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.

Koraishutir Kochuri

India spoils you! Even my Argentinian friend who lived there only for a couple of years agrees.

Its people power is immense. Right now, apart from my immediate family, I miss almost everybody from my everyday life back home. From the domestic help and cook, to the go-to Auntyji next door whose door I would knock shamelessly for a bowl of sugar. Last evening I ran out of sugar while making the filling for Koraishutir Kochuri. What I had thought to be a bag of sugar in my pantry turned out to be all-purpose flour. Now if you are a Bengali, you’d know that sugar is very important for the Koraishutir pur.

Obviously since I am toting a baby these days, I couldn’t just slip into my sneakers, plug my music on and go to the supermarket on a rainy evening to get it. Instead I had to patiently wait for the husband to bring me a bag of sugar on his way back from work. Which meant waiting for a couple of hours more and also the probability that he might forget in spite of two emails and a text message; and might I add, a follow up call to check if he had received those pieces of communication.

Had I been in India, I would have used the easiest (read reliable) route to getting a bowl of the coveted sugar.

I would have either called my grocery-wala saying – Raju Bhaiya, ek kilo chini bhijwa do. And add an urgent – Jaldi!. Or walked across to my neighbour’s and said – Aunty, I ran out of sugar. Thoda sa milega kya? And Auntyji would only be too glad to fill the bowl with the white stuff and hand it over to me. She would even offer to babysit while I cooked. Later as a thank you gesture, I would send her hot Koraishutir Kochuri!

Transactions and deals like this are common in friendly, urban India I grew up in. Here I don’t really know who my next door neighbour is. He is an elderly gentleman who nods a polite hello whenever we see him in the hallway. We have never exchanged a word beyond that. And I am pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate if I knocked on his door begging for a bowl of sugar. Maybe I should make the first move and call him over for some Kochuri and Alur Dom. I wonder if he would ask for the recipe too!

Ingredients for Koraishutir Kochuri are:

500 grams fresh (or frozen) green peas (shelled and coarsely ground)
2 inch ginger (paste)
2 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoon turmeric powder
Pinch of asafoetida
Sugar
Salt
2-3 tablespoons mustard oil
1 cup Maida – Atta combination
Vegetable/Canola oil for deep frying

Heat mustard oil in a wok, add a pinch of asafoetida. Add the green peas paste, ginger paste, dry spices and salt and sugar.

Keep stirring and frying the ingredients till the peas mixture soaks all the oil, moisture and is good enough to make small balls. From a bright peas-y green, it will turn into a moss green color.

Let the mixture cool down till you are able to handle it with your hands. I sometimes make my peas filling a day before I am making the Kochuri, it saves up a lot of time on the day I am actually making it.

Knead maida-atta with some water, one tablespoon vegetable oil and a pinch of salt. Keep aside covered with a lid or a moist tea cloth for an hour. Give it a quick knead again. The dough should feel like a baby’s bottom under your fingers. Heat one cup of vegetable oil in a thick bottom wok.

Make small balls of the dough and roll them out into discs. Fill in the peas mixture (about one tablespoon in each) and round the dough between the palms of your hand. Roll them again as you would make puris.

Let the oil heat up before you slide the Kochuris in. Give both sides a minute each before turning. Use a spider to take them out of the oil. Drain each Kochuri on paper towels to get that excess oil out.

Because the Kochuris are filled in, they wouldn’t always fluff up like a luchi/puri.

But mine did! Go figure.

Koraishutir Ghugni

I haven't yet made Koraishutir Kochuri this season. Which means I have to make my peas offering with a peas-y alternative.

This is a green peas ghugni, something which can pass off an evening snack or as a brunch with phulko luchi.

Ingredients for Koraishutir/Green Peas Ghugni are:

500 grams shelled peas (frozen or fresh)
2 medium size potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger paste
2 medium ripe red tomatoes, chopped
Half teaspoon cumin seed
Half teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
Half teaspoon black pepper powder
1 small stick of cinnamon
1 cardamom
2 cloves
2 bay leaves
Half cup fried onions, crushed
2-3 tablespoons mustard oil
Sugar
Salt

Heat oil in a pan and sauté the cubes of potatoes till they are lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.

In the remaining oil, add the cumin seeds, bay leaves, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. Immediately add the chopped onions.

On a low heat-medium heat, sauté the onions till they are lightly red in color. Add the ginger, tomatoes, red chili powder, black pepper powder, turmeric, garam masala powder, salt and half a spoon of sugar. Sweat the onions with the spices and tomatoes till they are cooked. Keep it covered. This should take about 6-8 minutes.

Once this mixture is cooked, add the green peas and the sautéed potatoes.

Add half a cup of water, cover and cook the peas for 5-6 minutes. The peas and potato will release some moisture of their own, make sure you don’t overcook them and make them mushy.

Now add the crushed fried onions to the ghugni and mix well. Do a taste check and see if it has the right balance of everything.

Have the Green Peas Ghugni on its own as a snack or team it up with some luchi or parotha. Some of you may even like to top it with some muri/puffed rice and enjoy it with some hot chai.

Give Peas a Chance!

A couple of weeks ago at Pottery School, when I had some extra clay which was fast turning too hard to work with, I made this “Peas in the Pod”. Thinking it’d make a pretty display for my countertop.

I rolled three balls in different sizes. I cut a rectangular slab and ran the pin tool very unevenly on the sides. Then I kept the three peas at the center of the slab and raised the side walls with my fingers. Of course I “slipped and scored” each “pea” to the “pod”.

It was left to dry for a week and then my teacher bisque-fired it. I used a green underglaze to paint it. Lastly I used a transparent lead-free glaze on top.

It was again fired in the kiln. What you see is twice fired Peas in the Pod! What do you think?

While we are on the subject of my favorite vegetable I lovingly called “Poto” as a kid, please see my peas recipes too. They have real peas in them!

Peas, pretty peas!

• Peas Pulao
• Chire Koraishuti
• Alu Matar Chaat
• Bengali Shingara
• Alu Chorchodi
• Alu Matar Keema
• Moturshuti'r Kochuri
• Shrimp and Peas Risotto
• Alur Chop with Koraishuti Filling

Chire-Koraishuti, Unbeatable Bowl of Beaten Rice and Green Peas

There is nothing fashionable about a bowl of Chire-Koraishurti. Even if you dress it up in a crystal bowl, it cannot make it to a food magazine. But it does have a reputation of making a sneaky entry to your tummy through the doorway of your heart. So here I am writing about something so mundane like fried beaten rice (chire) and sautéed green peas (koraishuti) with an out-of-this-world enthusiasm.

Mention the two words Chire and Koraishuti in the same sentence, and you will have three generations of women in my family melting to the sights and sounds of beaten rice and green peas in the middle of winter. My 82-year-old Grandmother thinks it is so good, she can take it intravenously.

 
Ingredients for Chire-Koraishuti are:

One and half cups beaten rice/ chire/chura/poha
500 grams green peas, frozen or fresh
2-3 green chilies, broken from the center
2 tablespoons mustard oil (for the peas)
Canola oil for deep frying (the beaten rice)
Pinch of black pepper powder
Some finely chopped red onion
Sugar
Salt

Heat the mustard oil in a sauté pan, add the green chilies, let them splutter for a few seconds and then add the green peas. Season with sugar, salt and the pinch of black pepper.

Mix well, and cook covered till the peas are done. Do not overcook or dehydrate the peas. It doesn't take much time for the tender peas to become hard, inedible pellets.

Now for the Chire/ beaten rice. Heat Canola (or vegetable) oil to almost smoking, its best to use a wok. Scatter a handful of the beaten rice evenly in the oil. Do not overcrowd the wok. The beaten rice will immediately rise to the occasion, they will fluff up and become snow white in color. Almost within seconds.

Remove immediately with a slotted spoon and drain excess oil on paper towels. If you want, season with a pinch of salt.

Serve the koraishuti bhaja on a bed or chire bhaja and top it with some finely chopped onions. Eat immediately.

I like to have my Chire-Koraishuti in silence, listening to the crunch of the beaten rice. I also like to squish the green chilies which were cooked with peas with the back of my spoon into the peas, they add a whole lot of flavor in my mouth. A hot mug of chai is purely optional but extremely necessary on a cold winter day.

P.S. If you want bowls, mugs, tableware, etc. from CSN Stores, participate in the giveaway I am hosting this month. Hurry, the Holidays are almost here.