Jackfruit curry

Lunch at Suruchi. Doesn't quite have the same zing as 'Breakfast at Tiffany's" - however that was one session of gluttony (on my part).

After 8 long years I went to Suruchi yesterday for lunch. An air con has been added, some attempts at beautifying, thankfully more or less unchanged. .The ocassion was to introduce two visitors from UK to Bengali food. One of them stuck to vegetarian and the other tried bits of non-veg items from us. I sat in a corner and ate. And how. Rice, musoor dal, aloo bhaja, kanchkolar kofta curry, echor er dalna, bhetki fry, bhapa ilish, a bit of chingri, gokul pithey and ampora sarbat. This is what I ate. Regretfully, I had to turn down pabda, parshey, galda chingri and mangshor jhol that others had ordered. Afternoon at work was AGONY - felt comatose. Luckily recovered sufficiently to be able to have echor-er dalna for dinner at home! So here is the recipe for Jackfruit curry - Echorer dalna (the way its made at home, by K our cook):

You will need:

Jackfruit - 1/2 kilo
Onion - 1
Garlic - 3-4
Ginger - 1/2"
Tomato - 1-2
Potato - 1
Turmeric
Salt
Sugar
Cooking Oil
Water

For the Garam Masala
1 green ilaichi, 2 cloves, 1/2" cinamon stick in a mortar - Coarsely grind
1 bay leaf

How to:

Cut the jackfruit. I find it difficult so I ask the vendor. But if you do happen to be adventourous...remember to remove the bits which feel plasticky!

Cut it into small cubes. Wash and clean. Smear with a pinch of turmeric and 1/2 tsp of salt and cook in a pressure cooker with a little water for one whistle. Drain and set aside.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadai. Add the sliced onions, ginger and garlic paste. Stir. Add the cubed potatoes and fry.

Add the tomatoes. Season with salt. Stir well.

Cook till the potatoes are half done.

Add the jackfruit. Add the ground garam masala and bay leaf, 1/2 tsp sugar. Adjust for salt. Add one glass of water, cover and cook on low flame for 20 minutes or till done.

Remove from fire and eat - with rice!

PS - This dish can be made without onions, garlic and ginger. If you want more curry, add more water, lesser for a thicker curry.

J's Filipino shrimp vegetable stew

Ah the horrible weather. Can there be anything worse that this humidity? There is: A bad cold, runny nose, headache and humidity. Funny how both have been bogging me done for nearly two weeks and yet I haven't got used to them :-).

This afternoon, J, the VSO volunteer physiotherapist was eating what looked like a large bowl of soup with bread. She offered me some and I thought why not? I tasted a bit and the tangy soup was HEAVEN. Forgot my cold and the heat and humidity. I quickly looked around for a bowl, finding none, I grabbed a tea cup and a large spoon and took a proper helping (which J, bless her soul and her culinary skills, shared readily enough). "Liked it"? "Yes, Yes, yes...," I said. To which she replied - "Good. This means you can live in Phillipines happily". Very Very happily I thought. So in between the never ending job list, thursday staff meeting, she gave me the recipe and hurrah ... she gave me local substitutes, all available easily! We did have a small problem trying to figure out whether she used paalak or pui sag. Then she said - either would do...any green would do, I think. I have put in spinach because I thought it looked like spinach. The stew can be made without shrimps if you want something vegetarian. So here is J's Filipino shrimp vegetable stew.

You will need

Eggplant: 1 cubed
Lady's Finger: 4 cut into two
String Beans: 5-6 cut de-stringed and cut into two
Spinach leaves: 4-5 leaves shred coarsely
Onions: 2 quartered
Tomato: 3 quartered
Shrimps: Handful
or Shrimp flavoured cube: 1-2
Tamarind powder: 250gms
or Tamarind pulp: 1 lemon sized ball
Salt to taste
Water: 250 ml

How to

1. Wash and cut all the vegetables and drain.
2. Devein the shrimps, remove the shell and keep aside.
3. Stir fry the shrimps lightly and reserve.
4. Grind the shells in a mortar and soak in a little bit of warm water. Strain the shells through a seive. Remove the shells and reserve the water.
5. You can omit step 3 & 4 if you manage to get hold of shrimp flavoured stock.
6. Boil water in a pan.
7. Add the quartered onions and tomatoes and cook over medium flame till the tomatoes become pulpy.
8. Add the shrimps, vegetable and salt.
9. When the vegetables are slightly cooked, add the tamarind powder or tararind water got from soaking a small ball of tamarind in hot water and strained.
10. Cover and simmer till vegetables are cooked.
11. Eat & Enjoy!

PS - Makes about 2-3 large soup bowls but depends upon who is doing the eating! It would be one helping for me!!

Ghol

Sunday. Ah! After a long work week, it is something I look forward to and my usual routine is to slum it out. Spending an heavenly hour or two at my local library or dropping in on any one of my two close friends. Today, I dropped in at M & S's. They had this long over due naming ceremony for their two kids yesterday. A lot of Biriyani was leftover. 'Do you want some'? M asked. No baba ... its too hot, I said (temperatures have been soarding to 40 degrees). I asked for something cold - water was all she had. Then she started putting in ingredients into a bowl while talking to me about this and that. Turned out, she had made "Ghol". Slight variation from ghol as we bengalis know which is a variation of or similar to the punjabi lassi.

Her ghol is a digestive, more than a summer cooler.

You will need:

Curd 250 gms
Mint (pudina) : 1 small bunch
1/2 tsp each of whole cumin, black pepper - roasted and ground
Juice of 1 whole lime
2-3 green chillies
A little water - 1 o 2 tbsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Rock salt 1/4 tsp

How to:

1. Whisk the curd properly. Strain it through a strainer or muslin cloth.
2. Mix together in a grinder - the pudina leaves, the roasted ground cumin and black pepper, green chillies, salt and rock salt, lime juice with a little water.
3. Fill 1/4 of a glass with the whisked and strained curd.
4. Add 2-3 tbsp of the pudina paste
5. Stir well with a spoon.
6. Fill the glass with cold water.
7. Adjust seasoning.
8. Serve

Note: Make the ghol as thin or thick you want to. Skip the chillies if you want. And the lime can be skipped too if the curd is not too acidic. You can add dhania (coriander leaves) in place of mint. Or you can add both.

It was wonderful. Especially after a huge helping of biriyani (which I had earlier vehemently refused) when the temperatures have been soaring to 40 degrees!

Raw Mango relish

It's been HOT and HUMID. Thus begins almost all of my posts on my other blog.

Enough about that....Tis the time of raw mangoes which then means lots of chutneys, pickles and relishes. The sweet irony of it all is that raw mangoes are sour (khatta). It takes a brave person or a toothless one to eat one. But its very sourness combined with loads of sugar and we have the most heavenly coolers.

Now a days my lunch box is accompanied by a miniscule steel container - filled to the brim with sweet relish made from raw mangoes. At work lunch begins by all of us passing our lunch box around at the start and when we have collected (from others) and given to all, begin eating. Quite often, the tiny box comes back to me - licked clean! I have been requested to look for a large tin - which my ma somehow always remember just as I step out of the house!!

So here it is - Raw mango relish - as K makes it.

You will need:

Raw mangoes: 4 (these are usually small)
Sugar: 3-4 tbsp (might be more)
Salt: 2-3 tsp
Water for steaming
Cumin: 2 tsp
Dried red chillie: 1-2

How to:

1. Slice the raw mangoes into strips and de-stone (or pod or seed or whatever it is called). It doesn't matter how you cut the mangoes - basically into chunks. If the mango is very fresh then you can keep the peel - otherwise remove the peel before cutting the mangoes.
2. Put the mango chunks in to a Kadai or pan. Add water - just enough to cover the mangoes.
3. Steam on medium to low heat.
4. Add sugar and the salt and mix well. Keep stirring to prevent it from sticking to the pan.
5. Slowly the water will evaporate and the mangoes will become pulpy.
6. In the meanwhile, dry roast the cumin powder and the dried red chillie for 30 secs or so on a hot pan / tawa.
7. Remove and crush / grind and add to the pulp in the kadai.
8. Adjust salt - sugar according to taste and remove from fire.
9. Cool and refrigerate.
10. The whole thing should not take more than 30 minutes (lesser actually for those who are not all thumbs like me)!

And guess what - not only is it finger licking good (the only decent way to eat aachar's and chutneys) - it also keeps well for nearly 2-3 weeks (or till it finishes - whichever happenes to be earlier)!

I am not a paratha person at all - but this tastes REALLY good with parathas.

A long while

Quite a while since I have last posted here and yet when I check my blogs' traffic, I am amazed to see the number of visitors to Timid Cook and yet I have been updating my other blog, now renamed to Notes from wherever I happen to be, more regularly. I thought I wrote better than I cook. Ah well, I live and learn.

In the meanwhile, I have been staying at chez parents where our excellent but tempermental cook K has been serving me all sorts of wonderful meals and generally doesn't like anyone entering her domain - the kitchen. Ergo, the kilos have piled on and my cooking has dwindled to the ocassional breakfast.

But soon, I plan to start posting K's goodies. And good they are.

Till then, "how to cook dal" and "how to make tomato chutney" and "how to cook koi mach" continues to rule the roost at Timid Cook.

Donate for a Heart ~ A Campaign to Heal

Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons is holding a fund rasing event for 28 year old Anita Lakshmi who suffers from Coronary Artery disease. She has two children, aged 3 & 6. She requires around Rs.5-6 lakhs, something which she and her parents can ill afford.

Please do follow the link and read the entire post at Donate for a Heart ~ A Campaign to Heal!

Fried Chicken, Hyderabadi (well almost)

Last week I had a joyous reunion with a school pal, "bees saal baad"! Two and a half days of almost non-stop yakking, some shopping, endless cups of tea. She made this really easy and very tasty dish for us and since she hails from hyderabad, it (this dish) is sort of Hyderabadi!!

You will need:
Chicken: 1 kg cut into pieces
Onions: 2 medium, finely sliced
Oil: 3 tbsp
Salt to taste

For the marinade:
Garlic: 6-7 pods
Ginger: 1" pc
Green chilli: 1
Coriander leaf: one handful
Salt: A pinch
Yogurt: 100gms

How to:

1. Wash the chicken pieces and drain.
2. Grind coarsely the ingredients (except yogurt) for the marinade in a mortar / pestle.
3. Combine the ground ingredients, yogurt with the chicken and keep for an hour.
4. Heat oil in a large non-stick pan to smoking.
5. Lightly saute the onions.
6. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and fry on high flame.
7. Gently turn the pieces over to ensure proper frying on both sides.
8. When the water released by the yogurt dries up, add a little water and rest of the yogurt marinade.
9. Adjust salt.
10. Lower flame and cook till the chicken is done.

There will be no gravy in this dish and can be eaten with rotis or naans...but worked just as well as an accompaniment to beer on a warm evening!

Arusuvai Friendship Chain

And, I hand over the baton (or secret ingredient) to Sushma of Cook Spot

In case you missed the earlier posts on Arusuvai Friendship Chain, I was sent a secret packet by Bhags of Crazy curry.

This is what I did with the contents of the secret packet.

And so...now on to another great recipe from Sushma.

Soya snack for My Legume Love Affair Event

This is my entry for the “My Legume Love Affair” event hosted by the Well Seasoned Cook.

Happily, my sis R has just returned from a trip to Bagdogra where she learnt a nifty soya bean snack recipe. Our common friend Madhu P cooked this up in a jiffy one cold evening and they had a great time gobbling it up in between R’s singing and Anand's (Madhu’s husband) strumming the guitar!

I was a bit worried if soya bean is a lentil (poor knowledge). But I have proof that they indeed are. “Peas, beans and lentils are known as pulses. They are the seeds of plants belonging to the family Leguminosae, which gets its name from the characteristic pod or legume that protects the seeds while they are forming and ripening. With approximately 13,000 species, the family Leguminosae is the second largest in the plant kingdom...”. More here at the Vegetarian Society.

You will need:
(This is what I used, the proportions can be varied)

Soya beans: 1 cup full
Pepper corn: 10
Mixed herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary): 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Water: 4 cups
Oil for sautéing

How to:

1. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan and remove from fire. Add 1 tsp salt to the water.
2. Add the soya beans, cover and let soak for 20 minutes. Drain.
3. Grind the pepper corn. I used a good old fashioned steel ham-dista (mortar and pestle).
4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan.
5. Add the soaked and drained soya beans and stir.Sprinkle the herbs, crushed pepper corns .
6. Stir well and fry over high heat for 5-7 minutes, adjust seasoning.

Hey presto! Your snack is ready.
I tried it yesterday and although A and I didn’t sing or strum the guitar, I enjoyed it too, huddled under a warm blanket watching TV on a cold winter night.

Hariyali Matar

What a lyrical name for this simple and yet tasty dish. It lay buried in my recipe book -- perhaps overlooked because this was not one of R's, written in her beautiful handwriting but in my horrible scrawl. This was given to me by Hema who studied french with me in Alliance Francaise Kolkata. She took cookery classes on weekends and very kindly gave me a few.


You will need:

Coriander leaves: 1 cup
Garlic 8 cloves
Green Chillie: 6 (I used half a chilli only)
Onion: 1 medium
Little water

Grind the above to a paste

Tomatoes: 2 cups finely chopped
Peas: 2 cups boiled (I used frozen peas and had only to thaw them)
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Water: 1 cup
Oil: 6 tbsp
Garam masala powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt, sugar


How to:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the ground coriander paste.
2. Stir fly lightly till oil separates.
3. Add tomatoes and stir fry till they become soft.
4. Add peas, turmeric, salt, a pinch of sugar and water.
5. Mix well, simmer till gravy is thick.
6. Sprinke the garam masala and remove.
7. Serve with rice or rotis.

Thanks Hema, wherever you happen to be. I tried your recipe 6 years after you had shared it with me...and it was wonderful and worth the wait.

How to cook dal: Arhar

Another recipe for the number one search on Timid Cook: How to cook dal!!

Am learning to buy in smaller quantities despite the hassles of shopping more. Larger quantities, I have learnt are not really economical because they attract weevils or worse (eeks). Also, I am cooking in smaller quantities. Just enough for one meal. That way we are eating hot fresh food and not storing them away in the fridge and re-heating (where they lose their taste and sometimes I forget about them and discover later, lurking in a corner and looking distincly alien with variety of growth in it not to mention the smell)!!

I didn't look up the recipe. I just followed my hunch or rather memory of the dal from the local dhaba. And I'd say it turned out pretty well and cooking time was 20 minutes max. Just the thing for a cold winter night.

What I used:

Arhar dal: 1/2 small cup about 3 full tbsp (to be precise)
Water for pressure cooking the dal: 2&1/2 cups
Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1 tsp
Onion: 1 small
Garlic: 1-2 pods
Tomato: 1 small
Hing (asefoetida): 1/2 tsp
Dried red chillie: 1
Mustard seed: 1/4 tsp

How to:

1. Wash the dal with several changes of water, drain and put in the pressure cooker with the turmeric, salt and fresh water. The rule for pressure cooking is that water should be approximately slightly less than double of the other ingredient in this case, dal. But given the cold weather and the fact that arhar dal takes a bit longer to cook than say masoor or moong dal, I added 2 and 1/2 cups of water. Let it cook for quite a few whistles. (I let it cook for 7 whistles of the cooker and found that the dal was still a bit hard. So I simply added a bit more water and let it cook for another 5).
2. Chop the onions, garlic and tomatoes.
3. After the dal is cooked, add oil to a small kadai or pan. Add the mustard seed and hing powder.
4. When the seeds start popping, add the garlic, onions and stir till they are browned. Keep stirring or they might stick to the pan.
5. Add the tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes release their juices.
6. Then, add the cooked dal. If the water has evaporated while pressure cooking, add more water. Arhar dal is usually thicker than other dals, so don't add too much water.
7. Bring to a boil, adjust salt and remove.
8. Eat with chappatis!

Note: The red chillie can be added while tempering (before the mustard)....but A can't eat anything remotely hot. Also, while serving, add a generous spoonful or lump of ghee and if not, then buter! This step I omitted (lower calories for A)!

PS- We finished it all up and really fast and so there are no photos to show....alas!

Is it Pizza?

It looked liked it, smelt like and tasted like it too ... but dare I call it a pizza? Well why ever not? And it was quite easy to make. I actually made it in the commercial breaks while watching Gerard Depardieu in "My Father the hero"!



What I used
(I made two. The following are the ingredients per pizza)
Pizza base: 6" diameter
Capsicum: 1
Tomato: 1
Onion: 1 (A insisted)
Salami: 2 slice
Salt
Olive oil
Cheese


What I did

1. Brushed the pizza base with olive oil.
2. Sliced the capsicum, onion, tomato in to thin rings. Quartered the salami slices.
3. Layered the the pizza base, in order - the tomato, onion, capsicum, salami.
4. Topped it up by grated cheese.
5. Grilled the pizza in my OTG at 210 deg for 15 minutes. And viola!

Note: The cheese had melted nicely all over but the base had become crunchy. That wasn't bad to eat...but I still have to figure out how to keep the base soft.

R' Coffee-honey-cashew cake

Hmmm...both A and I were suddenly yearning to eat a coffee cake. Now that I have the werewithals (an OTG - a diwali gift from A), I googled to look up a recipe and I found as expected tons of recipes of cakes to eat with coffee...all sorts of cake. Not the recipe I was looking for which was well...a cake with coffee. So, e-mailed R for a recipe for cake with coffee as an ingredient (and honey too, A added) and trusty R promptly sent back one and subsequently revised the proportions for a very small cake mould which would fit inside my small OTG. And yesterday, with shaking hands, heart thumping wildly, I tried it out.

You will need:

Flour: 1 cup

Baking powder: 1 tsp

Clove and cinamon powder: 3/4 tsp

Ground nutmeg: 1/4 tsp

Chopped walnut/almond/cashew: 1/3 cup (I used cashew. R's says walnut is the best but others will do.)

Instant coffee: 1&1/2 tbsp

Hot water: 1-2 tsp

Powdered sugar: 1 cup

Honey: 1/4 cup

Eggs: 2 lightly beaten

Butter: 150 gms

Milk: 1/4 cup

Here's How:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, ground spice and a pinch of salt ina bowl.
2. Add the chopped cashew.
3. In another bowl mix the sugar,honey, butter and water and coffee well.
4. Then add the flour spice to it along with egg, milk.
5. Mix to form a smooth batter.
6. Grease a mould and pour the batter in to it and bake for 40-60 minutes till a knife inserted comes out clean. (I baked the cake for 40 minutes at 210 deg C).

Note: Lightly dust powdered sugar on top of cake or Spread coffee cream on top of the cake

For coffee cream: Mix 250 g butter, 2& 1/3 cup icing sugar, 3tsp heaped instant coffee, 6 tsp hot water well, to form a creamy paste and spread on cake top with a spatula or cut the cake horizontally into two and use it to sandwich it.

(I didn't do either....just served the plain cake as is, fresh from the oven).

How simple the above recipe reads doesnt it? And it is too. But if I described my process...it would take pages and probably be a primer on how not to do it but despite or perhaps inspite of it all, the cake was quite OK. It was rapidly eaten up and pronounced quite good for a first effort. And what's more, if I can do it...so can anyone...So try it out.

Thanks to A for mental support.

Thanks to R for the recipe, long distance encouragement including answering three phone calls on silly issues like I have added the milk before the water or how does one grind the nutmeg etc?

Thanks to J who didnt say anything at the enormous amount of dishes to be cleaned although she did say that while this cake is nice, the one didi (R) sent was BETTER!

Arusuvai Friendship Chain: Amaranth Spinach Tomato Mushroom Soup

The secret packet that Bhags sent me contained Amaranth seeds also called Rajagiri -- completely unknown territory to me. In fact, Bhags took pity on me and told me what it was!! I found a recipe which I altered a wee bit and it turned into one of my favorites: A hearty, healthy soup meal!

You will need:

1 cup amaranth seed

3 cups water

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 bunch spinach (or young amaranth leaves if available - I used spinach)

2 ripe tomatoes, skinned and coarsely chopped

1/2 pound mushrooms (I used 6-7) stemmed and sliced

1&1/2 teaspoons basil

1&1/2 teaspoons oregano

1 clove of garlic minced

1 tbsp onion, minced

Salt and pepper to taste (the original recipe called for Sea salt or a salt substitute)

How to:

A good place to start was to stick up the recipe on the kitchen wall.

Add one cup amaranth seeds to 3 cups of boiling water

And cook for 12-15 minutes. This is how it will look...a bit messy.

While amaranth is cooking, stem and wash spinach, then simmer until tender. Drain and chop it. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water to loosen skin, then peel and chop. Mince the onion and garlic.



Heat oil in a pan over medium heat and add garlic and onion. Sauté approximately for 2 minutes. Add tomato, mushrooms, basil, oregano, salt, pepper. Add tomato. Cook for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lightly mash tomato as it is cooking.

Then pour the amaranth into the spinach-tomato mixture. Raise flame to high and let the whole mixture come to a boil, adjust for seasoning, remove...

...and treat yourself to a hearty soup, with bread of your choice.

Thanks due to U for loaning me his cam...photos (a bit blurry) up on Timid Cook for the first time.

Thanks to A, for bravely tasting it altho' spinach and tomatoes are a no-no for him and he is kind of allergic to mushroom :-(

Thanks Bhags...I found out that I could!

And lastly.......

Umm...what a load of dishes to be cleaned....

PS- I know I have to pass it on....but blogging has taken the wind out of my sails....I will get around to it shortly....so, in this post, I don't have two names to pass it on to...yet.

PPS - Sushma of Cookspot is the next link in the Arusuvai Friendship Chain. I have sent her a secret packet and am waiting eagerly to see what she cook's up!

Shahi Bharta

Bhags sent a mail to me yesterday convinced that I had chickened out of the Arusuvai Friendship Chain. Afterall, I couldn't even figure out the contents of the secret package she sent me!! I assured her that I would be coming up with my post on it soon, in the next few days, infact. Till then, here is a recipe that R sent me. It combines brinjals with prawns

You will need:
Eggplants: 2 large, seedless variety
Mustard oil: 3 tbsp
Onions: 2 minced
Garlic: 1tbsp minced
Small prawns: 1/2 cup, shelled
Oil for frying
Egg: 1
Salt, sugar and red chilli flakes

How to

1. Cut the eggplants into halves , boil, de-skin, cool, mash and then keep aside.
2. Heat 3 tbsp mustad oil in a pan, add the minced onion and garlic, saute.
3. Add the shelled prawns.
4. Fry for a while and then add 2 chopped tomatoes and the mashed eggplant.
5. Stir fry till the oil separates.
6. Gradually add salt, sugar, red chilli flakes and finally a shredded fried egg. Mix well.
7. Serve with rotis
   

Viola! Although R has written serve with rotis, a hard core bengali like me would obviously prefer it with rice!!

Pabda Curry

Ask a bengali about his / her's favorite dish and more often than not, the answer would be: Mach-bhat (Fish and rice). And yet, we (A and I) don't eat fish all that regularly. Not because we don't like it all that much, rather we haven't got a fixed schedule for shopping or even a menu plan. Whenever we happen to be in the vicinity of the three good fish shops (aren't they called fish mongers?), we might pick up some. I had picked up some pabda from David's in E Block Market in Gurgaon. And now that our water supply was back to normal (after four harrowing days without), I felt brave enough to cook the pabda!

There are many other ways of cooking pabda, but this is the only one I know. So here goes. (This is how I make it. There will be slight variations from person to person. This is just in case there are people out there, who like me, in my early days, thought each recipe learnt was the ONLY way to make it. Anything else was not the correct way)!!

You will need:
Pabda: 1/2 kilo or 4 fish
Brinjal / Aubergine: 1
Kalonji / Kalo jeera: 1 tsp
Turmeric: 3-4 tsp
Fresh coriander: a handful
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

How to:

1. Wash the fish, pat them dry and smear well with turmeric and salt. Keep aside.
2. Slice the brinjals lengthwise into 1 to 1&1/2" strips. Wash the pieces, smear with turmeric and salt.
3. Heat oil in a pan (about 2 tablespoon) and lightly fry the brinjals. They don't have to be deep fried. Remove the brinjals.
4. Heat oil to smoking in a pan. Then add the fish. If they are big in size, fry them on or two at a time. Warning: Stand well away from the pan. The pabda's splatter hot oil, everywhere! I solved the problem by holding the lid of the pan in front of me like a shield!!
5. Each piece takes about 2-3 minutes frying on each side. Remove the fried fish.
6. You can make the curry in the same pan, but I like to use a kadai for the curry or 'jhol'.
7. Mix 1 and 1/2 tsp turmeric in a small bowl of water. Stir well to ensure that the turmeric is dissolved and there are no lumps.
8. Add 1/2 tsp oil in the kadai. Add the kalonji and wait till it splutters (about 30 secs).
9. Add the turmeric water into the kadai.
10. Stir briskly, on high flame till the water dries up.
11. Add half cup water and repeat the process at least two more times.
12. Then add water for the curry: about 500 ml or half of a normal mineral water bottle. Bring to a boil.
13. If you don't mind chillies, add couple of green chillies and 1 tbsp grated ginger to the curry.
14. Add the brinjals.
15. Add the fish.
16. Let it boil along with the curry for 3-4 minutes.
17. Lower flame and cover. Let the curry cook for another 7-10 minutes.
18. Uncover, add the chopped coriander.
19. Remove from flame and serve hot with rice.
    

Note: Having enjoyed your meal of pabda and rice, don't forget to clean the splattered oil. The turmeric in the oil leaves dreadful stains! But I am sure you will agree, that's a small price to pay! Bon Appetit!

Hearty Soup for a cold winter day

First day of the new year dawned cold, crisp and a minor crisis of taps running dry. (It has now developed in to a major crisis since we are still without water second day). We were constantly assured of the problem being resolved in the next half hour which kept getting delayed. Around 2, I tore myself away from the net and went into the kitchen and cooked up this one dish meal...a winter favorite for us and really easy to make.

The original recipe is a non veg one with "lardon fume". But the veg version is equally easy and tasty as well.

You will need:
Onions: 1
Spring Onions: 3-4
Garlic: 3-4 (or less if you dont much care for garlic)
Bay leaf: 1
Peppercorns: 5-6
Tomato: 2
Carrots: 2
Cabbage: 1/2 a medium sized one
Pasta: 1 cup
Chicken stock cubes: 2
Salt to taste
Olive Oil
Water

How to:

1. Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a deep pot (I use a pressure cooker).
2. Add the bay leaf and peppercorns.
3. Add the onions and spring onions and fry till they turn pink.
4. Add the tomatotes and the veggies, lower flame, cover and cook till the tomatoes release their juices.
5. Add the pasta, the garlic (which I smash using a heavy spoon), the stock cubes, 2-3 cups of water and cook on high heat for 5 minutes. Then lower and cook till the pasta is done (as per the instructions on the pasta packet which is normally 10-12 minutes).
6. Adjust for salt, you could add some chillie flakes if you like and hey presto...

Ah! Hot thick soup warming your belly on a cold winter day or night....

The Non-Veg version differs only in one ingredient and in the first step. The rest is identical:

In a pot, add the strips of smoked bacon directly, without the oil. As it fries, it releases its fat and then follow steps 2-6. Hmm...it tastes out of this world. And beware, this heavy soup is somehow siesta inducing. So be ready to crawl under a heavy quilt after this meal, and so logically keep this dish for a lazy weekend!

Arusuvai Friendship Chain

Oops! I have gone and done it. Said yes that is to the Arusuvai Friendship Chain. Where a food blogger sends a secret ingredient to another and the recipient has to then use that secret ingredient to make a dish and then pass it on to two or more people.

Well, one fine day Bhags asked me if I'd like to participate and in a moment of utter fearlessness I said YES. And I have been quaking ever since. Well, today, she tells me that she has mailed me the secret package. God...I know, I just know, the same postal system which manages to either delay or lose all my regular mail, will very promptly and in perfect condition, bring me the secret package any day now.

Although the whole idea is to well make a chain of friends who blog about food, I hope I have some left at the end of this...

Plain musoor dal

(This extremely basic recipe is for all those of you who keep coming to Timid Cook via the search for "How to cook dal" and there seems to be many such searches! Hope this helps)!

Last friday, we returned from a short trip to Goa, sun tanned and over stuffed (with goan goodies), extremely happy but to a bare refrigerator. We were too tired to go shopping immediately so I had to make do with what I could find. Rice-musoor dal-begun (brinjal) bhaja! Ah! Comfort food.

There are varities of musoor dal recipes...the difference being the ingredients used for tempering or "chowNk". This recipe uses a small onion, garlic and cumin seeds.

You will need:

Musoor dal: 1 cup
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Bay leaf: 1
Red Chilli: 1
Salt to taste

For tempering
Onion: 1 small
Garlic: 3-4 cloves
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Oil: 1-2 tbsp

How to:

1. Wash the dal well with several changes of water. Drain.
2. In a pressure cooker, put the dal, turmeric, the bay leaf and the red chillie and salt to taste.
3. Add 1 & 3/4 cup water (a little less than double the quantity of dal) and cook for two whistles (might take more in winter). Leave aside for the steam to escape and the lid to open.
4. Slice the onions into fine rings. Mince the garlic.
5. In a kadai, heat oil and add the cumin seeds.
6. When the start to splutter, add the onion and garlic and stir well. Cook till the onions turn pink.
7. Add the cooked dal to the kadai.
8. Add water to make the dal thinnish. Sometimes, while cooking the dal in the pressure cooker, all the water evaporates.
9. Adjust salt and cook the dal in the kadai on high flame for 4-5 minutes.
10. Remove from fire and serve with rice (along with other veggies ... I prefer this dal - rice combos with fries or "bhajas" - brinjal or parwal or aloo and sometimes, fish!

Bon apetit!

Orange Peel Cake

Saturday was the coldest night that Delhi has had for a very long time. 6.8 degrees. Shiver me timbers. But this also had a happy flipside. R sent me a surprise package, which arrived intact thanks to her fabulous packaging and the weather: An orange peel cake. Scrumptious. I gave a slice to my help J and her comment was that I should get the recipe so that we can eat it more often. So, R obliged.

You will need:

Flour: 2 cups
Baking powder: 1tsp
Sugar: 1 cup
Eggs: 3
Vegetable oil: 3/4 cup
Orange essence: 1 tsp or Orange marmalade: 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence: 1 tsp
Orange peels: 1/2 cup
Warm milk
Butter

How to:

1. Mix 1 & 1/3 cup flour and baking powder and sieve this three times.
2. In a bowl, add 3/4 cup oil and 1 cup powdered sugar. Mix well.
3. To this add two tbsp flour followed by one egg and mix well. Then add another 2 tbsp flour and another egg. Repeat this till all the three eggs are in the batter.
4. Add a bit of warm milk to smoothen the batter.
5. Add 1 tsp each of orange essence and vanilla essence. If you don't have orange essence just add 1 tbsp marmalade and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence and add half a cup of chopped orange peel.
6. Grease a tin with butter or oil and dust with flour. Pour the batter and bake in an oven (preheated for 5 minutes) at medium for 40-50 minutes or till a inserted knife comes out clean.

Mmmm....just the thing with a hot cup of coffee!