Khao Suey - the bangali burmese staple

Having abandoned my quest to google a recipe that was just like the one I make at home bong food hack has been brought out of retirement. Originating in Burma it came to Bengal with the people who migrated from Burma after the 2nd World War.  Its a close cousin to the malaysian laksha and the thai masaman curry in that it is a coconut milk based curry. Most of us old Kolkata folk have had our first taste of the khao suey at Taaja's later renamed Bibi of taaja's curated by the chef who is simply Bibi mashi to me. Between her and my boro mashi the renowned cook book author and hostess extraordinaire Babli Mukherjee khao sueys were dished up plenty in family gatherings. Its quick and easy and rather forgiving. The recipe below is not 100% true to either mashis instructions but family is forgiving and I am lazy.

Ingredients 

500gms of boneless chicken diced/ Substitute for mushrooms for a vegan alternative
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 onions made into a fine paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
2 cubes of chicken/ veg stock
400 ml coconut milk thats one tin can preferably not the low fat variety
1 Tbsp red chilli powder add more for the bangal less for the ghoti
1 Tbsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
2 Tbsp chickpea flour or besan
cooked noodle of your choice

Optional Toppings:
Boiled eggs thinly slicedSautéed/ 
fried onions
Spring onion finely chopped
Roasted peanuts... go Hulk "SMASH" on it 
Shrimp Balachau 
Chilli flakes Lemon juice

Lets start by thinking of the Khao Suey as your regular homely chicken curry and like You start with heating up vegetable oil in your wok. Toss in your onion paste and fry till fragrant. Add the ginger and garlic paste and continue stirring till sufficiently browned. Adding salt at this stage helps the onion cook a bit faster. Turmeric and chilli powder follow suit. The diced chicken must be added now and cooked on low heat for a good 5 minutes making sure to toss it so as to coat it in all the rich paste. You may cover and cook it for another 5 minutes to let the juices out.

Now pour in the coconut milk. If you were wondering , this is the main point of divergence from your bangali chicken curry . Khao Suey is thus possibly closer in flavour to the thai masaman curry. Add your stock cubes along with about 300ml of warm water. Bring to boil.

Now here's another point of divergence ..add the humble besan . flour is used here as a thickening agent and I dont think it adds much in terms of flavour. However if you slightly roast your besan before hand it is quite a bit more flavourful . Wait till the chicken is completely cooked then remove from heat. For consistency check the picture to the left . 

The Khao Suey is almost always served with noodles. You can go crazy with the choice of noodles but I like rice noodles or moong bean or glass noodles. However you can use your regular egg noddles or even whatever prepackaged noodle you have around the house.
Serving Khao Suey is an art. In a family gathering it will be served in a big bowl placed at the centre of the table with a ladle to pick up the gravy. All the assorted toppings in smaller bowls around it. Less here is not more. In fact the more number of toppings the more texture and flavour that you add to the curry. I of course made it for myself and shoved it all in a bowl and slurped it with the biggest soup spoon i could find. The mashis would not be proud but the tummy was pleased. Caution : Avoid taking the name literally as a bengali and sit up to eat your meal from a bowl . 

Calcutta prawn cocktail

 If you are in Park Street and dining in Mocambo you have probably ordered for the shrimp cocktail. Its such a familiar appetizer here that you might mistakenly think its a true blue Calcutta concoction. All sort of strange and wonderful food was served in Calcutta when Anglo Indian cuisine developed here. Of course the Americans claim it as their own but well that's them. This recipe is from our friend Sub who is a great host , has a discerning palette but has a ridiculously low threshold for spicy food. FYI he could manage the Tabasco in his cocktail, with water and a whole lot of tissues.


Ingredients :
Prawn or shrimps:  cleaned and cooked as 200 gms
Mayonnaise : 500 gms
Worcestershire sauce : 2 table spoons
Tabasco: according to how hot you can handle it.
Tomato Sauce: 1 cup
1 head of lettuce: chopped fine
paprika : To garnish

So lets be honest shrimp cocktail is an assembly process at best and requires no cooking , that is if you don't attempt at making the mayonnaise from scratch. If you have all your ingredients at hand the process takes less than 10 minutes to serve up. Make the sauce first by adding the mayo , tomato sauce, Worcestershire and Tabasco. You are looking for a pale pink colour and a rich tarty after taste. You don't need to add salt since most of the sauces already have them. But taste is the key. mix well and add the prawns. Add the chopped lettuce and refrigerate.   Serve chilled with a celery or lettuce stalk in a martini glass. I ran out , thus the wine glass in the picture. 

lots of lau , Gourd wonders

So if it's summer in this part of the world gourd will end up in your plate at least twice a week . Some people like add shrimp in it but I prefer the vegetarian version just because it's simpler. Also I seriously don't like shrimps, stinky little  things.


Ingredients:
Gourd: 1
Ginger paste: 1 table spoon
Coriander leaves: half a bunch
Nigella seeds/ kalo jeera : 1 tea spoon
Green chilies: 5
Salt and Sugar: to taste
Cooking time : 25 mins

The only complexity in this recipe involves tackling the thick skin of the gourd. Once that's off everything else is plain sailing. The gourd is cut into very fine strips , sliced not diced and definitely not shredded. Do use a whole gourd and cut it fine, gourd tends to loose a lot of water and will shrink to half its volume when cooking. 

Start bu heating some white oil in a wok, its best to use a oil without a strong after taste so there goes mustard, olive and coconut oils. I stick to a tablespoon full of Soybean or rice-bran oil. When the oil is hot add the nigella seeds, chilies and ginger paste. If you do want to add the shrimp this is the time. Don't let this burn and add the gourd. Cover the wok and cook in very low heat. After 5 mins add salt and pinch of sugar to taste. mix well and cover for another 10 mins. The quantity of the gourd would have gone down to almost half. Add the shredded coriander , mix and cover again. Uncover in 10 mins, your gourd should be cooked by now and most of the water out. You can turn the heat up and dry out the excess water. Serve up hot or cold always with rice. 

Punjabi Chhole , the turbanated cousin of the ghooghni

Bengali's love Punjabi food so much that they wear the Punjabi with pride . Every road , every highway has eateries dedicated to the worship of Punjabi food. Don't remember when exactly but some how this typically Punjabi chickpea recipe started dominating the traditional ghooghni in parties , So here is the interloper

Ingredients:
Chickpeas: 1 cup

Onion: 3 diced
Tomato: 2
Cumin seeds: 1 tea spoon
Cumin powder: 1 tea spoon
Bay leaf : 1
Dried red chilies: 2
Turmeric Powder : 1 teas spoon
Chili powder: 1 teas spoon , or as much/ as less you can handle
Cinnamon :  1 decent stick
White oil: 1 tea spoon
Salt to taste
Tea bag: 1

Store bought chhole masala : Nope not one bit

Though it takes about 20 mins on a good day to make this Punjabi chickpeas you do need to soak the chickpeas overnight. In fact the longer you soak them the faster it cooks. However i tried soaking them for two days once but it went all foamy and frothy and we had to have takeout for dinner.  

The pressure cooker that you brought from home will be handy now. Cook the pre-soaked chickpeas with a tiny bit of salt and a tea bag and water. Do use regular tea, and not green tea, we are not trying to make the peas lose weight but just adding colour to it. This is what separates a ghugni from punjabi chhole so this is crucial. Drain the chickpeas but retain the water .

Add cinnamon,bay leaf, cumin seeds and dried chilies when the oil is hot. Followed by the diced onion.  Fry till it is golden and add turmeric , chili and cumin powder and the tomatoes. You could also substitute fresh tomatoes for canned or pureed tomatoes. Your mixture should resemble the picture above. Add the chickpeas and give it a good toss making sure the masala coats the chickpeas well . Add salt to taste. Add all the chickpea tea and bring to boil.

Now you could serve it in any consistency you want , with some gravy which is perfect to dip chapatis and while feeding a large crowd like I did in Leeds or make it by drying out the gravy. Serve with diced onion and a slice of lemon and some bread.

Payesh..the indian rice pudding ..the hack of all hacks

 A good payesh is paramanna or food for the gods , a bad payesh is dog food.  To avoid this slippery slope keep a tab on the milk to rice ratio. Ideally it is 1 liter of milk to 1 tea spoon of gobindobhog , any more and you end up with doodh bhat. Every puja Ma makes payesh from 4 liters of milk a day for the bhog. This is done the old fashioned way by boiling and reducing that massive quantity into a tiny bowl full and  if you see her right arm she has some serious muscles thanks to all the stirring. 

However , for a quicker fix without compromising on the taste, nestle invented milkmaid. 

Ingredients 

Milk : 1 liter , full fat

Rice: Gobindabhog rice or basmati if you don't have any other options, 1 tea spoon, yes you read that right

Sweetened condensed milk: 1 can 

Raisins: about 20

Cashew nuts: 15

Cardamom: 4

This is easy breezy. Pour the milk in a big non stick saucepan or wok. Add a teaspoon of thoroughly washed rice and bring to boil with cardamoms. Add condensed milk, the payesh will get its thickness and sweetness from this so no skimming on quantity. Keep stirring to avoid the payesh going all clumpy and sticking in the bottom of the utensil. Add the nuts and raisins and stir. You'd know when the payesh is done when the rice is cooked and the quantity of milk has reduced substantially. Payesh tends to thicken more once cooled so keep that in mind while serving. I like payesh served cold so I refrigerate it for a while. As a rule lick the spoon clean. 

Mangsher Chop ala Dida

This is my grandmothers signature dish . In most bengali households people have payesh for special occasions , we had mangsher chop. She would make about 40 at a time and we, a family of magicians, could make a truckload of these disappear in minutes. By her own admission this is my grandfathers recipe and technique which she has perfected over half a century. As soon as I knew that I was going home for the puja, I started pestering her to make these, however this time I decided to pitch in with the making instead of just the eating and the results were as follows. 

Ingredients to make 25

Minced mutton: half kilo . Mutton can be substituted with chicken, turkey, beef , and maybe even soyabean but why would you want to do that to yourself.
Potatoes : 1 and a half kilos of chandramukhi potatoes if you are in west bengal , anywhere else your local super market variety would have to do.
Onion : roughly 250 grams that is 4 tiny tot onions or 1 ginormous English onion , chopped fine.
Garlic: about 10 cloves chopped
Ginger paste : 2 tea spoon

Raisins : 20 , I didn't really count em
Green chillies : 4 , hotter the better
Powdered garam masala : one tea spoon
Salt : to taste
White oil : As per requirement, keep in mind that mutton gives out a lot of oil
Bread Crumbs: A packet,  about 250 gms.
Eggs: 2

Pressure cook the minced meet with 4 cloves of garlic , pinch of salt, and a tiny pinch of turmeric and a hof water for 5 mins or 5  whistles which ever is faster. After the steam settles open the lid and check if any of stock remains. Since the mince is being prepped as a filling the stock has to be dried out. 

In your favorite wok heat oil and cook the chopped onion. Add the rest of the chopped garlic when the onion turns translucent. Cook till the onion is golden then add the chopped green chilies and a tea spoon of the garlic paste and stir. Add the minced meat and cook further. Add all the raisins now. The mince might give out oil or fat but it is important to completely drain it out or you'll end up with soggy chops.  Sprinkle garam masala and remove from heat. 

Pressure cook or boil all the potatoes. its going to end up in a mash anyway so don't bother with finesse. to the mash potatoes add the rest of the ginger paste and salt to taste. As long as the mash isn't lumpy your good.

 The only finesse in chop making is required now . take a small heap of the mash on your palm and shape it to look like a bowl. Fill it with mince, making sure its enough to avoid the end result being a dhoper chop.Now gently bring the ends together then close close and flatten it to give it your preferred chop shape. In a bowl mix the egg white and yolk and dunk the chop in and then roll it on bread crumbs. Dida prefers to spread the breadcrumbs evenly on a newspaper. For reasons unknown , Oriya newspaper works the best.  Now in a wok , deep fry the chops till they are golden brown.

These chops tend to mysteriously disappear as soon as you put them down so keep a tab on the people who come into the kitchen under various pretenses.

Excuse the half bitten chop, I was hungry.

This is the bestest food in the whole wide world and for three glorious days I had it with toast for breakfast, with rice and daal for lunch, with ketchup for tea and with parathas for dinner. I wonder why I have gallstones?

Fishing for a fish fry

The homemade fish fry is a throwback to the time when fast food was still made at home and anything shop bought was considered to be of questionable quality.This particular fish fry recipe comes from my Dida, who turns out a truckload of fish fries for all family get-together's. It tastes nothing like the food stall variety which has more bread crumbs than fish and made with the entire oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Compared to that this stuff is borderline healthy !

Ingredients :
Bhetki fillet : 6
Eggs: 2
Bread Crumbs : half a tin
Garlic paste: 1 table spoon
Salt to taste

This one's actually so easy that it took me 20 minutes from start to plating. That is including the 5 mins it took me to wash the fillet after accidentally dropping it on the floor . 

If you are using Basa there is little or no prep required. This fish doesn't smell fishy and to be honest it doesn't taste like fish so stick with Bhetki . The downside is Bhetki occasionally has a  smell but it is negated by rubbing the fillets with garlic paste , salt and turmeric. I have seen mashi add a bit of vinegar as well. Potentially, you could add any other seasonings but my personal favorite is a bit of onion paste. Set aside and let it marinate. 

In a bowl crack open two eggs, let the yellows and the whites mix freely and add a bit of salt . Dunk  and soak fillets in the egg and roll it around a plate of bread crumbs until it's covered completely. I let it sit for a minute or two after. Heat up some white oil in your favorite non stick ware and fry. You could also brush it with oil and oven bake it for 25 mins at 180.c but frying is quicker and tastier. 

Serve with rice and daal , or the good old ketchup and mustard,  and let the bhaja machh ulte khawa begin.