Kosha Mangsho

Kosha Mangsho

In Bengali the term “kosha” means to fry on high heat. This is a labour intensive process which requires some heavy arm movement. The more you saute the tastier it becomes. This is a favorite Sunday brunch in most Bengali households. When guests come over we make this dish with love and it is eaten with relish.

 However in this day and age consumption of red meat has gone done considerably. Even in my house with so many blood pressure patients we have mutton on rare occasions.

 So when it was time to plan my birthday lunch I opted for a simple Luchi Mangsho. This is another all time favorite Bengali combination. 

Although, to be honest, Bengalis can have Luchi/Puri with anything and nothing. We can eat Luchi with mutton, Aloor dum, jam, pickles, and if nothing else then sugar. Luci tatses great without any accompaniments too. So we can eat Luchi just like that!!

There I go again on a Luchi trip. Now back to the Kosha Mangsho!!

Ingredients

For marinade

1 kg mutton

1 cup yogurt

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

3 tbsp mustard oil

Salt to taste

For tempering

1 bay leaf

3 drry red chillies

4 peppercorns

1” cinnamon

3 green cardamoms

Other ingredients

2 potatoes, cubed

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

2 onions, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder

2 tbsp coriander powder

1 tbsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

Salt to taste

1 cup mustard oil

Marinate the mutton with yogurt, ginger garlic paste, mustard oil and salt for at least 3 hours. It is preferable if you can marinate it overnight.

Heat the mustard oil in a pressure cooker. Add the bay leaf, dry red chillies, peppercorns, cinnamon and green cardamoms. 

Add the potatoes and fry on high heat till they are golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute.

 Add the chopped onions and cook till the onions are translucent. 

Add the chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Cook till the tomatoes are soft and the masalas are well fried. 

Add the marinated mutton. 

Now is the time for some arm movement. Keep the flame on high and saute stirring all the while. This is the Kosha method where the meat is braised on high heat. 

Add the garam masala and salt and keep stirring for about 7 minutes.

 The mutton and potatoes will be well coated with all the masala. 

Now add 1 ½ cups of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Nawabi Paneer

Nawabi Paneer

Tomatoes, two ways!!

Onions, two ways!!

Yes you heard it right! 

In this dish we are using tomatoes and onions in two ways. That is why this is a Nawabi dish. A dish for the royals. The gravy is rich and succulent. The paneer is pleasantly sunny in colour. All in all a dish I had fun making and had double the fun eating!!

Ingredients

250 gms paneer, cut into cubes

2 medium onions, browned

2 medium onions, sliced fine

2 tomatoes, sliced fine

4 tbsp tomato puree

10 cashews, soaked

1 tsp ajwain

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

1 tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp + ½ tsp turmeric powder

¼ cup fresh cream

Add ½ tsp turmeric powder to 2 cups of water and soak the paneer pieces for about an hour.

Slice 2 medium onions very fine and deep fry in hot oil till light brown. Make a paste with the soaked cashews.

Heat some oil. Add the ajwain seeds. Add the ginger paste and saute. Now add the sliced onions and cook till they are soft and translucent. 

Add the sliced tomatoes and tomato puree. Cook till the tomatoes are soft. Add the onion-cashew paste and fry. Add the masalas and cook till the oil starts leaving the sides. 

Add 1 cup water and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile the paneer pieces are nicely sunny in color. Add them to the gravy and cook for 10 minutes. Before taking off the heat add the fresh cream.

Gobi Paneer Makhni

Gobi Paneer Makhni

Gobi and paneer in a tomato based gravy with kasuri methi. The final taste comes out to be achari. Maybe it is the combination of ingredients because I certainly did not start out to make a achari dish. Sometimes experiments turn out to be amazing!!

Ingredients

2 cauliflower/gobi, cut into florets

100 gm paneer, cubed

3 tomatoes, blanched, pureed

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp kasuri methi

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder

Salt to taste

A pinch of sugar

¼ cup mustard oil

First blanch the tomatoes and make a fine puree. Heat the mustard oil to smoking point. Add the cumin seeds. 

Saute the cauliflower florets on high heat till they are well browned. 

Add the tomato puree and ginger paste. Add the coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, chilli powder, salt and sugar. 

Cover and cook till the puree dries and the florets are coated well with the masala. 

Add the kasuri methi and paneer pieces. Cover and cook for some more time. The oil will separate and the dish will be cooked. You can garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Matar Paneer

Matar Paneer

Matar and paneer. 

A match made in heaven. 

And it tastes best in a tomato based gravy. No onions, no garlic, no heavy masalas. A simple dish and one of my favourites from childhood. 

Many people prefer frying the paneer pieces before putting them in the gravy. I don’t!! I like my paneer to be soft and crumbly. Frying makes them chewier. 

The dish is so irresistible that you will not be able to resist dipping a spoon and sampling it as the gravy simmers away!!

Ingredients

200 gm paneer, cubed

1 cup peas

3 tomatoes, pureed

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp red chilli powder

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp salt

A pinch of sugar

½ tsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp cardamom powder

4 tbsp mustard oil

Heat the mustard oil. Add the cumin seeds. Add the tomato puree and ginger paste. Cook till the water evaporates and the puree starts drying up. 

Add all the masalas and cook till the oil separates. Add salt and sugar. Now add the peas and paneer pieces. Cook for a minute or two till the paneer pieces are well coated with the masala. 

Add ½ cup of water and simmer. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. You can have this with hot roti or rice.

Cholar Dal

Cholar Dal

Narkol Diye Cholar Dal(Chana Dal/Bengal gram) is a quintessential Bengali dish. I remember my grandmother grating the coconut on an old fashioned grater. It used to be a big block of wood with the steel grater poking out the front. You had to sit with folded legs on the floor, press down on the wooden block to keep it in place and grate the coconut. You had to exert a good enough pressure and it used to be quite a task.

In fact cooking in those days used to be a labour of love. Mixers and ready made masalas were not easily available and even when they it was not commonly used. I remember my grandmother soaking cumin seeds and coriander seeds first thing in the morning and all the masala was ground fresh on the grinding stone. And it really used to make a difference to the taste of the dish. That freshness is no longer there in our food as we have started using mass produced commercially available ready made masalas.

Coming back to the Cholar Dal, I don’t have access to a coconut grater and so I have used chopped coconut in the dish. It works just as well although grated coconut gives it a certain creaminess.

Ingredients

1 cup cholar dal/chana dal

1 tbsp grated ginger

½ cup chopped/grated coconut

1 bay leaf

2-3 dry red chillies

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tso coriander powder

1 tbsp ghee

Salt to taste

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp turmeric powder

Soak the cholar dal overnight. Pressure cook it with salt and turmeric till it is soft and mushy.

Heat the ghee. Add the cumin seeds, bay leaf and dry red chillies. 

Once they start spluttering add half the grated ginger. Add the cumin powder and coriander powder. 

Saute for a few seconds and then add the chopped coconut. Stir for a minute. 

Add the whole coconut masala to the boiled dal. Add sugar. Check the salt. 

Add some water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 5-7 minutes. 

Now add the other half of the grated ginger and take off the heat. The slightly raw smell of the ginger adds to the flavour. 

Garnish with some grated coconut. 

Maacher Jhaal

Maacher Jhaal

There are so many ways that fish is cooked in a Bengali household. Every family has a variation of the same dish. In the days of the zamindari the family used to own “pukur” or ponds. Some of these ponds were meant only for bathing or washing clothes. And certain ponds were meant only for fishing. Those waters were never polluted by doing household chores.

 I remember, as a child, going to our ancestral village. It was a novelty to experience the luxury of having a fish pond in your own backyard. The fresh fish caught and cooked within the hour had such an amazing taste which is simply not there in the fish we get today.

Maccher Jhaal has many variations and every family has its own way of cooking it. This is my favorite version of the dish. It is a very mustardy preparation, cooked in mustard oil and simmered in a mustard gravy. It is tangy and spicy without the use of any masalas. So enjoy!!

Ingredients

250 gms fish fillets ( you can use rahu/bhetki. I have used Basa fillets)

4 tbsp mustard seds

2 tbso poppy seeds

3 green chillies

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Nigella seeds

1 tomato, pureed

½ tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

4 tbsp mustard oil

If you are using Basa fillets then they don’t need to be fried. However if you are using Rahu/Basa then you need to fry them once beforehand. Apply some salt and turmeric powder and then fry them well.

Soak the mustard seeds and poppy seeds in hot water for 20 minutes. Grind them to a fine paste along with salt and green chillies. It is very important that while grinding mustard seeds you add some salt to it otherwise the paste will turn bitter.

Heat some oil. Add the Nigella seeds. Then add the pureed tomato and fry well. Once the oil starts separating add the mustard-poppy seeds paste, salt and turmeric. Fry on slow heat till the paste is cooked properly. Add a cup of water and bring to a boil. Now add the raw Basa/fried rahu/bhetki. Lower heat and simmer till the fish is cooked.

This dish is best eaten with hot steaming rice.

Chicken Korma

Chicken Korma

When you have to cook chicken everyday then it becomes a head scratching affair. What new recipes to come up with? Poor kiddo then went down with stomach flu and suffered for a week. That is when I realised though I might crib about his love for chicken, I missed making it for that one week. When he was up and about guess what he asked for? Yes! Chicken!

This chicken korma is a simple dish with minimum spices and oil. It is light on the tummy yet full of flavours. And mommy was happy cooking chicken again!!

Ingredients

1 chicken, cut into pieces

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tbsp garlic paste

2 onions, chopped

1 cup yogurt

4-5 peppercorns

1 bay leaf

2 black cardamoms

2 green cardamoms

1” cinnamon

1 tsp jeera powder

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp garam masala

Salt to taste

Apply the ginger paste, garlic paste and salt on the chicken pieces and keep aside for one hour.

Heat some oil. Add the chopped onions and saute till translucent. Drain the oil and keep take out the fried onions. Once it is cool blend along with the yogurt to a fine paste.

Heat some ghee. Add the khada masala – black cardamoms, green cardamoms, peppercorns, bay leaf and cinnamon. Add the chicken pieces and fry on high flame for 5-7 minutes till the chicken is evenly browned. 

Now add the cumin powder, coriander powder and garam masala. Fry well. 

Add the onion-yogurt paste. Keep stirring as the masala gets cooked properly. Check the salt. Cover and simmer till the chicken is done.

Dhokar Dalna

Dhokar Dalna

The name sounds funny!! This is a Bengali dish and when you translate the name into Hindi it does sound funny. Dhoka literally means Betrayal in Hindi. However, rest assured, this dish will far surpass your expectations. It is a Bengal gram preparation which, if prepared properly, tastes like mutton.

This is one of my favorite childhood dishes. However as I remember my grandmother making it, I realise what a troublesome task it must have been. In the days before the use of mixers ladies had to do all the grinding on a stone slab. It required quite a lot of time and effort to grind the Bengal gram to a smooth paste. 

Nowadays it takes a few minutes. However, there is a distinct difference in taste between things ground in mixers and ground on a mortar and pestle. The latter, somehow, tastes more delicious.

Ingredients

For the Dhoka

2 cups Bengal gram/chana dal , soaked overnight

2” ginger, grated

½ cup oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

Salt to taste

For the Dalna/gravy

2 onions, pureed

2 small tomatoes, pureed

1 bay leaf

2 dry red chillies

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

1 tbsp coriander powder

2 tbsp cumin powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp garam masala

Salt to taste

A pinch of sugar

½ tsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp green cardamom powder

1 tbsp ghee

Make the Dhoka first. Grind the soaked dal along with the ginger and salt. 

Heat the oil. Add the cumin seeds and then add the ground paste. Fry on high heat till the water evaporates and the mix forms a dough like consistency.

 When the dough starts leaving the sides of the pan then you can switch off the gas. 

Oil a large steel plate. Spread the dal dough on the plate and pat down with firm hands to a rough rectangle. It should be about ½ inch thick. 

Let it cool. Then cut into diamond shapes.

Heat some oil in a pan. Deep fry the dhoka. 

In the same oil add the cumin seeds, bay leaf and dry red chillies. 

Once they start spluttering add the ginger-garlic paste. Add the onion paste and saute. 

Once the onion becomes pinkish add the tomato paste. Add all the masalas and fry on low heat. 

Once the oil starts leaving the sides then add a cup of water. Bring to a boil and add the dhoka pieces. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. 

Switch off the heat and sprinkle the cinnamon and cardamom powder and add the ghee. 

Garnish with a little cream or green coriander.