Baigan Aaloo aur Adauri ke Milauni.

Baigan Aaloo aur Adauri ke Milauni.

This is one of the lunch time favrouite dish in mithila goes well with bread and rice both. It is a mixed veg preparation with dumplings (Adauri). The compulsory body ingredients of this dish are Brinjal, Potato and Dumplings , however some people add white Raddish, Carrot, Tomatoes, Couli flower etc. a tempering of PanchFodan ( a combination of five spices ie Tori, Jeera, Methi, Mangraila or Kaluanji and Saunf ) adds extra flavour to the final product. All the vegetables are partly cooked separately first then mixed together and brought to boiling point.

Ingredients:

Brinjal: 200 gms.
Potato: 150 gms.
Carrot: 100 gms
Tomato: 50 gm.
R. Oil: 20 ml.
Panch fodan ( Black mustard, Cumin, Fenugreek, Sweet fennel, Nigella) : 3-4 gms.
Coriander Pd: 10 gms.
Garlic paste: 10 gms
Salt : as per taste.
coriander leaves: 10 gms.

Preparation:

Wash and cut the brinjal and tomatoes into dices.
Boil Potatoes with jacket, Peel and break into pieces.
Cut carrot into dices and parboil.
Separately fry dumplings (Adauri) and take them aside.
Chop garlic fine

Cooking:

Heat oil in a pan and add the tempering of Panch fodan. When spices start crackeling add garlic chops and saute .
Put in Coriander Pd and Red chilliy pd ( optional) and fry till the flavour of raw masala goes off.
Add tomatoes and sweat it with a pinch of salt.
Now you can fry brinjals in the masala for a while.
Later put in potato mash and mix it well with the other ingredients. You can also add the boiled carrot and fried dumplings at this stage.
Stir and mix the ingredints well.
Add water and allow it to boil first and then simmer for 10 minutes
Serve hot with a topping of chopped coriander leaves.

Kachri

Kachri

Kachari is counted as one of among the all time favrouite snacks in mithila. The best accompaniment taken with kachri is “Jhilli” ( deep fried thin strings of batter) or some people even prefer Chhura Bhuja along with it. A leisure evening with Kachri is said to be an ideal evening. In totality this is the best snacks that no one would stand disagreed.

Ingredients:

• Onion: 250 gms
• Besan: 200 gms
• Salt : as per taste
• Garlic paste: 20 gms
• Ajwaain: 3-4 gms
• Mustard oil: 400 ml

Preparation:

• Peel, cut and slice onion and separate the flakes।
• Mix it with besan, salt, and ajwaain.
• Put water and make a paste avoiding any lumps in the mixture.
• Heat oil in a kadhai and let it come to the smoke point.
• Put small-small parts of the mixture in the kadhai and deep fry it till golden brown in color.
• Take it out of oil and relish it with Jhilli (deep fried thin strings of batter) or Murhi (rice puffs)

You can also enjoy kachri with Lachha Onion and lemon juice, salt, chilli mixture.

Chaurak Kheer

Chaurak Kheer:

Chaurak Kheer is a very common dessert that is prepared in evry maithil home almost in evry good occasion. Apart from this being a dessert, somtimes it also serves the purpose of a side dish for an example with Daaila wala Puri ( bread stuffed with boiled and seasoned cereals) or some other normal bread preparation.

The dish could be compared with the similar Bengali preparation called "Payesh" with a few difference like in the quality of rice used and the addition of flavouring ( mostly Bay leaf). Maithil practice is to use "New Crop Basmati grains" that is longer in size and gives a very good consistancy to the final product, while bengalis prefer using smaller grains like GobindoBhog rice ( a rice quality majorly used for making Payesh only) which has a very sweet aroma.

However, in this preparation, I've used a blend of both, and also added an additional flavour of rose water which is optional which you can definately avoid using .

Ingredients:

Basmati rice and Gobidobhog rice Blend: 75 gms

High fat milk: 2 Ltrs

Sugar: 100 Gms

Raisins: 50 Gms

Cashew Nuts: 50 Gms

Cardamom: 04 in Nos

Rose water (optional) : 2 spoons

Preparation:

Wash and soak the rice and soak raisins separately.

Bring milk to the boiling stage with cardamom and reduce it to 1.5 ltrs (approx)

Add the soaked rice to the milk and let it cook well with continuous stirring.

when the rice is cooked and mixture becomes little thickened, add sugar and cashew nuts to it.

Put it on a slow flame and stir.

Serve hot garnished with raisins.

Thadia Saagak Teeman

Thadia Saagak Teeman: Pure vegetarian
A very easy preparation which could be taken well with chapati and rice both and equally rich in nutritius value as Red spinach is the great source of Iron and Lentil has high Protien content. The dish could be compare with French Puree with the only difference that Purees are liquidised while Teeman is Ghontod (a way of manual churning). One can also bring the variation in the dish by adding Paneer (cottage cheese) or some other non-veg items like Shrimps/Prawns etc which will make the dish very palatble.

Ingredients:

• Thadia saag/Laal Sag (red spinach) : 500 gms.
• Masoor daal (Lentil): 75 gms
• Green chillis: 3-4 in nos
• Fennel seed: 4 gmsDry Red chilli: 4 gms
• Mustard oil: 10 ml
• Garam masala Pd: 2 pinches
• Salt : as per taste

Method:

• Pick, clean and wash Thadia saag and reduce them to smaller in size if they are too big.
• Wash and soak daal for some time.
• Put together daal, saag and split green chillies with salt (as reqd) in a pressure cooker and let it cook till 4-5 whistles.
• When the pressure is removed churn the mixture well with a churner.
• Now heat oil in a pan and add a tempering of fennel & red dry chilli followed by the mixture of saag.
• Let it simmer for some time and adjust the consistancy and seasoning.

Serve hot with rice or chapati.

Daail-Jhinguni (Fried Ribbed Gourd cooked with Lentil and cereals)

Daail-Jhinguni (Pure Vegetarian)

This is one of the very popular vegetarian preparation of Mithila and goes well with rice or bread both. They say, one does not require to have another vegetable preparation along with Daal-Jhinguni as it serves the purpose of both as an one accompaniment. Some people even prefer relishing its flavour plain as a soup or starter.

Authentically, the preparation of this dish is very simple in which chopped ribbed gourds are fried before with the tempering of black mustard seedsand mixed well with Daal, but here one can put an extra flavouring of ginger paste which will simultaneously enhance the flavour of the dish. The little dark color of the dish that you are seeing is because of the addition of ginger paste.

Regarding the type and variety of cereal used you have a flexibility to choose any, but here i've used a blend of lentil and split gram in the proportion 2:1 respectively.

Ingredient:

• Ribbed gourd (Jhinguni) : 300 gms.
• Daal (blend of lentil and split gram) : 100 gms
• Ginger: 30 gms
• Black mustard seed: 1 tbsp
• Mustard oil: 30 ml.Seasoning: As required

Preparation:

• Wash, peel and cut Jhinguni and soak it in cold water.
• Pick, clean and boil daal with salt and turmuric.Make a paste of ginger.

Cooking:

• Heat oil in a pan/kadhai and add a tempering of mustard seed.
• Put ginger paste and fry till golden brown.
• Add Jhinguni and fry. Dont add salt at this time as the Jhinguni will start sweating.
• When Jhinguni is cooked and shrinkd in size add salt as per your taste and mix it with the cooked mixture.
• Now pour over the boiled daal in the kadhaai and simmer it for 5-7 minutes.Finish it up with garam masala powder and garnish with ginger juliens.