Amitabha's Kitchen Chronicles

During our monthly grocery stock replenishment, we generally pick up a pack of the frozen Basa fish pieces. This generally comes in handy to make a nice oriental sauce based dish with noodles / fried rice during the weekends or when someone is home for dinner. One of my culinary guides had once advised that in a chinese / oriental restaurant, always preferably pick up a dish in a dark / black sauce and avoid the red sauce dishes since it is mainly based on red chilly paste. Also I have found dark / black sauce based dishes to be more tasty and tastier. This preference made me pick up a bottle of nice oyster sauce during my last trip to a SE Asian country and I had been wanting to make something out of it. And hence the dinner menu during the last weekend was fish stir fried in oyster sauce. The Ingredients: Basa Fish pieces Onions - I prefer cut into squares Green Pepper (to make it colourful you can also add red & yellow bell pepper) Red Chilly - Dried, bout 2-3, broken...

Ingredients: Filling: Sattu (roasted chickpea flour) Chopped Onions & ginger Green Chillies Chopped corriander leaves Mustard Oil (try using a little oil from any spicy pickle, preferably chilli / mango) Paratha Whole wheat flour 2 tbsp oil Salt Warm water Process: 1. Using the ingredients listed under "Paratha", make the dough. Add salt and the oil to the flour and mix it nicely to get a fine crumble texture. Add luke warm water and knead the dough to make it into a medium soft consistency. Divide the dough into equal portions for making the parathas 2. Filling: Mix all the ingredients under "Filling" and make a nice mix. Add a little warm water and mix to make a soft dough. Taste the mix for adjusting. 3. Take each roundel of the flour dough, make a cavity for the paratha filling. Stuff the filling and roll out into circular parathas. 4. Make the parathas on a non-stick flat pan (tawa) and serve hot with a dollop of ghee and p...

D (my better half) is a person who has always been avidly fond of anything in the genre of  bread. Our daughter has followed her mother partially, with her fondness for pizzas 😋. And under the "loving influence" of the leading ladies of the household, I have not been far away. And over the years of our experimenting and exploring food, I have come to having a weakness for the fresh, thin crust, wood fired pizzas and I seldom can stay away from trying out one if I come across a joint. During our last trip to Goa (Palolem), a journalist friend of mine, who also happens to be a specialist on the things gastronomic, suggested that I look out for a joint run by an old Italian gentleman and his family, and the pizzas are a must try. And all my friend could tell me was that there are two outlets, one at Majorda and the other at Palolem. After a good search and talking to a few locals, we discovered it on the penultimate day of the trip and we decided that the last dinner has to b...

Simple Banana & Coffee Cake In recent times, my wife D has been on a baking spree. From pizzas (flour to whole wheat versions) to varieties of cakes and muffins on demands of the younger lass at home. Of course, I had the privilege of enjoying the without cheese version. With the incoming weekend and post Pujo de-stressing in the works, thought let me also join in the baking spree. However, this was planned to be gifted for a friend visiting home. After sifting through various options, planned to bake a banana coffee cake. While most of the recipes are for various banana cakes, I worked in a bit of twist with coffee. Without doubt the proof of the pudding is in the eating and I am waiting for the feedback from the "consumers" :). The recipe is as captured below. Ingredients 1/2 cup butter 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 2 ripe bananas, mashed 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt Coffee: 2 tsps; mixed in 1/2 a cup of luke...

Paneer Dhaniya Kabab At our current home in the "Pune Rural" town of Talegaon Dabhade, one of the major attractions is the live barbecue arrangement (replete with charcoal, et al). And while preparing the meaty versions is the most common, vegetarian options are also a sought after dish, with some of our closest friends being vegetarians. In this pursuit, I recently made this barbecue of Dhaniya Paneer Kabab inspired by the famous chef Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe. In fact it turned out well and made me do a repeat after sometime. Ingredients Paneer cut into 1 inch cubes 500 grams Hung Curd 2 tablespoons Coriander seeds 1 tablespoons Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon Ginger 1 inch Garlic 3-4 cloves Fresh coriander leaves roughly chopped 1 cup Green chillies 2 Salt to taste Lemon 1 Extra virgin olive oil 5 tablespoons Cherry tomatoes - a few Onion cut into small square pieces Red, yellow &...

During my various meals at some of the exotic Bengali eateries as well as during conversations revolving around food, I used to often come across the mention of Chicken Dak Bungalow. Dak Bungalow, dak-house or dâk-bungalow was a government building in British India under Company Rule and the Raj. This dish has its origin in the way the chicken used to be cooked for the Sahibs with the limited resources and ingredients. The recipe I use is definitely not as simple as made in those bungalows :). I have made some changes and adaptations in the method and also added some processes learnt elsewhere. Readers may try this and let me know any feedback that you may have. Credit also goes to Poulami's food  blog Ingredients (serves 4-5 adults): Chicken : 800 gms - 1 kg (cut into medium size pieces) Potatoes: 4 / 5  medium size (a bit smaller size. I prefer using them whole) Egg: 4-5 (one for each) Onion: 2 large, sliced. Ginger: 2...

In pursuit of my hobby to cook, this year I made my first pickle - a typical Bengali mango pickle during the summers. A glimpse of the results. As a follow up to hone the skills further, had planned to make the North Indian vegetable pickle which is typically made during the winters. While I am not very fond of pickles, this is one pickle which I had been having since childhood and remains one of my most liked ones. I had the first taste of this pickle made by one of my maternal aunts staying in Delhi. My earlier attempt at making this pickle two winters back ended in a fiasco. Hence, this time I exercised extra caution. The fact that we have a nice open to the sky balcony helped further by ensuring good amount of sunlight for the 'solar cooking'. The recipe I followed is as follows: Ingredients: 1. Vegetables: Cauliflower, Radish and Carrot - 1 kg totally - about 300gm each of the radish and carrot - 500gms for the cauliflower because the stems will come off. I also added fres...