Koi Fish Curry (Koi maach er Tel)

If we talk about traditional Bengali cooking. Tel koi (koi Fish Curry) recipe is worth sharing. Tel koi is not how much oil you are using to cook the dish But about How much oil actually comes out of the fish. You can also prepare tel koi without onion and garlic. But in our house we prefer it with onion and garlic.

Ingredients:

• Koi fish : 8 small
• 1 big onion
• 3 small tomatoes
• Green chilly paste 1tsp
• 1tsp of cumin seeds
• 1tsp of Nigella seeds
• 1/2tsp of ginger paste 
• 1/2tsp of garlic paste
• 1tsp of turmeric powder
• 1tsp of chilly powder
• 1/2tsp of dhania powder
• 1/2tsp of jeera powder
• 1/2 tsp of garam masala powder

                     

Procedure :

1) Fry the fish with oil and turmeric powder

2) In the same wok add some oil and add Nigella and cumin seeds. Then add the onion and fry till it's translucent

          

3)Then add all the masalas and ginger garlic paste. Fry till the raw smell goes away. Then add the tomatoes along with sugar and salt. 

4) Fry till the oil leaves the sides of the wok (kadai). Add a big cup of water and let it come to a boiling point then add the fried fish. Cover the wok and cook for ten minutes in low flame. Cook till the gravy thickens .

             Sprinkle coriander and serve with hot rice~

Enjoy!

Cabbage & Egg Cutlet gravy

Now a days market is full of cabbage. So wanted to give it a twist with egg which I learnt from a blogger friend. There are two ways of having this dish either dry or with little curry. Personally prefer little gravy.

Ingredients:

• Half cabbage
• 4 eggs
• 2 Dry red chilly
• One onion paste
• 2_3 tomatoes
• 2 tsp of cumin seed paste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 tsp each of turmeric and chilly powder

Procedure:

1)Cut the cabbage in Julian size and mix salt. Keep it aside for half an hour

2) Now mix 4 eggs so that all the cabbage pieces are coated with egg.

3)Coat the pan with 1 tbsp of oil.heat well.Now pour this mixed cabbage and egg and lower the flame

4)Cook it for 10 mins in low flame

5)After one side is done turn it over with a help of a plate and cook similarly the other side. Don't use too much oil as you will need oil in every step. 

6) Now let it cool down for a while and cut the whole thing into pieces. Medium or small totally depends upon you.

7) Now fry the Pieces again properly. At this point you can deep fry as it is and have it with snacks.

Or

You can shallow fry the Pieces in medium flame and put these in the gravy

8)Add little oil. Add 2 bay leaves.. then add the onion paste and ginger garlic paste. Cook it till the raw smell goes away.

9)Now add the tomatoes and cumin paste and cook well for another 7 mins

10) Add turmeric , chilly and salt according to your taste. I added 1 tsp of sugar at this point .Cook and blend the spices well then add a cup of water and let it boil.

.

11)Then slowly add the fried cabbage pieces till the spices go inside. Cook till it gets little dry as we don't want a runny curry.

12) lastly add 1/2 tsp of garam masala and 1 tsp of ghee from top.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with Hot Rice

____

Butter Chicken

My friends and followers have been asking me the recipe of  Indian "Butter chicken" since a very long time. Sorry it took awhile, As I keep experimenting with different cuisines and techniques all the time and other unavoidable reasons

This is an indian delicacy! 

You can make it using the microwave or using the good old stove (or) even both. But for lack of time To make it quick and easy and shorten  the prep time I made it in both in a few simple steps.

I am giving both the procedures separately, You can choose as per your convenience. Enjoy :)

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast:  800 grams
• Lemon juice: 1 tbsp
• Kashmiri Lal mirch powder: 1 tsp (Red pepper powder)
• Salt according to your taste

Marination  Ingredients: 

• Yogurt: 1 cup
• Ginger paste: 2 tbsp
• Garlic paste: 2 tbsp
• Garam masala powder: 1 tsp
• Lemon juice: 2 Tbsp 
• Mustard oil: 2 tbsp
• Butter: 2 Tbsp

Gravy Ingredients:

• Dried fenugreek leaves: 2 Tbsp (kasuri methi)
• Bay leaves: 2
• Melted Butter: 2/3rd cup
• Peppercorns: 10
• Cinnamon sticks: 2 inches
• Green Cardamom: 5  pods
• Cloves: 10
• Ginger paste: 1 tbsp
• Garlic paste 1 tbsp
• Tomato purée: 2 cups (240ml)
• Red chilly powder: 1 tbsp
• Garam masala power: 1/2 tsp
• Honey: 3 tbsp
• Fresh cream: 1 cup
• Salt

Procedure: 

• Clean, skin it and wash the chicken. Cut into medium sized pieces. Make incisions on the pieces and apply the mixture of Kashmiri red chili powder, lemon juice and salt. Leave it for half an hour. 

• Hang the yogurt in a muslin cloth till all water in it drains away. Transfer it in a bowl and add salt, ginger paste, garlic pastes, lemon juice, garam -masala powder, and mustard oil and mix well.
• Apply this marinade to the chicken pieces and mix well. Refrigerate it for 4-5 hours .

You can cook it in a microwave, By:

• Preheating your microwave in convection mode at  200 degree centigrade.
• Otherwise. Heat 2 tbsp of butter in a wok and cook the chicken till the chicken is done. It took almost 30 minutes for me.
• Place the chicken on a roasting (baking) tray / wire rack and cook in preheated oven for 15 minutes or till the chicken is tender. 
• Place kasuri methi on a flat microwave dish and roast on high (full) for 1 minute. Remove and crush with hand.
• Take butter in a deep microwave bowl (borosil or glass) , heat uncovered, for 30 seconds on high mode (100%). 
• Add bay leaves, peppercorns, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger paste, garlic paste,
• Stir well and cook it uncovered for 4-5 minutes on high mode. I prefer doing this step using a gas stove since it gets cooked properly in comparison to the microwave.
• Add tomato purée, red chilli powder, Garam masala powder, salt and a cup of water. Cook it on high temp for 10 minutes.
• Add chicken pieces and cook, covered, for 5 minutes on Microwave High.

• Add honey, kasuri methi, fresh cream and cook it uncovered on low temperature (50% power) microwave for 4-5 minutes and serve Hot.

My Way cooking (Using the stove and microwave):

• First add 2 Tbsp of butter in the kadai (wok) then fry the Garam masala ie: (pepper corns, cinnamon. green cardamom, cloves, bay leaves) then add 2 Tbsp of  the ginger & garlic paste and cook in medium flame for about 10 mins.                                     

                                         

• Then add 2 cups of tomato pure, 1 Tbsp of red chilli powder and 1 tsp of garam masala powder and salt according to your taste. Stir it for a while and add a cup of water, cook it for another 10 minutes.

• Now add the marinated chicken and mix it well with the butter gravy. Cook it for another 10-12 minutes until the chicken becomes tender and the gravy thickens. 

• In a separate pan dry roast kasuri methi in a drop of oil and then grind it and keep it aside.

                           

• Transfer the cooked chicken into a deep microwave bowl or continue cooking in kadai (wok) Then add 3 Tbsp of honey, 1 cup of cream. and stir it well and add the kasuri methi from the top. Cook it with the lid on for another 10 minutes and turn off the stove. 

• Cook it on low heat (50% power) uncovered for 5 minutes if you are using the microwave. after adding the above.

        

~Serve hot~

Enjoy!

Aloo Potol / Aloo Parwal

There are many exotic vegetables across the world, And India has a really wide range of exotic and unique vegetables at that which many people are unaware of. Each province/State in our country has its own unique cuisine.

The veggie called “parval” or ‘potol’ scientifically known as Trichosanthes dioica, is a veggie used in many Northern and Eastern cuisines of Indian cooking. One of the most popularly cooked version of parval (potol) is with potatoes called “Aloo potol” / Aloo parwal !

Aloo parwal curry is easy to make and healthy too! 

Parwal/Potol Vegetable

Ingredients:

-Potol/Parwal (trichosanthes dioica) -cut into halves

-Potatoes: diced it into pieces

-Tomatoes chopped: 4-5

-Ginger paste: 2 tsp
-Hing(asafoetida): 1 pinch
-Dhania powder(coriander powder): 1 tsp
-Haldi powder (turmeric): 1 tsp
-Mirchi powder (red chilli powder): 1 tsp
-Garam masala powder : 1 tsp
-Ghee(Indian clarified butter): 1 tsp
-Fresh coriander leaves 

-5 spices(panch phoron): cumin seeds, nigella/black caraway seeds,  fennel seeds, radhuni/wild celery seeds, mustard seeds

Procedure:-

• First shallow fry the potatoes and diced parval (separately) and kept it aside.
• Take 1 tsp of oil in the kadai (wok) and add 'panch phoron' ie a mix of 5 indian spices: (jeera,kalonji,saunf,radhuni &sarso)
• When the spices start spluttering, add the ginger paste.
• Then add the diced tomatoes and cook till the oil separates in the pan.
• Now add the spices: turmeric, coriander and chilli powder & cook for 5-10 minutes.
• Once you smell the aroma coming from the spices, that time add the fried parval and potatoes and salt and sugar according to your taste. 
• Add a cup of water and let the curry boil.
• Lastly when oil starts appearing at the top, add little ghee and 1 tsp of garam masala to it and mix it nicely.
• Sprinkle coriander leaves as a garnish and serve hot with steaming rice.

~ENJOY~

What is the spice Panch Phoron?

Here: Bengali Spice Mix (Wiki) 

Can I buy it online (as a readymade mixed packet) ?

Yes, they are available as ready packets

Buy them online here at: 

• Amazon In
• Amazon US

Creamy Egg Curry

This is a delicious dish that I learnt from a school friend of mine,

And I realised OMG it's so easy to make and so tasty too...So my dear friends please do try it out as it hardly takes any time...And we all love quick cooking....don't we?

Ingredients

• 5 boiled eggs- cut it into halfs, 
• 3 onions (ground into a paste)
• 5-6 green chillies - made into a paste,
• 1 tsp of ginger & garlic paste,
• 1 tsp of cumin powder,
• 1 tsp of white pepper powder,
• 1 tsp of garam masala powder,
• 1 cup of milk,
• Dried fenugreek leaves (fried/roasted) -Kasuri methi
• 4-5 pistachios.

Procedure:-

Take refined oil in a pan.

Fry the onion and chilli paste till brown, Then add 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste to it and fry it further till the oil separates and is seen on the top.

Then turn off the heat & add a cup of milk and stir well so that no lumps are formed. (temperature should be lower)

Once the milk is dissolved then turn on the heat and cook in low flame from now on.

Now add the cumin powder, pepper powder and garam masala powder. Cook it for 5 minutes

Then put the eggs into the pan upside down and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. We need all the spices to be taken up by the eggs.

Now open the lid and turn all the eggs upside down again so the yolk side is up ( sunny side up) 

At this point of time you can add some warm water (if you want more gravy)

Add salt & Sugar according to your taste.

Throughout the cooking time stir the dish very carefully so that the eggs don't break!!
Garnish it with fried fenugreek leaves and some pista on the top before serving. You can also use coriander leaves instead of fenugreek leaves if you like.

~Enjoy~ 

PS:-
 Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) that I used:

If you have any queries,  please leave a comment here or on my Facebook page.

Paneer (cottage cheese/Tofu) & Peas Curry

This dish is popularly known as "matar paneer" (or) tofu with green peas!

Main ingredients are.....

1) Paneer or cottage cheese- 400 gms
2) Green peas or matar-150 gms
3) Tomato puree one small packet
4) onion -one big
5) ginger & garlic paste 2 tsp
6)1 tsp of garam masala powder
7) I tsp of ghee and white oil to cook.

Procedure:

First grind the onions in the mixer and keep it aside...if you are using fresh tomato then grind 5 tomatoes to a paste and keep it aside.
Then put some oil in the pan and add 1 tbsp of cumin seeds and a pinch of asafoetida..when smell starts coming add d onion paste and fry till golden brown..then add the ginger garlic paste and tomato puree and fry it further till the oil starts coming up (on the top of the pan)

Whirling the pan.....add 1 tsp each of turmeric powder and chilly powder ( preferably kashmiri mirchi for adding the colour) ......
Fry for them all together for 1 min and add the green peas to the pan.
Then add 2 cups of water...let it boil and let the consistency become a bit thicker...
When it's a bit thicker then add the cottage cheese (paneer/tofu) pieces...let the curry and the paneer boil for another 1 min...before putting the whole thing in the serving dish add garam masala and ghee from top and stir well...add sugar and salt according to your taste buds.

Tips....(Optional) you can also fry the paneer or cottage cheese before adding them to the tomato paste...garnishing with coriander leaves.

                                                                  ~Enjoy~

PS:-

This is the kashmiri mirch i used-

This is paneer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paneer

This is garam masala:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garam_masala