Pickle by Abhijit: Freshly-Plucked Bhoot Jolokia (& Kon Jolokia Too)

 Recipe coming soon!

Pukhorir Maas Kordoi Rokhor Logot (Fresh Pond Fish with Star Fruit Juice)

During our last visit to the state, one of my in-laws’ neighbours gave us a bag full of ripe homegrown kordoi (star fruit). We wanted to use them up before they turned squashy; so, for one whole week we prepared something or the other with kordoi – and the most amazing was fresh pond fish (sourced from sister-in-law’s maternal place) with kordoi juice (see image – didn’t have a better image as this was not intended to be a blog post).

 We had fish with kordoi pulp, slices, and juice – but the one prepared with juice was otherworldly – sweet n tangy – and best part, extremely healthy, light, and easy to prepare!!

 Ingredients:

·         Kordoi juice extract: We hand squeezed 6-8 kordoi (as per your requirement)

·         6-7 pieces of Hol maas

·         One pinch of mustard seeds

·         2 green/red chillis (as per your taste)

·         Salt to taste

·         1 tablespoon mustard oil 

Method

Dab turmeric and salt on the fish pieces and fry them; once slightly golden, keep aside. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds and the chillis – once the seeds splutter, add the kordoi juice and bring it to a boil. Add the salt. If required, add water. Once you feel you’ve got the right concentration of the gravy (not too thin, not too thick), add the fish pieces, and let it simmer. You might see some frothy bubbles, just ignore them.  If the sour taste is overwhelming, add a little more water, or even a little sugar and boil for some more time.

Your sweet and sour fish with kordoi gravy is ready 😊…serve with plain rice. Don’t forget to drop a comment in case you try this recipe.

Health benefits

Star fruit is loaded with health benefits:

·         Fights jaundice

·         Rejuvenates liver/reduces fatty liver risk

·         Prevents inflammation

·         Boosts immunity as it is loaded with vitamin C

A word of caution though: People with kidney problems should avoid this fruit as it has high levels of oxalic acid.

 

Xewali Phool Bhaji (Night Jasmine Fry)

We people in the North East like to savor all sorts of edible flowers, be it titaphool, ronga lau phool (pumpkin flower) or our own night bloom – xewali phool (parijat or night jasmine).

Talk about xewali phool and it instantly transports me to our carefree, growing-up years, much closer to nature. Back then, picking up the night-flowering jasmine – suffused with its intense fragrance – one by one from our courtyard provided us sheer joy. Once done, we’d hand over the basket of flowers to Ma and she’d wash, sun-dry and store them for use through the year (to flavor khar dishes or to be consumed as xewali phool fry or even add-ons to fish curries. Back home, it’s also used as a natural food coloring substitute to the more expensive saffron. :)

Xewali flower has a flavor, which people with a ‘bitter tooth’ (if I can say so) will appreciate :). And of course, there is no limit when it comes to health benefits of xewali flowers (read bottom)!

The best part is we can consume the sun-dried flowers for months, and even years, without worrying about their expiry date. Last week, I used up my stock to dish up xewali phoolor bhaji (with rice). Here’s how:

Ingredients:

·       Dried xewali flowers (about one/two cup)

·       Cooked rice (about one or two cups)

·       3-4 garlic cloves

·       Cumin (whole) – 2/3 pinches

·       One onion

·       Green chillies (chopped)

·       Red chillies

·       One tablespoon mustard oil (the lesser you use, the better)

·       Turmeric (a pinch – optional)

·       Salt to taste

Method:

Keep aside one or two cups of cooked rice. Soak the dried flowers in water for some time to tenderize them; wash away the reddish-brown water. Heat a pan, pour the oil. Once hot, add the whole cumin, red chillies, followed by garlic cloves, and then the onions. As the onions turn slightly golden, add the flowers and fry for some time. Add salt and just a dash of turmeric powder. Then add the cooked rice and mix well. Let it cook for some time. Add the chopped green chillies. If required, sprinkle just a little water and cover with a lid. Your xewali bhaji is ready to serve.

Health Quotient: It's said that the flower contains properties that can destroy intestinal worms. It has anti-bacterial and antiviral properties. People also use the leaves to treat skin diseases.

Mati Mahor Khar (Black Gram Khar)

A traditional Assamese platter is incomplete without a khar (alkali) dish, normally prepared with soda  or  water distilled from smoked/burnt banana peel. Popular khar dishes include papaya khar, bottle gourd khar, cucumber khar, among others. One more khar dish relished by the kharkhowas is mati mahor khar (black gram lentil khar).

How to get your Khar ingredient: Sun-dry for few days the peels from seeded-bananas (bhim kal in Assamese) until they turn grey/black. Now take a sun-dried banana peel and burn it on your gas oven. Then soak the burnt peel in potable water overnight. Next morning, as the water turns tea-like and the ashes gather at the bottom, filter the water in a separate vessel. One or one-and-a-half cup is enough for your preparation

Ingredients:

• About 1 or 1/12 cup khar water (see above to prepare this water) 
• About 250 gm black lentils
• 1/2 medium sized onion (finely chopped)
• 5-6 green chillis
• 5-6 pods of garlic
• two teaspoon mustard oil
• Coriander leaves
• 5 spices
• Salt to taste

Method: Soak the black grams overnight.Then wash well to remove the skin, although there are a lot of people out there who prepare without removing the skin. Take the green chillis, garlic pods and corinader leaves and crush with a crusher. Heat one or two teaspoon oil in a pressurre cooker, add  five spices, followed by the garlic-chilli-coriander paste. Add onion and fry; the aroma that it gives out is simply difficult to resist.Then add the lentils and fry for some time before adding the khar. Drop one or two green chillis if you prefer it hot! Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles (or as your pressure cooker demands). Before serving, add one teaspoon of mustard oil to it because it accentuates the taste of the khar dish.  

Health quotient: Khar is said to cleanse your stomach.

Masur Dailor Bor (Red Lentil Fritters)

Masur dailor bor, prepared from masur dal (red lentil or Egyptian lentil) paste is a regular serve in Assamese cuisine. Mostly used as a starter, this is quite handy when guests drop in for a quick dinner/lunch.  If you haven’t tried it, you should certainly do so; it’s way better than the besan-made fritters we are so used to having! Here’re some steps that I use to prepare this mouth-watering fritter!

Ingredients:

• Red lentils (Masur Dal) – 250 gm
• Rice Powder (optional) – 10 gm
• Green Chillis – 4-5 (or depending on how hot you want it)
• Baking Powder or Soda – 1 pinch
• Onions – 2 (medium sized)
• Mustard Oil (one cup for frying)
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves (one bunch – the more the better)

Method: Soak the lentils overnight and then grind in a mixer grinder till you get a course paste. In a bowl, add the lentil paste, rice powder (this makes it more crispy), baking soda, chopped onions, green chillis and coriander leaves. Then add salt and water and mix everything with a spoon (you can use your hand but I prefer spoon). The consistency of the batter should be thick. Heat oil; it should be really hot. Lower or adjust gas temperature as you fry the fritters. Serve hot as a starter or with dal and rice for a sumptuous lunch/dinner!

Kon Bilahi Dal (Lentils with Cherry Tomatoes)

An Assamese kitchen serves a variety of dals (lentils), each with a distinct and subtle taste.  In fact, if you choose to have Assamese food on all 30 days of the month, you'll still have a different dal to savour each day. Among the plethora of dals cooked the Assamese way, dal with cherry tomatoes (kon bilahi) is quite popular and a personal favorite too. Great to have during the summer months, here's one way to prepare this particular dal.

What's required:

·    3/4 cup Masur Dal

·    1/4 cup Moong Dal

·    10 cherry tomatoes (approx.)

·    1/4 onion (finely chopped)                                                                               

·    4 green chillies

·    1 pinch pas phooron (5 spices comprise fennel seeds, fenugreek  seeds, cumin seeds, black mustard seeds and nigella seeds)

·    Salt to taste

·    One pinch turmeric powder

·    Coriander leaves (optional)

·    1 teaspoon mustard oil

Method:

In a pressure cooker, add the washed dals, water (about 4-5 cups or as per your requirement), cherry tomatoes, 2 chillies, salt and turmeric powder. (many people add the tomatoes while doing the tempering too).  Remove from cooker after two whistles.

Heat a pan and add the mustard oil; once hot, add the five spices, followed by the chopped onions and then the chopped coriander leaves.When the onions turn brownish, pour the boiled dal. Heat it for some time;cut two green chilies and add to the boiling dal.

Ou Tenga Dal (Lentils with Elephant Apple)

Elephant apple (ou tenga) is one of the most popular fruits in Assam, used as a sour enhancer in traditional curries; but whenever I talk about this hard-shelled fruit to people here in North India, they give out an expression of “Now what on earth is this?”

For the uninitiated, elephant apple or wood apple is native to South East Asia and has a tangy flavor that adds a unique taste to your dal (lentils), fish and other curries. Back in Assam, we grew up on a lot of mythical stories surrounding this intriguing fruit too. So when my husband got me some during his last visit to the state, I rushed to my kitchen and prepared tangy dal with  this fruit. This is how:

Ingredients:

•    Half elephant apple (washed well)
•    250 gm lentil (masoor)
•    3-4 chopped green chillis
•    1-2 pinch mustard seeds
•    Salt to taste
•    One pinch turmeric powder

Method: This is one of the easiest things to cook. Just cut the fruit into pieces and crush them. Keep aside. Wash the dal and add in a pressure cooker, along with the crushed ou tenga pieces, salt and turmeric powder. Pressure cook and remove after two hoots.In a pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds and chopped green chillis. Pour the dal into it. Remove after some time.

Health benefits: The fruit is very effective against diabetes.

Chicken Raja Mircha (Bhut Jolokiar Logot Murgi Mangxho)

Whenever we visit Naga stall at Dilli Haat or the Nagaland Kitchen at Green Park, we make it a point to have Pork Raja Mircha for sure. I wanted to cook this dish at home but since pork is not readily available here in Faridabad, I tried my hand at Chicken Raja Mirchi; the taste was distinct from the Chicken Raja Mircha we normally have at the Naga stalls but we simply loved this fiery dish!

Here’s my recipe:

Ingredients 

·         Chicken 250 gms (preferably small pieces and washed well)

·         Raja Mirchi – one or two – depending on how hot u want it to be

·         Garlic – 4-5 pods

·         One-two tablespoon oil

·         One large onion (grated)

·         Grated bamboo shoot/ bamboo shoot pickle – 1 or 2 teaspoon

·         Salt to taste

·         Coriander leaves (chopped well) - optional

Marinate the chicken with oil, salt and turmeric powder. Grate the onion. Crush the garlic and raja mirchas separately – keep them aside. Heat the pan and add oil.  Once hot, put the crushed garlic, followed by the grated onion. When the onion turns brownish, add the chicken, salt and turmeric powder and cook for some time. When you feel the chicken is cooked, pour 3-4 cups of hot water followed by the crushed raja mircha and grated bamboo shoots. Cook for some time and allow the water to recede. Add the chopped coriander and your chicken raja mircha is ready. Make your tastebuds ready for some fiery and tantalizing experiences!

Health-Enriching Tamarind Coolers (Teteli Tengar Shorbot)

During summer we drink gallons of aerated beverages without realizing that they could be causing so much harm to the body. Why consume harmful drinks when you can prepare health-enriching drinks at home within minutes. This summer we are making a conscious effort to stay away from aerated/soft drinks and sip only natural and fresh juice. Last week, I used up my stock of ripe tamarind pulp to prepare a jar of cool, refreshing and health-enriching tamarind juice. Just perfect on hot days to cool the body down and quench your thirst!

Tamarind juice has a series of health benefits too – it can be an effective remedy in curing and treating bile disorder.  The pulp of ripe tamarind is very useful in treating digestive and constipation problems; it can improve the loss of appetite too.

Tamarind juice is very easy to prepare; just follow these instructions and you’ll be right there. 

Ingredients:                                  

   

• ·         Two-three tablespoon ripe tamarind pulp
• ·         Four-five  table spoon sugar (or depending on your taste)
• ·          1/4^th teaspoon black salt (optional)
• ·         Half litre potable water
• ·         Two-three sprigs of mint (optional)

Method

Wash the tamarind pulp well. You may have got them from a well-known brand, but still you need to wash them properly in potable water to ensure hygiene.  Set aside. Boil the water and add sugar. Add the tamarind pulp too along with salt. Stir well with a spoon. Use tea strainer and drain the tamarind syrup into a jar. Add the sprigs of mint to the tamarind water if you want and then refrigerate.  Your tamarind syrup is ready.

Remember: This is a concentrated syrup. So you need to mix it with the right amount of chilled water before serving.

This tamarind concoction is good enough to serve more than four people. You can even store them to serve when guests visit unannounced.

Note: If you like it spicy, you can add crushed green chillis too.

Morisa Haak (Red Indian Spinach)

Leafy vegetables have been always popular in Assamese cuisine; even more now as aptly substantiated by a report on Beltola market which reads - consumers are now rediscovering local ethnic food like tender bamboo shoot, pashala and various leafy vegetables with medicinal properties because these are much cheaper compared to other vegetables like beans, capsicum, lady’s finger and brinjals.  

Recently we explored the sabzi mandi (vegetable market) of Sector 16, Faridabad and got some fresh leafy vegetables including the familiar Red Indian Spinach, popularly known as morisa haak in Assam.I cooked this spinach with potato and it turned out really nice (the stem too is relished in East India )!

Ingredients

·         Two bunches of the red spinach (wash well and cut)

·         Two or three medium sized potatoes

·         Two medium onions (chopped finely)

·         2-3 green chillies

·         About two teaspoon mustard oil

·         Salt to taste

·         Cumin seeds (jeera) 1/4^th teaspoon

·         Coriander (optional)

Method

Boil the potatoes, cut into four pieces and set aside. Heat oil in a pan, and add the cumin seeds to it. Add the chopped onions to it and fry. Before it turns golden, add the potatoes along with the cut spinach. Don’t add the salt immediately as it may be difficult to gauge the quantity – initially it may seem more but you’ll soon realize that it has receded considerably. That way you’ll know how much salt to add. While frying add the chillis (chopped well) and the coriander leaves (chopped well). Keep them on for some time.  Remove from gas and serve with dal and rice.

Til-or Laru (Sesame Balls)

Rongali Bihu is here again! And with it, the longing to have home-prepared til pitha (rice powder roll stuffed with jaggery, sesame seeds, etc), narikolor laru (coconut balls), gur-or logot cheera doi (dry flat rice with curd and a bit of jaggery) til-or laru (sesame seed balls), the list goes on.

Even though juggling a home and the corporate world leaves me with very little time to prepare these delicacies, this time I wanted to dish out home-made delicacies for sure. Preparing them at home has its own charm; perhaps the Bihu spirit becomes even more palpable! And more importantly, Abhijit is so fond of these! 

One of his favorites is Til-or laru (sesame balls).  I got sesame seeds and jaggery from the nearest Easy Day store and got rolling! 

 

Ingredients

• Sesame seeds – About 100 gm (or depending on the quantity you’re looking at.)

• Jaggery – About 50 gm 

Method

Wash the sesame seeds well with water using your hands and sundry them. (Most people skip this step, but it’s important if you want to maintain hygiene). Once clean and dry, roast them in a pan till you hear the popping sound. Be careful not to over roast; doing so might give your larus a burnt taste which may not be to your liking. Once done, keep aside. 

In a pan, heat the jaggery by adding some water. Once it gives out that sticky feel, add the roasted seeds and stir them well for some time.  Take off the fire and start preparing the larus while it’s still hot. 

Tip 1:  If you feel the heat while rolling the laddoos, wet your hands with some water.

Tip 2: While heating the jaggery, ensure it doesn’t become too mushy – maintain the right balance. 

Health quotient: Sesame seeds are rich in minerals like copper and manganese, and are a good source of iron and calcium too.

Pickle: Bhut Jolokia or Naga Morich (Ghost Pepper)

Health quotient: One of the ‘hottest chillies in the world’ can be used as a remedy for stomach ailments and to fight the scorching summer heat! Improbable, but true! 

Ghost Pepper, better known as Bhut Jolokia in Assam and Naga Morich in Nagaland, is one of the hottest chillies in the World. One bite is enough to ensure watery eyes and a runny nose! These chillies are also referred to as Bih Jolokia (poison pepper) in some places of Assam.

Although rare to find (concentrated in NorthEast India; and in some parts of Bangladesh too), Delhites can get a taste of this fiery chilli in the various cuisines that Naga Stall (Delhi Haat) dishes out (Try their Pork and Chicken Raja Mirchi). I believe one can get this chilli ordered online too, but for a hefty price! 

On my recent trip to Assam, I bought some. Since this was the off season, I had a difficult time getting them; finally I laid my hands on a few in two of the shops at Ganeshguri market. Needless to add, I had to shell out much more than what I would have paid otherwise. 

I stored them in pickle form. Here’s how: 

Ingredients:

·        Bhut Jolokia 250gms (cut in small pieces; remember to wear a globe while cutting the mirchi).

·         Mustard oil – 200 gms

·         Salt to taste

Method:

Sun-dry the chillies for a few days; Heat oil in a pan and add the salt. Once the oil cools, add the chillis and bottle them in a clean and dry bottle. Sun-dry every day for a few days; this is very important. Also, see to it that they don’t come into contact with water.

Once, your bhut jolokia pickle is ready, one drop of the pickle oil is enough to excite your palate.

Granny’s Corner

These days everyone’s talking about eating healthy and eating right considering the stressful lives we lead. Grandma’s healthy and delectable recipes would have been the perfect balm for today’s harried soul! 

That’s why KHORISA takes a peek at Grandma’s kitchen – and brings you a corner dedicated to her, comprising cooking secrets, health-enriching tips, and remedies straight from her kitchen. 

(These tried and tested tips are taken only from reliable word-of-mouth sources).

Tip for today

Granny says, “Rice powder helps to make your fritters crispy. Say for instance if you’re preparing fritters with gram flour (besan), just add a teaspoon of rice powder in the batter along with the other ingredients – and fry them. You’ll notice the difference immediately as you’ll roll out crispy and mouth-watering fritters with no extra effort!”

Green Gram Fritters (Mogu-r Bor)

One day I just experimented with some leftover soaked green grams (green moong dal) and I was surprised by the result. Nowadays these fritters are a regular serve when guests come visiting…

Ingredients:

• About 100 gm green moong dal (soaked overnight)
• About 1 tablespoon gram flour (besan) or just enough to cement or hold the dal paste together
• Half a teaspoon rice powder (this makes the fritters crispy)
• 2-3 onions finely chopped
• 6-7 green chilies
• Plenty of coriander leaves
• Salt
• 2-3 tablespoons of Mustard oil

Method
After soaking the dal overnight, drain off the water and let it dry. Grind the dal and the green chilies, preferably in a pounder and not a mixie. I feel the coarseness adds to the taste; but it’s up to your discretion. In a bowl, add the dal mixture with salt, gram flour, rice powder, onions and chopped coriander leaves. Mix them together with some water; make the paste thick so they hold together when you fry them. Serve hot with green chutney or any sauce of your choice!

Pork Dry Fry

This serves as a great starter and the perfect accompaniment for your wine, beer or whisky!

Ingredients:

• About 300 gm fresh & tender pork (cut into pieces - small or depending on your preference) washed well
• 1 onion
• About 10 cloves of garlic
• ¼ inch garlic
• Chili powder
• Salt to taste
• One tablespoon mustard oil
• One pinch turmeric powder
Method:
Make a ginger-garlic paste and keep aside. In a cooker, add about half a cup of water and the pork pieces along with chili powder, approx. half the ginger garlic paste and turmeric powder; mix well. Pressure cook for about 5-6 whistles, if the meat’s tender. Or else, put it on for two more whistles. When it cools, take off the pork pieces.
Take a round bottom pan and heat about one tablespoon mustard oil. Add the rest of the ginger-garlic paste, followed by the pork pieces. Fry till they get a golden hue. (you may even choose to cover it with a lid). Serve hot!
Stay tuned for some more Pork recipes.

Mashed Potato with Dried Fish (Hukan Maasor Logot Aloo Pitika)

It’s amazing to think how food unites people across different cultures – I realized how our own ‘hukuti’ (Assamese chutney prepared by pounding dried ‘puthi’ fish and dried red chilies) resembles a ready-to-eat dried fish chutney powder (again prepared from dried fish and red chilies) that’s very popular in Thailand (see image).

This weekend, I used this Thai dried fish mixture to prepare a ‘pitika’, an offshoot of my previous post (Dried Fish Chutney http://khorisa.blogspot.com/2011/05/not-many-people-like-overpowering-smell.html) – only difference is I’ve used a readymade mixture here.

How to get your ready-to-use mixture? Well, just take about 100 gm dried fish (washed and then dried again) along with 9-10 dried red chilies (or depending on your taste) and grind in a mixer grinder. Store the mix in a container.
Here’s how to prepare mashed potato with this mix.

Ingredients:

• About 4-5 teaspoons of dried fish and chili mixture
• Two medium-sized potatoes
• One medium sized onion
• Three-four green chilies
• A dash of mustard oil
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves

Method:

Boil/roast the potatoes. Chop the onions, chilies and coriander leaves – keep aside. In a vessel, take the boiled/roasted potatoes, dried fish mixture, a dash of mustard oil, salt and all the chopped ingredients and mash together. And fisho, your healthy delectable side-dish is ready! This serves about two-three people.

Pork with Bamboo Shoot (Khorisar Logot Gahori Mangxho)

Talk about pork and any Assamese guy is sure to go weak at the knees. Even though I was never an avid pork lover, I developed a taste for it gradually - the ‘Pork Raja Mircha’ that one of my friends (ironically not from the North East) introduced me to a few years back at Nagaland Stall (Dilli Haat) was the turning point perhaps. Now my kitchen emanates the flavors of Pork dishes – this time pork with bamboo shoot!

Ingredients:

• 300-500 gm fresh pork (cut into small pieces)
• 6-7 cloves of garlic
• 7 dried red chilies (or one bhoot jholokia – a fiery red hot chili - if you have it)
• One pinch red chilli powder (optional)
• One pinch turmeric powder
• One tablespoon sour bamboo shoot (I have used bamboo shoot pickle)
• One large onion
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves (optional)
• One cup of water (or depending on how thick you want the gravy)
Method:
Wash the pork well and boil it in a pressure cooker to rid all the dirt; remove after a hoot. Drain the water. Make a paste of onion, garlic, ginger and chilies and place it in the cooker along with all the other ingredients - bamboo shoot, salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder and about a cup of water. Remove after four-five hoots if the pork is tender. Else, keep it on for some more time.
Note: Avoid oil as pork oozes oil.
There are more elaborate ways to cook pork with bamboo shoot. Perhaps I’ll take a dig at them later on. Stay tuned for more!

Ambarella Soup (Omorar Jhool)

My main intent behind starting this blog was to dish out some ‘healthy and authentic fare’ – and keeping that spirit in mind, here’s raising a toast to this health-enriching ambarella soup (omorar jhool)!

This simple yet effective soup has helped my father lead a better life when all medicines for chronic dysentery failed to provide any relief.The great thing about it is that it increases your resistance to diseases. Now he makes it a point to keep this fruit handy; but since it’s seasonal, he stores it in pickled form too. My father sent us some when my sister came visiting:

Ingredients:

• 7-8 ambarellas washed well
• Salt to taste (one may even use black salt)
• One tablespoon of pulses (any) to thicken the base
• One or two green chilies chopped well
• A pinch of ginger-garlic crushed well
• Coriander leaves

Method:

Make slits around the ambarellas - as deep as the knife can penetrate - so that the soup gets all the vital ingredients that the fruit contains.

In a pressure cooker, take about two cups of water and add all the ingredients. Take it off the stove after four-five hoots. Make sure the juice of the ambarella oozes into the soup. The fruit should turn pulpy. If you feel the soup has not mixed well, cook it for some more time. Once it’s ready, relish it as a soup and stay healthy!

Bottle Gourd Khar (Pani/Jati Lau Khar)

Traditionally, a Khar (alkali) dish kickstarts an Assamese meal. In fact, people refer to Assamese people as khar khuas not for nothing - we eat khar dishes prepared from raw papaya (previous khar post), cucumber, and just about anything. Recently I tried my hand at this authentic Assamese dish with bottle gourd (pani/jati lau).

Although the process of cooking both the khar dishes – previous post and this one – is more or less the same, the khar ingredient used in both is different – baking soda (in the previous one) and water obtained after soaking smoked/burnt dried banana peel overnight( in this one).

How to get your Khar ingredient: Sun-dry for some days the peels from seeded-bananas ('bhim kal' in Asaamese) until they turn black. Now take a sun-dried banana peel and burn it in your gas oven. Then soak the ashes in potable water overnight. Next morning, as the water turns tea-like and the ashes gather at the bottom, filter the water in a separate vessel. One or one-and-a-half cup is enough for your preparation.

Ingredients:
• One dried peel of seeded-banana
• Half bottle gourd cut into medium-sized chunks
• Five-six garlic pods
• One finely chopped onion (optional)
• One tablespoon oil
• Two dried red chili
• One green chili
• A pinch of mustard seeds
• Salt to taste

Method: Heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, dried red chilies followed by the chopped onion and garlic pods. When the onions take a reddish hue, add the bottle gourd; add salt too. Cook for some time. Then add the cup of water (khar); very soon the water gourd will turn pulpy. Cut the green chili on top. Remove from stove. Your water gourd khar is ready!
Note: If you use turmeric powder to the preparation, it’ll take on a reddish color that may not be to your liking – so avoid it!

Mango Dal (Aam Dal)

Delhi’s sweating it out. What better way to beat the heat than relax indoors and have some nice food to please your ‘summer palate’. Something like ‘aam dal’ that's not just soothing for your taste buds but is easy on your stomach too. The best part is it’s so easy to cook – reducing your kitchen time in the process. This is not exactly an Assamese preparation; people have this all over the country, more specifically in Andhra and West Bengal:

Ingredients:

• 1/4th cup toor lentil (rohor dal)
• 1/4th cup masur dal
• 1 medium sized raw mango
• 1/4th onion (finely chopped)
• One tomato (diced into small pieces)
• 2-3 pinch of mustard seeds
• 2-3 green chilies
• 2 dried red chilies
• Salt to taste
• 1-2 pinch turmeric powder
• Two teaspoon oil

Method:

Peel and grate the mango and keep aside. Wash the lentils properly; place it in a pressure cooker, add salt and turmeric powder and the chopped tomatoes. Boil it. Remove from gas after a couple of hoots. In a pan heat the oil, add the mustard seeds, red chilies and onions (in this order). When the onions get a golden tinge, add the boiled dal and heat for some time. Then add the grated mango; remember not to over boil the mango because if you do so there are chances the color of your dal may turn brownish.