Ek cup kara Cha -- a cup of strong Tea

He had a slight built. His face was weathered. Fate had not been kind to him and it showed in those deep lines. His sparse hair around the temples were already turning white. They shouldn't have. He was Ma's younger brother, five years younger to her black dark hair.

Bring water to boil

Almost every Saturday he stopped by at their home after the half day at office. Every Saturday Ma would keep aside the choicest piece of fish from the day's macher jhol, some tarkari and ladle-fulls of dal before she served lunch. Baromama never arrived in time.

The water merrily bubbles

Ma would sit, waiting at the dining table long after everyone was done.Some days she would crane her neck out from the verandah at the lane now empty at noon, and finally go off to take her nap. Baba who generally was averse to the human race and found more kinship in The Statesman editorial than any mortal, would fold up the paper around three in the afternoon, declare, "Nah Khoka aaj ar elona" (No Khoka is not coming today) and retreat to his study. She still waited, occasionally glancing out of the window, beyond the football field, trying to locate the very familiar hunched figure with a battered briefcase in hand.

The water boils furiously

It was strange that she and her other siblings liked him so much. You wouldn't think kids looked beyond the exterior, the materialistic outer cover, to the honest soul within. You wouldn't believe they preferred a warm heart to a cadbury's dairy milk.

Spoonfuls of fragrant tea leaves

He would eventually come, much after lunch around tea time. Ma would get agitated, "Saradin kichu khas ni (You have not had any food almost whole day)", she would complain. He would smile sheepishly and mutter something about getting late. He didn't want lunch. Tea was all he wanted, tea was something he survived on. A cup of strong black tea was his lifeline. "Khali pete cha khas na, omlette kore dichi (Don't drink tea on an empty stomach, have an omlette)", Ma would say, trying to rejuvenate her young brother in that half day every week. Ma had this theory about the stomach being totally empty four hours after you ate anything at all.

Getting ready to pour

She would make the omlette. Carefully breaking two eggs into a bowl and then beating the eggs with a fork. Sometimes she would add a tablespoon of Milk as she had read in Femina. She would beat vigorously, the fork making "ting-ting" noice against the bowl. She would add a handful of chopped onions and some chopped green chili. On the nonstick Trupti pan, she would spread the omlette and fold it, the center well done and the sides crisp.

Baromama would eagerly have the omlette amidst noisy sips of tea. He would praise her omlette making skills and launch on his favorite topic, his future dream project.

They say you can see your future in tea leaves

There would be many more cups of tea that he and Baba would gulp down throughout the evening. There would be arguments, Ma would give advices, distant relatives would be discussed as the water boiled and tea leaves brewed.

It has been more than a decade that she has missed such Saturdays. But she still waited for one of her trips back home, to snatch half a Saturday to see if Baromama still came home after half day at work. If Ma still waited for him at lunch.

That will not happen though. The early morning call across the oceans last Tuesday just confirmed, Baromama would not come home on the Saturdays she would visit Kolkata this summer, he would never come home again.

This is a part of my Food Fiction series. It might seem strange but it is the simplest food that has all the fiction entwined around it. This post goes to Aquadaze for Of Chalks and Chopsticks. What is your Food Story ? Send it over to Aqua.

Jyotsna's Peanut and Green Chili Chutney

I copied from Jyotsna.

A friend was raving about a Peanut Chutney that she had at her neighbors last week. The neighbor was Maharashtrian.

That did it for me. I had this insane craving to eat a Marathi Peanut Chutney, a chutney that I had not even tasted but just heard about from a friend who mind you did not make it.

Trust me, there is no bio-logical reason for me to have such insane cravings to recreate a chutney that I hadn't even tasted. This would be like proving a theorem without even knowing what the theorem was.

And it is only CopyCats who do such things, I mean things like glancing over your classmate's shoulders and copying the proof of the theorem with no idea what was it that you QED'd. Not that it really mattered, what earth shattering good would it do to know the Theorem in the first place. But if Mrs.Kulkarni, the Math class teacher caught you copying, that would be it. You would be treated like an untouchable and kids in hushed tone would chant "Copycat, Copycat" behind your back.

But Nupur says it is ok to be a Copycat. If I am reborn, and I can chose my Math Teacher, I would chose her without a blink. For now I will just send this to her Blog Bites #2: Copycat Edition.

So that is how I copied from Jyotsna's Sheengdana chutney. Totally justified you see.

In a blender put

1/2 cup of lightly roasted peanuts
4 green chili
1 clove of garlic minced (my addition)
1 tsp of brown sugar
1/2 tbsp of lime juice
salt

Make a rough paste. To make a smooth paste add about 1-2 tbsp of water and blend till smooth

This chutney was a total knockout. It goes splendidly with almost everything. I love it with crackers at snack. A more liquid version is the perfect side to a Daliya Pulao.

Keema Koraishuti ar Dim er Parota -- Keema Matar with Crepes

Saturday Mornings are a time of great trepidation for me. Here there are whole 48 hours given to me by God or the Government or whoever, to be used as I wish and that puts a lot of pressure on me. I mean if it was only "I" or even the husband and I, I wouldn't have any fears, I would have just slept and read and done nothing in those 48 hours.

But it is not that, there are important little people in the family, towards whom I feel I have a responsibility, to give them the best Saturdays & Sundays of their life every week, to make up for the time somewhat lost during the week. I think they should have what olde English books claimed to be "a jolly good time", though they might not really care for it.

With such lofty ideas in mind I go to bed late on Friday. Long after the kids have slept, I just while away browsing the TV or laptop, justifying the "me time". Naturally I am not shining bright and happy when Saturday dawns.

I get up late and then I hyperventilate. I draw up lists, in my generosity I draw one for the hub too, dividing up the chores to be finished so that we can finally have the "jolly good time" which eventually means I can take a nap. Depending on whether I am having PMS or BMW, my list includes stuff like "Take a long shower" while his says "Feed the kids". He doesn't like his list and a lot of time is spent arguing over & rewriting them.

By the time the little one is fed breakfast, entertained and we have had tea, it is 10 and nothing has been accomplished. No breakfast has been made, the older one has been fed only milk and crackers and the house looks like a scene of volcanic eruption. In between all arguments BS has switched on the TV and trying to watch something, she wouldn't be usually allowed to. I am thinking, maybe she is having a "jolly good time".

Breakfast is out of picture now, my dream to serve a nice breakfast of pancakes, bacon and omlette to rosy cheeked children and a smiling husband is up in the air like ashes from the volcano. Ok, who am I kidding, that wasn't even my dream, but anyway if you noticed me mentioning volcanic eruptions very frequently, ignore it.

Brunch might be a good idea I am thinking. I am trying to think, something that might please the kids and the adults alike and will not take up whole of my remaining Saturday, leaving time for park, grocery and everything else.

I think Dim er Parota, Egg Paratha, savory crepes if you prefer English. But that alone might not suffice to describe "jolly good time", BS might not look back at a Saturday of her childhood and say happily "Oh, my Saturdays were so good, We had brunch of Egg paratha while people all over the world were stranded in airports with nothing but a dry bagel due to a volcano erupting in Iceland".

What if I throw in a Keema Matar ? That kicks up the happiness by several notches for sure. "Oh, my kiddie Saturdays were so good, we would have brunch of Egg paratha stuffed with Keema matar", definitely sounds like weekends of "jolly good time".

And then she might add, "On many a such Saturdays, after such yummy brunch, my Mom would take us to New York and show us how to do cartwheels, right there at Times Square. She was so cool. We had a jolly good time". Ok, now for sure I am kidding :-)

What is your Saturday Story ?

Dim er Parota or Egg Paratha is nothing but savory crepes which I had blogged about earlier. They are really delicious on their own and do not need anything else. But a stuffing just makes it better. Keema Koraishuti or Ground Meat with Peas is nothing but the very popular Keema Matar. Only my Mom would say Keema Koraishuti and it was such a regular at our home, that I thought it was as Bengali as Macher Jhol. Apparently it is not.

The recipe here is from Madhur Jaffrey's book Climbing the Mango Trees. Incidentally this is exactly how my Ma used to make it and I made it all these years, only thing is Jaffrey has a measurement which we never cared to take. I have increases the spice levels by a few notches from her original recipe and made some alterations as I will note here.


Read more...

Keema Matar/Keema Koraishuti

Serves about 4-5 adults. I had 2 lb of ground chicken. Ground lamb is a tastier option.I would also suggest that instead of getting the supermarket version of ground chicken get it from your local butcher, that tastes way better.

Put 1/2 cup of thick yogurt in a bowl and whisk until thick and creamy.

To it add
2 tsp of Roasted Coriander Powder
1 tsp of Roasted Cumin Powder
1 tsp of Paprika or Kashmiri Mirch
5 fat cloves of garlic minced
2 green chilies chopped
salt
Mix until well blended. Note: Instead of Kashmiri Mirch add about 2 tsp of Red chili Powder if you want hot. I add Red chili powder only towards the end after saving a non-spicy portion for my daughter.

Put about 2lb of ground chicken/lamb in a big bowl. Add the yogurt mix to it and mix thoroughly with hand or if you prefer a spatula. Set aside for 30 mins.

Heat Oil in a deep saute pan.

Temper the Oil with 4 Cardamom/Elaichi, 1 Bay Leaf/TejPatta, 1" stick of cinnamon,

Add 1 big onion finely chopped and fry the onion till it turns golden brown. 

Add 

4 Cloves of garlic mince

$ Green Chilies

2" ginger julienne

Add 1/2 cup of Tomato Puree. I add half of canned tomato along with 3-4 tbsp of their juice. Also add 1 tbsp of tomato ketchup.  Fry till you see oil separating from the masala and the tomatoes are nicely mushed up.

Add about 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen peas and fry for 2-3 minutes. I added frozen peas and carrots.

Add the meat to above. Stir to break any lumps and cook till the meat is not raw. The ground meat will release some water and you have to keep stirring till the water has totally dried up. If you are cooking goat meat keema, there will be lot of fat and oil released from the meat, you can discard that if you wish. Ground chicken will be lean and there will be almost no fat, so add a little oil once the water has all dried up.

Next sprinkle 1 tsp Turmeric powder and mix. Add about 1/2 cup of warm water, salt and sugar to taste and let it come to a boil.
If I am cooking goat meat keema, I do it in the pressure cooker and at this point I will close the pressure cooker lid and cook for about 4-5 minutes at full pressure.

Once the keema is cooked we will do this step. If you have not added Red Chili Powder before add about 2 tsp now. Add about 2 tsp of Biryani Masala or Garam Masala, adjust for seasonings and cook the meat for about 5 more minutes drying off excess water. That indicates the dish is now done.

Garnish with fresh chopped corriander and little lime juice. You can serve this the traditional way with Roti or Rice. Instead stuff the Dim er Parota or Egg Paratha we will make next, with this. Also use this stuffing for sandwiches.

Egg Paratha/Dim er Parota

Makes about 15 crepes

Mix together
1&1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour/Maida,
2/3 eggs
3 cups of 1%Milk
to make a batter. You might need to add 1 cup of water gradually to get the right consistency batter.
Stir till smooth. The thickness of the batter should be same as that needed for a pancake or say to make utthapam.

Add finely chopped onions and chillies, and salt to this batter and mix well.

Grease your frying pan with Olive Oil.

Pour a scoop of this batter in the frying pan and spread it out (same as for cooking pancake)

Cook until golden in color and then flip and cook till golden on the other side too.

You can go ahead and eat it at this point, it's yummy. Else stuff with the yummy keema matar.

Vegetarians do not despair. Substitute Soy granules for the ground meat or make a soy stuffing like here.