[mongo_jones]

all,

you'll be glad to know that i took lots of pictures of many of the things i ate at home and in restaurants (usually to the consternation of family and friends) --both in process in the kitchen and in the final versions on the table. there's way too many of them to post on egullet, so i'm going to gradually upload them to a separate web-page, annotate them and then post a link here. those who've followed gautam and my exchanges on bengali food will be glad to know that i have pictures of most of the things i mentioned in that thread. give me a week or so to get organized.

regards,

mongo

[anil]

Awaiting with great enthu

[hillvalley]

Me too!

[BBhasin]

Great looking forward to it. Not a day over a week is permitted!!
Welcome home
Bhasin--

[docsconz]

Looking forward to it as well.

[Schielke]

Sweet!

[mongo_jones]

okay, so jet lag has me up at 3 and there's not a whole lot to do. here's the first batch of pictures. this is but the tip of the iceberg so check back frequently. see the bottom of the 4th paragraph of the introduction for design disclaimers:

http://home.comcast....iafoodpics.html

if you have any questions about these dishes feel free to ask. i will attempt to answer to the best of my ability--and then gautam and bong will hopefully provide much more detailed commentary.

[docsconz]

Interesting. Keep them coming.

[Monica Bhide]

Yum.. keep them coming. Welcome back

[mongo_jones]

the site has been updated with pictures from one more meal. in response to pleas from friends in other places i have doubled the picture size; the page looks less elegant but the food looks a lot better. let me know if this cripples your load time. and, yeah, if you're on a 800x600 monitor setting this will really look ugly.

dishes featured on the new update:

alu-kofir tarkari--the bengali version of alu-gobi
fishball curry
bhindi fry--fried okra

(edited to add: here's the url again for those too lazy to scroll up: http://home.comcast....iafoodpics.html )

This post has been edited by mongo_jones: 13 January 2004 - 08:18 AM

[AndrewM]

Mongo - thanks for doing this. Very educational and delicious looking!

[mongo_jones]

yet another update. pictures from a lunch featuring a couple of hardcore bengali fish dishes.

http://home.comcast....iafoodpics.html

at this point it should be evident to all how different this food is from what is served in the standard indian restaurant in the u.s. this fact is true not just of bengali food but pretty much the food of almost every state and cultural group in india other than north indian "mughlai" food. there are lots of experts on "indian" food who've never eaten this stuff let alone know how to cook it.

(edited to add: please let me know if the load time on this page is becoming unacceptably slow--i have a very fast connection, so can't tell; if so, i'll start a new page with the next set of pics.)

This post has been edited by mongo_jones: 14 January 2004 - 07:59 PM

[BBhasin]

Great pics mongo, I am going to do your version of the Gobi Mattar on the buffet this sunday even though adding water somehow did not appeal to my dear wife ( uncouth Punjabis I guess).
The fishball curry looked interesting too, would appriciate your mom's reciepe. In my home all the fishballs would be gone right after frying and none left for the curry.
Thanks again for an insight into Bengali home cooking.

[mongo_jones]

BBhasin, on Jan 15 2004, 05:52 AM, said:

Great pics mongo, I am going to do your version of the Gobi Mattar on the buffet this sunday even though adding water somehow did not appeal to my dear wife ( uncouth Punjabis I guess).
.

how'd this work out bhasin? if you did end up doing it, that is.

[BBhasin]

It turned out just great. even though i did not pre cook the cauliflower. The first batch ran out and in the second batch we added some roasted ground cumin for a different twist and that was pretty good too. I really like the simplicity of the reciepe. Now you should not complain that restaurants do not serve homestle food. This was from YOUR home.
take care
bhasin

[mongo_jones]

BBhasin, on Jan 19 2004, 03:45 PM, said:

I really like the simplicity of the reciepe.

i'll pass on the feedback to the concerned parties. now, where's my cut?

most bengali vegetable dishes are prepared in this simple manner--minimal spicing, let the vegetables do the work. after our trip my wife insists i start cutting down on the spicing in my cooking as well (i cook bengali food with a marked delhi accent).

[BBhasin]

mongo_jones, on Jan 19 2004, 04:17 PM, said:

BBhasin, on Jan 19 2004, 03:45 PM, said:

I really like the simplicity of the reciepe.

i'll pass on the feedback to the concerned parties. now, where's my cut?

Your cut.
Mongo PM me your address and I will mail you
1. Some garam masalla we make.
2. A spice blend for ' London Balti Chicken' along with the reciepe for you to try.
How's that?

[mongo_jones]

BBhasin, on Jan 19 2004, 05:47 PM, said:

Your cut.
Mongo PM me your address and I will mail you
1. Some garam masalla we make.
2. A spice blend for ' London Balti Chicken' along with the reciepe for you to try.
How's that?

that will work. look for p.m soon.

also this has inspired me to do another *cough* daily update of my trip pictures (been 5 days since the last update). any hour now.

[skchai]

Quote

lau (in hindi, lauki; in english, unknown) about to be chopped up for a classic bengali preparation

For what it's worth - here are some Hindi-English conversions for various members of the gourd family, from various sources. Don't know their names in Bengali. .

lauki = bottle gourd
torai = ridge gourd
chichinda = snake gourd
petha = ash gourd
karela = bitter gourd / melon

[bague25]

Mongo_jones

Please, please, can you post the shorshe tangra and shorshe illish recipes?

thanks

[Monica Bhide]

I second that!

Mongo -- what fish do you like here in the US?

[mongo_jones]

i usually cook my shorshe ilish by feel--so i'll write down the steps the next time i make it. which, of course, won't be with ilish since you don't get it here in boulder, co. however, if you live in los angeles or anywhere where there is a large bangladeshi/bengali population you should be able to track down a store that sells frozen ilish, and they'll even cut it up for you. alladin, on vermont between 1st and 2nd, in los angeles has excellent frozen ilish (as well as every other bengali/bangal fish).

in the meantime i'll try to hunt down my sister's microwave "bhapa" recipe--which, as i said on the pictures page, is really quite good.

as for fishes more readily found in the u.s: for the shorshe preparation i'd probably go with cod or something like that. definitely not with a firm, meaty fish. i also like making bengali fish dishes with mackerel (available easily and cheaply in korean and chinese groceries, and loaded with omega-3's) and sometimes catfish and tilapia.

as for the picture updates promised last night, they're coming.

[deliad]

mongo_jones, on Jan 20 2004, 03:59 PM, said:

i usually cook my shorshe ilish by feel--so i'll write down the steps the next time i make it. which, of course, won't be with ilish since you don't get it here in boulder, co. however, if you live in los angeles or anywhere where there is a large bangladeshi/bengali population you should be able to track down a store that sells frozen ilish, and they'll even cut it up for you. alladin, on vermont between 1st and 2nd, in los angeles has excellent frozen ilish (as well as every other bengali/bangal fish).

in the meantime i'll try to hunt down my sister's microwave "bhapa" recipe--which, as i said on the pictures page, is really quite good.

as for fishes more readily found in the u.s: for the shorshe preparation i'd probably go with cod or something like that. definitely not with a firm, meaty fish. i also like making bengali fish dishes with mackerel (available easily and cheaply in korean and chinese groceries, and loaded with omega-3's) and sometimes catfish and tilapia.

as for the picture updates promised last night, they're coming.

How about Pomfret. One of our local Indian stores here in Chantilly, VA sells frozen ones. I have never tried myself but can do that if there is good report.

Cheers!

[mongo_jones]

we buy frozen pomfret from a large korean store (komart) in aurora (a suburb of denver). it is usually excellent stuff. if you like i can post a recipe for a sweet and tangy pomfret preparation.

[Monica Bhide]

deliad, on Jan 20 2004, 04:33 PM, said:

Quote

How about Pomfret. One of our local Indian stores here in Chantilly, VA sells frozen ones. I have never tried myself but can do that if there is good report.

Cheers!

They are pretty good. I buy a lot of pomfret locally here in VA and its pre

How about Pomfret. One of our local Indian stores here in Chantilly, VA sells frozen ones. I have never tried myself but can do that if there is good report.

Cheers! [/quote]
They are pretty good. I buy a lot of pomfret locally here in VA and its pretty good

[deliad]

mongo_jones, on Jan 20 2004, 04:37 PM, said:

we buy frozen pomfret from a large korean store (komart) in aurora (a suburb of denver). it is usually excellent stuff. if you like i can post a recipe for a sweet and tangy pomfret preparation.

Sure.. Post away.

Thanks

[bong]

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, frozen Illish is available in quite a few Indian/Bangladeshi stores. A whole bunch of other "indian" fishes are also available.

If you don't have Illish available, you can substitute American Shad -- Illish and Shad are cousins in the fish family tree...

Here is how we cook our sorshe illish. You can use the same recipe to cook sorshe pomfret as well (pomfret, being a "sea-fish" is not very popular in Bengal, although personally I like it). I have the same problem as Mongo -- I cook this by feel, so I dont actually have a recipe.

Will wait for mongo's recipe so we can compare notes!

Preparing the fish:
--------------------
1) Clean illish by removing all the scales. You really need to remove all the scales.
(Tip: hold illish inside a large transparent plastic bag when removing scales -- that way you wont get scales all over your kitchen). Remove all fins. Remove gills. Preserve Illish head for other tasty preparations.
2) Cut illish in approx. 0.75 thick steaks. In some of the Bangladeshi stores over here, if you ask politely, or if you are in the store when they are not very busy, they will cut it for you. If not, you may have to cut it yourself. When I cut the illish myself, I find it easier to cut it while it is still frozen.
3) Remove the crud from the inside. Don't remove the eggs inside and throw them away! The eggs are delicious. You can separate out the eggs and keep them aside.
3) Illish is a big fish, so now you have to cut the steaks into smaller pieces. usually you make one cut that will separate the "back" side (called "gada" in Bengali) from the "belly" side. The back side will be a triangular piece. If this back side piece is too big, cut this further into half, producing two smaller triangles. The other part, which is the belly side, will be a triangular piece as well, but with a big hole in it (the hole is where the fish eggs were... in case the fish had eggs).
4) The back side tastes better, but is filled with lots more bones than the belly side.
5) Thaw out the fish pieces.
6) Rub all this fish pieces with a little bit of ground turmeric powder and salt and leave them to marinate for 10-15 minutes.

You can use a few of the pieces to make maach bhaja (recipe follows). Rest you can use to make sorshe illish. Maach bhaja goes well with rice and dal.

The deep frying oil is also delicious -- you can simply have some hot rice, mix in some salt and some of this left over deep frying oil and eat it like that.

Making maach bhaja (deep fried fish):
------------------------------------------
1) Heat enough mustard oil in a pan big enough to do deep frying.
2) The oil will start to smoke -- that's how you know its ready.
2) Fry the illish pieces -- depending on their size, it will take about 5-10 minutes. Don't overcook.

Making sorshe illish:
----------------------
1) Soak mustard seeds (I use 50% black and 50% white) in water for 10-15 minutes. Use more mustard seeds than you will need because its easier to grind more seeds.

2) In a blender, grind mustard seeds with enough water. I start with a relatively less water and slowly keep adding water as needed. The final consistency will be a bit more liquidy than Dijon mustard. Make sure that there are no whole seedss left over. In my blender, this process takes about 10 minutes. This will be your gravy. Don't forget to add a bit of salt and mix some more.

3) Heat a shallow pan with a little bit of mustard oil, over medium high heat. When oil starts to smoke, add in the illish fish pieces so they are in a single layer. After a minute or so, turn them over, and then add the mustard paste. Add some slit green chiles for some heat. Once the mustard paste starts boiling, the fish will take another minute or two and you are done.

Cooking the Illish eggs
--------------------------
1) remember the eggs you separated out? Clean them little bit under running water. Take care not to break them too much. Dry them.

2) Break them into abou 1-2 inch pieces, and then deep fry in the same oil that the illish maach was fried in.

3) Once done (3-4 minutes max), sprinkle some salt and they are delicious with dal.

Alternative recipe: You can mash up the eggs, mix with some salt, ground red chile powder, some chopped onions. Then form little 1-2 inch sized balls, and deep fry these balls.


Note:
-----
When cooking pomfret, dont use steaks. Instead:

1) Clean pomfret by removing fins etc.

3) Make 2 cuts:
* Cut just below the head to separate it from the body.
* Cut along the middle of the fish, accross. So you are now left with two sort of triangular looking pieces.
I personally don't like the head, so I throw it away. Some people cook with it.

3) Now you can cook the pomfret in a similar fashion to sorshe illish.

If you can't get pomfret, you can substitute pompano. pompano is bigger, so you might have to make a few more cuts to get the size right.

[ Edit: Corrected my mistyped belly-side/back-side definitions... and some other misc. typos]

This post has been edited by bong: 20 January 2004 - 09:24 PM

[mongo_jones]

finally an update: http://home.comcast....iafoodpics.html

added pictures from a few meals eaten outside the home, broke everything out into two pages, and fixed the chronology. if you've bookmarked the page you might want to clear your cache and load again to make sure you see the new stuff (some of which is nestled among the old stuff).

i probably have another update's worth of pictures left; and then there's a lot on my digicam that needs to be captured--both to fill in missing holes in some of these meals and in its own right. but don't hold your breath for that one.

[bong]

The new photos look quite good! BTW, you will be happy to know the same Saravana Bhavan you mention has a branch in the San Francisco Bay Area as well, not too far from where I live: http://www.saravanab...n.com/inter.htm

[FoodZealot]

mongo, thank you for your very informative pics and commentary.