Sattu ki Puri ( Chatur Kachouri)

Ingredients:
Sattu (gram flour), Flour, Refined oil, Salt, Sugar, Ajwain, Asafoetida (hing), Ginger-green chilly paste.

Procedure:

• Knead the flour with Hing, salt, ajwain and refined oil to make a soft dough. Cover the dough with a soft, wet, cloth and keep aside.
• Knead the sattu with salt, sugar, hing, and ginger-green chilly paste along with water and then make it into small balls .
• Make small balls from the flour and stuff each of them with sattu balls. Roll it lightly and deep fry in refined oil.
• Serve hot with Alur dom with curry leaves.

Alur Dam ( Potato Special )

Ingredients:

• Potato : 250 gm ( cut into two halves)
• Fresh Curd : 100 gm.
• Fresh coconut : grated ( 1/2 cup)
• Ginger-green chilliy paste : 2tsp
• dry peanut : 4tsp
• Curry leaves : 4tsp ( stir fried in refined oil)
• Mustard seeds (1tsp ) and a few green chillies for CHAUNK
• Refined oil : 4tsp
• A pinch of Asafoetida.
• Salt to taste.
• Sugar :1tsp

Procedure:
Boil the potatoes. Peel off the skin. Beat the curd, with salt and sugar, and keep aside. Fry the grated coconut, coarsely powdered peanuts, and stir fried curry leaves in 1 tsp oil.

Heat the remaining oil and fry the potatoes in refined oil till golden brown. Add ginger, green chilly paste along with a pinch of asafoetida. Add the beaten curd. Saute for a couple of minutes. Bring to boil. Sprinkle coconut, peanut and curry leaves mixture on top. Finally allow the the mustard seeds and green chllies to splatter in 1 tsp oil and pour the CHAUNK into the potato mixture.

Serve hot with chapati/parantha/puri/roti.

Dahi vada (Doi Bada)

Ingredients:

• Urad dal : soaked in water overnight finely pasted in a mixer-grinder. Ensure that the paste is of the correct consistency to facilitate the making of the vadas.
  
• White oil : for deep frying the Vadas.
  
• Salt 
  
• Fresh Curd 
  
• Sugar
  
• Tamarind paste and jaggery : for the chutney.
  
• Curry leaves, Mustard Seeds and Chopped Green Chillies : for Chaunk
  
• Black salt
  
• Chopped Green Chillies : for the batter
  
• Red chilly powder.
• Roasted cummin seeds : powdered

Procedure:

Keep the urad dal paste for at least 4 hours to allow fermentation. Add chopped green chillies and a little salt into it.

Beat the fresh curd with black salt and sugar.

Make the chutney by mixing tamarind paste, jaggery and a little salt.

Fry the vadas in oil till brown. Keep aside.

Arrange the Vadas in a large platter. Pour the beaten curd on top. Sprinkle red chilly powder and cummin powder on top. Finally heat 1 tsp oil and allow the curry leaves, mustard seeds and chopped green chillies to splatter. Pour the hot CHAUNK onto the DAHI-VADA mixture.

Serve as an evening snack with the tamarind-jaggery chutney.

Mango-Mourala (Aam-mourala)

Ingredients:

• Green Mango : 1 large (grated)
• Green Papaya : Same quantity as that of the green mango (grated )
• Mourala fish : 250 gm. (cleaned, washed and marinated with salt and turmeric powder)
• Mustard oil for frying.
• Sugar : 100 gm
• A few red chillies and Mustard seeds for CHAUNK (phoron)
• Salt and turmeric powder

Procedure:
Fry the Mourala fish in hot mustard oil till crispy. Keep aside. In the same oil, add mustard seeds and red chillies to splatter. Add grated mango and papaya into it. Then add salt, sugar and a little turmeric powder. Now add water. Bring to boil. Then add the crispy fried fish on top of it.

Serve cool as a relish with rice on a hot summer noon.

KK's Mutton BIRIYANI

Ingredients:

Basmati rice : 500 gms
Mutton : 750 gms
Potato : 1 or 2 large, cut into two halves
Fresh curd : 200 gms.
Ginger paste : 2 tsp
Garlic paste : 2 tsp
Red chilly powder : 2tsp
Onion : 200gms, fineley chopped length wise
KK BIRIYANI MASALA : made with slightly roasted and coarsely ground cloves, cinnamon, cardamom - both the green and black variety, black peeper, shah jeera, white pepper, nutmeg (jayphol) and javitri (jayeetree)
Ghee : 4tbsp
White oil of any kind : 2tsp
Bayleaf : A few
Saffron (Keshar ) : 1/2 tsp added to 2tsp cold milk for colour and flavour
Rose water : 2tsp
Kewara water : 2tsp
Sugar : 2tsp
Salt to taste

Procedure:

• Marinate mutton in curd, KK biriyani masala, salt, sugar, ginger-garlic paste, chilly powder for two hours.
• Wash the basmati rice and marinate with 1 tsp ghee, 2 tsp of the KK Biriyani masala, salt and 1 tsp sugar for half an hour.
• Take water -- twice in volume to that of the rice taken -- and heat it in a pressure cooker.
• Add the marinated rice into the hot water, add the bay leaf and cook under pressure till the first "whistle" -- that is till the time when the steam escapes from the pressure valve for the first time !
• Take the rice from the cooker, spread it out on a shallow platter. Keep aside and allow to cool.
• Cook the mutton in a pressure cooker, only in the marinade -- without adding any additional water for 20 minutes.
• Boil the potato and then fry them in ghee and white oil together.
• Fry the chopped onion in the residual ghee-oil till golden brown and keep aside.
• Take a deep, wide pot that can be closed with a lid, grease it with ghee inside. In this pot, place the rice and mutton in alternate layers. Along with each layer add potatoes, fried onions, kewra, saffron, rose water and the rest of the KK biriyani masala
  
• Finally add the remaining ghee on the top
• Close the lid and seal it with maida dough.
• Preheat the OTG Oven till 200 C and then place the sealed pot inside the oven for about half an hour. Plan your time such that the KK biriyani can be served right after this step.
• Serve with raita.
  

LauChingri / Shrimp and Gourd Curry

Ingredien.ts:

• Gourd or Lau : 500 gms ( it's skin peeled off and cut into small cubes )
• 1 Potato : cut into pieces
• Shrimp : 250 gms.
• Ginger-red chilly paste : 2tsp
• Cummin(1/2tsp),Corriander(1/2tsp) and Black Pepper(1/4tsp) : made into a paste
• Tomato Puree : 2tsp
• Mustard oil :4tsp
• Ghee : 2tsp
• Garam Masala : 1tsp
• One Bay-leaf and 1/2 tsp cummin seeds
• Green Chillies.
• Salt to taste.
• Turmeric Powder.
  
• Sugar : 3tsp.

Procedure:
Boil the gourd (lau) for 2 minutes. Set aside. Fry the potato in oil and add bay-leaf and cummin seeds to splatter. Add ginger-chilly paste and tomato puree in it. Then add the shrimp and the boiled gourd together. Add salt, turmeric powder and sugar in succession. Add a little water. Bring to boil. Add the masala paste. Add ghee and garam masala from top.

Serve with hot rice.

Caviar d'Ganga / Rui Macher Dim bhaja

Caviar is obtained from the roe (egg !) of the sturgeon fish that is found in great abundance in the Caspian Sea. Today, caviar is also harvested from commercial fish farm that breed the mighty sturgeon under controlled conditions.

Traditionally, caviar is served with a hint of lemon juice -- and nothing else ! as an accompaniment to champagne and is perhaps one of the most expensive cocktail snacks that one can come up with!

In India caviar is difficult to get and frightfully expensive as well. However fish roe is nothing unsual especially in the riverine delta region of Bengal ( and neighbouring Bangladesh). The Ganga with its infinite variety of fresh and salt water fishes is a very interesting source of fish based delicacies and this is the genesis of our dish of the day : Caviar d'Ganges.


Ingredients for making fried Caviar d'Ganges :

• Fish roe : 250 gms.
• Salt : 1/4 tsp.
• Poppy seeds : 2tsp.
• Green chillies : 4tsp ( finely chopped)
• Turmeric powder : 1tsp
• Red chilly powder : 1/2 tsp
• Gram flour : 50 gms
• Mustard oil for deep frying.

Procedure:
Take the fish roe along with all ingredients, except the oil of course, in a large bowl. Mix lightly. Keep aside.

Heat the oil. Take small amounts of the roe mixture and drop into the hot oil so as to coagulate and form small, roundish clumps on coming in contact with the hot oil. Fry these clumps till they are golden brown. Do not make the clumps too large as this may cause the inner parts to remain uncooked.