Paneer is a household name in almost every Bengali family now. When it comes to having vegetarian platter a paneer preparation is always there; be it an occasion or just a simple dinner. But, even a decade back paneer was not that readily available.

The next best option was to make paneer at home. The paneer that is available in the market is processed and mixed with other binding agents like flour along with curdled milk to give it a tougher texture. The one that is made at home is softer and doesn’t have flour. This is called chana. Chana is milk curdled with lactic acid, like lemon juice and squeezed thoroughly to drain out the extra water.

Chana is the basic ingredient of almost all sweets that we eat, but if you are in a mood for something savoury to make with chana, chanar dalna is a very good option. Dalna is a type of Bengali curry with a rich and thick gravy unlike the ordinary jhol which is more watery.

To make the chana, all you need to do is boil about a litre/ quarter gallon of milk, it will give about 200gms/ 7 oz of chana. Once the milk starts rising pour in about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice or about 1 tablespoon calcium lactate. The milk will start curdling – the solids will separate from water. Drain out the water using a cheese cloth. Squeeze the chana well to drain out any excess water. You can also hang it for about an hour before you start using it. If there is any extra water in the chana, the cubes will fall apart as you cook.

Hot Tips – If you want more gravy in the dalna, then pour half cup more water. The chana cubes tend to absorb the water, so if you keep it for longer period, the gravy will dry out. You can cut the chana in any way you like, if you prefer diamond shape then go for it, or roll it between your palms to make small balls.

To curdle the milk, I prefer lemon juice as calcium lactate has a funny smell, and it doesn’t taste good when using the chana in curry.

More on chanar dalna from other blogs – Preoccupied’s take on the grandmom’s secret chanar dalna. Not exactly the typical Bengali recipe, here’s another way of preparing chanar dalna from Cookerefic.

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Brinjals or eggplants or aubergines whatever you call it there is always a fear of the itchy tongue and a swelling lips. Quite a large population suffers from eggplant allergy. But, allergy or no allergy you just cannot deny the fact that eggplants are so tasty. Whether it’s the begun bhaja (fried aubergine) or in made in to a curry like in begun morichut, eggplants are always a hit. And, who can deny the fact a bite of beguni with a handful or mudi (puffed rice) in a rainy evening brings back many memories.   

The brinjal and poppy is a very easy Bengali recipe. I have learnt it from my mom, and probably she from her mom. And stop worrying about grinding the poppy into a fine paste. This recipe works fine with a little grainy poppy seed.

All you have to do is soak the poppy for 8 hours or overnight and grind it with the rolling pin. The grainy paste gives a texture to the curry.  

Begun Posto

Indian, Side, Bengali poppy recipe, Eggplant recipe, Poppy

Cooks in 15    Serves 4

Ingredients

• 6-8 baby eggplants
• ½ cup poppy paste
• ¼ cup plain yogurt
• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
• ¼ teaspoon chilli powder
• 3-4 green chilli, slit
• 2 tablespoon mustard oil
• Salt to taste

Directions

• Slit the eggplants into quarters keeping the stalk intact
• Pour in the oil in a skillet and fry the eggplants
• In a bowl mix all other ingredients other than the salt and green chillies to a runny paste
• As the skin turns a darker shade of purple, pour in the paste and stir well to evenly coat the eggplants
• Season with salt and throw in the green chillies
• Pour in about a cup of water and cook covered till the eggplants are tender
• Serve with warm white rice or chapati

Print Recipe | Print Ingredients Only

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Too much of work pressure these few days, so just thought of posting this recipe without writing long sentences. Cook it and enjoy it.

Ingredients:

• Raw Banana (Kacha kala): 2
• Potato (Alu): 2
• Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium size
• Bay leaf (Tej pata): 2
• Cumin seeds (Jeera): ½ teaspoon
• Cumin powder (Jeera guro): ½ teaspoon
• Chili powder (Sukhno lankar guro): ½ teaspoon
• Ginger paste (Ada bata): 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder (Halud guro): ½ teaspoon
• Garam masala powder: 2 pinches
• Clarified butter (Ghee): ½ teaspoon
• Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 2 tablespoon
• Green chili (Kacha lanka): 2, chopped into small pieces
• Corn flour: 2 tablespoon

Preparation:

• Boil the raw banana and one potato with a pinch of salt
• Chop the onion into small pieces
• Peel off the bananas and the potato, and mash well with a pinch of salt and turmeric, green chilies, ½ teaspoon ginger paste and corn flour
• Make small balls of one-inch diameter with the mashed mass
• Heat oil in a wok and fry the banana balls till golden brown, keep aside

• Cut the potatoes into eight pieces and fry for 4 – 5 minutes, keep aside
• Add the cumin seeds, bay leaves and sauté in the heated oil
• Throw in the half fried potatoes, ginger paste, chili, cumin and turmeric powder; pour in one cup of water
• Cook till the potatoes are cooked well
• Drop in the fried balls, add the garam masala and clarified butter
• Take out of flame after a minute

Check for more recipes on this blog, till then Happy Cooking and Happy Eating.

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I just could not leave out her request and so thought of posting this dish for her.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

String beans (Barboti): 100gms

Potato (Aalu): 4 medium sizes

Nigella seeds(Kalo jeera): ½ teaspoon

Mustard oil (Sarser Tel): 1 teaspoon

Turmeric Powder (Halud Guro): ½ teaspoon

Green Chili (Kancha Lanka): 2

Preparation:

• Slice the strings beans into one inch sizes and the potato into small square pieces
• Take oil in a wok and let it heat
• Throw in the nigella seeds as the oil gets heated
• Add the potatoes and strings beans along with the turmeric powder and salt
• Toss the vegetables for a minute so that the oil and spices get mixed
• Fry for 2-3 minutes
• Pour in 1 cup of water and let it cook with stirring twice or thrice
• As the vegetables get cooked take out of flame

Serve with roti, paratha or with steamed rice. It tastes good with anything. Check for more updates here on this blog, till then Happy Cooking, Happy Eating.

]]> http://bengalicuisine.net/2008/string-beans-with-potato-curry/feed/ 13 http://bengalicuisine.net/2008/dhokar-dalna/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dhokar-dalna http://bengalicuisine.net/2008/dhokar-dalna/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:20:48 +0000 Sudeshna Banerjee http://bengalicuisine.wordpress.com/?p=248 Follow me on Twitter. Add me as a friend on Facebook . Visit my Flickr photostream.

I hope you all had loved the round up for The Non-Veggie Event. As for me, hosting an event for the first time was of great great pleasure. The recipes I received were so good and I felt pleasure in going through all the recipes. Each was better than the other. Chicken, mutton, eggs- everything was on the menu. I even tried out some of them and they were so yummy.

So after all these meat and flesh and spices all over I thought of choosing something light and vegetarian for my next post.

Dhokar dalna is one of the oldest recipes, which is of absolute Bengali origin. You will never find anything equivalent to this recipe. If any of you have anything which you feel is similar to Dhokar Dalna, then please do write a comment on that. Even better of you please post it on your blog and leave a comment along with the URL of the post.
I found my mother cooking many items and calling them with the same prefix “Dalna”. I took this opportunity to search about what Dalna actually means. My source was noone but my inspiration of cooking , my MOM. After partition many people came from East Bengal, now better known as Bangadesh. In present Bengal (West Bengal, India) they are popularly known as Bangal(as in Bangladesh) and those who were actually from present West Bengal are called Ghoti. As the language changes with every mile, so here also there is no exception. What the Bangal call tarkari (curry) the Ghotis call it Dalna. So, this Dhokar Dalna most probably originated from the people who were the oldest inhabitants of present West Bengal. There are many more stories of this differetiation in every part of Bengal. If I start writing I’ll never ed, so better keep it for future.

Dhoka is a mixture of two types of pulses, and the curry with very little spice is called Dhokar Dalna.

Ingredients:

Yellow split pea (Matar dal): 40gms

Bengal gram (Chana Dal): 160gms

Refined wheat flour (Maida): 1 tablespoon

Potatoes (Aalu): 2 medium sized

Sugar (Chini): 1 teaspoon

Black pepper (Gol morich guro): 1 teaspoon

Asfoetida (Hing): 1 pinch

Fennel seed (Mouri):  ½ teaspoons

Cinnamon powder (Dar chini guro): 1 pinchr

Cardamom powder (Elaichi): 1pinch

Nigella (Kalo jeera): 1 teaspoon full

Cumin Seeds (Jeera): ½ teaspoons

Turmeric powder (Halud guro): 1 ½ teaspoons

Red Chili powder (Sukhno Lankar Guro): 1½ teaspoon

Mustard oil (Sarser tel) for frying

Salt to taste

Preparation:

For the Dhoka:

• Grind both the pulses together in a powder. Grind it well so that it becomes absolutely powdery.
• Alternately you can also soak the pulses for about 2 to 3 hours and then make a paste of the soaked pulses.
• Add salt, ½ teaspoons each of turmeric powder, ½ teaspoons of red chili powder, turmeric powder, black pepper, cumin seeds;  refinedwheat flour, sugar, asafoetida, cinnamon powder, cardamom powder and 1 teaspoon of nigella to the dough.
• If you have dry grinded the pulses then add water and make thick dough. Keep it for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Heat ½ teaspoons of oil in an wok. Add the dough and toss for 2 to 3 minutes or till the dough become quite dry.
• Spread the tossed dough over a plate with almost an inch depth. Cut it into small diamond shapes. The dhoka is now ready to fry.

Dhoka

• Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the dhokas till they get hard and the inside also gets cooked. You can prick them with a knife. If the knife comes out with sticking, then the inside is also cooked.

Deep Fried Dhoka

For the Dalna:

• Cut thepotatoes in medium size square pieces.
• Heat oil in a wok. Fry the potatoes till they are golden brown.
• Add the cumin seeds to it along with turmeric and chili powder.
• Pour in water and salt.
• Now cook till the gravy thickens and the potatoes are cooked well.
• Carefully drop the dhokas and just boil for 2 minutes in low flame. Do not toss else the dhokas will break.

Take it out of flame and Dhokar Dalna is ready to serve. Dhokar Dalna serves as a wonderful side dish for vegetarian meals. Try it out and send me your comments. Keep in touch and till then HAPPY COOKING AND HAPPY EATING.

Sending this recipe for Home Grown Gourmet event hosted by Erika

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