Stir-Fried Cabbage with Shrimp & Peas

Bandha Kopi Chingri Maach

Shrimp adds a depth of flavour to any and all vegetables and pasta. Generally, I like to cook the cabbage to a deep, golden brown which takes a lot longer. Leaving the cabbage crisp and crunchy cuts back on the time and effort it takes to make this side dish. Cooking it on medium heat allows everything to cook in their own juices, so I don't add water unless it sticks to the bottom of the pan. Serve this with steaming, hot rice or tortillas.

Stir-Fried Bitter Melon & Potatoes

Karola Alu Bhaja

Bitter melon is a super food for diabetics and can be cooked in a variety of ways. Here I've simply stir-fried it with potatoes and pumped up the taste with shrimp floss powder.

Shrimp Powder

The bitter melons or ucche I found in the Indian supermarket were young and tender, so I left the seeds intact. They added a crunch in contrast to the soft potatoes. This side dish goes well with hot rice or chapatis/tortilla.

Mung Bean Lentils with Peas

Koraishuti Diye Kacha Mooger Dal

Lentils are an essential part of any Bengali meal. They're kind of boring on their own, so adding a simple vegetable like green peas to mung bean lentils takes it out of the ordinary into the extraordinary, especially when accompanied by chopped tomatoes and ginger. On a cold winter's day when everything outside is blanketed in snow, there is no other comfort food like a bowl of steaming lentils over a mound of rice.

I generally cook red and mung bean lentils on the back burner over a low flame while the burners in front are being used to cook the rest of the meal. It's easier to cook lentils in a pressure cooker, but they tend to turn to mush whereas stovetop cooking produces a more al dente texture with more of a bite. 

These mung bean lentils have not been toasted which is my preferred way of cooking them with vegetables. When fish heads are added to mung beans, I like to toast them to give the lentils more body. Split mung bean lentils are cooked at a ratio of 1:4 cups of lentils to water. They're brought to a boil with turmeric and salt and the cooked vegetables are added after the lentils reach the desired consistency. While the lentils are cooking, the peas are stir-fried with tomatoes and ginger paste in a tempering of hot oil, cumin seeds, star anise and bay leaves and then added to the cooked lentils. Lentils are best served over hot rice or chapatis/tortillas.