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.