Anniversary of father-in-law’s death – twelve years since he passed away. Big ‘hokaam’ was being held in Dibrugarh by mother-in-law and the ‘children’, apart from husband. By the time our family had woken up and got ready, rituals in Dibrugarh were over!!
Quite a hectic day for me as the girls and I had returned from London late on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the car had to go in for a service and it was only on Wednesday afternoon that we could go shopping. Also, husband was working all day on Thursday and I knew that no help would be available. I was on my own!! Washing machine also decided to break down on Wednesday afternoon. Feeling rather jinxed – it seems that every time we invite friends, some household disaster inevitably takes place. Could do with an ‘ESC’ button in my life – then I could start all over again from scratch.
Eight-thirty and still waiting for one more family to turn up. Rang the Chahal family and they had forgotten about the dinner – thought it was at the weekend!! Anyway, they arrived half an hour later while the starter plates were just being cleared up and the main meal was being organized. Phew!!
Turkey koftas with tomato and prune ‘tok’
Since we last made meatballs in a Spanish style tapas starter in March and which was devoured by the teenagers as well as the adults, I thought that it was time for a new twist. In our household, the only time we seem to consume turkey is around Christmas. Turkey mince is widely available in supermarkets and though not free range, I still felt that it would be good to give it a try. So turkey meatballs it was going to be. All who ate thought it was lamb! The turkey meat was dark, hence the conclusion of several diners.
Ingredients
500 grams turkey mince
handful of fresh coriander – chopped finely
1 egg
4 cloves of fresh garlic –finely chopped or pureed with a little salt in a mortar and pestle
1 tbsp freshly ground coriander
1 tbsp home made garam masala
Oil for deep frying
- Mix the mince with the other ingredients and let it ‘marinate’ for a few hours so that the flavours of the spices can develop.
- Make golf balls sized meatballs and deep fry for a few minutes until the meatballs change colour. Drain and serve while still warm with the ‘tok’.
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Gingered Fresh tomato relish with prunes
Tomato tok with prunes
In the Turkish shop in Welling, London, I bought a whole crate of vine tomatoes – a real glut of tomatoes which needed to be used up. I thought that the sweet, salty, sour and hot flavour of the relish would be ideal company for the turkey meatballs. Indo-Spanish, Indo-Mediterranean – seems to me that most cuisines have some sort of meatballs and some serve in a tomato sauce. Also had some Agen prunes from France. They needed using up too. So here is the birth of an Assamese style twist to this tomato relish for the turkey meatballs or kofta.
Ingredients
1 kg Vine ripened tomatoes, roughly chopped into 1 cm pieces
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp kalonji (nigella seeds)
2cm piece of fresh ginger, julienned or grated
1 tsp crushed chillies or more
1 tsp salt
1 cup gur or ½ - 1 cup dark brown sugar (to taste! depending on sweetness of tomatoes)
200 grams prunes
Method
- 1. Heat the oil over a medium heat. Once it is hot, add the nigella seeds and then follow it with the ginger. Let it sputter for a few seconds and then add the crushed chillies. Do not let it fry for too long otherwise the fumes from the chillies can be a real killer with its vapours.
- 2. Add the tomatoes and the salt. Bring it to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. The tomatoes will have softened and also leaked out their juices. Do not worry if the mixture looks watery. Once the sweetener is added, the mixture will thicken and will look more jammy.
- 3. Add the gur or sugar and the prunes. Simmer for another ten minutes or so. Taste the relish and add more sugar or chillies if required.
- 4. Remove to a serving dish. The prunes will plump up as the mixture stands.
Any leftovers tastes delicious with puris or chapattis.
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Deep fried anchovies tapas style with fresh lemons and mayonnaise
Went to a Bangladeshi shop in Plumstead, London, over the weekend and though they had a good selection of frozen Indian freshwater river fish, I am rather suspicious of their stock – stock tends to be re-frozen after being thawed and and so it is not always of the best quality. In a Turkish shop in Welling in London, I found frozen anchovies, sardines and herrings! Would have preferred whitebait but last time I tried to order whitebait through a well-known supermarket for dinner with friends, the order was so messed up that I was reluctant about ordering and also it was too late for me to place the order. So anchovies it was. No problem for starters then.
The pack of 1 kg anchovies was more than enough for twelve and all with generous appetites. I think the starters was a slight overkill with so much fish.
Ingredients
1 kg anchovies, defrosted if frozen
oil for deep frying
plain flour seasoned with salt and creole seasoning
some milk
lemon quarters
mayonnaise
Method
- Dip a handful of anchovies in the milk first and then immediately into the seasoned flour. This first dunking in milk helps the flour to somewhat coat the fish lightly. Toss the fish around for a few seconds and then gently lower them in to the hot oil.
- Fry for a few minutes – until the fish curl up and are crisp. This ensures crunchy bites. Drain onto kitchen towels and then serve immediately with lemon quarters and mayonnaise.
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Sundal with Granny Smith apples
Do not use tinned chickpeas. Freshly soaked and cooked chickpeas have the texture that this dish demands.
Ingredients
250 grams chickpeas, soaked overnight and then cooked until soft but not falling apart
½ fresh fresh coconut, grated or chopped into small bits
1 Granny smith apple
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
few curry leaves
1 tsp urad daal
2 dried red chillies, whole
2 green chillies, chopped finely
salt to taste
Method
- Heat the oil in a pan till it is smoking hot.
- Lower the heat and add the mustard seeds. Cover with a lid – mustard seeds can jump high and they hiss and spit! Once the seeds stop spluttering, add the curry leaves and the urad daal.
- Fry the mixture for a few seconds until he urad daal grains are golden brown in colour.
- Add the chopped chillies and stir the mixture around.
- Add the chickpeas and toss them around until they are coated with the seeds. Take off the heat, add the coconut and salt to taste.
- Once the mixture has cooled, add the chopped apples and serve at room temperature.
Cooked apples are not desired.
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Still a lot of chickpeas and mung beans – soaked and waiting for something magic to transform them. A very Assamese style dish would suit the menu. But how does one cook a truly Assamese dish?
Just returned from shops with fresh sea bass. By now lunchtime was fast approaching and I did not have any dishes ready – apart from the dessert of ‘kalakand’ and ‘bhappa doi’. Girls were instructed to organise lunch themselves while I was getting ready to hit ‘panic’ button. Mum was supposed to have arrived in London from Gothenburg that afternoon and brother AB was collecting her from the airport. Rang her at two pm – luckily she was on her way home in the car. Instructions were given over the phone for the khar and the fish curry with spinach.
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Chickpea and mung bean ‘khar’
This very Assamese dish does require mustard oil to deliver that authentic kick with its pungency. Do source it – available in most ethnic shops with a Bangladeshi group nearby. The kol-khar can be replaced with bi-carbonate of soda without too much loss of flavour. Now in most Assamese villages, it is said that ‘khar’ should only be eaten in the daytime but unfortunately, lunch is such a hurried affair, that dinner-time is the only time that this dish can be enjoyed. The ‘khar’ is also the first course of a meal but we seem to enjoy it throughout the meal. Rohit, a Delhi-ite, certainly enjoyed this very earthy Assamese dish and so did younger daughter GG.
Every Assamese lady will debate about the correct way to cook khar – mother-in-law cooks khar differently as do my other aunts in Assam. I do not think there is any one correct way of cooking this very traditional dish – an artist interprets the dish according to the ‘palette’ available.
Ingredients
½ cup chick peas, soaked overnight
½ cup whole mung beans, soaked overnight
¼ cup chopped fresh coconut (just because I had some leftover)
2 cm piece of fresh ginger, crushed with mortar and pestle
2 tsp kol khar, or 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 green chilli, split in half
salt to taste
mustard oil
Method
- 1. Boil the chickpeas, mung beans and the crushed ginger together until tender.
- Add the kol-khar or bicarbonate of soda and the green chilli. Simmer for another five minutes.
- Add salt to taste.
- Transfer to a serving dish, drizzle in the mustard oil and let it coat the top of the ‘khar’. Just before serving, stir the mustard oil in.
warn diners about the large pieces of crushed ginger!! In case they are not used to the hidden fire of fresh ginger.
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Fish curry with spinach
I normally avoid cooking fish for various reasons. Scaling is a messy business and supermarket fish assistants are normally awful at this task. I hate the taste of cooked scales with a mouthful of delicious fish. Of course in Assam, the cleaning of fish would be meticulous – fear of sharp tongues and loss of a good customer ensure that fish will be the best.
I added a few dried ‘bogori’ – similar to sour cherries (ber in Hindi) - to the dish just because they were lying around in the kitchen and also wanted a slight tanginess to balance the taste.
Ingredients
2 fresh sea bass, filleted and fillets cut into smaller pieces (about 5cm pieces), or cut into steaks, head and bones reserved and left in big pieces
oil for shallow frying
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt or more to taste
1 tsp cumin seeds
fresh spinach, washed and chopped finely by hand for texture
1 green chilli, split in half
handful of washed and chopped fresh coriander leaves
handful of dried bogori (sour cherries) - optional
Method
- 1. Rub turmeric and salt all over the fish fillets/ steaks and let them ‘sit’ for an hour or two.
- Next, heat some oil in a sauté pan and pan fry the fish lightly for a few minutes on each side. Remove from the pan.
- To the same oil, add the fish heads and bones and fry them for a few minutes on each side. Remove and set aside.
- Add a tbsp of oil to the sauté pan. When the oil is hot, season it with the cumin seeds and the green chilli and let it sputter for just a few seconds.
- Add the spinach to the pan, stir it gently and let it collapse. Now add ½ litre of water, bring to the boil.
- Add the fish bones and simmer gently for about five minutes.
- Add the fish fillets and the bogori if using, and let it all simmer for another five minutes. Taste for seasoning.
- Remove from heat and ‘fish’ out the head and bones.
- Transfer to a serving dish and scatter the freshly chopped coriander over the top and serve hot.
The fish head and bones add flavour to the gravy. In England, the head and bones would be transformed into a stock first. My method combines a bit of the east and a bit of the west.
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