Saturday, March 30, 2013

Deviled egg

It was an extremely hectic Saturday to me. Barely I got chance to sit for few moments. Since morning I was literally running. I woke up at 8 in the morning, and since then I was there until 12 o’clock. Suddenly hubby declared that something had come up and he had to leave within 1 o’clock. I knew that I couldn’t complete my job within 1 o’clock. So, we changed our plan a little bit. He decided to earlier to his destination, and I would go to library with our son little later. He had his lunch and went. My plan was to go to library after finishing my laundry. 


Thursday, March 28, 2013

Dol purnima


In my life I played holi (in Bengali Dol) only once, when I was just a little girl. After that I never played holi. When I was a kid I really missed holi. Every time I got angry on my father for not allowing me to play holi. As I grow up I realize that what my father did was actually good for me. My skin is very sensitive, so I’ve always have chance to get eruption in my skin due to those chemical colors. Anyway, after that very day, I used to listen to the story to my friend in school. After marriage my husband told his great stories about dol. Sometimes I poke him to tell all those stories I relish them.


He used to go to uncle’s place to play dol with his cousins. He always tells about that how they played with other children, how they do the mischief with the seniors. Their main attraction was to see the behaviors of the ‘boudis’ (married young women) after having bhang. Bhang is an essential part of dol, which has some intoxicating agent which fuddles the person. However I’ve no experience of such innocent mischief. Sometimes my father used to bring mothh (A special kind of sugar candy, especially available during dol). Our childhood was not full of different colorful candies and cake. So, those frugal candies bought enormous joy among us. As I grow up, the urge of playing dol has died down. Currently living far away from home country doesn’t bring any flavor of dol. I don’t want to lament for that, but, somehow I’m depriving my son from the essence of the festivals of our home country. Anyway, I have to accept it. May be I can’t give him the joy of dol, what I can do is, cooking dol-special dishes. 

Patisapta

 

Malpoa



If you want to make patisapta or malpoa you can consult, http://www.colorandspices.com/2013/01/poush-sankrantir-pithe-puli-payes.html

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Coriander-chicken

Exam!!! Since my childhood I’m always scared of that. Even at this age I still fear of exam. Few days ago I’d the final exam of a paper of the course which I’m currently attending. Anyway, I declared that I couldn’t cook on weekend, because I needed time to study. My hubby told that, he would bring lunch from outside. After finishing my study when I came out from my room, I found that he was sitting on chair with his laptop. I became furious to see that. I couldn’t understand when he would go and when he would bring the lunch. I knew I had to cook something right then. I went to kitchen grumbling on him. The easiest thing was to cook a big bowl of chicken. I had a big bunch of coriander leaves in my refrigerator, which on the verge of spoiling. I wanted use the whole bunch in my cooking. So I decided to make coriander chicken. I open the cupboard to take out the spices and the coconut powder container dropped in my hand, and I decided to use coconut powder in the curry. And the coriander-coconut chicken came out as a very tasty dish.

Ingredient:
One whole chicken (I used one lb leg pieces)
One big bunch of fresh coriander leaves
Two tbsp. Coconut powder
Half cup milk ( if you use fresh coconut, then you may not need to use milk)
One medium sized onion (finely chopped)
One medium sized tomato (finely chopped)
One tbsp. ginger paste
Two tsp. garam mashala powder
Pinch of turmeric powder
Two tbsp. of oil
half tsp. fenugreek seeds
salt to taste
Method:
Heat two tbsp. of oil in a heavy bottomed wok. Add fenugreek seeds. When the seeds start to crackle add the ginger paste, fry for few second. Add onion and tomato, stir for few minutes, and cover the wok. Let it cook until oil separates from the mixture, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile make a paste of coriander leave (keep the stems to get the better aroma), coconut powder and milk. Add the chicken pieces into the onion-tomato mixture in the wok. Add garam mashala powder. Stir, and cover it to cook for some time. Add the coriander-coconut paste, stir, and let it cook until the chicken becomes tender. If you need to add water, add ½ one at a time. The curry is ready. Serve hot with rice or roti.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Chicken rezala

Oh!! What a hectic Sunday. I wish I could get up a little bit earlier. I got up at 7:45. It was already late. I rushed into my kitchen and started cooking. Actually one of my friends and her family was coming to lunch with us. I had a big plan. However, I didn’t know whether those four hours would be enough for me to cooking as well as cleaning the house. My plan was to cook mutton biryani, chicken rezala and baked rosogolla. I didn’t want to finish the lunch with any store brought dessert. I wanted to cook something at home. Actually, when I read the recipe of baked rosogolla in one of my friend’s blog I wanted to bake that. 


However, for that I need some occasion, when there would be more people at home. Though my hubby asked me not to take much pressure, I decided to bake that. Anyway, the problem was with rezala. I never cooked that dish. I made a mistake; I didn’t read any recipe on previous night. In the morning, amid pile of works all my effort in to find an easy recipe from Internet went in vein. I knew that my mother-in-law cooks the razala in a very easy way. At last she rescued me. She gave her easy recipe of chicken rezala.  After cooking the daal, and preparing the mutton for biryani, I started preparing for baked-rosogolla. When I started doing that I realized that it was wise to listen to my husband. It took a long time to prepare. I was stirring and stirring the milk in the saucepan, but it didn’t show any sign to thickening.  It seemed that the clock was ticking faster. I sighed in relief when I could pour the rosogollas in the oven. Then I started cooking rezala. I would like to thank my mother-in-law to sharing the simplest recipe of rezala. At last I finished everything at 1 o’clock. My friend and her family arrived just after one.  By that time everything was done. We had a great lunch. Everybody enjoyed the biryani. I really felt extremely happy because that was the first time I cooked mutton biryani.  So, everything had gone well. 


Anyway, the cause of writing this long story is to share the simplest yet delicious recipe of chicken rezala which my mother-in-law shared with me.


Ingredients:One whole chicken

One cup plain yogurt

4 tbsp of ginger juice

2 tbsp of garlic juice

salt to taste

2-3 dry red chili

2 bay leaves

5-6 black pepper corn

One tbsp. of oil or ghee

Salt to taste

Method:


Marinate the chicken with yogurt and salt for few hours (I marinated overnight). The taste depends on how long you marinate the chicken. Then add the ginger and garlic juice in the marinated chicken and keep for half an hour. Heat oil in the heavy bottom wok, add the dry chili. Sauté the chili, and keep them aside. In the heated oil add bay leaves and pepper corns. Then add the marinated chicken. Cover the wok and let it cook in medium heat. Just stir time to time. If you need, add one cup water. Cook until the chicken becomes tender.  Rezala is ready. 


Friday, March 15, 2013

strawberry-chocolate cake



1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup melted butter

2/3 cup milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

6-7 fresh strawberries


Friday, March 8, 2013

Happy women's day


What is women’s day I didn’t know till I took admission in Bethune College. I still remember the day when I was a grade XI student. Mrs. Kalyani Karlekar (She was a renowned social worker in Kolkata), was invited to our college. We attended the seminar at the Bethune College auditorium which was located on the top floor of Arts building. She shared many light moments with us apart from the lecture about the significance of the day. At that time I was too innocent to realize about that, but I still remember all the nice stories she shared with us. Now at the age of 36 though still it is not much clear to me why only one is to be celebrated for woman. There are many, many debates about it. Some women hate it, they think why one day to celebrate? Some women like it. They love to celebrate. To me every day is a celebration. When I feel depressed, I think, I’m a woman, I’m the pillar. There is no room for depression. So I want to say that, all of you are special. Be happy.

 


Happy Women’s Day