Sunday, May 04, 2014

Aam Doi -- Mango Flavored Sweet Yogurt

My Dad is a big health freak. He also has a huge sweet tooth. So he has convinced himself and everyone around him that eating sweets is healthy.

Isn't that brilliant ?

Have you ever had the pleasure of feeding "high calorie-full fat-non vegan-decadent-deliciously- sweet-desserts" to someone who thinks it is actually healthy ?

It is a shocking experience, I tell you.

It gives you so much pleasure that you feel like you are doling out "world peace" by the quarts. You think you have a halo around your head and angels are practicing Mozart on their harp.

It is such an uplifting thing after hearing requests of "only a spoonful" from svelte-skinny jeans-types or skinny jeans-wannabe aunties-like moi that you tend to go overboard, throw out your anti-depressants and start making Mishti Doi every week

That is what happened to me in the last few months while the pater was here. I made Mishti Doi or Bhapa Doi several times and then I made something similar, only with mango pulp and called it Aam Doi. I have never tasted the real Aam Doi and I don't even know how the real one tastes. But from my previous attempts of mixing mango with the yogurt I felt a layering works and tastes better. That is the reason I like to make Aam Doi or Mango Flavored Sweet Yogurt in small ramekins perfect for single servings.

This was good enough with a very nice Mango taste. Everyone loved it but given a choice dad wanted the old Mishti doi back

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Tyangra Maach er Jhaal Charchari

Tyangra Maach or Tangra Maachh is a small fresh water fish of the cat-fish family. I have no idea about its english or scientific nomenclature
To say that I like Tyangra Maach is an understatement. It is a fish which stirs waves in my heart. Troughs and crests of love, passion, hope and some times disappointment. There was a time when its taut silvery body gleaming like a shiny rupee coin in the morning sun would send delicious shivers through my spine. Given a choice between taut, sinuous Farhan Akhtar and "Tyangra", I would have picked Tyangra even as a teenager on hormones.

And that is saying a lot since that guy is one of my favorite Bollywood actors.

But frozen tangra in the US has mostly been disappointments, more so if the taste of the fresh fish is deeply ingrained in your brain. So we rarely buy the frozen Tyangra these days. In fact we rarely buy fish from the Bangladeshi store as the girls love salmon, the husband-man is not particularly interested and I am all for ease and comfort of baked salmon, tilapia and bassa. If the universe does not want me to remove scales -->fry fish-->then make a jhol, am I an idiot to to take that chore upon myself ?

However things are different when family from India visits. Then we want the fish from the Bangladeshi store, cut in "bengali cut". For a few days we revel in the pleasure of rui, pabda, ilish and tyangra. We promise ourselves that at least twice a month we will get our Bengali fish haul from the Bangladeshi store. We nod our heads in agreement that the Tyangra is pretty good even if a tad small and the Rui is actually better than what we have had in India. We renew our piscean vows in earnest. After all we are the "Fishy Bongs".

On those days, the kitchen fan is always set at high as we fry fish in Mustard Oil to be later put in different curries and the Jasmine scented Yankee candle works overtime to dispel the scent. Big Sis, moves around the house, her fingers pinched around her nose, careful that not a single note of fish scent should enter her system. Little Sis is excited about fish that has bones and eats rui and tyangra with much relish. She watches in amazement as I crunch down the fish head and lick with pleasure at the bones.

"Would you even eat us Mommy when we were small?" she asks in trepidation and breaths relief that she is indeed too big for me to chew on her bones.

But before that pleasurable chewing, me and the husband-man stare at the slowly defrosting fish in the sink and ask grave questions

"Shorshe Jhaal or Charchari?".

"Dim(fish roe) ache or not?"

And then, "Eki, maachh ta porishkar kora nei?" (Whaaat, has the fish not been gutted and cleaned?) followed with loud wails and hair tearing.

Then we start imposing heavyweight blame on each other.

"Didn't you even ask at the store if the fish was cleaned? Incorrigible"

"I didn't even want to buy Tangra. It was you who insisted. Always making wrong decisions"

As is clear, I was in total shock when after defrosting I realized that the Tyangra was neither gutted nor cleaned of its innards. I wanted to bawl my heart out, leave the fish right there in the sink and go read my Lila Majumdar. I needed serious consoling. However, as you might know(or not), I am a middle aged woman and though 21st century women's right dictates that middle aged women are not supposed to know home cooking, forget cleaning Tyangra, I felt a tad ashamed of my lack of fish cleaning abilities.

The husband-man offered to clean the fish but again women's rights popped up in my head and I said "what a man can do a wo-man can do better". Honestly, any being, a smidgen more intelligent than me would have known that anything is better than cleaning that fish. Anyway words are like arrows, once you let them go, it is hard to retrieve or some such thing as Krishna had told Arjun.

So acting all cool and confident, I checked around google a bit and asked Ushnishda (who should actually upload a video of the said fish cleaning some day). I also tried hard to recall what my Mother did when faced with fish like this. With all that knowledge I realized cleaning a fish like Tyangra is actually pre-t-t-y easy. Since this fish has no scales, you don't need to remove scales. But you need to gut the fish. Yeah, you heard me right and here is how you do it for small fish like Tyangra.

1. You take a kitchen scissor or a sharp knife and snip the fish around it is neck, at the base of the gills, making a narrow slit. ***Not as gory as it sounds***.

2.Then you prod the innards with your finger, spreading the cavity in the process and pull out the gills from the head region. You also pull out the entrails, a blackish looking string kind of thing from the stomach region.

3. Now rinse the fish inside out with water.

It was okay and not difficult to do but given a choice I would rather get the fish cleaned than doing it again.

With all that Tyangra, I made a spicy dish with potatoes and eggplants. I am not sure if you call it a Jhaal or a Charchari so I am calling it Tyangra Maachher Jhaal Chorchori. I did not add any mustard paste thought it is a jhaal but you can add a tsp of Kashundi along with the other spices. If the fish is very fresh, you should fry it only very lightly to make this dish.

The recipe reads long only because I have broken up the recipe in parts. It is indeed a simple and quick everyday kind of dish. Well, my Mother's every day kind of dish. Once you get past the fish frying part, it is done fast and tastes great with rice.

Tyangra Maachher Jhaal Charchari -- Fish with potatoes and eggplant

Prep

Wash and clean the fish. Tyangra does not have scale and so that is a good part. If your fishmonger has cleaned and gutted the fish for you, you are one lucky person. Pat the fish dry and toss the fish with salt, turmeric powder, little red chilli powder and keep aside
I used about 10 Tyangra fish for this particular dish

Chop 1 medium potato in half moon pieces.

Chop half of a medium onion in fine half moon slices

Chop 1 slender japanese eggplant in 2" lengths

Mince 2 cloves of garlic

Slit 5-6 green chilies along the center

Frying the Fish

Heat enough oil for frying the fish. Mustard Oil is the best bet. I used a frying pan with a bigger surface area as I was going to fry several batches of fish.

The oil should be smoking hot but not burning. Check by tossing a small piece of onion in the oil. It should rise up to the surface and sizzle.

Sprinkle some turmeric powder on surface of the oil. I have a theory that this reduces the risk of oil splattering a bit. And I also have a splatter screen handy to save me from any hot oil playing truant. Ta-Da!

Slide the fish gently into the hot oil. Do not drop them in like pakori batter. The fish should lie side by side on the pan and not heaped one over the other.

Now keep the gas temperature at medium-high. Let the fish cook on one surface. Trying to flip it before it is cooked will cause it to break. After about 3-4 minutes, give a gentle nudge to see if it is cooked on the underside. Once the fish is easily flippable, flip and let the other side cook. Please note that Tyangra should not be fried crispy so do not fry too much.

Take the fish out with a slotted spoon, shaking off any excess oil. Repeat process for all fish

Once all the fish has been fried we will make the charchari

Now all that oil for frying will not be needed in the dish. So save that oil for future use or get rid of it save the amount needed for the charchari.

In the same frying pan, heat 2-3 tbsp Mustard oil(fresh or the fishy one).

Next add the eggplant slices. Sprinkle some turmeric powder, little salt and saute the eggplants until their skin chars a little and the eggplant becomes a tad softer. They need not be fully cooked at this point. Remove the eggplant and keep aside.

Temper the oil in the frying pan with
1 tsp of Kalonji
5 slit green chillies

When the spices pop add the minced garlic. After a quick saute add the onion

Saute the onion for 3-4 minutes until it softens. Onion will soften but not get crispy.

Next add the potato slices, sprinkle some more turmeric powder and saute for 3-4 minutes. Cover the frying pan and let the potatoes cook. Intermittently remove cover and stir around the vegetables and sprinkle water if they tend to stick to the frying pan.

When potato is almost done, take a small bowl and to it add
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp Kashmiri mirch(more red chilli powder if you like it hotter)
1/2 tsp of Cumin powder
and little water to make a watery paste

Add this masala paste to the frying pan. Add the fried eggplant and toss the potatoes and eggplants around for a couple of minutes. Next add about 1/2 Cup of water at room temperature and salt to taste. Add more water if you think so. Let the gravy simmer and come to a boil. Make sure that the potatoes and eggplants are all cooked

Now add the fried fish and cook for a few more minutes until most of the water has evaporated. The dish will have little gravy.

Add some chopped fresh coriander leaves and finish with few drops of mustard oil. Serve with rice.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Posto Bhape or Bhapa Posto in Microwave

This post is about Posto Bhape but first we will not talk about Posto Bhape. Instead we will talk about Little Sis. If you can think of nothing but Posto then scroll down the page.

This is something way back from February and I have been meaning to write it down here but I always forget

Little Sis telling me about her Valentine's day project in school, " Mommy in our art class today, we made love."

Since a lot of this conversation happens in the car, my hands on the wheel wavered.

Big Sis gave her a look and said "LS, how can you make love in art class?"

My hands wavered again.

LS with an air of non-nonchalance " Oh very easy. You cut out L, O, V and E from pink neon paper and then spread glitter over it. Done"

***********

Little Sis's class was learning about deserts in school.

The Big Sis, trying to act smart because she is ten after all asked "Which Dessert ? The one you eat?"

LS went into deep thought and then said, " Yes, you can eat there if you want. Deserts have some kind of cactus which we can eat"

I choked on my laughter as LS has a temper and gets very angry if I laugh at anything she says. She is very confused with "laughing at someone" and "laughing with someone". So if any natural action on her part ellicits laughter on our part, she doesn't like it. However when she makes goofy faces or a joke which I do not understand, I am supposed to break into peals of laughter or she gets mad again.

*************

LS has a friend in class called S. I have met her only briefly but from what I gather S is a spunky little girl. So LS comes home from school and calls me at work, to talk about S.

"Mommy, S is K and R's boss", she said with an air of finality, K and R being two spunky boys in her class.

"Okay, but why ?", I asked

"Because they are in the same bus and also in the same class, she is their boss. And they have to do anything that she asks them to. HAVE TO."

I was very impressed by this logic and also by the said S who has concocted this rule.

So this little girl S apparently being the boss of K and R, did something which irked K and R and they wanted to complain to the teacher. S however forbade them to do so and this is what Little Sis explained to me, "If K and R complain to the teacher, then the teacher might tell her parents and S's Mommy and Daddy will think S is not a good girl. But S wants them and everyone else to think that she is a good girl so K and R should not complain about her."

I was as amused by LS's logic as by S's antics.Go Bossy.

***************

LS knows the right moments to call me and get her things done. Every day around 2:30 in the afternoon, she calls and asks if she can have a cookie or a pack of fruit snacks. Now usually these are not part of her everyday snacks and so I ask her to have yogurt or some fruits instead. But she knows that I don't haggle much over the phone and she tries her best with pathetic calls every few minutes.

Now to explain "Persuasive Writing" to BigSis, I was giving her LS's example and how she uses "pathos" to persuade me. BS thought for a minute and then said, "Not only "pathos" she also uses "threatos" a lot. She always threatens to cry if things are not her way."

***************

Now to this Bhapa posto which is my friend J's recipe. Among all the different dishes made with Posto, the very basic is Kaancha Posto bata or raw poppy seed paste where the wet poppy seed paste is mixed with raw onion, green chilli, salt and mustard oil and then had cold with rice. It is a solution to many of our Friday night dinners. When J, who is an amazingly good cook suggested this one more step which would take all of 3-4 minutes beyond the raw and whip up posto in a new avtaar, we had to try it. And of course we have been hooked since and also buying a packet of posto every other week.

This Bhapa Posto (Steamed or baked Posto) was traditionally steamed in a small steam bowl along with the rice or later in a steel tiffin box placed inside the pressure cooker. Cooking it in the microwave is the most modern you can get. And yet the taste is the same. Clean, fresh, pure and of course delicious.

More Posto Fun
Postor Bora -- Poppy seed fritters
Jhinge Chingri Posto
Aloo Posto

Soak about 1/2 cup of posto/poppy seeds in 1/4th cup of water for 15-20 minutes

Then make a smooth wet paste of the seeds -- posto bata-- in your wet grinder. I use my magic bullet for this purpose. While making the paste add splashes of water, only as little as necessary to aid in grinding.

Alternately, you can also dry grind the posto in a dry spice grinder or coffee grinder. Mix the dry ground posto with water to make a thick wet paste.

Take the wet poppy seed paste in a bowl.

To it add
finely chopped onion(half of a medium)
finely chopped tomatoes(a smal one or half of medium)
4 green chillies finely chopped
1 tbsp mustard oil
salt to taste

Mix and then put in the microwave. Cook in MW for 2 minutes. Mix and then cook for 2-3 more minutes until the posto turns a little brown in color. If your MW is a lower power than mine you might have have to cook for few more minutes

Add more Mustard Oil. VERY VERRY IMPORTANT.

Eat it with hot steaming rice