Pineapple chutney...

A Bengali meal is incomplete without a chutney. A formal Bengali meal starts with a bitter preparation and ends with a sweet and sour chutney, with different dishes like dal, sukto, vegetable curries, fish or meat preparations, served in between. Serving chutney along with papor (a deep fried wafer made from either lentil or sago) signals the final part of the meal, where different sweets are served, ending the meal with a sweet note. One can enjoy this kind of grand meal during the ceremonial occasions. We do not follow this elaborate meal structure for our daily routine, but it's a common practice to have little chutney even after a simple meal of rice and fish curry.

Achari aloo...

Do you like potatoes? For me it's one of the must vegetable. I love it in all different ways, from fried to boiled, mashed to curried. When it comes to Indian cooking one can find generous use of potatoes, though potatoes are not indigenous to India. Potato came to India during the colonial period, through the Portuguese in the early 17th century.

I can't think of my mutton or chicken curries without potatoes, or who can refuse some steaming hot Samosas stuffed with potato. So it is, the love for potato, whatever may be the consequences (read calories).

Today I made a dry potato curry with a spicy and tangy twist, Achari Aloo, pickle flavored potato curry. The dish gets the pickle flavor from the dry spices, fennel, fenugreek, black cumin, mustard etc. And loads of garlic and dry red chili are essential part of this dish. I used dry mango powder to bring tangy taste to the dish. If you do not find dry mango powder then use vinegar or lime juice, instead.

Things needed to make Achari Aloo:

• Baby potatoes: 12-14
• Onion (very finely chopped): 1 cup
• Garlic (thinly sliced): 3 tbsp
• Ginger paste: 2 tsp
• Yogurt: 1/3 cup
• Fennel seed: 1 tsp+1/2 tsp
• Black cumin (kalonji) seed: 1 tsp+1/2 tsp
• Fenugreek seed: 1/2 tsp+1/4 tsp
• Mustard seed: 1/2 tsp+1/4 tsp
• Cumin seed: 1 tsp+1/2 tsp
• Dry red chilies: 5-6
• Green chilies: 2-3
• Red chili powder: 2 tsp
• Coriander powder: 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
• Dry mango (Amchur) powder: 2 tsp
• Mustard oil to cook
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste
• Fresh coriander leaves to garnish

Steps of making Achari Aloo:

1. Take large deep pan with cover, put the potatoes in the pan with enough water and one teaspoon salt. Let the water boil, reduce heat and cook for 5-6 min, switch off and drain. Wash with cold water. Peel the potato and prick with a fork or tooth pick. Keep aside.

2. In a flat pan, take 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed, 1/2 teaspoon black cumin 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed, 1/4 teaspoon mustard seed, 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seed, and roast all the seed, but take care not to burn. Let cool down and coarsely ground the seeds. Keep aside.

3. Heat oil (preferably mustard oil) in a pan, fry the potatoes till they turn golden brown. Take out and keep aside.

4. In the same oil, add dry red chilies, rest of the seeds. As the seeds crackles, add garlic. As the garlic changes color add onion, cook till golden brown. Add ginger paste, cook for 1-2 min.

5. Add red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, cook over low heat for 1-2 min, if needed add few teaspoons of water.

6. Beat the yogurt with little sugar and water, add the the yogurt. Cook till oil separates. Add the fried potatoes, the ground spices, and chopped green chilies. Cook for 4-5 min. Add dry mango powder, mix well. Check seasoning and adjust accordingly. Switch off heat, sprinkle chopped coriander leaves, serve hot with rotis or parathas.

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Roganjosh...

Kashimiri cuisine has evolved over hundreds of years.  Over the years the cuisine has been influenced by its rulers and migrant workers from Persia, Afghanistan, Central Asia, North India and others. The influence of Mughals is especially evident on the meat dishes and pulao. Spices and condiments play a key role in Kashmiri cuisine. Kashmir being  situated on the ancient 'Silk Route', the spices traders from all over the world passed through this valley and stayed here as visitors and thus use of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, saffron etc are abundant in Kashmiri cuisine. Staple diet in Kashmir is rice along with chicken, meat and fish. Vegetables like lotus root, turnips, spinach are also  a specialty of this region.

Kashmiri cuisine is broadly divided into Pandit style and Muslim style preparations. The Kashmiri Pandit style cooking involves loads of spices, where as the Muslim style cooking includes onion, garlic and shallots in their preparations. In Kashmiri Pandit kitchen one can find use of Hing (asafoetida) instead of onion and garlic.

Today I made Roganjosh, a classic meat dish from Kashmir. This dish has its origin from Persia. In Persian Rogan means oil and Josh means heat or passion. Thus "Roganjosh" is meat cooked in oil at high intense heat. A second explanation of the name Roganjosh is Rogan means red, this may explain the bright red color of the dish. Roganjosh is mostly made with lamb. I used goat meat. Beef can also be used in place of lamb or goat meat.

For last few months I was looking for an authentic Roganjosh, following Kashmiri Pandit cuisine. My search ended at Anshie's blog Spiceroots. I followed her recipe and made a delicious bowl of Roganjosh. Here is the original recipe link, Roganjosh by Spiceroots.

I did make the Kashmiri garam masala at home and used whole dry Kashmiri red chilies to bring the bright red color in the Roganjosh. Here is how I did it.

Things needed to make Roganjosh:

• Goat meat (with bone): 2 lb (1 kg)
• Yogurt: 1/2 cup
• Cloves: 4-5
• Green cardamom: 3-4
• Cinnamon stick: 1
• Kashmiri red chili: 3-4 tbsp
• Dry ginger powder: 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder: 5 tsp
• Kashmiri garam masala: 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Water: 2 cups
• Mustard oil: 1/4 cup

For Kashmiri Garam Masala:

• Shah jeera/ black cumin: 1 tsp
• Bay leaf: 1 small
• Green cardamom: 1/2 tsp
• Black peppercorn: 1 tsp
• Cloves: 1/8 tsp
• Fennel: 1/4 tsp
• Mace: 1/8 tsp
• Cinnamon: 1/2 stick
• Nutmeg: a pinch

Steps of making Roganjosh:

1. For the Kashmiri garam masala dry roast all the ingredients, cool down and ground to powder. Store in an air tight container.

2. For the Kashmiri red chili powder I dry roast the whole Kashmiri red chilies and ground them to powder.

3. Clean and wash the goat meat pieces. Pat dry with kitchen towel. Beat yogurt with little water, keep aside.

4. In a heavy bottom large pan heat mustard oil. When the oil is smoking hot reduce heat to medium and add cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. Cook for 1 min. Add the meat pieces. Cook the meat till it takes brown color.

5. Add the beaten yogurt, keep cooking till the yogurt dries up. Keep stirring.

6. Mix the ground kashmiri red chili powder with 1/4 cup of water. Add the red chili to the meat, mix well to coat all the pieces with the red chili powder.

7. Cook till oil separates, add all other spices, mix well.

8. Add 1.5 cups of hot water and let the water boil. Add salt, mix.

9. Cover the pan and cook till the meat is well done. Make sure there is enough water to cook the meat. Stir in between. Serve hot with rice or roti.

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Mutton Nihari

Mutton(goat meat) Nihari

The name Nihari comes from the Arabic word 'Nahar', meaning day. 'Nihari' is eaten just after the morning namaaz(prayer). It is a hot and spicy meat stew. Any meat can be used to make nihari, chicken/goat/lamb, but beef shanks are said to be the best choice. Traditionally it is cooked overnight in a large vessel sealed with dough. Don't worry I did not cook it overnight, but of course through the whole morning. It was my Friday-special dinner.

People are not sure where this dish originated. Some says it originated in Old Delhi,India during last days of Mughal era. And according to some it is an Awadhi cuisine, and it  originated in the kitchen of the Nawabs of Awadh.

Be it Mughlai or Awadhi, it tastes excellent either ways. The meat slow cooked with all the spices in the meat broth makes it soft and flavorful. Nihari is best paired with nan or chapati or fulkas, I had mine with nan. No I didn't make those nan, I bought a pack of nan from Whole foods.

I also added few baby potatoes to my nihari. I know the 'authentic' food-seeker may raise a big question, but the bong inside me couldn't help.

I was thinking about making Nihari for a long time, but somehow it did not happen. Last week, while I was searching for a different goat meat recipe, I came across  a video by Chef Gulzar from Pakistan. He was making nihari specially for Ramadan. He explained the whole process in a very simple way. And I made up my mind.

Things you need to make Mutton Nihari:

• Goat meat: 500gm
• Green papaya (grated): 3tbsp
• Ginger Paste:1tbsp
• Garlic Paste:1tbsp
• Onion (sliced): 2cups
• Meat broth:500ml
• Atta/wheat flour:1tbsp
• Ghee: 2tbsp
• Oil: 2tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Baby potatoes(optional):4

For the Nihari Masala:

• Dry red chili: 10-12
• Dry kashmiri red chili: 14-15
• Fennel seeds:2tbsp
• Shah jeera/black cumin:2tbsp
• Cumin seeds:4tbsp
• Black pepper:2tbsp
• Moti ellaichi/black cardamom:1tbsp
• Jaiphal/Nutmeg:2
• Star anise:4

Dry roast all these above mentioned spices, let them cool then grind to powder. Store this masala in an air tight container. It can be stored for months. For 1 kilo(2lb) of meat you need 2tbsp of this masala. I was cooking 500gm meat so I used 1tbsp, oh....how good I'm at mathematics...

The steps of making Mutton Nihari:

1. Use the leg part and ribs of the goat to make nihari. Take few pieces with fat, that will give a nice glaze to the dish. And use large pieces of meat. Clean and wash the pieces and marinate with grated papaya for 1 hr. I also squeezed  the grated papaya to extract the juice. If you do not have green papaya at home, use meat tenderizer, those are readily available in any grocery store.

2. In a heavy bottom pan add ghee and oil. I used ghee and oil in equal proportion, if you like you can only use ghee. When the oil is hot, add the sliced onion. Separate the onion slices before adding them to the oil. Fry the onion till they start changing color to red.

3. Add the mutton pieces and cook on high heat for 10min. Stir continuously. The meat pieces will be nicely brown. this way the meat will get the flavor of onion. Reduce the heat and add ginger-garlic paste. Cook for 5-7min on medium heat.

4. Add 1tbsp of Nihari masala and salt. Mix well. Cook for 5-6min on medium flame.

5. Add the meat broth and let it boil. For the meat broth either use any store bought meat broth or just boil some bones of the meat and small pieces of meat with little salt, bay leaf, a clove of garlic, and whole garam masala(cinnamon, cardamom, cloves) for an hour. Strain the broth and preserve the liquid.

6.As it boils reduce the heat to low, cover the pan. Keep cooking on the low flame till the meat is done. Mine took round about 5hrs. When the meat is done add roasted wheat flour. This will thicken the gravy. I added few baby potatoes also. I peeled and washed the potatoes, fry them and added to the gravy when the meat was almost done.

Serve with nan or roti, Fry some onion slices to brown and spirnkle that onion and the oil over the nihari. Yes I sprinkled some fried onions but no oil. I kept aside some fried onion while making the Nihari.

Nihari served along with some nan

Mouri-Potol...Potol with fennel seed

I love to eat Potol(pointed gourd). Except raw, I can have it in any form fried, boiled, curried...

Generally I cook different curries(potol-posto, sorse-potol, doi-potol, potoler dalna, chingri diye potol) with potol those are common in bengali household. Today I wanted to do something different, so did little experiment with them. I choose fennel to flavor my curry. So here is my experimental mouri potol (mouri=fennel; potol=pointed gourd).

Things you need to make Mouri Potol:

Potol: 500gm

Yogurt: 1/2 cup

Fennel: 2tsp

Ginger(grated): 1tbsp

Green chilies(chopped): 3-4

Dry red chili: 3-4

Cardamom: 2-3

Cinnamon: 1 inch stick

Bay leaf: 1

Shah jeera(black cumin): 1/4tsp

Salt to taste

Sugar: 1tsp

Turmeric powder: 1/4tsp

Kashmiri red chili powder: 1/2tsp

Oil

How to make Mouri Potol:

1. Make a smooth paste of fennel seed, grated ginger and chopped green chilies, keep it aside. If you dry grind the fennel first then add grated ginger and chopped green chilies, it will be easier to make a smooth paste.

2. Bit the yogurt with little water and sugar, there should be no lumps in the yogurt, keep it aside.

3. Scrap the skin of potol and peel alternately and make slits on both the ponted ends.

4. Put oil in the kadai or pan, when the oil is hot add the potol. Sprinkle salt and turmeric powder, and fry the potol.

5. Fry the potol till it takes nice brown color. Take out the potol and keep aside.

6. On that same oil add bay leaf, dry red chilies, cardamom, cinnamon stick, shah jeera. As the masalas leave a nice aroma add the fennel-ginger-green chili paste. Cook for 2min.

7. Add the beaten yogurt. Keep stirring continuously and keep the flame to medium, till the yogurt is cooked. To know the yogurt is cooked or not, if you can smell the raw yogurt then you nedd to cook longer and when the yogurt is done, you can see oil separating from the yogurt and giving a nice shine to the gravy.

8. Add kashmiri red chili powder, turmeric powder, sugar. Add the fried potol. Mix well. Add little water( I added 1/2 cup). As the gravy boils reduce the flame to medium cover the pan and cook for 10-12min. Check the seasoning, adjust accordingly.

We had this with white rice. The spicy green chilies were nicely balanced with the yogurt. And the aroma of fennel and the dry spices gave the dish a wonderful flavor...above all my daughter liked it very much, so a happy ending and a successful experiment..:)