Shingi Machher Jhol - Light Catfish Curry

This is how we bengalis cook our 'machh er Jhol'. A very basic recipe where fish is cooked with vegetables in a light and soupy gravy. No fancy ingredients used, only the basic Bengali masala, panchforon pr Bengali Five Spice is a must for this. I have used Shingi Machh or a kind of Cat Fish, which is believed to be very healthy and generates blood in the body. any other sweet water fish can be used to cook 'Machh er jhol' provided the fish is fresh.
Disclaimer : Not for the experienced Bengali Chefs.

Ingredients

• Shingi Machh - 3, cut into pieces
• Cauliflower - 1/2, cut into florets
• Sheem or Broad Beans - 4, cut into half
• Bori or Bengali lentil balls - 10-12
• Panch Foron or Bengali five spice - 1/2 tsp
• Green Chilli - as per taste
• Ginger Paste - 1 tsp
• Salt, Turmeric
• Bay leaf
• Mustard Oil

Smear salt and turmeric onto the fish. Fry lightly in mustard oil and keep aside.

Take half a cup of water and mix the kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder. Keep aside.

Heat the mustard oil and then lightly fry the marinated fish. Fry the bori too.

Add panchforon, bayleaf and slit green chilli to the hot mustard oil of the same pan.

Add the chopped vegetables and stir fry for 1 min. Next add the masala water and stir to cover the vegetables.

After 3-4 minutes, add 2 cups of hot water. ( The dish would be soupy  it is a machh er jhol, so be liberal with the water.)

When it starts boiling, add the fishes immersed in the soup and cook covered for 10 minutes over low heat till the vegetable is cooked.

Add the fried bori and mix carefully. Boil for 1 more minute.

Keep covered for a standing time of 10 minutes. 

Serve this healthy but tasty Singi machher jhol with hot steamed rice.

Oven Baked Chicken with Garlic Potato

Served this for our Christmas Eve dinner with some bread to mop up the juices, it was delicious. 

Ingredients

• Potatoes - 2, medium, thinly sliced
• Ground nutmeg - a little
• Onions - 2, fried
• Peas - 100 gm, boiled
• Boneless Chicken Breast - 300 gm, cooked and Shredded
• Butter - 25 gms
• All purpose Flour - 25 gms
• Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp, dilute in water
• Milk - 300 ml
• Green Chilli ( optional) - as per taste
• Bread to serve

Chop and fry the onion till crisp. Boil the peas. Steam the chicken and shred once it is cool. 

To prepare the white sauce, heat the butter in a pan, then add the flour and stir continuously. Add the milk and stir so that no lump is formed. Thicken the sauce and remove from heat.

Preheat the oven at 180 degree C.
Take a oven proof dish. Layer the potatoes over the base and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Sprinkle some garlic water. 

Spoon over the white sauce and shake till sauce settles through the gaps of the potato. I have added chopped red chilli too.

Spread half of the fried onions. Arrange the shredded chicken on top. Then add the boiled peas. Sprinkle salt, pepper and some more garlic water. Alternate the layering if required.

Finish with the remaining potatoes. arranged in an even layer and dot with butter and remaining garlic water. Season with salt, pepper and sprinkle some more nutmeg powder.

Bake for 30-40 minutes till the potatoes are golden and tender.

Serve hot with your choice of bread.

Coffee Cinnamon Cake

As part of my New Year resolution, ' A Cake a Week' Challenge, this is the 2nd entry for the week, and this time it is a Coffee Cinnamon Cake. I have adapted the recipe from Pritha with some minor touch here and there. and the output is an amazing aromatic cake with a generous dose of coffee.

Ingredients

• Flour - 1+1/2 Cup + 1 tbsp
• Sugar - 1 Cup
• Butter - 100 gm
• Baking powder - 2 tsp
• Cinnamon powder - 3/4 tsp
• Eggs - 3
• Vanilla essence - 1.5 tsp
• Instant coffee power- 3-4 tsp (depending on how strong you want), dissolved in 1/4 cup ofmilk

In a bowl, sift flour, castor sugar, baking powder and cinnamon and  mix well.

Add in the eggs one by one along with the vanilla and whisk till batter is smooth. Add the butter and blitz. Now add the coffee-soaked milk and pulse well till the batter is smooth and shiny.

Preheat oven to 180 degree C and grease a bundt cake pan with butter. Pour the batter into the pan.

Bake for 32-35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes before unmoulding.

Remove from the pan carefully and cool completely before slicing.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Orange Apricot Cake

This year, my new year resolution is to improve upon my baking skill and to give it a more defined shape, I gave myself a target of one cake a week challenge. Of course, cake is a generic term and it will include all things cakey, that is Cakes, Cupcakes, muffins, cookies, scones etc. both sweet and savoury but I must bake and blog something every week. So here goes the 1st post of the year - Orange Apricot Cake.

Ingredients

• All purpose flour - 2 cups
• Sugar - 1 cup and 1/4 cup
• Butter - 100 gms
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Orange extract - 1/2 tsp
• Fresh orange juice - 1/2 cup
• Eggs - 3 large
• Dried apricot (chopped) 1 and 1/2 cup

 Line a loaf pan with butter paper and grease with butter. Preheat your oven to 180°C. 
 Sieve and shift all purpose flour, and baking powder to a bowl. Since I have used salted butter, I didnot use any extra salt. In case you are using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt to the flour.  Take a mixing bowl. Mix Butter and sugar to light and fluffy with help of a hand mixer. Add eggs to butter-sugar mix, one at a time. Mix it to smooth.

 Add orange extract. Then add orange juice to the batter.

 Finally add flour mix to the batter. Whisk it to smooth.

 Add chopped apricot. Fold into the batter.

 Pour the cake batter into greased baking pan.  Put into oven and bake for 65-75 minutes at 160°C or until firm . Prick a skewer to check if it is done.

 Shift to wire rack and let it cool down before you slice it.

 And sit back, relax and enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.

Sending this recipe to the Baking Palooza Event on Kolkata Food Bloggers

Gajor Kaju r Payesh - Carrot and Cashew nut Pudding

Poush Sankranti is ensuing and with it I feel nostalgic. Nostalgic about the time when Bamma ( Paternal Grand Mom) and Didubhai ( Maternal Grand Mom) were in charge of their respective kitchen and the masterpieces born there. We, the present generation with all our latest gadgets may not be able to reach that level of perfection, in terms of look and taste of those wonderful pithes and Payesh and I don't dare to try those intricate pithe they used to make those days. However at this time of the year I cannot ignore the fact that it is the season of  4 "P" (s) - Poush, Pithe, Puli and Payesh. And so here I present  'Gajar  and Kaju / Cashew nut Payesh'. a little fusion of Payesh and Gajar ka Halwa where the sweetness is taken care by another Bengali Winter specialty, the Nolen Gur or Date Palm Jaggery.

Ingredients

• Chopped Carrot - 1 Cup
• Cashew Nut - 30 gms
• Milk - 500 ml
• Nolen Gur - 3 tbsp, as per taste
• Ghee - 2 tbsp
• Khoya Kheer - 2 tbsp
• Bay leaf - 3
• Cardamom powder - a pinch

Boil the milk and keep aside. In a pan, heat ghee. Then fry the cashew nut till golden brown. keep aside.

In the same pan, add some more ghee and add the bay leaves. Then add the chopped carrot and fry.

After 4-5 minutes, add the hot milk to the pan and continue cooking over low heat till the carrots are cooked. Keep an eye and stir occasionally to avoid burning.

When carrots are cooked and the milk thickens, add the khoya kheer, nolen gur and fried cashew nut and mix well. Adjust the amount of gur according to taste.

Boil over very low heat for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat. Sprinkle a pinch of cardamom powder and keep covered for 10 more minutes.

Cool it and serve.

Sending this to Poush Parbon event organised by 'Kolkata Food Bloggers'.