at 21:44

A Bong’s (that also Noakhailla) take on Kolhapuri Chicken Tambda Rassa

I never thought of a Marathi dish. If you asked me a month ago what my favorite Marathi dish was, I would have said none or I do not even know which are Marathi dishes. There was a time when I went to Mumbai every three months for work and have eaten typically Marathi food. Yet I never realised I was eating Marathi food. And that is very unlike me!! I am very curious about people, places, food and its spices. Yet why did I not take notice of Marathi food? How come it never caught my attention? Well, I do not know. I would need to go back to past.

Preeti’s Isingcake (http://isingcakes.wordpress.com/) giveaway got me thinking. I met Preeti through Bloggers Buzz event where she is one of the organizers. She also has a wonderful and a very successful blog called Isingcake.  Preeti has organized a giveaway where one needs to cook a Marathi dish for a modern table or a dish that resembles a Marathi dish. Please see the details here if you are interested

(http://isingcakes.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/a-quick-post-on-clarified-buttergheetup-and-ruchira-giveaway/#comment-1622 )

Now for me, it was an opportunity to read about Marathi food.  To my surprise, I realized I actually loved few of the regular Marathi food and did not know they were Marathi.  My ignorance and not at all bliss I must say in this occasion. I combed through the net to get an idea about Marathi food. Not that I was very successful as most wonderful site were in Marathi and most English ones  not interesting enough to keep me glued. However I found a list of foods that many people voted as most popular Marathi food like  Srikhand, Vara pao, Amrakhand, Missal Pao, Kolhapuri Tambda Rassa Chicken,  etc etc. Now, I keep making Srikhand, eat vara pao very regularly, do not like Amrakhand, love missal pao and never made Kolhapuri Tambda Rassa Chicken. Therefore, from among the list, I decided on Kolhapuri Tambda Rassa Chicken.

Now when I looked for the recipe of the dish, I realised that people have different version of the dish, which like any dish is, very interesting as cooking always varies from one household to another. I mainly checked the following blog,

Meera’s Blog http://enjoyindianfood.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/kolhapuri-tambda-rassa.html,  

Mallu Girl , http://malluspice.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/kolhapuri-chicken.html and http://madhurasrecipe.com/index.php?p=1_222_Kolhapuri-Chicken.

Although, all three had slightly different aspect to the recipe, what also attracted me to Kolhapuri Tambda Rassa Chicken is it’s nearness to a chicken dish that is cooked by my grandmother. Being from the coastal area of Bangladesh, coconut always plays an important role in many of the dishes that I am used to eating. I use a lot of coconut but do not use that much of tomatoes which  seemed like an integral aspect of the recipe. In addition, the amount of chili used in the original recipe, well I am not that brave nor do I have any likeness for food that is very very hot (the meaning of Tambda Rassa is red gravy , so I guess the use chili is justified) .  Therefore, I decided to make the dish mixing my grandmothers method and the Marathi method (I am no expert on Marathi method… so depending on the blogs that I have read). And it came out really well. I would want to try the real Marathi thing soon when I my friend J comes over who is in love with chili, until then I am happy with the fusion of Bong and Marathi Kolhapuri Tambda Rassa Chicken. Hope you like it too.

By the way, I am a Bong (for the uninitiated Bong is Bengali) and I love to eat in a Bong way. So I am serving my Bongalisious Kolhapuri Chicken Tambda Rassa in Bong way with rice.

A Bong way of eating... and ofcourse with hands.. god gifted forks I call them

 

Ingredients:

·        Baby chicken cut into small pieces

·        2-tomatoes cut into small slices (the Bengali/my grandmother’s recipe does not have tomatoes. I used based on the Kolhapur recipe)

·        1-green chili

·        1/2-teaspoon red chili powder

·        1-teaspoon cumin powder

·        1-teaspoon turmeric powder

·        ½-cup fresh coconut grated (original Kolhapur recipe calls for both fresh and roasted coconut but as I am mixing both the method I am suing fresh coconut, which is more common in Bengali cooking)

·        1-tablespoon pumpkin seeds (used in my grandmother’s recipe. poppy seeds used in Kolhapur recipe. However, use of poppy seed is not common in Bangladeshi food, but use of pumpkin seed is. So I am using pumpkin seeds)

·        4/5-cloves of garlic

·        2-inch ginger

·        3-medium sized onions, thinly sliced

·        2/3- cardamom

·        2-inch long cinnamon

·        1-bayleaf

·        ½-teaspoon mustard seed (the Bengali/my grandmother’s recipe does not have this. I used based on the Kolhapur recipe)

·        Salt to taste

·        Oil as per taste

 Method:

1.    Fry the onions until brown and soft

2.    Soak the powdered spices in little water ( chili, cumin, turmeric) and make a paste

3.    Now in a blender add the fried onions, garlic, green chili, ginger and make a paste

4.    Marinate the chicken with onion paste and keep aside

5.    Now fry the sliced tomatoes until soft and then cool them down

6.    Using a blender make tomato paste and keep aside

7.    Make a paste of coconut and pumpkin seeds and keep aside

8.    Now heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds

9.    When the starts to smell add the coconut paste and fry until oil separates

10. Add the spiced paste with fried coconuts and cook again until oil separates

11.  Add the marinated chicken, salt  and cook for 10mins

12. Add tomato paste and cook

13. Add cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom and cook until chicken is soft and gravy ( not grave)  is thick ( I made it dry but you can also keep as much gravy as you like)

14. Serve with white boiled rice

at 22:47

Basil and Almond Pesto layered baked Fish: Rich and Crunchy and Christmassy

Basil and Almond Pesto layered baked Fish

As promised, I am posting the second fish recipe that I had made last night. Well, although I said that it is an Italian dish, today’s after thought is that I am not sure. The reason being, I really made a pesto (paste) taking the idea from Italian dish but gave it a twist to suit my taste. Can this be still called Italian? Maybe a fusion is more appropriate. Whatever, the taste was great- rich with fish oil, crunchy from the bake and the taste of basil and almond works wonder. What I liked about it is the intricacy and texture of the recipe. I tasted the fish, little sharpness of the chili, bittersweet taste of the basil leaves and then the sweetness of almond. Not to forget, the rich and creamy taste of grated parmesan. It came out really nice, taking consideration that I just made it up with whatever I had in the fridge.

Here is the recipe……hope you like it. Although in all honesty,  it was little oily for my taste ( I am totally oil less food person)  but I know R would have loved it. I did not use that much oil, but as I used Salmon which is very oily (good source of omega 3, the heart friendly oil) and then with the parmesan together with olive oil made it oily. However if you use any other fish I am sure the effect will be different. But taste and texture wise, it was awesomenesssss!

Ingredients:

Handful of Basil leaves, chopped
1- Clove of garlic
1- Green chili or more depending on taste
1-teaspoon pine nut
5/6-almond roasted
Just little, really little bit of roasted cumin (10 cumin max maybe!!!)
1-tablespoon lemon juice
Salt to taste
Grated parmesan as per taste
Red Chili flake as per taste
Olive oil
4- Salmon steaks. Use any fish you like

 Method:

1.   Leaving aside the parmesan, salt, lemon juice , olive oil and red chili flake, grind rest of the ingredients to a paste

2.   Add the lemon juice, olive oil and salt to the paste

3.   Season the fish with salt ( little bit though)

4.   Add parmesan and chili flakes with the paste

5.   Oil a baking tray and arrange the fish

6.   Cover top side of each steak with the paste

7.   Bake the fish on 180c ( fan oven) for 20 mins or until done

8.   Serve with green salad and boiled potatoes

at 22:04

Couscous Khichdi

Between packing ‘n’ number of bags /boxes/suitcases and shifting home, I did manage to do some cooking for Eid. I made Kosha Mangsho (spicy Bengali Mutton Preparation) and chicken meatball Pulao. However, as of now, I am too tired to write the recipes, watermark the photos and upload them. Instead, I am posting the recipe for couscous Khichdi that I made some time back.  By the way, if you use rice instead of couscous, then this khichdi will  be called ‘patla khichuri’ as mentioned in my earlier post on khichuri ( Bhoger Khichuri version 1) and also the rice version of this one will be Bhoger Khichuri version 2. I will post the recipe for rice version later. For now, it is couscous. After all these festivals and gluttony, I think our tummy deserves a bit of rest.

Ingredients:

50gm couscous

50gm mung or masoor Dal (yellow or red lentil)

1-carrot, diced

1-potato, diced

½-cup peas

6/7-floret of broccoli (you can use cauliflower to have more authentic Bengali taste)

6/7-dices of sweet pumpkin

1-teaspoon of Panch Phoron

2-dry red chili

2-Bay leaves

1-teaspoon turmeric

1-teaspoon cumin seed powder

1-teaspoon of ginger paste/powder

2-green chili            

Salt to taste

1-tablespoon oil

Method:

1.    Wash the lentils and keep aside

2.    Heat oil in a deep bottom pan

3.    Add bay leaves, red chili and panch phoron (mix of five seeds, very essential to Bengali cooking)

4.    When the seeds start to sputter and you can smell the fried red chili, add hot water. ( Have your extractor fan on or be ready to sneeze for a while J)

5.    Add lentil in the hot water

6.    Add salt. Add the potatoes and carrots so that they get boiled along with the lentil

7.    Method if using couscous: let the lentils be 1/2 cooked. Add turmeric, cumin and ginger and cook

8.     Then add other vegetables

9.     Cook the lentil and vegetable until well done

10.  When everything is cooked, just add couscous to the pan and green chili and cover for 10 minutes. And it is ready. If you want it runny, add little more hot water and cover for another couple of minuets

11. Serve with raita, fried aubergine/potato/ pointed gourd etc. I eat with omelet and mango achar

12. Method if using rice: wash the rice and keep aside

13. Let the lentil be 1/2 cooked.  Add cumin, turmeric and ginger and cook

14. Add rest of the vegetable. You can also fry the broccoli or cauliflower or even all the vegetable before adding for better taste. However, I did not fry.

15. Add the rice and cook together until rice is well cooked as well as vegetables and mixed well with lentil

16. Add green chili and cook for another 5 mins for the smell of green chili

17.  The consistency varies but usually this khichuri is not very dry

18. Serve as suggested above

at 23:07

Couscous Tindora Pulao (Couscous Ivy gourd Pulao)

After a terrible day in my office, I want to cheer myself with something nice to eat. But my fridge is empty, I have no vegetable and no chicken to make soup. In addition, I am not in a mood to take soup tonight. I want something NICE and different. All I am left with, in the fridge is a packet of frozen Tindora or Ivy gourd and some couscous. I have one onion and two small potatoes.  So I decided to make a Pulao with whatever I am left with.

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 10mns

Cooking time: 20mins

 

Ingredients

300gm Tindora or Ivy gourd

100gm couscous
1onion, cut into small pieces
2 small potatoes, cut into small pieces
3 pods of garlic, thinly sliced
½- teaspoon cumin powder
½- chili powder
½- black pepper powder
½-turmeric
Pinch of cinnamon powder
Salt to taste
1-tablespoon oil

 

Method:

1.    Heat the oil

2.    Add the sliced garlic and fry for 1 mins, do not make them golden

3.    Add onions and fry for 3/4 mins

4.    Add the potatoes and fry for 5/6 mins

5.    Mean while take the couscous in a bowl and add boiling water. Water should be ½ centimeter above the level of the couscous. So the couscous will be cooked well and remain fluffy

6.    Add the Tindora or Ivy gourd to the frying potatoes

7.    Add salt, cumin, black pepper, red chili to the Tindora

8.    Cook until Tindora and potatoes are cooked well. Sprinkle water in case it sticks to the  bottom

9.    When vegetable is cooked sprinkle little cinnamon powder all over it

10.  Add the couscous and cook for another 2/3 mins. don’t stir too much so that couscous remains fluffy

11.  Serve hot with raita