Two - in - one

On and off I have been cooking this year. So I pick two recipes to share for the year end summing up.

Winter Delight on your plate: delightful Bong style Fulkopir Shingara or Cauliflower fried pastries.

Winter was synonymous to cauliflower and peas in my childhood. Today it is mushrooms and broccoli but those anti - vegetable years these two dominated my list of favourites. There are many delicacies that the average Bangali cooks up with the winter specials, but growing up Mom's home made mouth watering winter goodie, Fulkopir Shingara was the "star" for me. And will always remain so. Now each winter I make them remembering her love and goodness in each action. Probably that's why she taught me how to make them, knowing some day she will be gone but every winter I will also make them as lovingly as she did.

Ever since I moved out of home, that's a long long time ago, I have made it a point to continue with the tradition. I just have to make them once a year. Doesn't matter if I am on a diet or not, but once a year this has to be a special treat for me. This time it was a special Diwali as Dad had come visiting me. Although I am still biased to Mom's version of it, but Dad still had praises for my version too, the doting Father that he is, so that works :) Now here is our house version of the fried pastry. 

Fulkopir shingara

Serves - 5 people roughly 16 pieces

Ingredients for the pastry -

All purpose flour or Maida - 300 gms

Refined oil or ghee - 50 ml for dough

Salt - to taste

Nigela or Carum seeds as you wish
Water to make a soft dough

Ingredients for the filling -

Cauliflower - 1 large, cut into florets, blanched or par-boiled
Peas, boiled, handful or 1/2 cup - optional
Potato - 1 large cut into small cubes
Ginger - 1/2 grated
Green chillies - 3 to 4 chopped fine
Cumin seeds - 1 and half teaspoon
Turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - to taste, (a little on the lower side as the pastry covering will also contain salt)
Refined oil - 2 to 3 teaspoons

Refined oil or ghee to deep fry - some like it fried in ghee but it becomes a bit too much for me. So I stick to refined oil.

First the dough - make a soft dough with by adding all the ingredients mentioned above. The trick is to add water slowly for the dough to come together while kneading. And in case in the end it feels that you need to add one teaspoon more for softening then use refined oil instead of water. The result is better. A little bit of water can ruin the dough, so be careful. Keep aside.

Next we make the filling as it needs to cool down to room temperature when you wrap the pastry.  

In a wok add the oil, add the cumin seeds, let it crackle, add the potatoes, salt, turmeric, cumin powder. Add cauliflower, peas, ginger and salt and cook it on low heat.

The filling is ready when the vegetables soften. Usually, the winter vegetables do not need water to soften and gentle slow cooking does the trick, but in case you think it needs a bit of water to tenderize do sprinkle some, but again not too much, just once or as needed.

Now roll the dough into balls and flatten them as shown above. Then roll them into thin round flat breads of roti, the Indian way.

Cut each rolled out roti into two semi-circles with the help of a knife as shown above. Now take one semi-circle and move one end towards the middle and lay over the other end to make a hollow cone. Spoon in one and a half spoons of the filling and close the top as neatly as possible making a triangular pastry as shown above. Mine definitely do not look as tantalizing as the halwais - I sued to watch the halwais make those pastries in awe near my home but am still far far away form their finesse. But mine taste amazing and better than the halwais that's for sure, so I am ok with the outcome. And once done packing all of them start deep frying them as french fries. Now the samosa or the shingara is ready to be served.

Now, how can I not mix the old with the new. If on one hand, I like all thing traditional, including food, but being the experience - junkie that I am, I need new inspirational stuff all the time. More so in my food. If one meal is good old paratha, the next one is bound to be oil free boiled vegetables or a smoothie. So, it is only expected that I should have found something new to integrate in my list this year. So, here is a "super-food," category recipe. from Baltisatan Ladakh. Its called Kisir.

Enchanting buckwheat fields of Turtuk

"Kisir" is a pancake. Eaten for breakfast with an omelette.

For the pancake batter add two table spoons of buckwheat powder, add salt and water and make a pancake. I added green chillies too as I am addicted to them. Make a plain omelette separately and layer one on top of the other. It is ready to serve. It is usually served with walnut puree.

Walnut puree recipe:

Add walnuts, roasted cumin seeds, green chillies and salt with little water. Now blend to a chutney or puree consistency, spread it over the pancake and dig in to it. Bon apetite!