Of Barbie Dolls and Little Girls

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Diwali Barbie is what Mattel has come out with.
Those of you who are Barbie fans must have known this already. For me who is not in that league, I heard about it on NPR during my drive back home yesterday. What was exciting is that blogger Anna Johns who writes on SepiaMutiny was interviewed on NPR about her post where she disputes about the fact that Diwali Barbie is really wearing a lehenga and not a saree as Mattel claims. Read her post here. It's nice and encouraging that so many bloggers of Indian origin our dear Indira of Mahanadi fame among them is getting featured on NPR .

Back to Barbie, I have never really liked her, that hour glass figure, that perfect body is too much for me to endure. Mattel must have a real good marketing group because I can hardly imagine little girls being happy playing with a doll who is not cuddly and comfy. Growing up I never had a Barbie, maybe because they were not that IN when I was in the doll playing stage and also because they were pretty expensive. Later too, I felt no liking for her, though I like her accessories. As long as I can I will try to avoid that Barbie for my daughter, a cabbage patch doll is better any day.

Not that my little soon-to-be 3 year old is much interested in dolls, all she wants to do is talk, talk and talk and in the between times jump or hide. She is on this hiding spree these days, maybe this is this age when hide & seek becomes exciting. She drives my Dad around the house hiding in all possible closets and because she is not that patient creature she keeps on shouting from her hiding place. So every time I or anyone else is entering a room we have to say “Oh, so where is S…? Has she gone to school or some such thing” and then she jumps out with a big grin.


So to keep this active little one healthy we have to think up ideas to get those veggies into her. She is not among those angelic creature who eat broccoli with glee and bean without making a scene (sic sic !!) However she loves her “Chicken Jholu Bhatu” (As per her babytalk Jholu in Bengali means a light gravy and Bhatu is rice) and taking advantage of this I put all veggies and make a mutton or chicken stew for her. It tastes really good and you can have it too. with some peppercorns afor yourself

She also like to help me in the kitchen and she likes pounding away to glory on that mortar whenever I am making her Stew

Mutton or Chicken Stew

What You Need
Mutton/Chicken ~ about a pound
Onion ~ 1/2 of a small grated to a coarse paste, chopped is also fine
Tomato ~ ½ chopped
Raw Papaya ~ a quarter of a small one peeled and cut into pieces
Beet ~ 1 small chopped, about same quantity as in pic
Potato ~ 1 small chopped into 4 halves
Baby Carrots ~ 5 or more chopped
Beans ~ 5 or more chopped
Note: I didn’t have beans or carrots but usually I put them
For Phoron or Tempering
Elaichi or Cardamom ~ 2
Laung or Cloves ~ 2
TejPata or BayLeaves ~ 2
Darchini or Cinnamon Sticks ~ a small one

Garlic ~ a small clove of garlic finely chopped
Ginger Grated/Paste ~ 1 tsp of fresh paste, you can also use grated or crushed ginger
Yogurt ~ 2 tbsp for marinade
Turmeric Powder
Jeera or Cumin Powder
Salt

How I Do It

Marinade the mutton/chicken with yogurt, a little salt and turmeric powder for about an hour.For Mutton I usually keep it for couple of hours while for chicken half hour is fine
Heat Oil in Kadai/Frying Pan
Temper with TejPata, Elaichi, Laung and Darchini (this is also called as whole Garam Masala). I do not pound them as then it is difficult to fish them out from the stew and you know how kids are !!
Add the onion paste and the finely chopped garlic
Fry with a little sugar (this helps in browning the onion)
Add the tomatoes and sauté a little
Add all the chopped veggies and sauté again for some more time
Add the mutton or chicken.
Add about ½ tsp of jeera powder and mix well
Add 1 tsp of fresh ginger paste or grated ginger
Add salt
Cook for 2 /3 minutes so that the masala mixes well with the veggies and the chicken
Next I transfer the whole thing to my pressure cooker and add water as required for stew.
Pressure cook till the veggies and mutton is done. Beet takes a while to cook and mutton also. If you are making chicken and not using beet, you need not pressure cook.
Add butter to the hot stew and fish out the garam masala while serving to your little one
Can be had as a soup, but my daughter likes it with rice

Trivia: Garam Masala literally translated as "hot spice" is a mixture of several spices mainly Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, Bay Leaves. Occasionally Peppercorn, Nutmeg and Mace is also included in this mixture. Powdered Garam Masala is added to the dish at tle last stage of cooking to enhance the flavor while Whole Garam Masala is often used for tempering. The hot referred to, however, is not hot as in spicy, its meaning comes from ancient ayurvedic medicine, according to which the blend "heats" the body, which is useful in a cold climate

Kancha Aamer Ambol ar Chaatni

Aam er Ambol | Aam er Chaatni

Aam er Ambol or Aam er Tok -- a subtly sweet, more tangy, light and soupy broth-- is a Bengali dish made with green, unripe mangoes in the peak of summer and usually served as a coolant at the end of a meal or along with the meal. It is a little different from the Bengali Mango Chutney which is also made with green, raw mangoes but is  sweeter and thicker in consistency.

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Green Mango Chutney to tickle your taste buds if the name hasn’t already. This recipe was long due considering we have it pretty often but as Chandrika said the pics never got taken. Need I say in not so many words I simply love this Ambol & Chutney.

As I said in an earlier post a traditional Bengali meal usually consists of five to six courses, starting off with something bitter and ending with a sweet dessert. The fifth course served just prior to the dessert is the sweet & sour ambol or chutney.

The chutney (pronounced cha-a-tni in Bengali) in Bengal is not the chutney, sold in jars in the Asian/Indian Aisle of your SuperMarket and hugely popular in the Western World . The Chutney as we have it in a Bengali household is almost always prepared fresh and is eaten as a course of a lunch or a dinner to accent the meal and not as a relish or as a dip. It is the pickle which is preserved for later day use.

Different regions in India specialize in the ingredients they use for their chutneys and Bengal specializes in Chutney made with fruits like raw mango, tomato, pineapple, papaya etc. Also since fish is a part of an everyday Bengali meal, chutney or ambol made with fish specially the head of Hilsa is also pretty popular. My Dida (maternal grandma ) would make this amazing chutney with head of hilsa and tamarind which she called “macher tak” . Another fellow blogger SpiceandCurry talks about ambol made with fish roe fritters here

As I already said I love all sorts of chutneys, tomato chutney and mango chutney being my favorites. I remember when I first started school in one of the hill stations of West Bengal and would be very miserable with the whole school thing, the bright spot of the day would be my Ma or the help at home arriving with my lunch which almost every day would be Rice, Chanar Dalna (Paneer in a light gravy) & Tomato Chutney. The spoonfuls of Tomato Chutney mixed with Rice (ok, that’s not the norm, that’s not how a decent Bengali should eat his chutney) would make my day. Instead of relegating Chutney to a position towards the end of the meal, I almost always start with it.

And my little daughter loves Chutney too. She calls it “Chantinge” and used to love it even a couple of months back, Now she is becoming more opinionated and has taken a fancy to eating ketchup, that too by itself. I sincerely hope she gets hooked on to my dear chutney again.
Difference between Ambol and Chaatni: The ambol is very light and is like a soup, the emphasis is more on the sourness. The chaatni is thick and is usually more sweet.

Khejur Gur er Paayesh ~ Rice Pudding

Paayesh | Khejur Gur er Payesh| Bengali Rice Pudding 

Payesh is a rice and milk based dessert, unique to Bengal, very similar to Kheer in the Indian subcontinent. It is usually made by boiling and thickening milk, sugar or jaggery, and rice. During the winter months, the Paayesh is sweetened with fragrant Khejur Gur - Date palm Jaggery, and takes on a very special taste.

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Kabir the great poet saint had said about this tree

"Bara hua to kya hua, jaisa per khajur,

panthi ko chaya nahin, fal lage ati dur".

Whoever had Hindi as their second language in school in India must be familiar with Kabir's dohas or couplets. They were short and so profound I used to love them and still remember some.

The above doha or couplet means "Even though the Palm tree is big, it's bigness is of no use, as it does not provide cool shade to weary travelers and it's fruits are too high to be picked up", the essence being your greatness lies not in your stature but in how you serve others.

However Kabir had missed a point, he had underestimated our endeavor for good food, to get the Khajur and Khajur ka Ras (the sweet sap from the Date Palm Tree) we can climb all the way up. I have never had Khejur Ras but the Khejur Gur, mmmmmmmm, not enough words to describe it. It has much more flavor and tastes way better than cane jaggery.

Khejur Gur (liquid date palm jaggery -- made from boiling the sap from date palms) is very popular in Bengal during the winter months. It is also commonly called "Notun Gur" ( literally, "new jaggery") or "Nolen Gur". I think the sap of the date palms is best during the winter months and that is the reason we get this gur or jaggery around this time. Also during the summer, night temperatures are high and sap harvested ferments by morning, rendering the product fit only as an alcoholic drink.

The liquid Khejur Gur is delicious, tastes better than Maple Syrup and we used to have it poured on our Luchi (Puri) or Roti for dinner or breakfast. It is also used to make a variety of sweets in Bengal. This article explains the process of making Khejur-Gur here. Khejur Gur in solid form is sold in the shape of oval discs and is also known as "Patali Gur"

But I have never mustered the courage to smuggle liquid Khejur Gur (liquid Palm Date Jaggery) to the US, though I do carry the the solid khejur gur which is also called "Patali Gur" in Bengali, from Kolkata, if I am visiting during winter.

But I have to ration my khejur gur as I have only one patali to last a year or more and I use it only for special occasions to make Paayesh or paramanna during my husband D's and my daughter's B'Day, as Bengalis consider having payesh on one's Birthday as auspicious. Paayesh can also be made with sugar but Khejur Gur er paayesh is just heavenly.

This is how my Ma makes Payesh and she makes the best payesh in the world. Only recently I have learned to make Khejur Gur-er Payesh from her and so here is my attempt. I made this for D's B'day earlier this month but am posting it now in time for JFI

Khejur Gur er Paayesh

What You need

Whole Milk ~1 and ½ liter
Half & Half Milk ~ ½ liter

Note: My Ma uses 2 liter of Whole Milk only. I use the Half & Half as it reduces my effort to thicken the Milk

GobindoBhog Rice or KalaJeera Rice  ~ a little less than 2/3 of a cup
Ghee ~ enough to smear the rice with, maybe 1/2 tsp
Raisins ~ a fistful soaked in water
TejPata or BayLeaves ~ 3 or 4
Sugar ~ 1 cup
Khejur Gur or Palm Date jaggery ~ I added depending on my sweetness level

Note: The Sugar + Khejur Gur amounts to almost 2 cups. This is sweet enough for me, not enough for my Dad and just right for my hubby, friends, Mom etc. Between the sugar & gur you can increase one and decrease the other, but the gur has to be added only after the paayesh is taken off the heat as mentioned in the recipe

How I Do It

Wash the rice, drain the water and then smear the rice with a little ghee
Pour Milk in a boiling pan, usually a deep heavy bottomed pan. I use a deep non-stick one.
Add 3 or 4 Bay leaves
When the Milk come to a boil add the rice. Be careful so that milk does not boil over.
Stir well
Stir intermittently and check if the rice is done. You kind of have to keep stirring frequently else the milk might scald the bottom of the pan as it thickens.
When the rice is cooked add sugar. Tip: Adding sugar before the rice has boiled hinders it getting cooked properly
Now stir the milk continuously so that the milk does not burn or scald the bottom of the container and the rice does not stick.
When the Milk has thickened to the right consistency, to check this take a spoonful of liquid and pour it on a flat plate, the viscosity of the milk should be such that it does not flow. By this time the milk would have also reduced from it's original volume. Approx. time to reach this stage is almost an hour or so at a medium flame setting on my gas range.
Take the Paayesh off heat and add the Khejur Gur after 5 mins and stir well. Add Gur depending on your desired sweetness level. Tip: If your gur or jagery has been refrigerated put it in the microwave til it turns soft.
Savor the sweet smell of khejur gur, pure bliss
Add Kishmis or Raisins.
Serve hot or cold, I like cold better


This is my entry for December JFI hosted by Kay.
Congaratulations to the new Mom and kudos to her for hosting this inspite of her new motherhood.



You can get Palm Date Jaggery from Indian store. So check your local Bangladeshi or Indian store for this jaggery, my neighbourhood Indian store doesn't carry the Khejur Gur I crave for and I haven't tried any Khejur Gur outside Bengal yet.


I just saw from Mandira's & Asha's blog (I get to know all about events from this wonderful blogger friends) that there is a festive fair at Anna's of Morsels & Musings . Since Paayesh is a "special occasion" recipe I am sending this out to her too.

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

Trivia: Muzaffarnagar District in Uttar Pradesh has the largest Jaggery Market in India followed by Anakapalli of Visakhapatnam District in Andhra Pradesh. Both are termed to be the biggest and second biggest in the entire world.