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Presenting Bengal's beloved Tomato chutney or Chaatni as we bengalis say. It is a sweet chutney made by caramelizing tomatoes and garnished with dry fruits. It is generally eaten at the end of the meal unlike other Indian chutneys which are eaten simultaneously with other items. It is treated more like a dessert. A bengali thali is incomplete without this chaatni.

To make Chaatni you need :
About 6-7 tomatoes chopped
veg oil 1 tbsp
fennel seeds(mouri) half tsp
mustard seeds(shorshe) half tsp
green chilies or dried red chilies 2-3
Ginger paste a pinch
1 bay leaf
Sugar 9-12 tsp minimum or add more as per your desired sweetness
salt 1 tsp
Dry fruits like cashews, raisins and dates a handful
Lemon juice half tsp(optional)

Procedure:
1. Heat up 1 tbsp of oil and put in fennel seeds, mustard seeds, chilies,ginger paste and a bay leaf. When they start crackling, put in all the chopped tomatoes , add salt and cover for 5-10 minutes to soften the tomatoes.

2. Check the tomatoes and add sugar and stir occasionally to caramelize the tomatoes, the color will change. It will become bright red.

3. At the end, add the dry fruits and lemon juice, stir and your super yummy finger licking good tomato chaatni is ready.

Try this recipe and tell me how it was.
Thank you.

Here are few pictures of the Columbus Commons Holiday lights. It is beautiful. Lit daily 5-11 pm. For details check the official page.

The decoration is truly beautiful . The entire park has been decorated with lights and the huge Christmas tree is pretty with reindeer lighting at its foot. Trees decorated with icicles lighting looks enthralling. It is worth a visit.

Patishapta is a crepe filled with coconut and jaggery stuffing. It is a sweet dish and a winter special item in Bengal when we get fresh palm jaggery. Bengalis make different types of sweets(we say Pithe) with jaggery during this time like Patishapta, Dudh puli, sheddho pithe and so on.

To make the stuffing you need:
Grated coconut 1 and a half cup
jaggery 2 tbsp
milk half cup
Ghee 1 tbsp
Sweetened condensed milk half cup
suji or semolina 3 tsp

Procedure to make the tasty stuffing:
1.Heat up ghee on a pan, put all the grated coconut and stir for 2 minutes.
2.Pour half cup of milk and 2 tbsp of jaggery.
3.Stir until the jaggery has dissolved completely with the mixture.
4.Then add suji and stir simultaneously.
5.Add required sweentened condensed milk half cup or as much as your desired sweetness. Keep stiring till the mixture gets almost semi dry. Cool it for 2 hours , it will dry up more and become like this in the picture.

To make the batter for the crepes you need:

Rice flour 1 cup

Suji or semolina half cup

Normal flour or maida half cup

salt half tsp

warm water 2-3 cups

Procedure to make the crepes:

To make the batter: Mix all the dry ingredients with warm water into a smooth flowing batter and rest it for 15 minutes.

This amount of batter will make about 17-20 Patishaptas. If you want to make about 10 patishaptas , just cut down the quantites of the batter ingredients into half.

(For example: half cup rice flour+one fourth cups each of suji and maida mixed with a cup of warm water)

To make the crepes: When the batter is ready, pour a tbsp or two of the batter on the heated lightly greased preferably non stick frying pan. Spread the batter into a round shape and wait for a minute or two.
Put the stuffing on the middle of the crepe and fold.

Fold the crepe with a spatula or hands from both sides or just roll it in one side .Your Patishapta is ready.

Serve Patishapta hot or cooled. Hot is better!
You can also make these crepes and put no stuffing in it and serve it with molten palm jaggery.

Try this recipe and let me know how it was.
Thank you.

Every bengali get crazy for this one dish- Aloo posto.

Aloo means potato

Posto means Poppy seeds

It is very easy to make this dish.

Ingredients:

2-3 potatoes cut into small cubes

3-4 tsp of poppy seeds powder or paste

Salt, turmeric powder half tsp and Kashmiri chilli powder half tsp

Water 1 cup

Oil 2 tsp

Procedure:
1. Heat up oil and fry the potato cubes for 2-5 minutes. Add salt, turmeric powder half tsp and Kashmiri chilli powder half tsp. Stir for 2 minutes.

2. Add poppy seeds powder/paste and a cup of water and cover for 7-10 minutes.

3. Check if the potatoes are properly cooked and your Aloo posto is ready. Simple, quick and delicious.

Serve it with hot rice and Arhar/Urad daal.

To make arhar daal, Pressure cook 1 cup of dehusked black gram lentils for 5-6 whistles.

Heat up 1 tsp oil , add half tsp fennel seeds,1 dried red chili, a pinch of Asafoetida, a bayleaf . When they start crackling , pour in the boiled daal and add half tsp of turmeric powder and salt to taste. Mix well and let simmer for 5-7 minutes. Urad/Arhar/Biulir daal is ready.

Here is an easy recipe of making everyone's favorite

Chicken sweet Corn Soup. This is healthy as well as very tasty.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken cut into tiny pieces marinated 1 hour with a tsp each of sugar , flour and soy sauce.

Corn 1 cup

1 egg

Chicken broth(water will also do) 3-4 cups

Salt, pepper and sugar

Cornflour/flour slurry for thickening

Procedure:
1. Marinate the tiny pieces of boneless chicken for 1 hour with a tsp each of sugar, flour and soy sauce.

2. Boil chicken broth or water and put in the chicken pieces and corn in it ,add salt and pepper to taste.

3. When the chicken and corn is fully cooked ( or after 10 minutes) add cornflour/flour slurry (mix 2 tsp of cornflour/flour in one fourth cup of water) and stir the soup simultaneously. After 2 minutes,when the soup has thickened up, add 1 beaten egg in the soup and stir the soup simultaneously.

Your soup is ready. Serve hot.

Palak Paneer is a north Indian dish made with Paneer or indian cottage cheese in a spinach curry. It is very tasty and a great way to feed people spinach.

Ingredients:

Paneer 300 gm, spinach two handsful , onion-ginger-garlic course paste 2 tbsp, tomato puree 3 tbsp, cumin seeds half tsp, whole garam masalas, turmeric powder half tsp, cumin powder 1 tsp, coriander powder half tsp, chilli powder half tsp, a pinch of Kashuri methi, salt 1 tsp, sugar 2 tsp and ground garam masala 1 tsp, milk half cup,veg oil 2 tbsp, Butter at the end for extra rich taste(optional)

Procedure:

1. Blanch and cool of the spinach leaves.

2. Heat up 2 tbsp of oil and lightly fry the paneer cubes. Frying them more than 1 minute may make them stiff.

3.In the same remaining oil, Put whole garam masalas, cumin seeds. After 30 seconds put the onion-ginger-garlic paste and fry for about 5 minutes and add tomato puree and all the spices, kasuri methi and salt and sugar and keep stirring for 10 minutes.

4. Make a smooth paste of the blanched spinach like this.

5. Pour it in the masalas and mix. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes.

6. Finally, to make the gravy pour some water and half cup of milk. Also add the paneer now and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Now your palak paneer is ready. Serve it with Roti or naan. You can also use it as a stuffing for puffs and other dishes.

Easy and quick recipe of baked fish, very tasty and healthy.You can use any fish fillet to make this dish. I used Atlantic Salmon fillets. This is a very tasty and healthy dish and you can serve this as an appetizer or as a wholesome meal.

1. Arrange the fish fillets on a heavy duty aluminium foil . Cut the fish into thin fillets for the crisp crunchy texture.

2. Sprinkle turmeric powder half tsp, Kashmiri mirch powder 1 tsp, salt to taste and any fish fry masala or fried fish masala. I used Shan fried fish masala.You can also sprinkle little oil at this stage but its purely optional. No oil makes it healthy.