Bhendi Besara (Bhindi in mustard paste)

Do you guys remember when was the last time when you laughed your heart out? Laughed like it was crazy and there was no tomorrow to laugh at? Well something like that happened to me the other day. I still do not remember the joke, but I was on a conference call and something happened and I started to laugh. First it was a small squeal which I am sure no one heard.. and then things got weirder and weirder and I started to laugh.. laugh and laugh.. and laugh.. :)

Well yes, sometimes these crazy things happen. You know, everyone should get that kind of a laugh once in a while. When your stomach hurts and your eyes water and you get all breathless due to the laughter..

Someone asked me "What did you eat.. you are laughing like a crazy person" !! I said, I had some of my mother's mustard okra. It sounds like some English food, but trust me this is pure Odiya side that I am talking about. Goes the best with white fluffy rice and best suits any weather.

Here is what you need:

• Bhindi (okra) cut onto 1/2" pieces.
• One small potato cut into 1/2" pieces.
• 1 small tomato cut into small pieces.
• 1/2 medium onion cut longitudinally.
• 2-3 green chilies slit across length.
• 6 teaspoons of mustard paste (2 Tbl-spoons mustard seeds + 4 Garlic cloves + 4 Green Chilis + little water)
• 4 Tbl-spoons oil
• 1 tea spoon panch phoran (if you don't have that, just add mustard and cumin seeds)

Here is how I did it....

• Heat oil in a heave bottom pan until smoke comes off. Use mustard oil if you like or olive oil's good too.
• Dry fry the okra and potatoes separately and keep aside.

• In the same pan heat some more oil and when hot, add panch phoran + green chilies.
• Then add the onions after like 5 seconds. Don't let the chilies brown.
• When the onion is a little brownish, add the tomatoes and salt together.

• Fry for a while till the tomatoes fix up well and become all mushy.

• Now, add the okra and potatoes into the masala. Mix well. Do not turn too fast else the okra might break.
• Let it alone for 2 more minutes.

• Now add the mustard paste and a 1 cup water and mix well.
• Cover and let the gravy simmer on low heat. Whatever has mustard paste in it, needs at least 5 mins simmering.
• After 2 mins of simmering, add a piece of dry mango. This is the best ingredient. Makes the dish totally Odiya.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with white rice. It will just reach your mouth and then automatically vanish into the tummy. You won't even notice the time lag between intake and the magical vanishing act. Enjoy !!

Mom Ishtyle Chicken Curry

Do you guys remember the famous Sundays of our school times? Yes my dear ones I am talking about the 7AM Rangoli program followed by 9AM Chandrakanta and then the 10AM Mahabharat...It was all so magical...and we used to always finish homework early so Baba will allow us to watch those Sunday programs...

Unlike today, we had only one day off in any week and that was Sunday....so we used to make good use of it.. finish all pending work.. press school uniforms.. and yeah.. run through the kitchen to get a nose-full of Mami's style chicken curry's "khushboo"...yummmyyyy...

The whole process starts with Baba going the market and getting fresh cut chicken. Yes, it is fresh cut chicken... which tastes the best with Mami's recipe.. then the masala getting ground in our very own old style "grinder".. It's not a blender.. and then the famous chicken curry cooking starts.... spreading the awesome aroma all around... :)

I don't have the exact measurements of all ingredients (else I will be the same cook as my Mommy), but they are close.. as stated by my sis !!

Chicken - 2.5 lbs

For the ground masala (to be wet ground)

2 inch ginger piece

8-10 garlic cloves (yes lots of garlic)

1 stick cinnamon

5 cardamoms

1 tea spoon jeera seeds

4 cloves

1 tea spoon coriander seeds (Do not worry, if you don't have them.. yo u can skip and add powder later)

2-3 red chillies

1/2 onion (red preferred)

Rest ingredients....

2 medium onions chopped small

2 small tomatoes (or 1 medium) chopped small

1-2 bay leaves

4 small potatoes (cubed and lightly fried in hot mustard oil)

Turmeric powder

Jeera powder

Dhaniya powder

Red Chilli powder

Garam masala powder

Coriander leaves chopped very small

1/2 spoon sugar

Salt to taste

Mustard oil for the marinade and cooking

Wash chicken nicely and drain off all water.

Marinate with salt + turmeric + a little mustard oil for 30mins.

Heat mustard oil until you see smoke coming off of the pan.

Add bay leaves + sugar + onions together.

Let the onions fry and become brown.

Add the wet masala (this is when the nice aroma starts... uncooked masala aroma of course)

Fry until the masala starts to look more brown.

Add tomatoes + salt + jeera powder + dhaniya powder + salt + garam masala powder + red chilli powder and mix well... You may add a little bit of water so that the masala does not burn before cooking.

Cook the masala well. The raw smell should go away and you should get a nice "kassa" masala smell.

Now add the chicken and fry for 15 mins covered (with 5 mins gap between stirs)

When the chicken is like 25% done, add the potatoes and mix well.

Now this is what my mom does... which I don't do always...

She transfers the whole thing into a pressure cooker and pressure cooks the chicken + potatoes in it.. after adding about 2 cups of water (We love the gravy)

The moment the first whistle goes .. phhiiisssshhhhh... We would get that awesome smell of the chicken curry...and go to the kitchen with some "bahana" like to drink water.. or to wash hands or something.. :)

It takes like 3 whistles or so.. for the curry to be super ready..

I usually cook it covered in the pan and it takes 20 mins more than mom.

When everyone's ready to eat, add the chopped coriander leaves on top and give the gravy a quick stir.

This curry has to be served with rice. Roti does not make any justice to this recipe. Well, it does if you save some for dinner. And this IS a lunch thing, when you can sit and watch TV and eat.. and then go for a walk because you'd be having a bubble tummy !!

Sorisha Sajana Chuin (Drumsticks in mustard paste)

You know, when we start to talk about "pakhala bhata" all we Odiyas go crazy...Yes.. we are crazy for food.. we are food "crazies" !!

The side dishes for "pakhala" are simple to make and yet delicious..one of them which I adore is drumsticks in mustard sauce...

Ohh, please do not think that it is some curry.. it is quite dry.. and yummy...

Since this takes mustard paste, mom used to make a lot and store in glass closed containers. Why make the paste again and again? Odiya kitchens use mustard paste for many many other things.. Drumsticks are just one teeny tiny part of that..

What she used:

6-7 medium sized drumsticks.

4 table spoons mustard seeds.

6 fat garlic cloves

4 green chillies

1/2 spoon panch phoran (If you don't have panch phoran, you can use only jeera and mustard seeds)

Mom would clean and cut the drumsticks very carefully. The hard scale should be scrapped off.

A wet paste would be made with mustard seeds, 4 garlic cloves and 4 green chillies. She adds water also to this paste so that its smooth like silk.. yes.. thats what she says.. and believe me, when its ready it looks like slight green silk..

Here's her process now:

Heat pan and add 1-2 spoons of mustard oil

Mean time, crush the rest garlic with a pestle.

Add panch phoran when oil is hot.

Then add the crushed garlic

Immediately add the drumsticks and fry for like a min or so.

Then add a little bit of water (like 2 spoons) and cover.

Leave the whole thing covered for 3-4 mins.

After 4 mins, remove cover and stir fry by adding turmeric and salt.

By this time, drumstick will be half cooked.

Now add 2 tbl spoons of mustard paste with 2tbl spoons of water.

Let it simmer away. Simmer until the water dries up. By the time water dries up, the drumsticks are fully cooked and ready to be served.

Enjoy your Odiya favorite food.

Kakharu Phoola Bhaja (Pan Seared Pumpkin Flower)

Summers always bring sweet memories back to me from where I come from.. from where I grew up...Its the vacation, I think which always has a deep down effect..No school.. no home work.. and yes the best part...the whole big family will stay in the same house in my village.. and we will all have so much fun..

In all this, the moms of the family, would be also rejoiced because they get to spend time with their "jethanis" and "devraanis". In my family, they are more like sisters. They gossip and they laugh and they cry together. A scene which I did not see in many other joint families.

Any hoo..how can I ever forget the food aspect of the vacations. Since mom does not have to go to work, she spends a lot of time in the kitchen thinking what special to make for lunch...thats when we all get all greedy. We keep running in and out of the kitchen, just to get a glance of what is cooking. They will scold us, asking us to stay out of the area where fire has been lit to start the one fine summer lunch...

Summers usually are very very hot, so we stick to "pakhala" (rice cooked and water added to that)...we add yoghurt to add coolness...What goes with that? Well.. almost everything I'd say.. but my favorites are more on the pan seared pumpkin flowers... they are ample in summer.. and its so easy to make them.. that we'd have them almost every day..

I am sharing my mom's way to do "Kakharu Phoola Bhaja" (Pan Seared Pumpkin Flower)

What she uses for the batter:

1 cup polished rice (arua or basmati) soaked in water for at least 30 mins.

1 inch ginger

4-5 cloves of garlic

4-5 green chillies

1/4th cup water

1/2 spoon red chilli powder

salt to taste

To start with, she'd first cut the stems off the flowers..No.. she won't throw them away.. she'd store them for later.. you'll see how smart she is !!

Wash the individual flowers under slow running water.

Since the flowers are very very delicate, she'd stuff one flower into another. Just like a cup into a cup.

Then wet grind everything under the batter section.

Now.. here's her battering station..

Place 1: flowers

Place 2: batter

She'd heat the pan so much that you can see the warm smoke coming off.. and yes.. it is mustard oil.. I was a freak to use PAM.. but this one tastes the best with mustard oil..

1. Pick the flower...

2. Dunk it in the batter...

3. Shake off excess liquid...

4. cchhheeewwwwnnn.... add to the pan..

Fry until the flower is golden brown on both side..

You know the stems she stored, she'd chop them real fine and add to the left out batter and make one big fat pancake with the mix...See I told you.. she will use them all..

How simple yet delicious. We would just grab one or two while they are on the hot plate..and run along.. who cares if mom is scolding.. she'd understand.. I am sure.. she would have done the same to her mom as well..

Enjoy your odiya favorite.

Mom's Chilli Mushroom On A Rainy Night

Who likes mushrooms?? The answer is everyone in my family. And who likes chilli mushrooms. The answer remains the same. Mom although being working, never compromised on anything for our taste buds. She did take care of our fat intake though. The chinese style chilli mushrooms that mom used to make, had very very less oil in it and they taste so perfect that you wont ever complain that "Mami, you dint focus enough on the recipe". Here's to those rainy nights and roti and chilli mushrooms from my Mom's rasoi.

How Mami did it...

Indian mushrooms are dirty with mud when bought. So, she used to peel them and put them in haldi water (Turmeric power mixed in water). This does not affect the mushroom flavor so dont worry about the turmeric. Wash the mushrooms nicely and make sure, there is no dirt. In America, you dont have to worry about it. Take the mushrooms, cut them into halves (make only halves not thirds or quarters) and run water on them in a meshed container.

Transfer the mushrooms to another container which is easy to hold by both hands. We have to shake it up and down later so make sure, you are able to hold the container with both hands good.

Add the following first and give the mushrooms and good shake.

• Pepper powder
• Chinese salt (also known as Ajinamoto. Note: use very little, elders say, its not good for health)
• Lots of Paprika
• Normal salt
• Very little oil

After the first shake, add the following and use a spoon or spatula to mix.

• Soy sauce
• Lemon juice
• Corn starch

Leave the mixture for 15 mins. Yes, my dear, this is not chicken, 15 mins are enough for the mushrooms.

Now, while the mixture sits on the counter, chop 4-5 fat cloves of garlic and make thin slices of onions. Green and red bell peppers were not readily available earlier, so Mom's mushrooms had onions only. You may put whatever you like, but don't complain if it does not taste like Mom's. Just kidding, please put peppers if you like them. There's no hard and fast rule in Mom's kitchen.

Heat 4 to 5 spoons in a flat bottomed non-stick pan. Mom used a normal kadhai, but non-stick is better so we can use lesser oil than she used to.

When the oil is super hot, put the mushrooms and let them brown on medium-high heat for at least 3-4 mins.

When they start turning reddish brown, you'd know the mushrooms are coming together and not mushing out. Thats the catch, she could make the mushrooms stay intact even without deep frying them.

After a high-heat-fry, cover and simmer the mushrooms for about 6 mins. This will leave water, but don't worry. We'll take care of the water.

Next, open the lid and fry again on medium-high-heat. The water will dry out and you can see oil separating out, just like, you'd see when you fry any indian masala. This ain't masala but it will leave oil. If you want, you may soak some in a tissue paper which reduces the oil quantity even more.

Once the mushrooms are done, take them out. Now, in the same super hot oil, put the garlic and onions "together". Fry and let the onions turn translucent.

Now add a little dark soy sauce, salt for the onions and any chilli garlic sauce (get the red colored ones they are real nice). Mom used a home made paste of red chillies and garlic which was spicy enough to take us through a chilly rainy night.

Do a little frying and then add the mushrooms. Fold the mushrooms and onions together and the chilli mushrooms are done. Frying this on low heat for about 3 mins is good enough.

The overall process takes no more than 20 or 25 mins, very very less oil and tastes good. If your family likes mushrooms like mine, try it. Its simple, its quick and above all, its mom's.