Malpoa

Malpoa is a delicious sweet dish generally prepared on the occassion of Janmastami or any other Vaishnava festival, after all Lord K came from a family of milkmen and so milk based sweets must be big favourite for him !

But for us, any festival -- Durga Puja or Kali Puja -- is good enough. During the festive season my refrigerator is packed wth sweets of various kind. Relatives or friends whoever comes to visit brings lots of sweets. Ultimately all these sweets end up with unfinished packets of old pera or an odd number of sandesh pieces etc etc which no one wants to touch anymore. Finally the homemaker who is in charge of the kitchen has to do something with these residual sweets -- something other than throwing it away ! ... This is where the malpoa step in ... to rescue the left over sweets and turn them into something useful.

This malpoa recipe, that I have inherited from my mother is a true saviour for all the left over sweets in your fridge. You can use them for by mashing them all together and mixing with milk. But if you do not have these left over sweets then you can use the khoya and the cottage cheese of course.


Milk : 1/2 litre
Khoya : 50 gms
Cottage cheese : 25gms.
Sugar : 250gms.
Ghee : 3 tbsp.
Refined oil for frying
Semolina (suji) : 4tsp
Flour (maida) : 4tsp
Black Cardamom :(crushed)
Saunf (mouri) : 1tsp
Water for making sugar syrup (Chasni)




Boil milk to reduce to half its original volume. Add khoya, cottage cheese, flour, semolina, 1tbsp ghee and 1tsp sugar into the milk and mix thoroughly to make a consistent and smooth mixture. Sprinkle black cardamom powder and saunf into it. This is the malpoa mix.

Now heat refined oil and 1tbsp ghee in a nonstick pan and pour 1tbsp malpoa mix on it. Spread it around to form small, circular pancakes and fry then one or two at a time till the malpoa becomes golden brown and crispy.

Meanwhile make the sugar syrup by boiling 1 cup of water and dissolving 250 gms sugar in it. Add 1tbsp ghee in the sugar syrup. Keep aside.

Soak the fried malpoa in the thick sugar syrup, turn it upside down and arrange them in a platter.

Egg-Devil

Boiled egg (cut lengthwise in 4 pieces)
Boiled potato (mashed)
Salt, Black pepper powder, Red Chilly powder
Lemon juice.
Ginger (grated), Garlic (finely chopped) and Green chillies (finely chopped)
Bread crumb.
One egg (well beaten ) and mixed with corn flour.
Refined oil ( for frying )


Mix mashed potato along with salt, black pepper powder, red chilli powder, ginger, garlic, green chillies and lemon juice. Make small balls. Wrap each egg piece with the flattened potato balls, coat it with beaten egg-cornflour mixture, and then with bread-crumb smoothly. Deep fry in refined oil till golden brown.
Serve as a evening snacks with tomato ketchup/salad/mustard.

Special Egg-Curry

Duck Eggs : 4 (boiled)
Onion : 1 large (grated)
Ginger-Green Chilly paste (2tsp)
A thick paste: made from 4tsp kuskus (posto), 8 Cashewnuts
Curd :2tsp.
Green Cardamom : 3-4
Refined oil
Green Chillies (for garnishing)
Salt to taste
Sugar : 2tsp


Heat oil and fry the boiled eggs for 2 minutes. Add green cardamom and the grated onion and fry till brown. Add salt, sugar, ginger-chilly paste and the curd. Saute for 3-4 minutes. Add the kuskus-cashewnut paste and a little water. Bring to boil. Then add the fried eggs.
Sprinkle green chillies.
Serve with roti or rice.

Topse-Fry (FRIED MANGO FISH)

" TOPSE "( aka MANGO fish) in Bengal is a delicious sweet water fish. It is abunduntly available in summer time when the mango is also available. The word TOPSE came from the Bengali word TAPAS which means SAGE. The fish is saffron in colour with lots of tentacles. In this way it resembles a sage. So it is called TOPSE.
TOPSE FRY is one of the exotic dish, specially served during the BENGALI NEW YEAR celebrations. It is pretty expensive.

Ingredients:
Topse mach ( MANGO FISH) : de-scaled and cleaned thoroughly, marinated with salt and a pinch of turmeric powder and lemon juice.
Green chillies, garlic and ginger (ground together into a coarse paste) required to marinate the fish.
For 4 pieces of fish 4tsp paste is required to marinate .
Gram flour (Besan) : well beaten in a pan with cold water to mke a thin paste adding salt, red chilly powder, turmeric powder, kalojeera and 1tsp kusksus (posto or poppy seeds).
Mustard oil for frying.

The fish is marinated with the chilly-garlic-ginger paste for at least 1 hour.
Heat oil in a pan and coat each fish in the batter (previously made from besan) and deep fry till golden brown.
Serve hot with mustard sauce as a snacks.

Special Rawa Dosa

Semolina (Suji) : 1 cup
Flour (Maida) : 1 cup
Rice flour : 1 cup
Urad dal : 1/2 cup
Refined oil
Salt
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Green Chillies (finely chopped)
Finely Chopped Carrot :1/2 cup
Finely Chopped Onion : 1/2 cup
Finely Chopped Capsicum : 1/2 cup


Soak the dal overnight and make a fine paste in a grinder -mixer. Take a large pan and mix the dal paste with rice flour, semolina and flour adding sufficient water to soak them properly. Mix them thoroughly with a bar blender. Cover the lid and keep in a hot place for at least 5 to 6 hours.This is my Special Rawa DOSA MIX.
Fry the onion, green chillies ,carrot and capsicum in 2tsp refined oil for 1 minute and pour them into the DOSA MIX. Heat 1tsp oil and allow 1tsp mustard seeds and a hand full of Curry leaves to splatter. Pour it into the prevoius DOSA MIX. Mix well and fry crispy DOSA on a nonstick pan .
Serve hot with Coconut/Mint/Corriander Chutney.