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.

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.

Chicken Soup for a Cause

There is nothing remotely romantic about men who talk to your breasts. Its uncomfortable and downright disgusting to have someone stare at you in a manner which is not only inappropriate but also comes close to being “unlawful”.

The Blog world is full of posts on Pink Power and the cause and awareness of Breast Cancer, well there is another kind of cancer that affects individuals with breasts!

I was still naive in my first job at a large encyclopedia company. I was also very aware of the fact that every time I talked to a certain male colleague, I “mesmerized” him in a way which was all too new for me. His eyes remained transfixed. The gaze just wouldn’t shift. Initially I thought it was me. The next few times I had the need to talk to him, I would shield myself with the latest edition of The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus. But his peering gaze bore through its hard covers. Neither Merriam nor Webster could provide an armor for me.

I talked about it to another colleague. Apparently she was a victim too. Soon, we were all talking about the man who stared at… And he did not even look like George Clooney!!

I was definitely not alone.

In my last life in an ITES corporation, I was no more naive, no more the duckling trying to become a swan. I was the swan in four-inch stilettos. And my hawk eyes met another such highly placed honcho, who was in the habit of having conversations with the chest.

The first time he talked corporate policies and tools and technology in the Knowledge Management domain to my breasts, I did brush it off thinking it was my imagination (read paranoia).

The second time, I was not so kind. As his stare shifted, so did I, on my swivel chair. I slid in my seat to meet his eyes. I stooped low to meet his gaze. But it was all worth it. He never looked at me again. Not even my eyes.

This Chicken Soup is not related in anyway to the above incidents (or the people), except that I used chicken breast portions for my soup which is now becoming a highly recommended source of calm and cure when the mind is racing and the nose is runny.

Ingredients for my Chicken Soup are:

2 portions of chicken breasts
One small onion, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon very finely chopped ginger
Half cup finely chopped green beans
Half cup finely chopped carrots
Half cup green peas
Half cup chopped coriander/cilantro
1 tablespoon butter
Black pepper
Salt

Make the broth by boiling the portions of chicken, onion, salt and pepper with 6-7 cups of water. Cook covered.

Remove the boiled chicken pieces and shred.

Just before you are ready to have the soup, crank the heat up of the broth, when its come to a raging boil, add the chicken, ginger, green beans, carrots and peas. And butter.

Turn the heat off after about 3-4 minutes. The idea is to keep the vegetables crunchy and retain their color.

Remove from the stove and add the chopped coriander. Lots of it. Cooking the soup with the coriander in will result in darker leaves which are not too pleasing, just like the looks of these men.

Season with more salt and pepper if needed.

Alur Chop with Koraishuti Filling

That’s pea-filled potato croquettes in English. There are many ways of making Alur Chop. This is my Mother’s Grandmother’s recipe. People who love the taste of fresh ginger may specially find this appealing.

I love the fact that the inside and the outside of this chop tastes different, and its got remarkable punch to it. I wouldn’t recommend adding green chilies if you have children eating this. Be warned they might also not like the pungency of ginger. If you are making it for kids, you may like to use the filling from here.

Ingredients for Alur Chop with Koraishuti Filling are:

4-5 medium size yellow potatoes, boiled and peeled
Half a cup of frozen or fresh green peas
1 heaped tablespoon of grated ginger
Handful of chopped coriander
2-3 tablespoons juice of lemon
3-4 green chilies, finely chopped
One and half tablespoon cornstarch
Half cup breadcrumbs
Canola oil for deep frying
Salt

If you are using frozen peas like I did today, wash it first, drain all water.

Marinade the green peas in the grated ginger, lemon juice and pinch of salt. Keep it for 15-20 minutes, its okay if the peas change color into a lighter shade.

Mash the potatoes, add the cornstarch, chopped coriander and chilies and salt. Mix well.

Take fist-size portions of this mixture in one hand, make a little cup at the center and fill about a spoonful of the pea-mixture into the potato. Use both your hands to shape it into chops or croquettes like these.

Heat oil in a wok until just under smoking. Roll the chops on bread crumbs. Deep fry till golden brown.

Drain on paper towels and serve hot with tomato ketchup and chai. This Alur Chop is highly recommended for an Ashtami adda. That time of the day when all of you get together just before the evening Arati.

I promise it will never fail to impress your friends.

Peas Pulao Against Plagiarism…

…and to appease the Rānāchandi in me. After what I stumbled onto yesterday.

My Payesh recipe copy-pasted verbatim, my photograph used, the watermark cleverly removed! The Blog owner wrote in her introduction that she was making it for her special friend on a special request. I could not even leave a comment on this Blog (sayanti-bonappetit.blogspot.com), apparently the owner had disabled comments!

I posted my woe on my Facebook profile. The kind people who enjoy reading my Blog promptly replied. I emailed the Thief. I alerted other Food Bloggers whose work I could identify in the Thief’s site. I went to bed with a bitter taste in my mouth.

A note of shamelessness awaited me in the morning from the Thief.

From: "Sayanti Sarkar" <saayanti@XXXX.com> To: preeoccupied@yahoo.com hi, thanks for this mail...otherwise I would'nt hv know wat was happening using my name.....oh hole shit......after getting this mail did a google search and saw something really crap!!!!! suddenly from morning my inbox were filled up with similar mails like you...and i am gettng sick and tired of replying them...... if i did dat i should not hv replied for your information....... may be some of mah frnds has done this terrible cyber crime........... i donno....anyways i hv deleted the blog with help from the google blogger administrators..............!! will chk for sure who has done this!!!! regards

In the meantime, my friends and readers had also commented and emailed her. The Blog was removed/disabled from Blogspot.

But is this really an end? Do we have to keep a lookout for our stolen content from here on? How does one become a Blog monitor and why? I have so many questions in my head – are there any copyright laws for Bloggers like me?

If you have answers and suggestions, help this small-time food Blogger, who takes the pain to chop, cook, click and post. Its a lot of work you know.

I am still mad at yesterday’s discovery, and will probably be for the next few days. And in between being mad and blogging, I will still continue to cook and post here. Sometimes just for myself!

Ingredients for Peas Pulao are:

2 cups long-grain Basmati rice, washed and sieved for 10 minutes
1 cup green peas (I used frozen ones)
Half tablespoon freshly grated ginger
Three-fourths cup of room temperature water
Few drops of lemon juice
2 tablespoons melted ghee
Generous pinch of grated nutmeg
2+2 green and black cardamoms
1 small piece of cinnamon
2-3 cloves
2 bay leaves
Sugar (optional)
Salt

Heat ghee in a pan and add the bay leaves, cardamoms, cinnamon and cloves. Sauté for a few seconds, then add the rice.

Mix the rice well in the pan to coat it with the ghee. Add the grated ginger, green peas, salt and sugar. Mix again.

Gently mix the rice and peas for about five minutes. Add the grated nutmeg and mix again. Transfer the rice in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the water and few drops of lemon juice and cover with a cling film.

Microwave for 20 minutes. Check on the seasoning, if you think there is less salt, balance and microwave for a minute or so.
Let the Peas Pulao stand for about 5-7 minutes before serving with the curry of your choice. I will serve it with some Mutton Curry and salad.