Paella with shrimp, chorizo and clams

Muri ghonto (Fish head cooked with rice)

1. Wash and soak gobindo bhog rice in water for an hour.
2. Make half onion paste, 1-inch ginger paste (I prefer more ginger in this recipe). Mince the remaining onion.
3. Wash the fish head and rub salt and turmeric. Let is rest for 15 mins. Fry in hot mustard oil. Set aside.
4. In the wok where you fried the fish head, fry some diced potatoes with salt, add the minced onion and then the onions paste.
5. Add the pre-soaked rice, cook for a while, and add the fish head. Add salt, turmeric, broken green chilies, ginger paste, and bhaja masala (dry roasted and ground cumin-coriander-red chili).
6. Keep adding warm water in batches so that the rice is fully cooked but not mushy. Taste for salt. Add ghee, and garam masala powder. Serve warm.

Chal Potol (Pointed gourd with rice)

চাল পটল 

Ingredients: 
2 packets frozen parwal/potol/pointed gourd or about 15-20 fresh (cut in halves)

Pre soaked kalonji rice- about 1/4 cup
1 tbsp ginger paste
1/2 medium sized onion paste
Cumin powder
Garam masala
Ghee
Cooking oil

Optional:
Dry red chilies 2
panch phoron powder (a pinch)

Method:

1. Heat mustard oil. Temper with whole cumin, bay leaves and 2 red chilies (broken into halves).
2. Add onion-ginger paste, stir fry and add the pointed gourd (you may shallow fry them if you are using fresh vegetables)
3. Add pre-soaked kalonji rice to the vegetables. Add turmeric, salt, cumin powder, panch phoron powder (a pinch). Stir.
4. Slow cook till the water released by the vegetables dry off and the rice is cooked thoroughly but is not mushy. Add garam masala and ghee. 

Lemon Rice

1. Parboil rice. Drain.
2. In a wok heat oil, add minced onion, ginger, green chilis, chana dal, curry leaves, mustard seeds. Mix the rice with a pinch of turmeric and salt to taste. Add freshly squeezed juice of a lemon. 

3. Add the rice in installments, stir well. Break any big chunks to ensure the flavor is even. Stir and cook further in low flame. Sprinkle salt. Add a few dry roasted peanuts or cashews.

I had it with mixed vegetables- Bengali style panchmisali. Pure bliss.

Basil chicken fried rice

1. Saute some red cabbage, red bell pepper and red onions in a non-stick.
2. Add some cooked chicken (deep fried when we made chili chicken) green peas, finely chopped Thai chilies, cracked pepper, salt, chili oil and low-sodium soy sauce.
3. Add parboiled rice (you may use Jasmine rice if you want), washed with cold water in a strainer (to prevent the rice from sticking later). Stir well. Add chopped basil leaves when the rice is almost done.

I had it with lobster in dry shrimp paste from New Penang Garden, Milpitas. You may also enjoy it with a chili-garlic hot sauce.

Cajun shrimp with cilantro pilaf

Cajun shrimp

1. Use tiger shrimps(or any other jumbo shrimp). Peel, de-vein. May leave tail on. Pat dry. (Thaw in cold water for 10-15 mins if using frozen shrimps. Drain)
2. Marinate in Cajun spice mix. (garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, dry oregano, dry thyme)
3. In a pan, fry minced garlic in low heat until fragrant (do not brown). Add shrimp.(you may also add tomatoes and/or celery, Serrano chilies )
4. Season with salt and pepper/pakrika/kashimiri mirch (for color) and lemon juice. Serve hot.

Cilantro pilaf

1. Cook Basmati rice in a rice cooker.
2. In a pan add olive oil/butter , scallions, cilantro (and toasted nuts like almonds or pine nuts). Add the rice in installments while you stir to mix the ingredients. You may also use chicken broth for flavor. Season with salt to taste.

Khichudi

Everyone has a way of making their favorite comfort food. The festival season makes me nostalgic and makes me crave home-made sweets and khichudi bhog that are offered to Gods.

This version can be made onion-free (onion-garlic is considered non-veg in Bengali culture- don't ask me why).
1. Measure 1 cup rice, 1/2 cup moong dal and 1/2 cup masoor dal (this ratio works well for me). Rinse well and pressure cook with salt and turmeric. (If you prefer, you can dry roast the moong first. I prefer it watery- so no issues if you don't want to do that. But if you prefer dry khichudi, you might want to roast it first.)
2. In a wok, heat oil and add jeera (cumin seeds), diced onions, Bay leaves, cardamom, a cinnamon stick, slit green chilis, and grated ginger. Fry lightly - add to the boiled rice-dal mix. You can shallow fry potatoes and cauliflower florets and add as well. Or mixed veggies like peas, tomatoes, carrots etc. For Palak khichudi- it is a good idea to fry the spinach and garlic separately before adding them.
3. Usually it fares well with Bengali mixed vegetables, cabbage curry or/and fritters.

Beet gajor aloo matar checki
This is my new favorite way to eat beets. Cut the vegetables (beets, carrots, potatoes) into sticks. Saute with nigella seeds (kalo jeere, kalonji), salt and turmeric. Add slit green chilies. Eat with roti or rice. Good for stuffing sandwiches too.

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Another version of khichudi is pressuring cooking vegetables with rice and lentils. We dubbed it 'lopsi' and was a winter favorite as a kid. You may used potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, peas, carrots, radish, 1 tsp of mustard, whole green chilies and quartered onions with salt and turmeric. 

The best Chinese dinner I had

Fried rice with Chinese sausage, Chinese broccoli sauteed in minced onions and red chilies, and whole fish baked with chili-bean sauce.The original recipes are by our friends- Gong and Deng.