Chitol Fish Balls in a rich gravy (Chitol Maacher Muitha)

Chitol Maacher Muitha

Chital or Chitol Maacher Muitha is a traditional Bengali Fish Recipe, that is made at special occasions. Muitha is actually dumplings made from the Chitol fish meat grated from a large piece.
The fish has millions of bones but this preparation is made for those who love the fish but hate the bones. It is a Bangal delicacy though now both sides of Bengal , east (Now Bangladesh) and west love it equally.

Ingredients :

For the Muithya :
Chitol Maach........................600 grams (Gada piece , Pith side )
Potato.....................................2 ,large,Boiled &Mashed
Onion/Ginger/Garlic/Green Chilly Paste.............2-3 Tbsp
Roasted Cumin Powder.................................2 tsp
Salt..................................................as per taste
Water............................................a large pan full of water

 Put a large and deep pan full of water to boil on high flame. When the water boils..... Mash the fish and potato together very well . Mix all the other ingredients as well. Make tight balls of the fish meat with all the ingredients mashed well together and then drop the balls in hot boiling water.  Now, i have always given either ball or elongated shape to the muithas but some ladies do make square shaped or diamond shaped muithas.

At first when dropped in boiling water, the muithas will sink but after a few seconds they will rise to the top. Carefully remove with a slotted laddle  and keep aside.
Now, heat 1/2 cup - 1 1/2 cup  (200-250 grams) of Mustard Oil Or Refined Oil,which ever you prefer and fry the fish balls in low heat till golden in colour slowly. When done remove .

Ingredients For Gravy :

Mustard Oil (Or any Oil)..................2 Tbsp

Potato.................................................2,medium,Cubed
Ginger-Garlic Paste.............................2 tsp
Onion Paste...........................................2 Tbsp
Tomato Puree.......................................2 Tbsp
Red Chilly Powder...............................1/2 tsp
Kashmiri Chilly Powder........................1/2 Tsp
Turmeric Powder...................................1/2 tsp
Salt...........................................................1/2 Tsp (Or as per taste)
Sugar..........................................................1/2 Tsp(Optional)
Clarified Butter (Deshi Ghee)......................1 Tbsp
For the Tempering :
Bay Leaf (Tej Patta )...........................2
Green Cardamom.................................2,slit
Cinnamon............................................1 piece
Clove...................................................4


Heat some water in a kettle and keep ready.

Mix 1 Tsp (Heaped) Cornflour in 4 Tbsp water and keep aside.

Method  Of Preparing the Gravy :

First of all heat 2 Tbsp oil in a pan and fry the potato cubes. Remove.
Add the Clarified Butter in the same oil and also add the  Bay Leaves, Cardamoms, Cinnamon and Cloves . Stir a bit before adding the Onion paste, Ginger-Garlic paste and stir fry. Add the Tomato next. Also add the dry spices.......Turmeric, Red Chilly Powder, Kashmiri Chilly Powder, Salt and Sugar. Fry till oil separates and rises to the top .Then add 1-1/2 cup warm water.This will make the gravy. When it boils add the potato cubes. When it boils , add the Fish balls.
When these come to a boil , turn off the heat and leave covered, Giving a standing time of 10 minutes.
The Fish balls(Muitha) will soak up some of the gravy and soften .
Carefully remove the Chitol Muithas to a flat serving dish  and top with the Gravy.
Garnish

Srape the Fish Meat with a spoon

Chitol Maacher Pieces

Chitol Maacher Muitha

P.S : The use of

Bengali Fish Curry : Gurjali MaacherJhol

Gurjali Maacher Jhol

This is a simple fish curry and easy to make dish.
Ingredients are few and the taste supreme.Would like you all to give it a try.

What you need .......

Gurjali Fish (Gurjali Maach).............................3
Ginger..............................................................1/2 inch piece
Cumin Seeds....................................................1 tsp.
Green Chilly...................................................2-3
Tomato,small....................................................1 grated or pureed
Turmeric powder...............................................1/4 tsp
Salt................................................................according to taste
Mustard Oil....................................................2 tbsp

For the Tempering :

Nigella Seeds ( Kalo Jeere )..............................1 pinch

For Garnishing :

Fresh Coriander..............................................1 tbsp,finely chopped
Green Chillies,slit............................................2-3

Gurjali Maach

Preparation :

Grind the Cumin Seeds, Ginger and Green Chillies to a fine paste using some water.
Make a puree of the tomato or you can grate it .
Sprinkle  some Turmeric and salt on the fish pieces and keep aside.

How to Prepare the curry :

  Heat the Mustard oil and fry the fish pieces lightly and remove. Too much frying will harden the fish pieces and we do not want that.

Reduce the heat to sim and add the kalo jaere to the oil.

   Stir a bit and then add the paste prepared earlier. Stir fry a bit and then add the tomato and continue frying till a nice aroma fills your kitchen.Then you will know its done .

     Add the turmeric (1/4 Tsp  )and salt  as per taste . Stir these in and then add 1 small cup of water .
Let the water come to a boil and then add the fish pieces. Once the fish pieces are added it will lower the temperature a bit , so wait for it to boil again turn off the heat.

     Sprinkle the finely chopped Coriander and slit Green Chillies and cover with a lid.
Give a standing time of 5 minutes and  after that serve.

This is served with plain  Boiled Rice .

Chirer Ros Puli Pithe

Our neighbors the Saha's used to have Pithe Parbon at their place. Ladies got together to celebrate the festival. A huge coal and wood fire was set up. A big "Handi"of water was put to steam.On the "Handi" was placed a basket "Jhuri"

In it "Bhapa Pithe " was put to steam.

Rice powder was used. Rice powder was knead into a dough with warm water.The soft dough was made into a large chapati (Indian Bread) / Roti and cut into small rounds.Using the Gujia moulds   (see picture) small Gujia's were made .The filling was made with Grated Coconut, Nolen Gur ( Jaggery), and  Koya Kheer (Home style condensed Milk).These Gujia's were then steamed .When ready it was served with very thin Nolen Gur (Jaggery in a liquid form).

Now, when cool the left overs were boiled in thick sweetened milk popularly called Kheer in Bengali and served as "Doodh Puli" another form of Pithe.

Pati Shapta was made with soaked Gobindobhog Rice. Rice that had a mild scent.The soaked rice was grinded to a thin paste. On a hot greased griddle a spoon full of the batter was spread, a filling spread in the center and then rolled like an omlette.

Gokul Pithe was made too. A thick batter with Refined Flour and baking soda  was made.Then a coconut and jaggery filling was  prepared. It was divided up equally into equal size balls. These were then dipped into the flour batter and deep fried to golden colour. A thick syrup was prepared, boiling  water and sugar together and the golden fried crisp balls were soaked in it.

Now, this Chirer Ros Pithe is one that I have learnt from my dear friend Sharmistha Dey. She is a writer and a television personality. She teaches too.

Gujia Moulds

Ingredients:

Flaked Rice (Chire ).......................200 grams,thin variety Coconut..........................................1 medium size,grated Sugar.............................................500 grams

Jaggery (Gur).................................200 grams 

Cows Milk......................................1/2 litre

Refined Flour ( Maida)...................as required 

Clarified Butter (Desi Ghee)............1 Tbsp

Refined Oil.....................................as required for Deep frying

 Method :

Soak the thin Chire in water . Keep aside to soak for five minutes.
Heat 500 grams of Sugar with 200 ml water to make a thick syrup. Cool . The prepared Pithe's have to be added into cool syrup.
Drain off the excess water and squeeze the flaked rice .Then make a smooth dough. Add  Desi Ghee and enough Refined Flour to make a dough (Four or five Tbsp should do). Mash well.
Make a coconut filling. Grate half a coconut. Heat a pan and heat  1/2 litre milk in it till it boils .Then add the coconut and keep ,stirring  often with a spoon.When the mix reduces and the coconut is cooked add the Jaggery. Keep stirring till the mix drys up completely and a nice aroma starts coming. Cool.
Now divide the dough and the coconut  filling into  equal number of portions. Take a  ball of the dough and make a bowl shape with it.  Right in the centre of  it put a  ball of the filling and cover up.Close all sides carefully and smoothen.  Now give an Puli shape to the Pithe. Prepare all and keep ready to fry. Heat oil for deep frying . Reduce the flame and on low heat deep fry slowly till light golden.Do not increase the heat while cooking or else the centre will remain uncooked while the top will become crispy at once. Fry in small batches and drop in the bowl of syrup. The pithe has to be hot while the syrup cool. Serve with the syrup. Keep soaked in syrup all the time

Coconut Filling

Prepared Puli Pithe Ready for Deep Frying

Holi Special:Gujia

Gujia  is a sweet made for Holi festival , an Indian festival of colours. All over the country Gujia is so identified. Just as Cakes are for Christmas and Laddu's are for Diwali, Gujia's and Malpua's are for Holi.

Indian's greet each other with platters of different types of sweets and salted snacks on festivals.

Gujia is a North Indian sweet that is very popular in all parts. In the east, specially Bengal however, the name Gujia is associated with another sweet that is prepared with dry reduced milk called Khoya and sugar.

After friends and relatives have played with colours we offer everyone" Gujia".

I have adopted a new filling to put inside the Gujias, over the years and these are liked equally by all. 

Various things are used as fillings....... like a mix of finely chopped nuts-raisins-sugar-dry coconut grated or chopped nuts-raisins-dates-grated coconut  or roasted Semolina-grated dry coconut-nuts- sugar.......etc. The  filling  I use is a bit different from the usual. If you follow my recipe you can make yours different too.

Gujia's are  usually crescent shaped ,with the ends twisted by hand.

In Orissa ,where I spent my Hoil this year the Gujia's were shaped like triangles and sugar coated from the outside.

Coconut Filling that I like to use in my style Gujia

Ingredients :

For the stuffing :

Fresh Coconut,grated..................................1/2 a coconut
Full Fat whole Milk......................................1/2
Jaggery...........................................................2 tbsp
Sugar.............................................................1 cup
Green Cardamom Powder.............................1/4 tsp
Nutmeg (Jaiphal)...........................................1 big pinch
Nuts and raisins,finely chopped.....................2 Tbsp

Heat a heavy bottomed pan and bring the milk to boil and then add the grated fresh coconut. Keep stirring and cooking both together. Its going to take a while so be patient. As the mix starts to dry up add the sugar and jaggery and keep stirring. when the mix is absolutely dry add finely chopped nuts
and raisins ,cardamom and nutmeg powders. Keep aside to cool.

For those who have never prepared Gujia and not even tasted it here's what we are going to do......

For the Outer covering ,we are going to make a Refined flour dough .

Then we will divide up the dough into small equal size balls. From the balls, we will make small round coatings that we will lay on the moulds , put the coconut stuffing/filling prepared above and then after the edges are sealed well, we will deep fry the Gujia's in warm oil till golden.

Now my friend Gautamy Roy Mistry suggests that I bake my Gujia's to reduce the oil content. I have tried doing that with excellent results. You can try as well. 

For the Dough :

Refined Flour (Maida)..............................................2 cups
Refined Oil...............................................................4-6 Tbsp
Water,Warm............................................................as required

In a large mixing bowl add the flour and oil and mix in the water as required to make a medium dough, not very hard and also not too soft. Keep covered for at least 1/2 an hour.Then divide into small equal  size balls. Fromeach ball make small thin" puri's". Place each" puri"on the mould , put enough filling in the middle and then press the mould well to seal. Just like shown above. You can made various shapes  with moulds.

Moulds in different shapes

Gujia being fried

For Frying :

Take a cup of Refined Oil and after it becomes hot reduce the heat and then add the prepared Gujia's in small batches. Keep changing sides so that they don't become too dark .

Curried Potatoes

Choto Mashir Choto Alu Dom

Choto mashi packed a whole bag full of her garden fresh, small size potatoes for us with ma, along with others, when she returned from her month long stay . 

Armed with  a peeler and a knife, Ma sat herself down on our glass topped dinning table to "prepare" as she likes to call it , the veggies!! She loves to peel off the thin outer covering of the tiny potatoes, radish, carrots etc and cut them into various sizes. Every veggie has a definite cut for a definite preparation and Ma wont have it any other way."You will destroy the very look of the preparation " she tells our help. 

The grand old lady loved to cook. Now ,since Baba expired , she has almost given it up. She goes back to the kitchen only for her younger son ,when he comes with family to spend his vacations here . I couldn't persuade her to give that up, so I gave up. But at other times, she loves to tell us all about her experiences,and we love to hear her over and over again.

The small variety of potatoes

The removal of the outer cover is called "Khosha Charano" in Bengali. These fresh potatoes have such a fine cover, that just rubbing with your bare hand, can do the job. Ma loves doing all this and I watch her giving instructions to Anjali with great passion. Been doing this since 1957 she says with great pride.

I own a pile of recipe books but Ma can't be bothered with them. So here's what was cooked .

Ingredients Used  :   1 kilo of White Potatoes,washed and the cover rubbed off, Peas 500 grams , was shelled, 4 pods of Garlic peeled, Ginger 1 inch, 1 large Onion  chopped fine , 1 large tomato pureed, 2-3 Green Chilly's  (more if you like it hot) chopped, a handfull of  fresh Coriander sprigs finely chopped.

For the tempering :   2 Bay leaves,2 Green Cardamom's,2 Cinnamon bits, 2 cloves.

Dry Spices Used:  1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder, 1/4  tsp Asafoetida (Hing Powder), 1/2 tsp Cumin Powder, 1 Tsp Coriander Powder,1/2 tsp Mango Powder (Amchur Powder), 1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder,1/4 tsp Chilly Powder.

White(Refined) Oil 2 tbsp, 1 tbsp Pure Ghee(Clarified Butter), Salt _Sugar as per taste,1 tsp Garam Masala powder (Everest Garam Masala Powder)

• 
  

• Method :

After cleaning the potatoes and shelling the peas keep aside.Grind the tomato to make a puree. In a bowl, add a little water about 1/2 a cup to make a smooth paste with all the dry spices . Keep aside.Chop the others . Put some water to boil for the gravy.

 Heat the oil and add the tempering when the oil is hot. Remember to reduce the heat before adding the tempering. Stir a bit and add the potatoes. Stir fry a bit then add the chopped Onion,Garlic ,Green Chillyand Ginger and fry stirring. Add the tomato puree. Cook on low flame till oil leaves the sides .

Add  the spices now along with the water . Cook well. When you smell the aroma its done. Add the peas and 1/2 a cup of boiled water . Cover and leave to cook on low heat. When the water is almost dry and the potatoes 

cooked , sprinkle the Garam Masala Powder, Ghee and the chopped Coriander. Now, dish out. Serve with hot Roti (Indian Bread) and fresh Salad .

ENJOY!!!

Fruit Chutney

Fresh Fruit Chutney

A type of Indian relish that is sweet and sour served along with vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes at all meals.

Ingredients :

Apple.................................................................1,chopped
Apple.................................................................1/2 sliced for garnish
Grapes................................................................1 bunch
Tomato................................................................6,small
Raisins.................................................................a handful
Sugar....................................................................1 cup
Lemon Juice.........................................................juice of 1 lemon
Salt.......................................................................1/2 tsp
White Oil.............................................................1 tsp
Bengal 5 Spice Mix (Paanch Phoron)....................1 tsp
Dry Red Chilly....................................................1
Cornflour..............................................................1 tsp
Water...................................................................just a little bit

Preparation :

Put a large bowl of water to boil. When the water comes to a boil , add the tomatoes whole. The skin of the tomato will turn soft and break. Remove from the hot water and cool. Remove the skin .

Soak the raisins in water for 15 minutes and remove. Keep aside.

Method :

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Then, add the Dry Red Chilly, Paanch Paanch and stir a bit. When you get the aroma of spices frying, its time to put in the Tomato and Apple.  Bring to boil over high heat stirring. Mash the tomatoes with your ladle. Reduce heat and simmer. Cook until thick. It should take 10-15 minutes.

When the fruits soften, add the Sugar and Salt . When the mix thickens, add the Grapes. The grapes will soften in the heat. Add the Raisins. 

Mix a little water to the Cornflour and strain this liquid into the chutney, to thicken it. Give it a stir after adding in the cornflour mix.

Switch off the heat and add the Lemon Juice .

To Test if the chutney is ready.....

Put a spoonful of the chutney on a plate and keep aside. If water leaves the sides of the chutney, its not ready yet. Return to thicken over heat. Always add the grapes after you achieve the correct consistency.

If you wish to keep this chutney for a week,then cool before  filling into clean jars. I always keep chutneys in my fridge .

Garnish with  finely sliced apple. Decorate as you wish.
The chutney is served cold  or at room temperatures.

My Instant Gulab Jamun

The Instant (Baby Milk Powder) Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun's are small deep fried dumplings / balls dipped in sugar syrup. I followed a simple recipe made with milk powder.

This Valentine's Day Mr.S. decided to ditch me and spend his evening with his school friends !!
They had found each other on a social networking site,  after a gap of many years and had chosen Valentine's day to meet and catch up. Not knowing about his plans for the evening I decided to surprise him. I didn't think I would be left to myself and decided to cook an interesting dinner to share with hubby dearest. 
Desserts are what we Bengali's enjoy the most as we all have a terrible sweet tooth. I decided to make Gulab Jamun's myself for my Valentine  .

Now, my darling daughter had left behind, Adi,my grand son's baby milk powder, on her last visit and that caught my attention. I decided to use that milk powder and look at what I made....

Gulab Jamun's being fried

Treat your family, to melt in the mouth Gulab Jamun's that are very easy to make. Celebrate any occasion, anytime with soft, juicy Gulab Jamun's. Follow my "Instant" Gulab Jamun recipe and surprise all .

Ingredients :

Milk Powder (I used Nan 1 baby food ).........1 cup

Refined Flour (Maida)......................................1 tbsp

Baking Powder.........................................1/4 tsp

Yogurt......................................................1 tbsp

Desi Ghee................................................4 tsp

For The Filling :

Green Cardamom seeds / very finely chopped pistachios / Everest Kesri Milk Masala  Mix/ Sugar candy& Saffron

I used Everest  Kesri Milk Masala Mix as i wanted to make Instant Gulab Jamuns.

Used this as filling

Sugar Syrup :

Sugar..........................................................1 cup

Water.........................................................1 cup

Lemon Juice................................................1 tsp

For Deep Frying :

White Oil / Desi Ghee....................................as required

Gulab Jamun's in  hot syrup

Preparation :

In a pan, put water to boil with the sugar.When it comes to a boil, add the lemon juice. This is done to remove the impurities.Take out the scum as it rises to the top and remove with a large spoon.

In a mixing bowl, take the milk powder, flour, baking powder, yogurt and desi ghee.Add water,  slowly, little by little and knead into a smooth dough. Keep the dough aside.

Take white oil or desi ghee in a deep pan and heat for deep frying.

Divide the dough into equal size balls. Apply ghee on your hands when making the balls, as the dough will be sticky. Make small holes and put the filling inside .Cover up and  smoothen the balls.
Deep fry in low heat.When golden remove and drop into hot syrup. 

The Gulab Jamun balls have to be added immediately after frying into the sugar syrup. The sugar syrup should also be hot then the Gulab Jamun's will soak up the syrup well and become really soft.