Fish Cutlet - fried Fish nuggets in Bengali style

This is a typical Bengali style of cooking and is served as snack to the guests or no special occasions in almost every household. West Bengal is in the eastern part of India. Bengalis are known to be fish lovers so much so that have it every day as a daily diet almost like Americans eat Burgers!

Ingredients:

Tinned Tun fish in water - 300 gm (or any other as per your choice)
Potato - 3 medium size boiled and mashed (lesser than the fish)
Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
Ginger paste - 2 tsp
Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Green chilli paste/chopped - 2 tsp/as per taste
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Cumin - 1/2 tsp dry roasted
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp (cinnamon, cardamon & cloves in equal quantity)
Salt to taste
Egg - 2 or more
Bread crumbs - 1 cup or more
Oil to deep fry - atleast 1 and 1/2 inch of the pan you are using

Preparation:
1. Boil the potatoes with salt and mash them well.
2. Take 2 tblspn oil in a non-stick pan.
3. Fry the onion till it starts to change the colour.
4. Add the ginger and garlic paste and keep frying.
5. Drain the water from the tinned fish and add them.
6. Add the chilli paste, turmeric, cumin powder, salt and reduce the flame to low heat.
7. Cover the lid of the pan.
8. Keep stirring in between so that the fish do not stick to the bottom.
9. Keep frying till the raw smell of the spices are gone and the fish is well cooked.
10. Add the mashed potato and stir for a minute or two.
11. Add garam masala and switch off the flame and keep it covered.

Note:
Don't overcook the fish and make it dry.
Let this mixture cool down.

12. After its cool enough to keep on the palm, make equal potions of circular or oval shapes - around 20 or more as per the size you wish to serve.
13. Beat the eggs well and place on a flattened plate.
14. On another flat plate place bread crumbs.
15. Take a deep frying pan and heat oil to fry.
16. Take the cutlet and dip it into the egg.
17. Remove it from the egg and roll it well on the bread crumbs.
18. Dust the excess breadcrmbs and place it slowly into the oil.
19. Fry on medium heat till the colour starts to change to light brown and then fry the other side.
20. Remove the cutlet on a paper towel to soak excess oil.
21. Sprinkle a pinch of black salt on the cutlets & serve them hot along with good portion of shredded salad & tomato ketchup or capsicum dip or green chutney.

Note:
While rolling on breadcrumbs excess of it should be avoided. If the breadcrumbs is in excess, they will brun on the bottom of the pan.
Always fry in medium heat to cook the entire cutlet or the middle portion may not cook well.
In case tinned fish is not available:
- Choose a fish with less or just a single thick bone, my favorite is Bhetki(Red snapper) when its available.
- Cook the fish in salted water. Let it cook and remove the bones carefully.
- Further recipe follows as usual.


Cook time: 1 hours

Lentil soup (Masoor Daal/ Brown-skinned lentils which are red inside)

Masoor Daal (Brown-skinned lentils which are red inside):
Ingredients:Masoor daal 1 cup,
Onion 1 big - 1/2 chopped & 1/2 diced
Tomato 2 medium size chopped
Ginger 1 inch
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Bay leaf 1-2
Green Chilli 2-3 / as per taste
Black Jeera/ Nigella 1 Teaspoon
Salt to taste
Mustard oil 1-2 Tablespoon
Turmeric Water 2 cups

Preparation:
- Wash the lentils well.
- In a pressure cooker, take 2 cups water and salt to taste and cook the Lentils.
- Heat 2 tblspn oil in a non-stick pan.
- Add the Kala jeera, bay leaf and green chilli.
- As the flavor of the spices starts coming add the onion.
- When the onion turns translucent, add the tomatoes, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric, salt to taste.
- When the raw smell of tomatoes disappear, pour this mixture into the lentils.
- Bring this to boil.
- Incase you want to cook it further, place it on the stove without covering the lid.  

Note: 
A healthy option is my all time favorite vegetable. Add a carrot, beans, peas, potatoes while boiling the lentils.
The consistency of any lentil preparation depends on your taste. If you wish to have it like soup you could add more water.
Try not to over-cook the lentils.
You should be able to feel it in your mouth when eating and it should melt in your mouth.
You can choose to garnish this with finely chopped coriander leaves / parsley.
Optionally, you could add curry leaves along with the onion.

Rasgulla (homemade Cheese in Sugar Syrup - a sweet from West Bengal)

This preparation does not take more than 1 hr in all.

Dont go by the look of this photo, this was my first try at this exotic Bengali sweet dish.

The good ones dont wait for the photo to be clicked.

Ingredients:
Milk 2% or 2.5% 1 litreLemon Juice 1 lemon and 2 Tablespoon water
Sugar 2 1/2 cup
Water 5 cups
Cardamom powder 1 teaspoon (optional)Rose water (optional)
Flour 1 teaspoon (optional)
Semolina 1/2 teasoon (optional)
Sugar 1 teaspoon
Preparation:
For Cheese:1. Bring the milk to boil, stirring occasionally without letting the layer of cream form on top and burning it in the bottom.
2. Add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. 3. As the cheese starts separating from the water, turn off the heat.
4. Drain the waiter using a strainer cloth. (You could keep this water for later use)
5. Rinse the cheese under running cold water and squeeze well.
6. Hang the cheese in the cloth for soemtime for the wetness to disappear.7. To check if enough water is out of the cheese, take a little piece of cheese on your palm and rub with your fingers. After rubbing for about 15-20 seconds, you should be able to make a firm but smooth ball.
Making the balls:1. Place the cheese on a plate and knead it for 3-4 minutes along with 1 teaspoon flour, 1/2 teaspoon emolina, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder, until the cheese almost rolls into smooth soft dough.
2. Divide the dough into 10-12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls.
3. Make the balls by applying pressure on the fist and then release when forming the balls.Syrup:1. Boil the water with sugar in a pan.
2. Add the balls and close the lid of the pan on medium heat for 30 minutes.
3. Check in between if it done.
4. Add rose water when the heat subsides.
5. Serve the Rasgullas after 2-3 hrs.
You could also make Rasgullas in pressure cooker(though my results in cooker was not too satisfactory)
1. Add the cheese balls in sugar syrup and close the pressure cooker. When the pressure starts coming out, turn the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes.
2. Close the heat and wait till the pressure subsides. Then check if the Rasgullas are done.

Tips:1. While kneading the cheese make sure its not too dry. If the dough turns dry Rasgullas become hard.
2. Also, while kneading there should not be any broken lines and the dough should look smooth. The Rasgullas may break if there are broken lines.3. When you refrigerate the Rasgullas they might turn hard. Just microwave them / heat them and tada they are soft again.
4. If they are hard or get broken you can mix them in condensed or thickened milk or kheer and serve.
5. Note that the size of the Rasgullas almost doubles while cooking in syrup, so your pan or pressure cooker should have enough space to hold them.
6. After cooling while serving, the size will deminish a little.

Alu Dum (Baked/Grilled/Boiled Potatoes mixed with Indian spices - from West Bengal)

Ingredients:

Red Potato 750 gm.
Hing / Aasafoetida 1 Teaspoon
Bay Leaf 1-2
Red Dry chilli 1-2
Jeera / Cumin seeds 1 Teaspoon
Whole garam masala (cinnomon stick 1 inch, Cardamom 3-4, cloves 3-4)
Green Chilli 3-4 sliced / as per taste
Cumin powder/paste 2 tablespoon
Ginger paste 2 Tablespoon
Rice oil 3-4 Tablespoon Turmeric 1 Teaspoon
Tomato puree 1-2 cup (4-5 medium sized)

Peas 1 cup
Salt to taste Coriander leaves chopped 1/2 cup

Preparation:
1. Boil the potatoes in slightly salted water and drain.
2. Peel the skin if you wish to.
3. Cut all of them into halves or of equal size each.
4. Heat oil in a pan and fry these boiled poataoes till it turns golden.
5. Add the cumin seeds, bay leaf, dry red chilli, whole garam masala and let them crackle.
6. Add the hing and pour the tomato puree, ginger paste, and jeera powder, green chillies, tumeric, and salt to taste..
7. Let the curry fry till the raw smell of the spices disappear.
8. Now add the peas and potatoes and roast till the oil starts oozing out from the curry.
9. Remove the pan from heat and garnish with coriander leaves.
10. You can add water to this and bring it to boil if you want this as moist gravy.(I dont prefer it like a liquid.)

Note:
Hing / Aasafoetida is used as a digestive aid in cooking and has a very strong smell of its own. This dish intends to retain its smell and hence is usually added just after the potatoes. Ive used it earlier for people not used to this smell.
You could choose to serve it as a starter, it would be served like baked potatoes or as a part of main course.

The picture on the right is actually Baked potatoes with the same ingredients. Ive added carrot too in it.

The picture on your left is made of white small potatoes.

Orange Kheer (Fresh Oranges dipped in condensed Milk - known as Kheer Komla in West Bengal)

Ingredients:
1 ltr full-cream milk or 4% fat milk
7-8 Tablespoon sugar
2-3 sweet Oranges nicely peeled or you could use marmalade
1/2 cup chopped Almonds
3-4 Cardamom powder
1 bay leaf

Preparation:

1. Boil the milk in a non-stick pan.
2. Continue boiling in low heat and stir it so that it doesnt stick in the bottom and also no layer forms(malai).
3. Now add sugar into the milk and stir well.
4. Continue boiling the milk till the color changes.
5. Add the Cardamom powder and bay leaf.
6. Remove the milk from the heat and add blanched Almonds.
7. Cool it for atleast 2 hrs.
8. Peel the Oranges nicely and add only the flesh to this condensed milk.
9. Mix it well without mashing the flesh of orange.
10. Refrigerate before serving.

Note:
The taste of this dish depends on the consistency you would prefer.Could be like custard or even had as a drink. When you add oranges you should be able to see a layer of it standing on the kheer. The image below is like a drink and the sweet dish like kheer tastes better. Cooking this dish in earthen ware gives a better flavor.