Motka Halwai’s Alu-ka-Tarkari, That Sunday Morning Runny Potato Curry

I like to role-play in my kitchen. When I am not playing Nigella, I play more realistic characters, like Motka Halwai, the neighbourhood sweet-maker from my life in Patna.

No one knew his name. Perhaps he had a sexy name like Raj, or Rohan, or Shahrukh. But somehow those names do not quite go with his personality or the way he looked like. Hence, we shall call him Motka Halwai (Hindi for Fat Sweet-maker).

Motka Halwai was 300 kilos of pure adipose. Dripping sweat in his shabby dhoti and ganji-vest, which probably had seen whiter days.  Sitting cross-legged on a wooden platform, which did not quite look like it could withstand the beast of burden any longer. Rolling out hundreds of kachoris every morning, ladling piping hot alu-ka-tarkari in tiny sal-leaf bowls. Dextrously making crispy, spiralled jalebis, dripping with sugar syrup. That is a picture I have lived with for the last three decades. And it has been a torture of sorts.

Motka Halwai was my childhood superhero. He possibly is the only superhero with the underwear in place.

I can say that I have been successfully been able to replicate his alu-ka-tarkari taste here in TO, with some long-distance help from the Mother.

Ingredients for Motka Halwai’s Alu-ka-Tarkari are:

8-10 medium size potatoes, halved and cut into quarters, retain the skin
2-3 tablespoons chana dal/Bengal gram, soaked in water for a couple of hours and sieved
One tablespoon coriander powder
Half teaspoon red chilli powder
One teaspoon turmeric powder
One teaspoon panch phoron (five whole spices mixed together in equal quantities – celery seeds, fennel seeds, cumin, Nigella seeds and fenugreek seeds)
5-6 dry whole red chillies
2-3 tablespoons mustard oil
One and a half cups water
Salt

Start by heating oil in a pressure pan. Add the whole dry red chillies and panch phoron seeds. Let them splutter for a few seconds.

Add the quartered potatoes and the chana dal and mix well. Cook these ingredients for about 4-5 minutes on medium heat. Now add the coriander powder, red chilli powder and turmeric and mix everything up. Cook for 3-4 minutes.

Add water and salt. Bring to a boil and pressure cook till 1-2 whistles go off.

Serve Motka Halwai’s runny potato curry with kachoris or luchi. You can also fantasize about his absolutely indomitable waist circumference. It is pretty exciting if you mix it with the idea of a man cooking for you.

Dimer Dalna, Bengali Egg Curry

The Dimer Dalna is every Bengali mother’s answer to those nights when her pantry and fridge are gaping emptiness. That’s when all she can think of is doling out a quick egg curry to maintain that non-bhej dinner tradition at home. The Dimer Dalna is also a preferred quick something by the cash-strapped bachelor who has called his Mother and painstakingly written down the recipe of Dimer Dalna for those days and nights towards the end of the month.

Dimer Dalna has immense possibilities. It can pass off as a non-vegetarian dish and even fool a hard core fish-eating Bengali. And may I add that a simple meal of Dimer Dalna-bhaat after a day of rich and heaBy Bong eating is like manna from heaven.

Ingredients for Dimer Dalna/ Bengali Egg Curry are:

6 hard boiled eggs (two per person; chicken eggs are mostly used, but if you find duck's eggs {haasher deem} during winters, try them too)
3 boiled potatoes, peeled and halved
1 medium size red onion, very finely chopped
1 large ripe tomato (the riper the better), coarsely chopped
Half cup green peas
2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
Handful of freshly chopped coriander, stems and leaves
1+1 teaspoons turmeric powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon finely ground garam masala powder (cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms)
2 bay leaves
3-4 tablespoons Mustard or Canola oil
Sugar
Salt

Heat mustard oil in a pressure pan, add the eggs and half teaspoon turmeric powder. Fry the eggs on high heat till they get coated with the turmeric powder and get a light brown color on the outside. Remove with a slotted spoon. In the same oil, add the halved potatoes, add half teaspoon turmeric powder, coat well on the potatoes, till they get light brown, remove and keep with the eggs.

To the oil, add the bay leaves, sauté for a few seconds and add the chopped red onion.

To get a good color on your onions, you can add a pinch of sugar, let it caramelize and then add the onions. Fry the onions till they get lightly browned. Now add the ginger-garlic paste, the remaining turmeric, red chili, cumin and coriander, salt and a little pinch of sugar. Cook covered for about 4-5 minutes. Now add the coarsely chopped tomato. Mash the tomatoes with the back of your spatula to release all its juices. Cook covered for 3-4 minutes on medium heat. Now add the green peas and a cup of water to this mixture and cook on medium heat, covered for 4-5 minutes, till the raw taste of the ingredients is gone.

Check the seasoning, and adjust at this point. Now add the eggs and potatoes, mix well with the rest of the ingredients, taking care not to break the eggs. Cover the pan, and cook till you have a thick gravy. You can also cook this mixture in a pressure cooker and have one whistle go off after you have added the eggs and potatoes.

Turn the heat off and add the garam masala powder and freshly chopped coriander.

Serve with plain rice or chapati.

P.S. A very useful tip of making egg curry is by adding the eggs and potatoes in a leftover gravy of chicken curry. Try it, it never fails you.

Thakumar Chhanaar Dalna

The Chhanaar Dalna (Bengali Cottage Cheese Curry) is a makeup recipe for all my vegetarian readers. I also want to remind the rest of you about the huge possibilities of vegetarian cooking in Bengali cuisine. This is an old-school recipe with paneer (Indian cottage cheese), a welcome shift from the matar and palak paneer dishes of the mainstream world.

Sad but true, in olden days, widowed Bengali women had to live on vegetarian food after their husbands passed on. They had to denounce worldly pleasures, wear whites, chop off their manes, and sometimes even live separately from the main family house.

Whoever invented a Chhanaar Dalna probably did a whole lot of good to such women. This way they got their share of calcium from the paneer, and a whole lot of flavor in the aromatic sauce of cumin-ginger-garam masala it is cooked in.

I love the old fashioned touch to this recipe, although I am not too pleased about certain stereotypes attached to vegetarian food in Bengali culture. Thankfully, a lot of it is a thing of past in urban families. There is no greater pleasure for me to see my own Thakuma (Grandmother) slurp on chicken soup. I have a feeling my Dadu (Grandfather) too is pleased as punch to watch his wife living a “normal” life from up there.

Ingredients for Chhanaar Dalna are:

500 homemade paneer, cut into cubes
2 medium size white potatoes, cut into cubes
2 medium size ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 inch knob of ginger
4-5 green chilies
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
One-fourth teaspoon garam masala powder
2 black cardamoms
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
4 tablespoons mustard oil
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt

Grind to a smooth paste two tablespoons cumin seeds, ginger, and the green chilies. Keep aside.

Heat mustard oil in a large sauté pan or wok. Toss in the cubed potatoes till they are browned on the edges, remove with a slotted spoon.

In the same oil, add the pieces of paneer, give a quick sauté and remove.

Throw in a teaspoon of cumin seeds and the black cardamoms in the leftover oil of the wok, let them crackle for a few seconds before you add the chopped tomatoes. Stir well, add two tablespoons of the cumin-ginger-chili paste. With the back of your ladle, press the tomatoes to release all their juices. Add red chili powder, turmeric, sugar, salt and garam masala powder. Keep cooking this mixture on medium heat till the raw taste of the ingredients goes away and little bubbles of oil appear around it.

Pour about two cups of water into the tomato and spices. Let it boil for 7-8 minutes and then toss the sautéed potatoes.

Cook the potatoes till they are done, add the paneer, bring to a boil and turn the heat off. Check the seasoning and adjust if needed.

The Chhanaar Dalna makes up for a great main with some steamed rice. Serve it while its piping hot with fresh flavors.

Waltzing to Mutton Rezala

The mutton trip continues. This time to the delicately-infused, silken taste of Mutton Rezala. Now, I am pretty fuzzy about the origin and history of this dish. Absolutely unsure if it has Mughlai or a North Indian roots. Or Bengali. Guessing by the way it is eaten with a lot of gusto by pandal-hopping Bengalis during Durga Puja. That reminds me to check with you if you have sent your entries for Beyond Five Days of Durga Puja?

The aromatic Mutton Rezala does not let me drift much and I am back to writing how I made this great, Indian mutton dish.

I did the marinating last night. I had almost forgotten to add the pureed onions and then a few minutes into a Skype chat with Mum to re-check on the recipe and I realized my culinary boo-boo.

Ingredients for Mutton Rezala are:

1 kg goat meat, bone in, cut into two inch pieces, as usual I opted for the shoulder portion of a baby goat
1 large red onion, pureed
1 cup plain yogurt (Balkan style)
5-6 fat cloves of garlic
A thumb-size piece of root ginger
10-12 cashew nuts
1 tablespoon poppy seeds/posto
2+2 green and black cardamoms
1 inch stick of cinnamon
Half teaspoon mace powder
1 tablespoon pepper powder
10-12 whole dry red chilies
3-4 green chilies, slit
2 tablespoons milk (you can use warm water too)
Few strands of saffron
Few drops of kewra
Quarter cup heavy cream
Half teaspoon sugar
Salt
Ghee

Wet grind together ginger, garlic, cashew nuts, poppy seeds, and cardamoms. Marinade the meat with yogurt, pureed onion, all of the wet masala, mace powder, sugar, and salt for about eight hours or overnight.

Heat the ghee – about 2-3 tablespoons in a pressure cooker. Add the stick of cinnamon. Immediately add the pieces of mutton, shaking the marinade off. Mix well. If you are worried that the yogurt from the marinade will curdle on contact with the heat, turn the gas mark to the lowest and gradually crank it up.

Slowly add the leftover marinade and mix well. Add the whole dry red chilies and pepper powder and cook covered for 30-40 minutes or pressure cook till 3-4 whistles go off. (Depending on the meat.)

While the meat is being cooked, dissolve some strands of saffron in warm milk and keep covered.

Once the pressure has released and the meat has become tender, add the dissolved saffron and few drops of kewra. Cook on high for 5-7 minutes to infuse the flavor of saffron and kewra into the meat.

The flavor of Kewra is the hallmark in Mutton Rezala and it is important you add it. Check the seasoning now and add salt if necessary.

Finish the Mutton Rezala with some slit green chilies and a little drizzle of heavy / whipping cream.

My Mother would have served the Mutton Rezala with some Lachcha Parathas, just like during Durga Puja. But I am the lazy one, I chose to serve it with Naan. And no, I did not make them.

Kasoori Chicken Curry

My life these days can be summed up in two words. Sleep. Dream.

In between that sleeping and dreaming, I also buy vegetables. Lots of vegetables. And fruits. Which means P’s gastronomical needs are being ignored. His cliché of “I feel weak if I don’t eat meat”, doesn’t crack me up anymore. Instead, I take him seriously. Very seriously.

After all, I do not know of many husbands who run 10 klicks, five times a week to get back in shape for his upcoming soccer season.

This Kasoori Chicken Curry is another of my impromptu recipes, given the fact that I did have a Cornish hen in the freezer. The other ingredients just played ball.

Unlike my other posts, this recipe does not have step-by-step detailing, because honestly I wasn’t too sure of the outcome and the camera did not seem too appealing to handle when I was in the midst of an impending nausea.

Ingredients for Kasoori Chicken Curry are:

1 Cornish hen, about 400-500 grams
1 medium red onion finely slivered
2 ripe medium size tomatoes
1 tablespoon ginger paste
1 tablespoon garlic paste
1 tablespoon green chili paste
Quarter cup Balkan-style / plain yogurt
Quarter teaspoon black cumin seeds/ shahi jeera
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
3 heaped teaspoons of Kasoori Methi (I use the MDH brand)
Pinch of mace
2 bay leaves
1+1 tablespoon Canola oil
Salt

I began by cutting curry pieces of the Cornish hen. You can also use regular chicken pieces for this recipe.
 
Marinade the chicken pieces in yogurt, ginger-garlic-chili paste, black cumin seeds, no more than a pinch of mace, turmeric, red chili, coriander, and garam masala powders. Add to the marinade one tablespoon oil. The chicken is good to be cooked after about 30 minutes of marinating.

Heat one tablespoon oil in a pan. Add a couple of bay leaves and add the onions. Fry the slivered onions till they are light brown in color. Turn the heat to the lowest point. This is important as yogurt has high chancing of curdling on high heat.

Now add the marinating chicken. Cover and cook on medium-high heat till all the natural juices are coming out of the chicken.

Add salt to taste and crush the kasoori methi (dry fenugreek) leaves on the chicken. Mix well.
To crank up the tang in the chicken, I added one plump, ripe tomato, roughly chopped. Cook the tomato with the chicken till its done.

Finish off the dish with slices of tomato and few hot peppers, slit lengthwise. 
The Kasoori Chicken Curry is best served with hot rotis/chapatis and a bowlful of salad.

Mutton Curry

Okay, let me tell you one thing – curry is never made in hurry. So whoever sells you curry in a hurry, is either being facetious or just hasn’t got their curry basics right.

This Mutton Curry for all the time it takes to make is probably one of the most tasteful things you can make with meat. I have used goat meat in this recipe (which is how its made in India). But if don’t find goat meat, you can make it with lamb too.

Ingredients for Mutton Curry are:

1 kg goat meat, bone in, cut into two inch pieces
2 medium size red onions finely slivered
1 pod of garlic
2 inch piece of root ginger
Handful of green chilies
Handful of chopped coriander leaves
2 heaped tablespoons of MDH Kashmiri Lal Mirch (or paprika)
1 heaped tablespoons coriander powder
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
Half tablespoon cumin powder
1 small cinnamon stick
2 black cardamoms
2-3 green cardamoms
4-5 cloves
2 bay leaves
2 + 4 tablespoons mustard oil (or canola oil)
Salt

Wash and drain all the moisture from the meat. Grind to a smooth paste the garlic cloves, ginger and green chilies. Add minimum water to this mixture.

In a glass bowl, mix the meat, ginger-garlic-chili paste, turmeric, Kashmiri lal mirch powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and two tablespoons mustard oil. Give everything a good mix and marinade for 5-6 hours. Since I was making this curry for lunch, I did the marinade overnight in the fridge.

Heat mustard oil, add the bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves and cardamoms. Sauté for a minute and add the slivered red onions. If you want your onions to caramelize quickly, add a pinch of sugar in the hot oil and then add the onions.

Keep stirring the onions on low-medium heat till they turn golden brown in color. Add the marinated meat and start stirring to mix it thoroughly with the onions. Keep stirring so that the meat at the top changes position and goes to the bottom of your pan. Get a light brown color on the meat. You can even cover and cook the meat right from the start.

After browning the meat, add salt to taste. Adding salt tenderizes the meat and it starts cooking in its own moisture. Keep the pan covered but stir from time to time.

You will see the meat and the spices changing color from a raw, bland look to a rich, dark brown color. It takes about 40-45 minutes for the meat to cook in it own moisture. But since we want some “curry” in our meat, we will add little by little water and cook the meat covered.

Check the meat if it has been completely cooked. Garnish with chopped coriander and remove from heat.

Mutton Curry is best served with plain white rice, rotis or even pulao (something which I personally love!).