Kolkata Street Food: Alu Batte

Alu Batte is a simple and easy side dish made with mashed potatoes. It goes very well with Rice and Dal.

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes - 3 medium sized
2. Mustard oil - 2 tbsp
3. Salt to taste
4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Note:

• I used pressure cooker to cook potatoes, but be careful to not over cook them
• Starchy potatoes will be better for Alu Batte

Method:

1. Peel and potatoes with salt until they are soft.
2. Mash the cooked potatoes roughly, we are NOT looking for a paste consistency
3. Heat oil in a kadai
4. Add turmeric, and chilli powder and give a stir
5. Add potatoes to the above and mix well and switch off the heat

Serve hot Alu Batte with Rice and Dal

Kolkata street food: Fish chop

Kolkata Fish chop is a total surprise to me, especially its texture. The texture is exactly same as chicken nuggets :)

Deep fried food, at times, is good too!

Ingredients:

1. Fish, boneless, minced - 1/2 cup
2. Egg, boiled - 1 large or 2 small
3. Onion, finely chopped - 1 small, about 1/4 cup
4. Green chilli - 1, chopped
5. Salt to taste
6. Spring onion, chopped - 1/4 cup
7. Ginger, paste - 1/2 tsp
8. Garlic, paste - 1/2 tsp
9. Egg - 1
10. Bread crumbs - 1 cup
11. Oil to deep fry

Sauce:

1. Red hot sauce - 4 tbs
2. Honey - 1 tbs

Method:

1. Mash boiled egg and fish together. I used a small blender for this.
2. In a bowl, mix the above with onion, green onion, ginger, garlic and salt
3. Make small cylinder shapes with the above dough
4. Heat oil for deep fry
5. Beat 1 egg in a small bowl
6. Dip each cylinder in the egg and roll it in bread crumbs to coat it uniformly
7. Once the oil is hot, deep fry the fish chops in it till golden brown
8. For sauce, mix the hot sauce and honey well

Server hot fish chops with sauce!

 

Delhi Street Food: Tawa Paneer

Given a choice, my son would love to have paneer for every meal. So, whenever I stumble upon a paneer recipe, I always give it a try. And, as I expected, he just loved this paneer curry when we made it at home!

Ingredients:

1. Paneer Marination:
2. Paneer/Cottage cheese cubes - 200gm
3. Yogurt/Curd - 1 tbsp
4. Turmeric powder  -  1/2 tsp
5. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Tomato paste (optional) - 1 tsp
7. Salt to taste

For Gravy:

1. Butter - 2 tbsp
2. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Aniseed - 1/2 tsp
4. Onion, finely chopped - 1 cup
5. Ginger, finely chopped - 1 tsp
6. Garlic, finely chopped - 1tsp
7. Green chilli, finely chopped - 1/2 tsp 
8. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
11. Salt to taste
12. Tomato paste - 2 tbsp
13. Kasurimethi (dried fenugreek/methi leaves) - 1tsp
14. Fresh Milk cream - 2 tbs

Method:

1. Marinate paneer cubes with all the ingredients under marinade for 20-30 minutes
2. Heat a tablespoon of butter and add cumin seeds and aniseed
3. When they start to splutter, add onion, ginger, garlic and green chilli and saute until the onion is translucent
4. Add chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala, salt and tomato paste, and fry it for about 2 minutes
5. Add 1-1.5 cps of water and bring it to boil
6. In the mean time, toast the marinated paneer in a tablespoon of butter until slight golden color
7. Add the paneer to boiling gravy and let it thicken for few minutes
8. Sprinkle the crushed kasoorimethi leaves to the above and cook for 2 minutes more
9. Switch off the heat and top it with milk cream

Serve hot tawa paneer with Roti or Pulav!

P.S. I am linking up with Angie and her cohost Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook for Fiesta Friday.

Kolkata street food: Mussori Dal

Kolkata style masoor dal is a very easy recipe to try at home for a Kolkata style lunch, with its special tempering made with mustard oil ,kalonji and tomatoes. This recipe is based on Chetna Makan's Mussorie dal recipe with some minor changes if any.Chetna has some beautiful pics of all the dishes in her cook book. Just by looking at the pictures, will make you want to try them..yum.. So here I am trying Kolkata street food at home.

Ingredients

1. Split pigeon peas/Tuvar da1 - 100gm
2. Red lentil/ Masoor dal - 100gm
3. Salt - to taste
4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Mustard oil /കടുകെണ്ണ  - 1 tbsp
6. Black cumin/ Kalongi/കരിഞ്ചി രകം - 1 tsp
7. Tomato, finely chopped - 1
8. Green chilli, finely chopped - 1

Method

1. Cook both dals in pressure cooker with enough water with turmeric powder (about 2 cups.)
2. Heat mustard oil in a kadai and add black cumin
3. Once the black cumin seeds splutter, add green chilli and chopped tomatoes
4. Cook till tomatoes can be mashed well
5. Add salt to the above
6. Switch off the heat and add this as a tempering to the cooked dal.
7. Serve immediately.

P.S. I am linking up with Angie and her cohost Jhuls @ The Not So Creative Cook for Fiesta Friday.

Easy Paneer butter masala

Paneer / Chicken Butter masala is an Indian dish accepted internationally across the world. We can make it as chicken butter masala for non vegetarian version and paneer butter masala for vegetarian version. It is especially a hit among kids due to its mild sweet taste. Today I am giving you all a very easy and quick version of paneer butter masala recipe. Do try it at home!

Ingredients:

1. Paneer cubes - 250gm
2. Butter - 2tbsp
3. Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
4. Tomato paste - 4 tbsp 
5. Chilli powder- 1 tsp
6. Tomato ketchup- 1 tbsp 
7. Cumin powder - 1 tsp
8. Green chilli, slit - 1(optional)
9. Kasuri methi(dried or fresh methi leaves) - 1tbsp if dried/2-3 tbsp if using fresh
10. Sugar - 1tsp
11. Garam masala-1tsp
12. Salt to taste
13. Milk cream - 1/4 cup
14. Butter chicken masala powder - 1 tsp(optional)

• Use fresh paneer whenever possible 
• In case of using frozen paneer, fry it lightly in butter before using it
• Adding green chilli is optional 
• You can try the same recipe with chicken to make butter chicken masala. Marinate chicken with salt, yogurt, turmeric powder and chilli powder for 15-30 minutes and stir fry it before using it

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients from 4 to 7 with a cup of water to a smooth mixture 
2. Heat a kadai with butter 
3. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for 1 min
4. Add the tomato mixture and green chilli to this
5. Cook it till well combined
6. Add chopped methi leaves and cook for 5 minutes 
7. Add paneer and salt to taste
8. Let paneer cook for 5-8 minutes 
9. Add sugar, garam masala, butter chicken masala powder and reduce the flame to low
10. Add milk cream and stir gently not break paneer
11. Switch off the flame and serve paneer butter masala hot