Amitabha's Kitchen Chronicles

Ingredients: 500 gm Lau (bottle gourd) 1 cup shrimps 4 large green chillis, slit 1 tbsp Cumin seed 1 Bay leaf 1 red chilly 1 tsp Turmeric powder 1 tsp Chili powder Salt and Sugar as per taste Garnish with chopped Coriander Method: - Peel and cut the pumpkin in very thin strips (Bengali style). Shell, Devein, Clean the shrimps. Sprinkle salt and turmeric and mix. Saute the prawns and keep it aside. In a pan add oil and heat it for sometime, then add the cumin seed, red chilly & bayleaf, when they turn brown, add the gourd, green chili, turmeric powder, salt and sugar. After frying for about 5 min till the gourd soften, add the shrimps. Cover the pan and let it cook under a low flame turning it once in a while. Once the gourd is well done, sprinkle a little maida and garnish with coriander and let it be on the flame for about 2 mins, stirring it all the while. Serve.

Ingredients: 3 cups large prawns, Shelled, Deveined, Cleaned 6 dry red chilies 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 3 tsp cumin seeds 1large pod garlic 1tbsp mustard seeds 3 large onions 1tsp Chili powder Oil accordingly Salt as per taste Garnish with chopped Coriander Method: - Grind together the chilis, cumin seeds, garlic, mustard seeds and onions. To this ground paste add turmeric powder and mix. Smear the ground paste on prawns. Heat oil in a pan and add the prawn mix, then add water and bring to boil. Serve with rice.

Ingredients: Marinade ½ Kg Chicken 8 tbsp Curd Salt 1 tsp Paprika 1 pod Garlic 4" Ginger Grind curd, garlic, ginger into smooth paste. Marinate the chicken in this mixture for ½ hrs, add the salt & paparika too. 3 tbsp Oil 2 Onions (ground to paste) 5 tbsp Butter 5 tbsp Tomato Puree 4 Green Chili (finely chopped) 2 tsp Chili Powder 2 tsp Garam Masala Powder Salt For Garnishing: Chopped Coriander Fried Cashew (Kaju) Egg- cut the hard boiled egg in circles Method: - After marinating cook the chicken in the same curd mixture till tender. When tender keep aside. In a pan add oil; fry the onions till the oil leaves the sides. Add butter, tomato puree, chopped chili, add the cooked chicken, chili powder, garam masala powder, salt (if required), cook for about 10 mins & garnish with the garnishing items.

Ingredient: 250 gm fish head 1 cup rice 2 onions, sliced lengthwise 2 green chili, slit into 2 5 cloves of garlic, sliced lengthwise 1/2 inch ginger, sliced lengthwise 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp chili powder whole garam masala: cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf 2 tomatoes, chopped finely oil accordingly 2 1/2 cups of water salt & sugar as per taste. Method: Heat oil in a deep pan, fry the fish and keep aside. In the same oil add whole garam masalas, onion, ginger, garlic and bay leaf. Then add the tomatoes and fry for 3 min. Add the rice, mix properly, then add turmeric powder, chili powder, cumin powder, salt & sugar and let it fry for some time. Then add the water to cook the rice at the same time add the fish pieces and garam masala and cover the pan till the rice is cooked.

Ingredient: 4 pieces of hilsa fish 1/2 cup mustard seed 1 tsp turmeric powder 8 green chili (slit into 4) 1 tsp onion seeds (kalo jeere) 1 onion (chopped finely) 1"ginger 4 garlic cloves 21/2 tsp curd (optional) (well-beaten) mustard oil 1 cup water salt Method: Wash & clean the fish, apply salt and turmeric powder, marinate for 30 mins. Soak the mustard seeds in water and Grind the mustard seeds, 4 green chilies and ginger-garlic into paste. I prefer using a little coconut alongwith the mustard as a paste. Mix the paste with curd and turmeric and salt. Heat oil in a deep pan, fry the fish, when it turns golden brown, keep aside. Add some more oil, add the onion seeds then the chopped onions and 2 slit green chilies, fry till the onions turn pink. Add the paste and fry for two minutes. Add water and let it boil for sometime, when you see the water boiling add in the fish and the rest slit green chilies. Let it the water dry under low heat and partially covered pan. Serve with ...

This is an old post and I recently realised that this was not the actual method that we follow. Thanks to The Knife , I refined the recipe and here it is. Ingredients: 6 pieces of rui or river carp, smeared in 1/2 a teaspoon turmeric powder, 1/2 teaspoon chilly powder + salt  Curd marinade - 100 g of curd + 1 teaspoon chilly powder + 1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin) powder + 1/2 tea spoon sugar + 1/2 tea spoon salt + 1 tbsp besan (bengal gram flour) - whipped together in a mixer grinder or beaten (stirred) hard with a spoon Gravy base - 1 onion - grated, 1 tea spoon of ginger paste + 1 teaspoon whole cumin (sada jeera), dry red chillies + 2, bay leaves (tej pata) 4 cloves, 4 cinnamon,1 cardamom Garnish - a spoon of finely chopped coriander and 2 split green chillies, a tea spoon of whole garam masala (crushed / pounded) Method: Fish: Medium fry the fish Put the fish in a microwave cooking bowl and pour the curd marinade on it. Keep it for at least half an hour so that,...

Ingredients: 1 whole crab 15 gm coriander seeds 15 gm red chillies 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp mustard 8 peppercorns 1 grated coconut 10 garlic 200 gm onions 100 gm tomatoes 1/2 cup coconut milk 1 sprig curry leaves 10 gm coriander leaves 25 ml coconut oil 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (powder) Salt to taste Procedure: Dry, roast all the items from 2 to 7 individually. Add 1/4th of the onions and garlic to the roasted items. Grind to a fine paste and keep it aside. Slice rest of the onions and chop the tomatoes. Clean and cut the crab into medium size pieces. Heat little coconut oil in a pan. Add onions and curry leaves. Fry till golden brown colour. Add tomatoes and cook further. Add the crab and saute it for some time. Add the ground masala and cook it. Finally add the coconut milk and simmer till the crab is cooked. Adjust the seasoning and finish with a pinch of fenugreek seed powder. Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves