The Bengali Labra again -- a vegetable medley

I am not sure if Bengali Labra has anything to do with this time of the season but I find myself making it more during these months than any other. I do try cooking a mixed vegetable dish at least twice a month, throwing in a variety of veggies and thus ensuring that my veggie intake is avergaed out but most often it gets done with a bag of frozen vegetables from Costco which is largely dominated by broccoli and zucchini. And then I throw in some pumpkin, some carrot a dash of kasundi to sweeten up the deal.

For the labra though I specifically buy the vegetables with "labra" in mind. This is an antithesis to my Mother's labra cooking where the dish would be made with bits of pieces of vegetables left over in the veggie basket from the day before.

But me ? I made a list "To make Labra" and on Saturday even went out of the way to get something like mulo, which I categorically hate, to be put in the labra. Now the good part of having the blog to post the recipes is there is always some reader or the other telling me how a dish could be done better, or different or their version of the same thing. This time taking cue from the comments in my last Labra post, I made sure to keep the cauliflower leaves and stems to be added to the dish.

The cooking of the dish is very very simple as you all know. All it does is tries to utilize the best of the seasonal vegetables using a bit of this and bit of that. There is minimum of spices like paanchphoron, hing and ginger and majority of the  flavor comes from the vegetables alone. The dish tastes better when some time is allowed for the flavors to mingle and is served traditionally with Khichuri on Saraswati Pujo or a light dal, rice and slice of lime for a homey meal.

For the Labra follow the old recipe -- Labra for Saraswati Pujo  --  which is now updated with more pictures.

Instead in this post, I will take you for a tour around the vegetable market in my neighborhood in Kolkata which are shimmering with orange, purple, red and green at this time of the year.

Photographs by my Dad @Kolkata

Oranges better known as Clementines are a winter fruit in Kolkata. They come to the plains either from orchards in Nagpur or from the hills of Darjeeling

Rec Carrots, Methi Greens, Sweet Peas and Cauliflower are some of the winter veggies that entice you with their beautiful colors

Cauliflower with their large leaves, the kind perfect to put in a Labra

For more pictures of Indian market see my previous posts

Haat e Bajaar e -- to the Market(I)

Haat e Bajaar e -- to the Market (II) 

Thai Fish wrapped in Banana Leaves -- not a drop of oil

The last week of December saw a lot of friends in our home. Perfect time. Cold winters warmed by warmer friends. The house has slowly started feeling home as we share meals and swap stories. By the time I get around hosting all my dear friends I hope the house will feel like the old one and "more fun" as LS is wont to say. "Not saying that I don't like this house but the 123 AnyDrive was more fun", she declares.

Now this holiday season. there were friends we don't see that often and when we meet the first words that spill out are about the kids who have grown taller, shorter, bigger, lost teeth etc. There were also few friends whom we see more often and who see the kids at more close quarter to be astounded.

Now irrespective of who they are, I have noticed a repetitive trend in my nature in the days and even hours leading up to their visit. The same can be said of the husband-man. Only his ways of dealing with it is exact opposite of mine.

The husband-man believes in welcoming friends in his unshaven, PJ'ed best. Not only that, he thinks it is perfectly fine to have stacks of unpaid bills/papers/unnecessary stuff on the counter when friends are visiting. If the cleaning-lady has come in on a Thursday he refuses to understand the importance of scrubbing a sink just before the guests arrive on a cold Saturday.

"These are friends", he yells, "Friends I have known since XYZ, Kolkata, Bangalore, Honolulu, New Jersey (fill place of choice)".

"Ok, but how does that justify a dirty sink", I retort.

"It is NOT dirty. IT IS clean", he desperately points out.

"Agreed. It IS clean. But it is NOT cleaned 'before-guests-arrive-clean'. There needs to be scented candles on the bath counter and not a tube of hemorrhoid ointment," I counter.

"These are not guests. These are friends," he rolls his eyes, flaps his arms, behaves weird.

Given that the guy is pretty tidy and neat in his ways, it is beyond me how he does not get this. Sigh!! And it is only fair that I mention, surprisingly he is the one who does the major clean up and dish washing after the friends leave.

But after all these years he does not understand why on the morning  of a house guest or even dinner guest's arrival, I shove everything junk visible around the house, in the closet ,and close it tight. Then I prop pillows and screech at the girls if they dare to nudge even one out of its defined space. I take out  books which I last read about five years ago and then strategically place them on the side table (this has a good side effect as I then start re-reading forgotten books). I light candles, scrub the kitchen counter thrice and align the rug in family room every 3 minutes. If time permits I also take out the huge conch, Ma got from Andaman and which is stored away in the upper shelf of the entertainment center for safety, and place it on the console. Ta-Da.

I don't have fancy place settings and how I wish I could do that too.

"Ha, ha...if only they open your closet", the husband-man laughs deliriously watching me from the corner couch. I fear he might actually just ask them to do so.

"Ok enough. Remember to talk", I hiss.

No, no I am not insane and neither is the husband-man undergoing speech therapy. It is just that he believes that it is perfectly fine to make visiting guests watch "Myth Busters" or "NatGeo" in silent admiration or even  take a nap when friends come a visiting. While I am forever trying to think of the most exciting story to keep them entertained, he always volunteers to put LS to bed (which is a kind thing to do)  and only after an hour do we realize that he is the one who is actually snoring. "Ghumiye poreche," I tell the friends calmly and then wake him up and drag him down to participate in the late night adda.

"Gawd, they are my friends. NOT guests", he rolls his eyes exasperatedly. No one seems to mind really so he must have a point there.

And then he believes in serving solid robust food like pathar mangshor jhol, bhaat and boutique beer.

"Thai fish in Kola pata, all wussy-ussy fancy-pansy. I am not doing it" he declares. I plain ignore. If I have managed to get banana leaf from the Asian Store, and a recipe of a fragrant marinade off the internet, my guests better eat the Thai fish.

And they do. They do. No one even opens the closet.

This Thai Fish in Banana leaf is a new found recipe which I love. It started off with a recipe suggested by a friend  here. To it I merged a recipe of Green Curry sauce I found from Jamie Oliver. The two recipes punched together made a beautiful green curry paste. From then on making the fish was a breeze. It was so simple that it worked well for a weeknight dinner and even when cooking for more guests. The green curry paste can be made a day ahead but I felt it lost a bit of punch on Day 3. Maybe freezing instead of refrigerating for longer use will work well.

A note of caution while making the paste, lightly fry the onion before adding to the blender. This will avoid the bitterness many times grinding onion brings around. Also I added the lime leaves later and not while making the paste. The first time that I ground the leaves along with other spices in the mixer, the paste had a faint bitter taste. So I snipped the lime leaves with a scissor and then added to the fish while marinating. This way the paste was fragrant and perfect.

I was lucky to get banana leaves in the frozen section of the Asian Market. If you don't, just use parchment or aluminum foil. I have done that too. If you have no access to galangal or fish sauce, I suggest don't get shy, still do the fish but substitute with ginger and soy sauce

Also I tried this dish with three kind of fish -- Salmon, Tilapia and a fish called Swai. It worked best with Swai and Tilapia which are very mild fish and absorbed the flavor of the marinade.



The fish - I used 3 fillet of swai, each fillet cut in 3 pieces

In a blender jar add the following
1 onion, peeled and chopped (saute onion and use if onion tends to get bitter on grinding)
2 fat cloves garlic
1 thumb-size piece galangal, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp coriander powder
handful of Thai Basil leaves
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp Soy Sauce
2-4 fresh hot red Chilli
handful of fresh coriander leaves
2 tbsp Coconut Milk (the thick part)
juice of 1/2 lime
Make a smooth paste


Clean and place the fish pieces in a large bowl. Sprinkle salt. Put the marinade on the fish so that all the pieces are coated nicely with it. If you have extra marinade freeze for later use. Snip 4 small Kaffir lime leaves in small pieces and add to the marinated fish. In absence of lime lives use lime zest. Marinate fish for 30 mins.

Next take a square piece of banana leaf.

Put a fish piece in the center. Add some finely chopped chilli rounds. More lime leaf if you have plenty.

Fold the longer ends of the leaf over the fish. Then fold the shorter ends to form a packet.

Secure the packet with a toothpick.

Put the fish packets in a oven safe tray with the toothpick side down. Bake the fish at 350F for 20-25 mins. At the end of this, open the covering and check to see if fish is cooked through.

Serve with white rice accompanied with one more Thai curry like this one.

Chingri Dhan-Dhana-Dhan -- Pudina Dhaniya Shrimp

Once upon a  time, years ago I used to make a chicken dish with coriander and call it Chicken Dhan Dhana Dhan. At that point I did not know much about cooking. The fact that oil separates from masala at some point of kashano was news to me. Instead I tried to shroud my insipid dishes under dazzling names. That the dishes were flop B-grade movies even with names like "Lal Badshah" was often forgotten amidst laughter over the names. Or people were polite and did not point out the fact blatantly.

Now when I think of Chicken Dhan-dhana-dhan, I have no recollection except for the name. It was green and had dhonepata but it was very different from my Dhonepata Chicken. But the name has stuck in the folds of my memory. Quirky names do that to me. I still remember the name a friend (with a penchant for coining funny names) from college had chosen for a prospective Bollywood movie. "Muhabbat ki Jhopri me Jhaarpit ki Raat" was her name for a Bolly blockbuster. Every time I think of that name, my lips curl up in a smile and I chuckle to myself.

<< Also Yogurt, Onion, Shrimp,Salt,Sugar and Oil which are not shown in the above picture >>


In every stage of life I guess there are names you find to laugh on. For my four year old, freshly introduced to potty humour, it is stuff like "Butt-er" or "Pippi" or even "Green Pea".  For another friend it is "Gopi", and since he has drilled into my brain I cannot address a "Gopi" with straight face anymore.

Same is with strange, quirky food names. If the food and hence the name is unfamiliar territory it can be source of much entertainment. Like say "Bibimbap". When I hear "Bibimbap" all I can think of it as, is Raavana's 6th wife with a flared nostril and thick gold nose ring on it. "Kimchi" brings to mind a lot of tiny twittering school girls. "Chenchda" comes alive as a young boy in narrow trousers with long sideburns and hippi haircut

Yesterday on Facebook, I asked for dishes with weird, quirky nonsensical names. Needless to say I had a hilarious time reading what the commenters had to say. There were "Faggots" (a kind of meatball), "Dhop er Chop" (the real deal), "Spotted Dick", "Country Captain", "Baykla Bhajja", "Elo-jhelo", "Round Round Stop", "Moo Goo Gai Pan"  and "Gambas pil pil". The name that stole the show for me was "Jil Jil Jigarthanda". I cannot wait for an opportunity to order it with a perfectly serious look. To say "Ek Ji Jil Jigarthanda dena" is a privilege I want to earn. With names like this I am sure the fish and chips eating Bard would never have dared to say "What is in a Name?". A lot of fun if you ask me.

Now back to today's dish which was built on the memory of the now lost "Chicken Dhan-Dhana-Dhan". It was also inspired by the "Pudina Dhaniya Chicken" and "Pepper Shrimp". The pepper in hot oil and also in the paste adds a very nice flavor layered on mint and cilantro. Chingri Dhan-Dhana-Dhan needs to be pronounced with the right inflection, a slight pause after the first "Dhan" and then "Dhana-Dhan" together with more speed. That is how you will get the right effect .With fresh coriander, green mint, and black peppercorns it will also  a deadly combo, truly a dhan-dhana-dhan.

Go Try.And come tell me the weirdest food name that you know.

Also a quick recap of book I have read recently and loved

Room -- Emma Donoghue
Oleander Girl -- Chitra Banerjee Divakurani

Chingri Dhan Dhana Dhan

Prep

Add the following to the blender jar and make a smooth paste
Coriander Leaves -- 1 cup chopped
Mint leaves -- 1/2 cup chopped (If you don't have fresh, use the dried mint but use less of it)
Yogurt - 1/2 cup of thick yogurt
Garlic -- 4 fat clove
Ginger -- 1" peeled and chopped
Hot Indian green chilli -- 2
Whole Black Peppercorns -- 1 tbsp
This greenish paste can be stored for future use and as base for many other curries. But don't use it as paint.



Lightly fry a small onion till it is soft and pink. Remove, cool and make a paste.

Clean and de-vein shrimp or defrost if using frozen ones. Toss them with salt and let sit for 15-20 minutes. I had about 22 medium sized shrimps(not jumbo but the 20-25/lb frozen kind).

Start Cooking

Heat 2 tbsp Oil in a fry pan

Now to the oil add
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste (more garlic than ginger)
1 tbsp fresh black pepper powder

When you get the nice aroma add
3 tbsp of the onion paste

Cook till oil separates. Now add the green masala paste. Add salt to taste, a tsp of sugar. Cook the masala paste till there is no raw smell. Now add little water(about 1/2 cup for gravy) and let the gravy simmer to a boil.

Adjust for salt and sugar at this point. Add juice of a quarter lime and a sprinkle of rock salt(beet noon) to add to the flavor.

Once you think gravy is almost ready add the shrimp and toss with the masala. The shrimp will cook fast and you are done as soon as the shrimp starts loses its raw coloring and looks white and orange. Do not cook the shrimp longer than necessary. The gravy will not be totally dry but will be clinging to the shrimps.

Serve with a pulao or rice.

Similar Recipes:

Pudina Dhaniya Chicken -- Chicken in Mint Coriander Sauce

Dhonepata Maach - Fish in Cilantro sauce

Chicken in Mint, Coriander and Coconut