Chotpoti/A tangy Chaat from Bangladesh

Chotpoti

Hi! So you are joining me again today again for “Around the World in 30 Days’? Welcome! I will love the company… so today let explore B the second alphabet…

Actually the options for B are so many Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium to name a few  but since I was keen on choosing my neighbours I have chosen Bangladesh as my entry here.

It’s obvious the food in Bangladesh is similar to West Bengal. The street food here constitutes of delicious pitha, Chotpoti, puchka, jhalmuri, badam, and fried items.

Puchka is Gol Gappe or Pani puri, pitha, jhaal muri I have made so I decided to make Chotpoti which I suppose will mean” chat pati” alias tangy.

Did it live up to its name?

Of course!!

It took me to the time when I as a child had travelled to Bhuneshwar and we had chaat one night on the streets of Bhuneshwar.

So come and join me for Chotpoti.

Komaj~ A Persian Date Bread With Turmeric & Cumin

Koma j~ A Persian Date Bread With Turmeric & Cumin

For this month in We Knead to  Bake we are baking  Komaj which is a Persian turmeric and cumin bread that’s filled with chopped dates.

I was skeptical about its acceptance at home and was right. Hubby refused to eat it! Since I suspected as much I made just 5 Komaj the rest I filled with cheese, chilli flakes and oregano. Sorry this I took  just one picture of the big roll I made and managed to delete that too.

Tthis dough has three rises instead of the usual two.

Tousule for Magic Mingle #13

Tousule is a Goan delicacy made in the rainy season.

Why rains?  Well cucumbers the main ingredient of Tousule is grown in plenty in the hilly areas and is sold not only on the roads but also in the markets. Its common sight for the farmers themselves selling the freshly plucked cucumbers. Also one more ingredient the turmeric leaf that is used to give a delicious aroma to the Tousule.

Traditionally the Tousule is made out of rice suji or rava or wheat rava fine or thick kind, cashew nuts, coconut and jaggary are used to create this beautiful steamed delicacy called Tousule.

When Kalyani announced the Magic Mingle of cucumber and walnuts I was sure I will never make it. Then I saw Gayatri post of zucchini bread and something went click in my head and I thought Tousule.

Well if you are a regular visitor here you will know sweets, let me clarify some sweets, are unmentionables in my place this happens to be one of them. I made minimum quantity of 1 katori. But please let me not put you guys off the Tousule it is amazing. Do try it out.

Udmethi

Amade che Udmethi

When I read the Magic Mingle ingredients this month there was a smile on my face. Finally I was to post one of Goa’s most delicious curries. The one that I have made many times and started to write so many times and deleted so many times.

The beauty of this curry is that it can be made vegetarian and non vegetarian both.

The magic is made with urid dal and fenugreek and “Ammado”!

These sour beauties called Ammado  are available almost all the year around. In rains they are tender and taste like raw mango. The pickle made from this is Sluuuurp! As the rains get over at about Ganesh Chathurthi time they have a slight flesh ad there is a hard fibrous nut kind of centre. These delicious fruits are a must for Ganesh and Diwali celebrations, when they are made in delicious chutney.

Ammado

I will post the more about the chutney later, right now it’s Magic Mingle and its magic ingredients of coconut and fenugreek.

Like I said Ammado are used to make vegetarian and non-vegetarian curry. The non vegetarian curry is made with prawns!!

Most Goan curries use coconut as a base with coriander seeds and red chilies. There are some curries where there are additions of pepper, cinnamon etc but the most important curry ingredient is coconut.  Goans use very little curry in their rice. The rice is almost dry the reason I think being that coconut is high in cholesterol and the protein content is taken care of by the fish. So it not eaten like daal.

  

To make the vegetarian curry called

  Udmethi

 Ingredients: 

             ·      10 Ammado

·      ½ Coconut, freshly scrapped

·      1 tblspn urid dal

·      ½ tsp fenugreek

·      4 Red chilies (I used the Goan chilies)

·      ½ tsp turmeric

·      1 small piece of hing/ asafetida or about ½ tsp powder

·      2-3 tsp oil

           ·      Salt  

Method:

1.    Wash and peel the Ammado using the vegetable peeler.

2.    Now with a heavy stone/hammer pound the Ammado till they are a bit broken. (This step I do not follow many times but it’s desirable. All the curry juices seep in and a slight sour taste seeps easily in the curry). Set aside.

The ingredients sans the turmeric

3.  In a kadhai/wok heat the oil fry the hing piece drain well and set aside. Next add the red chilies and fry till they give out an aroma. Drain and set aside.

4.    In the same oil fry the urid dal till reddish add the fenugreek and switch off the gas. Drain the dal and methi.

5.    Grind the coconut, methi, urid dal, red chilies, turmeric and hing to a fine paste using little water. This is your masala.

6.     Heat another tsp of oil and toss the Ammado in. Stir for about 2-3 minutes then add the ground masala.

7.    Add salt and some water. Say about 3 cups. Bring to a boil.

8.    Adjust the seasonings, the thickness of the curry to your liking by adding water. Mine here is quite thick.

Serve udmethi with  steamed rice, pickle,rava fried cauliflower!!

Sending this to Kalyani's Magic Mingle # 10 hosted at Vaishali's space this month...

Kid's Delight Pot luck Party hosted by Srivalli

Nithu's  Healthy food for Healthy Kids  hosted at Sowmya's

Favourite Recipes Event by Swathi Iyer

All rights reserved on photographs and written content are copy-written @The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen!! unless mentioned. Please Ask First
 

Cheese Stuffed Rajma Cutlets

When I buy some ingredients for my pantry I get carried away. I know that there are some things that we read family will not eat but still I buy it, hoping that at least this time they will eat.  

I end up losing each time, one such ingredient is rajma or kidney beans. Not only they refuse to eat it not even consider it as a healthy option. Why I do not know but they just don’t like it. So last time I stuck the soaked & boiled rajma in the freezer and was wondering what to do with them.

Moong Daal And Black Pepper Sev

For July Magic Mingle Kalyani asked us to use yellow Moong daal and pepper common enough to be available in the kitchen but there was a dearth of ideas that I had.

Unfortunately Moong daal equals to khichidi in my mind.  First it used to be Moong Daal Kheer that Amma used to make but now Moong daal is just khichdi.

Naturally it insulted me as I could not think beyond khichidi. Arre I am food blogger I cannot be thinking in a box for heaven’s sake!!

Paneer, Bottle Gourd and Mint Parathas-Working Lunch Thali

When Valli was floating her idea of Indian Thali Mela I was quiet. 

That is quite unlike me. Usually I like to be in the thick of things if not doing anything else at least making a noise.

You may wonder why I was quiet. Well there is a reason no three reasons

1. Will I be able to cook an entire festive thali all by myself? I do not know why I wanted one festive thali but I wanted it. I still want to make one but

 2. Will I have eaters? For my family is one are very fussy eaters so I did not want my hard work go down the drain.

3. The most important reason is I do not know how to click it. The pictures suck.  

So I decided to let the festival go by. But I hate failures or giving up before I try so I decided to try. I would love to see your comments on improving my pics.

Pumpkin Stir Fry

What do you do when you have no veggies but pumpkin?

In my place no one eats pumpkin, especially the red one. I just do not know why. I have tried all sorts of way making this veggie in sambhar, a veggie. No sir… they all turn up their noses at it and the poor gourd has become quite upset.

So coming back to the original question what to cook? I have only pumpkin.

Tinda Stuffed with Paneer and Mint~ Dedicated to Mom

 I decided to make tinda and started to make Tinda Do piyaza that I had seen here.

However as I started long lost memories of how we, that is we siblings, hated this vegetable as kids swamped me. We always fought with my mother when we saw this vegetable. But in the sweltering heat of Nagpur and Akola where we spent our childhood in the summer very few vegetables were available. One was Gola Bhaji and other dhemsa or tinda. Poor mom had nothing to make, she must have been so frustrated…

Oats Bisi Baali Huli Anna

Oats the wonder grain is a new addition to our diet. The most easily available (read I have not checked) form being the rolled oats that I try making on a regular basis. The girls refuse to do anything with it claiming all sorts of reasons from downright stinks to tastes yucky. We have heard them all.

So how do I get them in them? Well I sneak them in like today’s Sunday special being Bisi Baali Huli Anna. Their favourite!!

I generally do not make the masala that Amma used to make for making this rice so special.  I promise I will post the authentic recipe soon. In fact I am surprised that I have not posted the recipe as yet.   No wonder so many of you have commented that I have Goan style cooking featured in my space. Maybe because cooking Karnataka style food is comfort cooking.

Potato and Spinach Kabab?

W hat do you when you have potatoes, that ane not too big to be called small potatoes and not too small to be called baby potatoes?

What do you do when you have palak that has about given up on you?

Cook them together right?

 That is exactly what I have done here. Since I am not too sure about the classification of this dish I have called it Kabab?

Cauliflower Rava Fry

CAULIFLOWER RAVA FRY

I woke up late today and was in a fix as to what I should send for Akanksha's breakfast. I wanted something filling and vegetable that went down without complaint.


 It was then that  I  remembered  the last of the cauliflower that I had washed by mistake and hence salted, added chilli powder and haldi . Since I had done it yesterday morning I kenew it was well marinated and so will taste better. I rolled it in rava and shallow fried them.


This is something done traditionally in Goa. We have batata che kapa, Suran or Elephant's foot kapa, madi che kapa,karati or bitter gourd che kapa, bhindi kapa.


Tasty and filling. No complaints snack, side dish which we all enjoy. I am posting the cauliflower kapa picture  today maybe some day I will post some pictures of the rest of the kapas I have listed!!


I am linking this to Bookmarked Recipes here this place I always wanted to send my recipe but in th eGoan Susegad manner am always late. 

 

Olya Haldiche Lonche or Fresh Turmeric Pickle

The benefit of   turmeric is well documented in Ayurveda; it is amazing how well integrated turmeric is in Indian Cooking. Just the other day I read that the incidence of Alzheimer's disease is less in India thanks to this magical yellow powder that we use.

Ambehalad this is" nothing but fresh halad is what I told my colleagues at work" but I have been feeling guilty ever since for I am better educated now Ambehalad is the rhizome that when cut gives the smell of freshly cut unripe mangoes.

So what I thought of as Ambehalad is halad or turmeric, hence my posts name should be Olaya Haldiche Lonche!

The ingredients are simple and there are no set proportions. I soaked the turmeric in water for 1/2 and hour then grated it you can cut it into fine pieces if you wish

Ingredients:

Ambehalad

1 cup halad/ turmeric, grated

1 tblspn methi

1 tblspn pepper

Rock Hing about the same size as the methi. If you are using powdered hing use 1 tblspn.

1 tsp oil

Chilli powder

Salt

Phodni of mustard in 3 tblspn oil (cooled)

Method:

1.       In the tsp of oil roast hing, when you get the aroma of fried hing remove it.

2.        Fry next the pepper, remove.

3.       Switch off the gas and add methi. You will have to remove the methi almost immediately; as if methi becomes black it will taste bitter.

4.       Cool the masala and grind them fine.

5.       Mix the grated Halad and all the ingredients. Serve with almost anything paratha, chapatti, and rice.