Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Sweet Potato Broccoli Parmesan Tikkis

These tikkis or croquettes are inspired by two people. Mandira of Ahaar and The IKEA people. But before diving into them, let me pique your interest by showing you my picture, as rendered by our in-house artist LS.




Did you see it ? Did you see it ? Ain't it cute ?

She has made me look so good in there. My adult acne and thick moustache has been totally covered up and my flowery feet and similarly flowery fingers have been accentuated. My arms look toned and my ears round and well formed. That girl sure knows how to bring out the best in her subjects.

And did you see the belly button ? My belly button ? That big round circle with a dot is apparently my belly button. She pushed up my shirt and confirmed that body part. "Oita tomar belly button", she said with conviction.

"Really ? " I thought. "It pops out like that ? Why did no one ever tell me about this wardrobe malfunction of mine? Or is that my tummy is so big that it surfaces as the most prominent part like the tip of an iceberg ?"

No idea which is what, but it must be true, given that it is the artist's view and all. I had thought that after completing its foremost important job of connecting me to my Mother, the belly button had taken a retirement package. Looks like it has resurfaced.

So any of you interested in getting a better-than-real portrait drawn, e-mail me please. We are still accepting orders.

Edited to add: The picture also shows my computer/laptop and a wireless mouse. Go find them



Now to these tikkis which I had set my mind on when I first saw them as cutlets at Mandira's Ahaar.

Then one fine weekday morning, I had the rare opportunity to go to Ikea. I had never seen the interiors of IKEA on a working weekday morning before and I am telling you, it is an experience. Whole lot better than a weekend one. The best thing was the cafeteria, where for once there was more food than people.Over and above the fixed menu items, there were many other edible stuff and the broccoli and potato medallions which I added to the tray as an afterthought was the best find after the Hemnes mirror. Those were really good and I could only think that it would only get better with Mandira's sweet potato idea.

When I came home and googled though for Ikea potato and broccoli medallion copy cat recipes, I got this. I had no whipped cream but I had parmesan. Also I wanted to use sweet potatoes. When done, those Sweet Potato Broccoli tikkis turned out great. I have packed them for school lunch along with bread. You can make a sandwich with them as the patty but BS did not like that idea, instead she wanted them separate. You can also wrap them in a roti and that is how she had them for dinner.

For the recipe of  Sweet Potato Broccoli Parmesan Tikkis check my kid's blog where I am storing Kid's Lunch Box ideas.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Keema Matar or Keema Koraishuti

After a long long time I bought Goat keema today. Made fresh at the meat store.

It was natural that I would make a Keema Matar with it. What we call Keema Koraishuti.

That one dish serves a lot of purpose and also freezes well. So, today we are going to have just the keema matar with rice for lunch. Tomorrow, I will dry up some of it, add a boiled egg and make sandwich. On Wednesday I will defrost the portion I am freezing today, toss it with rice or something and concoct one more dish. If I am feeling particularly creative, I might also toss some pasta in it.

This is going to be an easy week. Good job Keema Matar.

The recipe is exactly same as my old one --  Keema Koraishuti. Only this time I used the pressure cooker.


Friday, March 01, 2013

Shorshe Salmon Jhaal -- Tomato Roshun diye


Jhaal in Bengali means hot. Not warm hot. Not "pink hot". But spicy hot.

But "jhaal" when in the name of a dish describes a gravy based dish (should have said curry, but don't want to add to curry culture) usually with mustard sauce that is thicker than a soupy "jhol" but not as rich as a "dalna". Confoosed ? Confused ? Okay forget it.

Jhaal and hot brings to my mind a very funny incident. I know a little girl, a neighborhood friend of my daughter who watches a little too much of Disney Channel. Well probably a lot of Disney Channel. If you are not a parent  or do not subscribe to cable, both good choice, you are probably at a loss here. "Disney" you think is all cutesy innocence, magic kingdoms and animated characters. Well, welcome to the Disney Channel on cable and spend some hours in the evening watching the shows they offer, and then come back and read this post. It is better for young kids  to watch back to back DDLJ than watch iCarly .

So any way this kid who watched a little too much of the channel, one day comes to my home in a new dress and tells me ," BM auntie, you know I am hot".

Being genuinely worried, I touched her forehead and said, "Do you have a fever ? your forehead is cool. You are not sweating either".

Balking at my ignorance, she exasperatedly said "No. Not that hot. Hot -- like in hot pink".

By now I had a grasp of what she had in mind, but knowing her for a long time and her obsession with the channel which probably led her to this imaginary self-obsession, I tried to play it down.

"Actually Hot in English language has only one meaning -- having a high temperature. And in some cases we use it for food which is very spicy. Never have I heard that being used to describe a person," I said, acting innocent.

Seeing that this was going nowhere and probably thinking of me as some bummer from an Indian village, she gave up on me. She also stopped all her preening and twirling and got down to more earthly business. "Can I have an oreo cookie ? Or two ?" she tried to negotiate.

"You can", I said. "But don't you say you are hot unless running a fever or feeling warm. You need to be older to understand different meanings of a word and only then use it".

Don't know if it had any effect on her but she is a good and smart child and I hope the self-obsession was momentary.

What do you do when faced with kids saying "grownup words" or acting "much older than their age" ? Do you give a stern scolding ? Do you sit them down and give them a lecture ? What do you do ?

Back to the food, this shorshe salmon is a quick dinner option on a weekday. All you need to make is the mustard paste. And then the best thing is, you make it different from the regular mustard paste. The way I do it, I make the mustard paste with mustard seeds, poppy seeds, green chillies, tomato and garlic, flavors which go very well with the stronger taste of salmon. If you don't want to do the jhaal,  you use the paste as a marinade and bake the salmon instead.

Else you make the Shorshe Tomato Salmon Jhaal.

Shorshe Tomato Salmon Jhaal 

When I buy salmon fillet I ask the skin to be removed. Then if I am making the jhaal I cut each fillet in 2x2 squares. Okay, maybe some other dimension but small squares or rectangles. Toss the pieces with turmeric powder, pinch of garam masala and salt and keep aside. For this dish I had two fillet of salmon

Soak
1 tbsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tbsp Poppy seeds
in a tbsp water for 30 mins

Make a paste of
the mustard + poppy seeds
2 fat clove of garlic
1 small tomato
2 green chilli
salt to taste 
with a splash of water


Heat 1 tbsp Mustard oil to smoking

Temper the hot oil with
1/4 tsp kalojeere(kalonji) and
4 slit green chilli.

Add the fish pieces and lightly fry till the fish loses its raw coloring.

Next add the mustard paste you made. Lower the heat and mix with the fish till fish is a pale golden color. Do not over fry fish or crisp it. Add warm water enough for gravy, salt to taste, cover the pan and let the gravy simmer.

The gravy should be on the thicker side and clinging to the fish. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.