Begun Pora - Scorched Brinjal

 Today's a Friday, and I am in super-relaxed mode. My work is done with, and I an looking forward to a long weekend of chilling out, because Monday is a holiday. I was flipping through a couple of books, trying to decide what to cook, and I realized Italian cooking's a bitch! They make their food difficult to cook on purpose!!! "Julienne the basil... and Oh! Dried basil won't do!!!", "Use pretentious cheese... normal cheese just does not cut the fit"! I'm in no mood to cook elaborate stuff.

As you may have guessed, I went back to brinjal. I dabbled with the idea of cooking fish for a while, but I didn't want to put on too much of an effort, so brinjal won! This recipe is for scorched (or grilled) brinjal. It's super-healthy, easy to make, and completely guilt free!!! It should take you 15 minutes tops, to make. Here's what you will need:

Stuff You Will Need: 

Large Brinjal - 1

Mustard oil - About 2 tsp

Salt

1 Small Onion finely chopped

2 Green chillies chopped

Chilly Powder (if you like it spicy)

A Pinch of Amchur/Dry Mango powder (And I seriously mean a pinch)

A pinch of Sugar

Wash the brinjal and pat it dry with a tissue (or whatever else you use to dry stuff). Coat it evenly with 1 tsp of mustard oil. Put it over the gas flame directly, or on a grill if you are blessed with better luxuries in life. Keep turning it until the skin gets burned and starts peeling off. Take out the brinjal and peel off the burned skin. Mash the brinjal and add the salt, chilly powder, onions, chillies, mustard oil, amchur, and sugar, and mix. 

If you are one of those skinny bitches that can eat anything and never put on weight, go ahead and stir this mixture in another tsp of oil, over a medium flame and add some scrambled eggs to add brownie points. Ok, I gotta go now. I need to refill my whiskey and soda. You have a good weekend!

Bon Apetit!!

                                                             

Shorshay eelish

I am not a huge lover of fish. I know - weird since I am a Bengali ( bong). Rui maach (rahu) has been the bane of my existence. But there are certain fish that I will eat and eelish (hilsa) is definitely one of them. There are many different recipes involving eelish, but the most made in Bong houses is that of shorshay eelish (hilsa with mustard).

Yes, you guessed again. This is definitely going to be the easy version of shorshay eelish. My mom is legendary in this sense. We've cooked so much stuff in the microwave of late, its not even funny anymore. The traditional way - the only one I know involves cooking it with the rice as well, but I am not a pro in that method. I will try and become one and put it up here

Prep time : 5-7 mins (depending upon what's on TV)

Cooking time : 10 mins ( yes yes you read it right, 10 mins)

Ingredients : (Serves 2)

1. 4 slices of eelish
2. 2 tbsp of curd (plain yogurt)
   
3. shorshay'er tel ( mustard oil)
   
4. Sunrise Mustard powder ( my mom got it from Kolkata this time, makes life so much simpler. You don't have to make the mustard powder anymore ;) )
   
5. 2 tsp turmeric (holudh)
   
6. Salt to taste
   
7. 3-4 green chillis - slit in the middle
   

Directions :

1. Clean the fish and put it in a microwave safe dish. Make sure you remove any trace of blood from the fish, cause it will make the dish bitter otherwise
   
2. In a separate bowl, add the other ingredients except the green chili. Mix. The reason I haven't specified the amount of oil is because its all based on your intuition. I usually add about 2-3 tsp of oil first in the mixture and then later on the fish directly.
   
3. Coat the fish with this mixture. If you think it requires some more oil, drizzle a tsp of oil over it and put the green chili on the fish.
   
4. Now, put the dish into the microwave and make sure you have covered it with another microwave safe plate or something of that sort. That way if the mixture splatters, you have contained the turmeric stains. Cook for 5 minutes on high.
   
5. After one side is done, turn the fish on the other side and cook again for 5 minutes on high. You can add another tsp of oil if you think it needs some more of it. Before you deal with the fish, make sure the dishes are cool enough to be handled. I don't want you to blame me for burnt fingers :P
   

That's it you are done. Add coriander if you'd like.
Hot steaming rice and shorshay eelish, what more do you really need

Have fun
~Shreyasee

Begun Bhaja - Fried Brinjal/Eggplant/Aubergine/Melongene

I am feeling a bit lazy today. I want to cook something easy and fast. The other day I knocked myself out buying brinjal. Big sized brinjals are not very easily available in Hyderabad, so when I found some in Spar, I picked up as many as I could. I need to use them up now, so I decided to make the classic 'Begin Bhaja'. It's another classic Bengali dish, which is almost as famous as the Bengali fish.

Begun bhaja was always my favorite. You can have it with both rice and roti's, and if you are feeling experimental, put it between two slices of bread and make an indie sandwich. This is a very nutritious vegetable too... not that I care so much about that. :P
Ok so here's what you will need.

Stuff You Will Need

Large Brinjal - 1
Oil (Preferably Mustard)
Salt
Pepper or Chilli Powder
Turmeric Powder
Cardamom seed powder
A Little bit of Sugar

This dish is super easy to make, and is perfect for a day when you don't want to sweat it too much. Wash the brinjal ans chop off it's head and tail. Cut it into 1/2 inch thick round pieces. Rub in the Salt, Pepper, Turmeric, Cardamom powder, and the Sugar.

Heat the oil, and fry the brinjal pieces one by one, in medium to low heat. Remove the pieces when they are a dark brown. It will be a good idea to use tissues to soak out excess oil.

OK I hear my stomach growling now. Time to go fill it with warm food. Catch you later.

Bon Apetit!

Musuri Daal

The quintessential ghoti badi in Bengal will most likely include Mushur daal in their everyday meal. In fact, I've been known at times to have put on a frowny face if there was no daal in the menu.

This is usually for two - you can change it according to your needs

1. 3/4 cup mushur daal ( masoor daal)
2. 1 tsp jeera ( cumin)
3. 2-3 green chilli (finely chopped)
4. one onion (chopped lengthwise, I don't like to finely chop it)
5. 1 tsp holudh (turmeric)
   
6. salt to taste
   
7. coriander leaves to garnish
   

Directions :

There's two ways to do - the first one is definitely the more traditional way that the other. The faster way is something my mom has developed in the US since time is of the essence these days.

Relatively traditional way :

• Boil the daal in the pressure cooker. You are more than welcome to add in the turmeric and salt in the pressure cooker with the daal. I tend not to do this since if the water comes out, you will have yellow stains to tackle later on
• In a pan, kadhai, something where you can fry stuff, put a tbsp of oil. Put the jeera in first, then the green chilli, and finally the onions.
  
• Once the onions have reached a golden brown color, put in the turmeric and salt and mix properly. ( if you have already put them in the pressure cooker, ignore this step)
  
• Then pour the daal into the tadka (the onion mixture). Add water if necessary. You don't want the daal to look like a khichdi.
  
• After the daal comes to a boil, turn off the gas. Add the coriander leaves on the top as garnish.
  

Faster, fatafat, way

• Put all the ingredients, except the coriander, in the pressure cooker. Once the pressure cooker whistles, your daal is ready :)
• Add the coriander as garnish later
  

You are done. Enjoy !!!

~Shreyasee

Blooming Onion

One of my biggest nightmares before a dinner party is appetizers. I cannot seem to decide beforehand what I want to make and that has landed me in trouble quite often. Recently though, a friend's mom gave me a recipe that involved the simplest of things and is very quick and easy to make. I have made substantial changes to that recipe, so I will give you my version of that recipe

You will need :

1. A loaf of French bread ( sourdough French bread is fine)
2. 1 Green capsicum ( bell peppers)
3. 1 Red capsicum ( red bell pepper)
4. 1 Yellow capsicum ( yellow bell pepper) if you want to indulge in that
5. 1 bunch of Spring onions
6. 1 Tomato
7. Parsley (if you like)
8. Oregano ( if you like)
9. Mozzarella and Parmesan Cheese
10. Olive Oil
11. Basil (if you can get it)

Directions :

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Cut the loaf of bread in the middle, but be careful not to cut it all the way to the bottom. Then make cuts across the middle ( you should be able to make at least 10 such cuts) , again making sure you don't go all the way in the middle; they should look like grooves. The idea is that you should be able to tear each small piece when you begin to eat. On a baking sheet/pan, place a sheet of aluminum foil and put the bread on it.

Put a good amount of cheese in the grooves of the bread, this will help the vegetables stay in place when the cheese melts. Finely chop all the vegetables and stuff the bread with it. Don't worry about people not getting the vegetables, it'll just be an added effort on their part ;). Once that is done, put the rest of the cheese on top. Coat the top with some chopped parsley and oregano. You can add other herbs that you would like but I wouldn't go too overboard. Drizzle olive oil on the bread.

Cover the bread with the aluminum foil and place it in the preheated oven for 15 mins. Then unwrap the bread and leave it in there for another 15 mins. And you are done

You can serve it as is or you can serve with a dipping oil.

For the dipping oil, chop the basil finely. Pour olive oil in it and let it sit for about 15-20 mins. This should add a lot of flavor to your olive oil. Serve it with your bread.

Have fun

~Shreyasee