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| Fried rice made at home to have with murgir jhol and salad |
The other day I told you about the pulao, murgir jhol, machher kaalia, bhaaja at my granny’s in Kolkata, that she would cook on special occasions while I was growing up. My mum makes this pulao too. It’s yellow in colour though, as I said earlier, we didn’t call it ‘Basanti pulao’. The name preferred by Bengali restaurants and food bloggers today.
Let me now tell you about the ‘Bengali fried rice’ of my teens.
Unlike the yellow coloured pulao, the fried rice is white in colour. If memory serves me right, it would have vegetables such as beans, peas, carrots and cauliflowers in it. Cashews and raisins. Spices such as cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, black pepper, bay leaves and ghee defined the flavour base along with ghee.
Fried rice would be a coveted dish in wedding feasts, or caterer prepared food boxes at college socials or at the Eden Club House. Paired usually with kosha murgi (in the late 80s and 90s), crumbed fish fry, vegetable chop, chholar dal, chutney and shondesh.
It’s easy to understand why caterers preferred this over the holud pulao (yellow pulao) made by Bengali grannies. While the pulao needs a fair bit of tender, love and care, the no fuss fried rice worked well for a commercial kitchen.
Here you just needed to cook long grained rice (less moody than the short grained gobindo bhog) and toss it with some ghee, whole spices, dried fruits and chopped vegetables. Pulao on the other hand needs experience and patience, with the rice and the rest being cooked together.
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| Fried rice made with Mulliphulo rice |
I made fried rice in Mumbai yesterday with the medium grained Mulliphullo rice grown in south Bengal which food researcher and friend, Pritha Sen, had most kindly sent me from the online shop called the Bengal Store. The rice was grown without chemicals and the purity of texture and aroma embellished the fried rice which I paired with a classic murgir jhol.
My fried rice recipe:
- Heat ghee in a kadhai
- Add dried red chilli, tez patta, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom
- Add cashews and raisins
- Add finely chopped onions
- Saute and then add finely chopped beans, carrots, parboiled cauliflower
- Add boiled rice. You could boil peas while boiling the rice
- Stir. Add some salt. You are done.
It turned out to be a rather apt dinner for the occasion as it was my mom’s birthday which we celebrated on Zoom. We had sent her a sugar free cake and a Chinese meal from ITC Maurya as she is with my brother in Gurgaon. My sister in law made her a delish ilisher jhol and shukto. We all ate well as one should on such a happy day.
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| Ilish by Soyel |
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| The ITC Maurya food which had a Chinese fried rice too |
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| The sugar free cake from ITC. Cards drawn by Kimu and ITC sent one on our behalf |
PS: The fried rice I spoke of here is very ‘Bengali’ and not what you would get in a Jimmy’s Kitchen or Eau Chew in Kolkata.
However, Pritha did point out a Chinese connect to the fried rice that I relished last night with chicken curry.
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| Bhaat bhaaja by Pritha Sen |
‘It is known as bhaja bhat and was probably picked up from the Chinese in early 20th century and made with leftover rice.’ There’s a reference to this in novels by Gajendra Kumar Mitra added Pritha before she shared the broad recipe that she uses: ‘Gorom moshla phoron in ghee, small bits of beans, carrots, omelette cut in pieces, small prawns tossed with rice, kishmish and kaju.’
Do read my post on the yellow pulao.
My murgir jhol recipe. This was made in an open pan and not pressure cooker though and had no chilli powder.
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| Zoom party |
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| Baby Loaf and Nimki wished Thammi with Kimaya celebrating at the other end |
