“Sarat kal” – does that ring any bell? Of course it does. Other than the brilliant blue sky dotted with soft white clouds it’s that time of the year when you let go of all worries and enjoy the four days of Durga Puja. For our non-Bong friends, Sarat kal is the autumn season according to the Bengali calendar. Durga Puja, doesn’t only mean worshipping the goddess of feminine power, but a lot more – shopping before the puja, pandal hopping during the four days, and of course eating and eating and more eating.

I’m sure you all have left your health conscious souls at home and gorged on the wonderful street foods. I just can’t think about passing a puja without gulping on some phuchkas (fuchka) and biting on egg rolls. What’s your Puja special dish, do let us know?

Just after Durga Puja is Lakshmi puja. The goddess of wealth and well being is ushered to almost every Bengali household (though some people worship the goddess on Kali Puja day). This year Lakshmi Puja will be celebrated tomorrow.

After numerous calls, e-mails, wall posts and scraps from friends from all over the globe, I decided on posting something which is specially made for this occasion – murki and mowa (pronounced as moa).

Murki is made from a special variety of puffed rice called Khoi in Bengali and is mixed with molasses or gur. Mowa on the other hand can be prepared with Khoi, mudi or even chidde. Here’s how my mom prepares both these two sweet ambrosia. The basic method of preparation is the same.

Ingredients:

For murki:

½ kg of Puffed Rice (Khoi)

250gms of Molasses/ Jaggery (Gur)

Preparation:

• Start stirring the jaggery over low heat.
• As it turns sticky and sticks to the back of the ladle, take out of flame
• Pour of the khoi and mix well
• Keep aside in air tight container

For mowa:

• Take about 350gms of jaggery
• Mix the jaggery and khoi/muri/chidde together
• With the help of your palm make big balls
• Store in air tight containers

Mowa is still in the making, will put up the photo as soon as its done.

Don’t forget to have a copy of our Festive recipe e-book and the October calendar. And do send in your entries to the ongoing event Cooking with Seeds – Poppy, a brain child of Priya from Priya’s Easy and Tasty Recipes.

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Ask any Bengali what adda means, the answer will be unanimously a lazy evening, a large bowl of puffed rice and plate full of beguni. If you have never tested or tasted this pleasure, then you should do this evening. I am sure that the begunis bring out loads of more lost stories from your heart than you really intend to spill .

When I had posted a little note on the Cook Like a Bong Facebook fanpage requesting for entries as guest posts in our blog, Arundhuti from My Saffron Kitchen was the first to reply. I was more than happy to accept this offer from such a dear friend. Arundhuti is an excellent person and you can dig into her blog to have great ideas for your next meal.

A darling ally and a plate full of begunis, what more can I wish. Here’s the quick and easy recipe of beguni straight from Arundhuti’s kitchen.

Deep fried aubergine fritters

Ingredients:

• Eggplants (baingan) – 1 large, cut into thin slices
• Gram flour – 1 cup
• Refined flour – 1/4 cup
• Onion seeds – 1 tsp.
• Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp.
• Baking soda – 1/2 tsp.
• Salt as per taste
• Enough water to make a thick batter
• Oil for frying

Preparation:

• Mix together the gramflour, refined flour, onions seeds, red chilli powder, baking soda, salt and water.
• Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan. Lower the heat.
• Dip the eggplant pieces in the batter and then fry in hot oil till they are cooked and golden brown in colour.
• Drian excess oil and serve hot.

Read more at Arundhuti’s blog.

Further readings – Lotiya Vada, Macher dimer Vada (Roe fritters)

I have a good news to share with all of you. Palki, the only online Bengali magazine has recently published their 8^th edition. Some of the photographs clicked by me and Kalyan, and also a recipe (Titor dal) have been published in this edition.

I had been utterly busy with my assignments and classes. The exams are knocking at the door and loads and loads of syllabus to cover. But, the majority of the day am playing Farmville in FaceBook and may be a little of going through the texts. I have almost forgotten the route to our kitchen. This Khandvi recipe was in drafts for quite a long time now.

Khandvi is one of the typical Gujrati dishes that I just adore. It is a wholesome meal so as to say, with chickpea flour and sour curd and very little oil, Khandvi is just the best idea for those who are on diet and also for those of us who just love food.

Makes: 20 pieces
Cooking Time: 15 -20 minutes + 15 minutes for making into rolls
Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Makes: 20 -25 pieces
Cooking Time: 15 -20 minutes + 15 minutes for making into rolls
Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

Chickpea flour (Besan): 1 cup

Sour yogurt (Tauk doi): 1 cup

Water (Jal): 2 cups

Green chili paste (Kancha lanka bata): 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder (Halud guro): ¼ teaspoon

Mustard seed (Sarse): ½ teaspoon

Cumin seed (Jeera): ½ teaspoon

Curry leaves (Kari pata): 5-6

Grated coconut (Narkel kora): 2 tablespoons

Chopped coriander (Dhane pata): 2 tablespoons

Vegetable oil (Sada tel): 2 tablespoons

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Whisk the yogurt, water and chickpea flour.
• Add green chili and ginger paste, turmeric powder and salt. Whisk until well blended.
• Pour in the mixture in a non-stick pan and heat on low flame with constant stirring to prevent formation of lumps
• Continue till the mixture thickens , approximately for 10-15mins
• Spread the hot mixture on the back of a steel plate as thinly as possible, with a flat spatula (preferably wooden).
• When you have finished spreading the batter, allow it to cool a little and settle down.
• Cut the spread into 2 inch thick long strips, and try rolling these strips length wise
• Place the cut rolls on a serving dish.
• Heat oil in a wok
• Toss in mustard seeds, cumin seeds, wait till they start cracking; add the curry leaves
• Sprinkle the seasoning over the khandvi and garnish with coriander leaves and coconut.

Hot tips – You can also spread the chickpea flour mixture over a clean black stone table of your kitchen. Be patient while rolling the khandvis, because they tend to break.

Further Reading – Sabjimata’s Khandvi

Sending this tasty snacks to Festive snacks of Navratri & Diwali hosted by Indrani.

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“When people wore hats and gloves, nobody would dream of eating on the street. Then white gloves went out of style and, suddenly, eating just about anything in the street became OK.”

-          Jane Addison, quoted in the Great Food Almanac by Irena Chalmers

Street food in Kolkata epitomizes the pada (neighborhood) culture. Having something at the nearest roadside vendor is not only about eating and fulfilling ones gastronomic urges, but it is also a means of having food with family, friends and sometimes even strangers. Street foods that are in vogue are phuchka, jhal muri, papri chat, muri makha, vegetable chop, and beguni, but phuchka ranks above all. Someone from South Calcutta won’t find it a pain to travel all the way to Bowbazar (for the uninitiated in Calcutta’s geography, Bowbazar is almost an hour drive from South Calcutta) just to confront his friends that the phuchka wala at his pada is better than theirs.

Now, by “street food”, I don’t mean what one can get in the big or even the small restaurants, roadside food is that what you get from the makeshift stalls on the foot path of whole of Bengal. There are also other names for it in the different states of India. Some call it Pani Puri, some golgappa. But if you ask any Calcuttan he/she will say phuchka is definitely different from golgappa or panipuri. The difference may be obscure, probably it’s only the colloquial term that varies, but there is a little difference in one of the ingredients that significantly differentiates phuchka from all its synonyms. The vendors in Bengal use gandhoraj lebu (a typical lemon produced in suburbs of Bengal) to flavor the filling and the tamarind water of phuchka. And this is where all the difference is.

Kolkata street food is such a rage, that there are places in different part of India and even abroad holding “Calcutta street food festival”. When I started having phuchka, as far as I remember it was 5 for a rupee and the last time I had it back in Kolkata I got three for two rupees. Though here in Bangalore there are places where you get pani puri that almost tastes like those back in Kolkata, but are highly priced. Talking about phuchka, I can’t leave the phuckhwalas, people who sell the phuchka. They are mostly from Bihar/Jharkhand, and you just can’t beat them with their style of the phuchka preparation.

Cooking time: 8-10min

Preparation time: 12min

Makes 20 phuchka

Ingredients:

• Phuchka balls: 20
• Potato(Alu): 2 large
• Whole Bengal gram (Chola): 2 tablespoon, soaked
• Green chili (Kacha Lanka): 4, chopped finely
• Cumin (Jeera): 1 teaspoon, roasted and then grinded
• Lemon juice (Pati lebu ras): 1 teaspoon
• Cilantro (Dhane pata): Chopped to 2 tablespoon
• Tamarind pulp (Tetul): 4 tablespoon
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Boil the potatoes with the skin on, peel off after boiling and mash properly so that no lumps remain
• Add soaked bengal gram green chili, cumin powder, lemon juice, one tablespoon of cilantro to the mashed potato and mix well
• Take the tamarind pulp in a big bowl and add 2 cups of water to it with salt and the rest of the cilantro, mix well
• Add 2 tablespoon of the tamarind water to the mashed potatoes and keep the rest aside
• Break just the upper part of one phuchka ball and put in one teaspoon of the filling, fill the other balls also similarly
• Serve with the rest of the tamarind water

Phuchka with tamarind water

Hot Tips – Though not the basic component, you may also like to add some chopped onions to the filling to make it spicier.

Further Reading – Rasta Nasta, Sasta way, Crazy Street Food of Kolkata

Phuchka is the ideal recipe to send for the “Family Recipe” event at The Life and Loves of Grumpy Honey Bunch co-hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life.

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“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked” – Bernard Meltzer

The final recipe for the “Breakfast with eggs” series is Egg roll. I’ve posted six different easy to cook and quick egg recipes for the morning meal. Previous posts in the series:

1. Mughlai Paratha
2. French Toast
3. Scrambled Eggs
4. Banana Pancake
5. Boiled Egg Sandwich

But I just couldn’t finish the series without a little flavor from the street food of Calcutta (Kolkata). Though many different Asian countries claim for the origin of this dish and among them southern China has the most number of votes, but this particular preparation very well known to everybody who hails from Kolkata or even those who had a visit to the city is typically from the make shift stalls on Kolkata foot paths.

Egg rol

There was one such stall near my dance school called Iceberg (quite contradictory for a joint that sold everything hot), and every month it was a ritual for our gang of friends to have an egg roll from there. I still remember it cost just seven rupees then, but still that was quite expensive for a school-going girl like me. At home, outside food was a taboo and so I always had to cook some stories to have those egg rolls. But alas, eventually mom found out my secret and instead of scolding me I was offered with two egg rolls the next day at tiffin, of course prepared by my mom in her kitchen. School days have passed a long time ago, but I still can’t forget the taste of those road side egg rolls, though my mom’s were quite similar but not that good. My father suggested that the dirt from the road made it taste better.

The egg roll in Kolkata is similar to Frankie of Mumbai and resembles the kathi rolls prepared in many roadside stalls throughout India. Egg roll in Kolkata was probably first introduced by Nizam’s, a very popular restaurant in Kolkata serving Mughlai dishes. Another famous joint serving egg roll in Kolkata is Haji Saheb in Behala (Hazi Saheb for some), it’s my personal request, don’t miss it if you ever visit this place.

Preparation time: 10mins

Cooking time: 8mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat flour (Maida): 1 cup
• Eggs (Dim): 2
• Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium, chopped finely
• Cucumber (Sasha): one-half of a medium sized, julienned
• Green chili (Kacha lanka): 2, chopped
• Sunflower oil (Sada tel) for frying
• Salt to taste
• Tomato sauce for seasoning

Preparation:

• Knead the flour well and make two round paratha with it
• Beat the eggs with little salt
• Heat one tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and add one beaten egg to it, spread it so as to have almost the same diameter as the parantha
• Carefully place the parantha over the half fried omelet and allow it to cook for two more minutes, turn around the paratha and cook the other side for one minute and take out from the frying pan
• Place the egg covered paratha on a flat surface with the egg side up
• Add chopped cucumber, chilies and onion at the centre of the paratha to make the filling and pour the tomato sauce over the vegetables
• Roll the paratha and cover half of it with an aluminum foil or kitchen paper and tuck the paper well so that the roll doesn’t open up
• Serve hot with little lemon juice over the filling

Hot tips – You can put in a filling of mashed potatoes seasoned with chili powder and salt or even a filling with chicken or mutton kebab tastes great.

What variety of Egg Roll do you prefer?

Further reading – Nizam’s Kathi Roll, When in Kolkata, Egg Paratha

Nutrition calculator – 1 egg roll

Sending this to NTTC#5 event hosted by Sneh of Gel’s Kitchen.

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The tamarind paste and the green chilies mix to create an ecstatic smell of freshness, which I have never got from any dish I had. The spices make a brilliant hot and sour combination, and of course the potatoes and chickpeas add to the joy of having it. This evening when I was preparing the alu chaat, I am flown back to the stall just outside my school, and how I craved for the last bell to ring. I have had alu chaats in many different places, but still when I pass by that chaatwala I stop to commit the sin of having the same old alu chaat. Today my post is a tribute to the good times I spent with my friends in front of the chaat stall and the fear of getting caught by mom.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Potato (Alu): 2 large sizes

Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium size

Roasted cumin powder (Jeera guro): 1 teaspoon

Red Chili Powder (Sukhno Lankar guro): 1 teaspoon

Green chili (Kacha Lanka): 2-3

Chickpea (Chana Dal): 1 tablespoon

Coriander leaves (Dhane pata) for garnishing

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Soak the chickpeas overnight, or for more than 6 to 7 hours.
• Boil the potatoes without taking out the peel. Alternately you can also bake it in a microwave oven for 12 minutes.
• After the potatoes are boiled properly, see to it that they are not over boiled, take out the peels and chop them into 1” length pieces
• Chop the onions very finely, the chilies in small rings
• Add all spices along with the onions, green chili and salt; mix well
• Throw in the chickpeas and tamarind paste, toss it so that it gets evenly mixed
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve

Alu Kabli

Alu chaat is a favorite among all age groups. Serve it over an evening chit chatting. Look for more updates here, till then Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.

Sending this to Original Recipes – Monthly Round-Up Event.