Alur Chop / Mashed Potato Fritter

"Fall is a shivering touch of cold

and cozy quilts,

Fall is the color of  orange

and red and yellow. 

Fall is the season of pumpkins 

and scarecrows.

Fall is the season of harvest and saying thanks

Autumn is Fall and Fall is autumn."

The entry of the chilling wind in northern hemisphere that gives us goosebumps and early morning shiver, makes us shuffle our closet with jackets in handy instead of light cotton clothes. Bare tress seem to wait to get covered with snow-quilt  in the ushering winter. All these change the world from the colorful days to the black and white days; make us almost concealed at home most of the time. In the chilling season we can spend our leisure while watching our favorite thriller movie or reading some novels, or we can play some indoor games with our kids at home. To go with the mood we need a good snack with a cup of hot coffee, tea or chocolate. And to serve with tea or coffee what can be better than alur chop!

I feel that all the nations in the world are more or less inclined to potato dishes despite having the health hazard associated with it. Also we can not discard carb  from our daily diet, rather we can optimize it. therefore we can treat ourselves once in a week or may be fortnight with hot singara/samosa or alur chop kind of food. This sounds like a self consolation..Isn't it!!!

As diabetes has erased potato from my daily diet, I notice that the crave for potato has increased more than before. Although I can not eat potato, my next post is dedicated to all potato lovers like me in earth. Also in this chilling cold season approaching we feel to chill out our evenings with a cup of ginger tea with sizzling snack to spice up the evening. So here I present you our favorite snack Alur chop or mashed potato fritter.

 

 

Ingredients:

1. Potato: 3 medium size

2. Asafoetida or Hing: 1/2 teaspoon

3. Ginger grated: 2 teaspoon

4. Turmeric powder: 1.5 teaspoon

5. Green chillies: 5

6. Besan or Gram flour: 2 cups

7. Corn flour: 2 Tablespoon

8. Baking soda: 1 teaspoon

9. Oil for Deep Fry

10. Black salt: 1 teaspoon

11. Onion seeds or Kalo jeere or Kalonji: 1/2 a teaspon

12.  Red chilli powder: 1 teaspoon

13. Sugar: 1/2 teaspoon

Steps:

1. Boil the potatoes with skin on. You can microwave, too, but make sure that the skin of potato does not dry up in the cooking process. If you are boiling the potatoes in water, add some salt, too. This will help to speed up the cooking and also will inject some salt inside the potatoes. 

2. Cool the boiled potatoes. Take the skin off now and then mash it nicely.

3. Meanwhile you can grate ginger and green chillies. You can use finely chopped chillies, too. I wanted to make my alur chop really spicy, therefore, added the shredded chillies for this purpose.

5. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan. Add shredded ginger followed by green chillies, asafoetida or hing,  turmeric powder and red chilli powder. When the spices are fried, add the mashed potatoes to the pan. Mix it well with the spice mixture. Add some salt for taste in the filling. Turn off the heat.

6.  Now to  make the batter mix Besan or gram flour with corn flour and baking soda. Mix it thoroughly before adding water or any other ingredients. This will help to stop forming any lumps in the batter later. In this mixture also add salt, little amount (1/2 teaspoon) of sugar, onion seeds or kalo jeere or kalonji, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and slowly add water to make a thick batter.

7. Heat oil for deep frying. Add some hot oil into the besan batter (Say 2-3 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon). This will make your chop or fritter more crispier. 

8. Now take some amount of potato mix and form a ball out of that. Then flatten the balls to make disks. I could make 8 disks. 

9. Now dip the disks into the besan batter and deep fry into hot oil. When one side browns up flip it over to fry the other side. When two sides are fried equally, take the chop/fritters out of oil and put them in a paper towel so that it absorbs excess oil from it. 

10. Fry all the disks one by one or two at once. I would suggest you to fry in small batches so that it gets cooked evenly. If you have a wide pan for deep frying, you can use bigger batches as well.

11. Alur chop is ready to serve. Before serving you can sprinkle some black salt on top. Serve it with hot tea or coffee along with puffed rice or murhi-makha.

 

   Enjoy!!!

Mutton Sidha Sadha/ Soja Sapta Mangso

The month long festive season just ended. It started from Mahalaya, followed by Durga puja, Laxmi Puja, Kali Puja and then finally Bhai Phonta. Like a famous saying in Bengali  "Jar shesh bhalo tar sab bhalo" (All is well if it ends well), the brother special thali/meal has to be the best one, too. Hope all of you have enjoyed the festive season. The brothers must had been treated with best food from starter to dessert, from breakfast to dinner. After the Indian festivities are over, we continue to enjoy festivities of the country we are currently located. Thanksgiving season is approaching followed by the happy holidays of the year. All of us will be engaged in partying around or at home. To continue with the festive mood, let me present you the simple goat meat curry.

Some days I don't feel to cook but not also feel to eat outside. So the rescue is to cook simple and easy recipe yet tasty. Let me share with you my simplest recipe of mutton curry. I don't cook it following any traditional recipe but just follow my mood that day. I am presenting you the recipe first the way I have thought and cooked that particular day and then the regular way. I am sure all of you feel some day alike and do similar things.

Oh, look at the time. It is already late and nothing is yet ready for dinner. Yes, tomorrow is another week day and we all have to wake up early  in the morning. But what to eat for dinner. Well let me open the freezer. Yes I see goat meat is in stock. Yeh this week we did not eat red meat. Once in a week it is okay to eat that, right!!! But look at it..it looks like a block of ice . No problem..let me put that in a glass bowl and microwave it for 5 minutes. By the time, let me make some spices ready. Let me chop some onion; peel ginger and garlic. No, not finely chop, please..that might take time. Yes, let me put the chopped ginger garlic and onion altogether into the mixer and grind it to a fine paste. Oh, I forgot to make some potato ready for the curry. Yes.. Bengalies eat a lot of potato in each meal and specially into mangsho r jhol/meat curry. I can now peel the potato and just half them into big pieces. It is time to put the pressure cooker on heat. Heat some mustard oil/white oil in it. Add some whole garam masala (whole cardamom, clove and cinnamon stick) into the cooker. Now add the ground onion/ginger/garlic paste into the cooker. Fry it for 5 minutes. Oh, I forgot to marinate the meat. Now, no time for marination but let me add some mustard oil and turmeric powder to the meat pieces. Now the fried onion paste has changed color, now I can add some turmeric powder followed by cumin powder, coriander powder and kashmiri red chilli powder. Well after 3 minutes I see that oil separates from the masala. Okay, now it is time for adding the meat into the cooker. Mix it well so that meat pieces get coated with spices mixture. It is the time to cover the pressure cooker. Oh, I forgot to add salt. Okay, I can open it again and add salt and put the lid and pin back on. In the mean time, I can shallow fry the potatoes (rubbed with salt and turmeric). I just heard two whistles. Let me take the pressure cooker off the heat. Now I need to add the potatoes in the cooker. The masala has dried up. I have neither added yoghurt nor tomato, the gravy does not taste that good. At this point I can not add any tomato. Wait a minute, why don't I add tomato sauce. Yes, my Maggie hot and sweet tomato sauce is on the rescue mission. Stir it well with the rest of ingredients in the pressure cooker. Now time to add water. Heat 1.5 cups of water in microwave oven and add it to the cooker. Now time to cover the cooker for the final cooking time. Meanwhile, I can make rice. Cut vegetables for salad. After 4-5 whistles I know the meat should be ready. I switched off the heat and took the pressure pin off the cooker so that pressure releases automatically. Umm I can smell the rich aroma. Let me taste it. It is good but not best. What did I miss. Yes let me add some (1 teaspoon) home made biriyani masala to it. And also to add the richness to the gravy I can surely add two teaspoon of ghee (clarified butter). Now let me mix them well and again taste it. Yes..It tastes just perfect. It tastes exactly the way I wanted. My soja sapta magso bhat is ready to serve.

Now let me present the recipe in the regular manner so that it is easy to follow.

Ingredients:

1. Goat meat: 2 lbs
2. Potato: 2
3. Onion: 2 medium
4. Ginger: 3 teaspoon
5. Garlic: 3 teaspoon
6. Kashmiri red chilli powder:  1.5 teaspoon
7. Cumin powder: 1 teaspoon
8. Corriander powder: 1 teaspoon
9. Biriyani Masala: 1 teaspoon
10. Ghee/clarified butter: 1 teaspoon
11. Mustard oil/white oil : 4 tablespoon
12. Water: 1.5 cups
13. Whole garam masala: 1 teaspoon 
14. Salt: As per taste

Steps:

1.  To bring the frozen  meat in room temperature heat it in microwave it for 5 minutes in a glass bowl. Marinate with some turmeric powder and mustard oil.

2. Chop onion; peel ginger and garlic. Grind the chopped onion, garlic and ginger altogether into a fine paste.

3. Peel the potato and half them into big pieces.

4. Put the pressure cooker on heat. Heat some mustard oil/white oil in it.

5. Add some whole garam masala (whole cardamom, clove and cinnamon stick) into the cooker.

6. When it releases nice aroma, add the ground onion-ginger-garlic paste into the cooker. Fry it for 5 minutes.

7. When the fried masala paste changes color, add some turmeric powder followed by cumin powder, coriander powder and kashmiri red chilli powder. After 2-3 minutes oil separates from the masala.

8. Add the marinated meat into the cooker. Mix it well so that meat pieces get coated with spices mixture. Add salt. Cover the pressure cooker.

9. In the mean time, shallow fry the potatoes (rubbed with salt and turmeric).

10. After two whistles take the pressure cooker off the heat. Add the fried potatoes in the cooker. The meat has released some water and masala is cooked completely.

11. Put the pressure cooker back on heat. Add 2 tablespoons of  Maggie hot and sweet tomato sauce into it. Stir it well with the rest of ingredients in the pressure cooker. Let it simmer for 3/4 minutes.

12. Now it is  time to add water. Heat 1.5 cups of water in microwave oven and add it to the cooker. Cover the cooker for final cooking.

13. After 4-5 whistles the meat should be ready. Switch off heat and take the pressure pin off the cooker so that pressure releases automatically.

14. Add 1 teaspoon home made biriyani masala and two teaspoons of ghee (clarified butter) to it. My soja sapta magso bhat is ready to serve.

Enjoy!!!!