Your daughter is going to be fine...

Because there are good men like you across the world.

More power to you babe!

To all the women you have touched my life....."More power to you, babes!"
And to all the men who supported these women..."More power to your souls. May you always be in touch with that- your feminine self. "

I'm tired of the questions.....

Truth and love....aren't they the same thing? And with great love comes great responsibility.......and commitment and integrity.
Somewhere there comes faith....when you don't understand....I just need to be in the moment....

Dab Chingri

Contributed by Arpitadi. Thanku! Muah Muah Muah!

I tried this out on my friend and her husband ( who is a mach loving Canadian) this weekend. They simply loved it. For those of us who entertain a lot of o-bangali and bideshi lokjon......this is an absolute hit. The dish is very delicately spiced, and has a whole lot of soft touch to it. The end effect - the spices, the aromas, the textures, the whole thing bursts inside your mouth....giving a very rich gastronomic experience!!! Try this out definitely, even we bangalis who love our food spicy and hot are bound to like it!!

Ingredients

Small Prawn - 750 gms (normally fresh prawns are the best, if not available you can use cooked frozen ones too)

Onion Paste - 100 gms

Milk - 50 ml

Coconut Milk - 75 ml

Cummin Paste - 2 tsp

Green Chilli Paste - 2 tsp

Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp

Poppy Seed Paste - 2 tsp

Cashew Paste - 2 tsp

Lemon Juice - 1 lemon

Salt - to taste

Oil - 3 to 4 tbsp

Fresh Coriander Leaves - for garnishing

1 Whole Green Coconut - (when green coconut not available - try using canned coconut water - this can be found in some Srilankan or South Indian Grocery stores - but if you find green coconut - nothing like it)

Preparation :

Completely shell and de-vein the prawns, wash in cold water. If using cooked frozen prawns, thaw properly.

Rub with lemon juice and salt and keep aside for sometime. Taken oil in a wok and add onion paste. Simmer till oil leaves the sides. Add ginger paste. Stir. Add poppy and cashew paste and simmer till it smells of roasted nut. Add cumin and green chilli paste.

Cook for 2 minutes and add milk and coconut milk. Simmer for about 15 minutes till gravy is set. Add the prawns and simmer till cooked. Add the water of green tender coconut and reduce to till the gravy is thick. You may also scrape out some of the tender coconut from the shell and keep aside for garnishing later on. Add salt to season. Cut the ends of the green coconut and preserve the shell of the head for covering.
Pour the curry into the shell and cook for 20 minutes on a water bath, immersing the stuffed green coconuts till half water level. Serve hot in the shell garnished with fresh coriander leaves and tender coconut pieces.And lo.......behold ...........what an amazing spread it looks and tastes out of the world too!!

Dhanepatawala Chicken (Chicken n Corriander)

Note: Yesterday I went to my Mejojethi's place for lunch. It is in the hallowed tradition of our family that all people residing out of Cal (i.e., lost souls) when they come to visit their friends and family in the city have to be fed to their gills by doting grandmoms, aunts, sisters, etc. and the success of their collective endeavours is measured by the gain on the weighing scales. Anything less than 5-10kgs is seen as a very mediocre effort on their part. So anyways I enjoyed the food soooo much....the least I could do is to pay my homage to her supreme spread by sharing the recipe of one of those many magnificent dishes. The subtle flavour and the simple procedure and ingredients makes this one a gem.

Ingredients

Chicken 1kg

Corriander leaves- 4 bundles (approx 250gms I think)

Green chillies- 4

Garlic paste- 2 tsp

Ginger paste- 1 tsp

Onion- 2 if big in size, 4 if small

Potatoes- 2 medium sized ones

Vinegar- 3 tbsp

Coconut milk- 1 tetrapack of Dabur Hommade one will do (approx 2 cups of thick milk)

Butter- 2tsp

Pepper- 1 tsp

Oil- 4-5tbsp

Salt and Sugar to taste

Procedure

First marinate the chicken with vinegar and salt for an hour. Wash the corriander leaves and green chillies and grind into a thick paste. Cut the onions into long slices and the potatoes into finger-chips. Fry the Onions well (should be red in colour) and the potato finger chips and keep these two aside.

We can use the oil left from the fried onions and potatoes for cooking the chicken (clean any leftover matter with your spatula). First put the garlic and the ginger paste and fry well. Then add the corriander- chilli paste and fry a little bit (not too much, as it will lose the nice green colour and become black instead). Add the coconut milk and then the marinated chicken. Mix well with the fried masala and cook over slow fire. Keep checking and stirring from time to time. When the chicken is cooked check and add the sugarand salt as required. Add the fried potatoes, onion, butter and pepper and mix well. The dish is ready to serve! Since we don't put any water separately while cooking- the dish is "makha makha" with a thick gravy. Goes well with both roti/paratha and rice. (If you like your chicken very hotttt, ;-) then try varying the quantity of green chillies to get your optimum level of spiciness. )

Total preparation time is approx 1 hour (not counting the marination time for the chicken).

Notun Gurer Kanchagolla (Sandesh)

Note: This recipe comes again from my grandmom who is a wizard of cooking- especially sweets. Her chamchams and elojhelos are famed far and wide in her family and friend circles. I was baptized by her to enter this charming realm of Bengali sweets by a simple sandesh- Notun Gurer Kanchagolla.

Ingredients
(For 8 pieces of sandesh)
Milk 1 litre
Calcium lactate 2-3 tsp
Sugar 6 tsps
Patali gur- to taste.....I used a small lump like a medium sized tomato

Procedure

Bring the milk to boil and as it boils take it off the flame and add the calcium lactate. The milk will coagulate to chhana (cottage cheese). Taking it off the flame ensures that the chhana is soft which is required for the sandesh.
Now seive the chhana and let it cool. Once its cooled we need to grind it well to make a very smooth even-textured paste (the texture and consistency reminded me of a thick multani mitti face pack, if you know what I'm talking about)! ;-) My grandmom used the old bengali styled sheel-nora (grindstone), but I think we can use a mixer instead- the one used for dry-grinding
Next put sugar in a kadai (pan) and melt it using a little bit of milk (just 3tbsp should be fine). Let the syrup become a little thick and sticky after which the chhana paste is added and stirred continuously. Crush and add the patali gur and stir continuously to blend it with the chhana. All this is to be done over a slow fire. Now take off the flame. Cool and make into small sandesh. You can roll the sandesh balls in khowa (dried milk powder) to keep it soft over a longer period of time in the fridge.
And again the whole process hardly took half an hour!!! I never knew sandesh is soooooooo easy! Btw, if you don't have patali gur, you can use sugar instead (but I still say nothing beats notun gurer sandesh). ;-))

Doi Maachh (Fish with curd sauce)

Note: This is one of my favourite dishes made by my grandmom. Many a times I've tried to replicate the magic in my kitchen in Bangalore but there was always something missing. Today I prepared this dish along with her and came very very close to her level of perfection...almost there, but not quite! The missing ingredient I realised, was of course, love!
;-) ;-) ;-)

Ingredients
Rohu fish- 8 pieces
Onion paste- 3 tbsp
Ginger paste- 1 tsp
Curd- 100gm
Green chillies- 4
Turmeric- 2 tsp
Red chilly powder- ½ tsp
Oil- 3-4 tbsp
Garam Masala whole- (2 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 cardamoms)
1 Bay leaf
Sugar and Salt to taste

Procedure
Wash the fish pieces and mix with 1 ½ tsp turmeric and salt (to taste). Keep aside for sometime (1/2 hr should be fine). If the fish is very fresh there is no need to fry it separately. However, to be on the safe side just lightly fry the fish in the oil (just put in the heated oil and turn on both sides…no need for a proper deep fry). Now put aside the fish. There might be bits which get stuck on the bottom of the fry pan. Just take it all out with a khunti so that the oil looks clear again.
Now add the Garam masala in the hot oil and the bay leaf. Add the onion and ginger paste to this and fry till the oil comes out. Keep stirring to avoid masala getting stuck or burnt. Add the red chilli powder and fry a little longer. Now place the fried fish into the pan carefully.
Beat up the curd to an even paste and add a little salt, sugar and turmeric powder to this. Pour this mixture on to the pan and shake the pan a little bit to allow the curd-paste to get mixed with the fried masala. Add the green chillies to this and let the mixture boil. Sometimes my grandmom adds a few raisins in it as well. But it tastes yum even without it. As the gravy gets done, carefully turn over all the pieces of fish once.
Ting tong! Five more mins and the dish is ready to serve!

The entire preparation time is only 30mins..in fact, sometimes even less than that! Isn’t that fabulous! :-))

Love lost in fear....

We spoke over the telephone and this is what I felt happened.
I felt that I truly connected to you with my heart. I could hear the pain and the love in your voice. I could hear the music in your words. I could see a doting son, a protective brother, an understanding friend, an empowering leader, a righteous father and a passionate lover; all-at-once during that one conversation. In one night I lived a lifetime.
If we could create such magic out of nothing over a few hours, I am scared of the countless days ahead. I am scared. Shit-scared….I look to you for support when I go down. And I’ll be here when you go down. And that’s the truth for me. Right here. Right now.