Chanchra (Malabar Spinach and Fish-head Mish-mash, Bengali Style)

You board a time machine and travel back .... not far ... just around thirty years and land in a Bengali home on a festive day ... the grandest of all ...a marriage ceremony! The event is scheduled sometime in the evening followed by a grand feast. The neighbors and the distant relatives will pour in in the evening ... now only the close family members are around ... a few seem super busy while the rest are leisurely busy gossiping. It's almost lunch time - a waft of appetizing smell makes you hungry, you followed it and reached the terrace. There in a corner of the Pandal, rannar thakur (the head cook) is busy cooking his last item for the lunch .... the inevitable chanchra. For lunch you will get a simple menu of steamed rice, daal, chanchra followed by a light macher jhol (fish-curry), chutney and misti.

Chanchra or Chenchra will consist of any edible part of the day's fresh produce  that were not suitable to go in the main fancy dishes of the feast.  There will be few paka rui (big carps) for the main courses. So after cutting and cleaning the fishes their heads, oils, gills all will go in this chanchra along with all the peels and not so palatable parts of the vegetables and greens (except the bitter ones). So this is literally a mish-mash of all the otherwise throw-able items. Heat mustard oil in a big iron karai/wok. Add seasoning of panchphoron and dry red chili. Then add all the above and cook on low flame until done .... that's it! Simple to cook but delicious in taste! ...... gone are the days! Now that dhoti and gamcha cladded rannar thakur has given way to the sophisticated catering services and the Bengali festive menu has became a hodgepodge of world cuisine ... a mish-mash in its true sense!

Come to present days! After the rain starts the gorgeous Hilsa shows its presence in the local fish markets with a price-tag befitting her queenly status! In spite of the economic condition every Bangalee would try to bring this beauty home at least once in the season. I remember that cartoon: a quintessential Bengali-babu sporting a proud smile and holding in one hand a picturesque Hilsa (hanging from a string from its nose) while a bag-full of vegetables is in the other from which a bright bunch of Puisaak (Malabar spinach) is showing its head. Thats it! ... the head of that precious fish will be reserved for the chanchra only.  The midday meal will be a whole Ilish afair .... macher tel-mach-bhaja, chanchra and kalojire-kanchalonka-begun die macher jhol (Hilsa fish fry and oil, chanchra and light curry of hilsa with eggplant) or sarshe Ilish.

Ilish Mach diye Pui Saak-er Chanchra (Bengali Style Malabar Spinach and Fish-head Mish-mash Recipe)

Now come to the recipe. Though I have given a rough measurement of the ingredients, you don't need to follow them precisely. For such a forgiving dish like chanchra, no need to burden your head with all the teaspoon-tablespoon complexity! Adding a little less pumpkin or little more spinach is not going to ruin your dish in anyway. Follow your own intuition and liking and play with the ingredients.

Ingredients:
Hilsa fish-head - one
Malabar spinach (Puin-saak) - one bunch
Pumpkin (Kumro) -  250 gm
Eggplant (Begun) - 2-3 small ones
Potato (Alu) - 2-3
Radish (Mulo) - 2
Parwal (Potol) - 3-4 (optional)
Broad beens (Seem) - 8-10 (optional)
Jackfruit seeds (Kanthal bichi) - one fistful (optional)
Garlic - 4-5 cloves
Green chilies - 4-5
Mustard oil - 3-4 tablespoon 
Pancphoron - 1 teaspoon
Dry red chili - 1
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt and sugar - to taste

Stop, Look and Listen

Everything natural - every flower, tree,
and animal - has important
lessons to teach us if we would only
stop, look, and listen.

                                                         (by Eckhart Tolle)

Once in a while I post on what is happening there ....just outside our matchboxes ... if we can manage a little time to pause and look .... and feel. One need not to go to the wild to see the life ...just a step out to your terrace or balcony and look ..... sooo many things are happening there ... you will find something new, something fascinating .... it's a promise!

This time my pictures are mostly from our terrace garden and surrounding.  We were not in town for around a month ....who knew nature had so many new things in her basket to surprise us!

To start with... the Strawberries! First time ever in our garden.....

Most were tiny... but  brilliantly red, juicy and flavorful with a sweet-sour taste ..... these are the REAL things! Super happy!

Next the Leaf lettuces .... they are looking gorgeous and eye soothing too! Last year I tried to grow them in winter .... but for a villain .... a rodent whose only goal in life was to destroy any "possibility" in our garden! Well ... one night he found his way to heaven and possibly now destroying god's own garden! Please god! No early reanimation for this guy .... please!

 I tried to grow one batch when it was raining here in Bangalore as the weather was cooler ... they grew well but were not this gorgeous! Season matters!

After providing us with fresh salad greens for a long time, the last batch has now been in seed state ....I'm collecting the seeds .... don't know if they will sprout again or not! Will check that soon ....

My single sweet basil plant is also looking promising with lots of flower stems that have started to settle into seeds (Sabja).... planning to try  those pretty looking (and healthy too) basil-seeds-drinks that are the IN thing in the market nowadays!

A Mud Dauber Wasp in our garden

I was working in the terrace garden, tending soil in the antherium pot .... suddenly heard the typical buzzzzz.....  and looked up. She was there ... just in front of me at eye level ..... gliding in the wind .... shining brightly in the morning sun. I have seen wasps earlier but she was one of a kind ....at least I have never seen this combination earlier! A bright yellow banded with jade black and a perfect waist line (literally).....  you have to admire her beauty even if you hate wasps! I immediately reached out for my camera and tried to shoot her .... failed....tried to focus again ... and she vanished! Conveniently blaming my old camera I concentrated in my gardening. While turning the pot I noticed a small mud construction with an open mouth ... a wasp's nest!

Composting ..... and a blissful afternoon

It had been a long long time since we worked with our compost. These days we do all our composting activities in the terrace .... yah! we have that luxury now! It really seems a luxury to me as we don't need to keep watch of the line of ants or maggots scrawling inside our living room, and mugs full of leaches coming out of the bin along with the stinking smell (specially when it rains heavily) ..... we had to tackle all these when we had our bins in the balcony adjacent of the living area in our earlier apartment. We even got a beehive once inside the composter :)

These bees made their hive inside a composting pot .... are not they very cute?

Now after a reasonably long experience of composting, we follow the mantra "let it be.....". That has became much easier after we shifted the whole system to the terrace. The maggots are creating waves of life (literally) inside the bin ..... let it be! The ants have chosen the cozy, cool interior of the big earthen composter as their maternity home ..... let it be! Rodents are visiting every night .... fine! The mix is not so balanced as the weather is very humid .... okay .... let it be! ... all of these are perfectly natural!  life has became so simple when we just accept it ... as it is!

Avocado Mashala Paratha

Avocado paratha is the most easy and humble way to add avocado in your diet (even if you don't like the taste of it). The basic idea is to replace the water in your chapati dough with avocado pulp ... completely or partially. Without adding any extra oil you will get chapatis that are much softer than the usual ones. The fat in avocado is good enough to make the chapati/paratha soft and delicious .....  A good choice for travel or lunch box. You will get all the benefits of avocado without tasting it a lot in your food.
Here what I have made is basically a mashala paratha by replacing the water with avocado pulp.

Avocado Mashala Paratha  

(Serves - 2)

Ingredients:
Avocado - One (medium sized)
Onion - one small
Lemon - half
Green chillis -1
Cilantro - a few springs
Blak salt/ regular salt - 1 tsp or as per taste
Whole cumin (jeera) - 1 tsp
Dry red chili - one
Whole wheat flour (Chapati atta) - 1 cup or as required
Little oil for frying

Bati Charchari (Bengali Style Curry Cooked in a Bowl)

Perhaps we are the last generation of urban middle-class Indians who have seen the earthen stove as a primary cooking medium in their childhood! Back then the chulah was ubiquitous part of every household. Even I also had a toy version of this earthen stove for my rannabati-khela (play kitchen) ...  a neighborhood aunty's brother brought this present for me from a fair .... yes, it was normal on that time ... neighbors (even relatives of neighbors) were part of our extended family! I even used to repair that stove with mud just like my mother used to do hers 😏  I still have faint memories of my mother doing a serious bargain with a tiny lady clad in colorful saare and bangles who used to come to our house once in a fortnight to sell "GuNte" aka cow-dung-cake each piece carrying an impression of her smalllish hand. (Hey! Want some GuNte? ... just search in amazon with "cow-dung-cake" ... you will get the branded ones...😀) There was a wooden box full of "gul" under the staircase made by my mom herself using a mixture of charcoal powder and mud. I still have a nostalgic memory of the jingle of her bangles when her fair rounded hands was busy in making small balls from that mixture .... then putting them on a wooden plank to sun dry in the backyard.

Time is passing so quickly! Back then they had no luxury of cooking at their "own time" or ordering food online like we do nowadays. Her day started early .... making the stove ready for cooking .... serving a palate of daal-bhat-macher jhol (daal, rice and fish-curry) was mandatory before the office and school-goers headed out from home. By the time my father and elder sister were out, I was back from my morning school and glued myself behind her. She is done with her kitchen chores, the stove has almost died down and that was the time ... some days she would make a spicy bati-charchari with a concoction of mustard paste, mustard oil, lots of green chilies, potato and some veggies on that dying stove for our lunch. Some day it would have small prawns... that smelled so delicious!

For making a bati-charchari, the basic idea is to mix everything in a bati aka bowl, close the lid tightly and allow it to cook slowly over a dying ember. The mix should typically consist of potato, onion (optional), green chilies, mustard paste and mustard oil. it may also have some other veggies like cauliflower, green peas etc or for the non-veg variety some small fish/prawn. Nowadays we sometime add tomatoes/cilantro but back then that was not common except in winter... those were the so-called seasonal items!

Here is a recipe for bati-charchari with drumstick flowers and a non-veg one with small fishes. 

Sajne Phuler Bati Charchari (Drumstick Flower One-Bowl Curry)

(Serves - 2)

Ingredients:

Fresh Drumstick flowers - 1 cup packed

Potato - 1 small (thinly sliced)

Tomato - 1 small (thinly sliced)

Green chillies - 2-3 (slited)

Mustard paste - 2 tablespoon (mixed with 1/4th cup of water)

Mustard oil -  1 tablespoon + extra to drizzle

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tespoon

Salt - to taste

Drumstick flower and a recipe

We were on our way back from Navadarshanam after a three day vacation. The "official" reason was to attend the Sunday satsang organised by Anantu and Deepa .... the whole stay, however, turned out to be perfect satsang to us ....sat-people, sat-food and sat-environment made our short vacation a blissful one.  Sunday was fully packed.... led by Deepa we together sang Kabir, Meera and Bulle Shah and listened to Anantu..... at the end of the day we were tired but filled to the brim. While returning our new friend Shibani was very kind to offer a ride and we happily accepted that. It was a beautiful drive with the romantic bluish-grey sky, wet wind with that after the rain smell and those profound lyrics resonating in our heart. To top up Anantu was in our car with his fountain of energy ..... infecting everyone surrounding him with his cheerfulness. After reaching Bangalore Shibani  invited us to their villa in Whitefield for a cup of tea which we readily accepted to continue that joyful journey together  for some more time. While making tea Shibani mentioned that once she tasted drumstick flower in her friend's house and loved it! That was enough to remind me how much I love that very earthy taste and smell of sajne phul (drumstick flower in Bengali) and how I badly miss it these days in Bangalore. Here we readily get the drumsticks and the leaves but flowers... I have never seen the fresh flowers in market. Then Shibani revealed the top secret! They have a drumstick tree in the backyard which is currently in bloom! The two of us ran there and started collecting flowers from the wet grass...almost felt like a little girl collecting shiuli-phul from the still-wet grass on an autumn morning before the Durgapuja.

We returned home with a handful of fresh drumstick flowers..... Thank you Shibani!

Now come to the recipe. Here I have cooked the flowers in a typical Bengali style using mustard oil and Kasundi (bengali style mustard sauce). The earthy flavor of drumstick flowers mingled very well with the pungent aroma of mustard. 

Sajne Phul-er Torkari (Bengali Style Dry Drumstick flower Curry)

 (Serves 2-3)

Ingredients:
Drumstick flower - 1 cup or more
Potato - 1 medium (peeled and cubed)
Geen peas - 1/4 cup or less
Panchforon - 1/2 teaspoon (see note)
Dry red chili - 1
Green chilies - 2
Mustard oil - 2 tablespoon + extra for drizzling
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Kasundi - 1 tablespoon (optional) (see note)
Salt and sugar - as per taste
badi (sun dried lentil dumplings) - 5-6 pieces (optional)