Cabbage Kofta

You must have come across many varieties of Koftas prepared all over India, they can be the raw banana koftas, paneer koftas, lauki (bottle gourd) koftas, to name a few. Koftas are basically round shaped deep fried vegetable balls/ dumplings. The vegetable balls are cooked in a spicy gravy of tomato puree and cashew nuts. The most popular is the paneer kofta or malai kofta which is normally prepared on special occasions and festivals. Kofta Curry is a tomato based spicy masala paste gravy, usually served with parathas, chapatis, fried rice or plain steamed rice.

Here I've given a little twist to my recipe, instead of making the traditional koftas with the common vegetable ingredients which are been usually used, I've preferred using Cabbage in my recipe and I've also shuffled using the cashew nuts with Almonds for my recipe. There's a reason for using the almonds instead of cashew nuts because I love to eat cashews just like that (raw) when I come across and I happen to finish all of it before the preparation for the kofta curry. Raw cashews are much healthier and tastier, and eating more of raw things is useful for our health. So whenever you visit my place, I may treat you with almonds, keeping cashews in store for me. Jokes apart, even almonds give a thick creamy flavor to the recipe and altering it with cashews is a good option. Just note to soak the almonds in a bowl of warm water one hour before the preparation, because soaking in warm water helps in removal of its skin easily and also the almonds don't get harder.

Koftas are generally vegetarian recipes in which we do not add onions or garlic. However, in few recipes onions are added for that extra flavor in the recipe.

Tips: Before heading onto the procedure for the Cabbage Kofta recipe, here are few tips that we need to keep in mind;

1. Do not soak the cabbage in water, as the leaves will absorb water and it will start leaving water while frying the koftas.
2. After chopping the cabbage, put a pinch of salt and mix. Allow it to rest for two minutes and then squeeze the cabbage within your fist to remove excess water.
3. Do not leave the cabbage mixed batter for a long time. As soon as you mix all the ingredients, fry the koftas immediately. (as I got busy taking a photograph for the kofta just before frying, you notice, it had started getting little bit watery).

[Veg]

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Course: Side

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: 4

Measuring Items: 1 cup = 250 ml; Teaspoon

Ingredients:

1. Cabbage- 1 whole (small sized)
2. Green chili- 10
3. Ginger- 2 inch
4. Tomato- 4
5. Almonds- 1/2 cup
6. Onion- 2 (optional)
7. Coriander leaves- a handful

Spices:

1. Besan (Gram Flour)- 1 cup
2. Coriander powder- 3 Tsp
3. Salt- (as per taste)
4. Hing (asafoetida)- a pinch
5. Cumin seeds (jeera)- 1 Tsp
6. Red Mirchi powder- 2 Tsp
7. Turmeric powder- 1 Tsp
8. Garam masala- 1 tsp
9. Refined oil- (for frying)

Method:

For the Koftas:

1. Cabbage- finely chopped
2. Green chili- 6
3. Ginger- an inch
4. Gram flour- 1 cup (or adjust to the amount of cabbage to make it a thick batter)
5. Coriander powder- 2 Tsp
6. Salt (for taste)

How to prepare ‘Cabbage Kofta’ with step by step pictures and instructions-

1. Wash the cabbage properly with water and finely chop them into very small pieces.
   
2. Take a large mixing bowl, place all the ingredients for the Koftas and mix them well.
   
3. Make small balls for the koftas. Meanwhile, heat oil in a deep frying pan or kadhai.
   
4. Once the oil is fumy hot, slide in the koftas one after the other into the kadhai. Fry the koftas (keeping in medium to high flame).
   
5. Continue frying all the koftas. In the meantime, chop the other given ingredients (tomatoes, onion, ginger, green chili, and almonds), blend them all together to make a smooth paste.
   
6. Keep the fried koftas aside.
   

For Curry: Oil remains in the pan after frying the Koftas, hence continue cooking in that hot oil for the curry.

1. Add Cumin seeds, sliced onions, hing for seasoning. Then pour in the blended paste slowly.
    
2. Now add salt, red Mirchi, turmeric, and coriander powder. Saute for 2 minutes.
3. 
4. Once it starts to leave oil, add 1.5 cup of water, bring to a boil, put the koftas and garam masala. Simmer for 2 minutes.
   
5. Finally, add a handful of chopped coriander leaves and switch off the flame.
   

Quite a number of points to follow for the delicious and creamy Cabbage Kofta recipe, but once done it feels great to have prepared this restaurant-style favorite curry at your home because home-cooked meals are always the best and give immense satisfaction after its preparation. Cabbage Kofta recipe is a simple way to prepare the grand kofta recipe and is ready to be served along with hot steamed rice or rotis. Prepare this mouth-watering kofta curry at your home and enjoy these deep fried vegetable koftas into a creamy, rich, delicious gravy garnished with coriander leaves. It is ideal for a party or a special treat at your home.

Paromita Pramanick ©2018. All Rights Reserved.

Grass Carp Fish Gravy

Grass Carp Fish is basically a fresh water fish, which is found very commonly in India and other parts of the world. People of different region cook the Grass Carp Fish in varieties of way such as pan frying, steaming, etc. It looks quite similar to the Rohu fish, although the skin and the fins of Grass Carp Fish are a little slippery. Few Bengali's often mistakenly pronounce the Grass Carp Fish as 'Glass Cup'. However, Grass Carp Fish is the common name of this type of fish.

Grass Carp Fish Gravy is basically a gravy dish prepared with few ingredients of the grounded paste and required very few spices with oil to the consistency of how much it is needed to fry the fish pieces. One good thing about the Grass Carp Fish is that they do not absorb much oil while frying. This fish recipe is very similar to the other popular fish recipes and is typically served for lunch and dinner with hot steamed rice. Besides you can also serve some crispy potato fries along with it.

Fish recipes are very popular in other parts of India, mostly Bengali households, as I am from a Bengali family fish is been prepared at least twice in every week. I know it is quite an unusual combination that cooking the vegetables along with a non-veg item, however, I love to experiment different varieties of fish recipes. I have also used some dry spices to give it a different flavor, you can use the basic Panch Phoran or the roasted seasonings that are available.

Grass Carp Fish Fry

The traditional fish recipes are quite different from what I have presented here, those have a little bit of complicated method of preparation. Here in this fish recipe, I have used very commonly available things that we usually have it in our kitchen and I have also mentioned the method for preparation in step by step which is not very complicated. So here is the recipe for you.

[Non-Veg]

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian/Bengali

Serves: 2

Measuring Items: Teaspoon, 1 cup=250 ml

Ingredients:

1. Fish- 250 grams (3-4 pieces)
2. Potato- 1 (small)
3. Onion – 3 (large)
4. Tomato- 2
5. Green chili- 10
6. Ginger- ½ tsp (1 inch)
7. Garlic- 6 cloves
8. Coriander leaves

Spices:

1. Fennel seeds (Saunf)- 1/2 tsp
2. Fenugreek seeds (Methi)- 1/2 tsp
3. Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
4. Mirchi powder-1 tsp
5. Coriander powder- 1 tsp
6. Cumin powder- 1 tsp
7. Salt (according to taste)
8. Mustard oil- 250 ml

Method:

How to prepare ‘Grass Carp Fish Gravy’ with step by step pictures and instructions:

1. Marinate the fish with turmeric powder and salt, keep it aside for 10 minutes (until then you can finish up preparing other things).

   

   Grass Carp Fish

2. Cut the required vegetables into medium size (as shown in the pic)
   
3. Put dried Saunf and Methi into the grinding jar along with the other vegetables.
   
4. Blend them all together.
   
5. Heat oil in a frying pan. Fry the fish pieces and keep aside. (oil remains in the pan, so I did not add more oil for the rest of cooking)
   
6. Put the blended paste in the hot oil in the frying pan, saute for 2 minutes and fry till its golden brown.
7. Add the spices (turmeric pwdr, mirchi pwdr, cumin and coriander pwdr) and cover the pan with its lid for 5 minutes.
   
8. Open the lid and put two half slitted green chilles and mix.
9. Now add half cup of water and bring to a boil, then add the fried fish pieces.
   
10. Finally, add the coriander leaves.

Grass Carp Fish Gravy is ready to serve along with hot steamed rice. Very simple method of preparation and easily arranged. I’ve not used more spices and it's even less oily keeping in mind to the health of the regular fish consumers. It is tastier and healthier than any other fish preparations. Prepare this Grass Carp Fish Gravy and tell me how you liked it. Enjoy cooking, serving and eating!!

Paromita Pramanick ©2018. All Rights Reserved.

The Young Girl's Story

Swami Vivekananda

('The Young Girl Story' is related to the life goals and preaching of few great personalities who gave different meaning, determination, power and focus to the perplexity of the world and judge the mindset of the people.

'The Young Girl's Story' is based upon one of the quotes given by Swami Vivekananda for all the youths of the country-

“Arise, Awake and Stop not till the Goal is reached”.

Read the Story to know if the Young Girl justified to this statement!)



A young girl, who was in her late teens just stepped into her youth age was quite shy talking to new people, but she was bold enough to key the wrong points. She finished her schools and waiting for admission to a college, however, due to monetary crisis in her family, her admission was delayed and she started giving her hands for the household chores. When it was the actual time, the initial phase of her young age to decide what she has to choose in her life to make a mark in this competitive world, she was busy thinking about how to earn for her family. She was very sportive, fond of drawing and painting which were her favourite activities to deal with the timeless ups and downs of life as well as to enunciate her feelings or emotions because doing such artworks never restricted her from good thoughts and kept her away from the mean, greedy world. This way keeping herself engrossed in one or the other activities, the girl was calm, very quiet, at times clumsy or imaginative, but a true and sophisticated person. She had nothing costly or luxurious for herself, but she carried her self-respect, sweet attitude, and vision aiming high.

The young girl with dreams to become a person of million hearts with her propensity, creativity, sweetness, and ambition. But she did not know how to initiate and land up with her ambition.This way her days were rolling on, until one fine day, during the first week of August, on a Monday morning, exactly 7:50 am when she took out her bicycle from the building she resides. She rode her bicycle to the vegetable market (Bazaar) to buy vegetables, groceries, and a wholesome gunny bag of rice. On the way, she could find young boys and girls going to college, parents going to leave their children to school, etc. But she believed in the reality of her life, accepted her fate and moved on.
She finished buying all the things from the market and riding back to her home. She was riding the bicycle at a slow speed, as she was carrying all the bags full of vegetables and groceries. The bags were hanged on the handlebar, head tube, front basket and back seat of the bicycle. She was unable to move her legs completely while pedalling the bicycle, so she rode slowly, very slowly. On every bends and turn, she rang the bell of her bicycle.

It was 8:30 am then while returning back from the bazaar on a turning point from the opposite side came a rickshaw puller, who appeared suddenly without blowing the horn or any prior intimation on the turn. The rickshaw walla did not even lower the speed of his rickshaw, out of nowhere appeared and dashed the front wheel of her bicycle. She fell down rigorously with her bicycle in between the road. Things were about to spill on the road from the bags, but she somehow managed to rescue them. However, few vegetables dropped out from the bag and rolled a little further on the road.

She was shocked and clueless as to what actually happened at that very moment. She tried to pull the brakes of her bicycle as quickly as it was possible, also kept ringing the bell of her cycle before taking the turn. However, before she could realise or notice the rickshaw puller the accident took place. Accidents are said to happen at an immediate phase with no sign of caution. The rickshaw walla did not bother to get down to help in bringing back the vegetables or lifting her bicycle. He stopped for a moment, gazed at her and rode away with his rickshaw. A motor-biker also passed by but did not stop to help her in getting up.

She was broken for a second, felt like crying, but immediately she stood up, lifted her bicycle and made it stand by the side of the road. She started gathering the vegetables which were spilled on the road. She felt awkward and did not want to become the butt of anyone's jokes or a loser in someone’s eye whoever was passing by that road. She stopped the tears coming out from her eyes, she wept before it sheds from eyes. She cleared her watery eyes to see the world clearly, to see the people around her clearly, to see the way properly. The then rain started pouring down, she was in a hurry to wrap up the things and ride her bicycle back to home, but she was wet. She felt favourable because her tears washed away with the raindrops and no one would be able to see her tears and know about her failure story.

Before colliding with the rickshaw, she had a fear in her heart about the spilling of vegetables and groceries or being fallen down on the way, as the bicycle was too heavy for her to ride from the market to home, which was nearly 20 minutes distance away. But after actually falling down, she was fearless because the fear in her already passed through her. She fell down, but she rose by herself. This way she did not fail. With her head, held up high, she looked at each and everyone who passed by that way, saw the different faces of the world and she concluded they are not the same people who ignored her or didn’t help her when she fell down. These are people with a different mindset, different observation, different motives, she did not want to carry the bad luck or failure story to the new mass. She wanted to carry a smile, a new face, a new story to tell the new people those come on her way now.

She brought all the vegetables, groceries as it had to be brought back to home, and she did not disclose to her family members about the incident occurred on the way. After returning back home, as usual, she did all the work that was required and she had forgotten about the morning incident. But as the night grew she felt the pain, her body squeezing up reminded that she had fallen down with an embarrassing bad luck. But she was strong enough to hide her pain and hold tears in her eyes that night.

After two days she again took out her bicycle with a painful body. She rode to the market, but this time she was fearless, confident and with a lesson to carry with her. Accidents may happen, she may fall down again, there may be people who would be willing to help or not, but she was stronger enough to face the ignorance and the mean world again. She was ready to fall again so that she could rise again stronger.
Author: Paromita Pramanick

_________________________________

Find other Biography on the blog-->> A Girls' Life: Before and After Marriage

Paromita Pramanick ©2018. All Rights Reserved.

Agati Blossom Fritters | Bok Phool Bhaja

One fine evening, after the return from our day long work, my sister brought a small bag full of some flowers which I happened to see for the first time in my life. As my sister described about those flowers, she said that they are edible and are fried with flour batter. My mother recalled the flowers that used to grow in her native place and they used to prepare variety of dishes with it. Now with the passing time, we hardly get to see these flowers in this generation.

Since my sister had a meeting at one of the remote places in the suburbs of Kolkata, a kind native from that place gifted her those edible blossoms. Since the recipe is very easy and my mother was aware of it, we immediately prepared a dozen of fritters the same night and had a satisfying dinner with hot and crunchy Blossom Fritters. Though, it was a simple batter fried fritter, but it tasted just amazing and we enjoyed it with steamed rice.

I’m talking about the AGATI FLOWERS, which are popularly known as ‘Bok Phool’ in Bengali. It sounded very peculiar to me, but these flowers are very famous in the Bengali Cuisine. We often find wholesome of these flowers with most of the vegetable vendors here in Kolkata, but we usually happen to miss a glance of them due to the hush bush in the markets. Agati blossoms grow  during the autumn season, just after the summer months and you get these flowers in abundance during the winter months. Agati flowers are very tender with large white coloured petals and green sepal/calyx. They can be eaten as vegetables in salads, fried or made into curries. ‘Bok Phool Bhaja’ or ‘Fried Agati Blossom’ is a very simple Bengali traditional recipe and a tasty snacks delicacy popular in Bengal.

Since I was in South India in my childhood days, I’ve missed on knowing few of the traditional recipes from Bengal. Nevertheless, now I’m able to give some time to grasp those unknown facts, few from my mother and the rest from Google. To my curiosity, on the same night I happened to Google around the new name ‘Bok Phool’ to what my mother told its name was. I couldn’t recollect this flower name as ‘Sesbania grandiflora’ from my Botany class though, but Google was much more informative. The whole plant is useful for Ayurvedic medicinal practices; the young leaves, white flowers, green fruits have been used for culinary purposes and are very nutritious too. It is known as ‘Agastya’ in Kannada, I mentioned this because Agastya was one of my student’s name as well. I’m not that sure of whether you get these flowers in Bangalore or not, but you can try your luck in the big markets such as Shivajinagar probably. 

So now let’s get into the cooking process, which is pretty simple as it requires no cutting, chopping, grinding etc. Here’s the recipe-

[Veg]

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Course: Snacks/ Appetizer(Starter)

Cuisine: Indian/ Bengali

Serves: 4

Measuring Items: 1 cup = 150 ml ; Teaspoon

Ingredients:

1. Agati Flowers (Bok Phool) - 12
2. Gram Flour/chickpea flour (Besan) - 1 cup
3. Water- 1 ½ cup
4. Salt to taste
5. Oil for frying

Method:

How to prepare ‘Agati blossom fritters’ with step by step pictures and instructions:

1. Take a large bowl filled with water, dip the Agati flowers into it. Wash the flowers gently (as these flowers are very delicate and the petals may get separated).
2. Discard/ remove the filament (a hard thin slimline stalk/stem inside the flower).
   
3. Heat oil in a frying pan and reduce the flame heat when oil is hot enough.
4. Meanwhile, take a mixing bowl, add gram flour, salt and add water making it a slightly semi-thick batter (not very thick, just the medium).
   
5. Beat the batter well and whisk properly. Take one flower at a time, dip it into the batter and coat it well. Drop it into the hot oil.
      
6. You can slide in at least 4 to 5 flowers into the pan for frying at once. Deep fry the flowers on both the sides until they turn a little brownish.
   
7. Now take out the fried flowers from the oil and keep them on the tissue paper.
8. Continue the same frying process to fry the other flowers. (Remember to keep the flame on medium because these flowers are very light and may get burnt when fried on high flame. Therefore, keeping the flame from low to medium will result in crispy fried fritters)
   

Super quick, easy, golden and crispy fried Agati blossom fritters are ready to be served. It is a delicious recipe to go well with hot steamed rice, puffed rice (Moori), or simply as tea-time snacks. Also it’s a great idea to surprise the guests with these rarely available or known flowers by serving them hot with green chutneys or ketchup for the evening snacks which would just taste fantastic to them and leave them to guess the main ingredient used in it. Also you can have as many fritters as possible because these flowers do not absorb a lot of oil during frying and it is recommendable to have at least 3 to 4 fritters for the health conscious people.

Paromita Pramanick ©2018. All Rights Reserved.

Lemony Chicken Curry

If you are looking for a delicious chicken curry for this weekend, here’s the stop for your hunt. This chicken curry is named as ‘Lemony Chicken Curry’, as lemon has been kept the main ingredient for this recipe with 3 other basic ones that’s necessarily been added to most of the chicken recipes. Here’s the recipe that’s very simple and easy to prepare, and you don't need to wander anywhere because you've got the choice here. Try this simple, yet delicious ‘Lemony Chicken Curry’, which is so very perfect to combine with a bowl of hot steamed rice, fried rice or butter naan.

Lemony Chicken Curry is one of the comfort chicken curry for lunch or dinner. There are similar types of chicken recipes and often the traditional chicken curries are prepared in our kitchen on most of the weekends. But I’ve always tried out the traditional recipes into something new and prepared them with a little bit of twist.

Lemony Chicken Curry is very similar to the basic chicken curries. However it is less spicy as compared to the other chicken recipes and it has the tanginess of the lemon zest. The addition of scrapped lemon zest to Lemony Chicken Curry brings in a sour tangy taste to this recipe and I’ve also added sugar to balance the flavor in the recipe, so that the sour taste wouldn't take over the flavor of the meat.

Most often the chicken curries are preferred with bony chicken, and that’s why I’ve used chicken with bone for Lemony Chicken Curry. Moreover the boneless chicken are good for the tikka and kebab recipes, therefore bony chicken pieces is a good choice for this recipe as it tastes better than the boneless. Other ingredients are pretty simple and the basic ones are kept intact, keeping lemon as the key ingredient. What’s better way to prepare a Chicken Curry in about an hour time-frame, this recipe is the quick fix to most of our weekday chicken recipes as well, when you crave for the meat but do not get sufficient time for the preparation.

Hence, Lemony Chicken Curry would be a great choice for the weekday’s hush-bush, as well as for any other day for that matter, as the preparation is very easy and gives ample of time for the other activities rest of the day. Make your weekend the delicious way to treat for your family. Give it a try and let me know how you liked it. I’m sure people of all ages who love chicken would love Lemony Chicken Curry too.

[Non-Veg]

Lemony Chicken Curry

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Course: Side dish

Cuisine: Indian/ fusion

Serves: 4

Measuring Items: 1 cup = 250 ml; Teaspoon

Ingredients:

1. Chicken- 1 kg (cut into medium sized pieces)
2. Onion- 5
3. Green chili- 5
4. Garlic- 1 whole
5. Lemon- 1

Spices:

1. Mustard oil- 1 cup
2. Turmeric powder- 2 tsp
3. Red mirchi powder- 4 tsp
4. Coriander powder- 1 tsp
5. Salt (as per the taste)
6. Sugar- 1 tsp

Method:
How to prepare ‘Lemony Chicken Curry’ with step by step pictures and instructions:

• To marinate chicken: Place the ingredients for marinating chicken in a small bowl. Marinate chicken with 1 tsp turmeric powder, 2 tsp mirchi powder, salt, 4 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp oil. Mix them all together and keep it for at least 30 minutes.
  
• Chop onions, slit green chilies, crush the garlic cloves.
  
• Scrap the lemon skin for lemon zest. A spoonful of lemon zest is enough to add flavor to the recipe.
  

Cooking Method:

1. Heat a large cooking wok, put 1 cup of mustard oil and warm it.
2. Once the oil is hot enough, start adding sliced onions and fry until they turn golden brown.
3. Now add green chili and garlic, sauté for 2 minutes.
   
4. Add the remaining spices (turmeric pwdr, mirchi pwdr, coriander pwdr, salt and sugar).
   
5. After seasoning for 2 minutes, add the marinated chicken pieces and the scrapped lemon zest into the wok.
6. Mix them well. Cover the lid and cook the chicken for 10-15 minutes (keep stirring in between with the cooking spade with medium to high heat).
7. Once the chicken is cooked properly, add half a cup of water and simmer for 2 minutes.
   

Lemony Chicken Curry is ready to be served along with steamed rice, it also goes well with fried rice, chapatti, bread and butter naan. Enjoy cooking, serving and eating!!

Paromita Pramanick ©2018. All Rights Reserved.