Dahi Vada -- Doi Bora with no hole

LS's kindergarten class has a very interesting activity every year and it involves hatching chicks. Yes, fun isn't it ?

They have a farmer bring in a hen and rooster to school and then set up an incubator with dozen eggs. Every day the kids are asked to rotate the eggs ever so gently and wait for the eggs to hatch. It is a week of great anticipation and I can imagine the level of excitement in her class.

So after a week of waiting, 11 of the chicks hatched on one Tuesday in May. And the kids got to name them. Little Sis named hers "Rosie". Rosie, Rosie....why Rosie I wondered.The next day they were also allowed to touch and pet them. LS was pretty excited about the chicks and said that they were soft to touch and pooped a lot.

I think I expected some kind of a reaction when we cracked eggs to make an omelet at home after this experiment but it seemed she was very aware that the eggs in her school were different from the ones we buy. "The ones at home are not fertilized eggs so it is okay to crack", she told me. "If you by accident get an egg by the side of the road and don't know if it is fertilized or not, then don't make omlette", she warned.

Now to the Dahi Vadas which both Little and Big Sis seem to like. My Mother made lovely Dahi Vadas all her life. Perfect donut shaped vadas, with a neat hole in the center dunked in a sweet and tangy yogurt sauce. I of course loved the yogurt more than the vada. And I also liked mine with some Tamarind Chaatni unlike a Bong Doi Bora with a sprinkle of Bhaja Moshla. However what held me in awe about the Dahi Vada was the perfect hole at the center of the disk. My Mother would take a bit of the dough on her palm, do some magic trick, slide it into the hot oil and there would be vadas with a hole frying in the hot oil, like savory donuts, only then I had no idea about donuts. I could never ever crack that code.

"How do you make a hole at the center of the Vada" -- seemed to be the greatest mystery of my life.

Then one fine day, our babysitter from last year, who was a Gujarati and a really good cook, made Dahi Vadas.

And she did not make a hole. In the Vadas that is.

Her vadas were round balls like bigger pakodis. Maybe they were called "Bhallas" and not "Vadas". I am not sure. Honestly, you could have called them a "Bhatia" or a "Patel" and I wouldn't have cared.That one could make Dahi vadas without a hole at the center was a revelation to me. Without that hole, the lentil dumplings were mere dumplings which were not that hard to make.

Well, there were still more things to crack like why did the vadas turn hard on some days , why do I worry all the time, why oh why it is June already...etc.etc.

But until then here is how we make Dahi Vadas at home. And I still like the yogurt far more.

Dahi Vada or Doi Bora

Makes about 15-20 medium sized vadas

Soak 1&1/2 Cup of Urad Dal in water for 10-12 hrs which means overnight.

Next drain the water and in a blender jar add
the Urad Dal
2" of chopped ginger
2-3 green chillies(optional)
Adding minimal water make a thick paste. The water should be just enough to make the blade spin and should not make the batter liquid.

Pour out the batter in a wide mouthed bowl and add
1 tsp of salt(add more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp of Baking Soda
1 tsp of Fennel seeds(optional)
A friend suggested adding raisins to the batter and I did do it once but it is totally optional

Whip the batter well with a fork for 5-6 minutes. This will make the batter fluffy and airy which in turn will result in softer vadas.

Now heat enough oil for deep frying the vadas/lentil dumplings. First test if the oil is hot by putting in a pinch of the batter. If it bubbles and rises to the surface the oil is ready

Drop the batter with a spoon, a small scoop or with your fingers into the medium hot oil just as you would do for a pakodi. Don't worry about the shape, they will be spherical but not necessarily uniformly so.

Fry the vadas till they are golden brown. Take out with a slotted spoon and drain the excess oil on a paper towel.

Wait for about 6-8 minutes and then dunk the vadas in lukewarm water. Let the vadas soak for about 15 minutes.

You will notice that the vadas have swelled on soaking. Take out each vada and put it at the center of your palm. With the palm of your other hand press gently to squeeze out the excess water. Do this for all vadas and keep them lined in a serving tray

Now get the Yogurt ready. My favorite part.

In a big bowl add
2.5 Cups of  thick Whole Milk Yogurt
1/2 cup of Milk

Whisk the yogurt well so that you get a smooth, creamy texture.

To this yogurt now add the following according to your taste
salt
sugar ~ about 1 tbsp
Chaat masala ~ 2 tsp
a pinch of Kashmiri Mirch
Give a good mix. Taste and then adjust the above until yogurt is sweet and tangy.

Now pour the yogurt over the vadas so that all the vadas are submerged in yogurt.

Sprinkle some more red chilli powder, chaat masala, kala namak and bhaja masala(or roasted cumin powder)

Drizzle tamarind chutney and garnish with coriander leaves while serving

A is for Aloo Posto and Aamer Tauk

Yesterday I asked a question on my FB page
"If we did a A-Z of Bengali Cuisine, what dish would you choose to start with A?"

There was a huge response of about 78-77 answers and guess what ? The winner was Aloo Posto, as I had feverishly hoped.Please God, please, let the folks say Aloo Posto and then I can have one more reason to cook and eat it. Not that eating Posto needs any reason or season but it is always nice to have some validation. 

This Posto is made with potatoes and other vegetables. The traditional Aloo posto has only potatoes

Now "Aloo Posto" or Posto with Potatoes is actually  a dish of posto or poppy seeds where the aloo (potato) is simply a qualifying adjective. This posto in Bengali cuisine is so versatile that we could do a whole A-Z of Posto with Aloo Posto, Begun Posto....Zucchini Posto and not even so much as glance at any other dish.But still the general consensus was that "A for Aloo Posto" is uniquely Bengali and even though there might be a North Indian aloor dom or a Mexican Mango Chaatni, there could never ever be an Aloo Posto that spoke anything but Bangla.

Given the season and abundance of green mangoes, coming a very very close second in this poll was  Aamer Tauk which I have blogged about in Aamer Chaatni or Ambol and Aamer Chaatni Version 2

The other A dishes that make a Bengali proud

Aloor Dom

Aloor Dom Niramish

Aloor Chop

Aloo Seddho or Aloo Bhaate

Aam Doi and Aam Kheer keeping in mind the mango season 

Aloo posto was one of my very first dish on this blog some eight long years back. A lot of water has flown in the Ganges and Hudson since then but this dish is still a favorite in my home and heart.

"Posto or Poppy Seed is an oilseed obtained from opium poppy. The seeds are harvested from dried seed pods and have no narcotic effect. Posto or the dried white poppy seeds are hugely popular in Bengal. It was actually the food of the people of Rarh, the "land of red soil" on the westernmost corner of West Bengal. More so for the people of Bankura and Birbhum district in this area. This region has a very dry and hot climate and they believe posto has the effect of a coolant and protects them against the heat. In the days when there was no restriction in cultivating Indian poppy and farmers in this area grew poppy in abundance, the posto seeds became an integral part of their diet. A mid morning meal of posto and bhaat protected the farmers from the searing, dry heat as they worked in the open fields.

But the reason why they started growing posto or poppy seeds goes back to the 18th-19th century when the last Bengali Nawab was dethroned by the British East India company. The East India company found that opium generated huge profit not only in local markets but also in China. Thus started the Indian Opium trade. The conditions in Birbhum-Bankura area were probably most suitable for poppy cultivation and the reason why the British colonists forced farmers in that area of Bengal to grow mostly poppy on all available agricultural lands. It was natural that farmers in those areas had little choice but to incorporate posto, the dried poppy seeds a by-product of the crop, in a suitable form in their daily meal. They ground the dried seeds to a nutty flavored paste(posto bata) which they had either raw with some seasonings(kaancha posto bata) or cooked with whatever little vegetable they could avail of. Little did they know that a dish invented out of necessity would one day be representative of Bengal."

Posto was mostly cooked in my home during the summer months keeping its cooling properties in mind and so it felt perfectly the right dish for a sunny, warm day in May today.


Traditional Recipe

Prep 

Soak 1/4th Cup of  White Poppy seeds in water for 10-15 minutes. Next strain the water and then wet grind the seeds in a grinder with little splashes of water. Ideally the seeds would be ground on a flat block of stone called shil-nora. The grinding should ensue a creamy white paste.

Alternately, you can also dry grind the seeds to a fine powder in a spice grinder. mix water with the powder to make the creamy paste.

Peel and chop 1 large potato in small cubes.

Start Cooking

Heat 2 tbsp Mustard Oil in a kadhai

When the oil is smoking hot, temper the oil with
3/4th tsp of  Kalonji/kalo Jeere/Nigella Seeds
1 Dry Red Chilli
2-4 Green Chilli slit along the center

When the spices start popping, add the cubed potatoes.

Saute the potatoes with a sprinkle of turmeric powder. Now this turmeric is  a cause of much consternation as there are two camps-- one who believes in turmeric in posto while the other doesn't. Choose which party you belong to.

Saute the potatoes until they are a pale golden brown. Don't over fry them. Now add the posto bata aka the poppy seed paste. Mix well and saute for a few more minutes making sure that the posto has coated the potatoes.

Now add water(about 3/4th cup), salt to taste, give a good stir and cover and cook.

Check for potatoes to be done. Once the potatoes are cooked, open the cover and drizzle a little Mustard oil. Give a good stir and cook for a few more minutes until the water has dried off.

Serve with white rice.

Modern Touch

Now on most days I throw in some vegetable or the other along with the potatoes and posto. The most recent usage by the husband-man has been about half cup of frozen vegetable mix(a mix of carrots, beans, corn and peas). He defrosts half a cup of this vegetable medley and throws them in with the potatoes. It tastes oh so good and looks as good as in the first picture.

Roasted Asparagus with Nigella seeds, Kashundi and then Pesto

 

For six or more months, the trees here are bare, the air sharp with cold and frost, the grass bleached under a shifting layer of snow, and the birds far far away. But when spring arrives, they all come back with a vengeance.

The grass sprouts a bright green and the dandelions stand upright, their tiny yellow flowers looking boldly towards the brilliant blue sky. Yeah, they may be weeds, but so what ? It is spring, isn't it ? The leaves unfurl magically and all of a sudden the trees have a wild unruly head of green, like a little girl in need of a haircut. The birds arrive from God knows where and tweet urgently early in the morning. Tweet-Tweet.They continue their conversation throughout the day, short sharp busy tweets interspersed with slow lazy longer ones, talking of the far away land they visited and probably dissing those distant relatives who boarded them in winter.The flowers bloom in all colors, stretching their limbs, fresh and raring to go for a ball, after the long winter slumber.

It all seems very fairy-tale kind.

Magical.

How did it all happen ? Who tapped the wand?

I have been in this country for a fair amount of years now and yet every year Spring mesmerizes me.I am awed by the resilience of nature around me. Chin up, head held high, giving a repeat performance year, after year, after year.

"This is our time and we will give it our best shot." They say. "We will pick the most vibrant of all greens in the palette, the brilliant of all blues in the paint box, the boldest red and yellow and purple of our crayons and we will paint a picture that you will carry in our heart even when the colors have wiped off and the canvas is white.And we will come back and do it again."

It is hard not to be carried away with such a show of fortitude and so I spend almost all of my weekends and afternoons, sitting outside, drinking my tea, admiring every weed and bud, and planting anything I can lay my hand on. I am hardly a gardener and so I choose the easy and hardy petunias or marigolds to color my garden. It is little that I  do but there is so much joy to be just under the tent and play a tiny role in spreading that magic that it seems only fair to be outside.

I am hardly in the kitchen therefore. Making quick easy meals is the call of the day.

And this asparagus fits the bill perfectly. I never used to like Asparagus and I have to say it was my friend N's recipe which first pushed me towards trying it. It is so simple that it isn't even much of a recipe really. Once I got the hang of it, I experimented, doing this or that, still keeping it simple. However I have a fondness only for the tender spears and once they get fat and chewy, I lose my interest in asparagus and prefer to wait until next year.

This particular recipe is for a Roasted Asparagus in the oven flavored with Nigella seeds, Kashundi and Pesto.

The key is to get fresh, tender asparagus spears. Which by the way can happen easily in spring.

You then chop and discard the tough bottom portions. Wash them well and pat dry.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Next take a shallow baking dish or foil covered oven tray and drizzle with 1-2 tbsp olive oil. Add 1/4 tsp of Kalo Jera/Kalonji to the oil and pop the tray in the oven for 3-4 minutes.

Now take out the tray and arrange the asparagus spears in a single layer on the tray.
Sprinkle a little garlic powder(very little). You can also use minced garlic.
Sprinkle some salt to taste
Drizzle a tsp of Kashundi.

Roll the spears so that they are all coated with olive oil+ kalonji + salt + Kashundi + garlic

Pop back in the oven for say 15-20 minutes or so. Time depends on your oven power and the quality of the asparagus. There have been times when 15 minutes was enough for them to get cooked, while at times it also takes 25 mins.

Once the asparagus are done, take them out and eat.

We rubbed those cooked spears with some pesto+green chilli paste. It was so so good.

Almost Magical. Like Spring.