ILISH BEGUN ER JHOL/ HILSA WITH EGGPLANT

This is a very simple and light curry with the flavors of soft brinjal and potato with hilsa and mustard oil.

Difficulty- medium

Time-

INGREDIENTS

Hilsa fish/ Ilish-3 pieces

Eggplant- cut in long pieces

Potato- cut in long pieces

Green chilly

Kalo jeera/ kalonji- ½ tbspn

Turmeric powder- 1 tspn

Cumin powder- 1 tspn

Coriander powder- 1 tspn

Salt

Mustard oil

Coriander leaves- chopped

METHOD:

Clean the fish pieces, smear salt and turmeric powder to them. Keep aside for 15- 30 minnutes.

Heat mustard oil in a pan. Shallow fry the fish in oil till light brown on both sides, keep aside. Do not over fry them. In another pan, heat more oil and fry eggplant pieces, keep aside.  Put kalonji in hot oil, let it splutter, add the potato pieces, and fry.  Add water to it, add green chilly salt, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder. Cover and let it boil, till potato gets cooked. Add the fish pieces and eggplant pieces , cover and simmer for 2-3 minutes till the fishes are cooked. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve with white rice.

My husband loves the oil in which I fry the fishes. So, I keep it aside for him and he likes to eat it with steamed white rice and salt. (Everybody can’t handle it because of the strong smell of hilsa).

CHANAR DALNA/ PANEER CURRY IN BENGALI STYLE

Difficulty- easy

Time- 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Paneer- 250 gm

Potato- 1 medium chopped in cubes

Ginger paste- 1 tbspn

Jeera- 1 tbspn (freshly ground)

Tomato- 1 chopped

Water- ½ cup

Milk- ½ cup

Sugar- 1 tspn

Green chilly- 2

Ghee- 1 tbspn

Turmeric powder- 1 tspn

Coriander leaves- chopped

Whole garam masala- 3 cloves, 3 cardamoms, 1 cinnamon stick

METHOD

Cut the paneer and potato in cubes of similar size. Shallow fry the potato and keep aside. Fry the paneer, and put them in warm water.

Heat ghee in a pan, put the minced garam masala. Mix the jeera powder, ginger paste, and a tbspn of water, and put it in the ghee, fry till oil separates. Put chopped tomato, add some salt. Fry till the masala is nicely done and oil separates. Add ½ cup of water to it and add the potato pieces and cover and cook till the potatoes are cooked. Add the milk and let it boil for 2 minutes, add the paneer pieces, simmer for 2-3 minutes. Switch off the heat, add the sugar, and coriander leaves.

Serve hot with white rice.

The curry should be little sweet.

Chicken kasha recipe- bengali style (Chicken curry)

Chicken- 600gms

Onions- 2 big onions chopped

Ginger paste- 1 tbspn

Garlic paste- 1 tbspn

Whole garam masala- cardamom(4), cloves(4), cinnamon stick(1)

Tomato- 1 (paste)

Curd- 1 tbspn

Coriander leaves

Cumn powder- 1 tspn

Coriander powder- 1 tspn

Mustard oil- 4 tbspn

Green chillies- 3-4 depending on your taste

Water

Difficulty- Medium

Time- 45 minutes- 1 hour

Method

Wash and clean the chicken. Add 1 tspn salt, 1 tspn turmeric powder, 1 tbpsn curd to the chicken and keep it aside for at least 30 minutes. (Can be kept overnight)

Heat 2 tbspn mustard oil in a pan, add the chopped onion, and fry till it gets golden brown. Let it cool. Grind it in a blender, with green chillies.

In the same pan, heat the other 2 tbspn mustard oil. Mince the garam masala, and add to it. After a few seconds add the onion paste , add ginger and garlic paste. After sometime add the tomato paste to it and fry till the oil separates. (Keep sprinkling some water to it, if it sticks to the pan- the more you fry the masala, the tastier it gets) Add cumin and coriander powder to it. Once the masala is fried very well, add the marinated chicken to it, mix well , put the stove on high, and cover the pan with a lid, till the chicken pieces start changing colour (they start getting opaque). Keep stirring it once in a while, so it doesn’t burn. This will take 2-3 minutes.

Now put the stove on medium, fry the chicken for 2-3 minutes more, keep stirring. Add ½ cup water to it, and cook till the chicken is done. Adjust the salt. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot with steamed rice, mishti polao, veg pulao or roti.

(You can add more water depending on the consistency you want. But chicken emits its own juice/water while cooking, so don’t put too much water initially)

Some people add potato to it. Cut the potatoes in 4 pieces and fry till they are golden brown, and add them with the the chicken.

If you don’t want to add tomato paste to it, you can double the curd. But adding tomato paste gives it a better colour and taste. 


Note: I fry the chopped onions and grind it to paste, because it makes the gravy taste a lot richer. 
My mom adds sugar to the heated oil and lets it turn brown, before frying the onions. It adds a very nice colour to curry/gravy.

Shorshe narkol chingri (Prawns with coconut and mustard paste)

Sorshe Chingri is a popular and traditional Bengali dish. The light yellow gravy is mixed with hot steamed rice. Bengalis love the strong and sharp flavor of the mustard and chillies.

Prawns- 8 jumbo

1 ½  tbspn mustard

1 ½  tbspn poppy seeds

1 green chilly

Grated Coconut- 1 tbspn

Mustard oil- 1 tbspn

Turmeric powder

Make the mustard- poppy paste with green chilly n salt. Mix it with prawn , marinade. Mix grated coconut and mustard oil.  Cover it and put it in microwave for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice

Be careful not to overcook it, otherwise the prawns will get hard, and we don’t want that.

Making the Mustard paste:  Make a paste of mustard seeds, poppy seeds, green chillies, salt and water. Adding the salt and chillies will avoid the mustard paste to get bitter.

Egg devil/ dimer devil

This is an easy, quick and filling evening snack with tea. My husband and I love it for our weekend breakfast or evening snack.
This recipe is for 4 devilled eggs

Difficulty- medium

Time- 30 minutes

Ingredients

Eggs- 2 Hard boiled and 1 beaten

Potato boiled- 1 big

Onion chopped- ½

Green chilly- 1 chopped

Salt to taste

Pepper powder

Red chilly powder

Lime/lemon juice- 1 tspn

Bread crumbs- 1/2 cup 

Method

Cut the hard boiled eggs into half lengthwise. Mash the potato, add onion, salt, pepper powder, red chilly powder, green chillies. Cover each egg half with the mashed potato mixture, to make an oval/ round shape. Dip each ball into beaten egg, roll them over bread crumb, and deep fry till they turn golden brown.

Serve with tomato ketchup or mustard sauce.

It can an also be served with cucumber and carrot salad. Shredded vegetables like carrot, beetroot etc can be mixed with mashed potato, so it becomes healthy for the kids.

Sweet tomato and date chutney- Bengali style

You can also add kishmish/ raisins instead of dates.

The chutney can be stored in the fridge for 7-8 days. So I make it once and store it in the fridge,

Sweet tomato chutney brings back a lot of childhood memories. Growing up, I remember, my dad couldn’t finish his lunch without a sweet chutney (he still can’t), so my mom had to have chutney as a part of every lunch menu. So, she used to make this chutney once a week and store it in the fridge, and she used to take it out everyday and serve us.

So that’s what I do, whenever I prepare the chutney, I do it for 6-7 servings and it lasts me and my husband for a week.

 I sometimes add raisins instead of dates. I know people add apples as well, but I have never tried it.

Difficulty: Easy

Preparation and cooking time: 15- 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Tomatoes- 4 medium

Dates chopped- ¼ cup

Mustard seed- ½  tspn

Oil- 1 tbspn

Grated ginger- ½ tspn

Sugar- 4-5 tbspn depending on your taste (I use brown sugar, tastes like jaggery)

Whole Red chilly- 1

Method:

Heat oil in a pan, temper it with mustard seed and red chilly. Add the tomatoes in it, add a pinch of salt (Salt helps the tomato to cook easily). Cook till the tomatoes are pulpy, add dates to it. Cook till all the water disappears. Then add the sugar and ginger. Cook for another minute till everything is blended together, and you get a thick paste. Cool and serve.

Chingri/prawn Malai Curry- Prawn curry with coconut milk

This is a recipe for 3 servings with 3 pieces of prawns/chingri per person. The recipe can be altered depending on the number of servings or number of prawns per person

Difficulty: Medium
Preparation & CookingTime: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Prawns- 9 jumbo prawns (I use the uncooked and deviened)

Onion chopped- 1 big

Tomato- 1 medium-big

Potato- 1 small or medium, cut into cubes

Ginger garlic paste- 1 tbsp

Green chilly according to taste (I use 4)

coconut milk- ¾ cup (I use the powder and mix it in warm water)

Cinnamon stick-1

cardamom- 4

cloves- 4

Mustard oil/canola oil (I use mustard oil since the taste is better with it)- as needed

Cumin powder- ½ tspn

Coriander Powder- ½ tspn

Turmeric powder

salt

sugar- 1 tbspn

Method:

Marinate the prawn with little turmeric powder and salt for 15 minutes, then add ½ cup of water and microwave it for 2 minutes. (This would half cook the prawns) Then keep aside.

Heat the oil in a pan. Fry the potato cubes, and keep aside

Mince the whole garam masala (cardamom, cinnamon stick and clove) and add to hot oil (same oil where you fried the potato), let them crackle for few seconds, then add the chopped onions and fry till it is golden. Then add ginger garlic paste, and fry till oil separates. Keep sprinkling little water in the masala, so it doesn’t stick to the pan.

Once the masala is fried properly add the chopped tomato and green chillies to it. Add some salt, as salt helps the tomato to cook easily. Fry the masala till oil separates, and keep sprinkling water to it like before. Add the cumin powder, coriander powder and some turmeric powder to the masala while frying.

Once the masala is ready, add the water which we used for cooking the prawn in the microwave and cook it for 5 minutes, then add the coconut milk, and let it boil till you like the consistency of the curry. Some people like it thick, but I don’t like it too thick. Now add the prawns and put the stove on simmer. Let it boil for a minute, switch off the stove and cover it with a lid.

Let it stand for 5 minutes. Add the sugar now, stir and serve with steamed rice. I usually taste the curry once before serving to know if it needs more salt, or sugar. The curry should have a little tinge of sweetness to it.

Note: Cooking the prawns for too long will make them hard, and we don’t want that. So cook them just till the point that they are not raw. It took me a while to learn the exact time of cooking it