The minimal Bengali meal: alu-bhate-bhat (boiled rice with mashed potatoes)

This is what one makes when lacking time/energy to cook a proper meal.

Ingredients:

1. rice: according to your appetite. The amount depends on the kind of rice and how old it is. Remember that freshly husked rice does not increase in volume as much as old rice when boiled. Also, parboiled rice is not as filling as unboiled rice (after cooking).
2. potatoes: 1-2 medium
3. salt: according to taste
4. oil: 1-2 tsp (any of mustard oil/sunflower oil/ghee/butter, I have not tried any other oil - but whatever edible oil/fat you like can be used)
5. chili - 1-2 green or dried red (optional)
6. onion - 1 small (optional)

Procedure:

1. Wash the rice and the potatoes in water.
2.  Slice the potatoes into 2-4 pieces. This determines how fast they are cooked. If using a pressure cooker, you may not need to slice them at all.
3. Boil the rice and the potatoes together. Determining the amount of water is tricky. My rough standard is: for pressure cooker, the water level should remain 1" higher than the rice level (without the potatoes). If cooking in a pot, it depends on how much opening there is for vapour to go out and at what temperature you are cooking it. It may be safer to put excess water and drain it out at the end of cooking (but you lose a lot of nutritional elements with that). You may keep some of the excess water and have a semi-liquid version [called "phyan bhaat" (rice with starch)].
4. Take the potatoes out of the rice. If the potatoes are fresh from the farms, they tend to have thin skin which is edible. Otherwise peel them using your fingers.
5. Mash the potatoes with salt (1/2 tsp or according to taste), oil, green chili and chopped raw onions. If you are using dried red chili, roast them first and then mash them. You can vary the taste by mixing the oil, chili, onion first and mashing them together before mixing the potatoes. Roll the whole thing into a ball.
6. For each mouthful, top the rice with a little bit of the mashed potatoes and eat. 
7. Additional taste enhancers: You may want to sprinkle some extra salt on the rice for better taste. You can bite off bits of raw onion and/or green chili with each mouthful. You can squeeze a teaspoonful of lemon juice on the rice. You can add extra lump of butter or  some ghee to the rice.

Boiled chicken with mashed potatoes

This was another accidental creation. I was in the middle of boiling some potatoes when a power-cut made me abandon them for the time. Later in an attempt to use those half-cooked potatoes I bought some chicken and made up the following:

Ingredients:

Chicken: 1/2 kg (with bones) cut into large (~3"x3"x1") pieces.
Coriander leaves with stem: 50 g
Cumin seeds: 3/4 tsp
Salt: 3/4 tbsp or according to taste
Potatoes: 3 medium sized
Butter/ghee: 2 tbsp


Procedure:

1. Clean the coriander leaves and separate the leaves from the stem.
2. Peel and chop the potatoes into thin pieces (the thinner they are, the faster they get cooked)
3. Add 1 tbsp butter/ghee and 3/4 tbsp salt to the chicken and mix well.
4. Add 5 cups of water and cook in low heat with lid on for 1/2 an hour (until the chicken is cooked). I used the "soup" mode of my induction cooker. Add the coriander stems and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds halfway through the cooking.
5. Remove the chicken pieces and add the potatoes and keep boiling at low heat until soft. The stock should have almost dried up by now
6. Heat up 1 tbsp butter and add the rest of the cumin seeds. 
7. Add the boiled potatoes along with the stock and mash them up with a ladle. 
8. When it dries up, crush the coriander leaves and mix them with the potatoes (you may want to use a small fraction of the leaves to avoid too strong a smell). You can also add some chopped green chili.

PS: I expect you won't have half-cooked potatoes, so I guess you can cook them entirely in the stock.

Induction cooking: starting out

Recently I went on to make my personal cooking arrangements. I decided to buy an induction cook-top. The important points for me were:

1. portability, 
2. size (space requirement)
3. cleanliness, 
4. price
5. energy-price
6. versatility

After getting the cook-top I went on to buy an ordinary "kadai", a plate to cover it and a ladle (all of stainless steel) as my only utensils. On my first trial I made some "khichdi" with potatoes and eggs in it. Not too bad. But there were several technical issues:

1.  stainless steel works fine with induction although a magnet does not stick to it (which is a test everybody says you should do to check if a utensil is usable with induction).
2. Stir frying is difficult with a pot with thin bottom as it gets too hot too quickly. Also, the "kadai" base heated up unevenly. It did not conduct well enough, causing the bottom to expand more than the sides - making the base warp.
3. Boiling works better. But uneven heating and low conductance causes some parts to burn while others remain undercooked. You need to stir the contents to avoid that.
4. With induction heating and cooling are very rapid (especially with a thin vessel of low heat capacity). For those used to cooking with some "inertia" of heating it will take some experience to adjust the timings and temperatures. 

Afterwards I found some information on utensils. I particularly liked this one:
http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/02/16/heavy-metal-the-science-of-cast-iron-cooking/#more-3385

And there is a website on induction cooking from where I got the above link:

http://theinductionsite.com/induction-cookware.shtml

Murg malaikari (chicken curry with coconut milk)

This dish can be called "niraamish"[1] in a sense because it is cooked without onions or garlic.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken - 1 kg
2. Potatoes - 250 g 
3. Coconut milk - 1 cup
4. Ginger - 2" stick (made into paste)
5. Green chili - 4 (slit into two halves)
6. Dried red chili - 2
7. Bay leaves - 4
8. Cinnamon - 2" stick
9. Cardamom - 3-4
10. Cloves - 3-4
11. Pepper corn - 1/2 tsp
12. Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
13. Coriander powder - 2 tsp
14. Cumin powder -  2 tsp
15. Coriander/parsley leaves (chopped)
16. Sugar - 1/2 tsp
17. Oil - 1/2 cup
18. Salt - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Clean the chicken and drain out any water. Add 2 tbsp oil, 1" of cinnamon stick (crushed), 1 tbsp salt,  1 tsp each of coriander powder, cumin powder and turmeric powder. Mix well and keep aside.
2. Peel and quarter the potatoes and add 1/2 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and marinate for 10 minutes.
3. Heat oil and fry the potatoes until they start getting a red tinge.
4. After taking the potatoes out, add half the bay leaves, the red chilies and the sugar.
5. Add the green chilies, 1/2 of the ginger paste and keep stirring.
6. As the chilies and the bay leaves get darker, add the chicken and mix.
7. Cook at medium heat and stir occasionally. The meat will release a lot of water. When the water starts to reduce, add two cups of water and let it cook with the lid on.
8. When the water starts boiling again, add the rest of the coriander, cumin and turmeric powder, put the lid again and cook until almost done (use your judgment here, checking the chicken occasionally).
9. Add the potatoes and cook with lid on until both the chicken and the potatoes are cooked. If you add the potatoes too early, they will get overcooked by the time the chicken is done. If you put them too late, the chicken will be overcooked by the time the potatoes are cooked. 
10. Now crush the pepper corns, rest of the cinnamon stick, the cardamoms and the cloves and add. Crush the rest of the bay leaves in your hand and add. Squeeze out the juice from the rest of the ginger paste into the chicken. Add the coconut milk. Mix well and let it cook for another couple of minutes.
11. Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and the dish is ready.

Footnote

Chicken barbecue with tandoori masala and garlic-coriander sauce

This was another impromptu creation due to lack of experience and ingredients. I was faced with the problem of barbecuing chicken for a gang of fifteen men. It was a friends bachelor party and everybody wanted to have a barbecue but none of them seemed to have much idea about cooking. I, too, had never barbecued on my own but assisted others in putting the meat pieces on the skewers.

So I embarked on this green horn project with the hope that after plenty of alcohol nobody will realize what they are eating. I am not sure everybody praised it due to the pleasant effect of alcohol, so I will leave it to you to "taste" it.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken (I wanted boneless breast pieces but ended up with regular chicken with bones cut into medium sized pieces) - 3 kg

2. Tandoori chicken masala - 50 g.

This is available in packets in India, but the ingredients are Coriander seeds, cumin, red chilies, dried mango powder, Kachri [no clue what this is], fenugreek leaves, salt, black pepper, dried garlic, dried onion, dried ginger, cassia, large cardamom seeds, nutmeg - all powdered together. Many of the items seem rather exotic or hard to make. But from the smell of the powder, I believe coriander powder, cumin powder, black pepper dominate the flavour. Some chili powder, cardamom seeds and dried mango powder and dried ginger (shunth) powder if possible, will enrich the base.

3. Lemon/ lime - 2

4. Turmeric powder - 1 tbsp

5. Butter - 100 g

6. Coriander leaves - 1 small bundle

7. Garlic cloves - 20

8. Ginger - 1" stick

9. Salt - 3 tbsp (or according to taste)

Procedure:

1. Clean the chicken. Separate out any fat and bony pieces like neck. Keep these aside for the sauce.

2. Add the tandoori chicken masala,  turmeric powder and 2 tbsp butter to the chicken. Squeeze out the juice from the lemons into it, mix thoroughly and keep aside.

3. Smash the garlic cloves and the ginger stick.

4. Heat the rest of the butter in a small deep pan and add the smashed garlic and ginger into it. Add the fat and bony pieces/bones. Keep it simmering at lowest heat without turning the fire off. If it gets too thick, you may add one or two cups of water.

5. We made the fire after this. That took about two hours.
    Thus, even if your fire is ready, I'll suggest that you marinate the chicken and simmer the sauce for at least an hour.

6. Chop the coriander leaves and add them to the simmering sauce. Keep simmering for another five minutes and the sauce is ready.

7. Put the chicken pieces on skewers piercing length-wise and pressing the pieces together. Make it as compact as possible. It should be of even diameter on all sides. Otherwise some parts of the meat will burn while some will remain undercooked.

8. Put the skewers on charcoal fire (over a grill) and cook. Turn the skewers once in a while so that all sides get cooked. Take a brush/ stick with a piece of cloth tied to its tip and keep dabbing some of the sauce on the meat.

9. Once the chicken turns dark brown and starts blackening at places, check if it is cooked by poking with a fork. Take it off the skewer and serve while hot. You may sprinkle a last dose of sauce before serving.

Patol-er dalna

This is the description of the other dish I mentioned in previous post.

Patol (pointed gourd) is chopped into 1" thick pieces and potatoes in 1" cubes.
Take some ginger paste, onion paste, slit green chilies, bayleaves.
Heat oil. Add bayleaves and green chilies. Once the green of the chili becomes white and the bay leaves  become dark brown, add ginger and onion paste. Keep scraping and mixing with a spatula to prevent it from getting stuck or burnt at the bottom.
Add the chopped patol and potatoes.
Keep mixing once in a while.
When the vegetables get semi-fried, add water and cook with a lid on until they are soft.

Patol bhaja (fried pointed gourd)

Last week I went to the vegetable market and could not resist the temptation of young and fresh "patol" (pointed gourd in English, parwal in Hindi). Only when paying for it did I realized that it was one of the most expensive vegetables in this season at Rs 60 a kg. And after buying it I did not get the time to cook it. So when I opened the fridge today I found them getting dry and yellow. So I had to cook all of them and I made two dishes out of these. The first is fry described here.

Ingredients:
pointed gourd : 6
salt : 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
oil : 4 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Cut each gourd into two longitudinally.
2. Mix salt and turmeric powder with the gourd pieces.
3. Heat the oil in a pan.
4. Put the gourd pieces on the oil. Spread them such that they don't overlap.
5. Cover the pan and cook at low heat for 7-8 minutes.
6. Take the lid off and turn the gourd pieces to the other side. Sprinkle a little water (about 1-2 tbsp) on them to prevent drying. Cover again and cook for another 7-8 minutes.
7. Check if they are soft enough to be cut with a spoon. If so, they are ready. Otherwise go back to step 6.

Barbecued king fish with cumin and coriander powder

Ingredients:

1. King fish fillet - 1 (~500 g)
2. Cumin powder - 1 tbsp
3. Coriander powder - 2 tbsp
4. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
5. Bay leaves - 2
6. Salt - 2 tbsp
7. Cooking oil - 4 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Wash the fish with water and let it drip dry.
2. Add salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder and cumin powder and oil and crush the bay leaves with hand and rub them all in.
3. Leave for 1/2 - 1 hour.
4. Slowly barbecue it.

Barbecued King fish with mustard paste

Ingredients:

1. King fish fillet - 1 (~500 g)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pacific_king_mackerel, but what we get here in Bangalore does not have spots, looks more like this: http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/106908407/King_Fish.jpg)
2. Black mustard seed (whole) - 2 tsp
3. Black jeera (nigella seed) - 1 tsp
3. Black pepper corn - 1 tsp
4. Garlic - 6 cloves
5. Cooking oil - 2 tbsp
6. Salt - 2 tsp

Procedure:

1. Wash the fish with water and dry it by letting the water drip off.
2. Rub salt and oil on it.
3. Soak the mustard, black jeera and pepper corn in a small amount of water (just enough to submerge them - about 3 tbsp) for about 10 minutes.
4. Add the garlic cloves and make a paste out of all these (the mustard will naturally tend to remain coarser, which is fine).
5. Rub the paste on the fish. Leave for 30-60 minutes.
67. Slowly barbecue the fish on a grill or using a skewer.

Mixed veg with pumpkin, beans and brinjal

This was an impromptu preparation. I decided to cook for myself after a really long time. Went to nearby vegetable shop and picked up whatever looked good. I wanted to cook pumpkin as I had not had it in a long time.

After starting out in the kitchen I realized I had:
A large chunk of pumpkin
Two raw bananas
A few small brinjals
A handful of yardlong beans (বরবটি)
A few onions
Potatoes

No turmeric powder (which is essential in any Bengali cooking) - discovered midway into cooking.
No ginger or garlic.
No whole coriander seeds, only powdered version.

Since I would be the only one to suffer, I went on bravely to make a vegetable dish out of all that I had.
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients (for two servings):

Pumpkin: 200 g
Yard-long beans: 5-6
Brinjal: 1 small
Raw banana: 1/2
Green chili: 3
Onion: 1 medium

Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder: 2 tbsp
Coriander powder: 2 tbsp
Bayleaves: 2
Cumin seeds: 1 tbsp
Black cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds: 1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds: 1 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
[ All the seeds are essentially components of paanch phoron, but I did not have supply of paanch phoron, in stead I add the seeds directly. This gives some flexibility also: while paanch phoron has all five seeds in equal amount, I reduce the fenugreek seeds as it tastes bitter. ]
Cooking oil: 4 tbsp

Procedure:

Preparing the vegetables:

Chop the pumpkin into small cuboids (1 cm x 1 cm x 0.5 cm - this happens when you slice the pumpkin with 0.5 cm thickness along one face and chop these slices into 1 cm squares in the next stage)
Chop the beans into 2 cm long pieces.
Chop the brinjal it 2 cm cubes
Remove the peel of the banana with a knife and then chop it into cuboids (1 cm x 1 cm x 3 cm)
Chop the onion into long thin ( 2 mm) slices.
Slit the green chilies

Cooking:

1. Heat oil in a round bottomed pan (kadai).
2. Add the whole seeds and the bay leaves.
3. When the seeds cease sputtering, add the green chilies and onion.
4. After some time the onion pieces will become transparent and then get dark (not exactly golden brown due to colour from black cumin). Now add the vegetables.
5. Add  the red chili powder, 1 tbsp each of cumin powder and coriander powder. Stir and mix well and then cook it with cover for 5 minutes (without adding water - water will come out of the vegetables).
6. Open the lid and check that the vegetables look soggy and faded in colour. If they are sticking to the bottom of the pan, add some more oil and scrape them off. Add 2 cups of water and cook with lid on for 15 minutes.
7. Open the lid and check that everything is cooked (pumpkin and raw banana are the tougher ones, so make sure you they are cooked to your taste). Add the rest of the cumin and coriander powder and mix. It should be semi dry with a small amount of gravy at bottom. Boil off any excess water with the lid open.