#Title

Grand summer meals
FISH POLAO
Ingredients
2 cups basmati rice
4 pieces rui or katla fish
2 tbsp chopped onions
1 tsp onion paste
1 tsp ginger paste
½ tsp garlic paste
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp garam masala powder
Pinch of saffron
10-12 raisins
10-12 nuts
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp curd
1 tbsp sugar
Salt to taste
5 tbsp white oil
4 cups water
Method
Wash rice, strain, and get it dried. Soak saffron in 1 tablespoon of warm milk or water. Mix ½ a teaspoon of ginger paste, curd, turmeric, salt, and chilli powder with rice. Marinate fish with turmeric, onion, garlic, and remaining ginger paste for 20 minutes.
Fry fish pieces and keep aside. Heat oil in a pan. Add bay leaf, fried onion, and garlic. Add rice, nuts, and raisins. Mix nicely.
Add water, cover, and cook over low heat. When water gets almost dried, arrange one layer of rice in a separate pan, put fried fish, top with another layer of rice, sprinkle saffron.
Cover and cook for 5 minutes over low heat. Remove from heat and serve hot.
CHICKEN KASUNDI
Ingredients
1 kg chicken
1 tbsp onion paste
2 tbsp chopped onions
1 tsp garlic paste
6-7 green chillies, or to taste
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 heaped tbsp kasundi
4 tbsp mustard oil
Salt to taste
Method
Cut chicken into medium pieces. Wash and marinate it with onion and garlic paste, turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon of oil, and salt for half an hour.
Heat oil in a pan. Fry chopped onion and 2-3 green chillies. Add marinated chicken, stir, put kasundi, and the remaining green chillies and cover.
Cook over medium heat till the meat becomes tender and gravy becomes a little dried. Pour raw mustard oil on top and serve hot with polao or paratha.
SHRIMP WITH POPPY SEED (CHINGRI POSTO CHOCHCHORI)
Ingredients
500g shrimp
2 potatoes, cubed (optional)
1 tbsp chopped onion
½ tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp poppy seed paste
2 tbsp scraped coconut
Sugar and salt, to taste
1 tsp green chilli paste
Mustard oil, as required
Method
Mix turmeric powder and salt with the fish. Heat oil in a pan. Put onion, fry for a while, add potatoes (if desired). Stir, add fish and cook over medium heat.
Mix poppy seed paste and chilli paste with water and pour over fish. Cook, add salt, sugar, and coconut. Mix all the ingredients together, add little water, cover and cook for some time. Remove from heat and serve with rice.
CHHANAR JILAPI
Ingredients
500g chhana
150g semolina
150g flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup milk
5 cup sugar
4 cups water
2 cardamom
White oil, for frying
Method
Heat water, sugar, and make a thin syrup. Mix semolina with water. Mix flour and baking soda together. Mix flour, chhana, semolina and cardamom and make a dough. Take a little portion from the dough and roll it, and shape it like jilapi. Make all the jilapis, fry and put in sugar syrup for some time. Remove from syrup and keep in a separate bowl.
By Sharmila BasuThakur
Food and Photo: Sharmila BasuThakur
recipe