Well, this is not a bengali dish. Maa learnt it from one of the aunties and we loved it at home, so she made it for dinner once in a while or when we had some guests over.

Cauliflower – 1 small 

Onion – 1 medium size & ginger – ¼ inch — make into a paste 

Tomato – 1 large or 2 small – cut into small pieces 

Haldi powder – ½ tsp 

Jeera powder – 1 tsp 

Dhania powder – 1 tsp 

Sugar – 1 tsp 

Salt to taste 

Small elaichi – 3-4 

Ghee – 2 tbsp 

Oil – 3 tbsp 

Procedure 

Cut the bottom of the cauliflower (not too close to the flower as the stem has to remain). Put oil in a pan. Once it is hot, add the cauliflower – the flower should be facing the oil. The flower side has to turn brown slightly. Fry the stem side lightly. Remove from pan and keep aside. 

Add a little more oil to the same pan if required and add the onion-ginger paste, haldi, tomato, jeera & Dhania powder and salt & sugar. Add a little water to the masala and fry well till the oil separates from the masala. Now, add the cauliflower to it, the flower side facing the masala. Add a little water, cover and cook on slow flame. The cauliflower will take some take some time to soften. Before removing from fire, add 1 tsp of ghee and the elaichi.  

This dish goes well with roti and pulao. 

4. Aloo posto with Chingri 

Learnt this dish from my mom-in-law who is a great cook. Aloo posto, at our household, was always “nirameesh” — as in, it was pure vegetarian — with no garlic or onion. However, at my in-laws, prawns with onion and garlic was added — it tasted awesome.

Aloo (potatoes) – 500 gms 

Posto (poppy seeds) – 100 gms. Soak this in water for 30 minutes and then grind to a coarse paste. 

Onion – 1 large – chopped 

Prawns – 250 gms, cleaned. Marinate it with salt and haldi for 15 minutes, fry lightly in oil and keep aside 

Sugar – 1 tsp 

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp 

Salt – to taste 

Haldi – 1 tsp 

Panch phoron – 1 tsp 

Oil – 3 tbsp 

Green chillies – 3, break each chilli in two pieces 

Procedure 

Put oil in a kadai. Once the oil heats up, add the panch phoron and chillies. When the chilli splutters, add the onion. Fry till the onion till it turns pink and add the potatoes. Fry the potatoes till they begin to change colour. Add the haldi, salt, sugar and red chilli powder. Fry for a few minutes and then add the posto. Stir well so that it does not stick to the bottom. Add very little water (1 tpsp) so that you can stir easily. Keep stirring till the posto begins to change colour. Add the prawns now. Stir once and then add ½ – ¾ cup water. Cover and cook till the potatoes soften. Remove from fire and serve immediately with hot plain rice.  Goes well with roti or paratha too.

Now, this is a dish which my mother learnt from one of the cooks who used to cook at home and also cooked during the “bada – khana” that was held in the Regiment once in a while. This was usually served as a “snack” item along with drinks. 

Mutton Liver – 250 gms (you can also use half liver and half kidney) 

Onion – 2 large – chopped finely 

Salt – to taste 

Pepper powder – 1 tsp 

Ginger – 1 ½ inch -chopped fine 

Garlic – 6 pcs – chopped fine 

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp 

Lemon juice of 1 lemon 

Green chillies – 2 – chopped fine 

Potatoes – 2 large – chopped into large bite sized pieces 

Oil 

Masala powder 

Whole jeera – 1 tsp 

Dry red chilli – 1 large (or more if you like it spicy) 

Tejpatta – 1 

Small elaichi (cardamom) – 3 

Roast the above in tawa and powder and keep aside 

Procedure 

Boil water in a pan with some salt. When it starts boiling, add the liver and for boil for 7-10 minutes (till the skin starts coming off). Cool, and remove the thin white skin from the liver (and kidney). Chop in bite size pieces. 

Add 2 tbsp of oil in a kadai. Fry the liver pieces lightly and keep aside (don’t boil or fry too much as otherwise the liver will become hard). Add 1 tbsp oil in a kadai. Once it heats up, add the diced potatoes and fry lightly. Lower the flame, add some salt and fry till the potatoes soften. Remove from pan. 

Add 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add the chopped onion, garlic, ginger and chilli. Fry till the onion turns pink and the chopped ingredients have become soft. Then add the liver and potatoes and fry well for 5 minutes. Turn the mixture once in a while so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the masala powder, pepper powder and the lemon juice. Mix well and remove and serve immediately.  

This goes well with Paratha and dal too. 

Learnt this dish from my mom-in-law who is a great cook. Aloo posto, at our household, was always “nirameesh” — as in, it was pure vegetarian — with no garlic or onion. However, at my in-laws, prawns with onion and garlic was added — it tasted awesome.

Aloo (potatoes) – 500 gms 

Posto (poppy seeds) – 100 gms. Soak this in water for 30 minutes and then grind to a coarse paste. 

Onion – 1 large – chopped 

Chingri (Prawns) – Medium sized, 250 gms, cleaned. Marinate it with salt and haldi for 15 minutes, fry lightly in oil and keep aside 

Sugar – 1 tsp 

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp 

Salt – to taste 

Haldi – 1 tsp 

Panch phoron – 1 tsp 

Oil – 3 tbsp 

Green chillies – 3, break each chilli in two pieces 

Procedure 

Put oil in a kadai. Once the oil heats up, add the panch phoron and chillies. When the chilli splutters, add the onion. Fry till the onion till it turns pink and add the potatoes. Fry the potatoes till they begin to change colour. Add the haldi, salt, sugar and red chilli powder. Fry for a few minutes and then add the posto. Stir well so that it does not stick to the bottom. Add very little water (1 tpsp) so that you can stir easily. Keep stirring till the posto begins to change colour. Add the prawns now. Stir once and then add ½ – ¾ cup water. Cover and cook till the potatoes soften. Remove from fire and serve immediately with hot plain rice.  

Mutton biryani 

One of baba’s friends had come visiting us when we were Jabalpur. Maa had to cook up a lunch quickly and aunty had taught maa a “short-cut” mutton biryani. This is more like a mutton pulao, I think.  Maa had learnt this quite well and she used to make this quite often as my sister and I loved this and so did our friends who visited us – this was a common non-veg items at home for any birthday party. 

Mutton – ½ kg- cleaned, and kept aside 

Rice – ½ kg (2 cups), clean with water well, remove the water and spread in a large plate to dry.  

Potatoes – 3 to 4 large, cut in half. Mix a little bit with salt. Fry in oil and fry in oil lightly (should not become brown. Remove from oil as the potatoes change colour and become lighter) 

Onion – 2 large – sliced finely 

Ginger – 1 inch, chopped finely 

Garlic – 6-7 pieces 

Peppercorns – 6-7 

Green chillies – 4-5, sliced in half 

Elaichi – 4 

Laung – 1 

Cinnamon – 1-inch pieces, broken in 2-4 pcs 

Salt to taste 

Vinegar – 1 tpsp 

Ghee – 4 tpsp (can mix half ghee and oil, if you don’t want to use only ghee) 

Mettha attar – 5-6 drops or kewra water – 1 tbsp 

Procedure 

Pressure cook the meat with water (4 cups) with salt and vinegar for 7-9 minutes. Separate the meat from the stock. Keep both.  

Take ghee in a large deep and thick bottomed vessel. When it heats up add the pepper corn, elaichi, laung, cinnamon and green chillies. As it starts spluttering, add the onion, ginger and garlic. Fry till the onion turn pink (it should not burn as then it spoils the flavour). Add the boiled mutton (without water) and fry for a few minutes. Add the rice and fry again for a few minutes. Stir constantly so that it does not stick to the pan. Add the potatoes and stir again. Now add 3.5 cups of stock to the rice and add the mettha attar or kewra water. Cover with a thick lid, seal the side with atta or put some heavy weight on top of the lid. Cook this on low flame for 20 minutes 

Note: If you fear that the bottom is not too thick and the rice can burn at the bottom, then, after 10 minutes of adding the water, put a tawa on the gas and once it heats up, put the vessel containing the biryani on top of this. Let it remain like this for 15 minutes. Remove from fire, uncover, add a tsp of ghee and serve immediately with onion raita. 

Onion Raita 

Maa always made the mutton biryani with this onion raita. And if the mood and weather was good, then there was devilled eggs (egg devil, we called them) too.

Curd – one cup (use hung curd if possible). Beat till smooth 

Salt to taste 

Red chilli powder – ½ tea sp 

Onion – 2 medium sized, thinly sliced.  

One tsp – white oil 

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp 

Procedure 

Mix the onion with the curd along with salt and red chilli powder. Heat the oil and season with mustard seeds. Once it starts spluttering, put this on the curd mixture and serve immediately. Goes well with any biryani 

1 ¼ cup coriander leaves, without any stem, washed 

Garlic – 2-4 pcs 

Rice – 1 cup, washed and kept aside 

Green chillies -2 

Salt to taste 

Sugar – ½ tsp 

Oil – 2 tb sp 

Water – 2 cups 

Prawns or paneer (150 gms) – optional — Fry the prawns and keep aside. If adding paneer, chop in small pcs, fry lightly and keep aside.  

Procedure 

Make a paste of the coriander leaves, garlic and green chillies. Add the sugar and salt to this paste. Mix the washed rice with this paste.  

Put the oil in a thick flat bottomed pan. Put the rice (already mixed with the paste) and fry till the raw smell of the coriander goes and it begins to change colour and become dark green. Stir constantly so that the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan when the rice is being fried. Add the prawn or paneer here if you want to add either of them (do not add both – use either prawn or paneer). Then add the water. Once the water starts boiling, flower the flame, cover and cook till soft. Serve immediately.                 

Mutton keema – ½ kg 

Onion – ½ – to marinate 

Onion – 2, chopped finely (for frying) 

Onion 2 – chopped finely (to be added to the cooked keema) 

Garlic – 8 pcs 

Ginger – 1 inch 

Garam Masala powder – 1 ½ tsp 

Dhania powder – 2 tsp – dry roast on tawa and cool 

Jeera powder – 2 tsp – dry roast on tawa and cool 

Red chilli powder – 1 ½ tsp 

Green chillies – 5, washed and chopped 

Corriander leaves, 2 tbsp – washed and chopped 

Pudina leaves – 10-12 leaves, washed and chopped 

Dry papaya – 2-3 pcs of 1 inch each 

Salt to taste 

Besan – 2 tbsp, dry roast in a tawa and cool. 

Procedure 

Make a paste of dry papaya, ½ onion, ginger, garlic and salt. Mix this paste with the keema and marinate for 1 hour. 

Put 2 tbsp of oil in kadai. Add the chopped onion and fry well. Add the keema in this and fry till it is dry. Remove from fire and cool. Now add the roasted besan, dhania and jeera powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, chopped onion, chopped green chilies, chopped coriander and mint leaves to the cooked keema and mix well.  

Put little oil ( ½ tsp) in a non stick pan. Make small patties of the keema and fry in the pan. Serve hot with some mint chutney. 

Jhenge (ridge gourd) – ½ kg (make sure you do not use bitter ridge gourds). Cut into large chunks with leave a little skin on. 

Mustard seeds – 1 tbsp heaped (in Bengal, you get a yellow coloured and a black coloured mustard seeds. I like to use both of them in a 50:50 ratio good flavour and slightly less pungency)  

Coconut, fresh & grated – 2 ½ tbsp 

Green chillies – 3 (you can use less or more depending on how hot you like it. I usually use 1 especially if the chillies are hot in the paste) 

Oil – 2 ½ tb sp 

Mustard oil – ½ tsp (optional) – add if you like the mustard oil flavour.  

Kalajeera (kalonji) – ½ tsp, and 1 green chilli (broken into 2) as phoron (seasoning) 

Haldi – ½ tsp 

Salt to taste 

Procedure 

Soak the mustard for 10-15 minutes. Grind the mustard with the coconut and green chillies into a fine paste. Add a little bit of haldi to this and around 2 tbsp of water to this paste and keep aside.  

Put oil in a kadai. When it heats up, add the seasoning. Add the jhenge. Add the haldi and the salt. When the jhenge become a little soft, it will also give out some water, add the mustard paste. Cook in medium heat till the water evaporates and oil starts leaving the sides.  

You can add a ½ tsp on mustard oil on top, mix and then remove from fire. 

Have this with plain white rice.  

Mutton – ½ kg – cut in ½ – ¾ inch pieces, cleaned and kept aside 

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp 

Green chilies – 2-3 

Ginger – ½ inch piece 

Curry leaves – 1 sprig 

Oil – 2-3 tbsp 

Coconut – ¼, cut into thin strips 

Salt to taste 

Water – 2-3 cups 

Seasoning  

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp 

Onion – ½, sliced thinly 

Spices to be roasted and then powdered 

Corriander seeds – 1 tbsp 

Red chillies – 3-4 

Peppercorn – 6-8 

Cummin Seeds – ¼ tsp 

Cinnamon – ¾ inch  

Cloves – 2-3 

Ajwain – ½ tsp 

Garlic – 4-6 cloves 

Onion – 1 small, chopped 

Procedure 

Rub the coconut strips with a little salt and turmeric and fry till golden brown in oil. Keep this oil aside.  

Mix the meat with the ground masala as well as the fried coconut pieces and keep aside for 30 mins. 

Add water, salt, curry leaves, sliced green chilies, turmeric and ginger to the meat. Mix well. Cover and cook on very slow fire till meat is tender and the gravy dry. Or, pressure cook the meat till soft and then dry.  

Heat oil in a Kadai. Add the seasoning of mustard seeds and sliced onion. Add the cooked meat and fry until oil comes from the side. Care should be taken not to burn the masala. This is a dry dish. 

Goes well with plain rice and sambhar.