Salad Decoration

[After noticing that my earlier post on salad decoration attracted the maximum views, I decided to write this post]

In the pictures below, you can see that I designed different salad plates using the same ingredients.
I used easily available everyday vegetables such as cucumber,carrots,tomato,lemon and chillies [red and green] for this decoration. It is a very basic decoration. Everybody can decorate their salad plates in this way. You have to use your creativity and display a little bit of knife skills [for giving shapes to cucumbers and tomatoes].

Notice carefully how I gave leaf shapes to the cucumber barks and and flower shapes to the tomatoes. Make some deep zig-zag cuts [as shown in the diagram below] in the middle of a tomato with a knife and at the end, you will get these flower shaped tomatoes.

[ Create zigzag lines like above in the middle of tomatoes] 

Here are some photos:









Notice carefully how I gave leaf shapes to the cucumber barks and and flower shapes to the tomatoes. Make some zig-zag lines in the middle of a tomato with a knife and at the end, you will get these flower shaped tomatoes.




These photos are from my earlier post on salad decoration:

Spicy Soya Nuggets Gravy

Although I love eating soya nuggets, { nutrela/ soya chunks}, somehow, I was not getting the right taste. But recently, I experimented with it and came out with some wonderful results. Here is my version of cooking this dish:

Ingredients:
Soya Nuggets, 1 small bowl,boiled
Make a paste from the following ingredients :
Using a grinder,make a paste from half piece of 1 big onion, 10 pods of garlic, 2 inch ginger and half of 1 big tomato
Chop the other half of the onion and the other half of the tomato and keep them aside.
1 green chili, chopped,
1 teaspoon of cumin/jeera powder
Half teaspoon of black pepper powder
Fresh coriander leaves,chopped [ optional]
A pinch of turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon of kashmiri mirch/red chili powder
A pinch of sugar
Whole cumin seeds
Salt to taste
Mustard Oil [ You can use refined oil too]

Method:
Boil the soya nuggets in water, with a pinch of cumin powder, black pepper powder, turmeric powder and salt until very tender. Now drain the entire water and add some oil and kashmiri red chili powder to the boiled soya nuggets, mix thoroughly and keep it in the fridge for 1 hour {or the whole day/overnight if you wish}.
Now, heat oil in a pan. Add some whole cumin seeds, followed by the chopped onions. After a minute or so, add the boiled soya nuggets and fry them for at least 5 minutes in medium heat. Now add the marinated paste, [which is made from onion+ginger+garlic+tomato]. Add the turmeric powder,salt,cumin powder, black pepper powder,sugar, chopped tomatoes and green chillies. Mix everything thoroughly. Keep frying for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, add some water[ say 4 tablespoon of water or more ]  and keep stirring with a spatula for 1 minute.  Now,lower the heat and cover the pan for 5 minutes. Finally, add the chopped coriander leaves. Mix well and your dish is ready.

Jute Leaf Fritters/ Pata Saak Pakoda

Jute plants are used to make pakodas too apart from making those lovely carpets, coasters and handbags !!! Again, I would say that the taste of jute leaves is divine -Sometimes, you fry them in oil with just some salt thrown in and sometimes, if you have a little more time in your hands, you can  make pakodas out of it.

Ingredients :
Jute leaves, separated from stalks and chopped finely
One medium sized onion,chopped finely
One green chili,chopped finely again,

One medium sized potato, chopped finely { optional}
Maida or Wheat flour
Half teaspoon of salt or as much required
A pinch of turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon of red chili powder
1/4 teaspoon of cumin/jeera powder
A pinch of baking powder {optional}
Water for making the batter, {use only one tablespoon of water }
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Separate the jute leaves from its stems. Now take a bunchful and chop them finely. Jute leaves tend to emit some sticky  liquid after being chopped. Therefore, you should squeeze out this sticky liquid from it as much as possible with your palms.
Next, make a batter using maida, water, salt, turmeric powder,red chilli powder, baking powder and cumin powder. Add the chopped potatoes, onions and green chillies and fold them into this batter using a spoon. Finally, add the chopped jute leaves into this batter.
Please add as little water as possible to the batter because water will come out of chopped onion, potato and jute leaves.

The batter should also have such a consistency that you are able to make some balls out of this mixture. If the batter is too liquidy, you would not be able to give round shape to these pakodas. In such a case , add more maida/flour to the batter.
Finally, deep fry them in hot oil.

Pumpkin Flower Fritters

I love to eat pumpkin flower fritters. These fritters are so tasty and so easy to make. These can go well as starters or as a side dish with any Indian meal.

The speciality about pumpkin flower fritters is that it is crunchy on the outside and very moist in the inside. And the taste is indescribable.

So, you should try this at home as often as possible.

Ingredients:
Pumpkin flowers, with stems-as many as you would like to eat !
A handful of Maida or Wheat Flour
half teaspoon of salt , or according to taste
A pinch of baking powder { optional}
A pinch of turmeric powder
A pinch of dry red chili powder {optional}
Water
Refined Oil for deep frying

Method:
In a bowl, mix maida {wheat flour } with a little water { as shown in the picture above }. Add salt, turmeric, baking powder and chili powder to this batter and mix well.
Meanwhile,heat oil in a pan and when it starts smoking, dip the pumpkin flower into this batter and fry them one at a time.

Many people use besan { gram flour } instead of maida, but I prefer maida over besan as I feel that the maida does not overpower the unique taste of pumpkin flower.

Ridge Gourd and Fried Eggs

When I was a kid, I faintly remember eating a green coloured dish at someone else's home.  The only recollection I had of the dish was that it was made of eggs but I didn't remember what other vegetables went into its preparation. I also forgot all about it until recently when I came across the exact looking dish in a recipe book.
Ok, now let me reveal to you the name of the dish: It is ridge gourd and fried egg.
The dish is simple but the taste is divine !

Ingredients:
1 medium sized tender ridge gourd,peeled and chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1 green chili,chopped,
1 medium sized onion, chopped
¼ teaspoon of turmeric powder
Half teaspoon of salt
Refined Oil for cooking
Method:
Heat oil in a pan. Add the chopped onions and after sometime, add the chopped ridge gourd and the green chilies . Add the salt and turmeric powder. Keep stirring the gourd for some time and cover if necessary. Keep cooking in low heat. Water will ooze out from the gourd. Let the gourd pieces  get cooked in this water.  When the gourd is almost done, add the beaten eggs to the pan. Mix the egg mixture and the gourd pieces with a spatula.
Be careful not to overcook either the gourd or the eggs.
I thought of presenting the dish in a unique way- So, I put it inside a paper cup, pushed it with a spoon and then turned the cup upside down in a plate. Look at the brilliant yellow and green colour-mouthwatering, isn't it ?

Masala Pomfret

I feel blessed to be in Calcutta. From my childhood days, I longed to be in Calcutta. I used to like its old Victorian-style buildings, its literature/books, its festivals, people, their lives and above all of these – its CUISINE!!!

 Bengali cuisine is one of the tastiest cuisines in India. It is very authentic in the sense that it is mostly free from the influence of other cultures. And do you know the funniest and the most interesting part of this cuisine culture ? Whoever you meet in your everyday life, right from your maid to the security guard of your apartment or even the vegetable vendors, they are always ready to offer you some advice or some unique methods of cooking a vegetable or a fish – and they feel happy to share their cooking secrets with you.  

Bengalis just cannot say no to fish.

So here I come today with one of the most popular fish-The Pomfret. The dish that I am going to make is Masala Pomfret. The speciality of this dish is that it is prepared by amalgamating both Indian and International ingredients.

Ingredients     :

Pomfrets                                   :           2

Olive Oil                                    :           4 Tbspoons

Capsicum                                  :           1

Onions  +Ginger+Garlic               :           Paste made out of 1 medium onion, 10 garlic pods, 2 inch ginger piece. Peel them and put them all together in a grinder.

Onion                                        :           1 onion chopped

Tomato Puree                            :           2 Tbspoons

Coconut Powder                         :           1 Tbspoon

Cumin Powder                           :           ½ Tea Spoon

Red Chili Powder                        :           ½ Tea Spoon

Lemon juice                               :           From a small lemon

Turmeric Powder                       :           ¼ Tea Spoon

Salt                                           :           As per taste

Kashmiri Mirch Powder               :           ½ Tea Spoon

Parsley                                      :           Small bunch

Preparation :

First we have to marinate the fish. For this, make a few slits on both sides of the fish as shown in picture. Now smear the fishes with a bit of lemon juice, salt, red chili powder and a bit of tomato puree. Use a spoon to make sure that marinades go inside the slits. Allow it to marinate for at least 20 minutes (do not keep it in fridge).  

Fry the fishes in olive oil till almost done. Keep them aside.

Heat oil in another pan and add chopped onions followed by chopped capsicums. Add the ginger+garlic+onion paste and mix everything thoroughly. After almost 5 minutes, add the cumin powder, turmeric powder and salt. Also add the tomato puree and Kashmiri Mirch powder and add some water for preparing the gravy. Simmer it for sometime in low flame.

Now add the coconut powder and mix everything thoroughly. Add the fried fishes in the gravy and add a little bit of water if necessary. Cover the pan with a lid and cook them in low flame. The fish will absorb all the spices and soften.

After 5-7 minutes, turn over the fishes and cook them for another 2 minutes in the gravy. Now you are done.

Sprinkle some chopped parsely over the gravy before removing from fire.

Serve it hot with warm rice.