Revisiting a childhood classic: Shorshe-Mushroom'r Jhal

So this recipe belongs to my mom. Growing up as a kid with severe digestive issues, I could never really digest and burp proteins well. I still can't. So my mum had to, quiet often, rack her brain and find dishes that would appeal to my rather picky palate.

This dish was a comfort food for me during the monsoons. Kolkata's rainy season is severe and as kids we were required to eat food that would fill our tummy but also help the body produce heat to keep the cold at bay. Its the same logic that is applied to chicken soup. Mustard does that and mushrooms were an amazing substitute for protein.

Over the years, through my travels, I've missed home cooked food a lot and this one ranks on top. I would crave and cry for some hot steamed rice and this 'jhal'. Thankfully, through trial and error and a lot of yucky experiments, I've finally perfected this dish. The best part is that when I make it nowadays, my mum often compliments me about how this is better than her version of the 'jhal'

Comments

Packing Suitcases...

"I have barely traveled outside my own state."..Now that's a statement.Really.I have been staying in my own state West Bengal for the last 29 years of my life.And I have barely traveled outside of it.No,I'm not attached to my city so much,if that's what you are thinking.Its exactly the opposite.I'm a bohemian.I don't have sentimental attachments to places.I never did.My late father used to work in the Government sector and that meant a lot of transfers.I have been to the remotest of villages in West Bengal(Perks of being an honest policeman) with my family ever since I was a kid.I don't remember those days as I was just a toddler but from what my mother has told me,we have often lived in places with no electricity to times when my mother had to keep ducks and hens in the house and sell their eggs in the market to make ends meet(like I said perks of being an honest policeman).But as far as I can remember I was never really very sad to move places.Rathe...

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On my first International Flight to Singapore through Silk Air I was as excited and petrified as a kid is on the first day of school.The morning of 20th October'15 and the days before that I was an emotional mess to be honest.It was the first time I was leaving my family and going to an unknown country.Now one may say that its the same if I had left Kolkata and gone elsewhere,any other city in India,I would have felt equally alone.But I beg to differ.See the thing is that any other city in India might have been unknown but it would have been the same Country.The people may look different like for example if you shifted to Kashmir or Jammu you might have suffered from a bit of fair-and-lovely complex as people there are all the colour of plaster of paris with a tinge of pink on their cheeks.Similarly if you would have travelled to the south,people may look at you if you are even remotely as fair as me because there the fair-and-lovely complex is in reverse.The dresses may have va...

Paella ki Kahani : Soft, white, buttery basmati rice cooked with sausages and eggs

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