Bhapa Chingri (Steamed Prawns in Banana Leaves)

Prawns, rather shrimp, steamed in a mustard-chili sauce was one of the favourite holiday dishes when we were growing up. Normally, what Mom would do is seal the shrimp with the spices into a small container and put it into the bhater hari (rice-pot) once the rice was half done. The shrimp would get cooked in it's own juices on slow heat over an hour or so. And when at lunch it would be opened, you would have fragrant steam rising mixed with the pungent mustardy, chilli smell. Ahhhh.....Heaven.


Miss those rainy afternoon lunches when we would sit down for long slow lunches. Anyway, here's my personal adaptation. It's extremely simple to make, relies on the natural flavours of the spices to make the dish stand out and is great if you have a cold. Let me know if you try it.

Ingredients (Serves -2, Approximate cooking time-1 hr)

• Prawns (shelled and deveined) - 250 gm
• Mustard seeds- 4 tbsp (more if you are adventurous)
• Green chillies- 8
• Mustard Oil- 4 tbsp
• Grated coconut (optional)- 3-4 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Banana leaves- If you can get them for wrapping the prawns-2 large

Preparation:


Soak the mustard seeds in hot water for 2 hrs. Grind half of the chillies to a paste. Add salt and the mustard seeds. Grind to a smooth paste.

Mix the paste into the prawns and set aside for 15 mins. Now wrap the prawns in the banana leaves along with the mustard paste. Sprinkle on a little bit of salt, 2 tbsp mustard oil, and two of the remaining green chillies chopped into small pieces. Use the second leaf to make a waterproof parcel as shown below. If you want, you could seal in even this pack in a length of aluminum foil so that you have no messy drips in the oven.

Bake in the oven at 200 C for 30 mins.

Remove the foil and unwrap the banana leaves. Add remaining chopped chillies and mustard oil. Serve hot with rice.

Tips:

• Picked this one up from my cousin. When grinding the mustard seeds, it is recommended that you add a pinch of salt as otherwise the paste takes on a bitter taste.
• If you want, you could add a pinch of turmeric and red chili powder with the marinade in the beginning. Lends colour and masks a bit of the fishy smell.
  

Grilled Chicken Purses with Cheese & Basil Stuffing

Nothing as comforting as baked potatoes, chicken and cheese. Here's a recipe for chilly winter evenings when you are just tired, and want to dig into some comfort food.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Chicken Breasts- 2
• Mozzarella- 1/2 cup grated
• Potatoes- 4 medium sized ones
• Garlic- 2 large cloves
• Button mushrooms- 1 cup
• Butter-1 tbsp
• Basil- Dried, 2 tsp.
  
• Peppercorns- 1 tsp
  
• Salt to taste

Preparation (About60 mins):

Clean the potatoes and pop them into the oven at 300C for 25 mins. While the potatoes get warmed up, clean the chicken and cut into halves. Dice garlic into small pieces, mix with grated cheese, peppercorns, half of the basil and salt to taste. Mash the mixture. Make slits in the chicken breasts and stuff with this mixture. Seal the chicken purses with toothpicks.

Baste the chicken with butter. Once potatoes finish 25 mins in the oven, add chicken to the baking tray. Dab the potatoes with a bit of butter, sprinkle a bit of salt and remaining basil over the potatoes and the chicken. Cook in oven for 20 mins at 250 C.

Turn the chicken over and pour the juices on the potatoes and chicken so that they do not dry out. Add mushrooms to the tray after dusting them slightly in remaining butter. Pop into oven and cook for 10 mins more at 200C. Serve hot.



Tips:

• The potatoes can be mashed with a bit of the gravy that drains out from the chicken . Tastes heavenly.

Hilsa baked with mustard

The perennial Bengali fishà Hilsa is back again. Strange that even in Muscat, you manage to find Hilsa. As my fishmonger Nizam put it, “Bhai, absolutely fresh from the Padma. Only two months on ice.” But then what else could a Bengali guy do when faced with Hilsa.

To top it all, there’s this new chappie in office, who had been eating my ear’s out with stories of home cooking, lau-chingri, posto bata, sukto, einchorer dalna, note shak bhaja. So there I was standing with a kilo of tucked under my arm and no idea of what to cook.

In the end I decided on “Illish Paturi”. Back at home, the hilsa would have been swathed in layers of fresh banana leaf and left to cook in the embers of a dying wood or coal fire, but Muscat being as removed from Calcutta as fish from the desert, what follows is my modified version.

Ingredients (Serves 1):

• Hilsa- 250 gm
• Mustard seeds- 3 tbsp
• Green Chillies- 6 large
• Mustard Oil- 2 tbsp (You can cut it down for a diet h ilsa bake, but it does leave something lacking).
• Salt to taste

Preparation (Processing 10 mins+ Baking Time 25 mins~Total Time 40 mins)

Soak mustard seeds in warm water for half an hour. Cle

an fish in fresh water. Grind mustard seeds, 4 green chillies to fine paste. Add mustard oil and salt to the paste. Spread this paste evenly on the fish. Slit and place the remaining green chillies on top of the fish. Wrap the fish in double layers of aluminum foil. Seal the packet from the edges, as you see in the pic below, so that steam does not escape. Do not wrap the fish too tightly as otherwise the pack may burst in the oven.

Set oven to 250 C and bake for 25 mins. If you have time on your hands, I would recommend cooking at 150 C for 40 mins. The longer time you can give it low temperatures, the better do the flavours mingle.

Serve hot with rice.

Tips:

• Though we are using a lot of mustard and green c hillies, the baking process tempers down the spices. So if you want to have it really spicy, I would recommend serving green chillies on the side for accompaniment.

Grilled Tuna and Vegetables

Well, you can eat Maggi in only so many ways day after day. But what do you cook up that’s healthy but can be done in 40 minutes flat with little intervention. So despite being bone tired after a day’s slugging it out with clients and the production team, here I was at Carrefour buying Tuna fillet.

And man, it turned out great. So here’s the recipe for the day- Grilled Tuna with veggies. Takes only about 40 mins. You could customize it and drop the baked potato’s to make it into a leaner meal.


Ingredients (Serves 1):

• Tuna fillet- about 200 gm
• Broccoli- 1 small floret • Baby carrots- 1 handful
• Potatoes- 2 medium sized one
• Button Mushrooms- 4 or 5 medium sized ones
• Butter- 20 gm
• Lemon- ½ a small lemon
• Rosemary
• Pepper corns- ¼ tsp whole
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Pop the potatoes into the oven. Bake for 20 mins @ 200 C.

2. Clean fish, make small incisions, dress with lemon and salt.

3. Clean the veggies and separate the broccoli into bite sized morsels.

4. Once potatoes are pre-cooked, braise fish & mushrooms with butter. Put in dish with potatoes, veggies, mushrooms. Place the broccoli, carrot near the bottom where they can be stewed in the juices release by the fish. Sprinkle a few sprigs of rosemary and the pepper on top and pop into the oven.

5. Cook for 15 mins @ 200 C. And your dinner is ready.


Tips:

• A glass or two or three of white wine wouldn’t spoil the dinner. ;)

Baked Hammour With Sage

One of the commonest eaten fishes in the Persian Gulf, the "Hammour" is a member of the Grouper family. Available in any and every supermarket, it's great for fries, for a light weekend dinner.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Hammour Fillet- 400 gms, cut into medium sized pieces
• Button Mushrooms=100 gms
• Unsalted Butter- 3 tbsp
• Sage- 2 tsp
• Basil- 1 tsp
• Garlic- 1/2 large clove (shredded)
• Lemon juice- 1/2 lemon squeezed
• Lemon Rind- 1/2 sq.cm
• Pepper- 1/2 tsp coarsely crushed
• Salt

Preparation:

Mix the butter with salt, finely shredded lemon rind, shredded garlic, chopped sage, basil, lemon juice. Mix into an even mixture. Make shallow cuts into the fish to increase area over which the sauce can be spread and speed up cooking. Use half of this butter- sauce to coat the fish. Keep aside. Preheat oven to 160 C for ten minutes. Place fish in an open baking plate and place in oven for ten minutes. Turn the fish over. Checking to see how well it's done. Now arrange the sliced mushrooms in between the fish making sure that they are dipped in the sauce. Cover fish and mushrooms with the remainder of the baste, add a sprinkle of salt, a dash of lime juice so that it doesn't dry out. Place in oven, bake for 15 mins. To check if fish is done, pierce with fork, fork shuld come out cleanly. The mushrooms are done if they start to brown over. Take care that the neither the fish or the mushrooms dry out.

Tips:

• In absence of Hammour, you could use any mild white fish.
• If you want something as a side dish to much on, would suggest a brown loaf, that you could break off and mop the sauce with
  

Chicken in Green Chilli-Date Sauce

THE RECIPE for a date night when you are trying your best to woo someone. You can always claim, it's a recipe from faraway Oman, originally created for the Imam at Nizwa. ;). The most enchanting part of this recipe, besides it's novel taste, is it's simplicity. The sweet tidbits of date contrast well with the pungent chili, all of it brought out on the foil of uncomplicated chicken.

Ingredients:

Chicken- 100 gm, diced
Dates- 1 handful, preferably just ripening.
Green chili- 3 large
Red Chills- 3
Cumin seeds- 1 tbsp
Cardamom- 3 small
Ghee- 3 tbsp
Sugar- 2 tsp
Salt- To taste


Preparation:

Grind cumin seeds, red chili, cardamoms, sugar into fine powder. keep aside. Now, de-pip the dates, chop into small pieces. Add to green chills and grind into smooth paste with a little water. Add the chili-cumin powder and a little salt to the mix. Keep processing for 2 minutes more.

Marinate the chicken overnight in this sauce.

Heat ghee in frying pan, fry the chicken till tender. Lower flame and stir in the marinade. Once the fat leaves the sides, add water, and simmer for 2o minutes.

Serve piping hot with rice.

Tips:

• As usual, I recommend a chilled white wine, preferably dry to go with this one.
• And of course, I almost forgot the most important ingredient. Make sure your 'date' is there.

Green Mango & Chicken Salad

Another 'quicky' for hot summer afternoons. Minimal preparation time. Refreshingly tart green mango combined with chicken.

Ingredients (Server two):

Chicken breasts- 2 boiled and cut into pieces
Green Mango- 2; chopped into slivers
Green Coriander- 3 sprigs, torn into smaller segments
Salt to taste.

Preparation:

Toss chicken pieces, green mango in salad bowl. Garnish with coriander. Chill for half an hour and your salad's ready.

Avocado Pineapple Salad

A light and refreshing salad, high on protein perfect for blistering summer afternoons.With lots of fruit thrown in it is extremely crunchy and filling, while replenishing lost body fluids. What's more this one can be tossed together in 15 minutes- Just right for those summer afternoons when you really don't want to cook.

Ingredients:


Avocado- 2 medium sized ones, peeled and chopped
Pineapple- 1 small cut into small pieces
Chicken breasts- 2; Bolied with salt and cut into small nibble sized pieces
Prawns- 100 gm, shelled and boiled
Green olives- Chopped, 1/4 cup
Black olives- Chopped 1/4 cup
Honey- 1 1/2 tbsp
Lime- 2
Lemon- 1
Mint- 3-4 leaves shredded
Salt- To taste

Preparation:


Toss all ingredients together in a salad bowl. Pour the pineapple juice from the cut pineapple over it. Dash with honey and sprinkle salt to taste. Squeeze the lime and lemon juice into the salad. Toss, chill for fifteen minutes.

Your salad's just right.


Tips:

• If you want something more filling, you could serve the salad accompanied by rusks dashed with olive oil. Sprinkle with a tiny dash of crushed rosemary- Just adds the little extra bit of fragrance to the whole tasting experience.
• You could add crab sticks to the salad if you want to make it more 'sea-foody'
  

Duck in Orange Sauce

Once upon a time there was a restaurant in Dhaka called Le Saigon. Unobtrusive and select. Never hit the radar. So different from most restaurants in Dhaka.

Anyway, I am getting ahead. This post is dedicated to this quaint romantic restaurant and to Shammubhai who runs the restaurant in his own unique way.

Borrowed from Shammubhai, here's Duck in Orange Sauce.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

Duck- 1 (Skinned, cut into bite sized pieces)
Orange- 1
Fresh Orange Juice- 2 cups
Red chilli-3
Sugar- 2 tbsp
Oil- for frying
Salt

Marinade:

Fish Sauce- 2 tsp

Ginger- 1/2 in shredded

Red chilli- 2 Shredded

Salt- To taste
Pepper- 2 tsp

Preparation:

Marinate the duck for 2 hours. Deep fry marinated duck pieces till golden brown. Add sugar to caramelize. Add orange juice. Simmer over low flame. Reduce sauce till thick. Add red chillis and orange segments. Serve hot with with rice.

Tips:

In case you are in Dhaka and are looking for a different dining experience, I would heartily recommend Le Saigon (You can find recipes from Chef Que here.)

Bengali Sona Muger Dal

One of the evergreen favourites at any Bengali meal- Moong Dal cooked in ghee. Somehow, despite trying so many times, never could recreate either the aroma or the taste that Mom used to get. Maybe it was some secret ingredient she never told us, or maybe it was just her. Who knows, here’s a recipe from the time I got closest to that old flavour.


Ingredients (Servers 2):

Moong Dal -½ cup (Would be best if you could get the variety we call ‘Sona Mung’ in Bengal)
Ghee- 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds (jeera)- ¼ tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Preparation:

Wash dal and dry. Put a pan on low heat and add dal. Keep stirring constantly till dal starts emitting a sweet aroma. Take care not to burn dal to brown. Now add salt and water and boil dal till soft. If you are using a pressure cooker, you should boil till two whistles.

Heat ghee in frying pan, and add the cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds start to pop add the strained dal and cook for five minutes. Add the water leftover from boiling the dal, salt sugar to taste and a pinch of turmeric powder. Cook till an even consistency. Add 1 tsp of ghee, cover and take off flame.

Serve hot with rice. This aromatic and creamy dal can be had with rice as a complete meal. The best part is that not only does it taste great, but between dal and rice, they have all the amino acids required by the body. So you have a meal which covers all food groups- complete protein, carbohydrates and fat.

Suran ala Crème

No cream in this one. But picked up the name just because of the consistency of the final dish (plus I had created a dish called ….ala Crème). The inspiration behind this dish came while thinking of what could we have with poached fish. Was looking for something, that would be spicy, mashed like potato or tapioca and was different from your run of the mill flavours. Chancing upon yam at the supermarket, gave it a try.

Bon appetite.

[Incidentally, the fire extinguisher that you see in the picture has no specific relation to my confidence on pulling this dish off. It’s standard issue on all my cooking adventures. ;) ]

Ingredients:

Suran (Yam; a.k.a. ‘Ol’ in Bengali) - 400 gm
Onions- 5 large
Garlic- 3 large cloves
Ginger- ¼ inch stick (shredded)
Cinnamon – ¼ cm stick (coarsely crushed)
Turmeric- 1 ½ tsp
Red chilli- 6
Sugar- ½ tbsp
Cooking oil- 2 tbsp
Salt to taste


Preparation:

De-skin the yam and cut into ½ inch cubes, the smaller the better. Boil with turmeric and salt till macerated. Take off from flame and let cool. Julienne the onions and garlic. Heat oil in a non-stick pan and add onions, garlic and ginger. Fry on low heat till the onions start losing their colour. Strain the yam pieces and add to the pan. Keep cooking over low flame for five minutes.

Slowly add the turmeric-water-yam stock. By now the yam pieces would have really become soft. Now, mash the yams while still in the pan. Add the sugar and salt for taste. Break the red chillis’ into small pieces and mash into the yam paste. Keep adding water and cooking over low flame till the yam becomes a paste with the consistency of thick yogurt. Mix in cinnamon powder, cover and let cook for five minutes.

Serve hot with pancakes or rice or as an accompaniment to poached or fried fish with steamed fish. Warning!!!- Because of the large amount of chilli in the dish, this dish will bring tears (of joy I hope) to all but the most die-hard hot food aficionado.


Tips:

• Sometimes, if not cooked properly, yam causes an itchy feeling on lips and throat. Nothing serious, but in case you fall prey, just suck on a slice of lemon.

Pineapple Chicken

‘Something about how they cook chicken with pineapples in the Philippines’- The vaguest recollection about this was that I had read an article in Reader’s Digest when I was in junior school, and yet this memory kept coming back. So finally on this New Year’s Day, based on the vaguest of ideas of how it will taste, I tried to put this idea to test

Ingredients (Serves two):

Chicken breast – 600 gm (diced into bite sized pieces)
Pineapple- 250 gm can conserved
Ginger- 2 inch stick (coarsely chopped)
Pepper- 3 tsp (Whole)
Lime- 1 whole
Red chilli- 2 whole
Oil- for cooking
Salt –To taste
Optional: Lemon grass- Half a stick (in ½ inch pieces)


Preparation:

Make small incisions in chicken cubes to speed up cooking. Bruise ginger lightly and add to chicken pieces. Toss in the pineapple along with the syrup and squeeze in half a lemon. Mix thoroughly and let it marinate for 2 hours. The enzymes in the pineapple, along with the lemon will tenderize the chicken.

Heat oil in a pan and fry chicken till tender. Once the chicken is cooked, add a little more oil and throw in the pineapple pieces. Let it simmer for five minutes. Coarsely crush the pepper corns with the flat knife side. Now add pepper and garlic from the marinade along with the red chillis (for flavour). Add remaining marinade and salt to taste. Cover and reduce flame to low. For those willing to experiment, you could add the lemon grass now. However, lemon grass with its overpowering flavour can unbalance the gingery sweet taste of the dish. Some like it some don’t. I leave the choice to you.

Leave on simmer till sauce is reduced to a consistency of a thick soup. Before serving sprinkle a little lime juice on chicken. Serve hot with rice.

This dish is simple to cook. Estimated cooking time is ½ - ¾ of an hour and is a combination of many flavours. The first impression is the sweet pineapple taste which combines well with the chicken. As you munch along, the other flavours that you chance upon, the tart lime juice sprinkled in the end, the piquant taste of ginger and hot bite from the coarsely crushed pepper refreshes the palette and reawakens the sense of smell as you move along.


Tips:

Being a sweetish dish, I would recommend a side dish of a spice vegetable (dominant flavour being hot) so that the palette does not get jaded. I tried it with a side dish of mashed yam (Suran ala crème) and pancakes.

Dessert suggestion- With a main course whose dominant flavour is sweet, it’s extremely difficult to find a dessert. An alternative could be a tart fruit like Kiwi. Peel Kiwi, slice into thin chunks and chill in freezer. Just when your guests are done, serve in martini glasses topping off each serving with a ripe cherry. Accompany with whole wheat crackers and a dry ripe cheese.

Star Fruit and Shrimp Salad.

I am in one of those “Eat Healthy” phases. For the past few days my lunch at office has been fresh fruits or salads, of course rounded off by the once in a while pizza. While thinking of new salad ideas thought up this one, and seems it turned out not to bad. For those of you wondering whether or not I tried it out myself, well, I have. ;)

It’s a pretty nifty one. Refreshing on a hot summer’s afternoon or as a cold snack when you return from office.

Ingredients:

Star Fruit/ Carambola (or ‘Kamranga' as we call them in Bengali)- 1 green, the more tender the better the tart taste.

Shrimp- 200 gms, shelled and boiled in salt water with Paprika.

Paprika coarsely ground into powder- To taste.

Salt to Taste

Preparation:

Slice the fingers of the Carambola lengthwise, leaving behind the core which contains the pips. Chop these into small triangles. Sprinkle a healthy dose of paprika onto the shrimp. Salt to taste. Toss with the Carambola slivers. Chill. Serve.

Tips:

• Originally thought of making a dressing with 'Saké, and 'Wasabi'. Marinade the prawns in this pungent mix. And post marinade, you could mix in a little more sake and pour over the salad as dressing.
  
• To increase volume you can add shredded salad greens.
  

Mutton Stew With Coconut Milk

Picked up from a former roomie. Modified from a traditional Malyali recipe, this one has a nice creamy taste and you can add vegetables as you want to make this as nutritious as you want.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

Mutton/ Lamb- 250 gms
Coconut milk- 1 cup
Carrot- 1 medium sized, chopped
French beans- 50 gm, chopped
Onions- 4 large, finely sliced
Cinnamon- 3 large sticks
Sun dried red chillies- 3
Salt, sugar to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp

Preparation:

Boil mutton with salt till tender. Fry onions till white and mushy. Add mutton, cinnamon stick and cook till fat leaves the sides. Add the chopped vegetable. Stir in the coconut milk slowly, cover and cook over low flame. Regulary stir and add the stock bit by bit. Reduce gravy.

Tips:

Traditionally eaten with appams, but goes just as well with rice. Goes well with brown toast, just make the gravy thicker.

Greek Salad

Whatever, I like calling this a Greek Salad, therefore a Greek Salad it is. Fast to cook. And as one of my girl friends like calling it, the perfect 'horny-porny' food.

Ingredients:

Iceberg lettuce- 4
Cherry tomatoes- Half a handful
Black olives depipped and chopped- Half a handful
Feta cheese- 100 gm, chopped into small pieces
Mushrooms- Half a handful
Baby corn- 6 small
Pepper corns, roasted- 1 tsp
Olive oil and vinegar dressing

Preparation: [The snaps not mine, but does look inspiring:)]

Wash all the greens thoroughly. Chill iceberg lettuce. Throw all ingredients together in mixing bowl, shred chilled lettuce, add to bowl. Toss around with olive oil and vinegar dressing and a little salt for taste and volia, your salad's ready.

Tips:

• Perfect for a brunch after a late night. Also goes very well as an entree for dinner.
• Works perfectly with white wine and candleight. ;)

Sauted Veggies with Mustard Twist

A quick dish for the times you want a veggie side dish for a heavy meal.

Ingredients (Serves 2):
Potatoes- 3 large
Tomato- 1 small
Spring onions sprigs- 100 gms
Onions- 1 large
Oil- 2 tsp
Pepper corns- 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Salt & sugar to taste


Preparation:
Boil potatoes. Heat oil in pan, and fry onions till golden, add the chopped potatoes along with mustard seeds, pepper corns, salt, sugar to taste. Fry till potatoes are almost cooked. Add chopped tomatoes, spring onions and a few sprigs of corriander. Cover. In five minutes it can be served.

Methi Chicken

This one's passed down from a cousin of mine. This was the first dish cooked successfully for a lunch for junta, my first success as a host. This one's for you Gopalda. This one can be whipped up in a jiffy, about twenty-five minutes actual cooking time, is minimal fuss and requires very simple ingredients.

Ingredients (Serves- 2):
Chicken- 300 gms
Curd/ Yogurt- 100 gms
Green chillis- 3
Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
Methi seeds- tsp
Oil- 2 tbsp
Salt and sugar to taste

Preparation:
Prepare a marinade of beaten curd, salt, chilli powder, salt. Marinate chicken for 2 hrs.
Heat oil, add methi seeds on low flame. Just as they start turning golden brown, add chicken pieces. Once the fat leaves the sides, add the marinade into the pan, stir and and leave covered for fifteen minutes. Once the chicken is done, slit the chillis lengthwise and add. Serve hot.

Tips:
The taste though similar to most creamy chicken dishes is suprisingly different because of the methi and the smell of green chillis added in the end. Great with rice.

Mutton Stew with Green Papaya.

Today's cooking day. A holiday after almost a continous month of working. Avi's coming home for dinner, maybe that inspired me to cook for the whole day. This one's easy, a mutton stew, low on oil and easy to cook. The predominant flavours is from the cinnammon and the green papaya. The green papaya once thorougly cooked also forms the base of the gravy, giving it a slightly different flavour. Approx cooking time- 1 hr.

Ingredients (Serves 4):
Mutton/ Lamb- 500 gms
Green Papaya- 500 gms
Onions- 3 large, sliced
Garlic- 3 large cloves, minced
Ginger- 1 inch stick, coarsely chopped
cinnammon- 2 or 3 inch long pieces
Red chillis- 3 large
Red chilli powder, turmeric powder
Bayleaves-3
Sugar, salt to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp

Preparation:
Put mutton to boil with salt, turmeric and half the chopped ginger. Chop green papaya into small pieces and add to boiling mutton. Keep boiling till meat is tender. Once mutton is tender, heat oil in pan and add onions, garlic, ginger, red chillis, cinnammon. Add a little sugar to the pan for taste and colour. Cook over low heat till onions soften. Add the mutton pieces and keep stirring to thourougly cook the mutton. Keep stirring contiously, till fat leaves the sides. Slowly add stock bit by bit and keep cooking over a low flame. Keep over low flame for twenty minutes and then add remaining stock with ht half cooked papaya. Stir, cover and let simmer over low flame, till gravy thickens.

Tips:
Serve with steaming rice or can be eaten with pancakes or appams (just reduce the gravy).

Dak Bungalow style Chicken Jhol.

Remember those hurried meals put together at the end of a hard day's travel at dim ly lit circuit houses or government dak-bungalows. Thrown together by the chowkidar-caretaker-cook, the taste still lingers on. Probably the wonder of childhood, when things were so much more mysterious and the whole world was waiting to be discovered was the magic of the dish. Here's my attempt to recreate that magic.

Ingredients:

Chicken -1kg, cut into small pieces
Onions- 3 large chopped
Garlic- 2 large cloves, finely chopped
Ginger- 1/2 inch shredded
Oil-1 tbsp
Corriander powder.
Chilli powder
Turmeric powder
Salt, sugar to taste

Preparation:

Boil chicken with salt and keep the stock separately. Heat oil in pan, add onions, ginger, garlic. Add a little sugar to the onions to caramalize it and for colour. Once the onions are white, add chicken, and fry over high flame till tender. Add turmeric powder and chilli powder to taste. Lower flame, add chicken stock and simmer for 15 mins.
Add a tsp of corriander powder, cover and cook for 10 mins. Serve hot with rice.

"Doi Maach"

One of the traditional "must haves" at all Bengali weddingsis the "Doi Maach". Rain or shine, summer or winter, no wedding would be complete without the doi-maach. Slightly sweet, fragrant from mysterious spics, served on steaming white rice on green banana plates. Oh, I wish were back home in Calcutta.

Here's an adaptation that can be whipped up in a jiffy.

Ingrediants (Serves 2):

4 x 100 gm pieces of rohu ( or any other fresh water carp).

1/ 2 cup of whipped plain curd or yogurt

Mustard oil ( Somehow, when it comes to fish, nothing else seems to substitute for the pungency of mustard oil)

4 large onions diced coarsely

1 large clove of garlic

3 small pods of cardamom

1 quarter inch stick of cinnammon

3 sun dried red chillis

2 bay leaves

Red chilli powder, turmeric, salt, sugar to taste

Preparation:

Clean fish, sprinlke a teaspoon each of turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Mix evenly and set aside for half an hour. Heat 4 tbsps of mustard oil on a high flame till smoking. Carefully add the fish and fry till they are an even golden red (be careful as the oil tends to spurt, if you are not very confident, you can fry the fish two pieces at a time). Remove fish from pan and turn down the flame. Now sautee the onions and garlic till they become translucnt. Add bay leaves and red chillis.

Now slowly stir in the yougurt adding a little water from time to time to get the consistency that you want for the final gravy. Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and sugar to taste. Add fish followed by the cardamoms and cinnammon. Cover and let simmer for twenty minutes.

Serve hot with steaming rice and whole green chillis as garnish.

Tips:

• Suggestions for a complete meal- Rice, "sukto" (the Bengali equivalent of 'avial'), moong dal with peas, doi-maach and ice-cream sandesh for dessert.