Potol Posto -- stuff dreams are made of

Potol. Posto. Potol Posto. Period.

Oh no wait...first I need to tell you this conversation I had with Little Sis. Okay ? Okay. Period.

So it is one of those days and I am tired and I tell LS: "If I knew magic I could come home from work in a second and wouldn't have to drive so long".

LS: " Well, for that you need to ask someone who knows that kind of magic".

Me: " Well, how do I know someone like that?"

LS appears to ignore this and then after a minute says : "Or you could Dream. Dreams come true, you know?"

Me, excited at this optimistic, positive child of mine: "Really? So what do you dream of ?"

LS: "Well that I am a famous singer". Whaa...at, really???? " And that I am eating chocolate cake" That is better. "And I am watching Food Network". Really kiddo...this...this is your dream... of watching stupid Chopped on FN.

But I don't say all that. Instead I say: "Ahhh that sounds great. So tonight I am going to dream then".

At this LS goes into deep thought and then after a minute says : "Well, actually dreams don't even come true. They say all that in the TV. Anyway nothing that they say on TV is true. On TV, Franklin the turtle talks. Do turtles ever talk in real life ? No.They are all puppets on TV and dreams will never come true"

I give up. Let us eat the Potol Posto instead. Don't ask me why I added Onion, you might as well skip it.And if you don't get Potol, don't even dream of it. Will not help. Period.

Scrape the skin off Potol/Pointed gourd/Parwal and peel strips in alternate. I had about 10 small potol .Chop each potol in 4 along the length. Chopping in two should have been fine but these potol were not very fresh so I did 4.

Toss them with salt and turmeric powder and keep aside for 10 mins.
Meanwhile dry grind 1/4 cup of posto aka poppy seeds and mix with little water to make a thick-ish wet paste.

Heat a tbsp musard oil. Fry the potol till they develop brown spots. Need not get all crinkly. Remove and keep aside

If there is not enough oil in the kadhai/frying pan, add about 1 tsp more.

When the oil is hot temper the oil with 1/2 tsp of Kalo Jeera/Kalonji and 4-5 hot green chili slit through.

Once the spices pop add half on an onion chopped in thin slices and fry the onion till it is soft and light brown.

To the pan add the fried patol and toss it with the spices and onion. Next add the poppy seed paste and with sprinkle of water fry for next 3-4 minutes till raw smell of posto is gone.

Now add a little more water, a little less than 1/4 cup, add salt, sugar to taste and cover and let the patol cook till done. Remove cover and serve with rice.

Roshun Murgi -- inspired by UshnishDa's garlic chicken

Most of you food bloggers or food-blog readers must know Ushnish Ghosh, one of the few male Indian food bloggers. Indian male bloggers abound in all other spheres but when it comes to food blogging there are only a few of them holding fort.

Ushnish Ghosh, is one of them who not only cooks everyday home food in his Delhi kitchen for his SOMEONE (this would be boudi, his wife) but is also extremely knowledgeable about nuances of cooking and food matter. His years of expertise gives him the confidence to set me correct when I mistakenly call scallions "Penyaj Koli" and make other such frivolous mistakes.

I admire him for his eagerness to learn, his enthusiasm, his fondness for cooking and at the risk of later being chastised I would say if my daughters ever choose to marry a Bong male, I would secretly like it if they chose someone like UshnishDa. I mean he not only cooks delicious dishes but he has so much faith in his wife's driving that he relaxes and dozes off to sleep when boudi is driving.

This Roshun Murgi or chicken in garlic is inspired by his recipe. I followed his recipe largely, making changes suitable to me. Like I grilled the garlic heads, just because I was too lazy to peel them. The roasting gave them a more sweeter, concentrated flavor and dumbed down the garlicky smell a bit. Please use raw garlic if that is the path you choose to take.

I also went low on the oil and since I had small boneless pieces which I cooked for a longer time at low temperature it worked. Well, ahem, the red chili powder at the end, well please do use the whole amount if you like it hot, hot, hot. If you are chicken then go slow on it.

This garlicky Roshun Murgi is an awesome dish which goes very well as a starter. If you happen to make it with little more gravy than mine it can be served as  a side dish to Roti and Pulao too.


Inspired by Original Recipe
 

Roshun Murgi -- Chicken in garlic 

I started off with almost 2lb of skinless, boneless chicken thigh pieces. Wash, clean and cut boneless, thigh pieces of chicken in small pieces. Marinate with
1/4 cup thick yogurt, 
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste, 
1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 
salt 
and  1 tsp mustard oil.

Make a paste of 2 whole heads of garlic. Now the garlic heads that I get here are quiet large and so I did not do two, instead I used 1 whole and 4 more cloves. Also I had grilled the garlic before makng the paste which gave a different flavor to the dish. You need not do that and use raw garlic like UshnishDa has done

Puree 2 large juicy tomatoes.

Heat 2 tbsp Oil. Add 1/2 tsp of sugar and caramelize the sugar.

Now add the garlic paste (about 3-4 tbsp heaped paste) and saute the paste for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle water while frying. With roasted garlic paste, this step was quicker

Add half of the pureed tomato, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and fry the tomato till the raw color and smell is gone.

Now add the chicken pieces and fry the chicken at medium-high heat until the pieces are browned a little. Lower the heat, cover and cook, remove cover and stir and cover and cook again. The chicken will release lot of water, cook till the water dries up.

Now add rest of the pureed tomato along with 1 tbsp of Maggi Hot&Sweet Ketchup. Add salt to taste. Mix everything together and keep frying till you see the oil seeping out of the masala and chicken pieces. Once the chicken is done and the gravy is thick and clinging switch off heat.

Roast 4 red chili + 1/2 tsp PaanchPhoron. Cool and make a powder. Sprinkle this powder on the chicken and mix well

Chicken Fry -- did you ever try this?

Quick, quick post about the Chicken Fry with mighty fragrant kari patta which I make very often. That recipe was based on blogger Sumitha's Kerala Chicken Fry Recipe. She would blog at Kitchen Wonders and this is 2007 I am talking about. Since then as they say "much water has flown under the bridge" and when I clicked on the original recipe link on Saturday, the page said "Permission denied".

My much used toaster oven

As you will understand I was extremely sad. There were many recipes of Sumitha's which I am sure I procrastinated on and now there is no way to go back. If Sumitha of Kitchen Wonders, you are reading this post please give me access. Puhleese. As of present I can only breathe easy that I had enough oz of sense to note down this easy and simple Chicken Fry recipe. So that you guys can make this easy chicken fry with little effort, I decided to re-post the recipe with some newer pictures I had.

Also as I was reading that post of mine, when BigSis was probably 3and1/2, I cannot help but smile. All the insecurities of a first time Mom is writ in bold over there. Maybe I was exaggerating a bit but I do remember, I obsessed about playdates at that time. Now, I am still the Mom with hair sticking out, but I do not go around befriending other Moms and setting up playdates. LS just tags along with BS and not surprisingly she does not have a single friend of her own age.I know it will work out fine and so I hyperventilate over other stuff. Ahhh, some things don't change.

To make this Chicken Fry follow the recipe here: Chicken Fry .

If you don't have Chicken Curry Powder use a homemade Garam Masala or Biryani Masala. The latter tastes awesome.

The more you marinate the better it tastes. Give it overnight and it is too flavorful. You can also marinate it and then freeze to be used later.

I often use chopped onions for frying instead of onion paste. I like that better. Use lots of hot, hot green chilies.

If you don't want to use the oven, you can cook the drumsticks on stove top, in a covered container with little oil and then continue with the second stage.

Oven temperature will vary. In my toaster oven, this takes 30-35 minutes at 400F. Also brush with oil before putting in the oven.

Finish cooking the chicken in the fry pan. If needed sprinkle water as you go.

Happy 4th of July folks. If you make this fry hot enough, you won't need any fireworks