Niramish Alu Dom -- Ma's recipe for Holi

Bengalis and only bengalis can come up with a term like "Niramish Alu Dom". I mean isn't it plain common sense that Alu Dom IS a "niramish" aka vegetarian dish. But Bongs are so fastidious about their vegetarian food that they divide it in two categories --- (1) the regular vegetarian cooked with vegetables but may contain onion and garlic and (2) the strict satvik vegetarian which uses no onion or garlic.

Onion and garlic are considered as "rajasik" or "tamasik" food which increases body heat and supposedly fuels passion and ignorance. About ignorance I am ignorant but I can imagine the heights of passion that an onion-garlic breath can bring about. Passion to run away.

But honestly as I said earlier if I have to choose between not shedding tears on my allium and passion, I will go with the former. I am very passionate about my comfort that way. So I was super interested in this super vegetarian alur dom that my Ma made. No onion. No garlic.The Other aloor dom on my blog does have onion after all.

My Ma, the queen of matching up spices with vegetables makes this Alur Dom with the Bhaja Masla that she makes. The smoky, intense bhaja masla makes a spicy gravy that clings to the potatoes like my 3 yr old is wont to do with me. she also uses Methi seeds and Hing which gives off a beautiful flavor to the hot oil and thus the dish. It is an extremely simple recipe with tantalizing results. You wouldn't believe that something so delicious could turn up with such an easy recipe. I mean easy if PBJ sandwich is not the only thing you eat or cook or know about. But even then this is easier than a finely made PBJ sandwich. Me thinks

Wishing you all a Very Colorful Holi with this Alur Dom. Stay Tuned as I have something to share with you in the next post. Till then "Dhoom Macha De...Raang Jama de"


Read more...

Niramish Alu Dom

Potatoes -- 14 small red ones
Boil for 10-15minutes in salted water till partly cooked
Peel skin, prick the potatoes randomly and toss them with  salt, 1 tsp of ginger paste and 1/2 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch and 1 tsp of garlic paste. Fry the potatoes in 1 tbsp of oil till they develop gold spots.

Edited on April 30th, 2013: In another version I toss the potatoes with salt, ginger powder, amchoor powder, kashmiri mirch and black pepper powder and then fry. The black pepper adds a beautiful layer to the dish

Next heat 2 tbsp of White Oil + 1/2 tsp ghee.

Temper the Oil with
2 Bay Leaf
2 Dry Red Chili
1 star anise
15-20- methi seeds
1/4 tsp of Hing
Switch off the heat and let the oil soak in the flavor of the spices. Switch back on again.

Add 2 large tomato finely chopped along with 5 green chili chopped in rounds. Or puree 2 large tomatoes with 5 green chili and add that. Fry for 6-7 minutes till the tomato is mushed up and reduced to a sorry pulp.Puree is a better option. Also little tomato paste along with fresh tomatoes works wonder.Note: I had made this alu dom very spicy, you can adjust the chili heat to suit your style.

Add about
1/2 tbsp of grated ginger
and fry for 2 more minutes.

In a bowl make a paste of
1 tbsp yogurt
+ 1/2 tbsp of Corriander powder
+ 1 tbsp and 1 tsp of Bhaja Masla. (Bhaja Masla recipe is here. It is the last one.)
Lower heat and add the paste.
Add 1/2 tsp of Red Chili powder.
Fry the masala, sprinkling water as needed for couple of minutes. Add the potatoes, toss in the masala.

Add about 1 cup of water, salt to taste, 1/2 tsp of sugar and simmer. Cook covered till potatoes are done.

Garnish with chopped coriander and two green chili chopped in thin rounds.

My Mother's Bhaja Masla

Every Monday, ok most, I wake up all anew, striving to be a "Good" Mother. Not "Very Good". Not Excellent. And definitely "Not Bad". Just plain, simple "good" Like I have all along wanted to be. Good girl, good student, good whatever...an uncanny desire for goodness.

Only this time it is harder than most. How do I decide how much I need to nag for Piano Practice without it falling into the category called "pushing" ? How can I make sure that I am mentally stimulating without "helicoptering"? How do I ascertain that my exasperation when a long division is messed up is not going to cause some negative setback in late fifties of my offspring ? How do I teach to be competitive without being aggressive ?What are the fine lines ? Darn there are so many that I wish someone would have highlighted them with a fluorescent marker. And then comes real incidents like this only miles away from home and I wonder what went wrong with both the kids ? The Mothers must have stayed up nights, fed vegetables, told stories, ferried to a violin class or spent hours by the hot pool. The Fathers must have done whatever he did. The schools were excellent, the Teachers good. And yet.

No wonder by Thursday or even Wednesday I want to hand over the remote, a bag of chips and say "Que sera, sera".

In spite of this it is a fun ride. An exciting one. I would not say I learn as the years of my parenting grows  because I am not sure of that. The only thing I realize is no two child are same and there is not set rule that applies to all.

Now many a Mondays when I am striving hard, I usually go on Amazon and order books for the girls. On these days I deviate from the standard fiction series that is bought otherwise. Recently I bought three books which I found so wonderful that I thought I would share with other Moms here.

The first one "Children Just Like Me" was suggested by the wonderful blog of Choxbox who sadly does not blog anymore. This is a beautiful book with gorgeous pictures about children all over the world and how they live, eat, go to school etc. Very engaging way to learn about the different cultures. The second one "Feel the Force" is a popup book explaining basic Physics stuff like gravity, friction, force, pressure etc. It is much fun and an excellent review is here. BTW, the Mom who writes that blog is very inspiring. I love her reviews and am totally awed by the activities she does with her kids. The third book "Bedtime Bugs" is a popup book for younger kids. This one I had to buy forced by Little A and it really was a good thing. If your child loves to pull tabs and pop-ups they will love this one..

Back to regular programming, lets talk food now. Today though it is just spices without which food wouldn't be what it is. Bhaja Masla or Roasted Masala is a unique Bengali spice blend. What makes it furthermore unique is that there are several kinds of it. Some I know of. Some I have heard of. Some I have no clue about.

Bhaja Masla 1 -- Dry roast cumin seeds and Dry Red chili. Cool and grind to a powder. Used in Alu Kabli

Bhaja Masla 2 -- Dry roast Paanch Phoron and Dry Red Chili. Cool and grind to powder. I use it on chutneys.

And then there is my Mother's Bhaja Masla. Her staple in her pantry. My home roasts with this flavor during her visits. Strong, Robust, Smoky--- this masala speaks of mystery and adventure and dark chambers with hidden specters. My Ma uses it to sprinkle on chutneys, to make vegetable chops, to use in lieu of Garam Masala and to revel in it. She also makes a fabulous niramish alur dom with it which will come up next.

The spices for Bhaja Masla

Cumin Seeds -- 2 tsp
Corriander Seeds -- 2 tsp
Fennel Seeds -- 2 tsp
Cardamom -- 6
Clove -- 8
Whole black Peppercorn -- 1 tsp (Use 3-4 Dry red chilies instead if you wish)
Tej Patta - 1 small
Dalchini -- a thin 1" stick

Roast for 8-10 minutes at very low heat till you get a strong spice smell. Cool and grind to a fine powder.

This measure makes a large amount of powder which can be stored for later use. You can make smaller amounts by using quarter of the measure.

Chingri Jeerer Jhaal -- the way Ma-in-Law makes it

This is my Ma-in-law's recipe.

I think it is. At least this is how I remember she made it last time.

And my Ma never makes anything with this particular stress on Cumin. So it must be the Ma-in-law's. I admit I didn't bother to verify and check again. But I always make this particular dish this way and attribute it to her. I have done it so many times that now even the husband agrees. "Yes, this is how Ma makes it", he says with every morsel of this jhaal mixed with rice.

Given that we live thousands of miles apart there is no way she can do anything about it except getting branded with a Chingri'r Jeere'r Jhaal -- Shrimp in a Cumin spiced gravy. And that is not really a bad thing I must say. At least not with a dish that sends your heart a flutter singing "Dil dhak dhak karne laga".

There is also a sneaky reason why I have stuck to this dish of Ma-in-law's with due diligence.It does not have onions. Has Shrimp and No Onion is a Double Plus Plus in my culinary dictionary. I love shrimp as much as I hate chopping onions. I love onions as much as I hate chopping them. If there was a religion that advocated eating onion but prohibited chopping them, I would have embraced it with tearing eyes.

This dish also needs hardly anything much and the gravy is totally based on tomatoes, cumin powder and shuddh nirmal pani aka water. Good quality water is a must. As is tomatoes that are not tough like coconut. And shrimp that do not taste like cardboard. So you see it all depends on the ingredients leaving very little to your culinary skills. That suits me fine. And plus the no Onion.

I think it will suit you too. If you love shrimp and love simple meals.


Read more...

Chingri'r Jeerer Jhaal -- Shrimp cooked in Cumin Spiced gravy

Prep-Prep

Peel, clean and de-vein shrimp. I had about 1/2 lb of heads on medium shrimp.Bought them fresh. Better than the frozen but I have also used frozen when in time crunch and it is fine. This amounted to around 10-12 shrimp
Toss shrimp with salt and turmeric powder and keep aside for 15 minutes.

Chop a large potato in long thick slices

Fire up the stove. Start Cooking

Heat 1/2 tbsp oil. Saute the shrimp lightly till they are no longer raw and color has changed to pale yellow. Remove and keep aside.

Add 1 more tbsp oil to same pot.

Temper oil with
1 loosely packed tsp of whole cumin seeds
2-3 bay leaves
4-5 slit hot green chili

Once the cumin seeds have browned(not burned) add
1/2 cup of pureed tomato (fresh tomato in the blender and pureed)
1 tbsp of grated ginger
Saute the tomatoes for next 4-5 minutes till the raw smell is gone and it looks cooked. Add a pinch of sugar to the tomatoes. Cook until you see oil seeping out from the edges.

Now add the sliced potatoes with a pinch of turmeric and fry the potatoes for a couple of minutes with sprinkle of water

Add
1 heaped tsp Cumin Powder (lightly roasted on tawa and ground at home)
1 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch
Salt to taste
Fry the masala along with the potatoes.

Now add about 1 cup of warm water. Add few more  slit green chili. Mix everything and cover. Let potatoes cook.

Once the potatoes are done, add the fried shrimp. Add around 1/2 cup more of water if needed. Lightly break couple of the potato slices into the gravy to give the gravy some thickness.

Add 1/4th tsp of Garam Masala powder.

Let the gravy simmer and come to a boil. Check all seasonings and add salt/red chili powder as necessary. In a minute switch off.

This gravy is usually thin and reddish in color. Serve hot with long-grained white rice.

Version II of this Recipe

Th version II is a thicker gravy and involves onions and onion paste. I usually chop and fry one large onion until it is soft and translucent and then make a paste. I refrigerate this paste and use it in more than one dish.

For this particular recipe, after tempering the oil with the cumin seeds, bay leaves and green chillies, add 2-3 tbsp of onion paste.

Saute for couple of minutes. Now add the pureed tomato, grated ginger, pinch of sugar and a tbsp of tomato paste. Tomato paste gives color to the gravy.

Now continue with rest of the recipe as above

Spice and Curry has also a version of Chingri Jhaal a little different from this.