Burrito Bowl -- speaks of Summer

I don't know if a Burrito Bowl has anything to do with summer at all. I just wrote that.

I wrote that because I love the seasons in the East Coast and I have come to deeply appreciate the earth's tilt at a current angle of 23.44 degrees.

I love seasons as much as I do the park system here.

And I am not even going into the National Park Service. Not even the Sate Parks. The mere county parks scattered all around with their abundant greenery, springing with life as soon as winter folds away its last London Fog jacket astounds me.

I almost go berserk and on weekends we walk along simple trails amidst trees which hover above us with familiar green canopies and unknown scents.

The littlest one plonks down besides the lake dipping twigs and pebbles in the clear, sparkling water. "Is there someone down below shining a flashlight?", she asks, surprised by the tiny waves glittering in the sunlight.

Then they grumble and are tired and want a park with slide and swings. And right in the trees is a clearing with tire swings and an ancient slide.

We don't always plan a picnic and carry a small snack.This time it was only butter-jelly sandwiches, croissant from Dunkin', oranges and juice which though sparse and minimal seems to be just right for the setting.

Later in the evening I make a Fish Burrito Bowl at home. A friend had recently introduced me to the Burrito Bowl at Chipotle and I am now a fan.Sadly the family is not big on Mexican food and my Chipotle Burrito Bowl craving is not shared by anyone else.

So I decide to make one with more Indian touches than Mexican spices and am inspired by Indosungod's Fish Burrito Bowl. I loosely follow this Copy Cat recipe but mostly do my own thing First is the Cilantro-Lime Rice. I cook Brown Rice with lots of Lime juice, Cilantro and salt. 

Second is the Black Beans. instead of Black beans, I use Black Eyed peas which had been cooked and frozen the week before. I saute the cooked beans in Olive Oil with minced garlic, chopped rounds of green chili, cumin powder and ancho chili pepper powder. 

Now instead of adobo chicken I add fish. Salmon. That has been rubbed with ginger-garlic paste, fish masala, salt, olive oil and baked at 400F. 

I skip the corn salsa and stick with the pico de gallo, fresh with cherry tomatoes, red onion, crushed garlic and lime juice. I add a touch of rock salt and squeeze a bit of lime juice.

Instead of the sour cream I strain greek yogurt and add a dollop.It is an easy meal to assemble and I am happy with the minimal work.

Tomorrow there will be more parks.

 I am taking a short break for the long weekend and will see you next week

Tel Koi -- tale of fish

When the parents are here we eat a lot of fish. Almost everyday.

Mostly it is the sweet water familiar fish from back home which we get from our Bangladeshi grocers. Rui, Ilish, Koi, Pabda. The fish is rock solid, frozen and 12 years back I would have never believed it tastes nice in a halka jhol. If you are unsure about such stuff I would suggest you do your own evaluations and not make it a staple diet. My Indian doctor had suggested I fry it at high temperature before proceeding with the gravy. I guess she had meant the fish should be fully cooked which I do.

The fish feeds my nostalgia perfectly and makes my Mother think a six month stay in the US  is not exactly same as living in Mars. At least "maach paoa jaay". So a day before the flight lands and a couple of times in between we make our trips to the Fish Store. Having chosen the huge 7 lb fish we ask it to be cut. "Bengali Cut" we tell or "Double Bengali Cut" on days we are being thrifty. Believe me such terms do exist. The dull looking metallic blades starts off with a screeching sound chopping off perfect heart shaped pieces of fish. That sound makes me very queasy and I cover my ears. I try to muffle the sound; titillating my mind with images of an oil slick rui kalia and rice instead.

At other times we buy our fish from the Asian Stores; the one with the aquariums and strange fish names. Bass, Carp, Trout, Smelt, Whiting, Tilapia -- Tilapia the familiar one -- the one Baba would actually ignore in the bustling fish markets back home and the one which looks a very distant cousin of Tilapia from those days. Here no one understands "Bengali Cut". I choose a fish and then in extremely ridiculous sign language tell the fish monger to cut the fish in steak pieces , an inch or more thick. "Wanna head?", he asks in passable English. I nod vigorously. My parents are happy with this fish too. They like the Bass, the Rainbow Trout, the Tilapia. The Buffalo Carp is almost like a Katla, my friend says.

Once my parents have gone back to their own surround where they can buy fresh fish everyday and watch Star Jalsa, my daughters and husband revert back in auto-pilot to filet of Tilapia and Salmon from the American Superstores. None of them care for the fish my parents and I had happily devoured. A name dropping of Rui, Ilish or Koi does not light up their eyes or palate. I try to live in the past waiting for next year when I can utter phrases like "Double Bengali Cut" without flinching a single eye lash.

This time when my Ma was here, which is around February, we got Koi maach. Not the ornamental "Koi" that you would keep as a pet and call "Hey Fishy Fishy". Oh and I must tell you when I first saw a Koi pond in one of the nurseries here I was naively happy thinking that they raise our dear old Koi maach.

The Koi I am talking about is also known as climbing perch and belongs to a family of carps.It is a sturdy little fella and can live without water for quiet a few hours. I am usually pretty scared of Koi with its hook like sharp bone and have cooked it only a couple of times. The Koi in packets that I get here is fully cleaned and that gives me much confidence. I made a Tel Koi this time and though Ma was here I picked the recipe from Bela De's Bengali cookbook and cooked it myself. It was pretty good. I repeated a similar curry with a fish called whiting later and with enough Mustard Oil that tasted good too.

Honestly I am confused. Is it the fish or a surfeit of Mustard Oil that I fell in love with in this dish? Guess one complemented the other.

Tel Koi -- Koi Fish in Mustard Oil 

Wash and clean koi maach(about 4 small ones). This can get tricky and I suggest you ask the fish seller to do the bulk of this so that all you need to do at home is give a good rinse.

Rub the fish with salt and turmeric powder and keep aside for 20 mins.

Heat enough Mustard oil for frying the fish in a kadhai. Fry the fish till it is golden brown on both sides. remove and keep aside.

Now temper the oil with two Bay leaves and 3 slit green chili.

Make a wet paste with
1/2 tsp of turmeric Powder
1 tsp of fresh ginger paste
1/2 tsp of red chili powder

Add this to the fry pan and saute at low heat till oil seeps out of the masala.

Now remove the pan from heat and add 2 tbsp of yogurt (the yogurt should not be lumpy and beat with a fork before adding). Mix well with the masala.

After a minute put the pan back on low heat and cook for a minute.

Add a cup of water, 3 more green chili slit through, salt to taste and let the gravy simmer to a boil.

Once the gravy is boiling add the fish pieces. Cook till you see the oil surfacing. Drizzle a little mustard oil on top and serve with white rice.

Piya's Orange Chocolate Cupcakes on Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. I am sure you had a nice one if you are one or made it nice for some Mother if you are not one.

Mine started on Friday itself with a Mother's Day Tea at Little Sis's school. I am very excited about these pre-school activities as I get to see the child in a different scenario than I am used to and this time I was going back to the same school where I had attended many such teas for Big Sis.

I took along Big Sis and we had a nice half hour in the school. The teacher had helped make the kids pretty flower cards with their picture and then she took our hand prints to make a laminated card later. It is a relief to see Li'l Sis finally settled in her school and besotted with her teachers. The little mite even has the gals to tell me "Today I don't love you. I love Miss K and Miss L.Tomorrow I will love you." Never knew such a statement could make me so happy.

Speaking of happy, Mothers and Mother's Day have any of you watched this new TV show called Satyamev Jayate ? I do not get the channel but discussions about the first episode regarding female foeticide  made me go to their website and watch a part of the episode in which Aamir Khan talks to two mothers. As much as we know that such things happen, since I have personally not known anyone pressured to abort a girl child, it was a thing which I complacently believed happened only in few remote corners of India. As a result it was very hard to watch these women speak and I was amazed at their courage and spunk as much as I was disgusted by the act of the Fathers. The show claimed that according to 2011 Census, the rate at which the unborn female child is killed amounts to killing off 10,00,000 girls a year. In a modern India shining with multiplexes, snazzy malls and booming economy it is a shame to know that there are multitude of families both educated and not who think killing of a girl is road to good karma.

After watching that episode any Mother's Day celebration seemed kind of frivolous and shallow but then again I decided it is an occasion to celebrate Motherhood and life and applaud Mothers, more those who have fought an adverse society to raise and protect daughters.

Yesterday after the usual morning routine of breakfast which I made sure the Dad made and loads of hand made cards gifted by the girls, Big Sis wanted to make cup cakes for Mother's Day. They also wanted to decorate it courtesy a "Cookbook", R Mashi had given to Big Sis. After having promised them frosting and sprinkles and having watched videos of "how to frost a cup cake" for the whole of last week I had no energy to get into such hard task. Big Sis wanted to make pretty cup cakes like Sunita's. "Tough luck kiddo", I said.

After much negotiations we zeroed in on orange flavored cup cakes with chocolate chips, colored with food colors and then slathered with Nutella. What is not to love here, tell me.

Now to the cake recipe which some months back Shreya's Mom, Piya, had sent me. In her exact own words.

"All purpose flour – 2 Cups
Baking Powder – 2 ½ Tsp(Tea spoon)
Eggs – 4
Sugar – 2 Cups
Vanilla Essence – Few Drops
Vegetable Oil – 2 Cups
1/2 Tsp salt.
In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar and the vegetable oil. I use a spatula first to get it all together and then I use the hand beater. It will not rise as much as it does with butter.

When mixed well, add the egg one at a time. Add Vanilla drops.Beat this mix for long to get a nice consistency.
In a separate bowl, mix the all purpose flour, a pinch of salt and the baking powder together. Mix it well.
Now add the flour slowly into the egg-sugar-oil mixture. I alternate between my spatula and hand beater. You can do it all in the food processor if you are using one. You will know when the batter is all ready and done. If it is too thick, I sometimes add a splash of milk(sorry this is the "aandaj" part)
Bake it at 350F for 35 mins or so, varies by oven. Bake it till the knife comes out clean from the center of the cake.
I usually like to add on flavors to the cake – Like a layer of chocolate for the marble cake, orange rind and cinnamon gives a nice flavor too or simple add whatever nuts/raisins the kids are fond of.
Try it and let me know if it comes out well for you. I do not use Baking soda, some folks do. I personally think it makes the cake a bit crumbly. Also, you can do half butter and half oil if you do not want to do it with just oil. Half butter and half oil makes the cake more moist. "

It is a simple recipe, no frills, no stand mixer and not even butter. That suits me. The whole "beating the butter" thing bothers me terribly.

In the course of the last few months her cake recipe has become my "go-to-cake-recipe". We add something or the other to her base recipe and always make cup cakes. They turn out to be soft, fluffy, moist and everything a cup cake should. 

This time it was fresh orange juice, orange zest and chocolate chips.

Then the kids went wild and there was color.

After which there was gooey Nutella. Those cake could not help but be good. could they ?

Orange Chocolate Cup Cakes

I reduced the recipe to make only 6 cup cakes. 

All purpose flour – 1/2 Cups 
Baking Powder – 1/2 + 1/8Tsp(Tea spoon) 
Eggs – 1 
Sugar – 1/2 Cups 
Vanilla Essence – Few Drops
Vegetable Oil – 1/2 Cups 
1/8 Tsp salt 
Orange Juice -- Juice of half an orange 
Orange Zest -- 1/2 tbsp 
Whole Milk -- 2 tbsp (if needed) 

 How I Did It 

In a bowl mix the dry ingredients -- flour, baking powder and salt. 

Blend the sugar + oil. You can use the hand mixer. I simply use my blender. 

In a mixing bowl put the wet ingredients -- oil + sugar, egg, orange juice. Beat the eggs into the mix and with  a whisk beat for about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla essence and orange zest. Mix. 

Next add the dry ingredients to the wet. Do it in steps mixing with a spatula. After you have mixed all the dry into the wet, add milk if you think the batter is too thick. I added about 2 tbsp 

Mix in the chocolate chips. Pour in greased cup cake liners. Bake for 30-35 mins at 350F.
Cool and then decorate.