Bengali - Twinkling Tina Cooks

Shorshe Posto Chingri Recipe | Prawn in Mustard Poppy seed sauce | Bengali Recipe | Microwave Recipe

Shorshe Posto Chingri Recipe – Succulent prawns in mustard poppy seed sauce is an easy Bengali recipe. This microwave recipe takes just 7 minutes to cook.

Bengalis have some relationship with prawns and mustard. It’s like your relationship goals. No one looks at a prawns with the love and devotion the way a Bengali can. Agreed? We love our fishes and prawns. I love it the most because it takes literally 5-7 minutes to cook – yes an entire recipe takes that much of time! This Shorshe Posto Chingri recipe is my mom’s quick recipe which she calls “chot joldi ranna”– in Bengali which means quick fix cooking. It is as the name suggests, prawns cooked in mustard and poppy seeds sauce. Continue reading Shorshe Posto Chingri Recipe | Prawn in Mustard Poppy seed sauce | Bengali Recipe | Microwave Recipe

Joynagarer Moa Recipe | Bengali Moa Recipe | Bengali Joynagarer Moa Recipe

Joynagarer Moa. Joynagarer moa is a seasonal Bengali sweet delicacy prepared from date palm jaggery and puffed rice. This variety of moa originated in Joynagar, West Bengal, India. Here is an easy Bengali Joynagarer Moa Recipe by UK from Fashionable Foodz.

Hola people. Still enjoying the winter? There’s something special about the winter, isn’t it? You love being out in the mild sun, enjoy a great lunch, sip some hot coffee, enjoy some cakes and have an endless gossip with friends. Winters are also awesome for date palm jaggery or ‘nolen gur’ that we call in Bengali. You can extract the liquid secretion from the date palm trees only in the cold winter mornings. This kind of date palm jaggery is a specialty of Bengal and in winters you will find various kinds of sweets flavored with the date palm jaggery. One of the popular kind is Joynagarer moa. Now if you can’t find ‘nolen gur‘ you can always substitute with sugar for the sweetness. Today I have the awesome Uttpal Krushna who we all fondly call UK from Fashionable Foodz sharing an easy Bengali Moa Recipe with sugar and also explains how to make the authentic way in his Bengali Joynagarer Moa Recipe with ‘nolen gur‘ (if you have managed to source it). Over to UK.

Continue reading Joynagarer Moa Recipe | Bengali Moa Recipe | Bengali Joynagarer Moa Recipe

Rasgulla Recipe | How to Make Rasgulla Recipe | Spongy Rasgulla Recipe

Rasgulla or Roshogolla is a spongy Bengali dessert made from milk solids. This Rasgulla Recipe is easy to follow. Learn how to make soft spongy rasgulla.

A dessert challenge without a Bengali dessert doesn’t do justice, does it? Bengalis are known for their love for fish and dessert. What comes to your mind when you think of any Bengali person – a rasgulla of course! We call is roshogolla yes with all the imaginable Os in between. It is almost synonymous with Bengalis. We visit people with a big pot of roshogolla on any given occasion – wedding, festivals, new year. Roshogolla is omnipresent in a Bengali household. Making the perfect rasgulla at the first go is a difficult task. I have made it a few times and faltered before perfecting it finally. This rasgulla recipe has all the tips and tricks that will give you soft spongy rasgulla easily. So let’s see how to make rasgulla recipe. Continue reading Rasgulla Recipe | How to Make Rasgulla Recipe | Spongy Rasgulla Recipe

Chingri Malaikari or Bengali Style Jumbo Prawn cooked in coconut milk gravy

Chingri Malakari is an authentic Bengali Recipe with jumbo prawns cooked in coconut milk gravy. It has beautiful textures, light spices and is oh so yum.

Hello people, I told you some time back about sharing Authentic Bengali Recipes throughout October but I did very bad time management last month and you can see that already with such less posts last month. But think no more, I am going to continue with #TinasBongConnection even this month and share with you what I originally promised. And guess what is special? My parents are down here and spending a few weeks with us. So you know how authentic these recipes are going to be. Continue reading Chingri Malaikari or Bengali Style Jumbo Prawn cooked in coconut milk gravy

Bengali Vegan Recipes – Luchi, Cholar Dal & Alur Dom

Jump to Recipe – Luchi | Cholar Dal | Alur Dom

Luchi, Cholar Dal and Alur Dom are quintessential Bengali festive feast essentials. Complete vegan and complete indulgence. You will be surprised how simple they can be yet how yum they are.

It is October and no Bengali, in any part of the world, can keep calm this month. Yeah, it’s that time of the year that all Bengalis get together to celebrate Durga Puja . It is a way of life for Bengalis and not just a festival. And not to mention the festive feast every day is special. This is one time every one indulges in – authentic Bengali food, street food, Mughlai food, – basically any kind of food. Continue reading Bengali Vegan Recipes – Luchi, Cholar Dal & Alur Dom

Doi Potol or Dahi Parwal

Doi potol is a hit vegetarian delicacy of every Bengali Kitchen. Pointed gourd or potol cooked in spices and yogurt. Learn how to make Bengali doi potol

As a kid I was a fussy eater and almost never liked any vegetables – green or otherwise. My mom used to have a tough time with me I am sure. Not that I really like vegetables now but still eat much more vegetables than as a kid.

There are these vegetables which are really popular among the Bengalis like ‘Begun’ (brinjal), ‘Bandhakopi’(cabbage), ‘Kochu’ – I have no idea what it’s called in English or Hindi or in any other language. And I hate almost all of these. But now since I have Mr. Husband who likes traditional Bengali food at times I have to venture into the kitchen to re-invent some of these.

This is potol/ pointed gourd. Image from Shutterstock

‘Potol ‘or ‘parwal’ as called in Hindi (its Pointed Gourd in English – that’s what Google told me) is also as popular in a Bengali household. You will definitely find a ‘potol-bhaja’ in the beginning of your menu if you are up for a hearty Bengali meal. Now that’s little main stream how much ‘potol–baja’ can one have? The next two famous things a Bong cooks up with this ‘potol’are ‘potoler dorma’ & ‘doi potol’.

This is Kundru. Image from Google

It’s difficult to get good fresh ‘Potol’ in this city. They also have this thing called ‘Kundru’ which almost looks like ‘potol’ but is much smaller in size and is hard when you are going to cut. So don’t get that ‘kundru’ if you want to make any Bengali ‘Potol’ preparation.

Over the weekend I had some time with me to cook up something little special and here I am with a traditional ‘doi-potol’recipe. Will do the ‘potoler dorma’ some other time.

So lets get to our ‘Doi Potol‘ recipe

All that you Need

Potol/pointed Gourd – 6-8 pieces
Fresh Yogurt – 1 cup
Paanch Foron – 1 tspn – If you don’t know what this is please refer to Tip #3 in Tiny Tips)
Mustard oil – 1 table spn
Turmeric powder – ¼ tspn + ¼ tspn
Red chili powder – ¼ tspn
Cumin powder – ¼ tspn
Coriander powder – ¼ tspn
Ginger paste – 1 tspn
Salt – to taste
Green Chili – 1

Let’s get Started

– Scrape the ‘potol’ lightly so that the skin comes out and clean them under water. Don’t peel but scrape it with the edge of a knife.

– Dust ¼ tspn of turmeric powder and salt over the ‘potol’/pointed gourd and keep aside

– Heat mustard oil in a frying pan

– Once oil is hot add the ‘potol’/pointed gourd and fry them lightly so that water (within the vegetable) dries up.

– Once the ‘potol’/pointed gourd is fried add the ‘paanch phoron’

– Add ginger paste and mix well with the fried the ‘potol’/pointed gourd

– Take yogurt in a separate bowl and mix all the dry spices – turmeric, red chili powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Mix well to form a smooth paste.

– Add this spice and yogurt mixture to the ‘potol’/pointed gourd in the frying pan and mix them well

– Add salt to taste and add the green chili. I refer to break the chili in two halves so that you get the flavor in your food with less heat

– Cook in low flame for 10 mins or till you see oil on the sides of the pan.

– Add little water in your yogurt bowl and use up all the spice mix that might be left over in the bowl. Since this preparation is a semi dry one don’t add much of water. Cook for 5 mins.

And there you go your Bengali traditional Doi Potol is done.

It tastes best with hot rice.

Try and let me know how you liked it.

Product Review – Chingri Malai Curry with Hudson Canola Oil

Let me update on some more Bong food. ‘Chingri’, as we call the prawns, is very popular among Bengalis. We love batter fried prawns, prawn curries, prawn with vegetables and so many ways that we cook prawns. However, ‘Prawn Malai Curry’or ‘Chingri Macher Malai Curry’ takes the cake off when it comes to authentic Bengali Prawn preparation. Prawn is cooked in tomato & coconut milk without much of spices and has a very nice subtle earthy taste.

Sometime back I had got this Hudson Canola Oil for review. It came along with a quick recipe book which is quite handy. There must be lot of people who are unaware about this Canola oil. So I have some information about Canola oil. (This is from their website though).

What is Canola?

Hudson Canola Oil that I am reviewing here

Hudson Canola is a standard edible vegetable grade oil, a light oil with neutral taste and flavour. Hudson Canola can be used for all types, methods and varieties of Indian cooking: frying, roasting or grilling. Canola is neutral in flavour and aroma with no distinctive taste or smell.

Canola Oil is extruded from the seeds of the yellow Canola flower.

Canola Oil has the lowest saturated fat amongst all oils, very high monounsaturated fat, very high Omega-3 and rich Vitamin-E content.

Any ways, I have used it now and I am quite happy with the results. It’s light and doesn’t have any strong flavour. You can cook almost anything that you would otherwise do with vegetable oil or Sunflower oil. I have used it both for curries and frying and gives quite good result. It’s very popular in SE Asia. You can even bake with it. It’s a little costly than other ones but you can definitely give it a try.

Anyways let’s get started with our recipe

All that you need

Prawns – 1 Kg (you can use white prawns, tiger prawns or any prawn which you like. Don’t take lobsters though. I have used white prawn here for this recipe. De-vein and clean them)
Lemon – 1
Tomato – make a puree of 4 large tomato – you can use canned pure as well
Coconut milk – 1 cup
Oil – 2 table spoon (I have used Hudson Canola Oil here)
Salt – to taste
Sugar – 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds – ¼ tspn
Chili powder – ¼ tspn
Cumin Powder – ¼ tspn
Green cardamom – 1
Ginger Paste – ¼ tspn
Sugar – 1 tspn
Greem Chili – 1
Grated coconut – 2 table spoon
Soaked Raisins & Cashew nuts – ½ cup

Let’s Get Started

Place the de-veined prawns in a bowl and marinate the prawn with salt and juice of 1 lemon. Mix well and keep aside for 15 mins.

Heat a table spoon of oil in a wok and fry the marinated prawns lightly till they turn opaque & orange.

Take out in a bowl and keep aside. This will ideally take you about 2 mins. Don’t overcook the prawn at this stage else it will taste like rubber.

Add another table spoon of oil in the same wok and add the cumin seeds, green cardamom and a slit green chili.

Add ginger paste, cumin powder and red chili powder and fry for a minute.

Add the pureed tomato and cook till oil oozes out on the sides of the wok. Add little sugar and salt to taste.

Add the seared prawns and mix them well with the tomato gravy.

Add the coconut milk and cook it in low heat for few minutes.

Add the soaked dry fruits and grated coconut and cook in low heat for a minute.

And that’s it you are done. Isn’t it just simple?

An authentic Bengali Malai curry doesn’t have turmeric, onions or mustard oil (which are otherwise quite common).

It tastes best with rice.

So cook and enjoy and let me know how you liked it.

Aamer Chutney or Mango Chutney

So I am back again in this space after some centuries. Before you people forget me completely let me quickly start blogging once again and get some great recipes for you all.

That’s my new Kitchen

Hey, let me first update you on everything that has been happening from last November – that’s last when I had updated this blog – such a shame. Anyways, I have bought my own apartment (rather we have bought and not I alone) and moved in the suburbs of the city. I designed my own kitchen and love it. I still don’t have a cook so I am doing most of the daily cooking and yes Indro chips in too whenever I return late.

All this travel between work and home is leaving little time for the me-time and that’s why you see my absence from this space – of course apart from my laziness. Haha..

So what am I going to share today? Let me share a good Bengali after meal recipe. We call it “Aamer Chutney” or you may say Mango Chutney. Now green mango or raw mango is very famous all across India, people use it for chutneys and pickle. We Bengalis love our sweet and need something sweety tangy at the end of our meal. This recipe is little different from any other chutney or pickle so do read carefully. It’s really easy by the way.

All that you need:

1. Raw green Mango – 1 big mango diced keep (the skin on)

2. Lemon juice – 1 tspn

3. Salt – to taste

4. Paanch phoron*(5 whole spices)- 1 tspn

5. Oil – 2 tspn

6. Green Chili – 1

7. Turmeric powder – ¼ tspn

8. Red chili – ¼ tspn

9. Sugar – ½ cup

10. Water – ¼ cup

*Paanch phoron – This is a special spice mix which every Bong household will have. It is used extensively in Bengali and Oriya Cuisine. It’s really easy to create one if you don’t have. It requires 5 different spices – Cumin, Kalaunji, Fenugreek/Methi, Fennel seeds/Mouri and Black Mustard Seeds.

Let’s get started:

Heat oil in a pan and add ‘paanch phoron’
Add the diced mangoes once the spices start sputtering
Add salt and mix it well with the mango
Cover and cook it for 2 mins
Once the mangoes soften up add a green chili, turmeric powder, red chili powder and mix well
Add water, cover and cook for 10 mins
Once it turns mushy add sugar and mix well
Finish it off with a little squeeze of lime

Suggestions

This mango chutney is made mostly in the summers. We have it after lunch and it helps in digestion after a hearty meal.

So go ahead and enjoy and let me know how you liked it.

Payesh – Rice Kheer

If you are a Bengali you can never escape the evergreen ‘payesh’. You have any traditional function, any festival or even a birthday payesh is omnipresent.

Payesh or rice kheer is a dessert item traditionally made with milk, rice and sugar. However, there are many variations of payesh and can be made with various things like semolina, thatched rice, flour and even with Rasgulla!! Surprised… that’s what I like about cooking you can get so creative.

But this one here is a traditional payesh with rice but with some little twist. Little additions to make it even yummier.

All that you need

Milk – 2 litres
Rice – 1/2 table spoon (if you can manage ‘gobindobhog’ rice then even better)
Granulated Sugar – 2 table spoon
Green cardamom – 2 pods crushed
Condensed milk – 1 table spoon (for the added taste)
Batasha – 8-9 (sweet sugar drops)
Dry fruits – chopped almonds, cashew, raisins

Method

Bring milk to boil in a pot.

Take care to stir the milk as it reduces. Add the rice and let it cook in the milk.

Keep the gas low and stir at regular levels. If you don’t stir the milk will start sticking at the base and might get burnt.

Add crushed cardamom Add the sugar only when the rice is cooked.

It’s important to note when to add the sugar – if you add sugar before it will not let the rice cook properly. So add sugar or the sweeteners only when the rice is cooked.

Add the batasha. Batasha is made of flour and sugar. These sugar drops not only adds flavour in this dessert but also gives an amazing consistency. It helps in thickening the payesh.

Add the dry fruits and condensed milk and stir for another 2-3 mins.

Let it sit for some time and then you can serve.

It always tastes best if you let it rest for a good 3-4 hours.

Prawn in poppy seed sauce

Prawns can be cooked in almost every way that you might like – sauté, stir fry, deep fry, curry, baked – almost anything. Curry obviously is a major part of Indian Cuisine but wait a minute the onion tomato and spice curry is not the only curry that we do. There can hundreds of curry in made in numerous ways. So that’s what I tried here – bringing some distinct flavours from several parts of the country.

‘Posto’ or poppy seeds are used extensively throughout Bengali & Oriya cuisine it gives a very nice texture and a certain poppy hit. I have also used ‘char magaz’ which is a mix of dried almond, watermelon, pumpkin & cantaloupe seeds for the curry. It is mostly used in Rajasthani cuisine as well as in Bengali cuisine. So now you know Bengali food is not only fish & sweets!!

It is served with yakhni rice, which is nothing but cooking rice in aromatic water than the regular water. Simple!

All that you need

For Prawn & Poppy seed sauce

1. Prawn – 250 g

2. Tomato pureed – 2 cups

3. Posto (poppy seeds) – 2 tbl spoon & Char Magaz – 1 tbl spoon (soacked in warm water for 20 mins & pureed)

4. Cumin seeds – ½ tea spoon

5. Cashew nut & raisins (soaked in water) – ½ cup

6. Coconut Milk – 1 cup

7. Red chilli powder – ¼ tea spoon

8. Cumin powder – ¼ tea spoon

9. Salt to taste

10. Oil/Clarified butter – 2 table spoons

11. Lime juice – 1 table spoon

For Yakhni Rice

1. Long Grain rice – 1 cup

2. Star Anise – 1

3. Bay Leaf – 1

4. Cloves – 5-6

5. Green Cardamom – 4

6. Black Cardamom – 1

7. Cinnamon – 2 small sticks

8. Cumin Seeds – 1 tea spoon

9. Coriander seeds – 1 tea spoon

10. Black peppercorn – 1 tea spoon

11. Water – 2.5 cups

12. Muslin Cloth – 8×8 inch

So Now let’s get Started

Poppy seeds & chaar magaz

For Prawn & poppy Sauce

De-vein and clean the prawn – and marinate them with the lime juice and salt for 10 mins

Sauté the prawns in a wok till it turns opaque and then take of the fire

In the same wok heat oil and add cumin seeds.

When it starts spluttering add the pureed mix of poppy seeds & char magaz and keep frying till oil separates.

Add pureed tomato, cumin powder, red chilli powder and keep stirring

Add salt to taste and cook in low flame for 5 mins

Add the coconut milk and simmer for another 5 mins.

Add the fried prawns, cashew & raisin to the curry and simmer for 2 mins.

And you are done with your prawn.

Whole spices for yakhni rice

For Yakhni Rice

Yakhni rice may sound complex but is very simple actually.

Take a muslin cloth, put all the dry whole spices and make a small parcel.

Boil that parcel in water for 20 mins.

Cook the rice in this water. (I added some cumin seeds for extra flavour)

Garnish & serve the prawn with this aromatic rice.