Bhapa Doi/Baked Yogurt Pudding/Bengali Bhapa Doi

After a delicious vegetarian Saudi Pizza, am taking you all today to India to enjoy virtually some baked yogurt pudding which is quite famous in Bengali Cuisine. Its a fabulous dessert which involves minium cooking process with easily available ingredients. Though this ultimate Bengali dessert can be prepared easily by steaming, i opted for baking as this Bhapa doi can be prepared very much well in oven too. Served chilled, this baked yogurt pudding will definitely please anyone after a heavy meal, a prefect pudding to serve even for a get together as this pudding can be prepared very much a day before. The chilling part is very important before serving this fantastic dessert. Though usually Bhapa doi is flavored with cardamoms, many fancy versions of this pudding do exists. If you dont want to stick with different flavourings, you just need hung curd, sweetened condensed milk, milk to prepare this delightful dessert.

Jhal Muri/Spicy Puffed Rice/Jhaal Muri

Jhaal muri is quite a famous street food of Kolkata, this spicy puffed rice is the most favourite street snack of many especially among the Bengalis. This street food is very much like bhel, an another popular mumbai street food. This Jhaal muri goes for simple ingredients which is easily available in everyone's kitchen. Jhaal means spices and muri means puffed rice hence this street food is called as Spicy puffed rice. You can make this spicy puffed rice in a jiffy if you have all the ingredients at home, however the traditional Jhaal muri goes for tamarind paste and mustard oil which makes the difference from the mumbai's famous Bhel. You need to make a simple spice mix to coat the puffed rice and this spice mix is the major ingredient for making this street food.

If you read my blog, you may know very well that am running the last week of blogging marathon with Blogger's choice as theme, hence i picked street food/chaat food as theme for this week. After an irresistible Dahi aloo chaat, am taking you all virtually to Kolkata to enjoy this Jhaal muri.

Kheer r Kochuri/Bengali Mawa Kachori - West Bengal Special

Today finally we did, its our last post for a month of non stop blogging marathon, after going through 29states am taking you all to West Bengal. West Bengal is in the Eastern region of India and its the four most populous state.The roots of Bengali cuisine can be traced back to its origination in ancient Bengal, which comprised of the present day Indian states of Tripura, the Barak Valley of Assam and West Bengal and the independent country of Bangladesh.Fish and lentils served with rice find prominence as the staple food of the Bengalis. A typical Bengali fare follows a certain sequence of food which starts with a dish of bitter taste and ends with a sweet delicacy. A slightly elaborate Bengali meal starts with the first course or starter made from bitter vegetables or herbs, which acts as the starting bitter course. In West Bengal, it is followed by shukto, a thick soupy mixture of vegetables including the bitter guord (korola) in a ginger-mustard sauce. This bitter dish is savored at lunch but skipped at dinner. Rice forms the main component of the meal which remains constant throughout the meal. Bhaat (Hot steamed rice) is first served with ghee, salt and green chilli and shak(leafy vegetables). Then dal (pulses) is served along with different types of bhaja (fried vegetables)or bhate (bolied vegetables). Skillfully cooked items involving multiple vegetables and spices, called dalna, ghonto, torkari, chorchori, etc. is the next item. After this course, the ambol or tauk (chutney) is served which acts as the palate cleanser. It is a tangy-sweet delicacy usually made of pineapple, mangoes, tamarind, tomatoes, papaya or a combination of dry fruits and fresh fruits. Papor(papadum), a type of thin wafer made of potatoes, shagu(sabo) or dal is served as an accompaniment to the chutney. The next corse is the dessert. Doi (yoghurt) is served in its natural flavor or as the sweetened variety, known as Misti Doi (sweet yoghurt). Misti doi is typical to the Bengali cuisine.

No Bengali meal is complete without Mishti (sweets). Sweets form an essential part of the Bengali palate. A meal is considered complete with the serving of paan (betel leaves) which act as a terminal digestive.

Illish maach or Hilsa fish is the speciality of Bengal which is a universal favorite of the Bengalis. It is steam cooked delicately with mustard paste and green chilli to preserve its flavor and tenderness.

Fish is cooked in a variety of methods. A few common methods of relishing fish include frying the fish, fish cooked with gravy, steamed fish or fish prepared in combination with curd.Mustard oil is the preferred medium used for cooking Bengali dishes. This gives a unique flavor to the dishes. Traditional spices and condiments enrich the taste of the dishes. The essence of Bengali cooking lies in maintaining a delicate balance between the main ingredients and the seasoning. Even the humble pulse attains a remarkable taste and identity because of the typical phoron or flavoring added to it. The ever popular panch phoron (blend of five spices) is a distinctive element commonly used in the preparation of the Bengali cuisine. It consists of five elements in equal parts, namely cumin seed, nigella seed, fenugreek seed,aniseed and mustard seed or radhuni (wild celery seeds). Posto (poppy seeds) is another item which is extensively used in Bengali cuisine.Since i want to finish our long marathon with a sweet note, i prepared this extremely delicious kheer r kochuri aka mawa kachori, they came out simply delicious and its seriously hard to resist to it.

Strawberry Rasgulla

Rasgulla, rassagollas or rasagullas, this juicy Indian cheese based sweet is popular all around the world and its particularly famous in Indian states of West Bengal and Odisha.Rasgullas is made from a ball shaped dumpling of paneer, the famous Indian cheese cooked in sugar syrup. Coming to this strawberry rasgullas, i chosed to make for this week's blogging marathon. The theme of this week's blogging marathon is cooking with fruits, Srivalli the brain child of this monthly event suggested few fruits and obviously we need to cook from the list of the fruits she have given. I chosed berries and my favourite strawberries, eventhough its not strawberry season here. I have already freezed some fresh strawberries during their peak season for further use. Frozen strawberries are seriously very handy and you can make many desserts with them.

Coming to this rasgullas, i made a puree of strawberry and some finely chopped frozen strawberries while preparing the sugar syrup in which the paneer balls are cooked later. I didnt used any food colour and these cheese balls got their colour from the strawberry-sugar syrup while cooking.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#34.This beauties are going Diwali Delicacies Event, hosted by me and Sangee Vijay of spicy treats.

Kesari Raj Bhog~~SFC~#1

Kesari Raj bhog, have you ever tasted this fantastic and succelent juicy stuffed rasgullas?? if not you are seriously missing something. Actually i never had a chance to taste of this fantastic sweet until Preeti of Simply Tadka suggested this beautiful sweet for this month's Sweet Fantasy Club where we can learn many sweets and desserts. Actually this sweet club is open to whoever have sweet tooth and love to learn many different variety of sweets and desserts.Every month, the members of this group cook two different sweets or desserts and blogs on their blogs. One of the sweet goes for Indian sweets and the second one goes for International or fusion desserts, seriously i dont want to miss this chance to learn different sweets and joined the group immediately.

For this month we have Kesari Rajbhog for Indian sweets and hot chocolate fudge for International or fusion. This Rajbhog is from Sanjeev's Kapoor and trust me these juicy,softy stuffed rasgullas are just amazing and seriously you cant stop having just with one. They are simply fantabulous and truly an excellent sweet to make and enjoy for a celebration. Dont wait, make some and celebrate diwali with this incredible sweet..This beauties are going Diwali Delicacies Event, hosted by me and Sangee Vijay of spicy treats and to Gayathri's Diwali Special.

Luchi

Luchi is a deep fried flatbread made with maida flour, is a typical dish of Bengali cuisine. Luchi is prepared with a dough made with maida, water and melted ghee, which is rolled as small balls,then these balls are flattened with a rolling pin individually. Those rolled balls are deep fried in oil which is called as Luchi, this deep fried beauties are usually serve with curries especially prepared with potatoes. If maida is substituted with wheat flour, we call it a poori. Luchi served with aloor dum with mishti doi makes an excellent breakfast and everytime i make luchi i love to serve them with aloo charchari or achari baingan, which makes an incredible pair too.I'll share Aloo charchari recipe soon.

Why today am posting Luchi, coz today i have to post a recipe name starts with 'L' as am running a long marathon for this whole month and this week's theme is Regional dishes. Since Luchi goes under Bengali cuisine, a prefect dish to post today na. Thank god, this Luchi is the final dish for this week's blogging marathon and we have still two more weeks to go. As i told earlier, my next week's theme is going to be street food/Condiments, stay tune friends..

Bengali Chanar Jalebi /Paneer Jalebi~~ SN Challenge

Been a South Indian, Bengali sweets are quite famous in my hometown and if its a special day my dad never forget to bought some rasgullas from one of the Bengali sweet stall in Pondicherry. Obviously Bengali sweets are our family favourite.Apart from rasgullas and sandesh, i dont know much about  Bengali sweets before entering to this virtual world, slowly i came to know about many more Bengali sweets and tried some at home. This time i got an another wonderful chance to try out an incredible chanar jalebi for our this month's Southvs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil.

Yesterday you might have noticed thathave posted a chettinad style gravy to challenge our opposite aka Northern team and today am here with this Chanar jalebi as Chandrani of Cuisine Delights challenged the Southern team with this beautiful deep fried paneer jalebis. I heard lot about this paneer jalebis, Chandrani tempted me very much with her beautiful jalebis, finally tried them immediately with some homemade paneer.Everyone enjoyed thoroughly this pretzel like jalebis and this jalebis sounds very much easier than the usual jalebis.Thanks to Chandrani for challenging us with this beautiful chanar jalebis and we enjoyed this authentic paneer jalebis to the core.I served this jalebis with leftover sugar syrup eventhough those jalebis are well swelled in sugar syrup.

2litres Milk

Lemon juice per need

3tsp Maida

1tsp Milk

1tsp Baking powder

1/2tsp Cardamom powder

3nos Cardamom (crushed)

1cup Sugar

1/2cup Water

Oil for deep frying

Few saffron strands & nuts for serving

Boil the milk and add the lemon juice to make fresh paneer.

Now strain this curdled milk to strain the paneer, squeeze out the excess of water and keep aside for few minutes.

Meanwhile in a heavy bottom pan, bring boil the sugar and water,crushed cardamoms and stir until the sryup turns thick.

Now knead the cheese with cardamom powder,milk,maida for 15minutes to form a smooth dough.

Pinch a small ball from the prepared paneer dough and roll it as rope,twist the end of the rolled rope to form a pretzel like shape.

Heat the oil for deepfrying in medium flame, slowly drop the already prepared paneer jalebis into the oil and cook until they turns golden brown, dunno y mine didnt turned out dark brown.

Drop the cooked jalebis immediately to the warm syrup and let them sit for few hours.

Serve the paneer jalebis hot or chilled with some chopped nuts and saffron strands.

Dhokar Dalna/Bengali Lentils Cakes Curry~~SN Challenge

Dhokar dalna is a traditional Bengali lentil cakes curry which is served during pooja or as a part of a meal.This lentils cakes cooked in tomato, coconut milk and cashew raisin paste is a pure Sativk dish, that means this dish doesnt need neither onions nor garlic. This dish is also served during special occasions like weddings to the widows who are not allowed to intake onions and garlic. This dish in my to do list since a long, but somehow i wasnt able to do this dish and taste them.This dhokar dalna is a favourite dish of most of the Bengalis. Dhoka means' to cheat' in sanskirt and still is a mystery why this dish is named as though. Even Bengalis doesnt know the reason for it. Yea some dishes doesnt need the meaning of their name,wat we all need is the taste of this dish na. Am enjoying rite now this dish with rice as my lunch, trust me its seriously mindblowing,delicious,super flavourful and nutritious on the same time.

Every first of the month, i'll be posting a North Indian dish as am a part of the famous South vs North challenge, an event started by Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook. The motto of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team.

For our this month's challenge, Nabanita Das of Esho-Bosho-Aahare challenged the Southern team with this famous Bengalo Dhokar Dalna while Roha of Hyderbadi Cuisine challenged the Northern team with a rich and droolworthy Qubani Ka Meeta,the fmous Hyderbadi apricot dessert. Both challenges are mindblowing and love to make some Qubani ka meeta too soon.

Lentil cakes:
1cup Channadal/Bengal gram
1/2cup Dried green peas/Split peas dal/split yellow peas (since i dont have yellow peas,i used split green peas)
1/2cup Grated coconut
1tsp Ginger paste
1/2tsp Asafoetida powder
1tsp Onion seeds/Nigella seeds
2nos Green chillies (chopped)
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
1/4tsp Baking soda
2tbsp Oil for cooking the batter
Oil for frying

Soak the channa dal, split greenpeas or split yellow peas (not the toor dal neither fried gram dal) for 4hours.

Now grind the soaked dal as coarse paste with green chillies.

Add the onions seeds,ginger paste,turmeric powder,salt,grated coconut,baking soda to the grounded batter.

Mix well and keep aside.

In a kadai, heat the oil, fry the asafoetida powder, add the batter and stir continuouly in simmer until the batter turns thick and get off from the bottom of the kadai.

Transfer the cooked batter to a greased plate, flatten them and keep aside to cool.

With a knife,cut the cooled batter as any shape as u desire.

Deep fry now this sliced pieces until they turns light brown colour and keep aside.

For curry:
3nos Potatoes (medium & cubed)
1no Tomato (big & chopped)
3nos Green chillies (slit opened)
1tbsp Garam masala powder
1tsp Red chilly powder
1tsp Turmeric powder
1/4cup Cashew+raisin paste
2cup Coconut milk (thick milk)
1/2cup Grated coconut
1tbsp Ginger paste
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
2tsp Cumin seeds
Salt
Oil for cooking

Soak the raisins and cashew in hot water for half an hour, grind as fine paste and keep aside.

Heat 2tbsp oil, add half of the turmeric powder, salt to the cubed potatoes, fry it in the hot oil until they turns crispy,remove from the oil and keep aside.

Heat the remaining oil in a kadai, now add the asafoetida,cuminseeds, bay leaves, fry until they turns brown.

Add the slit opened green chillies,ginger paste and fry for few minutes.

Add now the chopped tomatoes and fry everything until the tomatoes turns mushy.

Now add the red chilly powder,cumin seed powder,garam masala powder,turmeric powder to the cooking tomatoes and cook for few more minutes,until the oil comes out.

Add the grated coconut,coconut milk to them and cook for few minutes.

Finally add the already prepared cashew raisins paste,fried potatoes,cook again everything in simmer until the gravy turns bit thick.

Add water if need to adjust the gravy consistency.

Finally add the fried lentil cakes, sprinkle the garam masala powder on the top,cover and put off the stove.

Serve dhokar dalna with rice topped with few drops of ghee

Notes:
Once the fried lentil cakes are added to the gravy, dont forget to the serve the dish, else the gravy will turns thick.

While frying the lentil cakes, be careful some make break,but dont worry.

Narkel Narus/Bengali Coconut Laddoos

My two previous posts are with coconut as main ingredient, you guys might have noticed that. As my theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'chose an ingredient and cook from 3 different cookbooks' i chosed coconut as main ingredient. For my today's post, am here with a very addictive coconut laddoos from Bengali cuisine, i chosed these cute laddoos from Malini Basu's Miss Masala cookbook.Traditionally this laddoos are prepared with jaggery and whole milk. Thank god i recently picked a packet of jaggery from Indian grocery, thats why i chosed to prepare this coconut laddoos for my third day of blogging marathon.

This coconut laddoos gets ready really very quick, quite an easy breezy sweet. Malini used dark muscovado sugar and condensed milk, but i prepared mine with jaggery and unsweetened condensed milk. Unsweetened condensed milk aka evaporated milk and jaggery together works prefectly, this laddoos are one of the very easy sweet i have tried till now.If you need something quick as a sweet for a pooja or to serve your sudden guest, you must definitely give a try to this fabulous cuties.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26.Sending to 27 coupons & Swathi's Traditional Indian Sweets.

2cups Fresh grated coconut
1cup Evaporated milk
1/2cup Jaggery

Take the coconut,milk and jaggery in a heavy bottomed vessel,cook everything in medium flame for 10minutes and cook in simmer until they liquid evaporates and you get a sticky,thick mixture.

Form little balls out of the slightly warm mixture with ur hand.

Place on a plate and chill it in fridge for a atleast two hours.

Beware these laddoos are quite addictive.

Greenpeas Kachori with Spicy Dum Aloo /Koraishutir Kochuti R Aloor Dam~~SNC Challenge

Do i need to talk about the successful monthly event called 'SNC challenge', i can talk about this event for a whole day, actually this event is started by one of the most sweetest blogger of this virtual world,she is none other than Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook. The motto of this event is to exchange an Indian recipe between two teams. One team is Southern team (bloggers  born and brought in South India) and the another one team is Northern team (food bloggers born and brought in North India). Every first of a month, a blogger from each team will challenge a recipe from their origin and the opposite team have to cook the recipe challenged by the other team. If you are like me,a South Indian by birth obviously you wont have any idea of many traditional dishes from North India, obviously this event will definitely motivate you to cook and taste those unknown famous North Indian foods.

Today morning, the first thing i did is to check my mail to know wat was our this month's SNC challenge, thank god Sonali challenged us with my favourite deep fried fritters called 'Greenpeas Kachori with Dum Aloo', i have already tasted kachori with green peas and dum aloo apart but never together, definitely this kachori with dum aloo is a wonderful chance for us to taste this fabulous Bengali delicacy challenged by the wonderful Sanoli while Southern team challenged the northern team with Paal Kozhukattai, a recipe challenged by Tamilarasi, every South Indians would have definitely tasted this lil rice dumplings in sweet coconut milk atleast once in a while, its quite a traditional sweet we do quite often during Ganesh Chathurthi or else sometime for our evening snacks.

Thanks to both Sanoli and Tamilarasi for being this month's hosts and am sure both teams will have definitely a wonderful time in cooking these both challenges. Since i have all the ingredients for the greenpeas kachori and dum aloo, just finished making them and enjoying while writing this post. I just skipped my lunch as i could resist tasting this yummy food,enjoying this beautiful kachoris with flavourful and fingerlicking dum aloo. Sanoli, am loving this combo dear, if you would havent challenged us with this recipe,i would have never thought of combining this both together. Thanks a ton. 

For Green Peas Filling:

3cups Green Peas (frozen)

4nos Green Chillies

1/4tsp Asafoetida

1tsp Ginger paste

1tsp Sugar

1tspCumin powder

1tbsp Clarified Butter/ghee

Salt to taste

For Kachoris:

3cups All Purpose Flour /maida

1/2 tsp Salt

4 tbsps Oil 

Oil for Deepfrying

Grind the green peas with green chillies with few drops of water as coarse paste.

Heat the ghee, add the asafoetida powder,fry and add the grounded green peas paste in it, add now the ginger paste and mix everything nicely.

Now add the cumin powder, salt and sugar to the paste and stir continously until the excess water evaporates.

Once the mixture is almost dry,put off the stove and keep aside to cool completely.

Take the maida,salt and oil in a bowl, knead to a smooth and stiff dough with enough water and keep for half an hour aside.

Divide the dough and the already prepared green peas paste as equal balls.

Roll a dough ball as a small disc, place a green peas ball and seal the edges tightly, roll it gently as a circle with a rolling pin, be careful not to press much so that the filling will come out.

Meanwhile heat the oil for deep frying, once the oil is hot, drop gently the already rolled kachoris and fry until the oil stops bubbling.

Drain the excess of oil with a paper towel and repeat the same process until the dough and filling gets finished.

For Dum Aloo:

10nos Baby Potatoes

1/4 tsp Asafoetida powder

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp Fennel seeds

1 Bay leaf

1/2cup Green Peas

4nos Green Chillies (chopped)

1no Tomato (big & chopped)

1/2tsp Turmeric powder

1/2tsp Cumin powder

1tbsp Ginger paste

1tsp Coriander powder

1tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli powder

1/2tsp Sugar

1/2tsp Garam Masala

2tbsps Coriander Leaves(chopped)

3/4cup Plain Yogurt (thick)

Oil

Salt

Wash and pressure cook the baby potatoes, once they get cool,peel the potatoes.

Heat oil in a pan,fry the baby potatoes until they turns brown, remove from the oil and keep aside.

To the same pan, fry the bay leaf,asafoetida powder,cumin seeds,fennel seeds until they turns brown;

Add in the green peas and fry for few minutes, add now the chopped tomatoes,green chillies and fry for few more minutes.

Finally add the turmeric powder,coriander powder, ginger paste,chilly powder and salt, cook until the oil separates from the spices.

Now add the sugar,already fried potatoes and cook for 3minutes, add the thick yogurt to the potatoes,cook everything for 5minutes and put of the stove,finally add the coriander leaves.

Serve hot the green peas kachori along with spicy fingerlicking dum aloo..

Patishapta - A Bengali Sweet Crepe

Indian cuisine have varieties of foods, each and every part of India have their traditional,authentic dishes. Since even i joined Indian Cooking Challenge a monthly event by Srivalli,am learning truly variety of foods from India.We already cooked from many parts of India, for this month's challenge she choosed this addictive,super delicious patishapta, an incredible sweet crepes prepared in Bengal during the festival of sankranti. I have already had many varieties of crepes,but this bengali sweet crepe was quite different from the others, the filling used in this crepe goes for a lovely coconut,palmsugar and khoya mixture.

These crepes were super soft and with this coconut-khoya filling, these crepes tastes fabulously awesome when we enjoyed this. Usually this crepes are served with sweetened milk but i served them with condensed milk which gives more sweetness to this wonderful sweet crepe, if you are an ardent fan of Bengali sweets like me you will definitely fallen in love with this crepes.Thanks to Sandeepa for sharing this yummy crepes.Sending to Ramadan Friendly Recipes by Halal Foodie.

For Batter:
1cup Maida
4tsp Rawa
2tsp Rice flour
1+3/4cups Milk

For Filling:
1cup Grated fresh coconut
1/2cup Khoya
1/4cup Palm sugar/Regular sugar

Sweetened condensed milk (for serving)

Heat a pan, take the coconut and sugar together,mix it well with a spatula, once the sugar melts add the khoya and cook until the mixture turns thick.

Meanwhile mix all the ingredients given for the batter in a bowl and makes a smooth batter.

Heat a tawa, pour a ladle of this prepared batter and spread it as round thin circle, if needed drizzle melted butter or ghee.

Once it gets cooked, flip it and cook the other side.

Place the prepared filling in the middle and bring the edges of the crepe to the center.

Serve immediately drizzled with sweetened condensed milk.

Posto Murgi/Chicken Gravy with Poppy Seeds

I was planning to make a different type of chicken gravy since a long,after making out of variety of dishes here comes a Bengali style chicken gravy. When i talked with one of my close friend from Pondicherry, she asked me to try out a Bengali chicken gravy called posto murgi she watched in a cookery show long back and she suggested me to give a try as she already prepared twice and its was a big hit at her place.. Immediately i took notes from her and tried out making them few days back at home. Oh god, she wasnt wrong, this posto murgi tastes simply awesome when served with a bowl of hot steaming rice.

Suits absolutely incredible even as side dish for rotis, we simply loved it. If you dont have Kashmiri red chilly powder, you can use usual red chilly powder in this gravy, anyhow adding Kashmiri red chilly powder gives a wonderful colour and mild spiciness to this delicious gravy.Sending to Divya's The Master Chef Contest.

1/2kg Chicken (cut as medium pieces)
1no Onion (large & chopped)
1tbsp Ginger garlic paste
1tsp Kashmiri red chilly powder
1tsp Garam masala powder
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Lime juice
Salt
Oil
2nos Bayleaves
Chopped coriander leaves

To grind: 
2tbsp Poppy seeds (soaked in hot water)
3nos Green chillies

Marinate the chicken with garam masala powder,turmeric powder,salt and lime juice and keep aside for half an hour.

Heat enough oil, fry the bayleaves. Add immediately the chopped onions,ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smells goes away.

Now add the marinated chicken, cook everything for few minutes. Meanwhile grind the soaked poppyseeds, green chilles as fine paste and keep aside.

Add the kashmiri red chilly powder, grounded poppy paste to the cooking chicken, cook everything for few minutes again.

Now add enough water and cook until the chicken gets well cooked and the gravy gets thicken.Serve hot with rice.

Mango Rasgullas ~~ My Guest Post For Jagruti

When Jagruti of Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey asked to me for a guest post, i immediately said ok.Seriously i wanted to make something specially for her. As i know she loves very much mangoes i combined my favourite famous Bengali sweets rasgullas with her favourite fruit mango, both together makes a wonderful exotic and super delicious spongy juicy rasgullas.Am so happy that Jags loved my guest post and she just posted this guest post in her space today.Do check out here.

Coming to this rasgullas, i used thick mango pulp while preparing the sugar syrup and this mango rasgullas were quite addictive,extremely delicious. My lil one who rarely love mango based desserts simply enjoyed having this super juicy rasgullas.

2litres Full fat milk
3tbsp Lemon juice
1+1/2cups Sugar
1cup Thick Mango pulp
3cups Water
1/2tsp Cardamom powder

Take the milk in a heavy bottomed vessel,bring boil and keep stirring to avoid burning of milk..

Once the milk comes to boil, start adding the lemon juice and keep stirring,put the flame in simmer and cook for few seconds until the milk solids gets separates from the whey.Switch off the heat.

Pour this curdled milk to the already lined muslin cloth over a strainer,squeeze out all the whey water and rinse the milk solids/paneer under water and squeeze out the water as much as possible.Place a heavy weight over the drained milk solids/paneer to squeeze out the water completely.

Take the paneer in a vessel,mash it well and knead for few minutes until they turns soft...make medium sized balls from the smooth dough, take care not to have any crack on the ball.

Boil the water in a pressure cooker,add the sugar,cardamom powder and mango pulp to the water,bring to boil.

Add the already prepared paneer balls to the cooking syrup. Put the lid and cook till 3 hisses.

Once the pressure gets released,open the lid and transfer the mango rasgullas to the bowl and let them cool completely.

Arrange in fridge for an hour before serving topped with sliced almonds.

Orange Kheer

Orange kheer also well known as kamla kheer is quite famous in most of the Bengali home..This kheer is quite easy to make and definitely a super delicious yummy kheer to enjoy either warm or chilled..If you are bored of eating your oranges as salads or in bakes, just give a try to this super irresistible kheer, even kids will love this orange kheer..Yep this kheer was quite a big hit at home,my teddies just enjoyed having this delicious kheer for their dessert after their lunch, wat an incredible way to enjoy this vitamin rich fruits na!!!

4cups Milk
1cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
5nos Cardamom pods (crushed)
Few Saffron strands
2cups Orange (peeled,segments and deseeded)
Few nuts for garnishing

Heat together the milk, sweetened condensed milk, crushed cardamom pods in a large pan and cook until they turns bit thick.

Add the saffron strands to the milk mixture and cook again for 2-3minutes..take off the bowl and let them cool..

Add the deseeded & segmented orange pieces to the milk and arrange in fridge for an hour..Serve chilled topped with nuts.

Jhinge Posto - MW Version

Jhinge posto is quite a popular poppyseeds based ridgegourd curry traditionally prepared in Bengal either with a combination of potatoes or simply with prawns, my version goes just with ridgegourd which is called as Jhinge in Bengali..This flavourful dish goes for a poppyseeds and green chillies paste and cooked in mustard oil..Since ever i prepared making curries with mustard oil,i have completely got hooked to this flavourful oil and i could stop myself getting them from India..I prepared this easy breezy posto through microwave oven and this posto get ready very much quickly and we enjoyed having it with  rice..Hope you guys would have enjoyed my 7 days of microwave cooking, this is our last day of  blogging marathon, do check my other buddies running this 8th edition with me here..

2cups Ridgegourd pieces (diced)
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
2nos Green chillies (chopped)
2tbsp Poppyseeds
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
Mustard oil
Salt

Take enough mustard oil and mustard seeds in a microwave safe bowl,cook in high power for 2 minutes, add now the diced ridge gourd pieces,turmeric powder and salt,cook everything in high for 3 minutes, meanwhile grind the poppyseeds and green chillies as fine paste, add this grounded paste to hald cooked ridgegourd pieces,give a stir and cook for 5minutes(stir twice in between) until they get well cooked..

Serve hot as side dish with rice or rotis..

Dudh Diye Lau - Bengali Bottlegourd Curry

I crossed this quick and easy breezy side dish with bottlegourd from Sandeepa's Bong Mom Cookbook, i immediately bookmarked this simple and quick bottlegourd curry from her space and tried out this delicious curry this weekend...I totally got hooked the simplicity of this wonderful looking curry, which tastes marvellous when served along with rotis as well as with rice...This dish goes for bottlegourd chunks cooked with milk along with simple spices..Obviously, its quite light,mildly sweet curry to enjoy for a simple lunch..Sending Flavors of Bengal guest hosted by Priya,event by Nayna..



3cups Bottlegourd chunks
1/4cup Milk
1tbsp All purpose flour
2tsp Ghee
1no Bayleaf
2nos Green cardamoms
1no Cinnamon stick
2nos Dry red chillies (broken)
1/2tsp Cumin seeds
1/2tsp Sugar
Salt

Take the bottlegourd chunks with salt but without water in a vessel..Once its starts cooking, the bottlegourd chunks release enough water..Cook until the water gets evaporates..Make a white paste with milk and all purpose flour..add this paste to the cooked bottlegourd chunks and mix gently..

Meanwhile heat the ghee, fry the bay leaf,cardamom,cinnamon stick,broken dry red chillies and cumin seeds, add this tempered spices to the cooking veggies,stir and cook for few minutes, finally add the sugar and salt to veggies, cook until the water gets evaporates..Serve it topped with grated coconut or crumbled fried papads..

Lau Mung Sukto

I crossed this yummy and easy breezy curry with bottlegourd and moongdal at Sunanda's space, this dish immediately attracted my attention coz its quite easy and completely new curry for me, with less ingredients i never thought of making this delicious lau mung sukto ever before...As i love to cook different dishes everyday and i never stopped making varieties of dishes from other cuisines, this sukto was truly prefect for me to try..This sukto gets ready in less time and tastes super prefect when served with rice..I cooked this sukto in pressure cooker which helps a lot for quick cooking, serve this sukto with rice and pickles you will definitely enjoy this mild dal curry...Thanks to Sunanda for sharing this easy bottlegourd moongdal curry,am sending this lau mung sukto to Flavors of Bengal guest hosted by Priya,event by Nayna..



2cups Bottlegourd (cubed)
1cup Moongdal
1tbsp Ginger (grated)
1tsp Turmeric powder
3nos Green chillies
1tsp Mustard seeds
2nos Bay leaves
2nos Dry red chillies
Salt
1/2tsp Sugar
Few coriander leaves

Cook the moongdal in pressure cooker upto 2 hisses with salt until they turns soft,once the steam get released, add the cubed bottlegourd,turmeric powder and cook with lid closed until the bottlegourd pieces get well cooked..

In a small pan, fry the bayleaves, dry red chillies and mustard, add this tempered spices to the cooking dal, now add the green chillies,grated ginger and sugar and cook everything for few minutes..Add the coriander leaves and put off the stove..

Serve hot with rice and pickles or papads..

Mango Kalakand - Microwave version

Happy Mother's Day to all..Hope you guys are having a wonderful sunday..I wanted to celebrate today, the mother's day with some mango kalakand which i prepared with ricotta cheese and store bought mango pulp...This fabulous looking milk sweet gets ready quickly in microwave, i have already tried a variety of kalakand eventhough my favourite goes to this delicious mango kalakand, i couldnt stop having them and i loved it...A prefect sweet to celebrate this wonderful mother's day and i dedicated this marvellous mango kalakand to each and every moms and future moms all over the world..



1cup Ricotta cheese(full fat)
1cup Sugar
1/2cup Mango pulp (store bought)
2cup Milk Powder(low fat)
Few Chironji (for garnishing)
2tbsp Crushed pistachios
1tbsp Butter

Take a microwave bowl, add the ricotta cheese, sugar, milk powder,rosewater, mango pulp and butter, stir them well until the cheese gets well mixed, this may looks as creamy paste..keep the microwave in high temperature for 5 minutes n cook this milk mixture, they may doubled their volume, stir them once, keep again in high temperature for 20 minutes, cook again..

You may see the milk mixture might have turned slightly brownish colour at the edges,add the crushed pistachios,give a stir..now transfer to a flat dish or plate, sprinkle the chironjo pieces on the top as u desire..keep aside and let them cool..once they gets cooled cut them any shape as yo u wish..

Okra Alu Posto

Most of us know about the famous aloo posto, the popular Bengali potato dish prepared with potatoes along with poppy seeds, for a change i prepared the same alu posto along with few bhindi/okra or lady'sfinger, for my surprise this combo tastes marvellous and this posto gets ready quickly, also vanished within few minutes once i served along with rice..Poppy seeds grounded along with green chillies used to spice up this okra alu posto turned out this dish truly delicious, we enjoyed having this quick and delicious side dish today for our lunch...Sending to Flavors of Bengal guest hosted by Priya,event by Nayna..



1/4kg Okra/ Bhindi (chopped lengthwise)
2nos Potatoes (cubed)
4tbsp Poppyseeds
3nos Green chillies
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
Salt
2tbsp Oil

Grind the poppy seeds with green chillies as coarse paste, heat enough oil, fry the bhindis  along with salt and turmeric for few minutes,now add the cubed potatoes,cook everything again for few minutes, add the grounded paste to the veggies, mix well and cook until the veggies gets well coated with the poppyseeds paste,finally sprinkle some water and cook until the veggies get well cooked..

Serve hot with rice..

Bengali Triangle Parota & Alu Bati Charchari

I love to cook various cuisines,quite often i never failed to try and taste many wonderful dishes from those cuisines...I wanted to prepare some rotis but not the same usual rotis which i make usually for our dinner, while going through Bong Mom's Cookbook this triangle parota and potato curry served along with the parota tempted me a lot and the best part of this both recipes is they goes for easy breezy preparation also these both dishes gets ready within less than 30minutes which sounds and suits prefect for me,thats why without any hesitation i prepared this wonderful looking parota and alu bati charchari for our today's lunch...Both together tastes absolutely divine and we loved it..Parota turned out super soft and the alu bati charchari gets ready quickly with a distinct flavour coz of the mustard oil...Most of us know that Bengali cuisine goes often for mustard oil,which is quite unfamiliar for South Indians like me, i picked a bottle of mustard oil when we went to Indian grocery last week to try out dishes with it..For the first time i used mustard oil in my cooking and everyone at home loved the flavour of mustard oil..I have to say a big thanks to Sandeepa for sharing this fabulous parotas and alu bati charchari....Sending to Nayna's Flavors of Bengal guest hosted by Priya..



Bengali Triangle Parota:
1cup All purpose flour/Maida
1cup Wholewheat flour
1tbsp Ghee
1cup Warm water
Salt
Flour for dusting & rolling
Ghee+oil for cooking

In a large bowl, take together the flours,salt and ghee,gradually add the warm water and turn everything as a smooth and soft dough,cover the bowl with damp kitchen towel and keep aside for 15minutes..Knead well the dough after 15minutes and make medium sized balls...

Dust the balls with enough flour,roll them as small sized circles, fold the circle as semi circle and fold the semi circle to triangle (lift the right end of the semi circle to meet the left end)..Roll well the triangle as large triangles dusted with enough flour...Heat a tawa,drop gently the rolled triangle parota,drizzle the ghee or oil,cook on both sides until they get well cooked..

Alu Bati Charchari:
4nos Potatoes (cut lengthwise)
2tbsp Mustard oil
4nos Green chillies (slit opened)
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
Salt
Water

Heat mustard oil, fry the slit opened green chillies, immediately add the potatoes,salt and turmeric powder,saute everything for few seconds, add enough water to cover the potatoes,cook everything without stirring the potatoes until the water gets disappears, finally drizzle some mustard oil and serve along with the triangle parota..

Enjoy this wonderful dishes together for lunch or for dinner,the choice is urs...

We are running our 7th day blogging marathon,do check my buddies wat they cooked for our today's BM..
Diabetes Diet/Management: Srivalli, Champa, Harini, PJ Kid Friendly Recipes: Kalyani, Shylaja, Veena Seven Days of Soup:Usha, Sowmya 30 Minutes Meals: Me Seven days of Cakes:  Anusha..