With the Durga Puja in Bengal and other parts of the world ending a few days ago, here are a couple that will remind you of the Pujas

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Popular fish paturi in foil

Many of you must be familar with the popular fish paturi from Bengal cooked in banana leaves. This is a delicacy prepared with boneless fish fillet with a marination of mustard paste and mustard oil and which Bengalis rate very high in their favourite dishes. But what do you do if you do not have a banana tree in your vicinity. Such was the situation for us during Covid times. Since my Husband and I are both senior citizens and did not step out of our flat on the 7th floor, I had to find an alternative to steaming my fish paturi in banana leaves. My imagination set a rolling and see what I did.

To prepare the fish paturi

4-5 pieces of aluminium foil cut into 6 inches x 4 inch pieces – appropriately

4-5 fillet of fish – cut into rectangles of 2inches x 3inches approximately

Salt to taste

1 tsp turmeric – haldi powder

For the paste

3 tsps of mustard paste

Half tsp of green chillie paste

3-4 pinches of haldi powder

2 tbsps of desiccated or fresh coconut

2 pinches salt

3 tsps of mustard oil

2 tbsps of sour curd

To make the paste:

Beat the sour curd in a fairly large bowl. Mix in the green chillie paste, desiccated or fresh coconut, haldi powder. few pinches of salt and the mustard oil and blend together into a paste without any lumps.

Sprinkle salt and haldi powder on each of the fillets, turning once so that both sides are salted and have the haldi powder. Now use the paste to rub on both sides of each fillet. Take one piece of foil. Place one piece of coated fillet on the centre of the foil piece and fold from all four sides to form a parcel, Prepare all the parcels in this way. Prepare a steamer and steam the parcels for about 6-7 minutes. Fish takes very little time to cook, so 6-7 minutes should be great.

Variation: if you like spicy food, you can place a fresh green chilly on each of the marinated fillet pieces and then fold from all sides. Each parcel will then have one green chilliy.

Variation: if you don’t want to use a steamer, then another option is to place the parcels on a non-stick tava. You will need to heat the tava, add 1 tbsp of mustard oil and place parcels on the tava – 3-4 on the tava at one time. Place the tava on medium heat and allow the parcels to cook, turning once so that both sides are cooked.  In all the cooking process should take 5-6 minutes (turning once) Serve the paturis piping hot as a starter on a side dish. Enjoy the new style of cooking this delicacy.

Broken wheat dalia with veggies

I find this recipe, very healthy, quick to prepare and extremely tasty.

I have soaked the dalia – broken wheat for 3 hours, You need not do that. You can cook in a pressure cooker or a kadhai – only takes a bit longer and I don’t like it sticking to the bottom of the cooker if you cook it slightly more. I find it easier to soak the dalia in drinking water for 2-3 hours so that it becomes soft and cooks faster

1 cup of dalia – soaked in room temperature water for 2-3 hours

2 tbsps of oil

2 cups of assorted veggies which may include chopped beans, carrots, capsicums, broccoli , peas – all of these or a combination of whatever is available at home

1 chopped tomato,

1 chopped onion

2 chopped green chillies

Salt to taste

Half tsp of haldi powder

1 tsp of roasted jeeera powder

Half tsp of chopped garlic – this is optional

Few curry leaves if you have at home

To prepare the Broken wheat dalia with veggies

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add curry leaves if using. Mix in the garlic – if you are using. Lower the heat and add the chopped onions and fry till translucent. Increase the flame to medium and add the tomatoes. Saute for a minute and mix in the veggies and salt to taste. Cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Drain out all excess water from the dalia and add the soaked dalia to the veggies. Also, add 3 cups of lukewarm water and all the spices. Mix gently. Lower the heat and cover with a lid and cook on low fire, stirring once or twice till all water is soaked in. Taste to check for the salt. You may add 1 tbsps of ghee over this preparation if you like. You can avoid the ghee totally. Serve hot as a breakfast item. In fact, it serves well for a light wholesome dinner

Variation: you could garnish with coriander leaves and also fried peanuts.

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