For most of the past week, an ear infection and resulting complications had me in discomfort and agony.Even though I went about the necessary work and chores,this post took an unfortunate backseat even though I had meant to blog about it asap.6th of this month was the birthday of the most important person in my life- my Maa. She is a succesful criminal lawyer here in Calcutta and even though now she's well into her sixties,she's going as strong as ever. She is the bravest and nicest person I know, and I firmly believe that I am a very lucky girl to have her as my mother. Now 6th was also Muharram this year and hence a holiday, so I decided to cook her a little feast all by myself (okay,my maid helped a lot with grounding the spice paste and Dad did all the shopping).My mom loves fish,she doesn't care much about any other kind of meat,and she also loves her rice. Rice and Fish make a true Bengali as they say. I settled on these divine looking dishes from my bookmarks, and after long hours of hard work in the kitchen, managed to produce the following.
For the Rice dish - I chose this sublime Peas Pulao from Jugalbandi. I omitted the saffron as I didn't have any at hand,but it tasted great even without.A great quality Basmati rice goes a long way in making this dish of stellar quality.
For the 'fish' course - I chose this exotic sounding Prawn Paatia from Bong Mom aka Sandeepa. Technically,prawn isn't fish,but I had wanted to make this for as long as I can remember,and it turned out so utterly delicious,that everyone were licking their fingers off by the end of it. I followed Sandeepa's recipe meticulously,however,my dish came out slightly darker in colour than her's. Here is a close look at this rich and decadent dish,made with fresh Tiger prawns.
And lastly, what is a birthday without Paayesh? And with flavourful Notun Gur in the pantry, it would be sacrilege on my part not to make it for the birthday girl. So here is a bowl of Paayesh flavoured with Khejur Gur (Date Palm Jaggery - the sugarcane variety can never come close in taste).
All families have their own recipe for Rice Kheer/Payasam/Paayesh - in a nutshell, I cooked 1/2 a cup of Kamini Aatop (a short-grained rice variety used in Bengal specifically for Paayesh) in 1.5 litres of whole milk scented with 3 green cardamoms and 2 bay leaves.The rice is added when the milk has started to boil and cooked till done.It takes about 45-50 minutes on medium heat.Once the rice is done, I added a cup of sugar,stirred the thickened milk mixture till the sugar was fully dissolved(about 5-10 mins).Once the vessel is taken off heat,about half a cup of date palm jaggery is added and stirred slowly - the jaggery melts and dissolves within the Paayesh to lend it a beautiful,warm shade of brown and unbelievable taste. This Paayesh tastes best when a little chilled,all the sweetness and creaminess magically melts into one mouthful of sinful goodness!
The birthday girl was happy and felt pampered by the end of the meal and I was happy at having made the effort. Here's looking at many more wonderful birthdays for my parents!
For the Rice dish - I chose this sublime Peas Pulao from Jugalbandi. I omitted the saffron as I didn't have any at hand,but it tasted great even without.A great quality Basmati rice goes a long way in making this dish of stellar quality.
For the 'fish' course - I chose this exotic sounding Prawn Paatia from Bong Mom aka Sandeepa. Technically,prawn isn't fish,but I had wanted to make this for as long as I can remember,and it turned out so utterly delicious,that everyone were licking their fingers off by the end of it. I followed Sandeepa's recipe meticulously,however,my dish came out slightly darker in colour than her's. Here is a close look at this rich and decadent dish,made with fresh Tiger prawns.
And lastly, what is a birthday without Paayesh? And with flavourful Notun Gur in the pantry, it would be sacrilege on my part not to make it for the birthday girl. So here is a bowl of Paayesh flavoured with Khejur Gur (Date Palm Jaggery - the sugarcane variety can never come close in taste).
All families have their own recipe for Rice Kheer/Payasam/Paayesh - in a nutshell, I cooked 1/2 a cup of Kamini Aatop (a short-grained rice variety used in Bengal specifically for Paayesh) in 1.5 litres of whole milk scented with 3 green cardamoms and 2 bay leaves.The rice is added when the milk has started to boil and cooked till done.It takes about 45-50 minutes on medium heat.Once the rice is done, I added a cup of sugar,stirred the thickened milk mixture till the sugar was fully dissolved(about 5-10 mins).Once the vessel is taken off heat,about half a cup of date palm jaggery is added and stirred slowly - the jaggery melts and dissolves within the Paayesh to lend it a beautiful,warm shade of brown and unbelievable taste. This Paayesh tastes best when a little chilled,all the sweetness and creaminess magically melts into one mouthful of sinful goodness!
The birthday girl was happy and felt pampered by the end of the meal and I was happy at having made the effort. Here's looking at many more wonderful birthdays for my parents!
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