Dhokar Dalna - A Savory Bengali dish

This dish has been an all time favorite of my father in law and he made sure I had a taste of its authentic version during my stay at my in laws place in West Bengal. This dish is very common in Bengali household and each house has it’s different version.  The base or Dhokar is almost like Dhokla which is a very common Indian snack.  Dalna is gravy which in this dish is a bit thin as the dhoklas tend to absorb liquid.

Preparation time- 10 min

Cooking time- 45 min

Yield- 4 people

Ingredients-

Chana dal / Bengal Gram - 1 cup soaked overnight

Ginger – 1”

Tomato- 3

Green chili- 4

Eno – 1 sachet

Salt- as per taste

Turmeric powder- 1 tsp

Panch phoron – ½ tsp

Mustard oil- 1 tbsp

Bay leaf-1

Soybean oil- for frying

Dried red chili- 2

Sugar- ½ tsp

Water- 2 cups

Method- 

Grind the soaked Chana dal with half ginger and green chili. Make a smooth batter but not loose batter. Grease the steamed tin and pour the batter. Add salt, turmeric  and ENO.  Mix quickly and place it in the steamer. Cover and steam for 20-25 minutes. Remove from steamer and keep aside. Invert it onto a flat tray and cut small square pieces. Be careful as they are not only hot but also can break very easily. Heat the oil in a pan and fry them carefully lifting and rotating using a tong. Fry till crisp light brown and place them on kitchen towel so get rid of excess oil. Grind tomato, ginger and green chili to a smooth paste. In a separate pan heat mustard oil, add panch phoron, sugar, bay leaf, dried red chili, sauté and then add turmeric powder, mix and then add the pureed tomato paste. Sauté and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add water, salt and let it simmer for 7 minutes. Add the fried dhokar’s to the gravy and cover it. Cook for 2-3 minutes and it’s done.

Apricot Upside Down Chocolate Cake

It’s again birthday month in my family. Today is my husband’s official birthday (sounds funny lol)

And two days back was my brother in law’s birthday. On 10^th is my sis in laws b'day so yes another cake in pipeline. This cake I had made on my brother in law’s birthday but my husband missed it so made it again today. He is really fussy when it comes to eating fruits, so fruits in dessert are the only way I have been able to sneak up fruits in his diet. I replaced brown sugar with Jaggery Sugar for the sticky taste, it definitely worked.

 

Preparation time- 10 minutes

Cooking time- 40 minutes

Ingredients-

Apricots- 250 gm

Brown sugar / Jaggery Sugar- ½ cup

Star anise- 1

Butter- 1 cup

Castor sugar- ½ cup

Vanilla essence- ½ tsp

Eggs- 3

Flour- 2 cups

Cocoa powder- ½ cup

Espresso Coffee powder- ½ tbsp

Baking powder- ½ tbsp

Milk- 2 tbsp

Method-

Line the cake tin with parchment paper; preheat the oven to 180°C. Wash the apricots, remove the stone and slice them. In a saucepan add apricots, sugar, ½ tbsp butter and star anise. Make the caramel with occasional stir till bubbles form on the surface and apricots are completely coated in the syrup. This will take 5-8 minutes. Remove the star anise, line the apricots in the cake tin as per the design you wish on the cake top and pour in the caramel. I did in circular motion (requires a lot of patience). Cream butter and sugar and then add eggs gradually to a fluffy mix. Add vanilla essence; sift flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder and baking powder together in the egg mix. Fold together and add milk if required to loosen the batter. Transfer to the apricots lined cake tin and layer the batter smoothly. Bake for 25- 30 min or till the skewer comes out clean.  Allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Get the cake out on the serving plate carefully as the juice and caramel would spill out once inverted on the plate. Make sure the serving plate is the edged one to contain the caramel and juice.

Happy Birthday Jam Gems cookies

It’s my brother-In law’s B’day today and he is still a fan of Gems (who am I kidding…we all are…gems for us in India. MnM’s for others). I had planned for Chocolate dipped cookies with Gems…but last minute….no chocolate (what a crime I know). So used the same shortbread cookies recipe and quickly made Cherry Jam to top the biscuits. Initially had planned to sew all of them together with ribbon to form a garland but with jam topping not possible so, just plated them like that. Smile on my sis-in law’s face and the twinkle in the eyes of the birthday boy was sufficient to say they were good to go.

Preparation time- 15 min

Cooking time- 35 minutes

Ingredients-

Flour – 2 cups

Butter- 250 gms chilled

Castor sugar – ¾ cup

Cinnamon powder- ½ tsp

Cherry Jam – 1 cup

Gems / MnM – 1 ½ cup

Method –

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon powder and butter in either a food processor or if doing by hand rub all the butter into the flour and make a soft smooth dough. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour. Flour the slab and roll out the dough keeping the thickness ¼ inches. By using cookie cutter (I didn’t had access to them) cut the cookies and place them on prepared baking tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes or till the cookies are golden brown. Cool them on wire rack. If using fresh jam then you can use it straight away on the cooled cookies. If using refrigerated jam, melt it and then directly apply on cookies as per the shape. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with Gems. As the temperature here is touching 47°C, had to refrigerate the cookies till serving.

Tomato and raw mango chutney

Chutney is a staple condiment of any cuisine across India. Recipes differ but primarily ingredients are kind of similar. This chutney is a Bengali version, and as the condiment is supposed to be in Bengali – Tok, Jhaal, Mishti - that is Bitter, spicy, sweet; this covers all three.  I’ve learned this recipe from my Mother – in-law who is Oh so good at this style of cooking.  This contains raw mango which is aptly around in summers as this time the food is usually light with not much of vegetables around and food is not rich in terms of gravy and spices. 

Preparation Time- 5 min

Cooking time- 20 minutes

Ingredients-

Tomato – 3 medium sizes

Raw mango- 1 medium size

Green chili- 1 medium size

Sugar- ¼ cup

Water- 1 cup

Salt- ¼ tsp

Panch phoran  / Five spice – ¼ tsp

Panch Phoron ,mixture of the following 5 spices in equal quantity

1. Fennel  seeds (saunf)
2. Golden fenugreek- methi dana
3. Black mustard- kaali sarso
4. Cumin seeds- jeera
5. Nigells seeds- kalonji

Mustard oil- ½ tsp

Method- Slice tomatoes and mango and retain the stone (seed) / it is optional. Heat oil in pan; add five spices and slitted green chili. Allow the spices to crackle, add tomato and mango, sauté for 2-3 minutes, add salt and saute for another 1 minute.  At this stage tomatoes is squashed and mango is reduced to pulp. Add water, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes. The mango pulp shall stick to the bottom of the cover, scrape it back to the pan, add sugar and cook for another 2-3 minutes. The consistency shall be almost like homemade ketchup.

Matar Paneer - without onion and garlic

This dish is a common unfailing tried and tested in every Paneer loving family. Kids, husband want something special when nothing much is available make “Matar Paneer”, guests coming – make “Matar Paneer”, got bored of usual dal roti - make “Matar Paneer”. Mommy teaching daughter cooking, among the first’s - make “Matar Paneer”. So your see the list of “let’s make Matar Paneer” is un-exhaustible. Every household has different version consisting of these two humble ingredients- Matar / Peas and Paneer/ Cottage cheese. Mine is the version that does not contain Onion or Garlic.

Preparation time- 5 min

Cooking time- 15 min

Ingredients-

Paneer / Cottage Cheese – 250 gm

Peas / matar- 250 gm / 1 cup

Ginger- ½ inch

Tomatoes- 2

Green chili- 2

Vegetable oil- ½ tsp

Ghee (clarified butter) / butter- 1 tbsp

Bay leaf-1

Sugar- pinch

Green cardamom- 1 pod

Turmeric powder- ½ tsp

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Coriander powder- 1 tsp

Kashmiri  lal mirch / kashmiri or deggi mirch powder – ½ tsp

Cream (optional)

Method-

Grind ginger, tomato and green chili to a smooth paste. Keep aside. If using fresh green peas then wash them and soften them slightly by boiling them in a pan of hot water with salt for 3-4 minutes. If using frozen peas defrost them and add them to a pan of salted hot water. Cover and keep aside. Meanwhile in a pan add oil, and then add butter or ghee. When hot enough add bay leaf, cardamom pod and sugar. Stir and then add turmeric powder, coriander powder, stir so as to avoid burning of the spices. Add the pureed mixture of ginger and tomato slowly as you are adding liquid directly to hot oil/ butter. Sauté for 2-3 minutes till the oil separates, and then add drained green peas.  Add salt ,cover the pan with lid and cook for 5- 10 minutes. Cut paneer into small cubes ( at this stage if you prefer fired paneer then deep fry it ghee/ oil for 1 minutes, this makes them crispier) and add to the cooked matar gravy. Cook it uncovered for 2-3 minutes, remove from flame and add cream if desired. Garnish with coriander and serve with chapatti, Parantha, poori , Pulav as per your wish.