Cocktails

1. Cilantro Mojito
Cilantro + lime juice + sugar + white rum + club soda.

Ok, here you are:

1. In a food processor, add fresh cilantro leaves and grate well. (You can add kiwi fruits or mint leaves as a variation). Sticklers for accuracy should just bruise the leaves to release the essential oils.
2. Add half a lime juice(or to taste), sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), the cilantro paste, white rum (I used BACARDI Limón) . Give a stir. Add club soda proportionally. Serve with ice or chill the soda before you make the drink.

Traditional mojito with bruised mint leaves

2. Fire Breathing Dragon
Mango +passion fruit+vodka+jalapeno
Recipe link 1

3. (Creamy) Rum Liqueur
condensed milk + (cream)+ milk+ rum+ 2 tbsps chocolate syrup+ 2 tsps coffee

4. Kahlua
coffee+ sugar+ water +vodka+vanilla

5. Pomegranate Passion

Rum+Italian pomegranate soda+lime juice

Mango Mojito

Mint juleps gelee

On choy (water spinach) with dry fish

I had Lobster with dry shrimp recently, and it was out of the world. A lot of cuisines use dry fish, meat, mushrooms etc to enhance flavors. Dry anchovy sauce and myeolchi bokkeum (stir-fried spicy dried anchovy as a side dish) come to my mind immediately.

How many of you know what Bombay Duck is? If you do, this recipe is for you.

For more images of water spinach, click here

1. Take a bunch of on choy or water spinach (kolmi-shak in Bengali) Wash thoroughly and clean the leaves. Chop them . Cut some Chinese eggplant in similar sizes.
2. Add minced onions, garlic paste in a wok with heated oil. You can use green chili paste or red chili powder for hotness. Add Bombay duck (wash well, microwave for 3 mins in water, rinse well, drain, remove bones. Make sure you clean them really well.), then the water spinach, and finally the eggplant pieces.
   
3. Cover and cook till done.

Another way of making the greens is available here. (Stir Fried Water Convolvulus with Dried Shrimp Paste)
A Bangal recipe here (Bombay duck with potatoes and pumpkin). And because I love you guys, here's another of my secret dry fish recipe.

Dry Anchovy with veggies

1. Dice onions and fry in mustard oil. 
2. Add minced garlic, dry anchovy washed well and soaked in hot water for a while.  Add turmeric and chili powder
3. Then add diced potatoes, radish, green beans, pumpkin, and soaked surti papdi lilva (small flat green beans) seeds or hyacinth bean seeds. Stir well, cook covered. Add green chilis to make it extra hot. Add warm water to facilitate cooking if necessary. Garnish with cilantro. Yumm!

Aloo tikki

There are several versions available, I found the following a convenient way to make aloo tikki. Put them inside a bun and you will get a Aloo tikki burger. Serve them with ghugni for aloo tikki chaat. They are yummy on their own with ketchup.

1.  Boil 3 potatoes, some green peas and bengal gram(soaked overnight) in a pressure cooker.
2.  Remove the skin of the potatoes and mash them with hand or a spoon. Don't make it too gooey. Mash  the peas and gram in a food processor with ginger and green chilis. Mix well with black salt, dry roasted cumin seed powder, and your fav spice.
3. Shape them into patties and fry in oil or grill. 

Mutton chop in red onion and wine sauce

For Maitrayee

1. Marinate the mutton chops (goat or lamb) in yogurt, salt, oil, tandoori (for color) spice and/or ground spices of your choice overnight.
2. Thinly slice red onions, green chilis, garlic and ginger and fry in oil in a pressure cooker. Add whole garam masala (I used cardamom, ground cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves)
3. Add the meat, fry well till the oil separates. Add a little water and pressure cook since we want them tender, but just enough to cook the meat thoroughly.
4. Check the sauce, reduce the gravy with the lid off if need be. Add a wine you like to drink. Never, never use a wine you wouldn't drink. Use sparingly, don't let the wine overpower the other flavors. Reduce the sauce until almost dry. Serve with salad, cucumber slices or celery.

You can use cilantro paste or green chilli paste to enhance flavors. I am planning to make lamb shanks in black beer, cilantro, and Peruvian chili sauce- something similar to what I enjoyed immensely at Andina in Downtown Portland on a recent trip.

Two bhery Bengali dishes

Pui Ilish

Pui was a rare find at the Indian grocery store.(Discovered later that it is sold as Vietnamese Spinach at the Asian stores) I decided to make it for a guest who was invited for dinner consisting of  traditional Bengali fare. It goes well with shrimp or Ilish head.

Ilish head

Stalks and potatoes go first in the oil you used to fry the Ilish head. Lots of flavor there.

Final product: my first Pui Ilish

1. Wash and clean the Ilish head. Rub turmeric and salt, set aside for a few minutes while you prepare the pui (Vietnamese/Climbing/Malabar spinach)
2. Wash and break the leaves off the stem. Cut the stalk into bit-sized halves. Dice potatoes (and other vegetables like kumro (butternut squash), jhinge (ridged gourd) and begun (eggplant) to it. ).
3. In a wok, heat mustard oil, light fry the fish head, then keep aside. In the same oil add kalonji, potatoes (and the vegetables ), stalk first and then the leaves. (To reduce cooking time, you can microwave the spinach for 3 mins, drain the excess water released and then add to the wok) 
4. When the leaves are about done add the fried fish head and slit green chilies. Cover and cook in very low flame without adding any water.

A variation with chingri (shrimp) can also be made. Just replace the fish head with shrimp.

Pui Chingri

You might al so like Cabbage with fish head (Macher matha diye Badhakopir Ghonto)

Jhinge aloo kaju posto

Jhinge or ridged gourd is a good source of fiber. With poppy seeds (posto), cashew and potatoes - it becomes an extremely easy-to-make tasty vegetable dish.

1. Using a peeler, peel the tough edges of a ridged gourd. Cut them into inch long sticks, then lightly fry in hot mustard oil. Keep aside.  Cut potatoes about the same size. 
2. Add kalonji, minced onions. Add the potatoes (microwave them for 2-3 mins for faster cooking time), then add back  the ridged gourd , salt, and turmeric.
3. Dry grind poppy seeds with a few cashews- add to the gourd. Add a little water if needed.  Cover and cook on low flame.
   
   
   I also made aloo-bean posto (potato-beans-poppy seeds) similarly .

Wine punch

It was his birthday and I had a cooking marathon; among other things I also made:

I like rosé for its sweet, fruity taste. You may use your favorite red or white wine. I added freshly sliced lime, orange, peaches and strawberries. Mix in a pitcher or punch bowl, chill overnight. Can add sugar, Grand Marnier or Agave nectar/honey.

Mini mushroom sandwich: For the sandwich filling, I minced white button mushroom and sauteed in olive oil, finely diced celery, ground pepper and mayo. Best served with your favorite ketchup.

Baked Roma tomatoes stuffed with minced chicken , eggs, herbs and spices (mint, cilantro, green chilies, onions, garlic, ginger, pepper, coriander, cumin). You need to lightly saute the filling first, stuff the tomatoes and bake till done. Brush the tomatoes with olive oil. You can add grated cheese before serving and use mint leaves for garnish.

Bengali ghugni (using yellow vatana)

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.