Narasingha Diya Masor jool

Since last evening I was craving for a typical Assamese fish preparation called Narasigha Masor Jool / Fish curry with Curry leaves. We all know what health benefits curry leaves carry within them. Back home, this fish curry used to be a special one; not very regularly cooked like the other tangy preparation or Masor tenga. But atleast once in a month this was made specially if anyone was unwell and was suffering from loss of appetite. We in Assam eat river fish. So this is also made with river fishes.

Here it goes :

Ingredients 

A bunch of tender curry leaves / Narasingha paat ( in Assamese)
Few fish pieces ( I cooked Katla / 3 pieces)
One boiled Potato ( optional)
Turmeric ( To marinate and to put into the curry)
Salt ( To marinate and to put into the curry)
Half tea spoon of mustard seeds
One teaspoon of black pepper powder.
Mustard oil 

Method

Wash the fish pieces and add turmeric and salt and keep aside for 10 minutes. Wash the curry leaves and grind them. I remember while growing up there were a pair of mortar and pestle at home and curry leaves were ground using these. But now it's the job of a grinder. 

Half fry the fish pieces in mustard oil and keep aside. Add one table spoon of mustard oil into a kadahi / vessel. When the oil gets hot, splutter some mustard seeds. Add little turmeric and salt as per taste. Pour the ground curry leaves paste. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Coarsely mash the boiled potato and add into the curry leaves at this stage. As everything gets mixed well, add 2 cups of hot water. Bring this curry to boil. Add the fish pieces now and sprinkle a teaspoon of black pepper powder. Let the fish curry boil for 6-7 minutes. 



Serve hot with steamed rice.

While the curry was boiling, the aroma of the curry leaves filled the kitchen and transporting me back to my childhood. This was the aroma of afternoons at home on school holidays. Why did I grow up!

Raw Mango with Masoor Daal

A long weekend comes and it brings my urge to experiment in the kitchen. That's actually not unusual these days as I have been doing that quite often. But I have become very lazy when it comes to update my kitchen stories or any stories in the blog. But this one I would like to share.

The King of fruits aka Mango is back! So does summer and scorching heat. In our society there are 2 big mango trees and each year we get some raw mangoes at this time around. By we, I mean each of the flats. So the first  2 raw mangoes of the season were promptly turned into a pickle.

Since we still had few raw mangoes with us, we decided to have them before they soiled. So today I decided o make a tangy daal cooked with raw mango. I am sure many parts of our country will have variations of this. But I followed the Bengali way which is called Kacha Aam Diye Daal.

Ingredients :

1 medium raw mango
1 cup masoor daal or chana daal ( I used masoor daal)
1 dried red chili
2 green chilies
Half tea spoon turmeric
Half tea spoon mustard seeds
2 table spoon mustard oil
Salt as per taste

Method :: 

Wash and soak the masoor daal for 10 minutes. Put the daal into a pressure cooker with water just to cover it, add salt and cook till one whistle. I do not prefer masoor daal to be over cooked and complete mushy. Hence I stopped at one whistle only. Peel and cut the mango into slices. Now open the pressure cooker, add mango pieces, green chillies and half tea spoon of turmeric. Close the lid again and cook for one more whistle. Release the pressure and open the lid immediately. You see, you can surely add the mango pieces in the first go itself. However this may turn the daal very tangy. Hence I followed this method. This is what I have learnt from my Bengali friends who are some excellent cooks.

Now the tempering. Heat mustard oil in a pan / kadahi. Add mustard seeds and the red chili. As the mustard seeds splutter, pour the daal into this. Mix everything with a saddle and let the daal boil for about 6-7 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Kacha Aam diye daal with Bhaat