onion most of the time)
Tomato -- 2 medium tomato quartered
Green Chili -- 4 green chili sliced
Ginger -- 2" piece of ginger grated

Paanchphoron (Five Spice Mix) -- 1/2 tsp

The Spices

Kitchen King Masala -- 1 tsp

If you don't have Kitchen King use 1 tsp of Cumin-Coriander Masala.

Salt -- to taste

Mustard Oil -- 2 Tbsp (You can also use Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil)

Fresh Coriander leaves -- for garnish

How I Make It

Heat Mustard Oil to smoking in a deep bottomed pot.

Temper the Oil with 1/2 tsp Paanchphoron and 4 green chilli

When the spices start sizzling, add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes.

Next goes in the tomatoes and ginger. Saute them for the next couple of minutes until tomatoes are soft.

Now add the vegetables in this order
Cauliflower florets -- sprinkle 1 tsp of Turmeric powder and saute florets for 1 minute
Carrots -- mix and saute for 1 minutes
Green Beans and Peas -- Saute for 1 minute
Cabbage -- Mix and saute for 1 minute

Now add
1 tsp of Cumin+ Coriander Powder
OR
1 tsp of Kitchen King Masala
Mix with the vegetables with a sprinkle of water.

Add enough water so that the vegetables are just covered by water. Add salt to taste. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium

Cover and simmer until vegetables are all done. The vegetables should not be cooked to death. They should retain a little crunch.

Adjust for seasoning and add salt, red chili powder or garama masala powder as needed. I finish it off with some fresh chopped coriander leaves and couple of chopped green chili.

Serve like a soup in a big bowl with a squeeze of lime juice. Add a little cooked rice to add more body to the thin soup.


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Bati Charchari 2 -- with cauliflower stalks et al, pumpkin and eggplant

Our Lunch plate today

Bengali Cuisine has so many different varieties of vegetarian dishes that it is hard to keep a count. Charchari, Ghonto, Chechki, Jhol, Jhaal, the permutations and combinations are endless.

Even within each of these genres -- there are hundred different varieties.

Charchari is a dish which is usually made with multiple of vegetables. However there are exceptions and individual charcharis also rule the genre, like "Aloo Charchari" with only potatoes or "Dharosh Charchari" with only okra. But most charcharis involve a  myriad of vegetables with a lot of sauteing and thus generous amount of oil. I had read somewhere the name "charchari" came phonetically from the "char char" or charring sound that happened while sauteing vigorously in an iron kadhai.

The Bati Charchari is a little different from usual charcharis as it does not involve any tempering or  sauteing at all. In fact the bati charchari that I have grown up with was made with only potatoes, chopped in long  thin slices, cooked in a steel container with mustard oil drizzled oil from the top.

Today's Bati Charchari which I am calling Bati Charchari 2 is a variation of the typical charchari. It has mustard paste and a tempering of Paanchphoron , Hing and Green Chili. I love the flavor of Hing in my vegetarian dishes and often add them to charcharis. Instead of Mustard paste, I have used Kashundi from a bottle because my Mother sent me  a large stock of Kashundi recently.

The star of this dish was of course the cauliflower stalks which were tender and tasted delicious. I was delighted to see again a cauliflower with such lovely stalks and used the stalks and green in this dish as well as in a dal. Yep, I am officially that age when I get excited by cauliflower stalks.
Instead of going "Oooh, Farhan Akhtar", I am like "Oooh, such lovely green, firm, kopi'r daanta (cauli stalks)"🥰. My heart races seeing such stuff.
Here is a video to give you an idea about making this dish.

Bati Charchari 2 -- with cauliflower stalks et al, pumpkin and eggplant

Chop in equal proportions all of the following vegetables.

Cauliflower
Cauliflower stalks and leaves
Pumpkin
Eggplant
Potato(optional)

*I have chopped everything in cubes but you can chop them longitudinally

Heat Mustard Oil for cooking

Temper the hot oil with
1 tsp Paanchphoron
3-4 Green Chili
a pinch of Hing

Now add the vegetables, one after the another.
So add pumpkin, quick saute, then add cauliflower stalks.
Next, goes in cauliflower florets, saute for a minute.
Next eggplant

Sprinkle some Turmeric powder and saute everything for a couple of minutes.

Add
1 Cup of water
1 tsp of Mustard paste (OR 1 tsp Kashundi mixed with some water)
Salt to taste

Mix well.

Cover and cook at low medium until vegetables are tender.

Finish off with a tsp of kashundi and few green chilies for best taste

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Best Mutton Biryani Recipe -- from Sanhita

Mutton Biryani | Kolkata Mutton Biryani

Mutton Biryani is a famous dish where fargrant rice is cooked with pieces of mutton. The Kolkata Style Biryani is famous for it subtle taste and use of potatoes along with the meat.In this Mutton Biryani recipe, I have used readymade Biryani masala, making the process simpler.

Kolkata Chicken Biryani with homemade Biryani Masala

If you have been following me for a while you know about my Biryani woes. How I am never able to get that perfect Biryani rice

This year I was on a quest to a perfect my Biryani and the journey started with Neha Murad's Mom's Kolkata Biryani. It is a beautiful recipe and worked perfectly well and everything was good until it came to the rice part, when I faltered. It was always the rice which I either overcooked or it had extra moisture or something. I never got the "jhor jhore" Biryani rice where every grain is separate and independent.

Now two of my friends make excellent Biryani -- Moumita and Sanhita. Their Biryani is literally to die for and beats any restaurant Biryani that we get. I realized that the only way to salvage my Biryani was to shadow these experts in their kitchen and correct my errors.

Say Hello to Sanhita

My friend Sanhita kindly volunteered to teach me her excellent Biryani a couple of days back. Her approach to the dish was very simple, which caught my interest. She did not ask for any fancy ingredients and her style of Biriyani making seemed pretty simple with delicious results.

So I packed up 5lbs of goat meat, long grained Basmati rice, and arrived at her home on a hot summer afternoon to learn tricks of the trade.

Since none of us had time, we went with store bought Shan Bombay Biryani Masala. Next time I will be making Neha's mom's masala.

I am uploading 2 videos to show how the mutton was made and the rice was layered. The mutton is made with almost no water. After "koshaoing" or "bhuna-ing" for an hour, the mutton was transferred to a pressure cooker where it finished cooking. Point to be noted -- the oil from the mutton was not used in the Biryani.

 Cooking Mutton for Biryani

The rice grains were cooked al-dente and cold water was run through them to stop further cooking. The rice was then spread out in a tray and left to dry.

Layering Biryani

We made a very simple but utterly delicious Biryani. We did not waste our time in making the Birista(fried onions) to layer etc. The taste was subtle and clean, with the meat, spices, kewra and saffron flavoring each grain of rice.

Looks like my Biryani quest has finally come to an end with this delicious stop.

Niramish Mangsho -- Shubho Barsho

Tomorrow is  Poila Boishakh, the first day of Boishakh ushering in the Bengali New year. While the English NewYear involves a lot of hard work like late night partying, looking back, looking forward, making resolutions, blah, blah...the Bengali New Year is much more relaxed and laid back in style.

During the 80's and early 90's, Bengali New year was all about 3 things --
(1) wearing new clothes (2) feasting at home (3) visiting stores and collecting single page Bengali calendars rolled in a narrow cylinder and cardboard boxes of sweets and shingaras. In addition to that there was the usual cultural stuff , involving Rabindrasangeet , because how can a Bengali celebrate anything without kalchar -- but I was not greatly interested in them.

Now, #1 holds no attraction for me and it has been almost 30 years since #3. So that leaves us with #2 as the only way to usher in the New Year.  Not necessarily at home but anywhere. Today, we had one of our classmates visiting us from Finland and so we had our Notun Bochor celebration a day early with lots of Bengali food at home.

This Niramish Mangsho, is something I cooked last weekend and have been thinking of sharing with you but the week just got so busy that I didn't get a chance.

Niramish Mangsho or "Vegetarian Mutton Curry" would sound like an oxymoron to most except a Bengali.

To my ears, it sounds perfectly logical since I have grown up hearing about it. Every year, around Kalipujo, my Father would reminisce about one his Uncles, an ardent devotee of the Goddess Kali. This extremely spiritual Uncle, who practiced a strict vegetarian diet all 364 days of the year, would become the greatest meat eating glutton on the day of Kali Pujo. The sacrificial goat for Goddess Kali would be cooked without any onion or garlic and that mutton curry, labeled as "Niramish Mangsho" would be enjoyed by her devout followers as "maha proshaad" -- the blessed mutton curry!!!

As a child I was awed by this show of reverence. How could someone forego meat for one whole year and the satiate his cravings on just one day? And that too with a mutton curry that was cooked without any onion or garlic. Must be very blehh in taste...I thought!!

I might have have tasted that mutton curry during Kali pujo, a small piece as a portion of a larger proshaad, but it did not really make enough of an impact to my childhood palate. I preferred the "Robibar er Mutton Curry" cooked by my Mother on Sundays.

Recently as I was trying to look up more about this Niramish Mangsho, I found that it had a lot of similarity with Kasmiri Brahmin recipe of Rogan Josh which too is made without any onion or garlic. Onion and garlic were not very popular ingredients in the Hindu kitchen yet and Asafoetida or Hing is the major flavoring agent in both the recipes.

In Utsa Ray's book "Culinary Culture in Colonial India", he mentions the the first Bengali cookbook Pakrajeswar(published in 1831) and the second, Byanjan-ratnakar(in 1858).

Ray says -- " Mutton recipes described there hardly prescribed the use of onion or garlic, something frequently used in Mughlai cuisine. The author of Pakrajeswar clearly stated that since people in the region hardly consumed onion, he had refrained from listing it as an essential ingredient in the recipes. Byanjan-ratnakar also did not include onion and garlic in its repertoire of recipes. It can be understood that the readers of Pakrajeswar were mostly Hindus who were not very accustomed to having garlic and onion in their food as yet."

In the same book he also mentions Mukundaram’s Chandimangal composed in late 16th century, which has elaborate lists of what was being cooked in the families of the trading castes and mentions--"Generally, the spices used for cooking fish and mutton were asafoetida and cumin."

We can then extrapolate that Mutton curry cooked without any onion or garlic was the norm in Hindu Bengali families in those times and so "Niramish Mangsho" was not really an anomaly. It was therefore very natural that the goat sacrificed to the Goddess Durga on the ninth day (Nabami) of Durga Pujo and to Goddess Kali on Kalipujo was also cooked in a similar way and offered as prashad.

I cooked this Mutton curry taking cues from Rogan Josh and my Mother's tip of using asafoetida+ginger to temper purely vegetarian curries. I have used whole Garam Masala and the Garam Masala powder just like we do for our regular mutton curry. For the wet spice paste, the very Bengali jeere-dhone baata, I have taken Kashmiri liberty and added some fennel seeds. Fennel seeds was probably not used in Bengali mutton curries. This dish is cooked in ghee in many recipe, however I have cooked it in Mustard Oil and added little ghee towards the end. Cooking it in ghee will definitely add more flavor.

The Mutton Curry was truly flavorful delicious. You wouldn't miss the garlic and onion at all in this dish. However it tastes best when had the same day as cooked and it does not keep well in the refrigerator.

Kolkata Chicken Biryani - Neha Murad's Mom's

Kolkata Style Chicken Biryani | Calcutta Biryani

Kolkata Biryani is known for its distinct subtle taste where fragrant rice is mixed with big pieces of meat, potatoes and Eggs. Said to have been brought over by Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh who had been deported to Kolkata, the Kolkata biryani is distinct from other regional biryanis with its aromatic rice and potato.

I am not a Biryani expert.

I mean, I am an expert at eating it but not at cooking it.

Believe me, I have tried. Maybe not enough times.

But how many times can you try cooking a ghee laden Biryani until it is just perfect?
Who eats it? Even if its not perfect,it tastes good after all! And it has all good things.
So do you give your experimental Biryani to unsuspecting neighbors? But people are very health conscious these days. They might not like you giving them ghee laden not-so-perfect Biryani every week.
Then do you eat it yourself? But that means to shed off those excessive calories from the not-so-perfect Biryani you have to go running! Too much work.

So with all these doubts clouding my head, I had stopped experimenting with Biryanis.
Maybe this is a sign.Maybe God is telling me to only eat Biryanis cooked by others.

And then sometime in October, I was chatting with a blog reader Neha Murad over some kaanchakolar kofta that she had made.

Chatting as in FB messenger. Not real life. And I didn't even know her until that fateful day in October.

Now comes the very special thing that keeps me blogging on food and sharing my stories.

Just out of the blog, Neha said "If you are ever in the Bay Area and want to try some Kolkata style Biryani feel free to ping me. I am more adept at that than Kaanchakolar Kofta". Just like that. A warm invite to her home to share a plate of Biryani.

And then she shared her Mother's Biryani recipe. Beautifully hand-written in her recipe diary. I was overwhelmed by this generous gesture and held the recipe close to my heart.

However, I was worried about trying it out as I did not have enough Biriyani faith in myself.

Kashundi Narkol Mocha -- Banana Blossoms with Kashundi and Coconut

Last week my Mother, who was visiting us over summer, left for India. Just before she left, I brought home a mocha as I wanted to practically see how it is prepped. Yes, I had never chopped a Mocha before this. Blasphemy!

Mocha in Hawaii

Mocha, banana blossoms is a favorite vegetable in Bengal. In fact in Bengal, a banana plant is much revered. During DurgaPujo, she is the designated wife of Ganesha and lovingly addressed as "KolaBou". The raw banana is another favorite in Bengali cuisine and kaachakolar kofta is high up in culinary ladders jostling with the likes of kosha mangsho. The tender core of the banana stems, the apparent trunk, is another nutritious vegetable favorite in Bengali cuisine. It is is called "Thor", not the Nordic God, but as impressive.The flowers of the Banana tree, Mocha, often served as Mochar Ghonto or Mochar Chop represent the very pinnacle of niramish Bengali ranna.

I had always shied away from cooking Mocha as I thought the chopping would be a difficult task. You see, chopping Mocha (banana blossom) in the seclusion of your own home, in isolation does not make sense. It needs a community to efficiently peel, remove stamen, and chop Mocha with efficiency and speed.

After this effort, I have realized that chopping 1 or 2 mocha is not that big of a hurdle and that amount of blossoms is enough to serve a family of 4. So take heart and go ahead.

I initially wanted to make Mochar Ghonto but I love some of those "kaala chana" in my mocha and I didn't have those. So I decided to make shorshe narkol mocha but was too lazy to grind the shorshe aka mustard paste. So use the bottle of Kashundi instead.



#howtoprepamochafromMyMa

It is time for my Mother to leave for India and now I realize that I haven't done any of the things I had planned to do with her.
.
I did not jot down recipes or make videos of her cooking.
.
Instead I just ate the variety of food she cooked without thinking of a recipe, cooked for her, sat down with her every evening drinking copious amounts of tea, joined her in her hangout with her friends(my neighbors) ,watched movies and saregamapa on Zee Bangla with her, took a vacation together, argued, disagreed and restrained myself from interfering when she spoiled my daughters😜
.
And then I panicked!! Hey where are those videos I wanted to shoot? Where are the step by step photos of recipes?
.
My mom balked at me "Oi shob ami parbo na"( I am not doing any of those things).
.
Really Ma? You can cook kochuri for your granddaughters and not tell me how much turmeric you put in your Maacher Jhol? You know how important it is to measure a piece of ginger before you chop!!
.
My mom rolled her eyes 🙄 and walked away.
.
The only thing I achieved is getting her to demo -- HOW TO PREP A MOCHA ( Banana Blossoms )
.
This I needed for myself. Or Lord help me, if I ever buy a pretty looking #bananablossom and know nothing to do with it except put it in a vase or shove it up somewhere!!!
.
So here's the one and only video of my Mom instructing on #howtoprepmocha.
.
Statuatory Warning: Wear one of those plastic gloves unlike her and make sure you have lots of time to spare. 😅

Moumita'r Kochu Paata Chingri -- Colocasia Leaves with Shrimp

Moumita making her Kochu Pata Chingri

Today I will bring you a dish that  I had never had it growing up and my Mother never made it. Nor did my grandmother. 

But it is a Bengali delicacy and I have heard a lot about it mostly heard of  this dish as a speciality in a restaurant called Kasturi in Kolkata! Next time I am visiting india, I have to make sure I land up at Kasturi.

If you are still clueless as tow hat I am blabbering about , it is the famous #KochupaataBaataChingri or #KochupaatabhaapeChingri . We were on a scientific mission to nail down this dish which none of our Mothers had ever made and a couple of us had tasted it only once or maybe twice in their life. This project was very different from re-creating a dish from nostalgia. There was no recipe to follow either. Here we were re-creating something only from heresay. At least the cuisine was same and we had certain benchmarks to guide us like "shorshe baata" (mustard paste) or "narkol baata" (grated coconut). It would have been way harder if the ingredients had unknown tastes of "Yuzu" or "Katsuobushi"!

Our first imediment was our very little knowledge as to how to get Kochu Paata  I mean back home was I ever interested in Kocu? Err never ! The husband-man who is usually a "know-all" in these circumstances, said "kochu'r loti" is okay but no one ever uses "Kochu Paata" in  a Bengali dish!! We didn't pay much heed to him and the Kochu Paata problem was solved by Gujarati folks in town who use Colocassia leaves aka Kochu Paata to make Paatra. They guided us to the aisle in Patel Brothers which carries those leaves. 

Next it was my chef-de-extraordinaire friend Moumita who led the experiment. Now, she is the one who was making complex kheer kodomboss when I was barely getting my rice and egg curry right, so I knew the experiment was in able hands. "Chokh bondo kore bhorsha kora jaay" type. As in English, -- "Have full faith"

A few days back, one Thursday evening she called me to say that she had finally made "Kochu Pata Chingri" and  the result looked like a success, so she would drop off some for me to taste. Now by Thursday I have hardly anything interesting to eat at home and was planning to go out for dinner after Child 2's science fair. But Moumita's message was music to my ears and I shelved all plans, cooked a pot of rice and waited for dinner time. .

Her Kochupaata Chingri was delicious to say the least. Since I do not have the Kosturi benchmark to test against, I do not know how theirs taste but this one was awesome.

Next day, I sent the husband-man to scour aisles of Patel brothers and get "Kochu Paata". Then on a fine Saturday, I made the dish, following Moumita's recipe and tweaking on what she had created. She did the entire thing on stove top but after the initial few steps,  I put it in the oven bwhere I cooked it the same way I make "Chingri Bhaape".  The end result tasted very good though honestly we were yet to distinguish the taste of Kochu paata in it. But I am so glad that we did it and I don't have to wait a whole year to taste what Kochupata Chingri tatses like.

A big thanks of course goes to Moumita. And I hope we can get some time to bring a video of her famous Biriyani for you too.

And since I love to drool over kitchens and such, here is Moumita's gourmet kitchen. isn't it lovely?

And Ta-Da, here is the pretty Master Chef herself...

Robibar er Murgir Jhol -- Sunday Chicken Curry

Bengali Chicken Curry | Murgir Jhol

The Bengali Chicken Curry is the most simplest of Chicken Curries popular in Bengali homes. While the Goalondo Steamer Curry or Railway Chicken Curry has now gained popularity, those were not how chicken was cooked in most Bengali homes. This chicken curry recipe is the curry that millions of Bengalis in the 70's and 80's grew up with, their Mothers cooking this dish for lunch on lazy Sunday afternoons

A few months back I got an email.

This is exactly what it said

Didi,

Apnake Jodi Bengali Sunday dupurer chicken curry ranna Korte hoy , family r jonno . Apni ki bhabe ranna korben ?

What is the best recipe apnar kache ? Kindly ektu information dile khub Khushi hobo .

(Didi, If you have to cook the Bengali Chicken Curry for Sunday lunch, how would you do it?)

At first I was a bit irked by this email. Not by the reader as I guessed he was a much younger guy and yet had not called me "Didi" and not Mashima :-p!!. But you know how this "Robibar er Mangsho" has been done to death and restaurants now have it on the menu and folks who have no idea what "Robibar er Mangsho" means order it on a Wednesday night and eat it with naan and a bottle of chilled beer while watching "Didi No.1" on the telly.

It totally sucks the joy out of the whole thing. Honestly it doesn't really make much sense if you are cooking it on a non-Sunday or eating it at a restaurant or using your "food delivery" app like Swiggy to order "ek plate Robibar er Murgi dena".

As chicken slowly started replacing goat meat/mutton in the Bengali household's shopping list, due to affordability or being a leaner choice of meat, the Sunday Mutton Curry was replaced with a rustic Chicken Curry instead.

Murgir Jhol | Bengali Chicken Curry

Tell me, what is a Robibar er Mangsho aka Sunday mutton Curry if not followed by hours of bhaat ghoom (siesta), bangla natok on Kolkata "Ka", and lingering turmeric colored aroma of a jhol on the tip of your fingers until Monday morning ? And most importantly, what is a Robibar er Manghso if not Goat meat!!!!

So this is what I replied

Bhai
Eita trick question kina bujhlam na !!! Sunday to Sunday to exactly same hobe na. Eikhane ekta mutton er dilam. Chicken diye mostly ei rokom i kori, konodin moshla beshi, konodin jhaal beshi, konodin duto gajor instead of aloo, je rokom Sunday sei rokom jhol :-D

(I don't know if you are asking me a trick question. Whichever way you cook your chicken on a Sunday that will be your Sunday Chicken Curry!)

But then I cooled down. I realized the world has changed a whole lot since the times when we used to have meat only on Sundays. In the late 70's,  in most middle class Bengali families like ours, everyday lunch and dinner would be dominated by fish. And when I say fish, I don't mean Malaikari or Kaalia for dinner everyday. Simple fish curries with mustard paste or vegetables in season were the usual norm.

Now Sunday was a red-letter day as that was the only day that offices and schools were closed and so lunch would be a family affair. That was also the day when goat meat was cooked for lunch in most Bengali homes. Meat, in particular Goat meat, was not something we ate every day. It was both expensive and also considered a food rich for daily consumption. Chicken or Murgi was not cooked in most Bengali homes that had matriarch like my Grandmother's. She allowed goat meat but considered "murgi" foreign and so it was banned from her kitchen.

So mutton curry aka "pa(n)thar mangsho" on some Sundays(usually the Sundays earlier in the month soon after payday) was something we lived in anticipation for. By the sheer magic of being a rare and thus much awaited occasion, the Sunday Lunch of Meat Curry and rice took a special position in our heart.

Things changed a fair bit after "chicken" started being used widely in Bengali kitchens. Chicken was cheaper than goat meat, cooked faster, and so it could be cooked on any other day too instead of fish. Often on Sundays, goat meat was getting swapped with "murgi", making it a "Robibar er Murgi'r Jhol". It was not a recipe with unique ingredients, nor was it a heirloom one. It was just a chicken curry, cooked fresh with freshly ground spices, that was had with rice for lunch and led to long hours of siesta afterwards. Yes, the siesta part stayed the same.

As we became global and more connected, that humble chicken or mutton curry was pushed aside for what seemed more fancy names like "karahi gosht" or "chicken rezala" or "coq au voin". Meat wasn't special enough to be cooked only on Sundays any more. You could have it any time. If not at home then outside. And since we all know that familiarity breeds contempt, we didn't really bother about "Sunday Dupur er Mutton Curry" any more. Until that is we grew older and nostalgia struck big time. We didn't want to eat mutton curry whenever we could, we wanted to wait, to build up that excitement for we finally understood that

Happiness is not in getting something but in the waiting.

In my home here, we eat chicken a couple times a week. Strangely we eat mutton maybe once in a couple of months. On a Saturday or a Sunday, when I cook chicken or mutton I usually stick to that same age old recipe my Mother followed on her Sundays.Nothing extraordinary, no special ingredients. I also cook with a lot of jhol. My daughters call this "Weekend er mangsho'r jhol". For them, it is a curry that has potatoes and enough gravy to be mixed with rice.

Here's the recipe of Sunday Dupur er Chicken Curry for the next gen. After wading many waters and making onion paste, grating onion, blah, blah, I have realized the easiest and simplest recipe works best. After all, who wants to waste all of Sunday making Chicken Curry for lunch ?

I also use a Radhuni Meat masala, which my friend had got for me from a Bangladeshi store. It is really good. In its absence use any other Meat masala.

To read about the Sunday tradition and goat meat curry click here - Bengali Pa(n)thar Mangshor Jhol
Another simpler recipe from my Ma-in-law of a mutton curry -- Robibar er Mangsho'r Jhol