tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414201857878097332012-01-22T11:41:55.683-08:00SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-48041543645695113832008-04-14T20:41:00.000-07:002008-04-15T11:48:51.247-07:00

My last post was ages ago. It is sort of hard to figure out what I should write after an absence of nearly 7-8 months. Lately I have been making very quick and non-glamorous meals. Food blogging made me put on too much weight and I am not very serious about exercising. So there started this round of trying to cut rice from my diet. I realized the store bought rotis were incredibly oily and I was

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-51305715891490980652007-08-11T19:13:00.000-07:002007-08-12T08:15:17.884-07:00

On days I plan to make some chicken in he evening, I remove the chicken from the freezer, in the morning before I leave for work. By the time I am back home in the evening, it well thawed and ready for cooking. But lately, in my morning rush to get out of the houseafter getting my daughter ready, dropping her at daycare and still trying to reach office at a respectable time of the morning, I seem

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-13909590868500956512007-08-07T14:08:00.001-07:002007-08-07T15:27:03.914-07:00

I am always on the lookout for quick and easy dinner ideas I can make on weeknights for my family. I try to balanace some vegetable, some carbs and something non-veg - I don;t always manage, but that's the intention. I was really excited when I saw Mallugirl's Summer Express Cooking Event. Now I have a few ideas I could share, but most of all I am waiting to see the round up to get new ideas

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-83660285219247359102007-07-17T13:23:00.000-07:002007-08-16T13:59:54.631-07:00

Cooking has not been on my mind lately. I must admit that all I have been thinking of in the last few weeks is the release of the last Harry Potter book - The Deathly Hallows. My husband does not understand what this series has to captivate me so, he keeps harping on the fact that it's a'Kid's book for crying out loud' but I manage to ignore him compltely at such times :-)Back to the book, I

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-29559268293119504322007-06-16T22:51:00.000-07:002007-06-16T23:13:26.887-07:00

A family friend of ours goes fishing every summer. The other day, he called my husband as he had an exceptionally large number of catches. We being true to form fish loving Bengalis could not give up the chance to have fresh fish caught the same day. So we went to his house and brought back a couple of Shad fish. We were told it is a lot like Hilsa, but I was still amazed at how similar it

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-38932610298645872982007-05-31T22:00:00.000-07:002007-06-16T23:16:30.401-07:00

As a child I hated anything sweet. So much so, that whenever someone would offer me chocolates as a child I would politely thank them and hand it over to my mother or father (they both are major sweet lovers). People often commented on how odd it was, but I would steer clear of anything even slightly sweet. Give me some spicy samosas or chips over sugar anyday. That was then, not sure if

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-78980503488195757662007-05-17T13:18:00.000-07:002007-05-17T17:33:37.862-07:00

I have been having trouble with blogger lately. It would just not let me upload any photographs. Not being very blog-savvy, I have been struggling with this for a couple of weeks now. I haven’t figured out what is wrong but do find using firefox instead of IE allows me to at least post to my much-neglected blog. Bikeler jol-khabar or The Evening Snack on weekends had always been something to

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-67477314883831432352007-04-24T22:12:00.000-07:002007-05-14T19:16:32.668-07:00

I didn't think anyone but Indian's ate Potol(Bengali) or Parwal (Hindi), so I was quite surpised to find it even has an English name. A quick search on Google reveals that is called Pointed Gourd in English. Anyway, having grown up in Mumbai (it was called Bombay in those days), this has been a vegetable we rarely had at home. My father would complain the potol being sold in the vegetable market

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-26275042487045284262007-04-04T22:24:00.000-07:002007-04-04T22:40:14.041-07:00

Coriander Chicken, Cilantro Chicken, Dhania Chicken or Dhoney paatha chicken - what’s in a name? This is a recipe from my Choto Pishi (my father's youngest sister). She is an amazingly good cook and has quite a repertoire of recipes that are traditional and yet quite unusual. She loves to cook and a lot of her recipes involve many ingredients and many hours in the kitchen. When she learnt about

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-8763085072940112802007-03-26T10:02:00.000-07:002007-03-27T11:30:05.428-07:00

When I first found out about the AFAM event, I knew at once which fruit I was waiting for. That's right pineapple, so I could make the pineapple upside down cake! I had bookmarked the original recipe from the Betty Crocker Webpage and finally got round to making it! Without much ado, here is the recipe.Ingredients:1/4cup butter or margarine1/4 cup packed brown sugar1 can (8 oz) pineapple slices,

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-74111862492990065842007-03-23T22:22:00.000-07:002007-04-04T21:53:48.308-07:00

Eureka - I finally got it! I formulated "SJ's law of JFI participation". It goes somewhat like this… the more I use a JFI ingredient in my daily cooking, the more likely I am to miss the deadline for the event. Potatoes, I had like a dozen recipes I planned to make. So easy… and I missed the deadline completely. Tomatoes, again something I use in so many of my daily dishes and again here I am, it

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-16665126978764575682007-03-14T18:23:00.000-07:002007-03-14T22:05:33.227-07:00

I don't remember where I had pecan pie for the first time, but I do remember it was served piping hot with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream on the side and it was divine! Since pecan pie with vanilla ice cream has been a favorite dessert of mine. I make it often when I have friends over for dinner and it is a favorite of my friend V. In fact whenever we have a potluck and I ask what I should bring,

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-31555004697841393042007-03-05T10:12:00.000-08:002007-03-05T10:21:20.238-08:00

See more details of here and here. Thanks to Sandeepa for the image used here.

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-37264593807970769252007-02-28T11:17:00.000-08:002007-02-28T13:56:08.176-08:00

The last time tried Lasagna was a few years ago. I made the marinara sauce, the béchamel sauce, boiled the lasagna pasta, assembled the whole thing and baked it. In the end all my efforts were rewarded by a not-so-delicious-mush. I swore to never bother making lasagna again.It's been a while since that attempt and I came across this recipe at the Betty Crocker webpage. It had a good review and

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-28863522330978466042007-02-07T22:38:00.000-08:002007-05-17T13:30:18.815-07:00

I have been eyeing a few recipes from Sandeepa's blog - Bong Mom's Cookbook for a while now. Now as a rule of thumb, the more un-healthy something is, the more I like it. So baked breadrolls with just beet stuffing would be way too healthy for me :-) I added some potatoes to the mix and changed the masala slightly. The end result, though did not look as lovely as Sandeepa's tasted quite divine! I

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-88573016807631447332007-01-29T14:08:00.000-08:002007-01-29T20:15:32.292-08:00

When I heard that the next JFI ingredient selected by Rosie was ginger, I was thrilled, this one would be a breeze. I use ginger in most of my cooking. Be it daal, chole, rajma, chicken, mutton and most types of fish… it is easier for me list out the few dishes I make that do not use ginger! However, I thought it would be nice to try out something I had never made before.. Hmmm, maybe not so easy

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-87372420545011887102007-01-26T13:41:00.000-08:002007-01-26T13:53:51.734-08:00

My mother has made this recipe at home for as long as I can remember - and we have always called it "Marathi Capsicum". Maybe she learned it from one of her Maharashtrian friends, but I have a lot of Maharashtrian friends and have never had this at any of their homes. No matter where it originates from (for sure this is not a traditional Bengali recipe), it tastes delicious and is really simple

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-81096895001948351182007-01-17T12:39:00.000-08:002007-01-17T13:04:01.369-08:00

It is unusual to have snowfall in Portland - even in winter. It has been very cold the last week or so and I kept wishing for a "Snow Day". To me the Snow Day would be something like the Rain Day in of my school years. When I'd get ready for school on a rainy morning but then news would come about the roads being flooded and school being closed. This holiday was a like a surprise special treat!

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-70444167829077256912007-01-14T21:18:00.000-08:002007-04-13T22:05:08.103-07:00

I've tried a few recipes from Nita Mehta's vegetarian cook-books and have been pretty happy with the results. So on my last trip to India, when I saw one of her cookbooks with chicken recipes, I didn't think twice before picking one up for myself.Chicken Chettinad was the first recipe I tried. Of course I modified it quite a bit (modified some proportions and reduced the number of red chillies

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-44535533812783618072007-01-03T22:29:00.000-08:002007-01-15T09:44:44.151-08:00

The Bengali community in Portland was abuzz with the news that a middle eastern store had started selling Bengali fish!This would be the only store that sells good old Bangali maach, so I was quite excited. We had a Bangladeshi store a few years ago who stocked a pretty good variety of fish, but he seemed to have shut down. So I could hardly wait to go and buy some ilish for ourselves. It's been

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-48922877512044549002006-12-28T13:54:00.000-08:002007-01-03T22:50:54.861-08:00

Chingri Macher Malai Curry is a classic Bengali dish and is my husband's all-time favorite dish with jhinge posto being a close second. (I wish my food list was that simple. I would have trouble listing even my top 20 food items if asked!) Last weekend we were having some friends over for dinner and my husband suggested I make this as one of the items for our guests. Heck - he even offered to

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-80137846674309325272006-12-23T22:19:00.000-08:002006-12-27T22:17:54.592-08:00

It's the end of the year, deadlines looming large and work has been especially busy. On such days I really try to think of quick but healthy meals. I had already left the fish out in the morning to de-frost so it needed to be cooked and I had to supress the urge to sit on the couch and order a pizza delivery. In the traditional Bengali style I have seen at home fish is always deep fried first

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-42354094806235981492006-12-12T15:49:00.000-08:002007-01-29T20:15:59.269-08:00

No account of Bengali sweets is complete without "Mishti Doi" or sweet yoghurt. It is a must-have item on all auspicious occasions for Bengalis.Having grown up outside Bengal for most of my life, mishti doi has always been a special treat. (Till recently I don't think it was available in Bombay).... Something we would have only while visiting family in Bengal or Bihar.So when a friend gave me the

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641420185787809733.post-9500332387719341192006-12-12T14:58:00.000-08:002006-12-12T15:17:09.506-08:00

It's been a while that I have been surfing other people's food blogs and have always wanted to start one of my own. It would be really nice to have an archive of recipes, musings and reminiscences for my daughter…. but I'd keep putting it off….too many other things to do!!Then while I was surfing VKN's MyDhaba, I read about the "Feed a Hungry Child" Campaign. A very good cause and I was

SJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13064852967846506552noreply@blogger.com5