SPICY PRAWN PICKLE

I never knew such a pickle existed till we were gifted a bottle. It looked lovely - fiery red and hot. Since I am a vegetarian I guessed the ingredients pretty much by sniffing the bottle and poking around with a fork. This is my version of a prawn pickle and though I never taste it everyone who eats this says it’s good. Plus no preservatives here like the commercial pickles since salt, spices, turmeric and lemon juice does the preserving.
STATUTORY WARNING: This can get hotter than dallay pickle.
INGREDIENTS
1 kg large prawns
100 grams garlic
100 gms ginger
2tbs each cumin/jeera, coriander/dhania, fenugreek/methi seeds (dry roasted)
1tbs mustard seeds
3 tbs turmeric powder
5tbs Red chili powder (Everest tikha lal is good)
1/2 tsp asafoetida (hing)
Juice of 4 lemons
Oil 250 ml
LET’S DO IT
Clean and de-vein the prawns and wash thoroughly in running water.
Heat oil and deep fry the prawns till they turn pink. Keep the remaining oil.
Grind separately the ginger and garlic to coarse pastes
Grind the dry roasted spices to a coarse powder
Heat the remaining oil and sputter the mustard seeds.
Add the ginger and garlic pastes and fry till it turns golden
Add the ground spices, turmeric and chilly powder and salt and mix well
Turn off the flame and add the juice of 4 lemons to the fried masala mixture.
Add the masala mixture to the prawns and mix well.
Cool before storing in a airtight jar.
This pickle keeps for a week and best eaten with hot white rice.

TIL PALKI

I am bored of having Palki/Palak as the same old palak paneer, palak pakodas, palak soup or the green bits in dal. Egged on by the exploits of Popeye after eating spinach and tales of Rapunzel's enviable tresses (remember her mother ate it when she was pregnant) i dutifully shovelled in all the above stuff for years. It is another matter that much later i came to know that Palak and spinach are not the same while spinach is Spinacea olearacea, palak is Chenopodium album. Palak is actually a close cousin of the beetroot. However however the good news is palak contains way way much iron than Popeye's silly Little can of spinach.

Here is a way to add variety to the way you have your plateful of iron. I use a lot of til(sesame seeds ) in this which is an important ingredient in nepali cusine so shall I call this a newly invented nepali dish?

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch palak/palki saag

4 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)

4 tbs roasted white sesame seeds( seto til)

1 tbs oil

salt to taste

LETS DO IT

Remove the root portion of the palak and wash the leaves thoroughly in running water.

Boil water and blanch the leaves for 5 minutes.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the chopped garlic. Add the Palak once the garlic starts browning. Add salt and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add the sesame seeds and toss well.

Since very little cooking is involved and the leaves are whole you get much more fiber and vitamins from palak this way.

LARKS AND STICKJAWS

Much before I got acquainted with Shelly and his odes or with bird watching, Larks featured big in my life. Larks was the name of the store just below my grandmother's house. In fact they were and still are my grandmother's tenants. It was also the one of the most elite stores in town back then. The only place which kept tinned sardines, yellow blocks of cheddar cheese, chocolates, cocoa powder, condensed milk , packets of dried mushrooms, cocktail tinned fruits, China grass etc. It may not be a big deal now but to find all these things some twenty odds years ago my town was a big deal. And yes there were those stick jaws wrapped in butter paper invitingly looking out at us greedy mortals from the glass jars. They stuck when you chewed them so I guess the name. Moreover one would amuse me for at least 20 minutes - a great feat considering I could give the Amazonian Piranhas a run for their fame when it came to finishing off sweets. I had all but forgotten stick jaws till I had a sweet reunion at Elora's in Dehradun, only now they were dressed in cellophane paper. I happily stick jawed (how else do you describe eating them) and carried a bagful to Delhi only to find that they had all melted. They were not really worth eating since the molten ones didn't stick your jaws. Now this accounts for finding the stick jaws only in the hilly towns. And Larks is now a pale shadow of itself with the ubiquitous orange kurkure packets looming large in its shelves as it desperately tries to measure up to the more fancy shops in town.

CRUNCHY BASELLA

It was "hatred at first taste" if there is something like that. Known as Pui saag in Bengali, I encountered it for first time in the hostel mess as a ugly, gluey congealed mass which smelled like something that had been in the mud at the bottom of a pond( a dirty pond). By and by my love for the vegetable grew and I actually looked forward to eating it since it provided a welcome respite from the ubiquitous aloo.

Basella alba also known as Malabar/Chinese/Asian/Ceylon/ buffalo spinach, Valchi bhaji is one of the most nutritious greens high in vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron and calcium. The mucilage is a rich source of soluble fibre, which remove toxins from the body.

The following recipe is my own invention. It can be made in a jiffy and is crunchy and fresh and gets rid of the gluey quality of basella leaves.

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch of fresh Basella leaves (Pui saag)
50 grams Peanuts
4 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
1 dry red chilli (Sukkha Khorsani)
red chilly powder 1 tsp
Oil 2 tbs
salt to taste
Lets do it
Separate the basella leaves from the stem. Wash well and keep aside.
Add salt to half a pan of water and bring to a boil. Add to the basella leaves and blanch for 10 minutes and drain the water.
Meanwhile roast the groundnuts. Remove the skin and grind coarsely.
Heat oil in a pan add the dry chilly and chopped garlic and fry till brown.
Add the blanched leaves and salt and stir fry for five minutes.
Add the coarsely crushed groundnuts and red chilly powder, mix well and remove from fire.
Serve with rice or rotis. I even have it with maggie noodles.

GUNDRUK FOR THE HOMESICK SOUL

One of the most vivid memories of the winters in Kalimpong is of rows and rows of wilting leaves of Rayo saag, radish and cauliflower drying on plastic sheets spread on the hedge. The backyard would be cluttered with an old chlorophyll stained okhli and tins with their tops weighed down with stones, the sharp acid smell of fermenting gundruk assailing the senses. Though not as famous as the other fermented leaf-tea, almost every house in the hills dutifully makes gundruk during the dry winter months to be used all round the year. Gundruk essentially consists leaves of Brassica family (mustard, Rayoo saag, cauliflower, radish) subject to lactic acid fermentation and sun dried to form a brownish acidic dried product. Not beautiful to look at but heavenly if you have a taste for it. Its is primarily drunk as a spicy soup but even the thought of fresh fermented gundruk spiced up with chillies and mustard oil will produce a deluge of saliva enough to qualify as the great flood itself.

Here's the recipe to a gundruk ko jhol (gundruk soup) any homesick nepali would happily do anything for.

INGREDIENTS

50grams Gundruk

2 green chillies (slit longitudinally)

1 onion finely sliced

3 cloves garlic (coarsely crushed)

1' ginger (crushed)

1 ripe tomato (finely chopped)

1 tps turmeric powder

salt to taste

2 tbs mustard oil

water ( the jhol comes out thick and nice if you used water in which rice has been washed, the second wash and rice should preferably be the indigenous Darjeeling rice locally called Dhikiko chamal or maseeno chamal or busty ko chamal)

1 tsp ghee (Khareyko ghiu/Clarified butter)

LETS DO IT

Steep the gundruk in a little water (just enough to wet it)

Heat oil. Add garlic and onions and fry till translucent and add the ginger and gundruk (after draining the water) and fry till onions turn brown.

Add chilies, turmeric powder, salt and tomatoes and fry til the tomatoes get cooked.

Add the water and bring to a boil.

Add the ghee in the end.

Hot or cold Gundruk tastes heavenly with rice.

[As I write this I suddenly remembered that Gundruk was partly responsible for my grandfather going bankrupt. A highly impractical man never meant for earning money he would carry on various types of business to keep his family fed and fund his studies as well. He floated a Gundruk company for exporting Gundruk to the Gorkha armies in various parts of the world. Well to cut a long story short it led to his bankruptcy and a childhood full of difficulties for my father and a childhood full of the difficulties he faced and "how lucky you all are" type stories for us. Anyway why hold it against Gundruk]

Finger licking, plate licking, puniu licking, kadai licking...only way to describe aloo thukpa

This is a typical street food from Darjeeling. Ask anyone from Darjeeling and she/he will soon be raving about a stall selling aloo thukpa nearby. It is basically boiled noodles flavoured with raw mustard oil and potatoes in red slurpy hot gravy and sold in newspaper squares or bauhinia leaf plates (the gravy sodden newspaper/leaf plate is invariably licked by the consumer). Many a times the gravy is too red with food colour replete with carcinogenic properties and the dishes selling them are uncovered and who gives it a thought. Ask all those who remain aloo thukpa fans even after repeated bouts of jaundice, diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid etc. Here I have tried to recreate the magic of aloo thukpa sold near my house in a kitchen thousands of kilometers from home.

INGREDIENTS
2 large Potatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic (coarsely crushed)
3 tbs red chilly powder
1 tbs Turmeric powder
3 tbs wheat flour
Salt to taste
2 cups Water
3tbs mustard oil
Boiled noodles – 1 small packet
LET’S DO IT
Boil the potatoes, skin and cut each into eight pieces
Heat oil in a pan and add the crushed garlic.
Add turmeric powder, salt and wheat flour when the garlic turns golden and fry.
Mix the chilly powder in water and add it
Put in the boiled potatoes, cover and simmer for five minutes.
Take off from flame and keep covered for 10 minutes.
Add 1 tbs raw mustard oil to the noodles and toss well.
Serve the aloo with the noodles. Be sure to drench the noodles with the gravy.

METHI PARATHAS- HEALTHY, EASY AND TASTY

I make these a lot. The great thing about this is that if you use oil and not water for making the dough it can be stored for days in the freezer. Saves a lot of time when guests come. (remember if you use oil to bind the dough then don't use any oil while cooking)
INGREDIENTS
1 bunch methi saag (fenugreek leaves)
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1” ginger ground to paste
1 tbs turmeric powder
1tbs Jwano/ajwain seeds (Carom seeds)
2 green chillies finely chopped
Four cups atta (whole wheat flour)
Water
Salt to taste
LETS DO IT
Wash the methi saag, remove the root and the hard stem portion and finely chop the leaves
Heat 4 tbs oil and sputter the ajwain seeds , add the chopped garlic and ginger paste
Add the finely chopped onions and fry till translucent.
Add the chopped methi saag ,chopped green chillies , turmeric and salt.
Cook till ¾ done
Add the saag to the atta and make a soft dough adding required amount of water
Make small balls with the dough. Rub some oil on the hands and shape the dough balls into rotis
Cook on a hot tava adding some oil till cooked
Serve hot with pickle/achar and curd/dahi.

THIS ONE IS FOR VIR SANGHVI

Last night I was watching a matter of taste by Vir Sanghvi on Discovery travel and living....the segment was the evolution of Indian Chinese cuisine..well I guess this would then qualify as the Darjeeling edition of Indian Chinese cuisine... very पिरो chilly mushrooms.

INGREDIENTS

200gms fresh button mushrooms

1 medium sized capsicum/bell pepper(cut into large pieces)

1 large onion (cut into large pieces)

4 cloves garlic (crushed)

1 tomato (finely chopped)

2 tbs red chilly powder

1/2 cup cornflour

2tbs soy sauce

1 cup Oil

salt to taste

Finely chopped coriander leaves/spring onions

LETS DO IT

Wash the Mushrooms, pat them dry and toss them in cornflour and keep aside

Heat oil and deep fry the cornflour coated mushrooms till half done.

Heat 1 tsp oil in another pan and add the crushed garlic. Once the garlic turns brown add the onions and tomatoes and fry till onions become translucent. Add the salt and chilly powder and stir.

Add the bell peppers and the mushrooms .

Make a paste with 2 tbs cornflour and soy sauce. Add and stir well.

Add 1 cup water and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Put off the flame and keep covered on the stove for 10 minutes.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves/spring onions before serving.