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Salty things

Bengali Puffed Rice Salad

My parents-in-law always keep a big jar with puffed rice in their storage and almost every afternoon they fill a little bowl with it and have it with their 5 o’clock tea. Also in other bengali households you’ll always find a jar filled with muri. For breakfast you can eat it together with dahi (indian jogurth) and juicy mangos (which tastes great!), poor people have it instead of a meal and if you you are a hungry in between you’ll always find a jhal-muri-wallah somewhere, a spicy-puffed-rice-seller.

He’ll quickly mix a handful of puffed rice with several other ingredients and you suddenly have the most amazing snack – a salty, crunchy, spicy, fresh salad which offers a new taste with every bite.

If you got puffed rice at home, you are easily able to mix up this fantastic snack in no time. Just eat it quickly so the rice doesn’t get soggy.

gepuffter reis salat indisch
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Puffed Rice Salad

A light snack, enough for 2 people.

Ingredients

Wet ingredients:

  • 1/4 onion
  • 1/2 tomato
  • 1 small piece cucmber (5cm)
  • a few sprigs coriander
  • 1 tablespoon raisins or pomegranate seeds (optional)

Dry Ingredients:

  • 1 small handfull salted chips
  • 1 cup puffed rice 
  • 1 tablespoon roasted peanuts
  • 1/4 teaspoon saltTL Salz
  • 1/4 teaspoon garam masala

Dressing:

  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon mustard oil

Instructions

In case the puffed rice is not crispy anymore you should lightly roast it in a dry pan.

Then cut the onion, tomato and cucumber in small cubes. Wash the coriander leaves, pat it dry and cut it finely (I always use the whole coriander - leaves and stem).

Crush the chips by hand and mix them together with the puffed rice, peanuts, salt and garam masala.

Once you are ready to serve mix the dry with the wet ingredients and dressing. You should eat it immediately as the rice gets soggy quick.

Notes

In India we use Sev (a very fine deep fried lentil noodle) instead of potato chips. If you can get it somewhere you can use it instead of the chips.

Mustard oil gives the dish a particular savory aroma. If you don't get it, just leave it out (also I do believe it's worth buying a bottle of native mustard oil).

 

Roasted Dal with Winter Vegetables

bengali dal with winter vegetables

My mother didn’t like lentils and hence we never ate any type of dal at home. With 12 years I ate my first lentil dish at a friends house – a classic lentil stew with little sausages. It was fantastic and I can remember the flavour and pleasant texture till today. A few years later my palaestinian flatmate made me a bowl of hummus, I was baffled about the incredible good taste and it felt like the most exotic dish ever. In my present life we eat dal at least once a day. Pulses are one of the staple foods in India and there are many varieties and infinite ways to prepare them. In combination with rice or roti (flat bread) they form a perfect protein source which is important for the many vegetarians of the country.

The following recipe is a typical winter recipe from my husbands family in West Bengal. It’s very easy to prepare and the ingredient list is short, but it’s still incredible aromatic. Long time I actually didn’t understand why it tastes that good until my mother-in-law showed me how the lentils are roasted before cooking. Roasting develops are more deep, slightly nutty flavor and from an Ayurvedic point of view it helps to keep the body warm. In India most ingredients and dishes are qualified by there ability to either cool or warm the body and are eaten in the corresponding season. the vegetables added are traditionally cauliflower, carrots and peas which are all winter vegetables in India. The Dal is also tasty with other vegetables but the total amount should not be increased, otherwise it will get too mushy.

You’ll need yellow mung dal for the recipe, which is the peeled and halved mung bean. Like most bengali dishes it’s also cooked with cold pressed mustard oil, which is a spicy oil with a pungent mustard flavor. After heating it becomes more mild but imparts a very aromatic flavor to the dish. I absolutely love this oil and always carry a bottle when I travel to germany. It also has antiseptic and wound-healing properties and is used as a first aid for little wounds and rashes. It’s absolutely worth buying it!

indisches dal mit gemüse
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Roasted Dal with Winter Vegetables

For for 4 persons, serve with rice and maybe some other vegetable dish on the side.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mung dal
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 of a small cauliflower
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 tablespoon peas
  • 1 tomato
  • one 2 centimeter piece cinnamon bark (cassia)
  • 2 green cardamom pods, crushed
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 4 tablespoon mustard oil (or use a neutral flavored oil)
  • 2 green chillies (optional)

Instructions

First roast the dal on medium heat for a few minutes under continous stiring. It will change it's colour slightly and start to smell pleasantly nutty. Once it's done take it out of the hot pan and wash it under running water (works best in a sieve).

Drain the dal and add it to a pot wogether with the turmeric, salt and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and simmer it for around 20 minutes. The dal should be soft but the individual lentils should still hold their shape.

Meanwhile you can cut the vegetables - cauliflower into 2 cm pieces, the carrot in 1cm cubes and the tomato in fine pieces. Also keep the peas ready.

Heat the oil in a pan, kadai or wok. Once it's almost smoking add the carrot and cauliflower and fry for ca. 2 minutes. Then reduce the heat and add the cinnamon bark, cardamom pods and cumin. Roast till fragrant and be careful not to burn the cumin. Switch off the stove.

Once the dal is fully boiled add it to the spices and vegetables. Now you also add the tomato and peas and switch on the heat again. Simmer it for a few minutes till the vegetables are soft. If using, add the chillies now. Taste and season with salt and a little sugar.

If the dal is too stiff you can add a little hot water. The consistency should be like a thick soup.

Green dumplings

Peacocks screech in the bushes, the sun is hiding and an unpleasant cold is creeping in every corner. India can be a cold place, not as cold as Germany but the lack of heating and insulation makes our house an unpleasant place in winter. Warm clothes are helping, but to make me feel happier I need dumplings. I absolutely love them in any form and my favorite restaurant would be one where they only serve dumplings.

One of my favorite dumplings is the tyrolean spinach dumpling. They are choke full with vegetables and are a complete meal in itself, just add a bit of parmesan and brown butter on top and all is well. Apart from being super tasty they also offer the possibility to integrate a good amount of greens into your menu. Their simple base is the perfect canvas for all kind of greens and you can use whatever you have on hand – carrot tops, reddish tops, beetroot tops, purslane, dandelion, rocket, etc. Celebrate diversity and experiment with something different than good old spinach. As long as you steam them beforehand and press out excess moisture, not much can go wrong.

spinat

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Green dumplings

Enough for 4 persons as a main dish. Serve with some salad on the side.

Ingredients

  • 300 g stale breadrolls (ca. 3 pieces, I used whole wheat)
  • 200 ml milk
  • 500 gramm fresh spinach or other leavy greens
  • 1 onion
  • 1 teaspoon oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, mashed
  • 50 gramm parmesan, grated 
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon marjoram (optional)

For serving:

  • Butter
  • Grated parmesan
  • Black pepper

Instructions

Cut the breadrolls in fine slices. Warm the milk slightly and pour it evenly over the bread pieces. The mixture should rest around 10 minutes till the bread pieces have softened.

Clean the spinach/greens and blanch it in a pot with boiling water. Let the leaves cool, press out the water and cut them finely.

Chop the onion in small cubes and fry them slightly in a pan with some oil. Add the spinach/greens. Also add the mashed garlic. Fry for a few minutes and then let it cool down a bit.

Add the spinach mixture to the bread mixture, also add the eggs, cheese, flour, salt and pepper. Now mix everything gently with your hands. The bread pieces shouldn't loose their form completely.

Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil and then bring the temperature down to a simmer.

With slightly wet hands form a test dumpling the size of a golf ball and add it gently to the water. The water should simmer gently. When the dumpling comes up to the surface of the water let it boil for another 3 minutes, then it's ready. If the test dumpling is fine you can continue with forming the rest of the dough into dumplings and cooking them in the water. Don't overcrowd the pot.

If the dumpling falls apart add some more flour to the dough, if the dumpling is to hard add some breadcrumbs.

When all dumplings are cooked you can heat some butter in a pan and fry them a bit all around. It's not necessary, but I like it that way better.

Serve with more browned butter and grated parmesan cheese.