Chicken with Mushroom

Chicken and button mushroom cooked in a saucy mixture, kind of a Indo Chinese dish. Best enjoyed with some Chinese style fried rice.

Ingredients

• Boneless Chicken pieces - 300 gm
• Mushroom - 1 pack
• Onion - 1
• Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp
• Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
• Capsicum - 1
• Spring Onion - for garnishing
• Soy Sauce - 2 tsp
• Maggi hot and sweet sauce - 2 tsp
• Chilli Sauce - 1 tsp
• Fresh red chilli - 2-3, chopped
• Oil, Salt, Sugar - as required
• Sesame seeds - for garnishing

Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 30 seconds.

Add the chicken pieces. Stir fry over very high heat for about 5 minutes till the chicken is browned from all sides.

Add the chopped red chilli and chopped onions and stir fry for 2 minutes.

Next goes the mushroom and capsicum and stir fry over high heat for about 2 minutes.

Mix all the sauces along with salt and a pinch of sugar in a cup of water and add it to the pan. Stir well to mix and cook for a couple of minutes till the chicken is cooked through. 

If the gravy is too runny, add a spoonful of corn flour mixed in 2 tbsp of cold water. Sprinkle chopped spring onion.

Remove from heat with a sprinkle of sesame seed and serve immediately.

Choco Raisin Cake

Ahha...My first ever cake where I have used whole wheat flour and olive oil instead of butter. 
This recipe is adapted from my fellow blogger Rakhi's blog, 'My world of baking'. If you remember, some days back, we at Kolkata Food Bloggers had an event called 'Know your bloggers' and every week one of our friend was the star of the week and we all have tried some recipes from her blog and posted it online. Ok, I could not manage to keep pace with it for 'n' number of different reasons but I have promised myself that whenever I get the chance, I will complete the event on my own. So, last week, when I saw her post on this raisin cake, I immediately decided to give it a try. It was really yummy and well accepted in my family. I am also happy and feeling less guilty of stuffing the family with calories since some part of the cake is whole wheat flour and it contains olive oil.  

Ingredients

• Whole wheat flour: 1/2 cup
• All purpose flour: 1 cup
• Sugar: 1 cup
• Eggs: 2
• Vanilla essence: 1 teaspoon
• Baking powder: 1.5 teaspoon
• Cocoa powder: 3 tablespoon
• White oil: 1/2 cup
• Milk: 1/4th cup
• Raisins : 1/4th cup

Beat the eggs well. Add powdered sugar through a sieve and mix well.

Now add oil, milk, and vanilla essence.

In a deep-bottom bowl, add the whole wheat flour, APF, cocoa powder and baking powder. Sieve atleast twice to get a fluffy cake.

Now add the dry mixture to the wet mixture in two batches. Mix well till you get a thick, lump-free batter.

Fold in the soaked raisins. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C for 10 minutes. Pour the batter in a greased cake pan. Make sure that batter fills up only half the baking pan. Sprinkle a few chopped raisins on the top surface of the cake.

Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven. Set aside to cool.

Slice and serve with your favorite cuppa.

Dudh Pabda with Cashew Nut

Such a versatile fish this is, you can cook it in many ways. This is quite a popular fish in our household and we have plenty of family recipes like a normal 'tomato based curry' or the ever famous 'Pabda Sorshe'. Even you can rustle it up with some curd to make 'doi pabda'. I already have a no fuss 'Dudh Pabda' recipe in my blog but this time made it a bit exotic by adding some cashew nut paste. 

Ingredients

• Pabda Fish - 4, washed and cleaned
• Cashew nut paste - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1 cup
• green chilli - 5-6
• Kalonji Seeds / Kalo jire - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
• Kashmiri chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt, Turmeric powder
• Mustard oil - As required

Smear the fish with Turmeric powder and salt and keep aside for 15 minutes.

Fry the fish lightly in batches.

Add the kalonji seeds and green chilli to the same oil. Mix the turmeric, salt, cumin, coriander powder and kashmiri chilli powder in little water and add it to the pan.

When water evaporates and oil comes out, add the cashew nut paste and fry well.

 Add the milk and mix well. 

When the milk starts boiling, add the fried fish. Let it boil for 5 minutes on medium heat.

Once fishes are cooked, remove from heat. Keep covered for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle coriander leaves(optional) and serve with plain rice.

Bengali Style Veg Fried Rice

Typical to our household, this fried rice is quite flavorful with a tampering of ghee or clarified butter, bay leaf and whole garam masala and loaded with fresh veggies. We add a sprinkle of sugar too to get that mildly sweet taste. Any dry meat dish goes well with this rice preparation, however for vegetarians, a paneer item or 'Navratan Korma' can also be served as a side dish.

Ingredients

• Basmati Rice - 2 Cups, washed and dried
• Vegetable(carrot, beans, cauliflower, peppers etc.) - 1 Cup, chopped
• Cashewnut - a handful
• Kishmish or raisin - 2 tbsp
• Ghee - 4 tbsp
• Bayleaf - 4
• Whole garam masala - 4 each
• Salt
• Sugar

Cook the rice carefully with a pinch of salt so that it didnot stick to each other. 
Chop all the vegetables into equal size. For the tough veggies, steam them but they should retain the firmness.

Fry all the veggies in little oil and keep aside.

Soak the cashew and raisin in water.

To cook the rice, add ghee into a pan. When it is hot, add the bayleaf and whole garam masala. 

When it splutters, add one forth of the rice. Sprinkle one forth of the fried vegetables, salt and sugar, some dry fruits and mix well. 

Continue this step till all rice is done. The vegetables should be mixed with rice uniformly and all rice grains should be coated with ghee. Adjust the salt and sugar. The dish should be mildly sweet.

At the end, pour a spoonful of ghee and keep covered for a standing time of 10 minutes.

Serve with your favorite side dish.

Sending this to KFB Poila Baishakh special event.

Tel Katla

In Bengali cuisine, fish and Mustard oil is a combination made in heaven ( 'Tel' is oil in Bengali). If you get some good quality fresh Katla or Carp, then donot forget to try this never fail recipe. Tastes best if you cook the fat belly portion of the fish, however, the other portion will also be delicious.
**Warning - Not for the dieters.

Ingredients

• Katla Fish - 6 Pieces
• Onion - 1, big - chopped
• Onion -2, medium, make a paste
• Mustard Paste - 1 heaped tbsp
• Green chilli paste - 5 chillies
• Methi / fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard oil - as required, ( be generous, it is Tel Katla )
• Salt, Turmeric
• Sugar - a small pinch, you  may omit this

Smear salt and turmeric to the fish and fry lightly in mustard oil. If the fish is fresh, you may skip this step.

Mix the onion paste, green chilli paste, mustard paste, salt, sugar, turmeric powder and 2 tbsp mustard oil with the fried fish.

Marinate the fish for 30 minutes. Keep covered.

Add 2 tbsp of mustard oil in a flat pan. When heated, add the methi / fenugreek seeds and stir till they are blackened. Remove and discard the seeds from the pan and heat the flavored oil again.

  
Add the chopped onion to the pan and fry a little. 

Carefully place the marinated fish into the pan over the fried onions, preferably in a single layer. Lower the heat and keep covered for 5 minutes.

Add little water to the remaining marinade and pour it onto the fish. Carefully turn the fish pieces once, then cover the pan again, and cook over low heat till the fish is cooked through and oil comes out.

Adjust the seasoning and enjoy with plain rice.

Peyaz Tomato Posto - Onion Tomato Poppyseed Bharta

A typical Bengali delicacy where poppy seed paste is cooked with chopped onion, tomato and green chilli. Simple to cook but so tasty, I can polish off a full plate of rice with just this.

Ingredients

• Poppy Seed - 4 tbsp
• Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
• Green chilli - as per taste
• Onion - 2, chopped
• Tomato - 1, chopped
• Salt, turmeric, sugar
• Mustard oil
• Kalojire / Kalonji Seed - 1/2 tsp

Soak the poppyseed in water for some time. Then grind it to a paste with the garlic and green chillies. We prefer to have it hot, please use the green chilli as per your taste.
Heat mustard oil in a pan and add the nigella seed/Kalonji seed/Kalojire into it. Let it splutter. Then add chopped onion and fry till golden brown.

Add the poppy seed paste mix to the onions with a splash of water. Fry till the water evaporates. Add salt and turmeric.

When oil comes out add chopped tomatoes. Fry till tomatoes are mashed. 

Sprinkle a little sugar and adjust the salt. Serve with hot rice. and green chilli.