at 13:03

Bengali Gota Peyanj e Shada Mutton Korma/ Mutton Korma with whole Onion/ Mutton Korma/ Bangladeshi Mutton korma with shallot

It is 5 in the morning and I am wide awake. My body is still on Kolkata time zone. Not a bad thing actually. I get to have my morning cuppa peacefully before the little one is up and demands every second of my time. Some time I actually like it. A little time to myself. I work almost 24 hours. Yes, you read it correct! 24 hours. Even when I sleep I work as I still breastfeed my little one. Throughout the night I keep checking if her small body is covered properly, if she doesn’t stir for an hour I check if she is breathing alright, I touch her face to see that her log hairs which she refuges to cut are not covering her eyes and then I touch her to feel her body against mine, to smell her body! And then there is the older baby boy to look after who is always out of duvet. This is all while I am sleeping.

I went on a mental health training few months back. There was one section on ‘looking after self’. One exercise to start the section was to list the works/things/activities we have done from waking up till we came inside the training room at 9am. I listed 28 activities or work between 6am to 9am. Let’s not even go in to the work that I do rest of the day. You get the picture I assume about my day.

I work reduced hours on Thursday. I get two hours of free time to myself. I zealously keep that time to me, to spend just the way I want to. I don’t take calls, I don’t go online, I do not meet anyone, I hate R coming back from work early to spend that time with me and I do not pick my dotty early. That is my time to spend just the way I want with myself. And no, I have no guilt feeling about it. I love it. I deserve it. And I am worth it and more!

Is there any one like me? I am sure there are! Would love to know about your’ my time’?  What do you do with your ‘ my time’

I am using my morning ‘my time ‘to write this recipe which has been sitting on my hard drive for two months now. Again a recipe from my mother’s kitchen. Very easy to make, takes very few ingredients and I received some amazing review about the recipe from two people who ordered it from me.  I will recommend that you give this recipe a change -at least once. And if you are not too inclined to cooking I can always cook for you.

Here is the recipe for Gota Peyanj e  Shada Mutton Korma/ Mutton Korma with whole Onion/ Mutton Korma/ Bangladeshi Mutton korma with shallot. I used potato so that my dotty can eat. but it is not actually part of the recipe.

Ingredients:

1kg Mutton

1/2 cup white Onion paste (white onion is used to keep the colour white/creamish of the dish, but you can use red too. Should not change the taste really)

1 and ½ cup thinly sliced white onion

1 tbsp Garlic paste

1 tbsp Ginger paste

15/20 small onion whole (shallots can be used as well)

1/2 cup white oil

1/4 cup sour yoghurt

1/4 cup sweet yoghurt (I used homemade sweet yoghurt. Otherwise use sugar with yoghurt as per your taste)

6/7 cardamom

1 inch long cinnamon

1/2 tsp white pepper powder (use black if that’s what you have at home)

1 tsp rose water (optional)

1/4  cup ghee ( optional. I did not use it but my mother did and she thinks that it make a lot of difference in taste. I worry about my heart hence do not use ghee in my cooking. I am all for good food with less grease, well  as much as possible)

1 tbsp lemon juice

4/5 green chilli (I used but my mother recipe doesn’t have chilli)

Salt as per taste

Method:

1.       Wash the mutton and marinate it with ginger, garlic , salt and lemon juice

2.       Keep it aside in fridge for 4/5 hours, if possible over night

3.       Heat oil and ghee ( if using) in a heavy bottom pan

4.       Fry the sliced onion till they are brown

5.       Add the marinated mutton to the fried onion and slow cook till mutton is little tender. Make sure that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. It should not be more that 10/15 mins

6.       Add the onion paste and slow cook the mutton. Sprinkle water ( very very little) in case the mutton is sticking at the bottom of the pan

7.       Add sour and sweet yoghurt, cinnamon and cardamom and slow cook ( kosha or bhuna process, if you know what I mean by slow cooking)

8.       Add little water and cook it till mutton is tender

9.       Add rose water ( optional) and green chillies (optional)

10.   Skin the white small onions and add to the mutton. Cook till they are tender yet retains shape

11.   Serve with white pulao or rice

12.   This dish compliments a dinner/lunch where the menu has a spicy item, as this is mild, aromatic and textured.  

at 23:29

Fast Track Chicken Pulao

Ingredients

1.    1-small sized chicken, cut into pieces

2.    2-Onions chopped properly

3.    1-teapsoon garlic paste

4.    1-teaspoon ginger paste

5.    1-teaspoon cumin powder

6.    ½-teaspoon red chili powder or paprika powder

7.    ½-cup yogurt

8.    ½-cup milk

9.    2-green chili, slit length wise

10. ½-cup green peas (optional. I used peas to eat some vegetable)

11.  2-inch stick of cinnamon

12. 3/4-Cardamom

13. 2-bay leaves

14. 1-piece mace

15. 5/6-cloves

16. 10-balck peppercorn

17. 300g-Basmati Rice (I did not use any proportion of rice to chicken. I just used my instinct because we wanted to eat well and lots of chicken)

18. 3-tablespoon oil (use ghee if you like. I do not like ghee in my food so I avoid using ghee. Ghee makes me feel so heavy after the food, which I do not like)

 Method:

1.    Marinate chicken with ginger, garlic, chili, cumin powder, yogurt and keep aside

2.    Wash and soak the rice

3.    Heat oil in a pan and add cinnamon, cardamom, mace, bay leaves, clove, black pepper and fry for two minute

4.    Add the chopped onion and fry until they are soft and little brown

5.    Add chicken onto the onion, add salt and cook until oil separates

6.    Add milk and green chili and cook the chicken until almost done

7.    Cook the rice 80% and drain the water

8.    Add the rice with the chicken and close the lid. Cook until rice is totally done so as the chicken.

9.    Using a fork fluff up the rice and let it cool down a bit. Once cooled it would be very fluffy in case it was sticky before ( it happens to me very often as I never measure and all water or milk as much as I like depending on my mood, hahaha!)

10. Warm it up again and serve with raita

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at 23:49

Sunday Saga continues: Mutton Jhol (Goat meat Curry)

Ingredients:

 300g mutton shoulder pieces

2-large onions cut into fine slices

4-cloves of garlic, paste

2-inch ginger, paste

1-teaspoon turmeric

1-teaspoon red chili powder

1-teaspoon cumin seed powder

1-teaspoon coriander seed powder

6-small potatoes, cleaned and skinned

1- Bay leaf

4/5-cardemom

2- Inch cinnamon

Salt to taste

2-tablespoon oil

 

Method:

1.    Heat oil in a pressure cooker

2.   Fry the potatoes and keep aside

3.   Add turmeric, chili, cumin and coriander with little water and make a paste

4.   Heat more oil in the pressure cooker

5.   Fry the onion until soft. Add little sugar for color

6.   Add ginger and garlic

7.   Fry until oil separates

8.   Add the spice paste with fried onion, garlic and ginger and fry till oil separates

9.   Add mutton and cook

10.                Add cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom

11.  Cook the mutton and 10 mins

12.                Add potatoes and pressure cook until mutton is soft ( I did not count the whistle of the pressure cooker. So please follow your own pressure cooker instruction)

13.                Serve with white boiled rice

 

For regular update from my blog, please visit my face book page  pet pujo and adda  and click ‘like’. Also, follow me at my blog . I am featured at Networkedblogs.  You can also leave your comments here. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Hope to see you again!

 

 

at 18:34

Shorshe Chicken (Mustard Chicken)

This is a classic Bengali dish, although mainly cooked with fish.  This is not for the faint hearted-for the dish has a punch from the mustard paste which is very different from the English mustard paste one would get in store. Usually mustard paste for the dish is made using mustard seeds and using ‘Shil Nora’ (pestle and mortar).

There are various ways to cook the dish. The traditional way (or it is said..Although debatable) of cooking, this dish is the simplest and I feel, also the tastiest. However, my mother thinks otherwise. She will add some fried red chili and curry leaves to the dish very often to make it a little different. Sometimes she also adds coconut milk or just milk. I am cooking it my way- the simplest way for me, so that I can get over with this week’s cooking and cleaning and then go out to enjoy the snow!

Happy cooking and enjoy the food.

Ingredients:

1 small chicken

2-onions finely copped

1-tablesppon ginger paste

1-tablespoon garlic paste

1-teaspoon turmeric powder

¼-teaspoon red chili powder (depending on taste)

3-tablespoon mustard paste (or powder. I used powder from kolkata)

3-tablespoon yogurt

2-tablespoon mustard oil/ white oil (I used combination of both)

4-green chili slit in the middle and deseeded to get rid of the hotness of the chili

Salt to taste

Pinch of sugar

 

Method:

1.     Heat oil in a pan and add sugar and caramelize it

2.    Add the onion and fry until soft and brown

3.    Add ginger and garlic paste and fry

4.    Add red chili and turmeric and salt and little water

5.    Cook it until oil separated

6.    Add chicken and cook until tender. Incase needed add little water. Otherwise it should release water anyway

7.    When chicken is cooked add the mustard paste ( if using package then soak the mustard with little salt for 10 mins before using)

8.    Add green chili

9.    Cook for 5/10 mins and then add the yogurt ( which is already beaten  in a bowl)

10. Cook for another 5/10 or until gravy reduced  but do not cook for long as the yogurt may separate

11.  Serve with boiled white rice

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at 00:07

Kosha Mangsho or Bengali Spicy Sautéed Mutton Curry Recipe

Kosha Mangsho or Bengali spicy sautéed mutton curry (Mind it......spicy is not synonymous with chilli hot) is one of those dishes that I love but do not cook often as we are minimising our consumption of the mutton or lamb or any other red meat for that matter. However, no festival is complete in Bengal without a mutton dish. This is also a dish for which a Bengali would trade off rice for ruti (roti/round Indian flour bread) or Luchi ( puri/ Indian fried round bread) or porotha( paratha).

I cooked this dish for Eid, which was on 20^th October 2012 to give the festival season a boost. I could not post it immediately as I was shifting home so was busy packing. This dish is usually cooked with goat meat (mutton) but you can also use lamb/beef or pork. However, in Bengal it is cooked with mutton and usually will have thick gravy with lots of spices like cinnamon, cardamom and clove. You can adjust the use of chilli according to your taste. I am not a chilli person so mine is usually very mild. But for the red colour of the gravy I used roasted red pepper powder. You can also use Kashmiri chilli powder if you like. Also this dish usually have lots of oil, which again is not my type of food. Therefore, I reduced the use of oil. According to many without oil food doesn’t taste the way they should be. But I think it doesn’t compromise the taste...well at least it comes out the way I like it. I like to eat and do not want to ever give up eating. So I ensure that I make them a little healthy so that I do not have to totally give up. To that end, what I also did is, boiled the mutton for 5 mins with little bit of salt and turmeric and drained the water to get rid of the meat fat. However, this is not usually done or needed for this recipe. Do not do this if you are not as concerned of high fat or cholesterol. But if you decide to do, I can vouch that the taste does not change

Hope you like the dish.

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Kosha Mangsho or Bengali spicy sautéed mutton curry Recipe
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 3

Ingredients:
500gms- Mutton/lamb leg or shoulder cut into medium pieces
1-teaspoon turmeric
2-teaspoon ginger paste
2 –teaspoon garlic paste
2- teaspoon roasted cumin powder (dry roast the cumin seed and make powder)
1- teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder (optional or depending on taste)
2- large tomatoes de-seeded and chopped
2-large onion chopped
½ Cup Yogurt
1-teaspoon sugar
5- Cardamom
2-inch cinnamon
2-bay leaves
5-cloves

 

Method:

1.    Optional process: Boil the mutton for 5mins with little salt and turmeric.

2.    Optional process: drain the water to get rid of the fat.

3.    Marinate the mutton with ginger, garlic and yoghurt. I marinated it for 30mins. You can keep it as long as you like even over night, but freeze it while marinating for longer hours

4.    In a deep and heavy bottom pan heat oil

5.    Add cinnamon ,cardamom, clove and bay leaves

6.    Sprinkle sugar and add chopped onions

7.    Fry the onions until golden brown. The caramelised sugar will also add to the colour

8.    Add the tomato and fry until oil separates

9.    Add the mutton and cook slowly for 10/15 mins

10. Take  coriander, cumin, red chilli Powder and turmeric Powder in a bowl

11. Add little water and the ginger and garlic paste to make it a smooth paste

12. Add the mixture to the mutton

13. Cover with a lid, on  low heat and cook till the mutton is soft

14. Uncover and check for burning at the bottom, if required sprinkle little water

15. When the mutton becomes soft, sprinkle some garam masala ( powder of cinnamon and cardamom )

16. Serve with rice, roti, puri or paratha