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 

Samudra Methi - Phulkopi

Waking up groggy in the mornings, I just want to get lunch cooked while I brush my teeth and run around to let the (very reluctant to wake-up-and-get-out) cat out.


I rustled this up and bought chappatis on my way to office a few days back.

I chopped up some cauliflower (aka phulkopi to us Bengalis) and dug out some samudra methi and quickly washed everything and put it in my large sieve to drip dry. I discovered samudra methi in Mumbai. You find these little bunches of baby methi that you get in bunches. A dozen bunches come for ten rupees. I have even got 18 once when I haggled with a vendor in Santacruz station late one evening. And... 20 this weekend in Dadar...! Definitely better than buying the normal methi...

I put a little oil in the non-stick pan and threw in some jeera and methi seeds till they crackled. The chopped cauliflower and sautéed them till I got a nice aroma out of them. This takes about ten minutes on my hob. On hotter hobs it will take half the time.

A few swished of the knife later, the methi was ready to join the gang...

I resisted the temptation to cover the pan since the methi would stop looking nice and green. Also the baby methi is so tender, I would get some mash if I did this. 

A few minutes later my lunch was ready...

And this is how it looked in my lunch dabba...

Sukkat Kolambi Samudra Methi

This concoction resulted from my wandering around in Dadar West. I remember buying these dried shrimps from a sukkat seller in Gokhalenagar in Pune when I used to stay there. After striking a deal with the Samudra Methi seller I was looking for cheap lemon when I chanced upon this kindly looking lady smiling at me and sitting and selling sukkat. 

I learnt in Pune that dried fish is called 'sukkat' in Maharahstra. Now I am not saying "in Marathi" since I am not sure if this word is Konkani or from the Koli (fisher folks) community.

Anyways. I left buying two small packets from her and also learning that this is called Kolambi (shrimp I presume in the local patois). Googling the word 'kolambi' however shows  up fresh prawns. So I'll stick to 'kolambi' to describe this ingredient but I'll dig around and find out what it is called.

  

The dried shrimp is not that stinky when dry but definitely needs to be washed. Several times. I used warm water, following the instructions of the lady who sold me the shrimp.

A soak and a couple of rinses later the kolambi looks good too cook.

I got out a couple of tomatoes to add some body and got out a few cloves of garlic as well. 

The garlic cloves were soon smashed and sizzling in the pan till a 'little' brownish at the edges, and then the chopped tomoatoes joined them.

Once the tomatoes were a wee little gooey, I put in the shrimp aiming to capture their flavour in the tomatoes and vice-versa.

The samudra methi went into the pan in two lots. I first put in the root bits since I wanted a little moisture to cook the prawns and then I put in the leafy bits since I wanted the green bits to add some texture when I ate it as well.

Now, this is the impromptu part... I smashed and added some unsalted roasted peanuts into the mix to quickly absorb the moisture (since I was getting quite late) and make the entire curry denser. Worked out quite well, since I was expecting a bit of a disaster (in terms of taste).

And,that, was the end result nestled in my lunch box :)

 By the way... I added VERY little salt since the shrimp is dried (and preserved) in salt. (This tip again was courtesy the lady selling me the shrimp... I would have landed with pretty inedible stuff otherwise!)




Addtional Info:


Devayani just mailed me and helped me with some more info about "kolambi"... To quote her:


"kolambi is the fresh shrimps and sungat (more
konkani??) or sukkat (more marathi??) is the dried shrimps. :)

Here is a typical recipe for sungat
http://konkanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/12/sukkile-sungata-kismuri-dried-shrimp.html "


Thank you Devayani :)