Lentil with raw mango...

Living in a tropical country we dread the season of summer. The unbearable heat with uncomfortable humidity makes it pretty difficult to carry on everyday work, specially cooking. Standing in the kitchen preparing elaborate recipes, cooking for long stretch of time is not only challenging but can make one feel sick. Moreover we all prefer to eat simple, easy to digest, comfort food during summer. Regional cuisines of India are full of such wonderful recipes that help to cool down the body as well as help to beat the heat. The recipes mostly recommend the use of seasonal fruits and vegetables that provide year long supply of minerals and nutrition and good to fight the negative effects of heat.

Dal and Achari bhindi...

This year the summer is showing it's rage to the people of Kolkata. It was officially spring when it started feeling like mid of summer here. I don't remember when was the last time I experienced this kind of terrible heat for such a long stretch of time, without any rain or the usual respite of 'Kalboishakhi' (the nor'wester). Many schools have declared holiday due to this adverse weather.

Due to this weather kitchen is one place I dread to step in. I'm relying  more on fruits, yogurt, juices to avoid working in the kitchen for long duration. For lunch or dinner I am sticking to simple and quick to cook dishes.

Coconut Chutney...

Idli, dosa, uttapam are few items I often make for breakfast and my daughter's lunch box. To accompany the idli, dosa or uttapam my little one makes sure that I make some coconut chutney. Everyone in my family loves this coconut chutney. Easy to make, no cook, a complete hassle free delicacy.

The recipe I follow to make this coconut chutney is passed on from a good friend of my husband. My husband's friend Annu is from Kerala. I have heard so many stories of their college days, how the boys used to devour dosa and chutney from her lunch box and how skillful is A's mom at cooking finger licking food, specially dosa and idlis at home. Once I was making dosa and my husband told me about this recipe to make coconut chutney of her friend's. A e-mailed us the special heirloom recipe, and from then on I'm a big fan of this recipe. It's been more than ten years and I'm still following exactly the same recipe while making coconut chutney. So here it's for you all, a simple coconut chutney to go with dosa or idli. It also works great in between two slices of breads.

It takes hardly 10 minutes to make the chutney, the time consuming part is to scrape the coconut. To reduce the work load frozen grated coconut can be used, but I will recommend of using fresh coconut. To scrape the coconut I used my traditional Bengali coconut scraper (Narkel kuruni). I have grown seeing my mother, aunts using this and me too use this on regularly.

Ingredients for this chutney are very simple and easily available. The curry leaves are home-grown :) In many recipes, specially the restaurant style, chana dal (bengal gram) is added to this chutney, but I prefer without it. The process is also as easy as it could be, put all the ingredients in a grinder and make a smooth paste, and you are done.

Things needed to make Coconut Chutney:

• Fresh coconut (scraped): 1 cup
• Onion (diced): 1 tbsp
• Ginger (chopped): 1 tsp
• Yogurt: 2 tbsp
• Curry leaves: 12-14
• Green chilies: 2-3
• Salt to taste
• Water to grind
• Vegetable oil: 1 tbsp
• Brown mustard and curry leaves for tempering

Steps of making Coconut Chutney:

1. Take all the ingredients except the brown mustard and curry leaves for tempering, put them in a grinder and make a smooth paste. Pour the chutney in a bowl.

2. In a pan heat oil, when hot add brown mustard and curry leaves, as it splatters switch off heat. Pour the oil and the seeds and the leaves over the chutney. Store chutney in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

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Aloo beans...

Few months back I got some fresh french beans in the market. They were so green and fresh I could not help myself but buy a bagful. So we had a nice 'beans week' after that. I added beans to my dal, to the fried rice, to the soup...still there were some left. That day in the dinner table when I said "I have made some beans with curry leaves and coconut", my family members were skeptical about it but after they tasted it I passed with flying colors. So now it is a regular dish in our house, goes very well with rice and dal.

Til-kumro

Pumpkin with sesame seeds

Kumro (pumpkin) is a very common vegetable in Bengali kitchen. No we don’t carve them to a jack-o-lantern, but eat them. Even the flowers of pumpkin (kumro phool) and the soft young leaves (kumro saag) are also eaten with great pleasure. Pumpkin can be cooked in various ways; be it simple batter fried (bason diye bhaja), or some mixed vegetable mish-mash (chochhori), or a non-veg dish (with hilsha fish head). Here in  the US,  we get pumpkin regularly in the market, but unfortunately miss the kumro-phool bhaja (pumpkin flower) and kumro saag (leafy part of pumpkin). In Kolkata, my home town the ripe pumpkins are sweet and red-orange in color, here I need to add sugar to my pumpkin preparations.

Today I have made some simple fried pumpkin with sesame seeds, flavored with curry leaves and hing (asafoetida). It is a very easy, quick and tasty side dish to go with rice and dal (lentils).

Ingredients

• Pumpkin: (Cut in cubes): 2 cups
• Curry leaves: 10-12
• Mustard seeds (Rai Sorse): ½ tsp
• White sesame seeds (Sada til): 1tsp
• Grated ginger:1/2tsp
• Red chili: 3-4
• Asafoetida (hing): a pinch
• Salt
• Turmeric powder
• Sugar
• Oil

Procedure:

1.Wash and peel the pumpkin and cut into cubes.

2.Add oil in a pan. I used canola oil. You can use any other oil, like mustard or oilve or any vegetable oil.

3.As the oil is hot reduce the heat and add curry leaves, black mustard seeds, red chili and a pinch of hing.

4.As the mustard seeds spatter add the pumpkins. Add salt and turmeric powder. Add grated ginger. Mix well.

5.Cook till the pumpkins are cooked, but take care the pumpkins should not become mushy. Add sugar. Check the seasoning and adjust accordingly.

6. Add the sesame seeds. Cook for 1-2 min in high flame.

Serve it with some steaming hot rice and a bowl of musur/masoor dal(red lentils).