Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Chandresta's Bahari begun posto and the secret what keeps me going

I started my blog to share my love and passion for cooking, the desire to learn and understand food photography came along the way. To share what you love, is like sharing a part of you. Every single recipe in my blog is close to my heart. The photographs I click during and after cooking, which is not  always as easy as it seems, are extremely precious to me. 

This more than a year of blogging, making connections with fellow foodies, blog readers and like minded bloggers has helped me to learn a lot of new things, both about cooking and  food photography, and there is still so much to learn and discover. 

Being a full time mother, I sometimes find it hard to manage time to click and post. Sometimes recipes pile up as drafts patiently waiting to be published. If you ask me what keeps me going, my answer would be 'my readers'. Their endless support and encouragement is the fuel that drives me. It's indeed rewarding when someone leaves a comment on my blog or on my Facebook page, telling me how much they have liked the recipe. I feel delighted every time when someone shares the  photograph of the food they have cooked following a recipe on my blog. It feels great to know that someone out there finds my recipes good enough to try for their friends and  family.

If you visit my Facebook page then you must have noticed I share all the pics my readers send to me. I have a special album  'Cooked By You' for this purpose. Last month I found that there were 99 pics in that album. So, eager to know who's going to be the 100th one, I announced I am one short of a century. To my surprise within 5 minutes I received three photos. I was so happy to see those. Today I'm going to specially mention about those three contributors-Krishnasharana, Chandresta and Soma. Again thanks to all my readers for your continuous support and encouragement.

First, I would love to mention about my friend and co-blogger Krishnasharana Jana of From a girl's mind. She always encourages me with her warm words and surprises me with her awesome creations. She has a great collection of crafts, jewelry, travel experiences and of course food on her blog. Here is a little introduction about Krishnasharana, in her own words......

"Who am I? It is very difficult question to me to answer. Currently, I can say that, I’m a stay at home mom with an over energized 5 year old son, who always keeps me on toe. Six long years back I was a software engineer, who only knew about career, nothing else. But a person can change her/ him along with time and situation. Now I cannot imagine to going back to corporate sector again leaving my little one. Though the corporate sector beacons me, still I’m not thinking about that.

I’m a person who cannot sit back idle. I always need something to do. So, my childhood hobby (crafting) has come to rescue me in my stay at home days. Sometimes, I when could sense that I’m getting overpowered by my hobbies, I try to stop me from doing anything for few days. Apart from my hobbies, I’ve found another interesting thing, cooking. I love to try to new dishes almost every day.

Now if you ask me why I’ve started a blog, the answer will make you laugh. It is really a funny. In the year 2010, suddenly I wanted to learn American English. My husband then took all the pain to find one institute to fulfill my wish. It was two months course; I really, really enjoyed that. I’m really blessed that I got Mr. J as my teacher. Throughout the course he encouraged me to write stories. He told me that I’m a good story teller. I know that he told me, only to encourage me in writing. However, his encouragement intrigued me to take writing. On fine afternoon while I was just writing a simple story about our Valentine’s Day celebration in 2011, I opened a blog, to write my feelings. First, I thought to write only my travel stories, but later I felt that through only travel stories I couldn’t express myself. So, one after another I've opened topics in my blog. This is the story how my blog was born." 



Here is a glimpse of her blog, do visit for great craft ideas and awesome baking stuff. I'm sure you all are going to like her space. Do visit http://from-a-girls-mind.blogspot.com/






On this joyful note, for a change I thought of cooking a dish following recipe from my readers. So I asked Chandresta and Soma to send me their favorite recipe. Both of them sent me two great recipes. Today I will post the easy yet delicious recipe Chandresta Maity sent me. My next post will be Soma's recipe.

The recipe Chandresta sent me is very simple and quick but believe me it's finger licking good. She calls it 'Bahari Begun Posto' that is eggplant with poppy seed paste. She cooked the dish, clicked a photo and sent me the recipe. Thanks for all your effort Chandresta. I made just a few minor changes, instead of red chilies I used green chilies and garnished it with some fresh coriander.



Things needed to make Bahari Begun Posto:


  • Eggplant: 1 large
  • Onion (grated): 1/2 cup
  • Ginger paste: 1 tsp
  • Poppy seed paste: 1/4 cup
  • Green chilies: 2-3
  • Cumin powder
  • Turmeric powder
  • Kashmiri red chili powder
  • Salt to taste
  • Sugar to taste
  • Fresh coriander to garnish
  • Oil to cook (preferably mustard oil)





Steps of making Bahari Begun Posto:


1. Cut the eggplant lengthwise. You can keep the stem of the eggplant if you like to.



2. Smear turmeric powder and salt to the eggplant pieces and leave them on a colander for 20 min.

3. Heat oil in a pan or kadhai and fry the eggplant till done. Take out and keep aside. Make sure you are using a big enough pan to accommodate the eggplant pieces, do not break them while frying.



4. In the same pan add more oil, add grated onion and ginger paste, cook till brown.

5. In a small bowl mix, turmeric powder, red chili powder (if using), kashmiri red chili powder and cumin powder with little water. Add the spice mix to the pan. Add salt and sugar, mix well, cook for 4-5 min.

6. Add the poppy seed paste. I make a paste of green chili and poppy seed. If you are using red chili powder then you may not use green chilies. Or if you like you dish to be super hot use both.

7. Mix well, and let the gravy thickens. Switch off the heat.

8. Arrange the fried eggplants on a serving plate. Pour the gravy on the fried eggplant pieces. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander. Serve with steamed rice and dal.



If you like to get regular updates from me go to my Facebook page and click on the Like button. You can also follow my blog on NetworkBlogs. Thank you..!!!



3 comments:

  1. Interesting Baingan posta, never tried it before, looks so delish.
    I enjoyed reading your journey and artistic abilities, keep it up. Love inspiring people.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is an interesting recipeand it looks awesome .like eggplant being fried separate and thickened gravy is poured over it.Lemme hope over to ur links and Krishnasharanas space.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely recipe...loved it :-) Happy Durga Pooja to you :-)

    ReplyDelete