Aloo Poshto

My first taste of aloo poshto is when my best friend in Mumbai had invited me and a couple of more friends for lunch and her mother has cooked this for us! Needless to say, she is a Bengali, of whose help i had taken along with my pet-client, now a friend, Arpita, when making the Payesh.

I have had aloo poshto at a few Bengali restaurants but that homemade taste always lingered on my mind. Poshto is basically khas-khas (poppy seeds) made along with potatoes. Since i had a packet of khas-khas in my kitchen, i decided to give it a try (knowing that it won't taste as good as aunty had made), but to my surprise, it turned out so good that now i feel extremely 'stupid' to have not tried it before for the fear of getting it all wrong.

When my friend gave me the recipe, i did search a few other websites and blogs on the internet to know their version of the dish, and i found that there are many ways in which this is made and eaten. Some make this dry, some keep it wet... A few i saw, add kalonji (onion seeds) while some just add jeera (cumin seeds). A few fry the aloo, few steam it and some cook it along with the poshto. This version here is exactly how my friend told me (Adjust the green chillies according to taste)

Ingredients:

Potatoes (aloo) - 2 -3 medium

Khas khas - 6 tbsp

Mustard oil (you can use normal oil too) - 2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Asafoetida (hing) - a pinch

Green chillies - 2-3 (according to taste)

Salt - to taste

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Chilli powder (optional) - 1/4tsp- 1/2 tsp

Water - as needed

Recipe:

Soak the khas khas in water overnight or at least for 6 hours. ( If you don't have time at hand, soak it in warm water for at least half an hour before cooking)

Now drain the water and put this in a mixer-grinder. Grind to a fine paste along with 1 green chilli. The paste should really be fine and smooth. If needed, add little water, or else make a paste just like that. The khas khas will tend to rise (become fluffy), don't stir it. Let it be

In a pan, add the oil, asafoetida and cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add the green chilli. Now add the potatoes and fry them for a while.

Cover and cook for about 3-4 minutes on low flame. Now add turmeric powder and salt (and chilli powder if adding). Mix it all well, and again cover and cook . You can also put some water inside the pan to cook the potatoes, but don't over cook it. The potatoes shouldn't become mushy.

For me, covering and stirring it in between ( so the potatoes don't stick to the pan or burn) was just fine.

Now add the poshto paste and mix well, so that the potatoes are covered with the paste.

Add salt and water (according to the consistency wanted), and cook for another 5 minutes.

Garnish with a spoonful of mustard oil.

Serve this along with roti, puris or rice.

Happy cooking :)

Payesh

Having Bengali friends around and not posting a single Bengali recipe was not going so well with me. I have tried making a lot of Bengali dishes lately of which Baingan Bhaja and Payesh are my favourites. Aloo Poshto tastes lip smacking too, but i havent tried making it yet. Guess that's this weekend menu, since i do have khas-khas (poppy seeds) in my kitchen! 

Every cuisine have their own distinct flavours and methods of preparation. Let's take Payesh - a kheer made from rice and boiled milk. There are so many different ways of preparing it. Some would boil the rice and milk together, some would boil the milk and then add rice. Some would add jaggery, and some would add sugar or a mix of both. People even make it with condensed milk or a mix of all. A friend of mine doesn't add jaggery but a paste of cashews and sugar. As they say...the food, water, taste changes every few kilometers in India.

I always feel that a particular dish tastes different related to a lot of factors. Lets say a simple bread butter toast would taste different sitting at home or at a dhaba or sitting by the riverside on a picnic or some 5 star hotel. The ambiance, the weather, the people you are with everything matters for the food that we eat. The taste also matters in regard to who is it cooking , and in what frame of mind. The same dish would taste different if i am cooking it with feelings of anger/frustration or so of happiness/ calmness. And it applies to the one eating it too. A dish would taste different if my mind is preoccupied with something else, or if i am watching television while eating or if i am reading a book or watching nature. Don't you all feel so? Give it a try.

Well, coming back to the post. A dear friend of mine got me some nolen gur (Date palm jaggery)during her visit back home. 

Since it was Sankranti yesterday, i thought of making Payesh. I couldn't post any recipe/picture yesterday, since my internet was down for almost 2 days for some reason. Yes, i definitely did make Til-gul (which i had posted last year), and here's wishing you all "Til gul ghya goad goad bola" :)

Payesh, as i made it with Nolen gur (Suggestions from 2 bengali friends):

Ingredients:

Full cream milk - 1 litre

Rice (i took Basmati rice) - 1/4 cup

Nolen gur (Jaggery) - little less than 1/2 cup (add according to taste)

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Bay leaf - 2

That's it! 5 ingredients and you are done!! You can add nuts, nutmeg powder, sugar etc according to your wish but i preferred keeping it basic.

Recipe:

Wash the rice till water is clear, drain and keep aside.

Bring the milk to boil and keep boiling it on sim to reduce it. 

Make sure you keep stirring it in between, and also scraping the cream from the sides.

After about 10 minutes, add the 2 bay leaves to the boiling milk.

Once milk reduces to 3/4th, add the rice. Now let the milk boil till rice is fully cooked. The milk will start changing colour to little yellowish.

Once the rice is cooked, the milk will have reduced to almost half. Now add the cardamom powder and mix.

Turn off the stove. Now add the jaggery (Add little pieces or grated jaggery and stir - it will melt automatically when you stir- no need to boil/cook it).

Payesh is ready!!! This one was loved by hubby's colleagues at office :) The nolen gur takes the taste to almost another level, but you can add normal jaggery instead too. 

Happy cooking :)

Bengali cuisine : Dinner at Joey's :)

Ghar ka khana : Foodies, as we are, we love to gorge on different cuisines. Being Maharashtrians, all that we have eaten of Bengali food is at specialty restaurants. So, when our Bengali friends in Delhi invited us for dinner, we jumped at the idea!!! Bengali food, cooked at home, that too with a touch of "Maa ke haath" ( Mom's food )... it all sounded a perfect Sunday evening.

Woofs from Joey : I had mentioned about "Aloo Poshto" to my friend just last month, and she had promised me then, that she will make it and invite me for dinner. So this was definately on the menu :) After a warm welcome from all of them ( we were meeting their parents for the first time, who are basically Bengalis from Bihar), and lots of licks and jumps from our sweetheart Joey-Poey ( My client from pet sitting ), we had some dhoklas as a starter.

Minimalism is not lack of something, Its simply the perfect amount of something : As the saying goes, we loved that the dishes were minimalistic...That way you get to taste it wholeheartedly and it lingers on your tongue for quite a while ! The main dishes.... Chicken ( for hubby dearest, who loves it to the core ), aloo poshto ( specially for me ), Chane ki daal, salad and Jeera Rice followed by the desert of the evening - Gur ki Kheer .

The Nolen Gur( new jaggery) or Gud, as it is called is Jaggery made from Khajoor (Dates ). It is known as Bengali's jaggery, as it is made from the sap of date palm trees found in Bengal. It tastes different than the normal jaggery, the aroma is heavenly and is slightly costlier than the original jaggery. Though a winter speciality, is found these days all year round with a special technique of preserving the jaggery in solidified form for months. 

There is also a different type of rice that is used for making the kheer. It's tiny and aromatic. Looks like this :

So, the basic way to make the kheer would be :( As told to me by aunty )

Ingredients :

Milk - 1 litre
Rice - 3/4 cup ( 2 handfull)
Nolen Gur (Jaggery) - Add according to taste
Cardamon powder - 1 tsp
Cashews/ raisins - chopped  to garnish

Recipe :

Boil Milk and rice together. Cook till the rice becomes soft and keep stirring in between.

Then add the jaggery and mix it all well and cook for another 5 minutes.

Lastly add the cardamon powder and cashewnuts.

If you find it too thick, add a little milk, or else it can be eaten thick as a pudding too.

Refrigerate if you like to have it cold. 

With our tummies full, we came home and went off to bed to have some "Mishti " ( sweet ) dreams !!! :))

The Chefs of the evening : 

Thank you for such a wonderful meal !!