Gandhoraj Mutton-- Mutton curry with a Special Lemon Flavor

After the hot and humid summer days in Kolkata finally the rain is here. The pitter patter rain drops buzzing on the window pane, the asbestos roof on a nearby garage create a natural rain tune. Tadpoles are jumping and playing in the puddles. The rain drops and those tiny froggy leaps make ripples over the water logged puddles.

 The hot and dusty earth drenched in the shower fills the air with a beautiful earthy aroma. The brown dusty leaves have been washed fresh with the rain splash. It has washed away the old dusky look ushering a fresh rejuvenated green look.

 It seems like the nature is busy applying a green make over everywhere. We love the rain soaked earthy smell coming from the drenched land, natural melody created with rain splashing sound mixed with the gusty wind sound with occasional lightening and thunders.

 The nature seems partying through rain dance with beautiful rain melody created around.

In this romantic atmosphere, we feel like to celebrate rain with good food served on the plates. If the nature is partying in, then should we not join nature’s table with our delicacy cooked. Jokes apart, on a rainy day snacks being varieties of fried food with puffed rice combined with spiced tea increase the craving for heavy lunch. Checked my fridge and found goat meat in storage and instantly I decided to make mutton but not the regular curry. It should be something different. To keep in sync with nature’s green I thought of adding something new in the ingredient that is green in color and is rejuvenating, too. Yes, I had good amounts of Gandhoraj (Aroma King) limes collected from local market. The fragrance of this lime cannot be compared with any other lemon. Other than Bengalies I do not know if any other community uses this lime at all in their recipes. Many of us are really fanatic about this Gandhoraj lime.

As the name suggest, the lime has an incomparable excellent aroma which is strong yet very pleasant. We make several recipes with this lime. The leaves of this lime tree have equally good aroma as its fruits. We use its leaves too in our recipes along with the lime. The origin of the use of this lime lies in Bangladesh.  Therefore, it is commonly used in many East Bengal recipes.

However, the Bengalies from West Bengal have adapted many of those recipes and started using this lime. I had been missing this lime for years and now feeling lucky to have it back on my daily life after returning to Kolkata. During my childhood I have always had this lime in our garden. My mom used to make lime juice out of those limes and stored in the fridge. She used to make sherbat with the lime juice. The fragrance was far better than store bought lime syrup. She also used to apply leaves of this lime tree while making sherbet with bel or wood apple (scientific name: Aegle marmelos). However, my mom being a perfect ghoti (West Bengal origin) has never used in in her cooking, though.

Goat meat tastes very authentic with the mild flavor of this lime leaves added along with its zest to the gravy. Sometimes goat meat, specially, older goat meat carry a strong smell in the meat. This smell is very much strong and similar as that in lamb meat. That is why my hubby always refuses to consume lamb and also does not like to eat all recipes of goat meat. To subdue the strong smell of the meat this aroma king lime is actually the best. The recipe of the gandhoraj mutton is described below:

Ingredients

 

Mutton: 1 Kg (2 lb)

Onion paste: 4 tablespoon

Ginger paste: 1+1 tablespoon

Garlic: 1 tablespoon

Green chilies: 3-4 (as per taste)

Coriander powder: 1.5 teaspoon

Cumin powder: 1 teaspoon

Red chili powder: 1 teaspoon                          

Turmeric: 1 teaspoon

Garam masala powder (cardamom, clove and cinnamon freshly made): 1 teaspoon

Bay leaf: 1

Whole Cardamom, Clove and Cinnamon Stick: 1 teaspoon

Nutmeg powder: 1⁄2 teaspoon (freshly made)

Gandhoraj Lime: 1

Kaffir/Gandhoraj Lime Leaves: 3-4

Vinegar: 1 teaspoon

Salt: As per taste

Sugar: As per taste

Mustard oil: 3 table spoon

Steps:

 

1. Clean the mutton, take the fat out of the pieces. Rub 1/2 teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon vinegar. Marinate it for 1 hour.

2. Grind onion, ginger and garlic separately. Marinate the mutton pieces with 2 table spoon of onion paste, 1.5 teaspoons of ginger and 1.5 teaspoon of garlic paste, 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder, one tablespoon of mustard oil, 1.5 teaspoon of gandhoraj lime juice, 1/2 teaspoon of lime zest and a few pieces of lime leaves for 2 more hours.

3. Grind cardamom, clove, cinnamon to a fine garam masala powder.


4. Heat mustard oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add the bay leaf, whole garam masala, 1 teaspoon of crushed nutmeg, 2/3 petals of mace and one teaspoon of sugar.

5.When the sugar changes color, add the onion paste. Fry it until it changes color and dries up.

6.Add ginger and garlic paste respectively and mix it well with the onion paste by stirring continuously.

7. Add the turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and little red chilli powder on the wok. Fry it with other pastes. You can actually soak  all the dry masala powders with a few teaspoons of water for10-15 minutes and then add this paste to kadhai, it tastes better.

 

8.  When all the masalas are well cooked, add the marinated mutton. Mix it well with the spices mixture.


9.  Cover and cook. As I have not used pressure cooker it took little longer time for the mutton to get boiled. If you are in a hurry, pressure cook the mutton with other mixture. It might take 3-4 whistles for the mutton to be fully cooked depending on the type and quality of mutton. For my case, cooking on the wok, it took 1 hour. Stir in between to make sure it does not stick to the bottom.


10. Till now I have not added any extra water, The mutton should have been tender by now. Now add the rest of lime leaves and quartered piece of a gandhorah lime and 1/2 cup warm water to the gravy. Again cover and cook.


11. After 5 minutes add 1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger. If you want to add potato to your mutton like a perfect bong, add the fried pieces of potatoes now. Cover and cook again for 10 minutes, until the potatoes get well coated and mixed with the mutton gravy and fully done.


12. Add 1 teaspoon of the ground garam masala. Cover and turn off the heat.


13. Serve it with hot rice. As it was raining that day, I added papad fry to our plates. 

 

Happy cooking!! Enjoy!!!

Sajne Fuler Jhal / Drumstick Blossoms Curry

The spring is in full blossom all over the world. We see colors on bare trees. Red, pink, purple, white, yellow, magenta are gushing over the greenery. The breeze carries over mesmerizing fragrance from the  flowers. We see Palash, Shimul, Ashok, Bel, Jasmine, Rangan, Madhabi lata, Swarna Chanpa, Dolon Chanpa are on full swing. In the other part of the world, we see cherry blossom through Tulips, Rose, Gardenia, Hyacinthia, Lily, Water Lily, Marigold, Mums, etc. We not only take the fragrances of them but also use them in various purposes from religious to household decoration, and to even cooking.  “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” Spring is in our heart, spring is in our life. So let us celebrate Spring.

To keep in sync our kitchen basket also gets filled with flowers, too. Due to weather change during this season, we also tend to fall sick either by different allergies or by some virus. Our traditional cuisine entails some seasonal flowers in our cuisine. We use bak ful, kumro ful (zucchini flower), sajne ful or drumstick flower to spice up our tongue, to satiate our saliva and also to fight against the seasonal infections. Drumstick flowers are white in color with a pink tench on the bottom. They are believed to be very healthy.  Bengali families use drumstick leaves, flowers and drumsticks in daily meal. Out of all recipes of Sajne ful or drumstick flower the most popular recipe is  sajne ful er jhal or the drumstick blossom curry.

Ingredients:

1. Potato: 2 medium
2. Flat beans or Seem: 50 gms
3. Egg plant: 50 gms
4. Sajne Ful or drumstick flower: 100 gms
5. Mustard paste: 2 tablespoon
6. Green chillies: 2
7. Panch Foron: 1 teaspoon
8. Green peas: One Handful
9. Mustard oil: 1.5 tablespoon
10. Turmeric powder: 1 teaspoon
11. Salt and sugar as per taste

Steps:

1. First wash the sajne flower rigorously before use. As we collect it mostly from the ground, lot of dirt and dust come with it. Also inspect it cautiously for worms.

2. Boil the sajne ful in hot water for 5 minutes and throw away the water. Sometimes the flower is little bitter. This boil step helps to take the bitterness off the recipe.

3. Dice the potatoes. Also chop the flat beans, egg plant into small pieces. Take green peas off the pea pods. 

4.  Heat oil in a kadhai or wok.

5. Add panch foron and slit green chillies in it.

6. Add potatoes. Fry it for a while.

7. Add flat beans and then egg plant into the wok. Mix it with potato and cover. Keep the heat to medium or low.

8. After 5 minutes take the lid off and stir it again. Now add the pea pods. Mix, stir and then add turmeric powder. Add salt. Cover and let it simmer for a while.

9. At this point add the drumstick flowers. Mix and cook covered again for a while.

10. By this time all the vegetable would be soft and cooked. Mash and mix them with the flat part of the ladle.

11. Add a pinch of sugar to taste.

12. Now make a paste of mustard seeds with green chillies. Add this paste to the mix. Use your hand to sieve off the skins of mustard if, any.

13. Turn off the heat. Add 1/2 spoon of mustard oil on top.

14. Serve it hot with rice.

Enjoy!!!!!

Tanduri Chicken

First of all I want to wish all of my readers a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!!! May this year make your dreams come true, brings you in with lot of opportunities and the scope of utilizing them in the desired way. I also want to apologize for being away from my blog for some time. I was tied up with my personal stuff a little. I had been busy relocating from USA to India. I am now back to my country and happy finding the stuff I was missing there. I am loving the road side vendors selling locally grown fresh vegetables, varieties of fresh fish, meat, rickshaws, auto rickshaws, same old bargain between buyer and seller, cheating in the weigh machine by the sellers and fights related to that, gossips in the coffee shops or street side tea stalls, hot political discussion between daily passengers, the tune of Shehnai from a far-off place in the silent night and the typical late night "jagte raho" stomps by the night watchman in a housing campus. Yes, they all make me feel that I am in Kolkata. Each city has its own life and features and so does Kolkata. But being a perfect bong I feel these features are unique and incomparable to any other city of the world.

To unlock one of my US brought cellphone I had been to one famous market in central Kolkata. There I got to see the busy lanes, man pulled rickshaws, competing small business owners doing same technician jobs for years, the inter-dependence between each and every business, their unity, timely "namaz" break during business hours, the holy prayer echoing all over, over burdened thellawalllas delivering goods, lack of cleanliness till existing amongst the majority of the population. It was my first time visit to that chowk (street).  I was overjoyed to find the one and only restaurant "Sabirs" famous for authentic tandoors and mughlai cuisines over there. I recently read about Sabirs in a Bangla blog hosted by famous Indian/Bengali daily. I resisted myself to visit the restaurant instantly as my better half was not accompanying me that time. The restaurant does not have a great ambiance from outside but the appreciation I have received before about that food served there from my friends and also that famous food critique demands a sure and certain visit to that shop. Now to compensate the loss of visit to the restaurant let me present you the recipe of Tandoori chicken here. The rich aroma and taste of the roasted meat is a good platter for winter.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken leg piece: 6
2. Ginger paste: 4 tablespoon
3. Garlic Paste: 4 tablespoon
4. Hung curd: 1/2 cup
5. Red chilli powder: 6 teaspoon
6. Black pepper powder: 3 teaspoon
7. White pepper powder: 3 teaspoon
8. Nutmeg powder: 2 teaspoon
9. Cumin powder: 3 teaspoon
10. Coriander Powder: 3 teaspoon
11. Red food color: 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
12. Salt: 2 teaspoon or to taste
13. Garam masala powder: 3 teaspoons
14. Kasauri methi: 3 teaspoons
15. Lemon juice: 2 teaspoons
16. Oil/ ghee/ butter for brushing
17. Gram flour: 2 teaspoons

Steps:

1. Take the skin and fat off the chicken pieces. I have used leg pieces attached with thigh. You can use either.
2. Prick the chicken with fork. With a knife make little gasp on the thicker sides of the chicken.
3. In a bowl mix salt, red chilli powder with the lime juice.
4. Rub the salt and red chilli powder mixture on the chicken pieces. Keep it marinated for atleast 30 minutes.
5. In a separate bowl mix all the spices with hung curd.
6. Apply the spices mixture on the chicken pieces nicely. Marinate the chicken pieces for atleast 6 to 8 hours in the refrigerator. The longer the marination, the better is the chance of penetration of spices inside the chicken.
7. After the long marination keep it outside the refrigerator for 30 minutes so that the chicken pieces come to the normal room temperature.
8. Preheat the oven at 400 degree F or 200 degree C.
9. Brush the chicken pieces with some oil or ghee.
10. Place the chicken pieces on the grill plate. When oven is preheated, place the plate inside the oven.

11. Cook it for 30 minutes, then take the tray out. With the help of a tong turn the pieces to other side .  If you see the pieces getting dry, brush some more oil or ghee on top. Cook it for another 15-20 minutes.
12. After that time if you see chicken pieces are cooked properly, turn the heat off.

13. Sprinkle some chat masala and lime juice on top and the tanduri chicken is ready to serve. I have served with grilled corn, zucchini, celery sticks, and onion. Grill the vegetables for 15 -20 minutes except the corn.The grilled vegetables go very well with Tanduri chicken.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!