Mere Paas (Up)Ma Hai!

It's that part of the year in Bengal - The Durga Puja is finally here. As I type this post,it's Maha Shashthi early morning,and I'm clad in a black china silk saree,practising how to sit and walk in it,so that the almost out of touch with wearing sarees me can carry off my prized possessions in the next 5 days fashion frenzy that Calcutta becomes for us girls, age no bar.But more about my secret trials later,this post is about the Upma, as the title puts it,albeit in a very non-subtle and filmy way!

I made two different kinds of upma today,both with the same sets of vegatables and basic ingredients with one slight difference in them, the major ingredient.Now for the naive,Upma is traditionally a South-Indian much loved savoury food item that is basically Semolina(Sooji) stir-fried and cooked with an assortment of vegetables,nuts(optional) and seasoning.You could consider it an alternative of the Rice Pilaf,with Semolina replacing the Rice and the basic idea remaining the same.It makes for a healthy and heartening mid-day light brunch as well as a very tasty breakfast.

Before I turned food-blogger myself,I was an avid food-blog reader for many years and that's where I came across the other Upma , the one which uses Vermicelli ( Sevaiyaan/Semui) as the chief source of carbohydrate.Since then I have made both versions at home over and over,and have developed my own style of making them,albeit keeping the basic format intact.Since these are festive days,and unexpected guests are expected to drop in without informing,the traditional household custom is to cook/stock a lot of sweet and savoury food so that we are always prepared to tackle any amount of people,atleast food-wise!

Here are my versions of the Upmas, the semolina first:-

SEMOLINA UPMA

(serves: 4-6)

Here's how I did it:-

1.Chop 1/2 medium carrot,1/2 medium potato,and about 8-10 french beans into bite sized pieces,like this. These are the colours of the Indian Tricolour,and it has been a marvellous journey for India at the Commonwealth Games so far :-)

2.Slice 2 medium onions finely.

3.Heat 4 tsp white oil in a pan and stir fry 1.5 cups of semolina on medium heat till it acquires a light brown colour.Take care not to fry it to too brown,because semolina tends to change colour very fast when it's heated to a certain temperature,before you can say sooji!

4.Heat 2 tsp white oil in a pan, and temper with 1 tsp black mustard seeds and 4-5 curry leaves.

5.When they splutter,add the onions and fry on medium heat for 3-4 minutes.

6.Add the vegetables along with 2-3 slit green chillies and stir fry continuously for the next 5-6 minutes .

7.Add the semolina to this, add salt to taste and mix well.

8.Add 3 cups of water to the semolina. I add 1 tbsp of tomato ketchup at this stage,but that's because I'm perennially obsessed with ketchup.You can totally omit it if you want to.

9..The semolina will now start to form little volcanoes of steam and puff out hot water so carefully put a lid on the pan.

10.The Upma will be ready in the next 4-5 minutes once the water dries up and the semolina and vegetables are cooked.Serve hot!

The Vermicelli Upma (pictured above) is identical to the recipe above,right down to the exact quantity of ingredients and the number of people it serves.The only difference is that instead of the semolina,I used 2 cups of vermicelli. Vermicelli is usually available in pre-roasted versions,hence saves me a lot of time.Frankly speaking,frying the semolina till it acquires the necessary light brown colour tests my patience,which is why I prefer the vermicelli upma.But then again,nothing comes from nothing,and so for special festive occassions like Durga Puja,I don't mind labouring in the kitchen for a few extra minutes.After all,there are few pleasures as wonderful as making food from scratch and sharing it with the ones we love,even though it is a humble, simple dish of Upma :-)

Alu Chochchori : a simple potato stir fry

One of the classic breakfast combinations loved and relished all across Bengali households is this simple potato stir fry called Alu Chochchori. As I understand,it is common to both the East as well as West Bengali households,usually served with pale golden fluffy breads called Luchi in Bengal and Puri in most of North India. Luchi is mostly made with all purpose flour though whereas Puri can be made with wheat flour. There are other finer nuances of difference but I will get into those in a latter post. For the time being, I made the chochchori a few nights ago to have with Rotis for a simple dinner at home. This is one classic recipe that requires basic pantry staples and can be made in a jiffy! As with most of my cooking where I tend towards moderately easy and fast to cook recipes,this one is no exception.



Alu Chochchori
( Potatoes stir-fried the Bengali way)
Serves : 1





You will need 2 medium sized potatoes per person you wish to serve.
Peel the potatoes and cut them in uniform sized strips.
Heat 2 tsp white oil in a pan and temper with 1 tsp nigella seeds.
Add 2 slit green chillies.
Reduce the flame to medium immediately ,taking care not to burn the chillies.
Add the potatoes and stir well for the next 3-4 minutes till they are well coated with the oil.
Season with salt according to taste.
Add enough water to cover the potatoes,put a lid on the pan and cook till all the water is abosrbed and the potatoes are done, 5-7 minutes at most.
I like them well-cooked yet firm, some people prefer them to get a little mushy.
Serve hot with puris,parathas or even plain rotis like I did.


There is a reason the humble potato is the most popular vegetable the world over. Not until you have made this will you believe how good this actually tastes. Very few vegetables can match up to the heavenly taste of perfectly cooked,well-seasoned potatoes. Plus,since this recipe uses neither onion nor garlic,it is a good one to go to for the days we need to eat vegetarian food for religious purposes.

a lil' quiz!

Hello!
Here are 5 questions that you need to answer in order to win the couple passes as promised on Facebook.Be specific in your answers,explain connections clearly. Mail me your answers with your full name here:- silverwhitewinter@gmail.com. This quiz ends on the 10th of Oct' 9:30 pm IST. I will choose 2 winning entries and announce them on Facebook.

1.Connect the movies Dhoom 2, Endhiran, Jeans, Kajraare and Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya.

2.It is called Janamaaz in Persian.What is the Arabic equivalent name for it which has become fairly common in being used in hindi film lyrics? The Arabic word may have multiple meanings in Islam.

3.Complete the list: The Sacrificial Altar,The Fortress Rebuilt,The Central Hall,The Mechanical Tower,The Garden Tower,The Garden Waterworks,The Prison,The Library,?

4.Literature: In which contemporary English work of fiction do all these characters
appear:-Genghis Khan, Machiavelli, Abul Fazl and Pope Leo X?

5.What vegetable comes in varieties like Beefsteak, Oxheart, Grape and Campari?

Best Wishes :)

Healthy Snacking : Chick Pea Chaat

For those of you not familiar with the word Chaat,it is a Hindi word which literally means to lick and it refers to a broad genre of essentially street food items found in the Indian subcontinent,where a variety of raw/boiled vegetables,legumes or fruits are dressed up with hot,sweet,spicy or tangy sauces/chutneys and the zing quotient is upped even more with a horde of spice powders or masalas. Added to that is a generous dose of lemon juice and seasoning to make the dish truly lip-smacking. There is even a special powdered spice mix called the Chaat Masala (the spice for licking) sold by various Indian companies under various brand names like Everest,MDH among many others. A chaat is something you can buy off the street for as less as 5-10 rupees or you could walk into shops that specialise in these items, good examples being the Haldiram and Ganguram branches found all over the country. Being mostly no-cook,no-oil,they make excellent low-calorie high on health and nutrition snacking alternatives.And yes,they taste incredible and are pretty easy to put together as well.If you've never had a chaat before,go ahead,make one today.I assure you,you will be hooked. And if you like me,have grown up on chaats,then you know what i'm talking about and hopefully this post will tempt you enough to make yourself some chaat today.

Chickpeas are called Kabuli Chhola in my part of the country and are an absolute favourite with most bengalis who use it to make a spicy dry curry called the Ghoogni,which is served on special festive occassions.Today I used them to make this chaat for some evening snacking.It was put together in a matter of minutes,and was gobbled up by my family in even lesser time.That's the way it should be with chaats,they should be finger-lickin' good,and this one sure was.



CHICK PEA CHAAT

(Serves:3)





1.Soak a cup of chickpeas overnight.Boil them once they have soaked up the water and become bigger.Set aside.
2.Finely dice 1 medium tomato,1 onion,half a cucumber and a few sprigs of cilantro.
3.Boil one medium potato.Dice into small pieces.
4.In a bowl,combine all the above ingredients from steps 1-3.
5.Now comes the horde of spices that will jazz the salad up to a chaat.To the items in the bowl,sprinkle:
1 tsp chilly powder
1 tsp cumin powder ( freshly roasted and ground works best)
1 tsp aamchoor ( dry mango powder,available in most Indian grocery shops)
1 tsp chaat masala ( I'm partial to Everest,but you can use any available brand)
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste
6.Toss all the ingredients and coat well with spices.Taste and adjust the seasoning according to your taste. Enjoy the chaat with friends and family over an evening of fun and relaxation.


It is the 2nd of October today,the birth anniversary of one of the greatest leaders that the world has seen and our very own Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Wishing every Indian everywhere a very happy Gandhi Jayanti. May peace,non-violence and love of your friends and family guide you today and throughout the year.

Raw Banana Cutlets

Today afternoon I made good use of the two raw bananas risking to go stale in my freezer. For some odd reason,the only way my family consumes raw bananas are by thickly slicing them in roundels and frying them, sometimes sprinkled with poppy seeds, served as a side dish with a meal of rice and dal. It is not the same as the ubiquitous Kerala style chips however.They are thinner and crisper and traditionally fried in coconut oil. While they both are quite tasty and easy to make,they also involve a lot of deep frying which apart from the unwanted calories,also ruins most of the nutrition found in the vegetable. There is also a classic bengali entree' where raw bananas are made into fried dumplings and cooked in a rich gravy,called Kanchkolar Kofta (Kanchkola:the Bengali word for raw bananas, Kofta: a fried dumpling common to many Indian cuisines). But that's again a time-consuming affair to be made only for party menus and special occassions. The bottomline is that for a long time I was on the lookout for a raw banana side dish which would be fast,easy to prepare,would not involve deep-frying and most importantly,taste great. Me and my father aren't great fans of the raw banana to be honest,but it is a rich source of iron and my mother makes sure that it's a staple part of the grocery shopping.


I chanced upon this recipe at Mandira's blog sometime back. She calls them cutlets but I made a smaller,flatter version of it which I will prefer to term tikias, the commonly used term for shallow-fried patted down roundels from the seasoned and spiced vegetable dough. It looked tempting,seemed easy to make and called for basic pantry staples.What was unusual about it that apart from the normal spices and flavourings used in most similar dishes,this one calls for sambar powder to be added to the mashed vegetable to make the tikia roundels.That seemed unusual to my bengali sensibilities who although loves her sambar and rasam, had never used the spice mix to make any fried stuff of any kind. I tried the recipe almost word for word,hence the ingredients and measurement are exactly the same as in her recipe but I re-wrote the method in my own word, making only one slight modification.The recipe uses poppy seeds to coat the tikias before frying, whilst I substituted with breadcrumbs which according to the blogger,could be used instead.

KANCHKOLAR TIKIA
(a spicy raw banana patty)
makes 6 medium sized tikias.



Ingredients:
2 Raw Bananas
1 medium onion
1 green chilli
2 teaspoon sambar powder
1 teaspoon lime juice
4 tbsp breadcrumbs
a sprig of cilantro
pinch of turmeric
2-3 teaspoon white oil
salt to taste

Method:
Peel the bananas,chop into 4-5 pieces each and boil them.
4 whistles in a pressure cooker did it for me.
While the banana is being cooked, finely chop the onions, green chilli and cilantro.
Mash the boiled bananas with the sambar powder,salt and turmeric powder.
Add the onion, green chilli & cilantro.
Add the lime juice immediately before making the tikias.
Divide the dough into small balls, put them in the bread crumbs,flatten them and coat both sides well with the breadcrumbs.
If the dough is a bit soggy add some of the crumbs and mix well to dry it up.
Heat a non stick flat pan with oil.
Shallow fry the tikias on medium heat till they are golden brown on both sides.

Serve them hot with tomato ketchup or your choice of chutney/sauce as an appetizer.Or,serve hot as a side dish with a simple meal of daal and rice.We had them topped with ketchup and sandwiched between two slices of bread with tomato slices.It made a rather unusual but delicious cross between a burger and a vada-pav.

Mandira,thanks for the recipe.It is easy-breezy to make,extremely tasty and yes,I love the addition of the sambar powder and how beautifully all the tastes amalgamate to give the final product.Now I will be on the look out for other creative ways to use up my sambar powder,a spice mix I love and always have in my pantry,but sadly do not get to use much.

Part 2 : Malai Kulfi

After that delicious dinner of the Malai Paneer, here comes a much-loved Indian dessert, Malai Kulfi. It is the Indian version of ice-cream,although it differs from the former in that it is never churned and frozen in small moulds,much like popsicle.

a kulfi mould

It is sold through out the subcontinent as a street-food where it is frozen in small earthen pots called matkas or kulhads.It is essentially much more dense than icecream and takes longer to melt as well. Traditional Kulfi-making involved hours and hours of stirring milk with sugar,cream,nuts and flavouring spices so I prefer to use the easier way that I learnt from Nupur di who blogs at onehotstove.blogspot.com. The first few times I made it,I followed her instructions to the tee, but nowadays I make a few changes here and there,and am more relaxed about it on the whole. What I had very nervously approached once as a complex and daunting task has now become a much-loved keeper that I can make any given day and that too without referring to any recipe guidance. The Kulfi is one of the recipes that I will be making time and again, and keep on experimenting with it every time, because it has now really become my own.

MALAI KULFI

(Frozen Kulfi flavoured with fresh cream)

Serves:6

Ingredients:

Milk: 500 ml/2 cups

Sweetened condensed milk: half cup/8 tbsp

Fresh Cream: 3 tbsp

Green Cardamoms: 6

Cornflour: 2 tsp dissolved in 2 tbsp of milk,from the 2 cups of milk

A handful of raisins/chooped almonds/pistachios: optional

Sugar to taste. I used a bar of dairy milk instead ( Yes,that's my twist!)

How I made it:

Pour the milk in a heavy bottomed pan and add the condensed milk to it and mix well.

Add the cardamom seeds .

Bring the mixture to a boil.

For the next 20 minutes, constantly stir the mixture,on a medium flame,

taking care to scrape all the milk solids back into the pan.

Add the cream and stir very well at this point with a beater.

There should be no lumps,hence the beating is essential.

Cook for a few minutes and now add the dissolved cornflour into the milk.

Cook for 3-4 minutes to cook the cornflour.At this point the mixture should have become quite thick.Sprinkle the dry fruits if using.Take the vessel off the flame.

Pour carefully in a plastic container and chill for a couple of hours.Don't freeze now.

After the mixture cools down substantially, pour in Kulfi moulds,screw the lids tight and freeze them overnight or for 6-8 hrs.Serve Cold.

The Kulfi is served at weddings and dinner parties with Falooda ( vermicelli noodles) and rose syrup.I haven't yet learnt to make Falooda,but plan to learn sometime soon.Till then, we'll just make do with the Kulfi. It tastes unbelievably good on it's own,especially after a spicy,hot dish.It is as much a palate-cleanser as it's a melt-in-the-mouth gorgeous dessert, a perfect end to a sumptuous weekend meal.

A creamy comeback! Part 1

What with lots of academic pressures and other social activities clouding my days, my cooking schedules became so erratic over the past few months that I somehow just didn't feel like blogging for some time.But thankfully,that phase is now over,and I plan to religiously chronicle my adventures in my little kitchen from now onwards.Thanks to dear friend S, for that much-needed push.

Our family is leaving base for 2 whole weeks come the month of October for a much deserved family vacation after ages.Whilst we all are looking forward to that,I personally face a new dilemma.I have this habit of stocking up my fridge with stuff that I don't use for ages,and by that I mean spice pastes,frozen food,condiments and so on.Not the fresh vegetables,they always get used up,thankfully!

So now I face the daunting prospect of cooking up my fridge full of supplies in the next 2 weeks,because after that the refrigerator is going to be switched off for a fortnight. Food wastage is a big no-n0 in my house,we are always giving away extra food to friends,neighbours and neighbourhood birds.Therefore I have taken up the challenge of adjusting and scheduling my day so that everyday I make something with my pantry excess.I will be blogging side by side about the dishes which turn out blog-worthy as well.

First of all,I started with the small pack of fresh cream I had bought ages ago to make icecream.That didn't materialise somehow, so last weekend I made two tasty dishes with the cream. Firstly,a staple favourite of Indians for lunch/dinner, Malai Paneer and a classic Indian dessert,the Malai Kulfi. Needless to say,whimsical that I am,there were twists to both the items. Since they both turned out to be great,here is chronicling both of them.


MALAI MAKAI PANEER
(Cottage Cheese cubes and juicy niblets of Corn in a rich tomato-puree and fresh cream gravy)

Serves:3





ingredients:
300 gms paneer/cottage cheese
2 onions chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
1/2 capsicum cut into long strips
4 tbsp tomato puree
a fist full of sweet corn kernels,frozen will do
3-4 green chillies slit lengthwise
4 tbsp fresh cream
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilly powder
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
3 tbsp white oil

procedure:
heat oil in a pan.temper with cumin seeds.fry onions till they turn soft n pale.add capsicum and tomato and fry for a few minutes.add tomato puree,turmeric,red chilly, cumin powder.mix well and cook for 2-3 mins.add the paneer pieces.stir to coat well with the sauce.add salt to taste.add a cup of water and bring to boil.add corn and let it cook for 4-5 minutes.beat the cream with sugar.add to the pan.stir well so that no lumps are formed.lower the temperature,cover and cook for a few minutes till the gravy thickens to your desired consistency. serve hot with any Indian bread.



The overall combination of the tangy tomato puree with the sweet cream was a rich yet light,subtly beautiful curry that left everyone at the table licking their fingers and craving for more. We had it with homemade rotis but it would work great with tandoori roti or naan as well. The corn is always optional but I had a big bag of frozen corn to finish off and hence the addition.Normally one can use frozen green peas in the same way. Peas and Paneer are a match made in culinary heaven,they always work beautifully with each other.