Manisha's Lemon Pickle -- No oil and so good

Last week at Wegman's I chanced upon a bag of Meyer lemons. Now earlier I had no clue about these lemons and so they never caught my eye or fancy. However every other person I know in the blog world has posted something or the other about Meyer lemons in the recent past. So when I saw them at Wegman's I had to buy them even though they were going more expensive than my 5 for $1.00 lemons at Patel Brothers. But you know I told myself "these were no ordinary lemons and it is not every day that I get to see them", so I bought a bag of lemons.

Having no specific plan about them I used them as any other lemon. Which means I squeezed them on my black tea with honey, on BS's dal rice, on the Sunday mutton curry and even on the cucumber salad. They were full of juice, plump and overflowing. The skin was thin and smooth and the juice sweeter.

And then the weekend being very warm and sunny it struck me that I could use them in a bottle of Manisha's famous lemon pickle. Very excited at the prospect I shelved the plan for Monday. It was supposed to be sunny said my phone. Monday morning, being a holiday, I dunked 5 of the Meyer lemons and 2 of the regular lemons in water with the thought of making "an achaar". Since we love green chilli in our pickles I decided to add those too. LS was home with me and she stood beside me on a step stool helping me throughout.

Once the lemons were soaked, dried and cut in the manner Manisha had told us to, the clouds started gathering in the sky. The sun played a peek-a-boo and finally decided to call it day. It was only 11 in the morning. I panicked. How to sun my pickle ? I thought. The weather now showed "Snow" even on Wednesday. Being a novice pickle-er I did not want to take a risk.So, I thought I will go the stove-top way of pickle making which again Manisha had suggested in her post. "I will then sun the cooked pickle with whatever sun I get in the next few days", I told myself. Now she had warned that cooking on the stove top will not bring the same flavor that slow curing in 60 days of sun would. This would be like going to the tanning salon instead of the beaches of Hawaii.

Ah! whatever I told myself. I have Meyer lemons. I need a pickle. The sun I have no control on so I will take this route.

All of you do follow Manisha's Lemon pickle pictorial for the original taste. I have adjusted my measures because I saw the size of my lemon were smaller than hers and I used only 5 to her 6 large ones. I also increased the juice and reduced the salt since I was doing it on the stove and decide I did not need that much salt for curing.

After two hours of cooking on very low heat the chilli-lemon pickle tasted truly amazing. Did I tell you it does not have a drop of oil either ?

Here is how I did It

Wash 5 lemons and about 12 green chillies well and then dry them. They should be really, really dry.

Next cut the lemons the way Manisha has said. Slice of the edges to begin with. Since mine were smaller in size I first cut each lemon in half, then each half in two so that we have four quarters from a lemon. Each quarter wass then further divided in 3 or 4.

For the green chillies, I removed the stem and chopped in half.

Put the lemon pieces and green chillies in a glass jar. In my case I put them in a saucepan.

To it add the following
1/4th cup of sugar
1/8th cup of salt (Manisha suggests 1/2cup salt for 6 lemons. I had 5 but I could see mine were smaller in size and I was also doing it on the stove top so went with less to start)
2 heaped tbsp red chili powder(again Manisha uses 1/4th but I had green chilies so I put less)
1 tbsp Turmeric powder

Next make a spice powder by roasting the following
1 tsp Methi seeds
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4th tsp Hing
and then grinding to a powder.

Add this spice powder to the cut lemons.

Now juice two of the lemons and add this juice to cut lemons and green chilies.

In the original recipe you would have added all of this to the jar of lemons and then left it to sun. In my case I put the saucepan on low heat on the stove top. The lemons were cooked at very low heat for almost two hours. They released enough water and I cooked till the texture was something like the picture below. I then cooled and put it in a glass jar which I have left on the window ledge. At this point this lemon-chili pickle is edible and it really tasted awesome. Since I have not had the sunned version I cannot compare but it must surely be better.

RoshBora on Sankranti -- pithe parbon

"India being a predominantly agrarian country the harvesting season is joyfully celebrated during the months of Poush-Magh and Falgun (January to February), the festival being known by different names in different regions. In Bengal the harvesting festival is known as Poush Parbon (Winter Festival), poush being the name of the month.

This festival also celebrates Makar Sankranti or Poush Sankranti — marking the sun's passage from Capricorn to Aquarius.
This festival is also known as Pithey Parbon in Bengal, pithey or pithe being a sweet made with basic agrarian ingredients of the region like rice, date palm etc.There are several varieties of Pithey known as Gokul Pithey, Ashkey Pithey, Shajer Pithey etc. Along with this, sweets like Pati Shapta, rice-flour crepes filled with khoya and coconut stuffing, Soru Chakli and many more are also made."

The above paragraph was what I wrote on my post on PatiShapta in 2007. It still remains true. What is different is that in these 6 years I have learned to make two more kinds. Of Pithe. The Gokul Pithe being the second. Yes, a poor record but that is how it is. Especially if you consider the fact that my Dida, with her betel juice stained mouth and silver hair was a Pithe maestro. Ashkey pithe, dudh puli, nonta pithe, pati shapta, gokul pithe, raanga aloor pithey, rosh bora...her creations on Sankranti were endless. I never much cared for them nor did I spend time trying to learn how to make any. Pithe was not something I hankered after.

Today, I make Rosh Bora or RoshoBora-- a urad dal fritter soaked in sugar syrup-- on Sankranti, a sweet I least fancied but now adore and then label the whole thing under Tradition. What goes down must come back up.

Without further 'blah-blahing' on my part let us get down to task with this very simple of sweets made on Poush Sankranti. Let me also tell you that notun gur aka khejur gur (date palm jaggery) being widely available at this time, the syrup for this sweet is usually made with jaggery. I did it with sugar though.

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First, rinse and then soak 1 cup of Urad Dal in enough water . Urad dal is also known as kalai er dal in Bengali. Let it soak overnight for best results else 4-5 hours should also work well according to experts(and that is not me)

<< Insert picture of soaking Dal. I forgot to take any >>

Next morning rise and shine. After whatever your morning rituals are get to work with Urad. Drain the soaked dal which as you would see has risen in volume. Put the dal in your grinder jar. Do it in part if you have a smaller jar. Now gradually add water. For the measure I started with (i.e. 1 cup of Dal on the outset) about 3/4th to 1 cup of water will be needed to grind the dal. Add water gradually while making the paste so as not to make a urad soup.

<< Insert picture of you, your morning ritual or grinder making the paste >>

Pour the Dal paste out in a bowl and whip it with a fork. At this point I added about 1/4th cup of water to get the right consistency for the next step. Add salt to taste, about 1 tsp of sugar(optional) and around 1 tbsp of fennel seeds which have been lightly bruised. Lightly bruised means a gentle thwack in the mortar to just release the scent. Yes, yes, now I have the pikchar.

Now we will fry urad dal vada or bora as you like to say it. So heat enough oil for frying in a kadhai. BTW my mother brought this kadhai from her stash for sole purpose of frying during her last visit.Doesn't it look just the right amount of black and greasy ? When the oil is bubbling hot, test by putting in a drop of the batter. If the thingy bubbles and rises up, the oil is ready. With the help of a tablespoon, scoop up small portions of the batter and release in the hot oil. 

  

Fry the vada or bora till they are a nice crisp brown on both sides

While you are frying the bora, start making the sugar syrup on the other burner. In a saucepan take 2 cup of sugar + 2 cup of water and bring to boil. Throw in a few green cardamom  for fun. When the mixture has come to a boil, lower the heat to medium and let it simmer. After simmering for 14-16 minutes the syrup will be formed. Now the syrup for this bora should be a thin one, the one known as single string consistency. Here is a video showing you how to make sugar syrup.
Soak the fried bora in the sweet syrup.

The fluffy bora will soak up the syrup and become what we had set out to create -- the RoshoBora or the Rosh Bora -- the bora soaked in sweet syrup.

Enjoy. Sankranti or not.

Joynagar er Moa

Joynagar er Moa is a famous but rustic sweet of Bengal. Made from khoi , kheer and nolen gur, it is only a winter treat made in the small town of Joynagar about 50 kms from Kolkata. My father sent me these pictures from the local sweet shops in Kolkata which also sell this sweet during winter.

As a child I however remember hawkers from the village, going from home to home, selling this delicacy. They would come on bicycles, loaded with plain white paper boxes tied with yellow or blue strings,the boxes labeled as "Joynagar er Moa" in Bengali scripts. Some of those sellers were authentic, some not. Mother would know. Those plump round balls with raisin at the center and rounds of patali gur were the treats we looked forward to every winter.

Here is a good article on how they are made.

I had last tasted a joynagar er moa a decade back. This time my Father found someone who was traveling to US and is sending some for us. I cannot wait for tomorrow, for those soft sweet moas.