A Bong's Kitchen

Since I hail from the state of West Bengal, probably one would imagine that I will choose a city from Bengal as my most favourite city if I was asked to name mine. Well, had I not been to Delhi ever and had I not stayed here for so long, I would have done just that. Kolkatta was definitely on my mind but then in the end, I followed my heart and yes, I confess my love for "Dilli" - the heart of India. It took me some time to get used to Delhi and its ways but there ws something in it that had caught my attention. I instantly felt connected with the city. I had probably already fallen in love with the city the moment I landed here. It only took me a few years to realise the love. Now I feel more at home here than anywhere else. I had never been outside of Bengal before my marriage and so was taken aback by the fast moving lifestyle in Delhi. Initially I felt very out of place in the city and of course it took me a few years to get adjusted to the ways of the Dilliwallahs. There are still a few things that I dislike about Delhi but the good things outweigh them.

Being the capital city of India, Delhi is literally the heart of India. It has been a thriving city for several centuries. It continues to be one of India's most important cultural, political and commercial centres. It has got a rich cultural history dating back to the times of Mahabharata to almost 3000 years. Delhi used to be known by the name of Indraprastha in those days. As per the epic, Indraprastha or "city of Indra" was built by the Pandava brothers on the banks of the river Yamuna and used to be their capital. Centuries later the Moghuls made the city their seat of power. Delhi has always been culturally diverse and even though several rulers ruled over the city - from the Mauryas to the Moghuls to the Britishers, but the city managed to retain the essence of each bygone era. The city is dotted with several monuments from the Moghul era but in the vicinity, you will also find modern infrastructure with world class amenities, befitting the image of a capital city.

It's said the current city Delhi was built and re-built many times (some say five times) by its rulers. Then again in 1911 when King George visited India, the British empire made Delhi as its capital. During his tenure, the city underwent several changes and saw significant infrastructural development - important buildings like parliament and public offices were built. New Delhi was designed by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker and was inaugurated in 1931 by Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy of India. Even to this day, the city continues to witness massive expansion, modernisation and redevelopment activities.

(Photo sourced from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Skyline_at_Rajiv_Chowk.JPG)

Teeming with a population of about 25 million, it is the second most populated city in India. It is situated on the banks of Yamuna and is surrounded by the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The city is the biggest and the most important commercial centre in North India and so almost every day, a huge number of people come from the bordering states to the capital looking for work. Be it educational and medical facilities or be it career opportunities, Delhi is indeed "the land of immense possibilities". They say that no one fails to get work and earn livelihood in the city.

(Photo sourced from http://www.naturalhighsafaris.com/cdn/cache/made/cdn/uploads/country_images/India/North/Delhi/India-Gate--Delhi-Photos2_940_529_80_s_c1.jpg )

Delhi is thoroughly connected to all parts of the country, be it by air or by road or by the Indian railway. The city has both domestic airports (two) and an International one - Indira Gandhi International Airport, which is said to be one of the busiest airports in Asia.Apart from the Indian railway network, Delhi also has a suburban railway system by which people from the city as well as from the neighbouring states travel to and from the city. It has five National Highways running through it - NH1, NH2, NH8, NH10 and NH24. DTC buses, autos and taxis and so also private RTB buses ply inside the city, thus connecting all parts of the city. Since 2002, the Delhi Metro has been the lifeline of Delhi. It has become one of the primary means of transportation in Delhi today and connects the cities to the neighbouring cities as well like Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad.
P.S. : Written for Tata Motors' Made of Great Zonal wars. You can also go to their website http://madeofgreat.tatamotors.com/ and know more about it.

It has been close to seven years now since I moved to Delhi from Siliguri after my marriage and though it took me some time to get adjusted to the new environment but I can now proudly say that I have pretty much succeeded in absorbing the way of living of the Delhiites.

To speak the truth, I was reluctant at first to leave my home state. I was actually pretty nervous, being apprehensive about whether I would be able to adjust at the new place. I had never moved out of my home state. We came over to Delhi only after a week of our marriage because my husband had to rejoin his duty. I was 23 then, I was young, naive and totally inexperienced. Not only was I going to stay miles away from my parents and in-laws, but also the fact that I had the added responsibility of setting up my new home at an absolutely new place and environment, was scaring me. I fumbled and made several mistakes. After my husband would leave for his office, I used to feel very lonely at home. I would miss my family very much and at times, felt miserable and helpless when I failed at something. That's when I found an extremely caring and a lovable mentor in Poonam aunty, our next-door neighbour. She came like a Godsend to me. She has always been there for me, like a mother would do. She would help me with advices and tips whenever I needed them. But the best thing of all is that, in all these years, she has benefitted me immensely by teaching me some quintessential Punjabi recipes - be it how to make kulcha or amritsari naan, or be it cholle and rajma; be it makki ki roti and sarson ka saag or desserts like gajar ka halwa and various barfis. Out of them all however, one sweet dish has always remained my favourite Punjabi dessert - Phirni. That was the first sweet dish that she had taught me and coincidentally phirni is her favourite as well. It's a very popular sweet dish in North India and is usually prepared during the festive occasions, especially during Karwa Chauth.

The other day while we were having our usual evening chat, somehow a passing mention of Phirni came up and that's when she told that she hasn't eaten it ever since she was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of months back. I was saddened to know that. But just then an idea struck me. I thought I could still make Phirni for poonam aunty by substituting sugar with Sugar free natura, which is an absolutely safe alternative to table sugar, even for the diabetes patients. It has no harmful effects and gives us the same sweetness as the normally available sugar but with negligible calories. It contains Sucralose and since it is highly heat stable, so it can be used for cooking and baking purposes without a worry. I wanted to surprise Poonam aunty by cooking phirni for her using Sugar Free Natura.


The recipe is quite simple and anyone can prepare it at home.

Ingredients:

Whole Milk, 1 Litre
Basmati rice 1/4 cup
Sugar free Natura, 1/2 cup
Saffron, 10-12 strands to soak in milk
Green Cardamoms, 3-4, crushed
Dry Nuts (Almonds, cashew nuts), 8-10 each

Method:

Taking 1/4th cup of basmati rice, first wash it thoroughly to clean it of all impurities and after draining out all water, spread the rice over a dry, clean muslin cloth or paper so that the rice dries up quickly.

After the rice grains have dried up, grind them into a somewhat coarse powder, it shouldn't be an absolutely fine powder, it should rather be a litle grainy, resembling semolina or suji. Now keep that aside.

Take the milk in a non-stick pan and bring it to boil, stirring it continuously, over medium heat. That should take about seven to eight mnutes.

But before the milk has boiled, take out about 2 tablespoons of warm milk in a small bowl and adding the saffron strands, mash them a bit and leave it to soak in the milk, so that the saffron starts to soften up and imparts its colour to the milk. After a good 3-4 minutes, the colour of the solution would have changed to light yellow. Keep that aside.

In the mean time, in another small bowl, take some warm water and add the almonds into it and leave them soaked for 4-5 minutes. Doing that will make it easy to peel off the skin of the almonds. They can then be sliced thinly and kept aside and shall be used later for garnishing.

When the milk in the sauce pan starts boiling, lower the flame and add the powdered rice into it and keep stirring slowly.


We have to be careful that no limps get formed in the milk and rice mixture and so we have to keep stirring at regular intervals.

When the milk gets reduced considerably and the rice is almost cooked (that should take about 20-25 minutes of cooking over low-medium heat)and we see another boil, stir in the Sugar free natura. So also add the saffron and milk solution.
Then add the chopped dry fruits (almonds and cashew nuts) and also add the crushed cardamoms.


Cook the phirni over low heat for another 2-3 minutes and then turn off the heat and let it to cool down to the room temperature.

We can also keep it inside the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes and before serving, we can garnish it with some more chopped dry nuts.


I made this Phirni day before yesterday and it tasted absolutely heavenly, even my husband who isn't that much of a sweet lover, was all praise for me. The best part was that no table sugar was used, instead it had been substituted with sugar free natura (and so was healthy) but even with no sugar used, one wouldn't have been able to notice the difference - it had the same taste and sweetness of normal sugar.

One should have seen the excitement on Poonam aunty's face when I called her over and told her that I had a surprise for her. She was over-joyed and was mighty surprised, when I served her Phirni and told her that it could safely eaten because it was sugar free (sugar free natura had been used and not the normal sugar). The moment she took a spoonful of Phirni into her mouth, she got up from her cahir excitedly and hugged me as if I had returned her a priceless thing. I had never seen her that happy before. My efforts were fruitful and I felt extremely satisfied, all thanks to Sugar free natura.