Omelet version 2.0

Unlike many of the bloggers I follow religiously, I'm not a whole-time cook. However, since cooking is almost therapeutic for me and also because I enjoy it so much, I try to make atleast one meal of the day , everyday myself. In the weekdays, it's usually the breakfast or a one-meal brunch. The tough, time-consuming, adventurous recipes are bookmarked and attempted on weekends.While I adore super-women who make three course meals all by themselves on weekdays, I'm just happy with one little wholesome dish that would let me be good for hours.
 Simple eating, High thinking is what I swear by, and  it's the combination of Dal-Rice-Omelette that has fed me and kept me happy on many a busy working day. It's delicious, it's hassle-free and who doesn't love a well-cooked fluffy omelette?
I came across a novel way of making omelettes recently in a Bengali story by author Bani Basu. She is a renowned writer , a champion of urban middle class women and their issues, and much of her writing focusses on daily domestic lives of women in Bengal. Food, naturally is a big part of her stories. The story I read has a twice divorced painter as the protagonist who lives on her own terms in a sprawling North Calcutta mansion . She unwinds by cooking when she's not painting, and makes Khichuri with Omelette one rainy night while sipping on Coke and Rum as the story begins.
While all I sipped on while making my omelette today afternoon was water, the story's description of adding cornflakes to the egg for a fluffy, crunchy omelette intrigued me enough to try it out. I went ahead and added whatever I found in the pantry that suited my mood.

OMELETTE - featuring Cornflakes ver 2.0

Break 1 egg into a bowl.
Add half a chopped onion, one chopped green chilly and a handful of chopped capsicum.
Add 2 tsp of milk.
Coarsely crush 1 tsp of corn flakes with a mortar and pestle. Add to the bowl.
Add salt to taste.

Beat well.
Heat a non-stick pan. Add 1/2 tsp of oil and spread it around.
Pour the egg batter in the pan and turn around to form an even circle.
Sprinkle a pinch of red chilly powder all around the cooking egg. -> (This is a neat little trick I picked up from my friend G when I was visiting Pune last year. G made 3 omelettes in 3 different ways and this was the one I absolutely loved. It just makes the omelettes look bright with tiny specks of red all over. I do the same to my poached eggs.)

Wait for the egg to set.
Fold it up and eat hot.

For a change, today instead of the Rice and Dal, I had homemade Rotis, Alu Posto and the Omelette.for lunch. The cornflakes is a great little twist that I enjoyed, it made the omelette fluff up in no time and also the texture was  really crunhcy and it tasted delicious.

 

Raita on Toast - guilt free snack!

One of the major mistakes I make time and again is falling prey to a heavy and unhealthy snack, usually store-bought chips,noodles off roadside or fried stuff like chops and rolls. The fact that the locality of Kolkata I live in is swarming with eateries of all kinds, esp. streetfood, doesn't do anything to help my cause. I've been meaning to do something about my bad snacking habits and lately, have hit upon a nice idea for a quick snack - that's healthy and doesn't give me pangs of guilt afterwards.

The novel idea is eating Raita for a snack. Yogurt with its wealth of good bacteria and calcium is essential for good female health and a Raita is just a no-fuss, easy way of fortifying it up with some more vitamins and minerals, courtesy the added fruits and vegetables.

Here is a basic version of Raita I make : -


Take 100 gms of plain yogurt (homemade is fine) and to it add half a chopped cucumber, half a finely sliced onions, half of a finely chopped tomato and a handful of boiled green peas.
Add salt to taste, some chaat masala and a sprinkling of red chilli powder and mix well.
Serve.

You can add a  handful of coarsely chopped roasted peanuts to make a Marathi version.of this.  Other things that can be added are boiled potatoes, boiled carrots and boiled chopped eggs to make a more filling version.

My latest idea has been spreading a big spoonful of this Raita on a Rusk Biscuit/ Crisp Toast . I even had this one day for a light dinner.

 

Phodnichaa Bhaat - a quick brunch

Film-making is often a frustrating job. Especially when you are the screenwriter as well. There are days on end when writer's block can set in, and You just don't know how to put two and two together even though You know the entire picture in your head. It's the teeny tiny details that ofen leave You confused and hapless. I have been staring at my computer monitor at an incomplete screenplay for hours without being able to proceed to the next scene for the past one week. Trying to convincingly pull off  a crime story with a clever twist in the screenplay is tedious, and involves a hell lot of patience, imagination and thinking on the writer's part.
What does one do on weekdays then, all alone at home, when hunger strikes in between trying to write an exciting scene while  the brain refuses to work without some tasty foodwise interruption? Ordering in is always an option, but sometimes one craves for something simple, something that can be quickly rustled up, using basic pantry ingredients and yet something that would be flavourful, nutritious and would leave one satiated for hours.
Yesterday, during one such tedious hunger pang induced afternoon, I checked and saw that the fridge had some leftover cooked rice. A small food blog search later, I arrived at this recipe that seemed right for the moment - Phodnichaa Bhaat - a Marathi staple of frying pre-cooked rice with temperings and seasoning. I assume it's a common practice among cooks to use up leftover rice this way, it also dresses up the common lunch staple of dal and rice to something a little bit special. It's not at all elaborate and took under twenty minutes from start to finish and turned out to be a really nice brunch fix for me.

PHODNICHAA BHAAT - tempered, stir fried rice, MAHARASHTRIAN style

(adapted from this recipe)

I modified the recipe according to my taste and available ingredients on hand. Here is how I did it.

Chop one medium onion. Dice one medium potato . Slit two green chillies.
Heat 1 tbsp of white oil in a wok/kadhai.
Temper with 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 1 tsp of whole cumin seeds.
Add the chopped onions and green chilly.
Fry over medium heat till onions turn pink and translucent.
Add the potatoes and stir fry.
Add a handful of peanuts and fry. (optional. I omitted)
Add 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder and salt to taste.
When the potatoes seem done, add the rice and stir fry to coat with the spices.
Cook for 3-4 minutes till the rice becomes evenly yellow.
Fluff the individual grains with a fork.
Serve hot with  raita/pickle/chips/papad.

P.S. - The original recipe calls for asafoetida/hing. I omitted it. If you want to use it, add a pinch with the mustard seeds, cumin seeds as tempering.


I enjoyed my Phodnichaa Bhaat with some crispy fried Masala Appams (Rice Papad). This is a neat little discovery, and I'm guessing  this recipe will gallantly come to my rescue on many more hungry afternoons of screenwriting.


P.S.P.S. - Following the success of this recipe, this again got made in the weekend for a family lunch. This time I added the hing for tempering, and also used some coriander leaves for garnish. Here is a shot straight from the kadhai.

Tausalli - Konkani Cucumber Pancakes

I realise I've been gone from the blogging world for more than a year now. I had a very busy 2012, which involved serious family illnesses (and recuperation, yay!), house repairings, living in another city for some weeks and making two films, one of which was shortlisted at a short film festival in Cape Town and made me feel jubilant for days. However, excuses for not blogging must not be encouraged for more than one needs to and I'm back today, on a crisp February afternoon, with something I had bookmarked for ages.
Lonely afternoons often come with food pangs, and today was no exception. I had fresh, large cucumbers in the pantry, and some rice flour left over from Sankranti's Pithe making. These lovely Konkani breakfast pancakes called Tausalli (Taushi - Konkani for cucumbers)  that I first read up about on onehotstove seemed like the perfect choice to toss up.



TAUSALLI - Konkani Pancakes

(made from this recipe at Onehotstove)
















I more or less went with Nupur's exact measurements. The only notable differences in my cooking were : -
1) I substituted a pinch of Kashmiri Chilli Powder in place of the green chillies. I do not like solid pieces of chillies in my pancakes in the first place, and the red from the chilly powder added a dazzle of colour.

2)  I added a tablespoon of Rava/Suji and a pinch of Poppy Seeds/Posto. Many Bengali recipes use poppy seeds to crispen fried items, and I went with that analogy.





I served them with tomato ketchup on the side.

These lovely, green, soft and dense pancakes were a very different culinary experience for me. They were more filling and satisfying than I had expected and this was a novel way of eating up cucumbers. I look forward to delving in and exploring more of Konkani cuisine in the days to come.






 

Sichuan Sauce - It's very very Hot!

I had gifted myself quite a few cookbooks at the beginning of the new year, an astounding eight of them by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor. He ofcourse needs no introduction to any Indian. I've always loved his Khana Khazana series on Zee Tv and he is largely responsible for changing the way cooking and eating is perceived in this country, Heck, he made being a chef cool long before India was introduced to MasterChef and Nigella Lawson and Gordon Ramsay. One of the books I bought is simply titled Street Food. It s a small, compact guide to about forty odd popular street-food items from all over India, with beautiful pictures and detailed, well-written, simple to follow recipes. For this upcoming Republic Day (read: Holiday on a Thursday), I have planned to try out a couple of recipes from this book. Both of the recipes will be needing the very hot and delicious Sichuan Sauce, and as we all know, any sauce/relish/chutney made a few days before, really blends in well and imbibes all the various flavours of the core ingredients to become so much more tasty. Also, on a side note, it saves time to make it earlier and have it handy, assembling the dish just gets much more snappy.



SICHUAN SAUCE - Chinese style Hot Sauce
(adapted from a recipe by Sanjeev Kapoor, from the cookbook STREET FOOD)

Ingredients

10 dried red chillies
2 chopped green chillies
10 chopped garlic cloves
2 chopped spring onions
1 inch ginger,grated
1/2 cup of vegetable stock
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tsp vinegar
2 chopped stalks of spring onions
salt
1/3 cup white oil (preferably sesame)
1 cup water

Procedure

Boil the red chillies in the water 1 cup of for 7 minutes.
Let it cool and grind to a fine paste.
In the meantime,heat the oil in a wok, reduce the heat to medium,add the garlic,ginger,green chillies and spring onions and saute for a minute.
Add the red chilli paste and continue to saute.
Add the vegetable stock, tomato ketchup and salt to taste.
Add the vinegar and the chopped stalks of spring onions.
Cover and simmer for a minute.
Take off the heat and let it come to room temperature.
Transfer to an air-tight container and cool in the fridge for a couple of days.

Verdict -

This is a super hot, super delicious sauce. Use in Chinese/Indo-chinese cooking to make Sichuan fish, chicken, paneer ,potatoes, babycorn or mushroom by deep-frying the protein/vegetable in a batter and then cooking them with onions,capsicum,this sauce and cornflour. This sauce goes fabulously with steamed/fried momos as well. I will be putting up two popular Indian snack items using this sauce in my future posts.

Poush-Sankranti Sweets - Patishapta and Dudh-Puli

There are many ways in which we Indians celebrate Makar Sankranti. Astrologically, it is the day when the Sun leaves Capricorn and enters Aquarius. In Bengal, it is the last day of the month of Poush, hence this day is more commonly referred to as Poush-Sankranti or Poush-Parbon (the Poush festival) in my land. Last year, on this day, I was in Pune assisting on a film shoot and celebrated this day by having some delicious Pongal courtesy my TamBram friend and editor-extraordinaire A.Whether one is in Bengal or in Southern India, the basic ingredients of celebrating Sankranti remain the same - molasses,coconut and newly harvested rice. The bounty that mother earth generously offers us during this time remains more or less the same throughout this geographically and culturally diversified land that we call home. Bengalis religiously celebrate this day with Pithe and Payesh  - Pithe (pronounced Pee-Thay, Th as in Thunder, with a strong T) stands for a broad range of steamed,fried,cooked in milk and dunked in syrup sweet goodies and Payesh is a milk based pudding, made with the first Rice crop of the year and flavoured with Notun Gur (fresh Date Palm molasses).
Most of the traditional Bengali cooking that I know comes from my Dida - my grandmother who was an extraordinary cook and an even better human-being.I like to believe that I've inherited my knack and love for cooking from her, although I'll never be as good as her in every which way..Two of my favourite Pithe-s that form a major part of my childhood memories are PatiShapta and Dudh-Puli. Dida made both of them religiously for every Poush Parbon of the ten years that I had with her,and this day remains one of the days of the year when I miss her the most. Not just for the food, but for the incredible amount of love that used to go into her spendng hours and hours over preparing these two goodies that I used to love so much. Wherever You are Dida, please know that I thought of You throughout the day while making them this weekend.

                                   

 PATISHAPTA - Bengali Stuffed Sweet Crepes

PatiShapta (pronounced Paa-Tee-Shaap-Taa) is a sweet crepe stuffed with a crunchy coconut-molasses stuffing. Some households and most sweet shops will add Kheer (here it means cooked and sweetened thickened milk, not payasam/rice pudding) to the stuffing.

For The Stuffing -

Grate 1 large coconut. If using pre-grated/desiccated coconut, use sweet and succulent version, and not the very dry variety. Add about 150 gms of fresh Date Palm Molasses* to it. Knead into a soft mixture. Transfer to an non-greased frying pan. On very low heat, stir continuously for 10- 12 minutes, till the mixture turns into a sizzling rich brown colour and gives off an amazing aroma.Take off flame and let it come to room temperature. We will use the same stuffing for the other Pithe i.e, Dudh-Puli as well.

* - Notun Khejur Gur, preferably Jhola Gur of the best standard that you can get. If you aren't Bengali, take the help of a Bong to source/procure this item. Any other Jaggery esp Sugarcane will not do at all.

 The Batter for the Crepes -

Make a batter using 1 cup of all purpose flour (Maida), 1/3 cup semolina (sooji/rawa),1 tbsp of molasses and 1 cup of milk.The consistency should be that of a pancake batter, of dripping consistency yet not very thin.
Cover and let it rest for a couple of hours at room temperature. This measurement will yield 8-10 crepes.

Final Stage - Frying the Patishapta -

1.Put a non-stick frying pan on heat. Grease a non-stick pan using the sliced round end of an eggplant (using the stalk intact as a handle) dipped in ghee or white oil . This is specifically the method used in Bengal for greasing the frying pan whilst making this particular Pithe.

2.Stir the previously made batter once to ensure uniform consistency. Lower the heat to medium .Drop a ladle full of batter into the frying pan and spread into a large circle using the back of the ladle..When the batter turns opaque on the side facing upwards, place the stuffing on it like this.

3. Using a spatula, fold over the end of the crepe over the stuffing.

4. Continue to fold till the shape becomes like this.

5 Fry for a couple of minutes till the Patishapta becomes completely opaque and sizzling light golden in colour. Take out and Serve.

DUDH-PULI - fried stuffed pastry dunked in  creamy milk sauce

 For the Pastry Shell -

Knead 1 cup of refined/all purpose flour(maida) with 1 tbsp of shortening (Ghee/white oil) and water. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 15-20 minutes.

The Stuffing -

We will use the same stuffing as used in the PatiShapta above. 

Making the Puli-s-

1.Divide the dough into little rounded balls. The above measurement will yield about 12 balls. 

2.Using a lightly greased rolling pin on a clean, flat surface, roll the balls out to circles of about 4 cm diameter (the approx size of a Puri/Luchi).

3.Place 1 tbsp of the stuffing near the centre of the circle.Fold to bring to the shape of a semi-circle.With slightly wet fingers, fold the lower surface of the curve of the semi-circle towards the upper inner side bit by bit and press to join (refer to pic). Do the same with all the balls of the dough.

4. Heat oil in a large frying vessel for deep-frying. Fry the pastries over medium-heat till crispy golden brown on both sides. Remove with a slotted spoon.

N.B.-They can be consumed as it is at this stage.They are called Bhaja-Puli (fried puli) or Chandra-Puli (the crescent shaped Puli). But wait, I am not done yet!

Make the Dunking Sauce -

Bring to boil 1 litre of whole milk.Reduce flame, add a handful of green cardamoms and keep on stirring at regular intervals.Do this for atleast twenty minutes or till the milk reduces to almost half.Add 1/2 a cup of sugar and keep on stirring.After about ten more minutes, switch off the flame, and after a few minutes add 2 tbsp of molasses.The milk mixture will turn beautifully warm-hued. 

The Final Step -

Add the fried pulis to the milk sauce. Make sure they are well-immersed.

Cover and let stay for a couple of hours and then freeze for atleast 5-6 hrs before serving.I prefer leaving them in the fridge overnight or maybe even for 2 days, that is if one can resist the temptation for so long. They taste incredible when they are allowed to soak in all the milky goodness for so long. Serve chilled,

Paneer Maggi

For a lot of us growing up in the late 80's/early 90's India, a bowl of Maggi noodles was equivalent to restaurant goodness at home. It certainly was not made many times in my household,with the kitchen being the domain of  Dida (my Grandmother) - a fabulous cook who prided herself on her repertoire of traditional Bengali recipes and practically scoffed at the idea of 2 minute instant noodles. Mom has always been a full-time working woman (she's a lawyer) and hence never had much of a say in the day to day culinary decisions. I remember when I was in the second standard, it was the year 1992, we were given free promotional samples of Maggi noodles at school, and all through the return journey on the school bus, all of us little excited giggly girls discussed about the upcoming delicious treat that awaited us at home,tightly clenching our individual Maggi packets in our little fists. Dida did grudgingly make the Maggi for me (her logic - processed food not good for kids) and to a seven year old me, that was at that time the best thing I'd ever eaten,even though now twenty years later, at age twenty-seven, I know for a fact that it is her time-consuming and painfully 'recreated from scratch' traditional dishes that I miss the most.
I still make Maggi quite a lot ,after all, it is one of the fastest short-cuts to take in the kitchen when one is tired/has no time/is feeling lazy/stressed/over-worked /is plain bored like our modern lives leave many of us quite often. But I've never been the one to do regular things in the regular way, and making Maggi is no exception. I am an incorrigible experimenter when it comes to food, and cannot even leave instant noodles in peace. A lot of us probably add vegetables to instant noodles to up their nutritional value, I've added all sorts of spices and temperings, cooked them in pasta sauces,cooked them in soups/broths and served them raw smeared with the masala that comes alongside in my cooking lifetime. A lot of college canteen cooks evidently come from the same school as me, our college canteen served Maggi with peas and carrots,spiced with a lot of red chilly powder which was a big time crowd pleaser! The IIT-KGP canteen's Egg Maggi is of legendary stature, a lot of alumni will tell you fondly about how they survived for months on it. I fondly recalled these stories as I read this post on a blog called Healthy Home Cooking some time back, the author mentions Paneer Maggi being a mass-favourite at the BITS, Pilani canteen. It is not an active blog anymore, but has a few very interesting recipes, and earlier this week, for a weeknight dinner, I re-created the Paneer Maggi based on the recipe provided.





                                                              PANEER MAGGI
                                                (adapted from this recipe here, serves 2)

The Cooking Part -
Finely chop 1 carrot, a handful of green beans and cook them on boiling water on stove-top till tender but firm.
Shell about half a cup of green peas.
Cube 200 gms of Paneer and shallow fry on a non-stick pan with 2 tbsp of white oil till the sides acquire a lovely golden brown colour.
In a deep bottomed vessel, heat 1 tbsp of white oil.
Add 2 medium chopped onions and saute till pink.
Add 1/2 a medium chopped capsicum and fry.
Add the peas and carrots and beans.
Lower the heat to medium, add the tastemaker from 2 Maggi masala packets and a tsp of Red chilly powder. Stir well to mix the spices with the vegetables.Fry for 2 minutes.
Add the fried Paneer pieces.
Add about 1 tbsp of tomato ketchup and 1/2 tbsp of chilly sauce (optional).
Add 4-5 cups of water, stir around, check for seasoning, if you need, add some salt to taste at this stage.
Add the 2 noodle cakes,break them with the tip of a spatula, cover and let simmer in the water for 2-3 minutes.
Remove cover and cook for a couple of minutes if all the water hasn't been absorbed as yet.
Serve Hot.

The Eating Part -
I made this on a night when everyone at home was over-worked and over-stressed. There is something sinfully comforting about a hot bowl of Maggi noodles and this was no exception. It was slurpily delicious, and the addition of creamy paneer and crunchy vegetables only upped the taste quotient. Verdict - Too good, and is a keeper recipe! We all need some loving and hugging once in a while, and this is just the food equivalent of that on a cold,tired night.

A Closer Look - :)