I am a born foody and I can eat anything and everything at any time 😀 Though I prefer non-veg at any day as I was born in a bengali family and everyone knows bengalis can’t live without fish. I also grew up having fish and chicken atleast twice or thrice a week till I really grew up as an adult. Then I went to another city to study college without any knowledge of cooking at all. Like at all. I only knew how to make tea and maggi until I reached 21. My roommate used to cook chicken and I used to slurp it all till the last bite 😀 Then suddenly reality hit me. College was finished and we get to settle our lives on our own. By the time I joined my job, I was okay with this cooking thing. Yeah, I can cook and feed myself and my the-then boyfriend (now husband) only. I had no proper method of cooking and never knew how anyone else would react on it. It was back in 2012-2013. Coming back to present with those memories, I am now a married working woman who often loves to cook. I have tried my hands on punjabi, south-Indian, chinese, italian dishes in weekends, but my desire ends where my heart is. Bengali food. I recently discovered that the bengali everyday recipes are the most easiest and full filling dishes, atleast for me. And talking about bengali lunch/dinner, we cant really stop to 1 or 2 side dishes. We have a lot of them. And when there are some special guests at home, the number of fries and dishes can’t just end. So this thing of making more than one side dish has grown in me from a last few months. I guess I am getting much closer to my culture staying much-much away from it. After all its about “maa-ke-hath-ka-khana” (mother’s hand cooked food) that I try to inculcate (to taste) every time I cook on weekends. On week days we usually sum up with some roti-bhaji, rajma chawal, sambhar chawal, pulao , fried rice or max upto egg curry as I am also a human whose day starts at morning 6am and who gets really tired after a long day at office. So these are my recent platters (mostly bengali) that I often cook on weekends when we are eating veg.
- Anti-clockwise from bottom-Â Rice , musoor dal, karela bhaja (bittergourd fry) [my husband’s favorite], Potato- beans masala dry, Jhinge-alu posto (khas-khas with potato and ridge gourd) with some cucumber and onion salad. Bengalis and posto are made for each other. A bengali thali is always incomplete without it.
2. Anti-clockwise-Â Fresh Chapatis with onion-besan dry fry (new and easy recipe for me which turned out amazing), brinjal fry, alu-jeera (boiled potato toasted in jeera and vegetable oil) with some most important onion chunks for dinner.
3. For a change, little different from usual bangali khabar. Paneer curry and alu-matar ki sabji with rice and some curd for a summer dinner.
4. This is not something temping and only bengalis can relate to. I used to have this kind of meal when I had my board exams. Mom used to give me some boiled rice with ghee and mashed poatato with fried fish .I loved it. Its so healthy with no spices at all. This platter has everything boiled in it. Starting from bottom anti-clockwise- bata posto (blended kas-khas), alu bhate (mashed boiled potato with fried onion,tomato and chilli), bandakopir bhate (a bangladeshi cabbage dish), mashed boiled eggs with salt and onion, daal without tarka/chounk with some rice and essentials onion and green chilli.
5. A perfect meal for a rainy day. Daal-khichdi with omlet, achar’s (mango & chilli) and salad. Well some round shaped potato fries are missing here without which a khichdi platter just can’t be completed and I so love having them with khichdi.
6. Anticlockwise from bottom-Â Rice, half omlet (egg pouch), mix veg fry (potato, capsicum and carrot used here), alu-dantar chochori ( bengali style cooked potato and drumstick in mustard seed) with again some musoor daal. We often have toor dal but when it comes to cooking varities , I prefer musoor as it goes really well with most veggies.
Well this above image is a miserable try of food photography by me. That very day when I was cooking, I had a talk with my brother over phone and he suggested me for some food photography that can be done inside in this weather. And I took my camera and shot this 😀
7. Rice,some daal with alu-posto (khas-khas with potato), bhindi bhaja (ladyfinger fry) , and begun baja (brinjal fry) . This particuular day was not a planned sunday. And we ended up doing a lot of house cleaning. After done with the house monica-clean / diwali- clean which took around the whole of morning, Mr. husband asked me to order food from outside which in return I quickly made this thali in around 40 mins on my 2 induction cook-tops. Yes we still don’t own a gas cylinder yet. 😀
Well, that is all for today’s food blogging. When it comes to cooking I can do a lot in less time which I never have any idea before. Its fun to eat a lot for a person like me who never gets fat 😀
Until next time,
Much love
Riya
