Methi-begun(Methi green with eggplant n potato)-nutrition in 15mins

What You Need

Methi shaak( Methi green)- 3 cups
Eggplant- 1 big or few small
Potato -1 medium
Methi seeds-1/2 tsp(Methi green and seeds both are little bitter so instead of seeds you can add Black jeera/kalonji/nigella seed-1/2 tsp.)
Turmeric-1tsp
Salt
Musturd oil - 3 tbsp

How I Did It 
1- Wash and chop Methi leaves nicely . Green leafy vegetables are best to wash first and then chop because it retains nutrition and wastage is less too.
2- Also chop 1 eggplant and 1 medium potato into cubes.Wash all together throughly.
3- Take a pan and heat 3 tbsp musturd oil. Add methi seeds-1/2 tsp and let it splutter.
4- Methi green and seeds both are little bitter so instead of seeds you can add Black jeera/kalonji/nigella seed-1/2 tsp.
5- Add eggplant and potato cubes. Give a good stir and add turmetic,salt.
6- Keep flame on high for 1 min and then low .Let vegetable cook half .Check few times so that it does not burn.
7- Add methi green to it and mix well.Cover with lid .Keep for 5-10 mins and check few times and give a stir .   
8-Taste and adjust salt  to get balanced taste.

Musur Dal (Red lentils as daily food)- comfort food in 20 mins

What You Need

Musur/Masoor Dal( Red lentils)- 1 cup
Kalo jeera- 1 tsp
Hing- 1 tsp
Turnmeric-1tsp
Salt
Musturd oil/Ghee - tbsp


How I Did It 
1- Wash and soak a cup of Musur dal in water for min 15 mins.
2- Wash again,discard the froth accumulated over water. 
3- Take dal in pressure cooker or a pan with 2 cups of water .Add salt and 2 drops of oil.
    Give the content a good stir.
4- For 2 mins keep the heat on high and then simmer till  it is mashy in open pan( around      10 mins) or in cooker( around 5 mins ).
5- Let it cool. Take a round laddle or a kadai or a pan. Heat 1 tbsp Musturd oil or ghee.
6- Add hing,Kalo jeera and let it splutter but not burn.
7- Add this to dal and add turmeric too. Let it boil well .
    A good boil is very important for any dal as this enhances the taste.
8-Taste and adjust salt  to get balanced taste.

Gathi Kochu er torkari(Arbi or eddoe curry)- simplest way to cook vegetable

Eddoe( Photo from wiki)

What You Need

Gathi Kochu /  Creamy Arbi / Eddoe-500gm
1 potato

A couple of green chili 

Whole Jeera/Cumin-1 tbsp
Cumin powder-1 and half tbsp(Format:  Jerra Bhaja guNro i.e. Cumin sauted dry in wok and grinded to powder)

Salt and sugar to taste. Mustard Oil

How I Did It 

1-If arbi are big in size ,cut in half. or whole.You can peel the skin or not.Also same do for a potato.
2-Boil in pressure cooker or in an open pan.
3-When boiling is done, cool ( If you did not peel the skin earlier,now peel off)
4-In a Kadai/Pan heat little musturd oil. Add a tbsp whole Jeera/cumin.
5-Add the boiled content,salt and sugar if you like.
6-Mash the content little with your laddle/spoon.
7-Cover and let it cook and absorb flavour of spice.
8-Add Jerra Bhaja guNro & green chilli and cover for few minutes. You can add little           water at this step if content is too dry to make it mashy. 9-Taste and adjust salt+sugar to get balanced taste.
10-Drizzle some ghee (and Garam Masala powder if u like its flavour) and cover.
11-Serve with steamed rice and enjoy.

Sweet potato-Capsicum sabji

Sweet potato-Capsicum sabji

What You Need
Sweet potato 3- cut into pieces
Red and green capsicum- 3 cut into pieces
Mustard oil/Ghee- 2 tsp
Kala jeera/ Nigella- 1/2 tsp
Salt a pinchTurmeric
Sugar 1/2 tsp
How I Did It

1-Cut vegetables in 1 inch pieces.
2-Wash in warm water throughly. I take boiled potato and blanched capsicum for easy cooking.
3-In a kadai/pan heat  2 tbsp of ghee/oil.
4-Add Kala jeera/ Nigella- 1/2 tsp ,wait to splutter.
5-Add vegetables gently. Also add turmeric and salt and if you want then add Sugar 1/2 tsp..
6-Saute and keep checking so that it does not burn at bottom .
7-When vegies will get start to be mash, drizzle some water to it if needed.Vegetable should be dry and not soggy.
8-Saute and after some time close the lid . Serve with Luchi ,Paratha or Chapati

Luchi , a quintessential bengali pleasure

If there is any occasion at home or any time need to celebrate, a Bengali family will serve you Luchi . Be it wedding or a lazy Sunday. Though our generation of people are not quiet expert to make Luchis. Time is cosmopolitan, so pizza to Dosa they are fond of. But no doubt Luchi is something everyone like to have at breakfast. This is something like unique preparation and mostly Bengali. Unique in the sense that you roll a Luchi with so many side dishes every time it will make you wonder. Roll in with Kosha Mangsho(Mutton curry), Cholar Dal(Gram lentil), Payesh, Nolen Gur, Chini(Sugar), Alur Dom(Potato Curry!), Begun Bhaja, Alu bhaja....list goes on...and enter in your mouth ...ahh a pure bliss it is.

One key point to mention here is that Luchi is not Puri..it is like Puri but it is not Puri/Poori. Luchi is made of white flour and is WHITE in color.

Luchi

What You Need


White flour/Maida 3 cups
Water
White oil/Ghee/Dalda 2 tea spoons
Salt a pinch

Rolling Pin . We call it Belan Chakki. This is a round plate with rolling pin to make flat bread.

How I Did It
In a bowl take 3 cups of Flour.
Make a well in flour and pour 3 tbsp of ghee/sunflower oil
Add a little salt and then added water gradually. Knead flour with hand and add water gradually as per need. The dough should not be runny or too hard. It should be soft in your palm. Knead the dough and if possible wrap with a cotton cloth for some time.
Now take a small lemon size dough and make it flat with use of rolling pin. Roll the balls to make flat . Approx 3-4 inches in diameter. Use little oil to roll the balls.
Heat enough oil in a pan/Kadai. Make it hot and not smoky. Otherwise Luchi will turn red brown.
Release luchi gently in the oil and press the sides with a flat spatula. This is important and a technique to fry Luchi.
As soon as it puffs up, flip it on the other side .Now take it out of oil .There should not be any oil coming out with Luchi, so use a slotted spatula.

Chingri diye kochu and a bliss

Being brought up in a Bengalee family now I truly believe that we can make food from anything. Khosha, Danta , bij kichui bad jay na....Vegetable peel, Stems, seeds nothing is left out from kitchen. We can make delicious dishes which sooth our taste. Every dish is wrapped into love, unique touch, Bengalee taste and most important is that every household makes each dish with its special touch. Lets talk about Kochu.
Kochu ( TARO) is something which I have seen to grow into our back yard , beside ponds in childhood. My grandmother used to take it off and then my aunt used to make 3-4 items from its whole body, except using the leaf.  Now-a-days its not that well seen because e backyard and ponds are just gone under multistory buildings. From the stem we make Kochur Shaak along with either Macher matha (fish-head fry) or Chola () or Narkel kora(coconut grind). Root here are we use to make curry or siddho makha(boil and smash). There are more formats of making this tree parts.
I do not get Kochur Shaak or Stem now in market. I get a different type of  TARO which we call Gathi Kochu /  Creamy Arbi / Eddoe .
  To refer I copy from wiki:
  Eddoe is a tropical vegetable, a variety of Colocasia esculenta, closely related to taro (dasheen), that is primarily used for its thickened stems (corms). It has smaller corms than taro, and in all but the best cultivars there is an acrid taste that requires careful cooking.The young leaves can also be cooked and eaten, but (unlike taro) they have a somewhat acrid taste.
Gathi Kochu chingri diye is just a trick from transformation from veg to non-veg. Lets cook this.

 
What You Need

10-12 Gathi Kochu /  Creamy Arbi / Eddoe
1 potato
4 green chili
1/2 tsp Whole jeera.
Salt to taste. SUgar to taste

Mustard Oil
Chingri/  shrimp ~8, Peel, clean and DE-vein shrimp.

 

 




How I Did It 

If arbi are big in size ,cut in half. or take in whole. Boil in pressure cooker or in an open pan.
Also take 1 potato .Boil with arbi.
When boiling is done, cool and peel the skin.
Cur into cubes- Only potato
In the mean time, Lightly saute the shrimps with salt and turmeric powder.
Rest for 5 minutes/ Fry in oil , Remove and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan.
Add Whole jeera.
When starts spattering, add potato and arbi in oil.
Add salt.
Stir well, its is stage which is to sense.
Boiled Arbi will leave a creamyness which is good, but do not mash those.
When its fried and cooked to brown, add little turmeric powder, green chilli and shrimp.
Cover and let it cook , you will get a nice smell when it is done.
Taste sugar and salt. Adjust.

Posto bata diye lau / Bottle gourd in Poppy seed paste

Ohh its always summer at my place. Though I am about leave this place in 2 days. Yeah, I am shifting from one city to another . Mind is full of joy, tension, hope and emotions. I can not bother summer at all. I feel that's why I am here in this city near sea where its always summer...even when it pours or at December. We cannot stand a minute under sun any season.

Though I am not at all fond of summer, but I like summer for its special foods. Bottle gourd is one of them. Its a vegetable which I have seen that many people does not like. But its good and contains lots of water . Cools body and specially its a regular thing for household in summer days.

The Posto diye lau which means I used Postobata aka Poppy seed paste to cook along with the gourd while my Mother makes it this way. My Ma makes this very often and we like the simple Lauki sabji also at home.

What You Need
 Lau/lauki/bottlegourd. Chop in thin cubes. How fine you can cut it, the soft will be vegetable.
 Kalonji /Kalo jeera
1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
Salt to taste. 
A couple of green chili slit through.
Posto bata / Poppy seed paste
Oil

How I Did It

Heat Oil in a Kadai/ frying pan.
Add some kaloni/ Kalo JeeraAdd the chopped lau aka bottlegourd. 
Add about 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder and mix well .
Add salt to taste. 
Add a couple of green chili slit through. 
Let the bottle gourd cook. It will release a lot of water but don't panic, let it cook with some quick stirs in between.
When the bottle gourd is almost done add posto bata/ poppy seed paste. Mix well and let it cook together. 
Check and adjust for salt. Add about 1/2 tsp of sugar.Mix well.
DO not cook for long time after adding Poppyseed paste, it will loose its flavor