“Jai Mata Di”

This is the first post of this New Year at Cook Like a Bong. I wish you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was good too. I went out for a short trip to the Himalayas, specifically to Vaishna Devi. For those who are not aware of this holy Hindu shrine, let me give you a little information. The shrine is one of the holiest temples among Hindus, and one of the few temples where the Goddess is worshipped not in the form of any idol but just a little piece of rock. The shrine is located in the Northern State of Jammu & Kashmir and is a 13km trek from a little hill town called Katra. Vaishno Devi or Mata Rani is a manifestation of the mother goddess. As with all Hindu temples and shrines, the Vaishno Devi temple also has some mythological significance, to know more about those stories here.

Amidst a cloud covered sky we reached Katra. The following morning was our trek to the shrine, but the rains and cold were about to wash out everything. Fighting with all natural hazards we still could make out to our destination with a 6 hour trek – walking and by pony at times. The cloud and fog never let us have a view of the mountains, and we were almost heart broken. The aarti and visit to the shrine was a divine experience. After a long and tiring journey, a visit to the temple really had its charming effect. All done, we were to head back again the next morning. Thanks to the all night rain and little snowfall, the next morning was a wonderful experience. We started our journey when it was still dark, and could see the first rays of sun slowly falling over the snow capped mountain. I have watched this very scene many times at different places, but the first ray of sun turning the snow to gold is always a mesmerizing view. We took a helicopter to come down. It was to save time and also to have a once in a lifetime experience in a helicopter. The trip lasted just 3 days with loads of troubles including cancelled flight, lost items in the flight cargo, rains, cold, wet sweaters, walking bare foot on the ice cold stone steps – these incidents made me feel really bad. But while writing this post, I realized I really enjoyed the trip.

Coming back to food, I just thought of writing about this egg in mustard-poppy paste recipe. I had clicked the photo quite some time back, and was waiting for the right time to post it. The first post for this year, rather this decade seemed to be exactly the right time for it. It is an easy recipe and can be had be one and all.

Serves 4

Preparation time 10min

Cooking time 30min

Ingredients:

Egg (Dim): 4

Potato (Alu): 1, large

Mustard seed (Sarse): 4 tablespoon

Poppy seed (Posto): 4 tablespoon

Onion (Peyaj): 1, medium

Turmeric powder (Hau guro): ½ teaspoon

Chili powder (Lanka guro): 1 teaspoon

Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 10-12 tablespoon

Garam masala: ½ teaspoon

Salt to taste

Preparation:

Preparation:

• Hard boil the eggs, chop the onions finely, slice the potatoes into long pieces, make a paste of mustard and poppy seeds together
• Heat the half the amount of oil in and fry the chopped onions, keep aside
• In the same left over oil fry the eggs, keep aside
• Pour in left over oil and fry the potatoes till half fried
• In the mean time, mix the chili and turmeric powder to the mustard-poppy paste
• As the potatoes get half cooked, pour in the spices and little water, cook till the potatoes are almost done
• Carefully put in the eggs and cook for 2-3mins more, pour in the garam masala powder,  and take out of flame, garnish with the fried onions
• Serve hot with warm rice

Hot Tips- If you want to make the gravy spicier then add some more mustard and poppy seeds to the paste.

If you like this post, please consider linking to it or sharing it with others. I’ll love to hear your comments too. You can also Subscribe to BengaliCuisine by Email, or Subscribe in a reader

A fort night back I had posted with a week’s resource of “Breakfast with egg”. Egg is the best way to have a wholesome and yummy breakfast. Out of these recipes the Mughlai Paratha recipe has become an instant hit.

Talking about eggs, I am sending this photo to Jugalbandi’s Click contest for this month, the theme being Bicolor.

Broken egg

“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.

If you like this post, please consider linking to it or sharing it with others. I’ll love to hear your comments too. You can also Subscribe to BengaliCuisine by Email, or Subscribe in a reader

“Life is like a sandwich – the more you add to it, the better it becomes.” – Anonymous

Continuing the series on Breakfast with Egg Recipes, we’ll talk about Boiled Egg Sandwich today. [Part 1 was Mughlai Paratha, Part 2 was French Toast, Part 3 was Scrambled Eggs and Part 4 was Banana Pancake].

Sandwich with chips

Sandwich became popular among the European aristocrats during the late 17^th century as a late night meal. But the first use of the word “sandwich” was mentioned much later in 19^th century. It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. During Montagu’s long hours of gambling he used to order meat in between two bread slices so as not to grease his hands and spoil the cards. Others saw this, got inspired and started ordering for the same food, eventually calling it sandwich.

As the quote above says, it is very true that the better the filling of the sandwich better is its feeling. The one I prepared was a very simple and quick to cook sandwich. You can check this other variation of egg sandwich. Poached egg seasoned with peppercorn and salt can also be used as a sandwich filling.

Preparation time: 6 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

-          Bread slices (Pauruti): 6

-          Eggs (Dim): 3

-          Freshly grounded peppercorn for seasoning

-          Salt to taste

-          Cheese/ Butter or other fat spread

Preparation:

• Hard boil the eggs, and throw away the shell.
• Mash the eggs with a fork or potato masher and season accordingly with peppercorn and salt
• Spread each bread slice with softened butter
• Spread the mashed eggs over 3 of the bread slices and press lightly with the other three
• Cut the sandwiches diagonally and serve with chips or tomato sauce

Boiled Egg Sandwich

Hot Tips – The ideal time to prepare hard boiled eggs is 10mins and then keep those for sometime in cold flowing water. If you want to have a soft boiled egg then just cook for 6 – 8 mins. I used whole wheat bread to prepare the sandwiches; the nutrition count is based on that.

Further readings – Egg potato sandwich, Different sandwich fillings

Nutrition Calculator – 1 sandwich

Sandwich on way to Divya’s yummy event on “Show me your sandwich” ,  NTTC#5 event hosted by Sneh of Gel’s Kitchen and to Neha’s blog for the event CFK: Healthy Lunch boxes.

If you like this post, please consider linking to it or sharing it with others. I’ll love to hear your comments too. You can also Subscribe to BengaliCuisine by Email, or Subscribe in a reader

“In a big family the first child is kind of like the first pancake. If it’s not perfect, that’s okay, there are a lot more coming along. ” – Antonin Scalia

Continuing the series on Breakfast with Egg Recipes, we’ll talk about Pancake today, Banana Pancake to be precise. [Part 1 was Mughlai Paratha, Part 2 was French Toast and Part 3 was Scrambled Eggs].

What we call pancakes today might have originated more than two millennia ago. It wasn’t like the ones served at our dining table, but was a concoction (mixture) of milk, flour, eggs, and spices, and was called “Alita Dolcia” (Latin for “another sweet”) by the ancient Romans. They were probably prepared on flat rocks smeared with grease. The modern day pancakes were invented in Medieval Europe.

Banana Pancake

Pancake is also called: hotcakes, griddlecakes, or flapjacks in US and Canada; pannekoek in Afrikaans community; Apom Balik in Malay; Ban Chian Kuih in Chinese; chatamaari in Nepal; Blini in Russia.

There are numerous variations of Pancake prepared in different cuisines, based on changes in ingredients (flour, eggs and milk remain constant, rest vary) the cooking implements (flat rocks, hearths, griddles, microwave oven), the look and taste of the final product (thick or thin, spicy or sweet).

In India too, there are several variations of pancake – pitha (or pithy) in Bengal and Assam, Dosa in South, Meetha Pooda in Punjab.  We’ll prepare yet another variation, Banana Pancake, today. Get ready for a sweet sensation to the taste buds.

Preparation time:  5 mins

Cooking time: 8 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• Flour (Maida): ½ cup
• Banana (Kala): 1, mashed properly
• Egg (Dim): 1
• Milk (Dudh): ½ cup
• Baking powder: ½ teaspoon
• Sugar (Chini): 1 tablespoon
• Butter/ Clarified butter (Makhan/ Ghee): 1 teaspoon
• Cherry: 6 /7, chopped coarsely
• Cinnamon powder (Dar chini guro): ¼ teaspoon (optional)
• Vegetable oil (Sada tel): 6 teaspoon
• Salt: ½ teaspoon

Preparation:

• Take a large bowl, sift the flour in it, put in the other dry ingredients and mix
• Add the mashed banana , milk, butter and chopped cherries, and whisk to make a smooth batter
• Heat one and half teaspoon on oil on a pan and pour in one-fourth of the batter
• Fry one side of the pan cake till it becomes golden brown, turn the other side and fry similarly
• Fry three more pan cakes with the batter

Banana Pancake with toppings

Hot Tips: Banana pan cakes taste great with freshly sliced banana and honey or maple syrup. Along with mashed bananas, other soft fruits like mango, strawberries, blue berries can also be added to the batter. Fruitless pan cakes can also be made; it depends on what you want to put in.

Further Reading – Mango Nutella Pancake, Easy Pancake, Besan ka puda, Banana Pancake Trail

Nutrtion Count - 2 Banana Pancakes

If you like this post, please consider linking to it or sharing it with others. I’ll love to hear your comments too. You can also Subscribe to BengaliCuisine by Email, or Subscribe in a reader

“Twenty-four-hour room service generally refers to the length of time that it takes for the club sandwich to arrive. This is indeed disheartening, particularly when you’ve ordered scrambled eggs.”

Fran Lebowitz

Looks like the series Breakfast with Egg recipes is well received by the readers. Each of Part 1 (Mughlai Paratha) and Part 2 (French Toast) has received over 50 views. Thanks for the encouragement. Continuing the series, this post will talk about Scrambled Eggs (Jhudi bhaja, or Dimer Bhujia in Bengali).

Scrambled egg

Interestingly, scrambled egg was the alternate name for Beatles record winning song “Yesterday” from the album Help! I couldn’t figure out why Paul McCartney named the song so. Talking about origin of scrambled egg, WikiAnswer page says that it originated in Ireland, and that too because of a mere accident.

Scrambled egg, though a very easy-to-cook preparation, has different versions spread throughout the world. In India,  there are at least two styles – the Parsi style called Akoori and Anda bhurji in Punjab.

In Europe and America scrambled egg is prepared whisking milk and egg together with little salt and frying it in butter till the eggs coagulate. Though the basic ingredient, egg remains the same while the other constituents (herbs and spices) vary with geography. Parsis add cumin, mint, ginger, garlic and many other herbs to their most popular traditional dish, Akoori, while in Nigerian cuisine the scrambled egg is made with thyme, green pepper and fried in ground nut oil.

The one I prepared was a simple one with little amount of herbs and spices in it. You can prepare this sumptuous breakfast with herbed cheese spread over brown bread and the smoking scrambled egg.

Preparation time: 5mins

Cooking time: 5mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• Eggs (Dim): 4
• Onion (Peyaj): 1 large, coarsely chopped
• Tomato: 1 medium size, chopped
• Cilantro (Dhane pata): A small bunch, coarsely chopped
• Green chili (Kacha lanka): 2, chopped
• Turmeric powder (Halud guro): ½ teaspoon
• Sunflower oil (Sada tel): 1 tablespoon
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Break the eggs in a large bowl along with the turmeric powder and salt, whisk and keep aside
• Heat oil in a shallow pan, throw in the chopped onions and sauté for a few minutes till soft
• Add the cilantro, tomatoes and green chilies and fry till the oil separates
• Pour in the whisked egg and stir continuously till it dries up sufficiently
• Take out from flame and serve hot with bread toast

Hot Tips: To make the breakfast heavy you can add minced meat, bacon, cottage cheese and/or shredded cheese, or anything you like.

Further Reading – Scrambled egg with Cavier, Anda Bhruji, Akoori Masala Dosa

Do you know of any other version of Scrambled Eggs?

Sending this Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Lynne of Cafe Lynnlu and to NTTC#5 event hosted by Sneh of Gel’s Kitchen.

If you like this post, please consider linking to it or sharing it with others. I’ll love to hear your comments too. You can also Subscribe to BengaliCuisine by Email, or Subscribe in a reader

“An Egg today is better than a Hen tomorrow.”
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Yesterday, we started the series Breakfast with Eggs Recipes. Today, we’ll present French Toast (Part 1 was Mughlai Paratha).

French toast is a very popular breakfast in the Western world, but with globalization, French toast has become a part of our cuisine too, albeit with some variations. A little research on the web revealed some interesting facts about the dish.

The French toast made in Europe and America contains milk along with eggs as one of the main ingredients for soaking the bread slices. They even use cinnamon, granulated sugar as addendum, and have it with Maple or any other syrup. Here’s a googly – French toast isn’t necessarily of French origin. It finds its earliest mention in a 4th century Roman cookbook – Apicius. Frying the day old stale bread solved the problem for unappetizing crunchy bread. The book, apparently, is arranged in a manner similar to modern cookbooks.

French Toast

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 5 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• Milk bread (Pauruti): 4-6 slices
• Eggs (Dim): 3
• Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium size, chopped into small pieces
• Green chili (Kacha Lanka): 2, finely chopped
• Sunflower oil (Sada tel) for frying
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Cut the bread slices diagonally and keep aside
• Break the eggs into a wide, shallow plate along with chopped onion, chilies and salt, beat well with a fork
• Place the bread slices , one at a time, letting the egg to soak in, turn the slices around to soak the other side also
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the egg soaked slices till golden brown on both sides
• Serve hot with tomato sauce or green chutney

Hot tip: To reduce the calorie intake, you can use brown bread instead of milk bread.

Further reading – French toast, Wiki, Cheftalk, Baked French toast

French toast on way to NTTC#5 event hosted by Sneh of Gel’s Kitchen.

If you like this post, please consider linking to it or sharing it with others. I’ll love to hear your comments too. You can also Subscribe to BengaliCuisine by Email, or Subscribe in a reader

“We plan, we toil, we suffer – in the hope of what?  A camel-load of idol’s eyes?  The title deeds of Radio City?  The empire of Asia?  A trip to the moon?  No, no, no, no.  Simply to wake just in time to smell coffee and bacon and eggs.”

~J.B. Priestly

The wikipedia defines an egg is a round or oval body laid by the female of any number of different species, consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo and its nutrient reserves. Most edible eggs, including bird eggs and turtle eggs, consist of a protective, oval eggshell, the albumen (egg white), the vitellus (egg yolk), and various thin membranes. Every part is edible, although the eggshell is generally discarded. Nutritionally, eggs are considered a good source of protein and choline.

In an (Egg) shell

Well, that’s hardly why we eat Eggs though. Simply put, we eat eggs because we love ‘em. Eggs taste good, are a great source of protein (and amino acids) and most of all, are easy to cook. Traditionally, Bengalis (or for that matter, Indians) didn’t have non vegetarian breakfast. With times, food habits have changed too. Boiled eggs, bread omlette, scrambled/poached eggs are a routine these days.

Starting today, this blog will feature egg recipes for breakfast. These easy 15 (or max 20) minutes easy to cook recipes will help folks who stay alone (office goers/students) and mommies who have a hard time finding that illusive nutritional, easy-to-cook, and tasty breakfast for their kids. We’ll present dishes where egg is present but isn’t necessarily the main ingredient. We start with Mughlai Paratha today.

Mughlai Paratha, as the name suggests, should have dated back from the Mogul (Mughal) days, though we couldn’t find its history in the web. The filling can be of many things, keema (minced meat), potato etc along with other ingredients.

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 12mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Refined flour (Maida): 1 cup

Eggs (Dim): 2

Grated coconut (Narkel korano): ½ cup

Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium, finely chopped

Ginger Garlic paste (Ada rasun bata): 1 tablespoon

Green chili (Kacha lanka): 2, chopped

Sunflower oil (Sada tel) to fry

Salt to taste

Mughlai Paratha Preparation

Preparation:

• Sift the flour , add ½ teaspoon of salt to it, pour half-cup of water and knead into a soft dough, use more water or fry flour to make the dough non-sticky
• Divide the dough into four equal portions and shape into balls, keep aside
• For the filling, beat the egg in a bowl, add the crushed coconut , ginger garlic paste, chopped onion, green chilies and salt; mix well
• Roll out each ball of dough into a 8 inch diameter paratha and place one-fourth of the filling at the centre of the paratha
• Wrap the filling carefully from all sides to make a square
• Heat one tablespoon of oil in a pan and place the paratha carefully in it without letting the filling come out
• Fry well till both the sides become golden brown, use extra oil if required
• Similarly make the other three parathas and serve hot with tomato sauce and potato curry (optional)

Mughlai Paratha Ready

Further Reading – Peter Cherches, Wiki How, Mughlai Cuisine

Mughlai Paratha goes to  NTTC#5 event hosted by Sneh of Gel’s Kitchen.

If you like this post, please consider linking to it or sharing it with others. I’ll love to hear your comments too. You can also Subscribe to BengaliCuisine by Email, or Subscribe in a reader

Eggs in a basket

I received 43 recipes, and the links for all are listed below. The recipes are ordered in the way I recieved, the first one being mentioned first.

1. Asha: Egg Jalfrezi
2. Saritha: Egg Biriyani
3. Saritha: Egg Curry
4. Siri: Tex-Mex Migas
5. Oriya Food: Sunday Ka Anda
6. Radhika Vasanth: Egg Rava Dosa
7. Aquadaze: Egg Curry
8. Nivedita: Eggs and rice noodles
9. Suma: Egg Chicken Fried Rice
10. Pavani: Egg Salad Sandwich
11. Lakshmi: Frittata with Vegetables
12. Lakshmi: Plain Cake
13. Sree: Egg Fried Rice
14. Poornima: Chocolate Meringue Cookies
15. Priyameen: Egg fried rice with toasted boiled egg on side
16. Manjusha: French Toast
17. Usha: Onion Egg Curry
18. Shama Nagarajan: Sweet Bonda
19. Radhika Vasanth: Beetroot Egg Fry/ Poriyal
20. Radhika Vasanth: Spring Onions Egg Fry/ Poriyal
21. Koshy’s Mostafa: Egg-In-a-Hole
22. Sudha: Egg Spring Roll
23. Padma: Egg Dumplings
24. Padma: Egg Omellet Curry
25. Malini: Egg Malai Curry
26. Malini: Eggs in Milk
27. Malini: Pizza Omelet
28. Preeti: Anda Curry
29. Meeta S: Porro
30. Priyasuresh: Zucchini Scrambled Eggs
31. Priyasuresh: Egg puffs
32. Priyasuresh: Egg Kurma & Egg Masala
33. Sanghi: Tomato Egg Fried Rice
34. Sanghi: Egg Dhal Curry
35. Sanghi: Eggs in tamarind gravy
36. Pooja S: Kuku Sabzi
37. Dharani Jagdeesh:  Egg Keema
38. Divya Vikra: Egg Fried Rice
39. Nivedita Thadani: Nutty Egg Omelet
40. JZ@Tasty Treats: Egg biriyani
41. JZ@Tasty Treats: Egg Curry with Coconut milk
42. JZ@Tasty Treats: Pineapple Fried rice
43. JZ@Tasty Treats: Onion-omelette Sandwich with Mushrooms

Choose the best recipe you like, and note it in the comments below.

To see the photos of the recipes click on the photo below:

Event on Eggs

I went through some of the links in the web to know more about chow mein and people\’s love towards this platter. Wiki had lots of things to contribute to the cause. One sentence caught my eyes which said that the chowmein was introduced by the Chinese in Kolkata. That was something I had no clue, though I had had noodles at the China Town in Kolkata lots of times.

Ingredients:

Chow mein noodles: 2 whole packets

Cauliflower (Ful kopi): 1 medium bowl of small florets

Carrot (Gajor): 2 medium sizes

Green pepper (Capsicum): 1

Potato (Alu): 1 medium size

Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium size

Egg (Dim): 2

Sunflower oil (Sada tel): 2 tablespoons

Soya sauce: 1 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Cut the vegetables into thin one inch sized pieces
• Put in all the vegetables in a deep pan and half boil them
• Boil water in a pan and throw in the noodles, take them out just after 2 minutes so that the noodles do not become too soft
• Heat ½ tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and drop the eggs, add a pinch of salt; stir well to make scrambled eggs, keep aside
• Heat the rest of the oil in a wok, throw in the onions and fry till they become golden brown
• Throw in the half boiled vegetables along with salt. Fry till they become soft
• Add the boiled noodles and stir well so that the noodles get mixed with the vegetables
• Pour in the soya sauce and stir again
• Take out of flame, garnish with the scrambled eggs and serve with sauce of your choice

I had added cauliflower, potatoes, carrot and green pepper. If you like you can also other vegetable of choice. Along with eggs you can also shredded chicken or fried prawns. If you are a vegetarian then just leave out the non-vegan ingredients.

Check out for more updates here, till then Happy Cooking and Happy Eating