A's Saturday Night Mutton Biriyani -- cut and paste

Last week I went to the library.

And then I checked out 3 books.

One of them was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". Now this book I have been hearing about for a while now. However I never checked it out. "The name sounds intriguing" is as far I went.

I have a difficult time when it comes to choosing a book at the library. Gone is the time when I would pick up any written word and read through it with baited breath. Gone are the days when many a summer afternoon in absence of anything worthy of reading,  I would flip through the frail pages of the "Beni Madhab Sheel Ponjika" -- the Bengali almanac, its jacaranda cover fluttering helplessly like the fine petal of Nayantara, and read through muhurtams and lewd advertisements on the back cover without any idea of what they were trying to sell. Those were times when, if the librarian of our small town sent home a word about their newest consignment, I would rush to inhale the fragrance of fresh ink and paper without losing a minute.

Now, not so much so. I just cannot read "any thing" these days. At least not on print. Anyway I read so much of "anything" and "nothing" on the web that when it comes to a book I want something which I can feel happy about later. Like a good biriyani. One that will not make me gulp down pepto-bismols in retrospect.

So when I check out a book from the librray I want it to be something I look forward to going home to. Last month it was "Fried Green Tomatoes at the WhistleStop Cafe". I have not seen the movie and I don't review books but all I can say is I enjoyed reading it immensely. A couple of months before that was "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", again another wonderful book(thanks I for reminding).

Last week it was "The Guernsey...". And it is a book that not only makes me want to rush home, put up my feet and start reading (which does not happen everyday) but it scares me as to what will I do once the numbered pages are over. It is a book I want to go on forever. I don't know if it happens with you but it often happens to me. I panic about a book getting over, I panic hearing about an author slowing down and not writing enough. I still remember the immense sadness I felt when I had finished reading all of what Lila Majumdar had written and published. When the series "Ruku-Shuku" in Anandomela had winded down I had moped around for one whole month. When I closed shut "Gone With The Wind" I did not know what to do.

"The guernsey..." seems to have that kind of an effect on me. I do not want it to get over and when I do finish the last few pages I am going to be a very unhappy soul.

If I think of it deeply, it is a lot like a good biriyani or a heavenly egg roll or a bowl of Tom Yum soup.

Now given that I have spent my free time reading, I did not cook  a biriyani. In fact I rarely ever cook a full fledged biriyani. Most of my biriyanis are short cut affairs. The husband man however cooks a mean Biriyani following a friend's recipe and the fact that the friend's recipes is of US fame makes sure that his is pretty good. However once, with a sidelong glance, I happened to see the ghee that he puts in that Biriyani.That made certain that  I never dared to try my hand at it.

That Mutton Biriyani we will talk about another day.

This Biriyani today is sent by a dear friend, a friend of long ago whom I lost touch with and then connected again over the blog. Strange Stories. Amazing facts. Now since I am a very nice person(ahem!) and only keep nicer company(amen to that), it was only natural that my friend took time from her busy life to not only cook a Biriyani but also take pictures and send it to me. I mean she sent the recipes and pics, not the biriyani, though the latter would have definitely been much welcomed.

Over to her for the recipe as well as the pictures. I loved it how she split the work between two days and wrote the recipe accordingly, makes planning easy. I have no contribution to this recipe's deliciousness other than "cut and paste". Also she cooked this dish at her home in India so the microwave settings etc. might differ from other region.

Aditi's Mutton Biryani (North Indian style)

Ingredients & Preparation:

1. (Friday evening)

Mutton (front leg preferable for tenderness) –  750 g
Plain Curd (prefer Nestle) – 300 gms

Wash mutton pieces carefully with hot water to remove skin and hair. Marinate with half of the curd and keep in refrigerator (not freezer) overnight. Should be taken out well ahead of cooking and be in room temperature while cooking.

2. (Saturday morning)

Ghee – 6 tsp
Shah Jeera (Black Cumin) seeds – ½ tsp
Onions – 2 large finely chopped
Red Chili powder – 1 tsp
Garlic paste – 2 tsp (generous)
Ginger paste – 2 tsp (generous)
Coriander seeds – 2 tsp roasted and freshly powdered
Salt – 1 ½ tsp
Curd – ½ of section A beaten with half tsp ready made Shahi Garam masala powder (Shahi garam masala by sunrise is the best)

Heat ghee in a non-sticky wok or pressure pan.  Put shah jeera as phoron. Add onion and fry in high heat stirring constantly to nicely golden brown, take care they do not get burnt. Add red chili and garlic. Saute till fragrant. Add ginger and saute. Add coriander powder. (May sprinkle a little water if required). Stir and then add mutton. Saute well till muttons are brown and oil separates (do not overcook as they may dry up – its better to use a lid while kashano). Add the salt towards the end of kashano. Add the curd and saute well. Add sufficient water. Boil and pressure cook for 15-20 mins in low flame. Open the lid when pressure drops and boil to evaporate any residual water (there shouldn’t be any residual water at all or the biriyani will get messy). 

3. (Sat day afternoon)

Long grain basmati rice (best quality) – 375 gms
Salt – 1 ½ tsp
Bay leaves (1-2 pcs)
Black Cardamon – 1
Green  Cardamom - 4
Cinnamon – 2 inch * 2 pc
White pepper corn – 8 pcs
Cloves – 8 pcs
Mace (javitri) – 2-4 pcs (sizewise)
Nutmeg – ¼
Wash the rice very clean and put them in a strainer, for 30 mins.

Boil sufficient water in a deep container with lid. Add salt. Add the spices (can make a bouquet garni if possible, if not, use a slotted spoon while removing) and boil in the water (covered) in low flame till the colour of the water turns light brown.  Remove the spices.

Pour washed and strained rice into the boiling water and stir immediately once. Boil for 11-12 mins approx (rice breaks but not fully done when checking) in the open container. Close the lid and drain the water carefully, very fast. Drain till the last drop possible. (Best way is to hold the container with two cotton-gloved hands over the support of the faucet). Shake the container, tuck the lid and spread the rice immediately on flat trays. You may cover the rice with a net and put under a fan to cool. The rice should not bend or break in the whole process and get completely cool.

4. (Once the rice cools)

A microwavable earthen / ceramic pot with lid
Indian Saffron – quantity depends on freshness
Full cream milk – 50 ml
Kewra water – 1 tsp
Mughlai scent (edible) – 3-4 drops (this makes the difference)
Whole wheat dough – 1 ball (to seal the lid)
Edible Saffron colour – a few drops

Heat milk in a microwave oven and add saffron. Boil in micro high for 15 sec. Mix with the colour. Sprinkle the milk on the rice unevenly.

Take a sufficient sized ceramic microwavable bowl. Place 1/4 of rice. Arrange 1/4 mutton with gravy. Place next layers the same way. Final layer should be only mutton. Spread the remaining gravy with ghee (from the pan) on all the sides. Mix kewra water and scent. Sprinkle on whole top of the bowl. Close the lid to lock the aroma - seal with flatten wheat dough like a ribbon.

Put the bowl in micro 10% (not more) for 70 mins till the seal becomes hard. Break the seal. Mix up once and serve immediately. Enjoy.

A Rich Bread Pudding -- with chocolate and some liqueuer

August is a confusing month.

It is still summer but there is a faint hint of Fall in the air. You can feel that invisible tug in your heart, the one that whispers about colder days and bare trees.

When the alarm rings 5:30 in the morning, it is now dark outside and the dull yellow of the street lights seem kind of tired waiting for the sun to rise.The early sunrise and eager chirping of the birds are missing.I shush the alarm and snuggle into the quilted comforter.

Early morning when I juggle a coffee mug, a juice jar and umpteen bags, trying my best to slide into my car with minimum drama, I see fine drops of  water droplets on the windshield. My heart skips a bit and the juice spills over.

The kids still play outside and draw on the sidewalk or ride their bike but the sun seems to plunge down early and by 8 in the evening big blobs of darkness has fallen around us. It is night, already, we ask ? Even a few days back we went for twilight icecream at 8:30.

You feel the days getting shorter. And yet you feel happy, lucky to cherish the warmth and the luxury of  the remaining summer days.

August is also a special month for us, a year older,  a year together,  lessons learned, tears forgotten. For her birthday in August, LS did not want a party this year. Instead she wanted to spend it in a park and if it is an amusement park with rides that soar high she did not even want a present. So off we went to one such park that also had a chocolate factory next door, a 3 hour drive away to spend 3 days riding high and having fun. I mean I didn't. I mean I had fun but thank you no rides for me. LS had too much fun riding everything permissible with BS and BS's best friend who had come along with us. It was much fun to see the three girls together and though I spent 99% of the time just watching, I must say I had a good time.

Back home we are now getting ready for the new school year. Folders, Binders, notebooks, sharpened pencils are being bought. School is still 3 weeks away but I guess we are kind of ready for it. As much as we will miss summer, there are lot of things to look forward to.

And to pep up the feeling there can be nothing better than a warm oven and a home that smells of sweet vanilla and spicy cinnamon. So the husband man baked a bread pudding, a rich, delicious affair. The trusted recipe was from T, the one of the Tiramisu fame.

This bread pudding was exotic, at least it was very different from the bread pudding my Ma used to make very often. This one was rich, dense, gooey with all that chocolate and soft soaking in a sauce made with Irish Cream liqueur. It was  PURE BLISS and I don't even like throwing my uppercases around.

If you are like me and lamenting the loss of summer, you should totally make this bread pudding. It will make you so happy that you will start craving snow and thick fleece blankets. Maybe it is the liqueur doing the talking but you will never know unless you crank up the oven and tear up that bread.

The recipe here is in T's exact words, so the "I" is actually "T". She wrote it in first person. Get it ?

The husband-man followed the recipe like a Bible.Okay, that might not amount to much. What I want to say is,He followed the recipe exactly as written.And you better do that too.

Bread pudding

    14 cups 3/4-inch cubes white bread with crust (about 12 ounces) - apparently French bread would have worked better, but I used just plain store bought white bread
    6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
    4 ounces imported white chocolate, chopped
    4 large eggs
    1/2 cup plus 4 tablespoons sugar
    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    pinch of cinnamon powder
    2 cups whipping cream
    Nonstick vegetable oil spray


For bread pudding:
Combine bread, chocolate, and white chocolate in large bowl; toss to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in another large bowl to blend. Gradually beat in 1 1/2 cups cream. Add cream mixture to bread mixture; stir to combine. Let stand 30 minutes. (Here it should have stood about an hour, or an hour plus, but I was running short on time!)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray. Transfer bread mixture to prepared dish, spreading evenly. Drizzle with remaining 1/2 cup cream. (I didn't do this, I felt it was sweet enough ->) Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake pudding until edges are golden and custard is set in center, about 1 hour. Cool pudding slightly, serve warm.


The sauce

    1/2 cup whipping cream
    6 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur
    1/4 cup sugar (I didn't add this, was sweet enough already!)
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
       

Since I felt my bread pudding could do with a little more moisture, I didn’t thicken the sauce to drizzle consistency, rather kept it creamy and poured it in. Also I felt the bread pudding was sweet enough, so didn't add the sugar.

Mmmmm...just writing this is driving me into a tizzy... a tizzy.. is there a word like that ? I cannot wait to eat this again. Soon

Ma's Doi Potol -- no choices there

All Photo Credits Courtesy my Dad@Kolkata

Food is a topic of much discussion these days. Umpteen channels on the television talk, discuss, present and even produce insane competitions;all on food. There are millions of blogs and websites all over the internet bursting with tantalizing food and bulging with information. There are hundreds of opinions churned out every day about what food is good and bad for you. There are umpteen lists about "Five Foods to Never Eat" and as many about "Five Foods to ace an interview". You would think "Five" would be an easy number to handle ? Naah.

All around me there seems to be a Food bubble. And I do hope earnestly that the bubble does not burst. I am enjoying it.

But as much as I love this gastronomical propaganda I must admit I am also highly confused. There is too much information which is hard to assimilate and even trust these days. There is too much of competition about making food faster, prettier, healthier, better and while one day that means oodles of butter, on the other none of it.There are studies being churned out faster than the dollar bill and when it comes to food it is hard to ignore them even in my standard lackadaisical mode. Why my family's health might be affected by the brand new study, that still smells of fresh ink and crisp paper hot from the printer. My child might grow up to be a psycho because she was deprived of Himalayan acai berry juice as a toddler.

Local or Organic, Paleo or Vegan, Chinese Study or American, South Beach or Calangute, your garndmother's or mine ? The questions are just too many. And honestly if you notice the core of each of these studies and sum them up it might just be what your Mother had been saying all along and you blindly ignored. Ahhh, what does she know after all. Now grandmothers might be more knowledgeable.

When I was a child growing up in India, food was not a media darling. Few recipes in the Sunday newspaper and a couple of half hearted food pictures in the Bengali magazine was all we had to be satisfied with. Glossy magazines like Femina did not talk about food. News Magazines like India Today stayed far away from recipes and if at all, talked about the dearth of food or the high price of it. "Eat it, all of  what is in your plate. Food is precious and there are people who are doing without it" was my Mother's common refrain.Food was revered and recipes were all hand me down or shared with neighbors. My Ma would sometimes cut out of recipes from the Sunday papers and with years they would begin to look like  fragile parchment.

Food was a mainstay of the middle class household though. Starting with the morning bazaar routine, getting fresh supplies of seasonal vegetables and fish every day, cooking 3 meals from scratch each day without fail was the norm. We discussed food with love and passion, as something to be cherished and thankful about. Each time my Thama lamented the milk that the milkman got, comparing it with the creamy, almost reddish hued warm milk from the cows in her parent's home in Munger, we collectively sighed. When my Baba said that nothing tasted as good as his grandmother's ghee parathas and mohonbhog we imagined days dripping with drops of grainy tassar silk ghee.

My Ma's cooking usually bordered on the healthy where it was never oily or too spicy for comfort. Yet it was flavorful, always had a vegetable, a fish and grains. The vegetables and fish changed along the season, the dishes varied from light to rich with the temperature. Meat was cooked once a week. I lived my entire childhood yearning for an omlette made with 6 whole eggs which she steadfastly denied spreading the quota over the entire week instead. She or none in her generation stopped to think if it was right to feed this or that. The everyday diet was naturally balanced.

All her life my mother's food style remained the same unlike mine which jumps from no-grain in one week to brown rice only in another and raw salad one day to junk food the next. While she lived with maybe three main kinds of grains, my pantry has branded as well as un-branded packs of brown rice, quinoa, daliya, couscous, semolina, flax seeds, wheat germ and other un-inventoried item which I amass because the recent study said so. Needless to say I forget about many of them.

I don't know whether her style was correct or whether it worked because the raw food products then were not maligned by harmful chemicals. I am not justifying anything, all I am saying is it was much more easier to think of food and plan a meal then. There were set choices.

Now,every week we run around three different grocery stores. For what purpose I do not know. Organic spinach and strawberries from Whole Foods, flax seed from Wegman's, Bitter Gourd and hot green Chiles from Patel Bhai. And then someone comes and says "Local is far better than Organic" and so I again run around, driving 35miles, getting Zucchini from the farm stand which said "Local Produce". In between I have spent an hour debating whether the more expensive wild caught salmon is less contaminated than the farm raised.Thankfully Organic Milk and Eggs is now mainstream and so we can get that anywhere but now they say Milk is not at all necessary for the diet anyway so there my precious 265 hours were wasted.

Finally when I am home, drained both physically and financially I decide I need some rest and order a processed cheese artisan pizza from Domino's, glug down a splenda infused coke and try to think of the  most edible way to cook the couscous so that I can contribute more food to the world wide web.

Of all the "gyaan" that is out there I probably like Michael Pollan's Twelve Commandments best.  
More Vegetables. 
Less Meat. 
Minimal processed food. Cook more. 
Eat at the table. Though I don't follow them strictly, they make sense.

But here is where I stumble.
"Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food".

Ideally eating what my Grandmother recognized would have been right because I guess that is what my body was suited for but then came globalization and messed it all up. I eat pasta and broccoli in abundance, and I am guessing she would too if she lived with me in the US. Also when I eat some of what she ate like this "Potol" I am actually committing a crime by not eating "local". I have no idea where my Patel Brothers get their potol from but I am sure it grows nowhere in my backyard.

Potol was a vegetable I was never fond of but summer heat brings back memories of patol and grandmothers. I however did not buy potol again, twice in one summer is enough I decided. This recipe of Doi Potol -- PointedGourd in a Yogurt sauce is a recipe sent by my Mother. I haven't cooked it yet but the recipe I see is pretty universal and might go well with even eggplants. So that is what I am going to do with this recipe next, cook it with eggplants. You can do the same or if you have access to plentiful potols you can make one more dish with the same boring veggie.


1. Potol - 6 pc
2. Onion - half
3. Yogurt/Curd - 1 cup
4. Green chilli-- 4/5
5. Cumin/Jeera powder - 2 tea spoon
6. Ginger - 1 table spoon
7. Turmeric Powder - 1 tea spoon
8. Chilli powder - half tea spoon
9. Sugar - 1 tea spoon
10. Salt- according to taste
11. Garam masala - 3 elaichi, 1/2 " dalchini, 4 cloves
12. Tejpata - 1
13. Rosun - 1 koya /1clove

Prothome potol take bhajar moto ga ( body ) ta cheche niye ektu haldi & salt lagye bheje nite hobe. Then potol ta tule rekhe in that oil, garam masala & tejpata phoron debe. Then ote onion & rosun debe and ginger paste & sugar diye bhjte hobe. Now 1 cup doi ( curd ) haldi, lanka & jeera powder diye bhalo kore phetiye nite hobe. Onion bhaja hole or modhye ei curd diye debe and gas sim kore bhalo kore nere niye ote potol guli diye nara chara kore salt debe. Tarpore jal ( water ) diye dhaka ( lid ) debe. Potol boil hole green chilli long size chire (cut ) ote diye namiye nebe.

Scrape skin of potol/parwal and toss in salt and little turmeric powder.

Heat Mustard Oil in a Kadhai.

Fry the patol lightly, remove and keep aside.

Temper the same oil with Whole Garam Masala and TejPatta.

Add the finely chopped onion and garlic and saute. Next goes in the ginger paste. fry with a tsp of sugar till onion is soft and browned.

Meanwhile in a bowl add the yogurt, Cumin Poder, Chili powder and littel turmeric powder. Beat well.

Once the onion is done, take the kadhai off the heat  and slowly add the yogurt. At low heat cook add the fried potol and mix well with yogurt and masala.

Add water for gravy, add salt, cover and cook till the potol is done. Once the potol is done add the green chili and switch off heat.