Pabda Machher Jhal

We bengalis can cook fish in thousand and one or may be even more ways. Bengalis are ardent food lovers and fish and sweets tops their list of favourite food. Bengal is a part of India with hundreds of ponds and rivers where you get hundreds of types of fishes. There is also a saying in Bengali " Machhe Bhaate bangali" which means a bengali is by fish and rice.
English name for pabda is pabo catfish. It is a sweet water fish and is found in rivers. It is a one bone fish with slightly slippery body but firm to touch. This is one fish curry which is often prepared when family comes together for an occassion. I love this fish curry and hope rest of the world will also like the traditional tastes of bengal.

Ingredients:

- Pabda Fish (4 washed and cleaned)
- Onion paste and ginger paste (2 tbsp)
- Green chilli (2 slit from the middle)
- Salt (acc to taste)
- Kalo Jeera / Nigella (1/2 tsp)
- Bori (6-7)
- Red chilli powder (1/2 tsp)
- Coriander Powder (1 tsp)
- Cumin powder ( 1 tsp)
- Turmeric powder (1/2 tsp)
- Mustard oil ( 1 cup)

Bori is nothing but small lentil paste cakes that we get in Bengal.

Method:
- Marinate the fish with salt and turmeric powder for half a hour.
- In a wok fry the fishes and keep aside.
- In the same oil add bori and fry it till it turns brown.
- In the same oil add the nigella seeds and green chillies.

- When they splutter add the onion ginger paste.
- Fry the paste till golden and then add red chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder.If the masala sticks to the wok add little water about 1 tbsp.
- When the masala is fried add 1 cup water and let it come to boil.
- Add the fish and bori to it and let it cook in low flame for another 2-3 mins.
- Serve hot with rice.
You can garnish with coriander leaves.

Paneer Makhani in Microwave :)

 Shubho Nababarsha to all of you my friends. Today is bengali new year. According to traditions I should be making some sweets today but that did not happen. I am not keeping well and was admitted to the hospital entire night yesterday. I had prepared this easy paneer makhni dish few days back. So had no other choice but post this paneer dish to wish all of you a happy and prosperous new year. :)

As for today I could not celebrate with good food and only had to eat all boiled stuff due to my health conditions. :(

This recipe is from the recipe book which I have got with my microwave. I never thought of giving it a try as I was not pretty sure about how it would actually taste. It was awesome, even better than what is served in the restaurants and takes only half an hour to be ready to serve.

Ingredients:
- Paneer (200 grams cut into cubes)
- Tomatoes (5 chopped)
- Chopped Ginger (1 tsp)'
- Butter (2 tbsp)
- Oil (1 tbsp)
- Green cardamoms (2 crushed)
- Sugar (1/2 tsp)
- Salt (acc to taste)
- Garam Masala (1/2 tsp)
- Red chilli powder (1/2 tsp)
- Tomato Ketchup (1 tsp)
- Cashewnuts (5-6)
- Milk (1/2 cup)
- Kasoori Methi powder (2 tsp)
- Cream (1/2 cup)

Method:
- Soak the cashewnuts in milk for 30 mins and then grind to paste.
- In a deep dish cover and microwave tomatoes, ginger and 1/2 cup water for 5 mins.Let it cool and puree in a mixer.
- Microwave butter, oil and elaichi for 2 mins. Add salt, sugar and red chilli powder and garam masala.Mix.
- Add fresh tomato puree and tomato ketchup. Mix very well. Microwave covered for 4 mins. Stir once and microwave uncovered for 4 mins again.
- Add cashewnut paste and Kasoori methi. Mix well and add half cups of water. Microwave for 3 mins.
- Add paneer. Add enough cream to get a thick red gravy. Microwave 2 mins and serve.

This tastes superb when served with roti. :)

This goes off to :
Vegetarian side dishes at Zesty Pallette and Priya's easy and tasty recipes

 

 at Saras kitchen and Sizzling Tastebuds









Microwave Easy cooking event at Nalini's Kitchen

Grilled Egg Sandwich

Hello Friends!! I am here after quite some time.. was bit busy wid work.
Today I have decided to share with you a sandwich recipe which is very easy to make and makes a great breakfast on a weekday when you are in a hurry to leave for work.I don't know why but I always leave for work in a hurry as I am always late. I have a habit of packing lunch and taking to office everyday. Not only because eating out everyday is not good for health but also the food at my office canteen is horrible. You can't eat a single thing there.... even the sight of food there will leave you feeling sick... its full of oil and red in colour. I had lunch there once and ended up having severe heartburn. That was the day when I decided I am not going to eat canteen food no matter what!!! In the morning when my gas oven is occupied with the lunch dishes it is convenient to prepare something in the microwave or the sandwich maker for breakfast. I got this sandwich maker as a gift from my husband's friends during our marriage and I really feel blessed that I have one of these.

Ingredients:
- Boiled Eggs (1)
- Cucumber - (1/2)
- Tomatoes (1)
- Capsicum (1/2)
- Tomato sauce (2 tbsp)
- BlackPepper powder(1 pinch)
- Grated cheese (1/2 cup)
- Grated carrots (1/2 cup)

Method :
- Cut the boiled egg, capsicum, tomatoes, cucumber in your choice of shapes. Make sure the slices are pretty thin.
- Take a slice of bread.
- Put all the veggies and the egg over the slice. Add the tomato sauce.
- Now add the grated carrots and cheese, sprinkle some black pepper powder and put another bread slice on top of it.
- Now put it in the sandwich maker for grilling.
- After it is grilled take it out and cut it diagonally into two halves.

Your sandwich is ready. Have it at home or on your way to office like I do. :)

This goes off to Sumee's Culinary Bites Breakfast Ideas and Lets Make Sandwich Event at Simply Food and Cook Click and Devour.

Easy Cheesy Pizza Without Oven

This is a recipe for pizza without an oven. It can be prepared on stove top in a jiffy. It takes very little time and is a hit snack item among kids as well as grown ups. :)

Ingredients:

- Pizza Base (3 small ones/ one large)
- Tomato sauce (2 tbsp)
- Chilli Sauce (2 tbsp)
- Cheese (1 cube)
- Capsicum / Green bell pepper (1 chopped finely)
- Onion (1 chopped finely)
- Carrots (1 chopped finely)
- Corn Kernels ( 1/2 cup)
- Mozzarella cheese  / Any cheese of your choice( 1 cup grated)
- Butter (1 tbsp)

Method:
- Take a frying pan / tava and put some butter on it. Heat it.
- When the tava is hot enough put the pizza bases on it.
- After some time turn the pizza base to other side. When both sides are baked i.e brown in colour turn off the flame.
- Now take the pizza base and apply the tomato sauce and chilli sauce on it.
- Put some grated cheese .
- Now put chopped capsicum, onion, carrots, corn or any other veggies of your choice. You can even put chicken but make sure the chicken is cooked before it goes into your pizza.
- Now add some more grated cheese on top of the veggies.
- Put the pizza in microwave for a min on high so that the cheese melts and the veggies are cooked a bit. Veggies should be crispy that is not totally cooked. If you do not have a microwave put the pizza on a tava and cover it with lid. It will take 2-3 mins to be ready.
- Add some more cheese if you want, add chilli flakes and oregano flakes.

Enjoy your pizza.. :)

This goes off to :
Say Cheese event at daily cuppa , LunchBox Ideas at Cuisine delights and Recipe Junction,
Kids delight at Rujuta and Srivalli at Spice your life and Cook Click and Devour.

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.