Homemade White Cream Sauce - A creamy cheesy chilly sauce

Ingredients required for White Cream Sauce at home:

Butter- 2 tbsps

Plain flour/maida- 2 tbsp

Milk- 2 teacups (You can add more if you want watery sauce)

Salt as required

Grated cheese- 4-5 tbsps

Pepper powder as required

Rosemary – a pinch (Optional)

Process for making White Cream Sauce: 

1. Melt butter in a pan.

2. Add the flour. Mix well. Keep stirring for a few minutes till the smell of flour goes away. 

3. Switch off the flame. Add milk slowly to mix with the flour. Start stirring continuously. Check if there is any lump formed. The cream should be uniform suspension.

5. If you are making it first time, lumps may be formed. In that case, let it be cool for 5-7 minutes. Then blend it in a mixture grinder.

4. Now pour the liquid mixture in the same pan. Let it be boiled. Add cheese, salt, pepper powder and keep mixing well. Add salt carefully as required, because you have already used salted butter and cheese.

5. Keep stirring till the sauce thickens. Your sauce is ready. At this stage, you can add a 1 tsp of rosemary, although it is an optional ingredient.

Your homemade White Cream Sauce is ready. You can pour it to boiled pasta, steamed vegetables etc.

Badshahi Khichri - when my city is soaked in rains

Cooking Kichri is synonymous to writing love letter!...Why? Because more and more punch and accompaniments are required to make it tasty. With punch I mean - a romantic thunderstorm, dark rolling clouds in the sky, torrential rains with bursting clouds and your soul craving the great Khichri. 

And accompaniments? They are fried or frittered brinjal/pumpkin, fired pointed gourd / potato /cauliflower / fish or omelette or onion rings...whatever you like to have. If you believe in a bit of opulence in food, I am suggesting some more luxurious accompaniments as dry roasted papad, chutney, butter fried coconut pieces, these are optional but quintessential. Otherwise you can have Kichri itself as a complete meal. 

How to make Badshahi Khichri

What ingredients I used: (For 2 persons)

Basmati Rice - 1 cup 
Moong Lentil - 1 cup  
Poppy seeds - 1 tbsp
Cashew - 7-8 pcs
White Curd - 2 tbsp
Ginger + Chili paste - 1 tbsp
Whole garam masala - 3 cardamom, 3 cloves, 2 cinnamon
Bay leaves - 2 
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric Power - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Sugar 1 tsp
White oil - 2 tbsp
Lots of water
Biryani Masala - a pinch (optional)
A few peanuts and raisin (optional)

How I cooked Badshahi Kichri:

1. Dry-roast the rice and lentil in a frying pan for 10 minutes. Wash them properly and rinse the water. Keep them aside. 
2. Make a smooth paste with cashew and poppy seeds. Then add curd to the paste. Mix well.
3. Add while oil in a deep bottom frying pan. Once oil becomes hot, add bay leaves, whole garam masala and sugar. Fry them for 2 minutes. 
4. Add ginger-chili paste and stir for 1 minutes or until the raw smell gets off.
5. Add the paste made of cashew, poppy seeds and curd. Stir well. 
6. Add turmeric powder and stir again. 
7. Now add rice and lentil. Stir well and then add lots of water. I prefer to add 1 litre of water at this stage. Then I add more water if required later. 
8. At this stage you can add Biryani Masala, peanuts and raisins. 
9. Now let the rice and lentil be boiled. Once it is cooked nicely, add little ghee and garam masala powder. And mix well. 

Your Badshahi Khichri is ready. You can enjoy your Kichri with any of the accompaniments mentioned above. 

Deep-fried Katla Fish & Mashed Potato with Steamed Rice and Lentil

One piece of fried fish, mashed potato, yellow lentil with hot rice...it is a minimal Bengali meal we cook, when we have lack of time or energy to make a proper meal. Yesterday I was extremely tired after coming back from office. I was alone at home. And that was another point not to cook much for own self. So in such days what could be better than cooking one piece Maach Bhaja (fried fish), Alu Bhate (mashed potato), Musoor Daal (bowl-full yellow lentil) and Gorom Bhat (hot rice). 

Katla Fish deep-fried using the ingredients like:

Katla Fish pieces - 4 (washed thoroughly in water)

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Red Chili Powder - 1 tsp

Salt - 1 pinch

Mustard Oil for deep-frying

Process I followed:

1. Take the fish pieces and in a bowl. Spread Turmeric powder, chili powder and salt over the fishes. Mix well for marinade. Keep the bowl aside for 10 minutes.

2. Heat oil in deep-bottom frying pan. 

3. Add fish piece (one piece at a time) to the oil.

4. Deep-fry the pieces from both side. Take out from the pan and keep it inside the casserole. You can take it out late while having food. 

Mashed Potato as a side dish

Ingredients: 

Peeled, sliced and boiled potatoes - 4 (big size)

Salt (as per your taste)

Mustard Oil -1 tbsp

Red Chili - 2

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Onion (finely chopped)

Process for making mashed potato

1. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add cumin seeds, red chili. Fry for 1 minutes. 

2. Add onion. Fry it until it gets caramelized. Pour it on the boiled potato pieces. 

3. Add salt to the potato. 

4. Mash the potato in hand very well. 

5. Make mouthful balls with mashed potatoes. Your mashed potato is ready. 

I always love to see a mouthful mashed potato ball on the top of the rice. Here I kept one fried fish piece. You can vary the taste by squeezing a teaspoonful of lemon juice...poring a lump of ghee, Dhonia Chutney and nay-what-not. 
Here I'm telling you another way of mashed potato, or in case you don't like to add onion or if you don't want to make spicy one, or you are typically an additional taste enhancer; the process is here below:

Ingredients:

Peeled, sliced and boiled potatoes - 4 (big size)

Salt (as per your taste)
Pepper Powder - 1tsp
Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Butter / Ghee / Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Milk / cream - 1 tbsp

Process: 
1. Heat butter / ghee / olive oil in a pan. Add garlic paste. Stir for 1 minute.
2. Add cream or milk to oil. Mix well. 
3. Pour it into the boiled potato. Add salt and pepper to the potato.
4. Mash the potato in hand. Make mouthful balls.

So friends, please try it at home. I'm sure, richness of cream or the tang of condiments would add a distinctive flavour to your mashed potato. Do let me know if you like this new recipe... :-)

Coconut Hilsa - Bengalis call it "Dudhia Ilish"

Ingredients for Coconut Hilsa

Hilsa Fish - 4 pieces
Coconut Milk - 1 cup
Green Chili Paste - 1 tbsp
Poppy Paste  2 tbsp
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp (optional, I used. If you want to see white color of the gravy, don't use turmeric powder.)
White Oil
Water
Salt and sugar as per paste

Process for making Dudhia Ilish

1. Heat oil in a Pan. Add Poppy seed paste to hot oil. Stir for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add water and then half of the coconut milk. Stir well. (At this stage I added turmeric powder)
3. Add salt, sugar, chili paste and then fish pieces.
4. Once it starts boiling, add grated coconut. Let it be boiled.
5. Meanwhile add rest of the coconut milk. Boil for 2-3 minutes. Take it out from the oven.

You can have Coconut Hilsa with hot rice.