Bong Makes Madrasi Chutney

There is very little that stands between a Bong and food. If she can’t get it in phoren land, she will make sure her kitchen doles it out.

So I brought Madras home. The idlis are take out from Anjappar. But the coconut chutney is mine. Actually the recipe is what my Mum had learnt from a Madrasi aunty living in Patna. For us Bongs, anyone living down South is a Madrasi. That’s how myopic we are. And what do we know about their cuisine? Well, it starts and ends with idli-dosa. And somewhere in between – this chutney!

Ingredients for Madrasi Coconut Chutney are:

Grated fresh coconut, 1 cup (I used from a bag of frozen coconut available at Patel shops)
Handful of green chillies
Fat piece of ginger
2-3 tablespoons sattu (don’t faint! You can use roasted chana)
Few sprigs of fresh coriander
Salt

Put all the above ingredients in a grinder and wet grind till coarse. Add little water to get a chutney-like consistency.

For the tempering:

1 teaspoon chana dal
1 teaspoon urad dal
1-2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
5-6 whole dry red chillies
Few curry leaves (I freeze fresh ones, they last for months)
1-2 tablespoons canola oil

Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. Let them splutter. Next add the lentils, dry red chillies and curry leaves, in no particular order.

Cook them on low heat for a minute, don’t let them turn brown.

Add the tempering to the chutney. Serve the chutney with vadas, idlis or dosas. Its even good with some aloo bonda. Go try!

Shrimply Delicious, Chili-Garlic Prawn

Some days are such, I want dinner made under 10 minutes. This does not necessarily mean I pop in the microwave a TV dinner. By now, you know my habit of cooking fresh and homemade and from-the-scratch. Well, its not really a myth to do all that in 10 minutes. Or 20 maybe.

Here is something that will give Rachael Ray a run for her money – my Chili-Garlic Prawn, with an approximate cook time of 10.

Ingredients for Chili-Garlic Prawn are:

10 large shrimps, remove shell, keep tail and devein. I used the black colossal tiger shrimps from St. Lawrence Market.

For the marinade: 
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
3 tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 heaped tablespoon cornstarch
Pinch of black pepper powder
Pinch of sugar
White of 1 egg

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl and dunk the shrimps in it. Keep for 20-30 minutes.

For the sauce:
1 medium size onion, yellow or red, cut into quarters and petals separated
5-6 fat cloves of garlic, sliced
3-4 green chilies, sliced
3 tablespoons Sambal Oelek
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon white vinegar
Pinch of sugar
3+3 tablespoons canola oil

Heat half the oil in a Chinese wok. Remove the prawns from the marinade and shallow fry them in the hot oil, turning them mid way. Give each side of the shrimp about 2-3 minutes in the heat, so that its tail curl up and it turns pink. Do this in batches if your wok is small. Keep them aside.

Start with a clean wok to make the sauce and finish the dish. Heat the remaining oil and add the garlic and green chilies. Sauté for a couple of minutes without turning the garlic brown. Toss in the onions. Sweat them on high for 3-4 minutes.
In a bowl, mix together the tomato ketchup, sambal oelek, soy sauce, and sugar. Pour it on the onions, etc. Give it a good stir and let it cook for 3-4 minutes on high heat. Check the seasoning and adjust accordingly. Add the vinegar. I did not add any salt to my dish as all the sauces have ample salt in them.

Now add the prawns to the sauce. Coat them well, cook for 2-3 minutes in the sauce and turn the heat off. Serve immediately with steamed rice or a fried rice you like.


Now who was keeping the time?

Pickled Pink

Once upon a time little pickled onions were served only in (North) Indian restaurants.
The “waiter” would thump a small bowl of vinegar onions on the table along with mango pickle and green chilies while you waited for the food to arrive. Smells wafting from the restaurant’s kitchen would drive you to an insane level of hunger and soon you would reach for a pink, pearly onion. You’d begin gently first, peeling the top leaf between your mouth. Tasting its subtle sweet flavor mixed with the sharpness of the vinegar.

You’d involuntarily close one eye, while keeping the other (eye) on the rest of the pink beauties. The vinegar-onions would send the taste buds tickling and you would experience a sharp rise in appetite.

The vinegar-pickled onions can play a starring role on your dinner buffet. Serve them with Butter Chicken or Matar Paneer and see how they orchestrate transformation on the table.

And while I was peeling these pearl onions for the pickle, the lush Cherry Belles on my kitchen counter also inspired me in a certain way.

There is something exotic about these bright-skinned radish with white insides. I washed and snipped off the stems of a handful of these and dunked them in white vinegar too, with some green chilies.

Apart from the fact that they are pretty on the eye, they also add some bright, lively bite to the buffet.

Quick-pickled vegetables provide a zesty complement to salads and entrées. But you already knew that.

Always a Hit, Alu Kumror Chokka

At my home, a kumro always swings between a Chenchki and this Chokka. Both are traditional Bengali ways of cooking pumpkin with other ingredients.

A Chokka is usually made with Alu (Potato), Potol (Parwal) and of course, the Kumro (Pumpkin). A handful of Red Gram (Lal Chola) is added to give it more personality.

A Chokka pairs well with porotha or phulko luchi, I chose to serve it with the latter today, since P favors them over the triangular parathas.

Ingredients for Alu Kumror Chokka are:

300 grams pumpkin/ butternut squash, cut into two inch cubes
2 medium size potatoes, quartered
Handful of red gram, soaked overnight
1 medium size ripe tomato, coarsely chopped
2-3 green chilies, slit
2-3 dry red chilies
1 teaspoon panch phoron
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
Generous pinch of asafoetida/ hing
Quarter teaspoon garam masala powder
Half teaspoon ghee
3-4 tablespoons mustard oil
Sugar
Salt

Heat the mustard oil in a deep pan. Add the panch phoron, dry and red chilies and hing in no particular order. Sauté them for a minute before adding the diced potatoes.
Toss the potatoes around in the oil for a couple of minutes and see them getting slightly golden yellow at the edges. Throw in the handful of red gram then. Stir continuously for a couple of minutes on medium heat.

Now add the pumpkin. Sauté for a minute or two before adding the turmeric and red chili powder. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, mix all the ingredients. Add half a cup of water, cover and cook till the potatoes are done. The pumpkin gets mushy quickly so it helps to add them a little later than the potatoes.

Finish the Chokka with quarter teaspoon of garam masala powder and a spoonful of ghee.

The sweet, fragrant Alu Kumror Chokka is ready to be served now.

And its no coincidence that Soma of eCurry too made the Kumror Chokka today. Its an abundance of the mishti kumro.

Pearls of Pink in Pomegranate Raita

Nigella Lawson did it. And so did Gordon Ramsay. They took the quintessential Indian raita and played with the idea of whipping together plain yogurt and Pomegranate, while keeping the traditional seasonings for this condiment quite in place.

I was at the world’s largest pomegranate display yesterday. Predictably so, I brought home two blood red pomegranates, which other than being high on décor quotient also have adequate culinary use in my home.

You usually see boondi or cucumber raita with biryani, but today I decided to go the “British” way- I fell for fusion food. I made Pomegranate Raita.

Ingredients for Pomegranate Raita are:

Half cup pomegranate arils
1 cup plain yogurt
Half tablespoon roasted and crushed cumin and coriander seeds (Bengalis call it bhaja moshla)
1 finely chopped green chili
Handful of finely chopped fresh coriander (leaves and stem)
Pinch of red chili powder
Black salt

In a bowl, beat together with a fork the yogurt, red chili powder and black salt (use plain salt if you don’t have black salt or kala namak). Pour in a serving bowl and chill.

Just before you are ready to serve, top the yogurt with the pomegranate, chopped green chili, fresh coriander and the crushed cumin and coriander seeds which have been dry roasted.

Serve the Pomegranate Raita with biryani or pulav and enjoy a burst of sweet, tang and savory in your mouth.

I am joining Torview’s Food Palette Red Event with my Pomegranate Raita.