Stir fried Calamari/Squid

"Esechhe Sharat himer porosh legechhe haoar pore

Sakal belay ghaser agay shishirer rekha dhore"

The Autumn is here. Still I can mesmerize the beautiful autumn in India. White clouds cluster amazing shine on the sky; serene Kash flowers sway in the green meadow; fragrant shiuli flowers make the beautiful flowerbed on the yards of almost every household. It reminds us yes, Puja, the festive season is here. The mellifluous Agamoni songs, mesmerizing shlokas by one and only Late Birendra Krishna Bhadra fill the air with purity and sanctity. Here we miss the Puja committee's race in collecting subscription door to door. Almost every night we used to wait in our childhood who rings the door bell for the chanda/subscription collection and Baba inevitably would ask them for the attractions on the coming program. In this regard, I can share a funny rule set by my grandfather. He use to tell the chanda collectors that whoever can spell his name on the bill/receipt correct, he would give subscription only to them. His name is (Late) Mrityunjay Chatterjee. Most of the youths used to fail in that test and he could successfully handle the sweet nuisance. That time life was not so complicated and there was no hooliganism like now. Nowadays people write the amount of subscription without your permission and forces you to pay that. But remembering the simple yet colorful days I don't know why I can still feel that old excitement. The eager waiting for Puja special edition of our famous magazines, music albums of our heartthrob singers, the pandals here and there;  the shops lining up for Puja-special fair/mela make me really cherish the golden moments of my life.

 A bright Autumn day like this inspires me to cook little different. So here I present you a seafood delicacy from my kitchen to yours - Stir Fried Calamari.

Ingredients

1. Calamari: 1 lb
2. Onion: 1 medium size
3. Garlic: 4-5 cloves minced
4. Ginger shredded: 1 tablespoon
5. Lemon leaves: 4/5
6. Soya sauce: 3 teaspoon
7. Chilli-Garlic sauce: 1 tablespoon
8. Green chilli: 4/5 slit
9. Salt as per taste
10. Chilli Vinegar: 1 teaspoon
11. Worcestershire sauce: 2 teaspoon
12. Red and green bell pepper: 1 each medium size
13. Black pepper: 2 teaspoons
14. Red chilli powder: 1 teaspoon
15. White Oil: 2 table spoon
16. Corn flour: 1 teaspoon
17. Spring onion: 3/4 strands (optional)

Steps:

1. Clean the calamari and cut it into bite size ring pieces. The tentacles would be provided separately (as I have received in the packet from Asian grocery). You can cut them into small pieces as per your choice. I have kept the tentacles intact as they were in comfortable shape and size.

2.  Marinate the calamari with 1 teaspoon vinegar, salt, red chilli powder and black pepper for 15-20 minutes. It will leave lot of water. Strain it before you start cooking.

3. Add the corn flour to the calamari after you strain and  quote all the pieces well. You do not need to add too much corn flour to the mixture but a little to absorb the moisture.

 4. Now heat oil in a wok. Add the shredded ginger, minced garlic and slit green chillies one by one and fry them well until the rich garlic aroma is out.

5. Add the onions. Fry them until translucent.

6. Add green and red bell peppers (chopped them vertically thin) into the mixture. Saute them for sometime until they turn soft. 

7. Add  the marinated calamari now to the wok. Saute for sometimes.

8. Add soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and black pepper. 

9. Cook it covered for 5 minutes. There will be water released from the calamari and it will be cooked in that gravy only.

10. Add Salt. Be careful as soy sauce is little salty. 

11. Add  the chilli-garlic paste. Mix it well.

12. Add  the lime leaves now. Again cover and cook for 3/4 minutes. 

13. By now the gravy should have thickened up and cook it for 2/3 minutes to dry up.

14. Switch off the oven. Garnish with finely chopped spring onions (I did not have any, so had to skip this step)

15. Serve it hot with Fried rice or steamed white rice or lo mein/chow meen.

Enjoy!!!

Til Machhi/Fish in sesame seeds paste

Being a perfect ghoti girl I have been raised eating most of the regular fish curries in mustard sauce. Although Ma used to cook occasionally fish kaliya, kalojeere jhol, etc, but the dominant flavor in our kitchen has always been the mustard sauce gravy or sarshe jhal. I cook that often but try sometimes a little different. The man in the house is not a big fan of mustard, so that compels me to try something else all the time.

This time I thought of trying sesame seeds paste instead of mustard seeds paste and it worked very well. We got from our favorite Korean grocery shop fresh Tilapia and taste was delicious. I remember the contrast of Tilapia here in USA with that in India. Here we consider Tilapiya as good as any other fish but in India Tilapia we rarely have and that too in any parties or occasion we can never think of serving that fish at all. Here we make fish fry, fish sticks/fingers out of Tilapia fillet and that is well respected fish amongst all other fishes. No idea, why in India it is not that popular. In  India it is much cheaper than other fishes. I heard once my grandma has found some insects inside a tilapia while cleaning the fish at home and then that fish has never been repeated in our home. Baba following grandma's rule has never bought that fish in his entire life. But after didi's marriage she cooked that fish in her place and I have liked the taste very much. 

Now here as the taste of this fish is very good and also we can buy it any where fresh, we prefer to buy it often . I like to buy the whole fish compared to the fillet pieces. I tried the sesame seeds gravy with Tilapia steak pieces. You can also try it with Rohu/Katla/Carp fishes, too.

 

Ingredients:

1. Steak pieces of Tilapia: 6 pieces
2. Turmeric powder: 3 teaspoon
3. Salt as per taste
4. Onion seeds :1/2 teaspoon
5. Green chilli : 5
6. Poppy seeds: 2 teapoons
7. Sesame seeds: 4 teaspoons
8. Mustard oil: 3 tablespoons
9. Coriander leaves for garnishing
10. Water: 1.5 cup

Steps:

1. Rub salt and turmeric to your fish pieces. Keep it marinated for 10-15 minutes.

2. Heat mustard oil in a pan. When the smoke comes out, reduce the heat and fry the fish pieces. Make sure the oil is hot enough otherwise it can stick to the pan (even non stick) and can break into small pieces.

3. In between make a smooth paste of sesame seeds, poppy seeds and 3 green chillies with little water. 

4. When you are done frying all fishes, take them off the pan. If you do not have enough oil left in the pan add one teaspoon more. I had enough oil left for the gravy in the pan so did not feel to add any more. 

5. Add onion seeds (Kalonji/kalo jeere) and slit 2 green chillies in the pan. When they splutter, add the turmeric powder.

6. Add the sesame seeds paste now and mix it well with the turmeric in the pan. Don't fry it longer otherwise the flavor will disappear and it will not make a good smooth gravy.

7. Add water. Let the gravy boil. When it starts boiling, add the fish pieces.

8. When the gravy thickens, add some chopped coriander leaves and drizzle some mustard oil on top.  Switch the heat off. 

9 Your fish is ready to serve with steamed hot rice.

Enjoy!!!!

Ilish machher Tak Jhal/ Hilsa Fish Cooked in a Tamarind-Mustrad Gravy

Pitter Patter Rain drops

Pitter Patter rain drops

I am wet through so are you

 

Brishti pore tapur tupur 

nadey elo baan

shib thakurer bie hobe

tin konya daan

ek konya randhe bare

ek konya khan

ek konya raag kore

sasur barhi jaan.

Even this evergreen poem associates rain with some food. The silver drops of rain brings in the silver fishes from the river onto our plate. I still cherish the memory of baba proudly carrying the whole fish from market during this season. Mom used to make several mouth watering dishes with that fish from simple fried to paturi, steamed  (bhapa), sarshe ilish and so on. 

Every bengali has soft corner for ilish. Like the conflict between Ghoti (West Bengal) and Bangal (East bengal), the debate is still on between Gangar Ilish and Padmar ilish. I guess Padmar Ilish wins the debate though with major votes. As my parental house is just beside Ganges, have been lucky to taste the freshly caught Hilsa from Ganges. Although here we get to taste the frozen Hilsa from Bangladeshi stores, I can hardly compare taste fo fresh hilsa with frozen version of Padmar Ilish.  Wish I can taste both side by side and can give better result. 

As Hilsa being very pricey fish, I scare to experiment with this fish rather make the old school method of sarshe ilish, bhapa ilish, doi ilish, ilish begun, simple jhol, etc. A few days back I found an interesting recipe of Ilish in a forum in Facebook, and thought of giving it a try. Actually who posted the recipe is very popular in that forum. He (Swapan Bose) is simply superb cook and a good food critique and explorer. Although I have never tasted the food that he cooked but the pictures and his minutely detailed recipe inspire a lot of people like me. This is is adapted from his recipe with a little twist. 

Ingredients

1. Hilsa fish 3-4 pieces

2. Mustard seeds 2 tablespoon, soaked and grind to a paste

3. Mustard oil 3 tablespoon

4. Fenugreen seeds 1 teaspoon

5. Tamarind paste 1/2 teaspoon

6. Green chilli 4 (3 slit green chillies and 1 grounded with mustard)

7. Water(desired consistency)

8. Sugar 1 pinch 

9. Salt as per taste

 

Process:

1. Marinate the Hilsa pieces with salt and turmeric powder for 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile make a paste of the mustard seeds with green chillies. I use Mr Coffee Coffee maker/grinder to grind small amount of mustard and poppy seeds. In this grinder I can even add little water. In my previous version of coffee grinder I could not add any water, we had to do only dry grinding. Now this has saved me though.  I have soaked the mustard seeds for 30 minutes and then have ground it.

3. If you have fresh tamarind, you can soak and squeeze the juicy pulp out. I have used tamarind concentrate. I have taken 1/2 teaspoon of tamarind concentrate and mixed 2 teaspoons of water to make the pulpy liquid.

4. Mix the tamarind pulp with the mustard-green chillies paste. 

5. Take a micro-safe bowl. Put the mustard-green chillies and tamarind paste. Arrange the fish pieces. Add water of desired consistency.

 

6. Add salt and also just a pinch of sugar for the gravy.

7. Now heat mustard oil 3 tablespoon in a pan. When the smoke comes out reduce the heat and add methi/fenugreek seeds. Fry them until they turn black. Switch off the oven. Discard the methi seeds off the oil. 

8. Pour that oil over the fish and mixture in the micro safe bowl. The methi seeds has left the flavor in the oil. You can also add onion seeds or kalo jeere or kalonji too, with it. I have not used this time. Place slit green chillies also. 

9. Now cover the micro-safe bowl and cook it in micro-oven for 12-15 minutes.

(Take the bowl out of the oven and check with a fork or spoon whether it is cooked. If not, cook it for some more time) 

10. Now serve it hot with steamed rice. 

Enjoy!!!