Showing posts with label nonveg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nonveg. Show all posts

Sunday, 24 June 2018

Steamed Prawn or Vapa Chingri

14:45 by Sumana3 comments
Chingri or prawn is always favorite sea food for us. In Bengali cousin we have lot of famous dishes with prawns like Lou chingri, Chingri malaicurry, Vapa chingri, Dab chingri etc. Actually prawn has an awesome taste which can turn any dish a delicious one from a very average. And cooking time is also very short. In my blog you will get lots of recipe with prawn. This time I am sharing steamed prawn recipe which is one of our favorite prawn recipe.
I learned this dish from my mom and she learned from her friend. In this recipe I added coconut but my mom and aunt never added it. One of friend said they generally add poppy seed paste. But we don’t. Some people obviously will say no need to use chopped onion but I  used. If you want to skip coconut, onion you can. Even you can add poppy seed paste. But don’t replace mustard paste. Without mustard paste this dish will be incomplete. In most of the steamed recipe in Bengali cousin you will get use of mustard paste because of its pungent taste, which makes the dish more sumptuous. For more steamed fish recipe you can check vapa Ilish recipe in my blog.
The quantity of ingredients is for 2 persons.

prawn steamed with mustard paste - Bengali recipe
Steamed Prawn or Vapa Chingri

Ingredients:

Prawns – 15/20 medium size
Mustard paste – 1tbsp
Coconut paste – 1tbsp
Chopped onion – 1small size
Salt
Turmaric powder – 1 tsp
Mustard oil – 1and1/2 tbsp
Green chilli – 5/6pcs

Recipe:

Clean the prawns, deveined and deshell it. If you want to keep head portion you can keep.
Take a mixing bowl and put all ingredients except green chilli and oil.
Mix it and add ½ tbsp oil in it.
Now take a steel tiffin box and put the mixed prawn with spices.
Drizzle remaining oil on it and put green chillies.
Cover the box.
Now you have to steam it.
Take a large vessel and put some water.
Then keep a small stand in the vessel and keep the box on the stand.
Cover the vassal and steam it for 10 - 12 minutes.
Prawn cooks very fast.
When the water comes to normal temperature, remove the box and your steamed prawn is ready.
Serve with hot steamed rice and enjoy your meal.


Sunday, 15 April 2018

Poila Boishakh Theme Cake

07:16 by Sumana21 comments

poila boishakh, nabonorsho, cake art, fondant
Poila Boishakh theme cake

Subho nabobarsho 1425…..poila boisakh means Bengali new year started today. This day obviously very special to all Bengali. Actually Bengalis are very fond of food and festival and we wait throughout the year for our famous Durgapuja. But we have lots of occasions to celebrate with some sumptuous food and rituals. Poila boisakh is just one of them. In Bengali we have a famous proverb “bangalir baro mas e tero parbon”(in 12 months Bengalis have 13 festivals) and Poila Boisakh is the first festival of the year. How we celebrate this day…..generally in Bengal in this day maximum shops start their new account with some puja, which is called khata puja and that khata (book of account) is very special, that comes with red cover and knot with a thread, called ‘kheror khata’. Now a days so many people stay out of Bengal for their jobs. So they always try to make a gathering with their Bong friends with some cultural programmes.
Nabo Borsho theme cake toppings created with fondant

Crafting Nabo Borsho theme cake

Nabo borsho themed cake art with fondant
Poila Boishakh/ Nabo borsho theme cake art

For the last 10 years I am also out of Bengal, even out of India. So we also celebrate our Poila Boisakh with some bong friends with some mouthwatering dishes. And this time I made a cake on Poila Boisakh theme, where I tried to present few stuffs related to the occasion. As the gathering was arranged with the famous pot-luck concept, along with my cake, there were many mouthwatering traditional Bengali dishes brought by my friends. The menu includes dimer devil, Bengali pulao, chicken curry, mutton curry, bhapa ilish, amer chatni. The food was well accompanied by famous Bong adda with card games (taser adda). Overall, it was a fantastic day spent with some adorable friends. We enjoyed it thoroughly.
nabo borsho special menu
Poila Boishakh menu; PC: KInjal Mandal

 One of the pic in this post is taken by my friend Kinjal.

 Subho Naboborsho!!

Thursday, 22 March 2018

Orange Chicken

23:55 by Sumana2 comments

Orange chicken is a Chinese dish where the yummy sauce is made with ripe orange juice and zest. And guess what, honey is also added to make the sauce even yummier. My daughter is a hard core chicken fan. That too she likes different preparations of chicken. One day when I was searching for a new chicken recipe, I stumbled upon this one and all the ingredients were also present at my kitchen. It turned out to be quick recipe and goes very well with fried rice or noodles. Let me know how many of you tried this at home and how it turned out.

Ingredients:

Chicken cubes – 300 gms
Corn flour – 2 tbsp
Flour – 1 tbsp
Egg – 1
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Orange zest – 1tsp
Orange juice – ¾th cup
Red chilli sauce – 1tbsp
Light soya sauce – 1 ½ tbsp.
Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp
Honey – 1 or 2 tsp (depends on sweetness of orange)
Chopped spring onion
Capsicum – square cut (optional)
Salt
Black pepper powder
Oil - 1 cup


chicken with orange and honey sauce
Orange Chicken


Recipe:

Marinate the chicken with ginger garlic paste, salt, ½ tbsp. soya sauce, pepper powder, flour, corn flour, egg and keep aside for 15- 20 minutes.
Heat oil in a wok and fry the chicken pieces till golden.
Keep them aside.
In a pan put orange juice, orange zest, and three types of sauces, honey, salt and 2 tbsp. oil from wok.
Switch on the gas and when it starts to bubble add chicken, capsicum (optional) and toss it.
All chicken should be coated with sauce.
Lastly add 1 tbsp corn flour with water (1tsp corn flour + 1tbsp water) and mix it.
Serve in a plate and sprinkle some chopped spring onion.
Serve hot with fried rice or noodles.

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

Chettinad Chicken

14:04 by Sumana1 comment
Chettinad chicken is the classic Indian chicken curry recipe originated from the Chettinad region of India. The specialty of Chettinad cuisine is the use of freshly ground masalas. 

Ingredients:

Chicken- 750gms
Chopped onion - 3 medium
Ginger-garlic paste - 1tsp
Tomato puree - 1tbsp
Curry leaves - 10/12 pcs
Salt
Turmeric powder- 1tsp
Red chilli powder- 1tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Garam masala powder - 1tsp
For masala:
Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
Clove - 4/5
Cinnamon - 2 inches
Cardamom - 4/5
Poppy seeds - 1tsp
Fennel seeds - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Coriander seeds - 1tsp
Dry red chilli - ¾
Ginger - ½ inch
Garlic - 2 cloves
south Indian chicken curry named chettinad chicken
Chettinad Chicken

Recipe:

Marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, ½ tsp turmeric and 1tsp red chilli powder.
In the meantime take a pan and dry roast all spices.
Roast very carefully otherwise coconut will burn, roast till it turns golden.
Now put all the roasted spices in a blender and blend very well. You can add little water if needed. Keep aside when done.
Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion, fry it till golden.
Then add tomato puree and mix it. 
Add the roasted spice mix and remaining turmeric powder and stir it very well till oil comes out.
Now add marinated chicken and mix well with the spices.
Add salt and garam masala powder.
Add water and cover with a lid for 10-15 minutes till the chicken becomes tender.
Serve with rice, naan or anything that you like.



Monday, 15 January 2018

Chicken Biriyani

13:55 by Sumana1 comment
Chicken Biryani, the most famous dish of India. It is difficult to find an Indian who does not like Biryani, either veg or non veg. In India there are different gharanas (style) of this Mughlai dish - Hyderabadi Biryani, Lakhnowi Biryani, Kolkata Biryani, Konkani Biryani. Being  a Bengali, I love Kolkata Biryani the most. The aroma of Kewra water, mitha ator always make me hungry. And of course the use of potato J. But I stayed in Hyderabad for some years, so Hyderabadi Biryani is also very close to my heart. In Hyderabad also there are many styles of Biryani - spicy and non spicy like the famous Paradise.

Personally, me and my husband are so fond of Biryani that we can eat it any time. But as I am currently staying out of country, it is very difficult to get tasty yummy Biryani like Kolkata or Hyderabad. I tried making Biryani quite a lot of time with many recipes that I got from my mother, friends or from other numerous sources. But the current version of my recipe is so easy yet tasty that it has made it a instant hit at home and party that almost every friend who tasted this has asked for the recipe. This recipe is so easy and time saving that anyone can try this. I would call this a bachelors recipe.
Easy chicken biryani recipe
Chicken Biriyani

Ingredients:

Chicken - 4/5 big pieces
Basmati rice - 2 cups
Sliced onion - 1 big
Chopped onion - 1 medium
Ginger-garlic paste -1tbsp
Yogurt - 2tbsp
Garam masala powder - 1tsp
Chopped tomato - 1 small
Biriyani masala - 3 tbsp
Salt
Turmaric powder - 1tsp
Chilli powder - 2tsp
Chopped coriander leaves - 1cup
Yellow colour - 1 pinch
Cloves - 4/5
Cardamom - 4/5
Cinnamon - 4/5
Caraway seeds - 1tsp
Oil - 1 cup
Ghee - 1tsp
Rose water - 2 tsp
Kewra water - 2 tsp

Recipe:

Marinate the chicken with 1 tbsp Biriyani masala,1 tbsp yogurt, 2 tsp ginger garlic paste and 1tsp chilli powder, garam masala powder for 1 hour and keep aside.
Cook the rice with all whole spices and ghee and a pinch of salt in a handi, cook till 80% and drain out the water with a strainer.
Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the onion slices till golden brown and keep in the absorbent paper to soak out extra oil.
Now take a heavy bottom pot and put the oil in which you fried the onion.
Now put chopped onion and fry it till it becomes transparent. Then add  remaining ginger garlic paste and fry it for 1 minute.
Add marinated chicken and stir it.
Add remaining yogurt and chilli powder, chopped tomato, turmaric powder and salt. Add extra salt at this stage which will be adjusted with rice later. No need to add salt in the rice later.
Mix it very well and add remaining Biriyani masala and mix.
Add 1 tbsp coriander leaves and add little water to cook the chicken till soft.
In the mean time, sprinkle some yellow colour in the rice and shake the handi with lid on, as a result rice will be coloured little yellow and little white.
When the chicken is soft and gravy is thick and almost dry, switch off the gas.
Now divide the chicken in 2 portions and keep one portion in the same pot.
At the time of layering, add rice to cover the chicken and sprinkle some beresta or fried onion, chopped coriander leaves and both types of water 1tsp each.
Repeat the same layering method with chicken, rice, fried onion- coriander leaves-rose and kewra water.
Now take foil paper and cover the pot tightly and put a heavy lid.
Lastly, keep this pot again on gas in extremely low flame for 5 minutes.

Your Biriyani is now ready. Enjoy your meal with raita or salad.

Sunday, 10 December 2017

Fish Chop

07:54 by Sumana2 comments
Bengalis are fond of different type of chops - aloor choop (potato fritters), onion fritters, vegetable chop, dimer chop or egg devil, fish chop or macher chop etc. Hot chops and tea with a group of friends and relatives is the ideal way of spending evenings after a hard working day or even after a lazy afternoon siesta on holidays. Fish has a special place in Bengali cuisine. So it is obvious there will be fish chops when we are discussing various types of chops from Bengali food habits. Fish fry can again be of many types and is made of different types of fish. Today I would like to share my recipe of fish chop that I made on a chilly winter when a couple of my friends came to visit our place. This is prepared with a normal fish.

To make it clear to all, fish chop is different from fish fry. See the different type of fish fry recipes from my blog.

Ingredients:

Ruhu or katla fish – 10 pcs
Chopped onion – 2 medium
Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tsp
Chopped green chilli – 1tsp
Chopped coriander leaves – ½ cup
Salt
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Bread crumbs – 200 gms
Egg – 1
Red chilli powder – 10 pcs
Cumin seeds – 2 tbsp
Cloves – 10 pcs
 Green cardamoms – 10 pcs
Cinnamon – 2 inches
Bread without side – 4-5 pcs
Regular flour – ¾ tbsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Oil for deep-frying

Recipe:

  1. Marinate the fish pieces and boil it till cook.
  2. In a pan dry roast the whole spices like cumin seeds, dry red chilli, green cardamoms, cloves and grind it. Grind it till it becomes like powder and keep aside with a lid for aroma.
  3. Now take the boiled fish and smash it. At this time remove the skin and bones.
  4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and put the chopped onion and sauté it.
  5. Remove from heat and add the fish. Then add ginger-garlic paste, chopped green chilli, coriander leaves and salt and mix it.
  6. Now add bread slices and mix it very gently. These bread slices help to bind the dough.
  7. Then add the powdered spices and mix very well to make a dough.
  8. Make some balls from this dough and give shape as per your choice, I made here oval shape.
  9. Take a bowl and beat an egg with a pinch of salt.
  10. Take some regular flour in a plate and roll each chop to coat with flour.
  11. Now dip the flour coated balls into beaten egg.
  12. Take bread crumbs in a flat plate and role all the balls nicely, make sure all balls coated nicely with crumbs.
  13. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying and fry them till golden brown.
  14. Serve hot with salad and tomato sauce or kasundi (Bengali mustard sauce). I always prefer kasundi.

**If you want you can make the chops early and keep in refrigerator. Whenever you need just take it out of the refrigerator and fry them.
       **If you use regular flour, chops will consume less oil. Whenever you make any deep fried starter which will be coated with bread crumbs or anything else, try to coat them with flour first.

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Chicken Stew - A Healthy and Low Calorie Kids Friendly Recipe

22:39 by SumanaNo comments

Stew is a very healthy dish which is a combination of meat and vegetables. This dish is cooked slowly in a close dish or pan and contains lots of liquid. This healthy dish has a very tamping taste yet good for calorie conscious people. Generally most of the seasonal vegetables like carrots, beans, potato, tomato, green papaya are combined with meat. This is very easy digestive for all.

Stew has been made since the ancient period. The evidence of preparing stew was found in several old civilizations thousands of years ago.

Soup and stew have a very little difference. Soup is more liquid than stew. Stew requires longer time than soup. Soup has smaller pieces of vegetables and meat and stew has larger pieces. Generally soups are always served in bowl and stews are served in a plate because of thickness.

I have made this dish ….. combination of chicken and vegetables, especially for my baby but we also liked this. I learned this recipe from my mother, but made some changes from her recipe. I don’t like to use turmeric powder. I think if I use that powder the stew will lose the beauty.  My grandfather had also made an awesome chicken stew….and that was really awesome. J Find below recipe of the chicken stew which is my all-time favorite.

healthy low calorie chicken stew with vegetables for kids
Chicken Stew

Ingredients for chicken stew:

Chicken – 500 gms
 Onion slices - 1 medium
Ginger paste – 1 tsp
Potato – 2 medium
Carrot – 1 pc
Green papaya – ¼th of medium size
French beans – 7-8 pcs
Chopped tomato – 1 pc
Crushed black pepper – 1 tsp
Green cardamom – 4-5 pcs
Cloves – 4-5 pcs
Cinnamon – 1 inch
Bay leaf – 1-2 pcs
Salt
Sugar
Butter – 1 tbsp

Recipe of chicken stew:

Cut all vegetables into medium pieces. We need vegetable and chicken to be of same size as this will enhance the taste of stew.
Now take a pressure cooker and put butter. When butter will starts melting put the whole spices, such as cardamom, clove, cinnamon, bay leaf and crushed black pepper. After a few moments, add sliced onion and sauté it. Then add chopped tomato and ginger paste and mix it. After that add chicken and vegetables and mix it. Then add salt and add a pinch of sugar. Mix it and add 2-3 cups of water (according to the thickness you need) and cover the cooker with lid. Then cook the chicken stew in a low flame for 10-12 minutes or 4-5 whistles.
Now your chicken stew is ready. Serve with roti, bread or rice also.


Friday, 6 March 2015

Fish Kabiraji Cutlets

23:35 by Sumana1 comment
Fish kaviraji cutlet is a very mouthwatering snack and is very popular in Bengal. Actually Bengali occasions are incomplete without any form of fish fry. It can be better fish fry, fish kabiraji, topse fry or fish cutlet. This Bengali style fish fry is called Fish Kabiraji Cutlet. This cutlet has a specialty that is the cutlet is wrapped by egg which is very crunchy and has no specific shape. It is specially made by fillets of Bhetki fish or any boneless fish. But obviously nothing compares the taste of Bhetki. Even if you are a calorie conscious person, you will forget about calories once you taste this kabiraji cutlet.

This type cutlet is crispy but not very hard like other type of cutlets. This is a medium version of fish batter fry and fish cutlet.

When I was child I had tasted it for the first time in a marriage ceremony. After that I have tried it so many times in various occasions but still, the first tried kabiraji is very nostalgic to me for its taste. I am a fish lover like other Bengali. I love every types of fish preparation but fish kabiraji is very special.  The aromas of fish fry attracts me so much that wherever and whenever I get the aroma, I start filling hungry. J
bengali style kaviraji fish cutlet
Fish Kabiraji Cutlet

Ingredients for fish kabiraji:

Fish fillets – 4 pieces
Egg – 4
Ginger paste – 1tsp
Garlic paste – 1tsp
Onion paste – 2 tbsp
Lemon juice – 1tsp
Salt
 Black pepper powder
Soda bai carb – 1 pinch
Bread crumbs
White oil

How to make fish kabiraji:

Marinate the fish lemon juice, onion paste, ginger-garlic paste, pepper powder and salt. Keep aside for sometimes like 30-45 minutes.

Now take a flat plate and spread the bread crumbs. Then coat the fish fillets one by one and keep aside.

Take a bowl and beat one egg with salt, pepper powder and a pinch of soda bai carb.
Heat a wok and take enough oil to deep fry.

Now put a fish into the hot oil and fry it. When the colour is changed, spread some beaten egg with your fingers or a spoon. As a result you will see that your cutlet will get a wrapper. Many bubbles will form due to egg. Flip off the cutlet with a spatula and spread some egg in same way on the other side. When this egg portion turns golden, remove from the oil and keep it on a paper napkin. Then serve it with some green salad and tomato ketch up or kasundi (a Bengali style mustard sauce).
It is always served hot.

Sometimes I have seen some recipe with rice flour instead of egg. But I have never tried it. This is the other way to make crispy kabiraji. But somehow I think that rice powder cannot give same crispiness like egg. And obviously this is my own opinion.


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