Bele macher gravy with Mustard paste

Bela Mach (বেলে) is named as Scribbled Goby Fish in English. The recipe which I,m going to share with you is "Bele macher gravy with Mustard paste", which is a very tasty, low spicy fish dish from Bengal. Bengalis are very much affectionate on fish and rice and this is why a proverb has become very much famous for them – "Mache Bhate Bangali" and they are very much expert and master in cooking fish in different ways. In Bengal, you will find lot of varieties of fish in any market you visit, such as Rahu, Katla, Tangra, Parse, Chingri, Ilish, Puti and many more. Bele Mach is also one of the most common available fish in the market. Basically the size of the fish starts from small to medium with small fine scales on their body and they are sweet water fish, but it is also found in sea water. The tasty one is which comes from sweet water. This recipe is being prepared with the use of very less ingredients - mustard seed paste, green chilli, chopped onions and little bit of turmeric powder.

I would like you to try this recipe at your home and have it with steamed rice. I bet you will love the taste of it and please do share with me how you feel about this recipe.

BELE MACHER GRAVY WITH MUSTARD PASTE

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

Bele Fish – 8

Onion – 1 medium, chopped

Slit Green Chilli – 4 to 5

Green Chilli – 2 to 3

Black Cumin seeds – 1/4th tbsp.

Turmeric powder – ½ tbsp.

Salt – as per taste

Black Mustard seed paste – 4 tbsp

Mustard oil

Preparation:

Wash the mustard seeds with cold water and drain the water. Keep aside.

Wash and clean the fishes. Marinate them with salt and turmeric powder for 15 minutes.

During this time, make the smooth mustard seeds paste adding green chilli (2 to 3).

Take a pan, heat oil (5 to 6 tbsp), shallow fry the fish pieces. Keep them aside. Here I must give you a small tips – if the fishes are fresh, then don’t fry tem too much as they will become hard and the spices what you use, will not enter properly inside the fishes.

Now, in the same pan, add some more mustard oil (3 tbsp) and heat the oil.

Add black cumin seeds, then after few seconds add chopped onion, fry them till the onions become golden brown.

Add turmeric powder, slit green chilli, fry for a minute.

Add water (1/2 cup), and then add mustard seed/green chilli paste. Mix them all.

Allow the mixture to boil.

Then place the fried fished very slowly one by one in the pan, as this fishes are very soft.

Put the flame in low and the lid of the pan, keep cooking for 10 to 12 minutes, so that the gravy goes well inside the fishes.

So, your effort making “Bele Macher Gravy with Mustard paste” ends here.

Serve this with steamed rice.

Sweet Flatten Rice Pulao

Flatten Rice is made of rice, which is mainly popular In West Bengal, but people from other parts of Indian also use it to make verious kind of preparations. Pulao - a very well known recipe in India and is made off either Basmati Rice, Gobindobogh Rice or any scented rice and Rice is being the main ingredient of Pulao recip.
In our childhood days my mother used to make an excellent breakfast preparation which still remains as favorite breakfast in this grown up days also. Instead of rice, in this recipe my mother use flatten rice as the main ingredient and rest of the ingredients are almost same as rice pulao. 
The recipe which I'm going to share with you is very much similar to the Yellow Pulao recipe - one of the popular, famous and favourite recipes for Bengalis.
Last Sunday, I was joggling my mind about what to do on breakfast for my kids and immediately my mother remind me about the recipe which we call it - "Sweet Faltten Rice Pulao". This was prepared after a long days and you won't believe, my kids were so satisfied and happy to have this superb recipe.  

SWEET FLATTEN RICE PULAO

Servings: 4  to 5
Ingredients:

Flatten Rice (Chire) - 250 gms
White Oil - 1/2 cup
Clerified Oil - 1/4 cup
Potato - 1 cup, cut into cubes
Beans - 1/4th cup, finely chopped
Carrot - 1/4th cup, chopped
Cashew Nuts - 1/2 cup, broken into half
Raisin - 1/4 th cup, wash and soaked in water for 15 minutes
Bay leaves - 3
Cinnamon - 1" size x 2 pieces
Green Cardamom - 8 to 10
Cloves - 4 to 5
Salt - as per taste
Sugar - 1/4th cup

Preparation:

Clean and cut the potatoes into small cubes.
Wash the flatten rice in water for 3 to 4 times and drain water as much as you can. keep aside. No need to soak the flatten rice.

In a pan, heat white oil, add potatoes, chopped beans, chopped carrot. Fry for few minutes till the veggies become tender.
Once the veggies become tender, add cashew nuts, bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves. Fry for a minute in low flame, then add sugar and cook till the sugar melts.
Then add washed chira or flatten rice on it and mix well with all the ingredients. Add salt and mix them all. Remember, your oven flame should be in low and you should stir them frequently to avoid sticking. 
Slowly add ghee from all sides of the pan. Mix well slowly.
Fry them for 6 to 7 minutes.
Switch off the oven. Your Sweet Flatten Rice Pulao is ready to serve.

Chicken Dry Fry

Chicken Dry Fry is a great recipe and delicious also with lot of spices but with sticky gravy. In this recipe I avoid using medium or big pieces of chicken as the masalas do not get into the chicken pieces, so I use small pieces. This is for me is the easiest recipe of chicken with great taste.

CHICKEN DRY FRY

Servings: 4 to 5

Ingredients:

Chicken – 750 gms, cut into small pieces
Tomato – 2, finely chopped
Onion – 2, finely chopped
Ginger/ Garlic Paste - 2 tbsp
Curd - 1 cup
Green chillies - 3
Curry Leaves – 1 small bunch stem

Garam Masala powder - 1 and 1/2 tbsp
Chicken Masala powder - 1 tbsp
Red Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tbsp

Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
Salt – as per your taste

Mustard Oil – 3 to 4 tbsp

Preparation:

Clean and wash the chicken pieces. I prefer to cut the chicken into small pieces. You can cut as per you want. Make sure you drain all the water from the chicken pieces after cleaning, else plenty of water will come out while you cook the chicken and it will spoil your effort.

Add half  cup of curd and ginger/garlic paste with the chicken pieces and marinate for 1 hour by keeping it in the refrigerator. 

Marinated Chicken

After 1 hour take out the marinated chicken from the freeze and allow the temperature to come down at room temperature.

Heat oil in pan. Add curry leaves, green chilli, chopped onions and tomatoes. Fry them all for few minutes till the tomatoes and onions get properly cooked.

In a bowl take rest of the curd,, add chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, chicken masala powder and mix them well with the curd. Pour the curd masalas mixture into the pan and mix well altogether. Fry for a minute till the masalas cooked well.

Then add marinated chicken into it, mix well.

Add very little water, not more than half cup. Remember if you see water is coming out from the chicken, then you don't need to add extra water.

Mix well in medium flame and cook the chicken till the gravy gets dry.

Once the gravy gets dry, your Chicken Dry Fry is ready to serve.

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Phaldari Veg Sheek Kebabs

Today I will share a unique Phaldari Veg Sheek Kebabs, which is a vegetable sheek kebabs, Green Bananas are to be boiled and removed from the water, as if you keep them into the water, it will absorb lot of moisture. After separating the skin, soak the bananas with the help of a cloth, grate the bananas and with different spices and finely chopped veggies. Remember, if you add whole corns without chopping them finely it would create problems for you to make the kebabs.

PHALDARI VEG SHEEK KEBABS

Servings: 4 to 5

Ingredients:

Green Bananas – 2

Green Chiili – 2 tbsp, finely chopped

Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp, finely chopped

Cumin powder – ½ tbsp, dry roast the cumin seed and make the powder

Fresh Corn – ½ cup, finely chopped

Carrot – 1/4^th cup, finely chopped

Raisin – 3 tbsp, finely chopped

Beans – 1/4^th cup

Cashew nut – 23 tbsp, crushed

Paneer – ½ cup, grated
Butter - 1/2 tbsp

Garam Masala – ½ tbsp.

Chilli powder – 1 tbsp

Chat Masala – 1 tbsp

Rice Flour – 1/4^th cup

Salt – as per taste

Can use any vegetables you like, but make sure you use it raw, or if you boil, them remove the moisture completely.

Preparation:

Grate the bananas.

Mix all the ingredients and knead it as you are making a dough. Mix continuously for more than 5 minutes to make a fine, soft dough.

Now, add grated paneer and butter. The benefit of mixing paneer and butter is to make the kebabs soft and juicy. Check my Video Presentation to understand properly. 

To check this, you can take little bit of the mixture and press this with your hand to make any shape. If the shape remains and doesn’t crack, then it is done.

Still if you think, there is moisture, you can add little bit of maida (wheat flour) as it absorbs the extra moisture.

Once your mixture is ready, spread the mixture equally on the skewers or sheeks and press lightly them from top and bottom to make a nice kebabs shape.

You can dip your palm in water to do the shaping.  

Then slowly pull the kebabs out of the skewers and place them in medium hot oil for shallow fry.

Once the Phaldari Veg Sheek Kebabs is ready, sprinkle some chat masala and add lemon juice on it.

Serve hot with green chutney or red chilli garlic chutney.

Phaldari Veg Sheek Kebabs (Video)

Here in this short video presentation I have tried to explain the benefits of adding grated paneer and butter into the kebab mxture. For detail of Phaldari kebab preparation check the recipe.

Sweet Palm Fruit Vadas

Palm fruit has been found in many forms specially in India and in other Asian counutries.. During early summer palm seeds are being sold throughout the market and in late summer the riped palm fruit is available which is juicy with fibrous outer layer. Palm fruit is healthy and rich in vitamins – like A, B, C and also full of minerals as – potassium, iron, calcium, phosphorous and zinc.  

The palm juice is used to make pancakes, sweets, kheer, snacks (vadas) and many more and Bengalis are expert in preparing many verities from the yellowish juice that is obtained from the ripe palm fruit. 

Bengalis are expert of making various sweet dishes from the yellowish fluid or juice obtained from ripe palm fruit. The only tough thing is to get the juice out of the kernels, but it is worth doing this hard work as you will really enjoy the taste on every bite of this Sweet Palm Fruit Bora. 

Amongst all other recipes the famous preparations are Taler Bora or Vada (তালের বড়া), or Taalkheer (তাল ক্ষীর), which is basically a combination of palm fruit juice with milk and sugar.

SWEET PALM FRUIT VADAS

Servings: 8 to 10

Ingredients:

Ripe Palm Fruit - 1

Sugar - 1 cup, or as per your taste

Flour - 2 cups

Mustard Oil - for deep frying

Preparation:

Take out the top portion of the palm fruit. The brown skin to be peeled off to get the yellow ripened fibrous layer. Now separate the kernels (edible center within the hard shell), normally you will find 3 to 4 kernels.

Soak them in water for 1 hours, to make the kernels juicy and it also helps you to remove the juice.

To remove the juice, squash the kernels on any hard plastic or metal plate with lot of holes in it, keeping a bowl below the plate. So when you start rubbing the kernel on the plate, the juice will easily come out and gather in the bowl.

Once the juice is collected, add flour, sugar into the juice. Mix them well by stirring continuously with your hand. Check the consistency of the mixture as it should be thick enough, if not then use some more flour as the mixture should have dropping consistency. Taste it, add sugar if required. To check the consistency see my video.

Heat sufficient mustard oil in a deep thick bottomed frying pan.

Drop the mixture with a spoon, or best you can use your hand to make small round vadas.

Deep fry them properly till they becomes deep brown. Remove them and keep them on paper towel to soak extra oil

Enjoy the Sweet Palm Fruit Vadas. You can keep this vadas for 3 to 4 days without refrigeration. 

Indian Hog Plum Sweet Pickles

In Bengali we call it "Amra" and in English it is known as Hog Plum. The pulp of this fruit can be eaten fresh or can be be used to make juices, jelly, pickles. Also the leaves,bark, juice and roots are commonly used to make medicines for various treatments.

Today I will share with u a unique pickle recipe from Hog Plum. For Indians pickles and chutneys plays an important role amongst all food items. Amra is only available during summer, hence you need to preserve it through pickles, chutneys, jam and jelly.

INDIAN HOG PLUM SWEET PICKLES

Ingredients:

Ripe Hog Plums (amra)- 250g

Molasses – 4 to 5 tbsp

Salt – as per taste

White oil – 2 tbsp

Garlic paste – 1 tbsp

Green Chilies – 2 or 3, finely chopped

Dried Mango powder – ½ tbsp

Preparation:

Clean and wash the ripe hog plums.

Put them in a pan with water, so that water covers the plums and cook till they become soft. I boil for 3 to 4 minutes which is sufficient for ripe plum. If u use green hog plum then you need to boil for 6 to 7 minutes.  

Allow it to cool down completely.

Remove the skin from the plums with your fingers and squeeze the plums to take out the juice, leaving the pit behind. Now, put the juice in a blender to make a fine paste. Remove the paste from the blender and keep it a separate bowl.

Add salt, molasses and dried mango powder into the juice, stir well. Taste once just to adjust the seasoning to your taste. Keep it aside.

For tempering, take white oil in a pan and heat the oil.

Add the garlic paste and let it sauté till it turns to light golden brown.

Once it is done, add the green chilies and fry for a few seconds and pour this tempering on the

Pour the tempering on the Hog Plum juice.

Serve immediately with kebabs, parathas or any snacks or you can also store it in a clean dry airtight jar and refrigerate for a week.

Chicken Sheek kebabs

Sheek Kebabs can be made with any kind of meat. You can make it with lamb meat, beef, chicken or any kind of meat. Please do remember, moisture is the enemy of any kind of kebabs. So, remove moisture as much as you can from the meat. Secondly, the most important thing to make kebabs is to add fat. If you add fat to your minced meat, it is going to be juicy, otherwise the kebabs will become dry. So, do not use lean meat, the best way is to cut the chicken pieces and then add extra fat into the chicken pieces, so when you blend the meat, the fat is helps to make the kebabs juicy. Another important part is that, to make a fine smooth paste, you need to add the ingredients in dry state.

The beautiful part of this chicken mince mixture is that you can use it in Koftas or turn this mixture to make burger or in many other ways.

So, today I will brief you about Chicken Sheek Kebabs.

CHICKEN SEEKH KEBABS

Servings: 5 to 6

Ingredients:

Chicken (boneless) – 250 g, with extra fat

Garlic – 5 to 6 cloves

Ginger – 1 inch size

Garam Masala powder – ½ tbsp

Coriander powder – ½ tbsp
Chilli Flakes - ½ tbsp

Fried Onions – ½ cup

Cheese – ¼ th cup, grated

Green Chilli – 1 tbsp, finely chopped

Coriander Leaves – 2 tbsp, finely chopped

Egg – 1

Salt – as per taste

Olive oil – for greasing
Metal or Bamboo Skewer – 2 to 3

Preparation:

In a bowl add all the ingredients, expect egg, salt and oil. Mix all the ingredients.

Put the mixture in a mincer and mince for once.

Take out the half minced chicken mixture and put them in a bowl, add salt, half of egg (full egg can be added if you increase the chicken quantity). Mix well altogether. The reason of adding egg is mainly because of making the chicken mince juicy.

Again put the mixture into the mincer and mince once more to make a smooth fine paste. Remember, other than chicken, for lamb or beef, you need to mince at least 3 times to get the fine paste.

Take the skewers, grease it with olive oil, with spread equal amount of chicken mince mixture on the skewers, press them lightly from top and bottom to make a nice shape of kebabs.

Put them into the micro oven in grill mode at maximum temperature for 15 minutes.

Remove them from the oven and turn it to other side and again put them in the oven for few minutes or you can use outdoor barbeque grill till it is properly done.

For those, who do not have skewers or seekh in their home, we have the solution for this to make the same juicy tasty kebabs.

Take a wooden or metal spoon, apply little bit of oil on it and spread chicken mince nicely on the narrow rod like area, press from top and bottom to make a good shape.

Pull them out form the spoon carefully and place them slowly into the hot oil for deep frying.

Remember, as this kebabs cook really fast, so you need not to fry for longer time.

Now, sprinkle some kebab masala over the kebabs and add lime juice.

Serve this juicy, yummy Chicken Sheek kebabs with red chilli garlic sauce.

Tips: 

To make Chilli Flakes, you need to take 10 to 12 dry red chilli. Remove the stems and the seeds and add them into a blender. Blend them well. Your Chilli Flakes is ready. You can preserve it in a air-tight jar.  

If you are using the Bamboo Skewers, you need to soak the skewers in water at least for half an hour.

If your Chicken mince gets little bit soft and holding your seekhs or skewers, then add some bread crumbs (not too much), mix them nicely. The bread crumbs will immediately absorb the extra moisture. But usually bread crumbs is not used to prepare sheek kebabs. It is only used if you go wrong with the proportion of ingredients or mixture. 

Mixed Veggie Pops

This is another popular snack. This Mixed Veggie Pops is readily available in fast food outlets, but today I will share with you the process of making this pops in home and that too without using eggs. For Cheese Veggie pops without eggs, which is very simple to make it at home. Add and mix grated cheese once the veggie mixture becomes cool. The rest of the process to make the pops is same and you need to just follow as explained.

Servings: 4 to 5
Ingredients:

Carrot - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Beans - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Green Peas - 1/2 cup, finely cut
Corn - 1/2 cup,
Pointed Gourd (Parwal, potol) - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Cabbage - 1 cup, finely chopped, boil for few minutes, strain the water
Coriander Leaves - 1/2 cup, chopped
Spinach - 1 cup, finely chopped (optional)
Cauliflower - 1/2 cup
Green Chilli - 2 tbsp, finely chopped
Oregano - 1 and half tbsp
Black Pepper powder - 1 and half tbsp
Semolina (suji) - 1/2 cup
Curry powder - 1 tbsp
Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Bread Crumbs - 1 cup
Salt - as per taste
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Oil - 3 tbsp (for frying veggies)
Oil - for deep frying
Cheese - 1 cup, grated

Preparation:

Take a pan, heat oil, add veggies (carrot, beans, green peas, corn, pointed gourd, cabbage, coriander leaves, cauliflower) and green chilli one by one, saute for 2 minutes

Add pinch of salt, oregano, pepper powder, chopped spinach, Cook for few minutes in low flame by covering the lid of the pan.

Once the veggies are cooked, add semolina and add water very slowly and mix them continuously. For 1/2 cup of semolina you can add 1 cup of water. Mix them well and cook it for few minutes in low flame and then add sugar, mix, so that the mixture will become as like as dough.
Add curry powder, mix well, in low flame for few seconds.

Switch off the flame.

Allow the mixture to become cool. Here, at this point, you can add grated cheese to make Cheese Veggie Pops.

Sprinkle little flour on the top of the mixture and slowly mix them, as this will absorb any extra moisture. Now make the dumplings out of the mixture.

Now you need to seasoned your flour by adding salt and bread crumbs (1/4th cup), mix them well.

Drop in all the veggie dumplings into the seasoned flour to coat them.

Put all the coated dumplings on a mesh and dip them in the boiling water for few seconds and remove them and again put them into te seasoned flour, roll them for coating.

Again, do the same thing by dipping the dumplings in the boiling water. Remove them and now put all the dumplings on the bread crumbs only and coat them nicely with the bread crumbs and they get slightly crispy.

Once the dumplings are coated nicely, drop them one by one in hot oil. Deep fry them till the Mixed Veggie Pops become golden brown in clour.

Remove them, serve hot with sauce, imli chutney, green chutney, red chiili garlic chutney and enjoy.  

Spicy Aloo Boonda

Aloo Boonda is a very famous and typical South Indian snack. Boonda comes in two major verieties - Sweet and Spicy. The swetter version of Aloo Boonda is popular in Gujrat and the spicy version is called Batata Vada in Maharastra and in South Indian it is called Aloo Boonda. The process of making this Spicy Aloo Boonda involves deep frying, mashed potato mixture coated with gram flour or besan.

SPICY ALOO BOONDA

Servings: 4 to 5
Ingredients:

Potato - 3 medium, mashed
Cashew Nuts - 3 tbsp, broken into small pieces
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
Ginger - 1 tbsp, finely chopped
Green Chilli - 2 tbsp, finely chopped
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp, finely chopped
Curry leaves - 2 tbsp, finely chopped
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Onion - 1 medium, sliced
Fennel seeds - 1 tbsp, rub with your hands
Lime juice - 2 tbsp
Salt - as per taste
Oil - 3 to 4 tbsp
Gram Flour (besan) - 250 g
Carom seeds (ajwain) - 1 and half tbsp, rub well by your hands
Baking powder - 1/4 th tbsp
Rice flour - 1/4th cup

Preparation:

Peal Potatoe, Boil them and mashed them, keep them aside.

Heat Oil in a pan, add broken cashew nuts, fry them for a minute till they become golden brown. Remove them and keep aside.

In the same oil, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Fry the for few seconds.

Then add chopped ginger, green chilli, coriander and curry leaves. Fry them for a minute.

Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and then sliced onions. Don't fry the onions too much.

Add pre-fried cashew nuts, fennel seeds, salt. Mix well together.

Add mashed potatoes and mix potatoes with the spice mixture. Cook the mixture for 3 to 4 minutes.

Before removing the mixture add lemon juice, mix well.

Switch off the oven and allow the mixture to become cool.

Once the mixture becomes cool, divide the mixture equally to make round balls or as per shape u like. Keep them aside.

Prearation of Batter:

In a bowl take besan and add carom seeds, baking powder, chilli powder and salt. Mix them altogether. Add rice flour to make the Boonas crispy.

Add water slowly to make a semi solid batter.

Once the batter is made, dip the mixture balls into the batter and deep fry them in pre-heat oil till the Boonda become golden brown.

Sreve this Spicy Aloo Boonda with mustard sauce, green chutney, imli chutney or any sauce.