Chaman Olu / Cottage Cheese and Potato

It’s a Kashmiri dish that is made with cottage cheese and potato. It’s served with rice. It’s a very simple dish, yet very delicious.
I have adapted the recipe from Ms. Purnima Kachru’s cook book.
We enjoyed the dish with hot steamed rice.

Ingredients
250 grams Cottage cheese cut into medium size cubes
1 big  size Potato cut into thick roundels
4 Green chillies slit
1/2 tsp Turmeric  Powder
1/2 tsp Ginger Powder
1 tsp Fennel seed Powder
1 pinch Asafoetida
Salt to taste
1 Black cardamom crushed
2 Cloves crushed
2 Green Cardamom crushed
1 1/2 tbsp Curd
1 1/2 tbsp Milk
1/2 cup Mustard Oil
1 tbsp Ghee
1 1/2 cup Water

Method
Take a wok, add mustard oil, heat the oil. Reduce the flame. Fry the cottage cheese until the edges are golden brown in colour. Take a pot, add water, add salt and turmeric powder. Add the fried cottage cheese into the water. Now fry the potato roundels and add the potato roundels into the water. Add ginger powder, fennel powder, asafoetida and black cardamom. Place the pot on the gas stove and cook the ingredients on medium heat until the water reduces into half. Beat the curd along with the milk. Pour the milk - curd into the pot, stir the gravy constantly and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the gravy from the flame. Take ghee in a pan, let it heat, add the green cardamom and cloves. Sauté and pour the ghee into the gravy. Add green chillies to garnish. Serve the dish with steamed rice.

Misti Aloor Pata R Chingri Macher Mathar Chorchori

This is a very traditional Bengali recipe that’s cooked only at home and not commonly found in restaurants... we had grown sweet potato in our balcony pot... after 4 months we got some sweet potatoes and sweet potato leaves... I was extremely happy... 

Prawn head Chorchori is made normally with Malabar spinach, potatoes, sweet potato. brinjal and pumpkin with fish head or prawns or small fish but since I got sweet potato leaves, I made the dish with this leaves and sweet potato... some brinjal too can be added to this dish. Fish can be avoided and can be made only vegetarian. Only turmeric, salt and Mustard oil is used to cook this dish along with some garlic, onion and green chillies. 

A plate of steamed rice and this dish is enough to satisfy our souls... this dish will taste more delicious if eaten on the next day... 

Ingredients 

1 big bowl of Sweet Potato leaves washed and cut into pieces 

1 big Sweet Potato washed and peeled 

1 big size Onion sliced 

5 to 6 Garlic cloves crushed 

4 to 6 Green Chillies slit 

1 bowl of Prawn head / after cleaning one kg of prawns or any small fish cleaned and marinated with 1/2 tsp turmeric and Salt. 

Salt to taste 

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder 

4 tbsp  + 1 tsp Fortune Mustard Oil

Method 

Cut the sweet potato into medium thin strips.. in Bengali we say Shoru kore kata... it was fun to use the boti after a long time. 

Take a wok, preferably a iron wok... I used steel wok as I was cooking on induction-stove. Add 3 tbsp Mustard oil. Let the mustard oil heat up. Fry the marinated prawn heads until crispy. Remove and keep it aside. Add 1 tbsp of Mustard oil into the same wok. Add sliced onion, garlic and green chillies together. Stir fry the onion until soft and translucent. Add the sweet potato. Stir and cook for a minute. Add the salt and turmeric. Stir and add 1/2 cup of water. Stir and let it simmer for a minute. Add the sweet potato leaves. Cover and continue to cook until the water has reduced and the vegetables are  almost cooked. Open the lid and gently stir the vegetables. Add the prawn heads and stir it gently. Cover and cook for another 1 minutes. Open the lid and the stir it gently. Switch off the induction. Before serving drizzle mustard oil. Serve the dish with steamed rice. 

Baked Stuffed Eggplant with Chicken, Cheese and Veggies..

This dish is super delicious... 

Any vegetables like mushroom, zucchini, capsicum, tomato etc can be added... instead of chicken... prawns, sausage, bacon etc can be added... or make it only with vegetables... this dish can be eaten with bread or to make it a complete meal, cooked pasta can be added with the vegetables.. 

Ingredients 

1 big size Eggplant cut into half and scooped out the flesh from the center

4 Garlic cloves  finely chopped 

1/2 cup chopped Mix coloured Capsicum 

1 small Tomato chopped 

Scooped  Brinjal flesh

Some Olive slices  

1/2 cup small Chicken pieces 

Salt to taste 

1/2 tsp  Pepper powder

1/2 cup  Arrabbiata sauce or Béchamel Sauce

1/4 cup Amul Cheddar Cheese cut into small cubes 

Some Amul Mozzarella Cheese pieces 

1 tsp Olive Oil

Method 

Once the flesh of the brinjal is scooped out, immediately apply olive oil and salt on the brinjal. Take the scooped  brinjal  and place them on a baking tray. Take a bowl, add garlic, capsicum, tomato,  olives, scooped brinjal flesh, chicken, cheese, salt, pepper and sauce of your choice. Mix all the ingredients together. Add this into the brinjal cavities. Add mozzarella cheese from top and bake the brinjals at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes in a preheated oven. Serve this with bread.

Macher Chop / Fish Chop

This is a popular dish of Bengal. It’s served during occasions / celebrations as starter or with evening tea / cha, when the family and friends comes together for an informal meeting / adda which is a quintessential part of Bengal. 

Macher chop is made with any big size fish like Rahu, Katla, Bhetki, Aar mach etc. the fish is boiled with salt and turmeric, deboned and mashed. Boiled potato is used for binding the mixture. Fish and the potato are cooked with spices and a lemon size portion of the mixture is taken, it’s given an oval shape, dipped in egg and coated with bread crumbs. It’s then fried until golden brown in colour. It’s served with mustard dip / Kasundi and tomato ketchup along with some sliced cucumber and onion. 

Ingredients 

250 grams Rahu or Katla or Bhetki or any big fish with less bones.. boiled with salt and 1/2 tsp turmeric. Debone the fish and mashed 

1 big size Potato boiled and mashed 

1 medium size Onion chopped 

2 Green Chillies chopped 

1 tsp chopped Coriander leaves - optional 

1/2 tsp Ginger paste 

3/4 tsp Garlic paste 

1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds 

Salt to taste 

1/2 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Chilli powder 

3/4 tsp Cumin powder 

3/4 tsp Garam Masala powder 

1/4 tsp Chaat Masala 

1 Egg beaten with little salt

3/4 to a cup of Bread crumbs 

1 tbsp Mustard Oil 

Oil for frying

Method 

Take a pan, add mustard oil, add the cumin seeds, let it crackle. Add the onion, chopped greeen chillies, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and sugar. Stir and sauté the ingredients for 2 minutes or until the onions become soft and translucent. 

Add the mashed fish, mashed potato, chilli powder, cumin powder and garam masala powder. Stir and cook the ingredients on low medium flame until all the ingredients bind together. We can add 1 tsp chopped coriander leaves - (optional). 

Take a small portion of the mixture, roll and check if it’s forming a ball. Remove the mixture from the flame and allow it to cool. 

Take 1/2 of the bread crumbs on a plate. 

Take lemon size portion from the fish mixture. Give it a oval shape, repeat the process. Now take a oval shape chop and dip it into the beaten egg, remove and coat the chop with the bread crumbs. Once when one round of coating is done, repeat the process of coating the chops with egg and bread crumbs again for the second time. Take oil in a kadai / wok. Let the oil heat up, on a low flame fry the chops until golden brown. Once the chops are fried, remove the chops on the paper towel. Sprinkle the Chaat masala on the chops. Serve the chops with cucumber, onion, mustard dip / Kasundi and tomato ketchup.

Aslam’s Butter Cream Chicken

Few days back one of the foodie friend Rakesh Sharma ji had posted this fabulous recipe in a group. I was very tempted to make this recipe... and believe me this recipe is worth making.. 

Sharma ji had mentioned in his post that Aslam’s Butter Chicken is a very famous dish sold at Aslam Chicken near Jama Masjid, Old Delhi. 

This dish is very different in look and taste from the Punjabi butter chicken recipe. 

In the actual dish Aslam Chicken grills the marinated chicken pieces on a charcoal grill and then the main key ingredients other than the chicken is loads of Butter, fresh cream and curd. The spices that are used in the dish are a top secret. If you scroll the net, there are loads of videos that teaches us to make the Aslam Butter Cream Chicken, Since this recipe was tried and tasted, I preferred to adapt this recipe. 

It’s a very easy recipe... we can grill the chicken in an oven at home, or on a skillet. 

To get the smoky charcoal flavour, heat up the charcoal and place the hot charcoal on a small plate in between the marinated chicken, pour a tsp of ghee and cover the bowl for a minute - I have used this technique and this was not mentioned in the original recipe and it’s optional. 

 Then the chicken can be grilled and further method can be followed as per the recipe. I personally have not visited the restaurant and tasted the original dish, but this recipe indeed very delicious and my family loved the dish... I have added the Garam Masala powder which was not mentioned in Sharma ji’s recipe. Also I have reduced the quantity of the chicken, hence changed the quantity of the other ingredients and have added the butter as per my requirement. The original recipe calls for around 100 grams plus butter. The method follows the same.. 

For Marinating the Chicken 

Ingredients 

500 grams Chicken cut pieces 

1/2 cup of Hung Curd

1 tsp Ginger paste

1 1/2 tsp Garlic paste

1/2 to 1 tsp Chilli paste

Juice of 1 small size lime 

Salt to taste 

1/2 tsp Pepper Powder 

1/2 tsp Garam Masala powder 

1/2 tsp Kasuri Methi

1 tsp Cumin seed powder 

1 tbsp Amul Butter

Method 

Marinate the chicken pieces with all the above ingredients and keep the marinated chicken for 5 to 6 hours. We can use a hot burn charcoal to give a smoky flavour to the dish as mentioned in the description. 

To make the Butter Cream Chicken 

Ingredients 

Marinated Chicken

1/2 cup of Hung Curd 

1/4 cup of Fresh Cream

1/2 tsp Chaat Masala

1 tbsp Butter for Grilling 

4 tbsp and more Melted Butter

Method 

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees celsius. Take a baking tray. Take the marinated chicken and place the chicken pieces on the baking tray. Rub 1/2 tbsp of butter on the chicken pieces and turn the chicken pieces. Grill the chicken pieces at 180 celsius for 15 minutes. Remove the baking tray, apply the remaining 1/2 tbsp butter on the chicken pieces and turn the chicken pieces and continue to grill the chicken pieces at 200 degrees celsius for 15 minutes. Once done, the chicken pieces are golden brown, remove the chicken pieces from the baking tray. For the gravy, take a pan, add the remaining marinated juices into the pan. Let the water of the marinated juices reduce a bit, add the chicken pieces and coat the chicken pieces with the marinated juices. Switch off the flame. Transfer the chicken pieces into a serving bowl, now take a bowl, add the hung curd and the cream into the bowl and mix the ingredients together. Sprinkle the Chaat masala. Pour the curd and the cream over the chicken. Mix the ingredients together. Now pour the melted butter over the chicken. The chicken is supposed to be drenched in butter... but I used less butter for health reasons... Serve this unique butter chicken with rumali roti, sliced onion and lime.