Shabji Diye Rui Maccher Patla Jhol

 

This is an old traditional dish prepared particularly when any member of the house is sick or if you want to cool your stomach down or prepared if anyone is in a hurry or travelling. This dish is loaded with vegetables and fish. It has a thin gravy / Patla Jhol. If you are unwell make this dish with less spices, more liquidy and avoid deep frying the fish. In Bengali cuisine as each dish has a different style of cutting the vegetables, in this dish the vegetables has to be cut big in size, in wedges or in big pieces and all the vegetables cut has to be in the same proportionate size. Any seasonal vegetables can be added like pointed gourd, raw banana, cauliflower, carrot, French beans, flat beans, potato,tomato, drum stick, raw papaya etc. Urid dal bori is fried and is also added to the Jhol.

Normally the spices are freshly ground into paste, but here I have used freshly ground powder. This is a very quick one pot meal served with hot steaming rice and lime wedges. Absolutely a comfort food... 

This recipe is a must try....

Ingredients 

8 pieces of Ruhi Maach 

1 big size Potato cut into wedges lethwise or big cubes

1 medium size long Brinjal cut into half and made into big pieces 

6 pieces of medium size Cauliflower florets 

1 Carrot cut into half lengthwise and then made into pieces 

1 Raw Banana cut into half lengthwise and then made into pieces

6 Flat beans cut into half horizontally 

1 tomato cut into wedges lengthwise 

1/4 cup Green Peas 

2 Green Chillies silted lengthwise 

1 tsp Ginger paste 

1 tsp Turmeric powder 

1 tsp Coriander powder 

1/2 tsp Cumin powder 

1/2 tsp Pepper powder 

Salt to taste 

1 tsp Panch phoran 

2 Bay leaves 

1/2 cup Mustard oil for frying the fish and cooking

Method 

Apply 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and salt to the fish and keep it to marinate for 10 minutes. Take a wok, add oil. Let it heat well. Add the fish into the oil and fry it on both sides till brown in colour. Remove and keep it aside. Remove the excess oil and leave 3 tbsp oil in the wok. Add Panch phoran, bay leaves and green chillies. Wait till the Panch phoran crackles. Add the ginger paste and sauté it for a minute. Add all the vegetables, stir and sauté it for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the salt and all the powder spices. Stir and cook for another minute. Add about 1 and 1/2 litres of water. Stir, cover and cook till the vegetable are almost tender. Now add the fried fish. If you are adding fried boris add it with the fish. Cover and cook for another 2 minutes. Serve it hot with hot steaming rice and lime wedges.

Whole Wheat Banana and Coconut Cake Loaf...

This is a very easy vegetarian rustic tea time cake loaf. I had few bananas which had completely ripped and that went into the batter along with the other ingredients. Love the flavour of coconut and banana in the cake. 

Whole Wheat Banana and Coconut Cake Loaf...

This is a very easy vegetarian rustic tea time cake loaf. I had few bananas which had completely ripped and that went into the batter along with the other ingredients. Love the flavour of coconut and banana in the cake. 

Ingredients 

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour 

1/2 cup Fine Semolina 

1/2 cup Desiccated Coconut 

1 1/2 cup Powder Sugar 

1/2 tsp Cardomom powder 

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder 

1 tsp Soda bicarbonate 

1/4 tsp Salt 

1/4 cup Almond flakes 

1 tbsp Coconut essence 

1 cup Butter Milk  (1/4 cup Curd + 3/4 cup Milk)

1 1/4 cup Milk

3 Ripe Bananas 

3/4 cup Oil

Method

Add the bananas, oil, butter milk, powder sugar and coconut essence into the blender. Blend the ingredients until smooth. Pour the batter into a mixing bowl. Add the cardomom powder and desiccated coconut. Beat it well. Add the semolina and beat it again. Add half of the whole wheat flour and 1/2 of the milk. Beat it again. Now add the rest of the flour, milk, baking powder, soda bicarbonate and salt. Beat it well. The batter should be thick dropping consistency. Add more milk if required to get the right consistency. 

Take 2 and a half loaf tins. Grease the baking tins. Fill in the batter into each tin till the tin is half filled. Sprinkle some almond flakes on the top. Bake it at 180 degrees celcius for 45 to 50 minutes or until done. Remove the cake loafs  from the oven and cool it completely before slicing.

Garlic Coriander Baked Fish with Coconut Milk...

This dish is adapted from Thai cuisine... It's a baked dish and without oil. So definitely a healthy dish. Serve this dish with green cucumber, tomato and rice and enjoy the flavour of garlic, coriander and coconut.

Ingredients

500 grams  Fish Fillets

2 Garlic cloves minced 

1 small bunch Coriander leaves cleaned

1 inch Lemon grass stalk

4 to 6 Bird Eye chillies 

2 tsp Red Chilli flakes

Salt to taste 

3/4 cup Coconut Milk

1 tbsp Honey

2 tsp Fish Sauce 

2 tbsp Lemon Juice 

Method 

Take a chopper, add the coriander, garlic, lemongrass, chilli flakes, fish sauce, lemon juice, honey, salt and coconut milk. Pulse it  3 to 4 times. Take a oven proof baking dish. Place the fish into the baking dish. Pour the mixture on the fish and mix well. Add the chillies. Bake it in a preheated oven for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees celcius or until fish is cooked well. Garnish with coriander leaves, cucumber slices, tomato slices and lemon slice.

Gota Sheddho....

Gota Sheddho is made on the day of Saraswati Puja in Bengal and eaten the next day that is Sheetal Shasti. Gota means whole and Sheddo means boiled.  It is made with 5 types of vegetables, spinach with stem and roots (shish palak) and whole mung dal or whole black lentils. Each of the vegetables are taken in odd number like 5, 7, 9 or 11.

Different household has different version of making Gota Sheddho. In some houses, they have it only boiled and some houses makes mashala gota sheddho. 

I tried keeping my mother's traditional way of making mashala gota sheddho.  It is normally eaten with panta bhaat. 

Ingredients 

300 grams Whole Mung Dal 

1 bunch of Shish Palak

11 Flat beans whole

11 Green Peas whole 

11 small size Potato whole

11 small size Brinjal whole 

5 Green Chillies 

2 tbsp Ginger paste 

2 tbsp Fennel seed paste 

Salt to taste 

1/2 cup Mustard Oil 

Method 

Take the shish palak. Cut the stems into 1 inch pieces, the roots are also cleaned and add to the stem, the leaves are cut into pieces and kept separately. Give a slit on the potatoes and brinjals. Take a deep bottom pot. Add 2 liters of water. Add the dal. Arrange the stem and the roots of the palak, sprinkle some salt, then arrange potatoes followed by brinjals. Then add the flat beans, green peas and chillies. Cover the pot and let it simmer on low flame till the ingredients are 50 percent cooked. Add half of the mustard oil. Now add the Palak leaves and sprinkle some more salt. Cover and let it simmer till the dal is cooked. Take the ginger and fennel seed paste in a bowl. Add 1/4 cup water to it. Pour the paste on the gota and add some more mustard oil. Cover and cook for another 10 minutes. Lastly drizzle the remaining mustard oil and keep it over night. Enjoy the gota for lunch.

Cantonese Style Chicken Sausage and Green Garlic Vegetable Stir Fry...

Cantonese cuisine is a simplified traditional Chinese cuisine which comes from Guangdong province and is one of the Eight Culinary Traditions of Chinese cuisine. The ingredients used in Cantonese cuisine, are spring onion, sugar, salt, soy sauce, rice wine, cornstarch, vinegar, scallion oil, and sesame oil, to enhance the flavour, garlic is heavily used in some of the dishes. Ginger, chilli peppers, five-spice powder, black pepper powder, star anise and a few other spices are also used. 

Net source... 

This dish is good for starters. The sugar balances the flavour of the sourness. Love the flavour of the garlic. 

Ingredients 

10 pieces of Chicken sausage cut into pieces

1 cup Yellow and Red Capsicum cut into cubes

1 Onion cut into cubes

2 to 3 Green chillies slit into 2 halves

6 to 8 whole Garlic cloves 

1 cup Green Garlic leaves cut into pieces 

1 tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar or White Vinegar

1 tbsp Soya Sauce

1 tsp Chilli Sauce

Salt to taste 

1/4 tsp Pepper powder

1/2 tsp Sugar 

2 tbsp Sesame seed Oil 

Method 

Take a wok or a fry pan, add oil. Heat up the oil. Add the sausages and stir fry for a minute. Add the whole garlic, green chillies and onions. Stir fry on high flame till the onions are light pink in colour. Add the capsicum and stir for 2 minutes. Add the green garlic leaves. Stir for a minute. Add the vinegar, soya sauce, chilli sauce, sugar, salt and pepper powder. Stir for a minute and serve it hot.