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. 

Murg-e-taaus

Murg-e-taaus

Another Mughlai Dish!

When the Mughals came to India they brought with them the culinary cultures of the countries they had been to such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, etc. 

As a result the food culture that evolved was a combination of Indian, Persian and Middle Eastern cuisine. Nuts, raisins and saffron were liberally used to make the dishes exotic and suitable for the Royal palette.

Murg-e-taaus means Royal Chicken. However the word in Urdu has a more romantic and exotic tinge to it. Just like the dish itself! There are very few masalas used in the dish and the richness comes from the use of dry fruits.

Ingredients

For the marinade

1 chicken, cut into pieces

1 cup yogurt

Salt to taste

Khada masala

2 green cardamoms

2 black cardamoms

4 cloves

1 “cinnamon

For paste

½ cup almonds

¼ cup poppy seeds

3 tbsp char magaz/melon seeds

2 onions. Chopped

1” ginger, chopped

1 tsp white pepper powder

½ tsp turmeric

Few strands soaked in 2 tbsp milk

¼ tsp cardamom powder

¼ tsp mace/javitri powder

Marinate the chicken with yogurt and salt for about 2-3 hours.

Make a paste of the dry fruits using a little water.

Heat some ghee. Add the khada masala. Add the onion and ginger and saute. 

Once the onions become translucent then add the chicken pieces and fry on high heat. 

Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the dry fruits paste, turmeric powder and white pepper powder. 

Check the seasoning. Add ½ cup water, cover and simmer till the chicken is cooked. 

Add the soaked saffron, cardamom powder and javitri powder.

Chicken Rezazla

Chicken Rezala

A royal Bengali dish, this chicken recipe has all the royal ingredients like cashews, poppy seeds, cream, yogurt. Anything with a poppy seed and cashew combination is always lip smackingly delicious. And remember you should not count calories while eating the rezala. 

Ingredients

700 gm chicken
2 onions, blended
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
10 cashews, soaked and blended
4 tbsp poppy seeds, made into a paste
1 cup curd
2 tbsp garam masala
3 green cardamoms
2 black cardamoms
4 cloves
1” cinnamon
6 black peppercorns
6 white peppercorns
Salt to taste
A pinch of sugar
3 tbsp ghee
½ cup cream

Marinate the chicken with onion paste, ginger garlic paste, curd and salt for 1 hour. 

Heat some ghee. Add the cloves, cinnamon, green cardamoms, black cardamoms and both peppercorns. 

Add the marinated chicken pieces and bhuno or saute on high heat for 5 minutes. 
Add the cashew and poppy seed paste and saute some more. Add the garam masala, salt and sugar. 
Cover and cook for 20 minutes till done. Before taking it off the heat add the cream and mix well. 

Nargisi Seekh Kabab

Nargisi Seekh Kabab

Ingredients

4 potatoes, boiled

200 gm paneer, grated

1 onion, chopped

1 capsicum, chopped

3 green chilies, chopped

4-5 garlic, chopped

1 small ginger, chopped

2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Few mint leaves, fried

Few curry leaves, chopped

1 tsp pepper powder

½  tsp cardamom

½  mace powder

1 tsp chaat masala

Salt to taste

Bread crumbs for binding

½ cup sesame seeds

Mix all the ingredients except the sesame seeds together. Check the seasoning. Soak some wooden skewers in water. With a wet hand form seekh kababs and put on skewers. Roll in sesame seeds. 

Grill in a hot oven at 220 degrees Celsius for 10-15 minutes.

Saufiyana Machli

Saufiyana Machli

Ingredients

 Dry masalas ground together

1 tsp black cardamom seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

3 tsp coriander seeds

1 ½ tsp cumin seeds

Some mace

Make a paste of

½ cup cashew nuts

4 tbsp desiccated coconut

4 tbsp poppy seeds

2 onions, finely chopped

5-6 cloves of garlic

2-3 green chilis

500 gm basa fish, cubed (you can use pomfret also)

First dry roast the dry masalas and grind them to fine powder. 

Dry roast the poppy seeds, cashews and desiccated coconut and grind them together.

 Now blend together the above two sets of ground masalas along with onion, garlic and chilli. 

The reason we are grinding them separately is that if you grind them all together then the smaller spices such as poppy seeds, cumin, fennel etc don’t get ground into a fine paste. They remain chunky and then later on you can feel them in your mouth while eating.

Heat some oil and then add the spice paste. Sauté for a few minutes.

Add about 1 ½ cups water, bring to a boil and then reduce flame. Now add the fish cubes and season with salt. 

Cover and simmer gently till the fish is done. It does not take more than 10 minutes.