Alu Jhinge Posto - A Gourdious Dish

 We have changed supermarket and switched to Morrisons. Tesco might sulk but we couldn't help it. Whoever has seen the recent make-over on Morrisons will understand my decision. The are A-M-A-zing! Especially the array and display of vegetables and fruits has completely blown us off. I have never seen so many different kinds of lettuces under the same roof. The herbs are so fresh that you have to resist yourself from pouncing on them. Everything is vibrant and fresh. And wait..the best part is yet to come. They keep our beloved Indian vegetables in bulk and don't ask for a hand and foot for them. I behaved like a girl in Disney store when I went there. You can't blame me for that. First time in this country I've seen whole, fresh and green Lau/Lauki (Bottle Gourds), Jhinge (Ridge Gourds), Uchchey (Bitter Gourd), Ol Kopi (Kholrabi) and Pepe (Raw Green Papaya). For the past 7 years we are so used to seeing the same in horrible forms, mutated shapes and scratches and scars all over them that seeing these beauties almost brought tears into my eyes. Yes that was going too far but trust me when I say that my heart started dancing in joy and I looked at the husband to see the same pleasure in his eyes.

I remember my Shejo Mama (Maternal Uncle) used to be in charge of doing vegetable and fish/meat shopping on Sundays or whenever there was any get together or occasion at my Mamarbari (Uncle's House). He used to take it upon himself to wake up early in the morning and take the 'Mashkabari Parar Rickshaw(local rental pulled cart) to Kali Babur Bajar in Howrah, West Bengal. He was a man of military discipline and we kids were all very scared of him though now when I think back I don't see him like that anymore.He was very particular about Sunday lunches, probably because that was the only meal he could have with his family. He was a connoisseur in Bengali food and made sure that we eat each and every course of a four or five course meal. So Sunday lunches at Mamarbari wasn't a very pleasurable experience, especially when you cannot jump to Mangsho Bhat (Meat & Rice - The main course) instead of having Uchchey or Dal Torkari (Lentil soup and Vegetable curry) first. He didn't understand that we were kids and we were not supposed to love Jhinge Posto or Uchchey Bhaate, just like we didn't understand the sweetness and emotion involved in a traditional Bengali family meal. 

Coming back to the recipe, Alu-Jheenge Posto (Potatoes and Ridge Gourd cooked in Poppy Paste) accompanied by any kind of Dal (Lentil soup) is one of the ultimate Bong comfort foods. Served with steaming hot boiled rice and a dash of mustard oil or Ghee, it can make any Bong sing Dhinka Chika at any given time of the day!

Alu Jhinge Posto

Prep time - 10 minutes

Cooking time - 20 minutes

Makes enough for 4

Ingredients : 

Potatoes - 2 large, peeled, washed and cubed

Ridge Gourd/Jhinge - 2 large, peeled, washed and cubed

Green Chillies - 2-3 split

Salt  - 1 1/2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Nigella Seeds/Kalo Jeere/Kalonji - 1/2 tsp

Posto/KhasKhas/Poppy Seed Paste - 4-5 tbsp *

Mustard Oil - 2 tbsp (you can use Sunflower oil if you want)

Method : 

Heat oil in a pan/wok and add the Nigella seeds. Let them splutter.  Add 1 chilli and the vegetables and fry on high heat for a few minutes. Add the salt and turmeric and mix well. Add 1/2 cup of water and cover and cook till the potatoes are almost done. 

Remove the cover and add the poppy paste. Mix well and cook on high heat till all the water has been absorbed. Add the rest of the chillies and a dash of mustard oil(optional). Serve hot with rice and a dal of your choice. 

(*Note - Poppy paste is normally made using a Sheel Noda/speciality stone Mortar and Pestle. It can also be made using the small Chutney attachment of your food processor)

Musurir Dal/Masoor Dal

Prep Time - 2 minutes

Cooking time - 10 minutes

Makes for 4

Ingredients : For the Dal

Musurir Dal/Masoor Dal/Red Lentils - 1 cup

Water - 3-4 cups

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Sugar - A Pinch

For tempering

Nigella Seeds - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 small, chopped

Garlic - 1 clove, chopped(optional)

Tomato - 1 small, chopped 

Green Chillies - 2-3

Corriander Leaves - a few stalks, chopped

Sunflower Oil - 2 tbsp

Ghee - 1 tsp (optional)

Method : 

Pressure cook the Dal alond with all the ingredients listed under 'For the Dal'. Bengali style Masoor Dal shouldn't be too mushy so cook accordingly (I wait till 1 whistle and then take the pressure out). 

Heat oil in a wok and add the nigella seeds, garlic and chillies and temper for 2 minutes. Add the onions and fry till they start changing colour. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the dal and incorporate everything nicely. Add the corriander leaves and the Ghee if using.

Kolkata style Chilli Fish

Yes. As all of you've already guessed, I'm a huge fan of Chinese food! I love the Indianised Chinese food that we all grew up eating. All those MSG loaded Hakka Noodles, Fried Rices and our very own Kolkata special Chilli Chicken and Chilli Fish dishes. We Bongs have very peculiar food habits. When it comes to street food there's an amazing unity amongst all the communities. We claim that we like fish and rice but the truth is that we eat anything and everything and we simply love to eat. Period. Maybe that's the reason why Kolkata is considered to be food lover's paradise by many. No matter what kind of cuisine you are looking for you will find it there. It's because of this reason, one of the most favourite places on a food lover's 'must visit' list in Kolkata is the China Town or more popularly known as Tangra.

I'm not sure whether there is indeed any authentic Chinese dish called Chilli Chicken/Fish or even Manchurian. I asked a few Chinese friends and colleagues and everybody seemed to be at loss after hearing these names! But then why the heck should I care or even complain! We are talking about one the most popular street food in Kolkata remember? This particular dish is not only available in the Chinese restaurants but also at all the little roadside stalls and even five stars. So you can guess how much this preparation is loved by all us Bongs...well not only Bongs but all the Kolkatans as a matter of fact! 

So suddenly with the KKR winning and all, I decided to make this dish as a tribute to Kolkata. It's a pretty simple dish to make, though a bit time consuming. But the end result is definitely worth the try. My 4 year old loved the fried Fish and we couldn't stop munching on them too. Perfect as starters on their own too. 

Kolkata Style Chilli Fish

Prep Time - 30 minutes plus marinating time

Cooking Time - 45 minutes (Fish needs to be fried in batches)

Makes enough for 4

Ingredients : 

 For the Battered Fish - 

Any kind of white fish like Cod/Haddock/Barramundi - 600 gms , skinned and cubed

Onion - 1 coarsely grated

Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp

Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp

Green Chillies - 2-3 minced

Salt according to taste

Cornflour - 1/4 cup
1 egg

Plain Flour - 1/4 cup

Sunflower oil to fry

For the gravy - 

Onion - 1 diced

Green Pepper - 1 cubed

Green Chillies - 10 halved (more if you want it hotter)

Ginger - 1/2 tsp minced

Garlic - 1 tsp minced

Rice Vinegar - 2-3 tbsp

Dark Soya Sauce - 3-4 tbsp

Green Chilli Sauce - 3-4 tbsp (use any other hot chilli sauce if this unavailable)

Tomato Sauce/Ketchup - 2-3 tbsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Cornflour - 2 tbsp

Water - 1 cup + 1 tbsp

Oil - 3 tbsp

Method : 

For the Fish - 

Marinate the fish pieces with the onion, ginger, garlic and chillies for sometime, preferably 2-3 hours. Beat the egg separately and add it to the fish and mix well. Add salt and the flours and mix until all the fish pieces and coated nicely with the batter. Do not add water as the egg and water released by the fish and onion is enough for this batter. 

Heat oil in a wok and deep/shallow fry the fish pieces. Try to scoop a spoonful of battered marinated fish and add them to the oil. That way the fried fish will be flavourful. Fry in batches until golden brown and remove. Keep on paper towels to remove excess oil. (* These tiny fish bites are perfect as starters!)

For the Gravy - 

Heat oil in a wok and add the sugar. Let it turn dark and add the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add the chillies and peppers and fry on high heat for a few minutes. Add all the sauces and Vinegar and mix well. 

Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp of water and keep aside. Add 1 cup of water to the wok and bring to boil. Add the cornflour paste, season with salt and pepper boil till the gravy thickens. If needed add more cornflour paste to the gravy. Remove from heat and garnish with Julienned spring onions. Serve hot with your choice of noodles, fried rice or even chapatis. 

Mother's Day and Caribbean Chicken with Rice

It was the global Mother's Day this weekend gone. Though UK and a few other countries have different Mother Days but we still felt the love and mushiness on Sunday as everywhere on the internet I could see special messages, wall posts, photographs and fond memories.I was, hence, trying to remember what it was like when we were small. Did we celebrate Mother's Day, Father's Day or even more common ones like Valentine's Day or even Birthdays. I don't know about others but being from a middle class Bengali family, celebrating Birthdays or Christmas were joyous occasions that me and my brother used to look forward to all year round. Birthdays meant we got to eat our favourite meals cooked specially for us at home, new clothes, a home made cake, a few friends invited over for dinner and a few story books as presents. Christmas was special not only because we got a present each and  a tiny little bright sparkly Christmas Tree from the Hogg Market, but also because Ma used to make the best fruit cake in the world and me and Dada used to steal the chopped mixed dry fruits in the middle of the night. Yes that was the best part of our childhood Christmas Days. We didn't even know that days specially dedicated to mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters or lovers existed. Maybe because Archie's Gallery or Hallmark Cards didn't exist either.

How I wish now that we were aware of Mother's Day or Father's Day when we were small kids. We loved our parents then as well. But I am sure they would have loved a special day too, a day when they would be treated like royalties, showered with presents and cards. Cards that are not shop bought, but hand made with clumsy drawings on them and tiny little prints of fingers and palms all over them.  Thinking back now I realise that we never thought of expressing our love to our parents very often. I hardly ever said 'I Love you' to Ma or Baba. I say that quite often now to Ma now. But you see talking to photos is not a very sane thing to do and fortunately or rather unfortunately photos cannot say 'I Love you too' back to you. But I am sure somewhere she is still there and she knows how much I love her or how much I used to love her when I was as small as Little T or a troublesome teenager or even a nervous bride desperate for the mom-daughter talk before the big day. Missing out on so many things have made me determined to not miss a single moment of my daughter's life. 

And there are times when I daydream. And....I have this really crazy wish! You know when you see a movie where somebody's wishes are granted by the Almighty posing as a janitor or even in those flicks where you can time travel and all that crazy stuff. So if I ever by some miracle see my Ma again, I will definitely tell her how much I love her and how much I miss her every waking second of my life. And I will give her a hand made Mother's Day card and see that beautiful heartwarming smile for one more time! 

''If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!''

Happy Mother's Day Ma. 

Caribbean Chicken with Rice

This is an One-Pot dish and is ideal for mommies on the go. It's perfect for any kind of meal and is best served with some green salad on the side. 

Recipe by Sara Lewis

Serves - 4

Prep time - 30 mins

Cooking time - 7-9 hours

Cooking temperature - medium to high

Ingredients : 

Chicken thighs and drumsticks - 8, skinned

Jerk Marinade - 1 small jar *

Sunflower Oil - 2 tbsp

Onions - 2 large, chopped

Garlic - 2 large cloves, minced

Coconut milk - 400 ml, reduced fat

Chicken stock - 300 ml

Canned Kidney beans - 410 gm, drained

Long grain rice - 200 gm

Frozen peas - a couple of handfuls

Salt and pepper

* This is a fruity curry paste that is available on the shelves of all leading supermarkets.

Method : 

Slash each chicken drumstick and thigh two or three times. Rub the chicken pieces with half a jar of Jerk marinade and keep aside for 5 minutes. 

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large frying pan, add the chicken and fry over a high heat until browned on both sides. Lift out and transfer to a plate. Add the remaining oil, onion and garlic, reduce the hear and fry for 5 minutes or until lightly browned and softened. Add the remaining Jerk marinade and cook for another 2 minutes. Pour in the coconut milk and stock, season with salt and pepper and bring the mixture to boil.

 

Transfer half of the mixture to the slow cooker pot, add half of the chicken pieces, all the beans and then the remaining chicken and onion and coconut milk mixture. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until the chicken is tender and cooked thoroughly.

Wash the rice the rice about 1 hour before adding to the pot and drain the water completely. Stir in the rice after the chicken is cooked completely, replace the lid and cook on high for 45 minutes. Add the frozen peas(no need to defrost) and cook for 15 minutes more. Spoon on to plate and serve with a green salad.

Butter Chicken - a slow cooked version

 

First of all I apologise to all my readers for not posting anything for over a month. But those of you who know the real me will know that it is not a new thing :/. But I swear this time the it was not my laziness that was the culprit. It's just that we were all feeling quite down under the weather. We had a glimpse of Spring before it got hidden behind the grey clouds again. The Easter Holidays were the worst ones ever this year with all of us being severely unwell because of a Viral infection. We even had to rush Little T to the A&E because of a tummy bug and it caused severe dehydration. She was poorly for 2 whole weeks and the time dragged. Sometimes, when our kids are unwell, we realise how helpless we can feel as parents. You can see your child in pain but still cannot do anything about it except for offering them even more unconditional love and a safe, secured lap to lie in. 

Anyway I guess that's the part of life nobody can avoid. We all get rough patches and we try and overcome them. That's what life is all about isn't it? Oh and yes our tiny little Cherry tree finally gave us the very first blossoms. We are getting lots and lots of rain this year and my back garden is happy. I can see luscious green lawn, an array of colourful blooms and the first batch of strawberries coming out too. All these small things along with the little one's laughter is more than enough to make me happy. :)

 

My second baby is not very happy about the rains though. Mostly because thousands of slugs are out and about when it's damp and they are quite dangerous for pets, in case they get stuck on their skin. So I don't allow her to be outside for long. Cats and water don't actually get along very well anyway. She will still try to brave the rains for her morning outdoor ritual  - pooing in my veg patch, eating grass, drinking the fresh rain water accumulated in various empty pots and of course her most favourite activity, bird spotting, and quite literally so. She is one of the most non-violent cats I've ever seen.in fact she is probably THE most non-violent cats on the face of earth! She would definitely get a place in the party if Gandhi Ji was still around. Tom hasn't killed a fly in her life. Sometimes I pet-sit my friend's hamsters and Tom would just sit outside their cages and look at them, quite affectionately! Similarly she would sit on the lawn and look at the birds, never trying once to catch them or even scare them away. I've had her for almost 6 years now and she hasn't even hissed at anybody, let alone scratching. She is my angel in disguise.

 

So since everybody at home is feeling a bit better after the ordeal, I decided to make something nice but healthy at the same time to lift up everybody's mood. Hence I made this Butter Chicken but with as little butter as possible. I slow cooked it and it turned out to be a light but tasty curry dish. Here's how I made it.

Kashmiri Butter Chicken

Serves - 4

Prep time - 15 mins

Slow Cooking time - 4-5hrs

Ingredients : 

Boneless Chicken Thighs - 500 gm

Onions - 2, blended into a course paste

Ginger Paste - 1 tsp

Garlic Paste - 1tsp

1 large red chilli, halved and seeds discarded

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp, roasted and crushed **

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp, roasted and crushed  **

Cardamom Pods - 1, roasted and crushed **

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Ground Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp

Chicken Stock - 300 ml

Tomato Puree - 2 tbsp

Fresh Cream

Butter - 25 gm

Sunflower Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Sugar - 1 tsp

Toasted Almond Flakes - 2 tbsp (Optional)

 

Method : 

Cut each thigh into 4-5 pieces. Heat the oil in a wok and fry the chicken pieces, a few pieces at a time. Cook on a high flame until evenly browned. Transfer the chicken pieces to a plate.

 

 Add the butter to the wok and when it has melted add the onion paste. Cook over moderate heat until it has just started to colour. Add the ginger and garlic paste and cook for a further 3-5 minutes till the raw smell is gone. Stir in all the crushed dry spices and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato pure and cook till oil separates.

Add the stock and season with salt and sugar. Bring to boil. 

Transfer the chicken pieces to the slow cooker pot and pour in the hot onion mixture. Press the chicken pieces down below the surface of the liquid. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 5-7 hours. 

Stir in the cream before serving and check seasoning. Garnish with the almond flakes and serve with naan or pulao.

**Notes - It's better if you can make large batches of these dry spices and store them in air tight jars. Makes life easier and the whole cooking process quicker too. Roast large quantities(about 50gms each) of the dry spices like cumin, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon etc separately and grind them. **

Simple Oat Cookies

 

Spring is finally here! And so are all the garden tea parties, barbeques, colours, freshness, Spring Couture and of course my very old friend the Hay Fever!We cannot have everything good, now can we? I love spring in the UK though. I love everything about it. We never experience spring in India or at least in Kolkata. There it goes straight to 30 degrees after winter. Some, however, may argue that winter there is so mild and beautiful that one doesn't need Spring. But said that it is also true that no matter how beautiful the weather is the freshness in the air is absent and so are all the different colours! The bst part of Sopring in this country is the vibrant colours, especially the greens. 

One of life's simple joys is to sit in the sun with a cuppa and watch the children play. We are enjoying our Easter break now. While it's lovely to spend some quality time with kids, it's also painstakingly busy and hectic. They get bored very quickly and easily and hence expect you to be an entertainer 24/7. So it's a constant array of backyard picnics, movies, pizzas and sleep overs! 

 

I always keep cookies handy during the school holidays. They are easy to make, can be made in bulk and is mess free!!! The kids can just snack on a couple of cookies and a glass of milk and they are happy bunnies! I have been making this simple Lemon Oat Cookies for quite sometime now and they are perfect accompaniments with your tea and the little one's milk. 

 

Oat Cookies with a hint of Lemon

Ingredients :Makes 20

Butter - Unsalted, 270 gm

Caster Sugar - 160 gm

Soft Brown Sugar - 160 gm

Eggs - 2

Lemon Extract - 1/2 tsp

Plain Flour - 380 gm

Rolled Oats - 110 gm

Salt - 1 tsp

Bicarbonate of Soda - 1 tsp

Cinnamon - Ground, 1/2 tsp

Method : 

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees/ Gas 3. Put the butter and sugars in a free standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment and cream until light and fluffy. You can use a normal blender too. In that case blend for 5-6 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scrapping any unmixed ingredient with a rubber spatula. Turn it to slow and beat in the lemon extract.

Sift together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Add the oats and mix well. Add this to the butter mixture and beat well until well mixed. 

Arrange equal amounts of cookie dough on the prepared baking trays. Make sure there is enough space between cookies to let them spread. Bake in the pre heated oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown and firm. Leave to cool slightly in the trays before turning them out on a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

Prep Time - 15 minutes

Cooking time - 12 minutes

*Note* 

You can add raisins to the batter at the end of the mixing procedure for that ultimate Oat-Rasin Cookies experience. In that case ditch the Lemon extract and add Vanilla extract instead. **

Chingri Malakari - Prawns in a Coconut Milk Sauce

After a week (or decade) of salads and proteins I wanted to make something comforting and traditional for our Saturday lunch. I had a bag of king prawns sitting inside the freezer and half a can of coconut milk in the fridge. Now that's rare thing with me. Whenever I suddenly crave for something I usually find that one or the other ingredient is missing from my pantry. I'm not one of those people who buys stuff without planning the menu first. Yes, call me crazy but that's how I am. I have a separate calendar and diary for meal planning. I normally chalk up a weeks menu (Dinner) in advance and make my shopping list accordingly instead of throwing stuff in the shopping trolley and then decide what to do with them. Hence, I hardly end up with two random stuff which are not meant to be there in the first place! So I had prawns, coconut milk and some frozen grated coconut. Well, I didn't let my imaginations run wild and did what any sane Bong would've done with these three main ingredients. I made Chingri Machher Malaikari, one of the ultimate traditional Bong comfort foods, just with a special twist.

Chingri Machher Malakari - Prawns in a Coconut Milk Sauce

Ingredients :

Prawns - 250 gms (I used Atlantic Raw King Prawns)
Onion - 1 medium
Green Chilli - 1
Ginger Paste - 1 tsp
Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Coconut Milk - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp (or more)
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Grated Coconut - 2 tbsp
Strips of bird's eye chillies for garnish
Oil - 2-3 tbsp, Traditionally this dish is cooked in mustard oil but you can use any other oil

Dry Spices for Tempering :

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick
Green Cardamom - 3-4
Cloves - 2-3
Bay leaves - 2

Method :

Put the onion and chilli in a blender and blend into a fine paste. Heat oil in a wok and add all the dry spices listed under Tempering. Sizzle till they start spluttering. Add the onion chilli paste and sugar and fry on high heat till the onion starts to change colour.

Add the ginger garlic pastes and cook on medium heat till the raw smell is gone and oil separates. In the meantime add salt, turmeric and chilli powder to the coconut milk along with the 1/2 cup of water and whisk until you get a smooth cream.

Add the coconut milk mixture to the wok and bring to boil. Add the prawns*(See note) , cover and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Uncover, add the grated coconut and garam masala and cook on high flame till all the extra water has evaporated.

garnish with chilli strips and serve with hot steamed white rice.

***People who know what a malakari is will know what I meant by ''Twist'' after reading the method. Yes....the grated coconut! We don't normally use grated coconut in this dish. But who says you have to follow rules all the time!!! What's fun about that?***


*Note - Traditionally whole prawns are used for this dish, with heads and tails intact. I used the headless ones as my husband is not very keen on the heads and tails.

Also normally Bengalis fry the prawns before adding them to the gravy. But overcooking the prawns kill their delicate flavour and texture. So I prefer to add them directly to the gravy which leaves them succulent instead of making them rubbery. Another reason why I don't fry them is that way you are making the dish healthier. You can fry them if you want to. In that case fry them before you start cooking onions in the same wok.  *

Serves - 2-3
Preparation Time - 5 minutes(if you are using frozen grated coconut, more if you are doing it at home)
Cooking time - 20 minutes

Dimer Dalna - An Eastern Indian Spiced Egg Curry

 

We had a lovely Sunday! Finally a Sunday of no work, home made Bengali food and lots of reading. By Bengali friend I didn't mean complicated stuff like Muri Ghonto or Shukto or Ilish Bhapa. Nope. I made Deemer Dalna and if you are a Bong you'll know that you can never go wrong with this dish. Unless you burn it black of course. I'll pretend that never happened with me! I think this is one of those dishes that I had to learn as soon as I got married as my husband is super crazy about it. He is crazy about anything that has boiled eggs in it! In fact he loves boiled eggs so much that his motocross friends have a fond story about him eating 12-16 boiled eggs after every practice session! Thank God I didn't know him then coz I don't think I'd ever fancy a guy hogging down a bucketful of boiled eggs!!!

Hence my Ma-In-Law taught me this egg curry the very first time I cooked a meal for us two when we moved to Delhi. I must say I've come a long way as the taste of this curry has evolved so much. It is a typical Bengali recipe and it's cooked atleast once a week in every egg loving household! Poor husband doesn't get to eat eggs much these days because of dietary restrictions. But I make it a point to cut down on other egg consumption and let him eat this curry more often. :)

Dimer Dalna - A Spiced Egg Curry

Ingredients :

Free Range Eggs - 4 large

Potato - 1, cubed (Optional)

Onion - 1 large, grated or blended into a smooth paste (this is important as the gravy needs to be of a thick paste like consistency)

Ginger - 1 tbsp (Paste)

Garlic - 1 tbsp (Paste)

Plum Tomato - 1 large, skin off and ground to paste

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Corriander Powder - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp or more

Salt to taste

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Bay leaves - 2 (available in Asian grocery stores)

Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 3 tbsp

Water - 2 cups 

Chillies - 2 to garnish

Corriander Leaves - 2-3 leaves to garnish

 

Method : 

Hard boil the eggs, take the shells off and make 4 vertical slits on each egg, leaving equal spaces between each slit. Add 1/2 tsp of salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder each to the eggs and toss to coat the eggs with the spices. Add 1/2 tbsp of oil in a non stick wok and fry the eggs. Reserve the eggs in a bowl. Fry the potatoes and reserve.

Heat rest of the oil and add the cumin seeds and bay leaves and let them sizzle and splutter. Add the onion paste once the dry spices start spluttering. Colour the onion and add the ginger and garlic pastes. Cook till the raw smell is gone. Add the tomato paste and cook till oil separates. 

In the meantime make a spice paste by adding all the ingredients from Cumin powder to Sugar in a bowl and blending them together with 2 tbsp of water. Add this spice mix to the cooked onion paste and mix well. Add splashes of hot water if required. 

Cook the onion-spice mix well. Add 2 cups of hot water and the fried potatoes. Cover and cook till the potatoes are tender. Uncover , check seasoning and add the eggs, cooking on high heat. Sprinkle the garam masala, chillies and corriander leaves before turning off the heat.

Serve with hot steamed white rice and lime wedges. 

** An authentic Dalna should be quite runny but with a thick consistency that comes from the onion ginger garlic and tomato paste and the colour comes from the spices. **

Serves - 2

Preparation time - 15 minutes

Cooking time - 30 minutes