Monday, April 20, 2020

Doma Wang's Prawn Toast -- easy, quick delicious

Prawn Toast

I didn't know Doma Wang until last year. I knew she was from Kalimpong and her restaurant Blue Poppy was famous for its momos and chilli pork, but I didn't "know" know her.

Then last year on Mother's Day, I wanted to send my Mom some food from a restaurant in Kolkata. She was not able to venture out much due to her knee pain and I thought it would be a nice surprise. I also thought it would be easy with these apps like Swiggy, Zomato etc.

Guess what? I couldn't use any of them in India with my US ph#. At this brink of frustration came a very kind restaurateur from Kolkata. Doma Wang who owns a restaurant called Blue Poppy in Middleton row.

She messaged me on FB and took upon herself to deliver food from her restaurant all the way to my Mom's for Mother's Day Lunch..And the food was so delicious. My parents loved the garlic prawn balls, noodles, chili chicken and the momos.

Then last year when I visited Kolkata, on my wish list was to eat at her restaurant. However it did not work out. So I called her to ask if she delivered food. I was desperate to eat her famous momos. The day before I was to leave for the US, she sent me her famous momos and pork sapata. They were so delicious. The pork sapata flew across oceans with me, and the husband-man as well as the girls wre blown away by this dish.

When I saw her and her daughters cooking Prawn Toast during this Quarantine, I knew I had to make this dish. It seemed to be very easy and if it was her recipe I was sure it would be delicious. So last weekend, I made these delicious Prawn Toasts at home. The perfect snack with a cup of tea. I am definitely going to make this as starters for parties too.

It was super easy to make. Just my kind of dish.

Easy, Quick and Delicious

Kolkata Mishti Doi -- Bengali sweet yogurt

Mishti Doi | Misti Doi | Mishti Doi Recipe

Kolkata's Mishti Doi | Laal Doi

Mishti Doi is a sweet yogurt that is very popular in Bengal. The yogurt has a reddish tinge due to simmering milk for a long time and caramelizing sugar. This recipe gives both an oven as well as a non-oven version to set the doi.

In my childhood, Kolkata was the land of two kinds of "doi" or yogurt.

Tok doi -- the regular tart yogurt, white in color, which we always had with a sprinkle of sugar and the only kind available where we lived.
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Mishti Doi -- a reddish tinged, sweet and creamy yogurt served in small earthenware cups. This was only available in Kolkata in those days and was high on the list of our things-to-eat during our annual visits.
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Some people called this "laal doi" or red yogurt because of the reddish tinge. Some stores went all fancy and branded it as "Payodhi". My Baba was a huge fan of this one and since we didn't get mishti doi where we lived, he had it almost every day during our Kolkata visits.
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But still basically two types of yogurt.
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Last year, when I went to Balaram's outlet in MishtiHub, I was confronted with myriad varieties of yogurt. There was "Kheer doi" , "Aam or Mango Doi", "Baked Doi" (which seemed to be bhapa doi) and then our "Mishti Doi".
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This was all very good but the "Mishti Doi" was white. I mean no reddish tinge ar all. White as if it was washed in Surf Excel!! I squinted and looked at it from all angles but it looked nothing like that "laal mishti doi" of my childhood 😩😩. (It tasted very good though).
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I even asked the servers at the store about the color, and the young men gave me weird looks and said "Mishti Doi has always been white".

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Now for me Mishti Doi is always reddish with a caramel tinged color. It is said that the original Laal Doi attributes its origin to Nabadwip's Phasitala, and Kali Ghosh. Kali Ghosh and Hari Ghosh were two brothers, who used to make curd and whey. They would boil buffalo milk and let it simmer in a gentle fire for a long time, to thicken and condense it. The milk took on a reddish tinge as it simmered and thickened. This milk was then sweetened and used to set Yogurt. Later the store bought Mishti Doi always had a layer of dalda or some kind of fat reddish in color on the top. It was really delicious!!

When I saw this reddish colored Misthi Doi made by a friend last week, I knew I had to make it. However I got the red color by caramelizing the sugar.
I basically used the same recipe as I have for my Bhapa Doi but I used caramelized sugar instead of Condensed milk. Also this was not bhapa so there was no steaming. I did not do the water bath in the oven that I do for my bhapa doi. Instead I kept the oven temperature low at 200F and kept this yogurt to set in the oven for 2 hrs. A lower temperature and longer time is better.

Few points to Note:
1. I used Evaporated Milk in this recipe so my process was fairly quick and easy. If you are using Whole Milk, you have to reduce the milk.
2. My sugar got caramelized a little bit more. I should have stopped a few secs early.
3. I think adding 2-3 Tbsp of Condensed Milk would be more to my taste for this Mishti Doi.
4. This tastes best chilled for 3-4 hours.

Shubho Naboborsho -- শুভ নববর্ষ 1427

Poila Baishakh or the First Day of the Month of Baishakh is the first day of the Bangla Calendar. This is the Bengali New Year and is celebrated amongst Bengalis in a much festive manner. According to the Gregorian calendar it falls on April 14th or April 15th, this year it is April 15th. This is the New Year for both BanglaDesh and West Bengal.

The Bengalis usher in the New Year with a lot of festivities importance being given to cultural functions, and food. The day is started off with visiting the temples to seek blessings for the New Year but this is not a religious festival and Puja is not the mainstay of this day. Though for businesses this is the day to begin their new accounting year and so this group of people offer Puja and seek blessings to begin the year with a new accounting book called halkhata. With all the new accounting software I don't know what they do, maybe open a new fresh account or something.

Surprisingly as far back as I go, I remember Poila Boishakh as always a school day. It usually fell bang in the middle of a week with school, the same uniform and homework as usual. Naboborsho evenings however were different. They stood out from other school days.

This is how it usually went. We came home from school and something extra special was always cooked for jolkhabar. We had to quickly finish homework to shower and then put on the new summer dress that was bought for Poila Boishakh. And then we would visit the temple and the local Bengali community program for the cultural program that our town had to offer. That was important for my parents. My Ma in her fresh new Tanter Shari with that crisp smell that only such saris can have and my Baba in his starched Pajama and Punjabi would sit there engrossed in the Rabindra Sangeet being sung. I would be thoroughly bored and look around for familiar faces of my friends who would be equally bored.

We would then stop at the shops where my parents were loyal customers and this part was more fun because it involved gorging on great food. Almost always we were offered a bottle of cold drinks, a much coveted affair in those days, a rolled up calendar and a cardboard box tied with a string and filled with sweets and shingara. By the end of the evening, we had collected at least 4-5 boxes from the stores we stopped at. Though dinner was definitely something special cooked by Ma, I don't remember having any. I would focus more on those boxes we had brought back from haalkhata.

As I grew older, April was a month of final exams and so there was less time to accompany my parents to any program or stores. That is when I remember staying home and gorging on the Pulao, Doi Maach and Mutton Kosha that my Mother made.

That's how our Notun Bochor celebration was, with a simple new dress for the summer, some Rabindra Sangeet and delicious Bengali food. And of course the postcards we had to write and send out to all our relatives, wishing them "Shubho Naboborsho".

If I had to pick some food that I would love to have for Poila Boishakh, I would stick to the basic, no-nonsense Bengali dishes from my Mother and which I can make in my kitchen easily.

Start with one of these as a jolkhabar or snack

Vegetable Chop

Fish Chop -- Maacher Chop

Ghugni

Cleanse your palate with something bitter, something other than Shukto. Like this Uchche Begun

Uchche Begun

For our greens we will either some Radish greens sauteed with Kalonji and green chilies or the Great Bengali Paata Baata which my girls love

Mulo Shaak -- Radish greens

The Great Bengali Paata Bata

We will then have some Tetor Dal with Lauki and bitter gourd because it seems perfect for these times

Tetor Dal

With a side of Potol Posto because what can be better than Posto for New year

Potol Posto

We will then straight go onto the Fish and pick two or all of these.

I have chosen Muri Ghonto, if you have a spare fish head in your freezer; the Kaanchalonka Dhonepata Fish with lots of green chilli and coriander because its so easy and delicious;a Maacher Jhuri -- an easy dish that can be done with any little fish that you have; a spicy Tyangra Maacher Jhal Charchari; a Doi Salmon because its so easy to make; and a Chingri Malaikari because you can always make this with frozen shrimp too.