Apple Raisin Rice:

A friend of mine gave me bunch of fresh apple just last weekend. He has been to the upstate New York and visited an apple farm. I am a big fan of fresh produce, and hate to waste.  I made this apple raisin rice because I like to test new recipes and this one incorporates an ingredient that I wanted to use. This recipe has been adapted from Minaxi Dutt’s Podey Podey Ranna.   

Ingredients:

• Apple: 1 cup (Diced)
• Raisin: 3 tbsp
• Basmati Rice: 1 cup
• Clarified butter: 2 tbsp
• Cinnamon: 1 stick
• Cardamom: 4-5
• Nutmeg powder: ¼ tsp
• Hot water: 2 cups

Method:

o   Clean and wash the rice. Set aside.

o   Put clarified butter on the pot. When it gets hot enough, add cinnamon, and cardamom.

o   After couple of minutes, add the diced apple. Stir for couple of minutes.

o   Add rice. Stir until a nice aroma comes out, about 5 minutes

o   Add nutmeg powder.

o   Add 2 cups of hot water, put the lid on and set it on low until the rice is done.

o   Serve with grape chutney. 

Grape Chutney:

Ingredients:

• Grape: 2 cups (Use seedless)
• Mustard Seed: ¼ tsp
• Cumin Seed: ¼ tsp
• oil: 1 tbsp
• Bay leaf: 1
• Clove: 4-5
• Serrano pepper: 2
• Salt to taste

Method:

o   Clean and wash the grape

o   Add oil to the cooking pot.

o   When oil is hot enough, put mustard seed, cumin seed, bay leaf.

o   When the spices start to sputter, add the grape. No need to cut the grape in halves or squash them.

o   Add chopped peppers and salt

o   Put the lid on, and put the pot on low heat

o   Turn off the heat in 30 minutes or until desired consistency occurs.

This recipe has been adapted from Minaxi Dutts Podey Podey Ranna. 

Kabocha Squash Bhorta:

Ingredients:

• Kabocha squash: 1
• Olive Oil: 2 tbsp
• Mustard oil: 2 tbsp
• Canola Oil: 1 tbsp
• Salt: to taste
• Onion: 1 medium (chopped into thin slices)
• Garlic: 2-3 (chopped into thin slices)
• Kalijeera (Nigella Seeds): 1 tsp
• Serrano pepper: 4-5 (split in the middle lengthwise)
• Cilantro: 1 bunch

Method:

o   Wash the squash and slit it in the middle.

o   Rub olive oil in both halves. Bake them skin side down at 475º F for 45 minutes.

o   Once the squash cools down, simply scrape all the flesh out. 

o   On a skillet, put canola oil. Once the oil is hot enough, add kaijeera, kachalonka (Serrano peppers).

o   Once the kalijeera, kachalonka starts to sputter, add the onion and garlic to spice mix. Keep stirring till the onion and garlic turns light brown. Make sure not to burn them.

o   Mix the squash, spice mix, mustard oil and salt togather.

o   Add chopped cilantro

o   Serve with hot rice

Mishtimukh (মিষ্টিমুখ)

Mishtimukh (মিষ্টিমুখ) refers to anything sweet. The word literally means sweet(mishti মিষ্টি)mouth(mukh মুখ). Sweets are part of all auspicious event(s) of a Bangali life. Starting from the announcement of birth of a newborn to Kulkhani (prayer meeting held 3 days after burial), sweets are everywhere. Sweets are big part of weddings especially gaye holud (ceremony preceding wedding). Sweets are present when we pass major exams of our lives to when we get a new job. There are many traditional Benagli sweets, but a lot of desserts from other cuisines have entered Bangli kitchens and now claim their special space in our palate. There are 3 basic classes of Bengali sweets.

o    Sweets from the sweet shop: Usually this kind of sweets are made by moyra or a sweet maker and almost always never made at home. When I first moved abroad, my intense craving for mawa laddu of Alauddin Sweetmeat or the mishit-doi of Bikrampur mishtanno bhander pushed me to try different recipes. You will find some of these recipes in this blog. 

o    Pitha: Mostly homemade using rice flour, jiggery, and sometimes shredded coconut. Back in the days in the midst of the joint family, women had time to create different pithas and decorate them using different method. For the modern nuclear family household where woman are often juggling child rearing, work and household chores, the art of pitha making is gradually decreasing.

o    Other homemade sweets

•  Payesh: mostly milk based. Most common form is “poromanno” or what is popularly known in the west as rice-pudding. This can also be made by cream of wheat, luchi (deep fried small round flat bread)or different kind of rice. Most popular choice of rice is kalijeera or polau er chal. You may also use basmati if you like.
•  Halua: Also known as halva. It is mostly flour, ghee (clarified butter) and sugar based.
•  Cake: The British might have left India in 1947 but their legacy still prevails. No literary work before the Company era mentioned “cake”. This is one culinary gift that the British left for us.

Cream of wheat pudding (সুজির পায়েস): 

This recipe is part of the mishtimukh group. For details about “mishtimukh” see my post on mishtimukh. This would fall under payesh category.

Ingredients:

o   Milk 1 liter

o   Cream of Wheat 50 gm

o   Sugar 5 TBSP or as per your taste

o   Lemon Zest 1 tsp

o   Almond slices handful

Method:

• On a heavy bottom pan, simmer the milk over low flame to reduce in half. Make sure to stir frequently. Otherwise you might end up with a scorched pan and burned milk.
• When the milk is reduced to half, put the cream of wheat into the milk slowly. You should constantly stir the milk while adding the cream of wheat so that the cream of wheat doesn’t form any clump. I used an egg bitter but feel free to use any spatula or fork.
• After about 3 minutes, start adding the sugar as per your taste. 
• After about 5 minutes, add the lemon zest and let everything simmer for about couple of minutes.
• Pour the pudding on a serving dish. Garnish with Almond slices.
• Serve chilled  

Moroccan style chicken kebab:

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast: I lb.
• Olive oil: 3 Tbsp. + extra for frying 
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Garlic: 3 cloves finely chopped
• Cumin (ground): 1.5 tsp.
• Coriander (ground): 1 tsp.
• Chili powder: 1 tsp.
• Cinnamon (ground): ¼ tsp.
• Oregano (dried): ½ tsp.
• Onion (cut as rings): 1 cup
• Cilantro (chopped): as garnish
• Salt: to taste

Method:

• Cut the chicken breast into bite size pieces
• In a ziplock bag, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, coriander, chili powder, cinnamon, oregano salt & chicken. Marinade 8-12 hours or overnight and make sure turn the bag couple of times during that time.
• On a frying pan, heat some olive oil and stir fry the chicken pieces until brown.
• On a separate pan, heat some more oil and stir fry the onion till translucent.
• Once the onion is done, add the cooked chicken pieces and stir fry for 2 minutes or until onions and chicken pieces mixed well.
• Garnish with the cilantro 

Recipe has been adopted from the book 100 Best Classic Tapas published by Parragon Books.

Broccoli with toasted sesame:

Ingredients:

• Broccoli: 300 gms
• Onions: chopped 1 cup
• Garlic: thinly chopped 1 tsp
• Dried red chili: 2-3
• Sweet soy sauce: 3 tbsp
• Sesame seeds: 2 tsp
• Oil: 1 tbsp
• Salt: to taste

Method:

• Toast the sesame seeds and set aside
• Cut broccolis into florets and blench. To do this, put a pot full of water to boil. Once the water starts to boil, add salt and turn down the stove to medium. Add the broccoli florets to this water and take them out within 1 minute. If you choose, you can put these florets into a bucket full of ice water. In doing so, you stop the cooking process immediately. I have to admit; I was a little lazy today and didn’t want to do the extra step of ice-bath for my broccoli. I just dunked them into the saline solution and got done with it.
• On a separate frying pan, heat oil.
• Add the onion, garlic and re chilies. Stir for 1-2 minutes.
• Add the blenched broccoli. Continue to stir for another 5 minutes
• Add the soy sauce, reduce heat and stir occasionally for another 5-8 minutes or until the soy sauce gets incorporated with broccoli.
• Garnish with the toasted sesame seeds