Peas and Corn with Himalayan Pink Salt

The Himalayan Pink salt is not important to this recipe.

The sweet peas are. So is the corn. I threw in the Himalayan Pink salt because it sounds hippie chic and also because I bought it very cheap at Costco.

I think Saindhav Lavan is how this Himalayan Rock Salt, mined in the Khewra salt mines at the foothills of Himalaya, was known to us in India. The Kala Namak which is more popular in India and is known as "Beet Noon" in Bengal, is a chemically transformed version of the Himalayan rock salt. Though these days Kala Namak is synthetically produced and there is no trace of Himalaya in there.

This Pink rock salt, looks like an original. Raw and unprocessed. I will keep my fingers crossed until someone crashes my delusion only to confirm that the cheaper Costco version was actually made in some lab in China.

Until then, here is this easy sweet peas and corn snack which will be packed for BigSis's lunch tomorrow along with ravioli. Whether you want regular salt, Himalayan Pink salt, Kosher salt or Kala namak is up to you.

Steamed sweet peas sauteed in butter was one of my favorite childhood snacks. Sometimes diced carrots and potatoes would be thrown in. At other times a chopped boiled egg. Sprinkle of black pepper and salt were the only seasonings. And it tasted so good that I care to make it again and again.

Only this time I did a tempering of Curry Leaves and Cumin seeds. You can ditch both and saute in just plain olive oil or butter too.

Cook 1 cup of frozen peas and 1 cup of frozen corn kernels in microwave. Usually 1 min for 1 cup cooks mine.

Now heat a tsp of Olive Oil. Temper the oil with 2 Kari Patta and few cumin seeds. You can add some sliced red onion too but I skipped.

Add the cooked peas and corn. Saute for a couple of minutes.

Season with Himalayan pink salt or regular salt. Sprinkle some crushed black pepper.

Done.

Ganesh Chaturthi was on Monday. It was also the day, both girls started their school after the summer break. Little Sis came back from her half-day KG and happily said "They call it Early Learning Center. But actually there is no learning."  I am sure hoping, she thinks it will remain that way.

Big Sis too liked her homeroom teacher. But she has a busy schedule with lots of running in between different classes and that too with heavy books and binders. Once the classes start in full swing and band practice etc. begins, she is going have a full day.

Leaving you with some pictures of Ganesha around my home and may the one with Curved Trunk, Large Body, and with the Brilliance of a Million Suns remove obstacles from our path or show us the way to do so.

Next week, I will be announcing some interesting giveaways on this blog. So stay tuned. And don't forget to get your copy of my book.

Salmon Doi Maach-- Salmon in a yogurt gravy

Doi Maach -- Fish in Yogurt Sauce

Next week school reopens in my part of the world. After 2 and a half months of late nights, later mornings, lazy breakfasts, no school lunches, no worries of homework, unlimited story book reading time and any hour ice cream time, letting go of summer vacation is not going to be easy.

For anyone.Okay, at least not for me.

Sauteing Onions to grind into a paste

Though I was not at the receiving end of those sleep-in mornings and unlimited ice creams, it is my heart that squeezes in this awful manner, thinking of a summer that is slowly gathering up the hem of its laced skirt and preparing to say good bye.This summer has been one of those very laid back kinds, with minimum activities, no summer camps and the girls free to do what they want with their day. Well, for the most part.

Tempering oil with Whole spices

There have been several sleepovers, couple of picnics, multiple park visits, visiting friends in neighboring states, grandparents, beach, water parks, a short trip and a birthday party in the park for LittleSis. Nothing else was planned or chalked out and not once did they say they were "bored". BigSis of course read and re-read many books from Percy Jackson to Harry Potter, from the Malory Towers series that my Ma got to some Agatha Christies. LS learned to read pretty well but is yet to get hooked onto its magic, so she kept herself busy with imaginary games involving complex rules, which take more time to explain than play.

I think they had a good summer, kind of like those I had,only with air-conditioning. Listless, long, timeless.

Add the onion paste

And now here we are, with school starting on Monday. The prospect of two school buses at my doorstep for the two sisters, wrenching my gut. Darn, I am hitting menopause or what.

The supplies have been bought and labeled by BigSis. The bags have been packed. This is always an exciting part of a new school year though in this case there are no new text books involved. Supplies largely consist of  Sharpies, Folders, glue sticks, pens in certain colors, post-its and index cards. For LS it is glue sticks, crayons, glue sticks, color pencils, more glue sticks and did I say glue sticks ? I have no idea what they do in Kindergarten but it sure involves a lot of glue sticks.

Add fish and sprinkle kashmiri mirch

The start of a new school year was always exciting during my school days too. One of them was the new pencil box, which was a coveted treasure and the one thing where my parents gave in to fancy renditions. So I had those magic pencil boxes where the contents would disappear if you opened it a certain way, the two tier ones with Mickie on top,  the ones where the scale slid on and doubled as a cover and then shiny camel geometry boxes every year.Close second, were the new text books with their fresh smell and crisp pages and the Radiant Readers or Gulmohars with their new stories to leaf through.

In goes tomatoes and green chillies

There was also the act of covering each of them with brown paper. A daunting task which my Mother finished for the most part. While in the last few days of vacation, I would be busy completing the handwriting homework I had conveniently procrastinated, Ma would be sitting down with rolls of brown paper, a ruler and a pair of scissors, neatly covering each of the text books. I mostly covered the notebooks and then patiently drew lines on each of those covers to pencil in my name, classroom and section.

The yogurt which was mixed with half of onion paste, ginger paste, sugar and mixed thoroughly

BigSis has these things called book socks to cover her text books, the books that the school provides for the school year. The books mostly stay in class and are to be returned when she moves up. I don't have to pay for them. They are not new. But they are extraordinarily neat with no scribbles on the margins. However I see, she does not feel the oneness with these text books that I once did with mine. I would worry even as the brown paper cover frayed at the ends and started tearing at the spine and never ever leave them face open or upturned. She keeps the books neat but they are not hers to be highlighted, underlined or to make notes.Naturally so she does not feel for them with her heart either. They are just textbooks for the new school year.

It is the folders, pencils and binders which excite her more. And then there are the glue sticks for LS. All six of them.

Add water and let gravy simmer

Before I go onto the recipe, I must tell you about this wonderful event where my book is a part of the giveaway. It is hosted by Srivalli of the wonderful blog "Cooking 4 all Seasons". You can participate and try to win a copy.
My book is now also available for UK/Europe/Canada on Amazon at the Amazon.uk, Amazon.ca etc. And it is always there on Amazon and Flipkart. If you have read my book, I would also urge you to rate and review it at these sites as well as on Goodreads. It will be a huge help.
Soon, I will be having a couple of giveaways on my blog too. So stay tuned.

Almost ready!

Now to Doi Machh i.e Fish in a yogurt gravy features in my list of favorite dishes. Surprisingly this simple dish varies from one Bengali home to the other in the little nuances they add. My Ma’s Doi Maachh is pretty much traditional with raw onion paste, ginger paste and yogurt in the gravy and that awesome taste is what I grew up with. Then, when I saw my Ma-in-law add chopped tomatoes to this gravy, towards the end of cooking, I was taken by surprise. But her dish tasted just like Doi Maachh and yet was unique with this touch.
When it was my turn, I went further. Instead of a raw onion paste, I started sautéeing the onion lightly and grinding them to a paste which I then used in the gravy. I was trying to shorten the time it takes to “kashao” raw onion paste. Simple. In my book, I have a version of Doi Maachh where I have added even more twists and turns.

Tastes best with some rice

Though traditionally done with fish like Rohu or Carp, I find salmon perfect in this sweet and spicy yogurt gravy. Today, I will share with you my version of Salmon diye Doi Maachh, where the salmon is poached in the gravy and the taste is so darn awesome that my daughters lick it up.

And I am sure you will love this too.

Btw, you can use this recipe for the traditional Rui or Rohu fish too. If the fish is not very fresh I would suggest to saute the fish lightly and then proceed with the rest of the steps.

Salmon Doi Maach -- Salmon in a yogurt gravy

Prep Work

Heat Vegetable Oil in a frying pan

Chop a medium sized onion in large chunks and then saute it until it is soft, pink and translucent. Now cool and make a paste.

Next in a bowl, add about 1/2 cup of thick yogurt. To it add
1/2 of the onion paste
1 tbsp of fresh ginger paste
a pinch of turmeric powder
1/4th tsp of sugar
1/4th cup of water
Beat well

Note for creamier gravy: Soak 2 Tbsp of cashew for 10 minutes and make a smooth paste with little water. Add it to the yogurt above

Clean the fish pieces and lightly rub with salt and turmeric. Keep aside for half an hour. For salmon, I request the fishmonger to get the skin off the filet and then cut the filet into kabob sized pieces.

Note: Btw, you can use this recipe for the traditional Rui or Rohu fish too. If the fish is not very fresh I would suggest to saute the fish lightly and then proceed with the rest of the steps.

Start Cooking

Heat some more Oil in Kadai/Frying Pan.

Add the coarsely pounded whole garam masala
Elaichi or Cardamom~ 5
Laung or Cloves~ 5
TejPata or BayLeaves~ 2
Dalchini or Cinnamon Sticks ~ 1” stick

When they start sputtering add the remaining onion paste. Add about 1 tsp of sugar and fry the onion paste till the oil separates.

Add the fish pieces. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of Kashmiri mirch  and saute until the fish pieces lose their raw color. Don't overcook or fry the fish too much. It will cook in the gravy

Next add half of a large tomato chopped into small pieces and about 5 slit green chillies. You can also add halved grape tomatoes. Saute for 2 minutes,

Now take the Kadai/Frying Pan off the heat and give it a couple of minutes to cool.

Add the beaten yogurt/curd and mix with the fish. If you add the yogurt directly when the utensil is on heat the yogurt may curdle so you need to do this.

Put back the Kadai/Frying Pan on heat.

Add salt as required .Add about 1/2 - 2/3 cup of water at this point. depending on how much gravy you need, you might need more or less water.

Simmer on low heat till the gravy comes to a boil. Let it simmer till the gravy is thick and smooth and the fish is just flaking apart. The texture of the gravy should be silky smooth because of all that yogurt. Note: the gravy will not dry off totally but will be thick and not watery

Finish off with a little ghee if you wish and a little Garam masala powder. Serve with white rice.

Dal er Borar Jhol -- Lentil fritters in a light gravy

If you follow my blog on FB, you will know that my Mother arrived a couple of weeks back. With her of course came packets of Mukhorochak chanachur-- tauk--jhaal-mishti -- sour--spicy-sweet. And loads of books. Tons of Enid Blytons for the 9 yr old, Bengali story books by Sukumar Roy from my childhood for the little one and fat Lila Majumdar Rachanabolis for me.

A natural fallout of all these books is that I have been engrossed in reading and have had little time to do anything else during free time. And there in an FB status, I heard that people these days don't like free time, as they have no idea what to do when there is nothing to do. Anyway, I have no such problems.

I am an ardent Lila Majumdar fan and have been one for the last 30 years. I can read her stories and essays over and over and yet find new joy every time in the tales of uncomplicated times of simple livings. The downside of reading such great authors is that I myself feel very incompetent and my writing feels bleah ! So, I take the easy way out and read more, hoping to learn something but eventually only get engrossed in the tales.

When I get time away from reading, I make Dal er Bora. And also take showers.

Now, the Dal er Bora or Lentil fritters is a very typical Bengali dish. There are lentil fritters made  throughout the length and breadth of India for sure but these particular ones are  typical to Bengal. They are also deep fried and very different from the sun dried lentil fritters-- the bori.

I had written a detailed post on the Dal er Bora some years back. That one was made with Matol + Musur Dal. This time I did not have any Mator dal and so used only Red Masoor. Also different from the jhaal-jhol last time which needed mustard paste, I made a Borar Jhol this time, which was more in the lines of a dalna like this Alu Potol er Dalna. I also added few of the boras to a thin jhol with vegetables and spiced with mustard paste, like this Alu Begun er Jhol. Both the dishes tasted very good.

Bengali vegetarian dishes are vast and varied but very few non-Bengalis know that. One of the oft heard comments I have received from non-Bengali readers of my book, is the surprise on the Vegetable chapters. As this particular reader says about my book  "But it has to be said, the book has opened my eyes to the breadth and depth of Bengali cuisine, which in my severely myopic view did not go beyond macher jhol, mangsher jhol, and the indiscriminate use of badly chopped (sometimes whole) potatoes and of course mustard oil." Now honestly, the variety is too much for me to even know, forget putting in the book, but I hope as we dig out these simple gems, more people will be able to enjoy Bengali food beyond maacher jhol and kosha mangsho.

Dal er Borar Jhol or Lentil Fritters in a Gravy

To Make Dal er Bora

Soak 1/2 cup of Matar Dal(split peas) & 1/2 cup of red Masoor Dal in water for half an hour.For only Musur Dal er Bora use 1 cup of Red Lentils/Red Masoor dal
In the blender add 
the soaked lentils
1" piece of peeled and chopped ginger
3-4 green chili
1/2 cup of water
and make a smooth paste.

To the paste
add 1 tsp of roasted cumin powder
add salt to taste
some finely chopped onion
finely chopped green chilli
finely chopped coriander leaves(optional)

Beat the lentil paste with a fork till everything is well mixed up.

In a kadahi, heat Oil for deep frying.

When oil is hot, scoop the paste with a tablespoon and drop it in the bubbling hot oil. Fry till the lentil fritters are brown and crunchy.

Instead of deep frying, I made the fritters in an ebelskiver pan aka appe pan. You can follow the instructions in this post for making them using the appe pan.

This measure makes about 15 Dal er bora. Of which about 10 were used in the Jhol

Make the Borar Jhol

Heat some more Oil in the same wok

Temper the Oil with
1&1/2" thin stick of cinnamon
1 small Bay Leaf
4 small green cardamom
1/4th tsp of Whole cumin seeds

When the spices sizzle add 1 medium potato peeled and chopped in quarters. Sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of Turmeric Powder and saute the potatoes until they start taking on a pale golden color

Take 2-3 peeled whole tomatoes from a can or 1 big juicy tomato and blend to make tomato puree. Add the tomato puree to the pan.

Add 1 tbsp of grated Ginger + 3-4 green chilli coarsely pounded

Add a little salt and fry the tomato till the raw smell is gone. If you are not the smelling type, check to see if the oil is separating from the masala. This will take about 6-8 minutes at medium heat

Time for the masala.
Add
1/2-1 tsp of Bhaja Moshla(Recipe here)
1/2 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch or Red Chili Powder
Note: usually Jeera powder is used but I added Bhaja Masla.

Sprinkle a little of the tomato juice or a little water and fry the spices for about 5 minutes. This is called "kashano" in Bengali or "bhuno" in Hindi and a lot depends on this step. You need to fry the masala till the oil surfaces and the masala takkes a deep red color. Don't try to hurry it. I have done that and there has been a difference in taste.

Add 1 cup of warm water. Add salt and sugar to taste. Cover and cook till potatoes are done.

Now add the fried dal er bora/lentil fritters. Let them simmer in the gravy at low heat for a few minutes. The bora soaks up the gravy fast so add more water to the gravy if necessary. Taste the thin gravy to see if it tastes right and adjust for spices.

Add a touch of ghee at the end to up the taste. Serve with rice.

Similar Recipes:

My Dal er Borar Jhaal version 1.0

KichuKhonn's Dal er Borar Jhol