Lauki ka sabzi... (attempt 02)

Another Tuesday morning comes rolling in with DoraDora (the cat) ambling in to edge TingTingay (the white kitten) out from her milk.


The fridge defrosted and left a pool of water and paw prints in the kitchen as I added to the Tuesday morning squelch...


The vegetables in the crisper didn't really jump out at me and scream "cook-me-now" after the defrost. I removed a sheaf of palak to see half a lauki (bottle gourd) peeking at me. This would be a nice languid morning I decided and reached for the lauki.

The dhania patta (coriander leaves/cilantro) wallah had given me some nice curry patta (curry leaves) gratis in his hurry to shut shop and go home. I got a sprig out along with a few cloves of garlic and quickly crushed them and tossed everything in the pan with a dash of haldi (turmeric) and some tej patta (bay leaves) and then morning washed by me a little too quickly...

Another day at office beckoned...

Bhaja Kari Inspired Beguner Torkari

I remember my mom making a dry fish preparation called Bhaja Curry with begun (baingan/aubergine). I think that it has its origin in East Bengal since I have not really heard of it elsewhere.


This dish needs a certain type of begun (baingan/aubergine) that I have not really seen since I moved away from Kolkata. Now, this type of begun is elongated and unlike the baingan  that I normally find in the market (either small or large but with a distinct shape that defines our memort of baingan) 

When I saw these with Sita (my vegetable vendor of choice), I bought them on a lark and then wondered what to do with them.


Making bhaja curry is quite impossible without the fish (and that too when you wake up on a work day morning). So I tried to replicate as much I could dredge from my memories of sitting in my grnadmom's kitchen in Bandel. Most of the memories were rather obscured by rather more vivid memories of one or the other dog in that kitchen—Honey, Gypsy, Sandy, or perhaps even Candy... Anyways...


I sliced the begun as quickly as I could...

Once all the begun was sliced, I put them in the vessel I use as an impromptu colander...


I sprinkled haldi (turmeric) and worked it into the begun without crushing or mangling them.

Then I put some dhania powder and worked that in as well, and then kept the lot aside as I prepared for the rest of the process...

Just before I started cooking I added a little salt to the begun as well, since adding it before would result it the begun releasing all the water in them and becoming a mangled useless pulp.


Now this is where I went completely away from the 'Bengali'ness of the original recipe.

I took methi, til (sesame), curry patta (curry leaves), and chopped some garlic as well...
All this went into the pan with whatever cooking I had at hand...

I added the begun and cooked the mixture by tossing the entire thing to coat the oil instead of using a ladle. If I used a ladle the thin and delicate begun slices would immediately mangle into a rather pulpy mass...

Idea is to cook the begun well while retaining the coat of spices without destroying the slices that provide the texture.


I knew that I was done when it looked like this....

Then it was into a recycled take-away dabba and I rushed to 

Palak Corn with Tomato

Waking up groggy on a Monday morning after a late night is a serious incentive to go straight back to sleep. 
However, I had to get my ass off to office AND feed myself some lunch. Hmm...
I'd bought some palak from Nerul on my way to Peter's place, so, I quickly washed and chopped it up and defrosted some corn for 30 sec.


A couple of cloves of garlic, a little nub of ginger, and a longer suffering tomato sputtered together with the corn for a few minutes and then I quickly put in the palak and got ready for office...

I packed my lunch box and off I went to office...

Pan Crisped Egg Noodles

On a lazy morning you just want to make something quick and yummy and then go back to snooze mode. This prompted me to make this nice and quick noodle from some left over noodles in the fridge.


I quickly smashed and chopped some garlic and kept the noodles ready...

Then I quickly fried an egg, well beaten till fluffy with a fork...

I kept the eggs aside and drizzled a little oil in the non-stick pan and gently fried the garlic on high heat till I saw the stirrings of brown at the garlic edges...

The noodles and eggs went in and got tossed around to absorb the garlicky flavour from the noodles

I turned on the high and left it on high (without stirring or tossing for the bottom layer to turn nice and crispy...


And then I dug in to my Sunday breakfast... :)

Cookies - Eggless, Flourless, and Sugarless

I wanted to make some cookies along with the carrot cake.. So I was looking for a recipe on the net that mixed oats with carrots..


I found this interesting recipe for cookies that I adopted and made my own. Have the look at the original recipe as well...


This is a very easy cookie to make... I made this while Guru and I were testing his Tata Photon connectivity in my flat. I think we were done and out in some 45min or so...


I took 4 bananas and some of the grapes left over from the carrot cake and squished them together and got an interesting purple slurry to get things moving...

... and yes... I added a a quarter cup of vegetable oil... 

Next, I got out a cup of Quaker's oats and about half a cup of raisins..

I added some ginger (very finely chopped) to add a little zing...

... And threw in some chopped figs as well...

 ... I added a bit of grated dry coconut to make things interesting... 

 I took the rubber spatula and went all mix-mix...

... This is the happy part. :D Some dark chocolate, chopped into little pieces went into the dry mix... About 250gm. I had and used Morde, but would recommend something better ... At least Selbourne extra dark.

 ... now the mixture looked like inviting muesli...

... the grated carrots joined the wet mix and did their little smoozing thing in the pool...

... the dry ingredients joined the wet ones in one happy cookie thing and soon I'd spooned out the lot onto some washed and recycled aluminum foil on the baking trays. This is my attempt at recycling ... 

...Oh yes! I added some toasted cucumber, water melon, musk melon, and other yummy seeds to add some crunch to the sweetness and gooey chocolate inside...


Tadaa!

Here're the ingredients:


1   cup - Grated Carrots
1   cup - Oats (I used Quakers Oats)
1.5 cups - Black Grapes (Squashed)
1.5 cups - Black Grapes (Squashed) (I needed 4 medium bananas)
3/4 cup  - Raisins
1/2 cup  - Chopped Figs
1/2 cup  - Dried coconut shavings
1/4 cup  - Vegetable Oil
250gm - Dark Chocolate (chopped to bits)


Frosting:


150gm - Cream Cheese (I used Britannia... Philadelphia is horribly expensive but preferred)
100gm - Icing Sugar
 25gm - Melted Butter (used Amul)

Carrot Walnut Grape Cake

I have been waiting to try out a carrot cake in the new oven. It was the first thing I'd tried in the convection microwave and I now I wanted to try it out in my new oven.


While I was waiting for Guru to come with the TV, I started with the irritating part—grating two and a half cups of carrots...

That done, I was smiling and measuring out the walnuts after breaking them into wee little bits.... (a heaped cup)

Then a teaspoon of baking powder went into two and a half cups of atta (whole wheat)...

... and a cup of brown sugar (dark brown not demerara... about 200gm) was kept aside...

...since I could not lay my hand on sour cream, I whipped some sour dahi (yoghurt) to make the cake a bit moister...

The walnut bits and the flour got whisked and thoroughly mixed...

...while I lightly greased and floured the sides of the baking tins and papered the bottoms...

I used two tins (one spring-form) and realized that I need to buy another spring-form tin for cases like this where I want to bake layer cakes...

  Next, I cracked four eggs into the mixing bowl and started whisking them...

I added the dahi and half a cup of cooking oil as well (since I did not want to add butter and make it too rich...)

I creamed in the sugar next ...

Soon the mix was nice and frothy and the brown sugar had started working it's effect...

I added the grated carrot—and the twist in the tail—the squashed grapes...

The walnut and flour went in next...

... and into the tin...

The baking took 45min ...

Once the cakes cooled, I whipped together 150gm of cream cheese and added a little less than half a cup of icing sugar and knob of melted butter for the frosting.


I slathered on a generous helping on the bottom layer...

... and then added the top layer and put the rest of the frosting...

Minutes later Guru and I had devoured a wedge while the cat got some frosting...

Here's what the wedge looked like before it went into out stomachs...

The rest of the cake carved  up for distribution...

Here're the ingredients:


2.5 cups - Grated Carrots
1    cup  - Brown Sugar
1    cup  - Walnut Bits2.5 cups - Black Grapes (Squashed)

2.5 cups - Atta (Whole Wheat Flour)

4           - Eggs

100 gm   - Sour Yogurt (Dahi)

0.5 cup  - Vegetable Oil

Frosting:

150gm - Cream Cheese (I used Britannia... Philadelphia is horribly expensive but preferred)

100gm - Icing Sugar

 25gm - Melted Butter (used Amul)