Saturday, August 11, 2012

Koraisutir kochuri...

koraisutir kochuri recipe

Koraisutir kochuri is a signature Bengali dish prepared during winter when fresh green peas are available. Koraisuti is Bengali for green peas and kochuri stands for anything stuffed inside a dough and fried. This is one of my favourite Bengali dishes and my mother's signature dish and I learnt it from her.

This is an updated post. I first posted this recipe on 2012 and the fun part is that it was not winter when I posted this, but as I was craving some koraisutir kochuri I prepared them using frozen green peas. If you read through, you would understand. I kept some of the old text, and a few images too. And while posting the new images I was surprised to see the old ones. I hardly had any knowledge about food photography then. 
Thanks to the frozen green peas available through out the year, who needs to wait till winter. And if you want an excuse, there are so many say, you ran 5 min more than usual, or your hibiscus plant has a new blossom, or you have found a perfect picture (read slim) of yours to post as your profile pic on Facebook. I can think of endless excuses to celebrate but then honestly I do not even need any, I made these because I was craving for them.

I have fond memories of peeling fresh green pea pods under warm sunlight on winter days to help my mother. I used to enjoy that so much and still do this with my daughter. But I find frozen green peas are a boon that helps me to satisfy my sudden craving for any kind of green pea recipes when fresh green peas are not available and saves a lot of time when I'm in hurry. 

Green pea still life photography

green pea still life photography

As you all know I love taking photos of raw ingredients, I have taken photos of peeling green peas with my daughter and a few still life of the gorgeous greens. And comparing these images with the older ones made me laugh loudly. I have the least knowledge about food photography then, direction of light, composition, absolutely none. I have shared one such old images below. To my surprise I never hesitated to share those images on social media. But now I always ask myself more than a thousand times whether an image is good enough to share with the audience. Seeing outstanding works by others sometimes makes me insecure. I'm trying my best to let it go. I've decided to take small breaks in between to be more productive and push off any kinds of self-doubt. Have you ever felt like that? Would love to know from you all. 



koraisutir kochuri video recipe, green pea kochuri

The process of making koraisutir kochuri is a bit long, so I'm sharing a video along with the step by step process to make it easier to understand. Please drop a comment or message me if you have any doubts.


Ingredients for making Koraisutir kochuri:

For the stuffing:

  • Green pea (shelled): 400 gm
  • Ginger (peeled and chopped): 1 tbsp
  • Green chilies: 2-4
  • Cumin seed: 1 tsp
  • Dry red chilies: 2
  • Cinnamon: 1 inch stick
  • Cardamom: 2-3
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil: 1 tbsp

For the dough, you need:

  • Flour: 2 cup
  • Sugar:1 tsp (optional)
  • Oil: 1 tbsp
  • Salt a pinch
  • Water to make the dough
  • Oil to deep fry

Steps of making Koraisutir kochuri:

  1. Dry roasted spice powder: In a tawa dry roast cumin seeds, dry red chilies, cinnamon, cardamom. Remove from heat when the spices give out a nice aroma. Always dry roast spices over low heat, that minimises the risk of burning them. Now transfer the roasted spices to a dry plate or bowl. Never let the spices cool down on the hot tawa. As the spices cool down grind them to powder and keep in a closed container. This roasted spice is called Bhaja masla.

  2. If you are using fresh green peas, then shell the peas, wash them well and drain the water. If using frozen peas, then thaw the peas and wash them and drain the water.

  3. Make a paste of the peas, ginger and green chilies. Chop the green chilies and the ginger before you put them in the grinder, that will help to make a smooth paste. Make sure the paste is smooth. Try to use as little water as possible. I do not add any water.

  4. Take vegetable oil (1 tbsp) in a non stick pan. When the oil is hot add the green pea paste and cook it over medium flame. Keep stirring continuously. 

  5. Keep the paste stirring, gradually it will change colour and will dry up.

  6. When the paste is almost done add the freshly made ground masala, bhaja masla. Add salt. Mix well.

  7. When the paste is done it will start to leave the sides of the pan. Let it cool down. The stuffing will further dry up as it cools down. Do not dry it too much, you should be able to make round balls with the stuffing without sticking it to your fingers.

  8. To make the dough, take the flour in a bowl add oil, sugar, salt and mix well.

  9. Gradually add water and make a dough. Knead it well. Cover and rest the dough for 15-30 min.

  10. Divide the dough into equal size round balls, these are called Lechi in bengali. Since you are going to stuff it, make a little larger rounds than puri. I made dough balls of 4 cm diameter.

  11. Flatten the dough with finger tips and make a bowl like shape. Take a little green pea stuffing and put inside the dough, please refer the video. Close the dough. Repeat the process for all the dough balls.

  12.  For frying the koraisutir kochuri, heat oil in a kadhai or deep pan. Take enough oil to deep fry. As the oil heats up, roll the dough ball into 10 cm flat rounds. Fry them in hot oil. Take out and serve hot with potato curry.

    Usually Koraisutir kochuri is served with Dum aloo/alur dum(potato curry). For alur dum recipe click here http://colorandspices.blogspot.com/2012/08/alur-dum-bong-style.html


koraisutir kochuri video recipe, green pea kochuri

koraisutir kochuri video recipe


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4 comments:

  1. plz kobe khaoabe...
    amar blog tao dekho.. http://from-a-girls-mind.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. The recipes, for a start, make me want to close my laptop and run to my kitchen. Old school, and hearty, with a little backstory, make it great reading

    ReplyDelete