First Award :)

Thanks Resh from Daily Cuppa for this wonderful award. Its really an honour to be chosen.

Now I have to share this award with 5 other bloggers who each have a wonderful blog worth a visit.
The chosen ones are :
1 - Laura from Lauralicious Recipes
2 - Rochelle from Chef - Al - Dente
3 - Chicken and Apples
4 - Tanzif at My Recipe Notebook
5 - Ramya from Ramya's Kitchen Recipes

If you accept the award:

• Copy and paste the award on your blog. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.
• Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers who deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
• Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five moreblogs.

Rosh Bora - The traditional bengali sweet

Bengalis are famous for their sweet tooth.For a bengali, sweets are a must in the platter.
Bengalis just love anything sweet, be it rosogolla, mishti doi, sandesh, payesh or simply any pithe.

Rosh bora is a bengali dessert which is not so famous outside bengal. But is indeed very famous in the bengali household. This is a particular dessert that you won't get in the sweet shops but is prepared at home very often.
It is very simple to make and is a bit crispy in nature.

Ingredients :
- Urad Dal (1 cup)
- Water (2 cups)
- Sugar (2 cups)
- Cardamom powder (1 tsp)
- Sunflower oil (2 cups)


Method:


- Soak the urad dal in water for 4-5 hours.
- Now strain the water and make a paste of the dal in the grinder with minimum water possible. You shall get a creamy paste.
- Take the paste in a bowl and beat it. This will give the bora a crispy texture when you fry it.
- Now lets make the sugar syrup. Take 2 cups water in a bowl and add 2 cups sugar to it.Let it boil on high flame.Dont make the sugar syrup too thick. Sugar syrup tends to become thicker as it cools.
- Take oil in a wok and heat it. Make balls of the dal paste and drop it into the oil for deep frying.
- When the bora (urad dal paste balls) turn golden brown take it out from the oil and put it in the sugar syrup.
- Let it cool in the syrup before you taste it or serve it.

So next time you are planning to make dessert try this unique and simple recipe. I am sure you will love it.
:)

This is my entry for the following blog events:

Just "4" Fun at Good Food

 
  Vegan Diet at Srav's Culinary Concepts

 Love Lock Series: Legumes at Zesty Palette and Sweet Karam Kapi

Mishti Doi - The famous Bengali dessert

Mishti doi is almost synonymous with Bengal. Bengalis are very well known for their sweet preparations and mishti doi is among one of them. A bengali puja, or function never ends without mishti doi. Be it bhai phota, kali puja, durga puja or any marriage you shall surely be offered mishti doi in the end.
As a kid I used to love this dessert. You get this in almost all the sweetmeat shops in Bengal. I would have  tasted it there for the first time as a kid. As I asked for this dessert too often Ma started preparing it at home.
I still love mishti doi. It is the easiest dessert that you can prepare and shall never let you down. It tastes heavenly when chilled. So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
- Milk (1 litre full cream)
- Sugar (1 and 1/2 cups)
- Curd (3-4 tbsp)
- Cardamom (2 pods)

How the magic happens?
- Add one cup sugar to the milk and bring it to boil. Continue boiling for 10-12 mins.
- Meanwhile caramelise the sugar. Now how you should be doing that? Put remaining sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Heat on high stirring continuously . Once it  becomes brown like caramel, add water and stir well till it starts boiling.
-  Add the caramelised sugar and cardamoms to the milk and mix well stirring continously.
- Boil the mixture for 5 more minutes.
- Let the mixture cool.
- Take a bowl preferably made of clay or glass. It helps the yoghurt to set properly.
- In the bowl add the curd. Now pour the mixture in the bowl and stir well.
- Cover with lids and keep in a warm and dry place.
- Once the yoghurt is set place it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours and serve chilled.


This is my entry for  :
- Summer splash at Spicy Treats hosted by Sangeetha and event of Kalyani's from Sizzling tastebuds.


- Beat the Heat at MyCookBook.

- When I saw the announcement for A walk through the memory lane event at Roshan's Cucina and Gayathri's Cookspot I knew I would send in this entry. 

Fish Fry :)

Fish Fry is an all-time hit snack item that is usually prepared with Bhetki fish fillet.It can also be prepared with some other fishes but with a compromised taste.

I was always a good cook but have been waiting for a good photographer. My wait has finally ended. Thanks to my husband who is helping me with the pics these days. I had prepared this fish fry few days back and after looking at this pic even I want to have some now. :)

I am re-posting  this recipe as this is my entry for Bon Vivant Moments # 2 - Savory Items

at Sumee's Culinary Bites.

Ingredients :

- Fish Fillet (7-8)
- Vinegar (2 tbsp)
- Lemon Juice (2 tbsp)
- Ginger paste (2 tbsp)
- Garlic paste (2 tbsp)
- Coriander leaf paste (3 tbsp)
- Salt (according to taste)
- Bread Crumbs (3 cups)
- Green Chilli paste (1 tbsp)
- Onion Paste (3 tbsp)
- Mustard oil (ample amount for deep frying the fish)
- Eggs(2)
- Cornflour (2 tsp)



Method:

- Bhetki fish has a very strong smell which you have to get rid of before cooking. In order to get rid of the smell, marinate the fish fillets in vinegar and lemon juice for 10-15 mins. Then wash it off.
- Now that the smell is gone marinate the fish with ginger paste, garlic paste, onion paste, coriander paste, salt, green chilli paste for about 1 hour.
- Prepare a batter with egg and cornflour.
- Dip the fillets into the mixture of egg and cornflour and then roll them over on breadcrumb. The fish fillets should get covered in a fine coat of breadcrumbs.
- Once you are done with all the fillets put them in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. This helps the bread crumbs to bind to the fish.
- Heat oil in a wok for deep frying. When the oil is smoking hot toss the fishes into the oil.
- Fry them until they turn brown in colour.
- Serve with Kasundi or tomato sauce.

Cook, Eat and Be Merry . :)

Chicken Dum Biriyani - The Hyderabadi way

Whenever I have tried to prepare Biriyani it has been a disaster. Still me and my husband (being great fans of this one pot meal) dig into it with great enthusiasm. We both are tired of having Biriyani in the restaurants and Hyderabad being the city of Biriyani and Pearls (why nt diamonds? It would have been good if we got diamonds a bit cheaper) you get a plenty of restaurants serving it. So around one year back I decided to learn how to prepare it. It is my mom in law's recipe. Have I ever told you she is a great cook. I guess I have in my older posts.
So we were talking about chicken biriyani. Biriyani as you might know has many Gharanas, you have Hyderabadi biriyani, Lucknow biriyani, bombay biriyani and you have Kolkata Biriyani etc etc.. This time I have prepared hyderabdi biriyani.
Every cook who has ever tried to prepare biriyani will definitely have his or her own story. So I shall here share some of mine...

- First time when I prepared biriyani I was so worried that the rice shall be overcooked I actually undercooked it. We were having almost uncooked rice that day. :(

- The second time I prepared it when my parents and brother were here and due to my last experience i was determined the biriyani has to be perfect and I overcooked the rice and it looked more like pudding than biriyani. :( and this is not the end.. I had forgotten to add salt this time...My father was still having it saying it tasted good (parents love you no matter what you do) , it was my brother who did not eat it and said "You call this biriyani??"

Anyways lets not get into all that as it would be a very long list. Yesterday I had prepared some chicken biriyani and am sharing the recipe :)

Ingredients for biriyani masala :

- Black Pepper (1 tbsp)
- Cumin (2 tbsp)
- Cinnamon (4 long sticks)
- Cardamom (3-4)
- Cloves (7-8)
- White Pepper (1 tbsp)
- Fennel seeds (1 tbsp)
- Star Anise (2-3)
- Black cumin ( 1 tbsp)
- Nutmeg (grated 1 tsp)

Preparing the Biriyani masala: 

Dry roast all the spices and cool it. When it is at room temperature grind it to powder. Dry roasting the spices gives it a good flavour and increases  its shelf life. You can store it for about a month or two.

U can also use store bought biriyani masala as well but it is not as good as the fresh home made masala.

Ingredients for the Biriyani :

- Basmati Rice ( 1.5 cups)
- Curd ( 1 cup)
- Rose water (1/2 cup)
- Milk (1/2 cup)
- Chicken ( 4-5 large pieces or biriyani pieces)
- Ginger paste (2 tbsp)
- Garlic Paste (2 tbsp)
- White pepper powder (2 tbsp)
- Onion paste (2 tbsp)
- Ghee (4 tbsp)
- Sunflower oil (2 tbsp)
- Turmeric powder (1/2 tsp)
- Salt (4 tbsp)
- Sugar (2 tbsp)
- Coriander powder (2 tbsp)
- Cumin Powder (2 tbsp)


Method for cooking the biriyani:

- Soak the rice in water for 30 mins.

- Marinate the chicken with salt, sugar, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garlic paste, ginger paste, onion paste for 30 mins.

- Cook rice on medium flame for 5-7 mins. The rice should not be overcooked. Infact a little undercooked is fine.

- For the chicken, heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok and add 1 tbsp ghee to it.

- When it is hot add the chicken and 2 tbsp biriyani masala and cook it fully. When fully cooked add half the rose water before turning off the flame.

- Now take a flat bottomed pan and rub ghee on its suface.

- Add a layer of rice and then a layer of chicken.

- After you add the layer of chicken, add some rose water and milk over it. Also add 2 tbsp biriyani masala and 1 tsp salt.

- Continue doing this layering till your rice and chicken are over.

- On the top of this layering you can add fried julienned onions (fry them till brown). This is called adding the " Birista ".

No its not over yet. Now the actual cooking starts. :)

You have to seal the cover of this pan with some dough so that the heat within it cannot escape. Now you have to put it on "Dum". How to do that??

There are two ways to do that:
- You have to take an even larger flat bottomed pan and put some water in it. Put the water to boil and when it boils place the biriyani pan over it. Place it on low flame over the stove.

                                                              OR

- Take a tawa (disk shaped griddle) and place it on medium flame and place the biriyani pan over it.

According to my experience the first method is better.

Remember the more time you keep ur biriyani on dum the tastier it is.. :)
Serve it hot with Raita or Salan :)

This is my entry for the Cook Click and Devour and  Hot and Spicy Treats- March event at Food Corner.