Nolen Gurer Chaaler Payesh .... Rice Pudding

A Bengali and Chaaler Payesh have an eternal connection....The first morsel of solid eaten by a Baby during Annoprashon (Rice Eating Ceremony), the first spoon eaten by the mother-to-be during Baby Shower or Shaadh, the Payesh on every birthday or Jonmodin are memories every true blue Bengali holds precious. 

And the Paayesh is made even more precious and tasty if its made of Nolen Gur (or the solidified version known as Patali Gur for the off season payesh)

Ingredients :
* Full Cream Milk - 2 litres 
* Gobindobhog rice / jeera rice / Basmati rice - 2 fistfuls (1 fistful or 'mutho' per litre i,e approx 45-50gm per litre)
* 2 tbsp of sugar
* Nolen Gur/Patali Gur (date palm jaggery) - approx 90-100gm (45-50gm per litre of milk)

Procedure :
1. Boil milk and reduce it to 3/4 of its original volume. 
2. In the meanwhile, wash rice, drain the water and dry it while the milk is being boiled
3. While stirring the milk, add the washed and dried rice and keep stirring gently till the rice cooks and the milk thickens. The milk should have reduced to 1/2 (i.e 1 litre) by now.
4. Add 2 tbsp of sugar after the rice has softened. An early addition of sugar will stop the rice from softening further.
5. Take the milk-rice mix off the flame. Soften the jaggery by microwaving/heating and add the softened jaggery into the rice-milk mix and . Mix well 
6. Cool it down ....delicious Gur flavoured Payesh is ready for the auspicious occasion.

Cream of Broccoli Almond Soup

Some left over broccoli which had turned yellowish and hence didnt want to use it for normal stir fry or in mix veggie dish preparation. So soup it was to cater to the kiddo tummies in the evening..

Ingredients :
Broccoli - I used 3/4 of a medium sized broccoli cut into medium sized florets
6-10 Garlic cloves chopped roughly
1 tej pata
Almonds - a handful...about 10-15..blanched, to ease the removal of skin
Salt
Rocksalt
Pepper corns ...freshly crushed
black Pepper powder
Chili flakes (optional)
grated Cheddar cheese
Milk - 3 cups
butter

Procedure :
1. Pressure cook the broccoli, chopped garlic with tej pata and a pinch of salt.
2. After blanching the almond in hot water, peel off the skin and saute the almonds in butter till golden brown
3. Now in a blender, make a paste of the pressure cooked broccoli-garlic and sauted almonds.
4. Heat butter and add crushed peppercorns to the heated butter. Fry for a few seconds and add the blended broccoli-garlic-almond. Cook on high heat till the raw flavour is eliminated.
5. Add milk and milk cream (malai/দুধের সব্র ). till it is of creamy & soupy consistency. Mix on high heat and lower the heat, cover and bring to a boil.
6. Adjust the salt by adding rock salt.
7. Sprinkle pepper powder, chili flakes (optional). Take it off the flame.
8. After pouring into soup bowls, garnish with grated cheddar cheese.

Serve this bowful of healthy goodness ....steaming hot...it's a meal by itself!

Malai Palak or Spinach in Milk Cream

A simple Palak recipe which tastes awesome with both rice & roti

DISCLAIMER : Quite unphotogenic to look at....but definitely delicious to eat!

Ingredients :8-10 bunches of Spinach / Palak / Palong Shaak
Garlic -5-6 cloves chopped fine
1 choppped Onions chopped
Tomatoes  - optional
Salt & Sugar to taste
Green chilies as per heat tolerance
Fresh Malai / Milk Cream / Doodher Shawr - 1 cup
Oil - 1 tsp

Procedure :
1. Wash the Palak leaves well, drain the water and chop.
2. In a kadai / wok, heat oil and add the chopped onions, chopped garlic and a pinch of sugar into the oil. Saute till the onions turn a translucent pink.
3. Add the washed & chopped Palak.
4. Cook with an occasional stir without lid to dry away the water.
5. Once the majority of the water has been vapourised off, add the malai / fresh milk cream / doodher shawr, followed by chopped green chilies.
6. Stir it around till the malai palak is moist but not watery. In case the need arises to drain off the last remnants of wateriness, sprinkle some atta (all purpose flour) on cooked Malai Palak and give it a stir.



The simple Malai Palak is ready to serve with steaming white rice.