Soibum ga Nga ga Thongba (Fermented Bamboo Shoot cooked with Fish)

Ingredients- "Soibum ga Nga ga Thongba"

Soibum (Fermented Bamboo Shoot) is another Manipuri food item which is fermented before consumption like "Ngari & Hawai Jar" and like me most Manipuri's just love "Soibum Eromba". Eromba is the most common dish from Soibum but its also added in Pork curry and Nga- Soibum Kanghou (Kakching ge Nga- Soibum Kanghou is really famous), few weeks back a fren of mine invited me for lunch and she had made this curry....it was not only yummmm and I was having it for the first time. I liked it so much that I decided to try it myself...the final verdict of my 1st attempt very......really good.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 Pieces of fried fish (Rohu/Katla/Karpu (Nga Pukloubi).
• 2 Potatos.
• 1 cup of soibum (Washed atleast 5 times and squeeze the excess water )  
• 1 Tomato
• 1 Onion (chopped)
• 3-4 Garlic cloves.
• Green Chillies (4-5)
• Sa Maroi (Also called Awa-Phadigom)
• Jeera 1 tbsp (optional)
• Turmeric powder
• Machal Masala ( Special type of masala powder available only in Manipur made by this SHG group called Kangla) or Garam Masala
• Salt to taste.
• 2/3 tbsp Mustered oil.
• Coriander  Leaves for garnish.

Method:

• In a Kadhai add 2/3 tbsp of mustered oil, once its smoking hot add the chopped Garlic. Fry for 1-2 mins and add the chopped Onion, fry till it turns golden brown.
• Add the chopped Green Chillies and jeera. Fry for 2-3 mins in low flame.
• Add the cube Potato's, chopped tomato and Soibum, mix it with the other ingredients. Cover the Kadhai and cook on low flame.
• Check after 10-12 mins if the potato's are half cooked. Add 1 small tbsp of turmeric powder, sa- maroi and the Machal Masala/ Garam Masala. Stir it well and add the fried fish & 2 cups of hot water, keep the kadhai covered and continue cooking on low flame.
• After 10 mins check if the potato's are cooked  and once its done add salt.
• Garnish with Coriander leaves.
• Serve hot with rice and oo-morok metpa. Yummmmmm

Cooking Time: 40-45 mins.

Serves: 4 

* I prefer adding turmeric powder towards the end to avoid food from sticking in the Kadhai when cooked in a non stick cookware.

Beautiful n healthy Palak (Palak Kangsoi)

The other day I went too 'Lakechowmuni Market' to buy veggies, a vendor was selling beautiful palak...it was green...fresh and tempted me so much that I ended up buying half a kg of it. I made palak Kangsoi with potato's and nga-ayaiba for dinner, its easy to cook Palak Kangsoi the only thing we need to remember is that  to add Palak at the end and here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg (500 gms) Fresh Palak.
• 2 Medium size potato's.
• 1 Onion
• 3 Garlic Clove.
• 1/2 inch Ginger.
• 4-5 Green Chillies.
• Ngari.
• Salt to taste.
• Nga-Ayaiba (Smoked fish)

Method:

• Boil 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker/sauce pan and add chopped onion, garlic, green chillies, ginger in the boiling water. 
• Add Ngari and cube potato's and cook till the potato's are done.
• Add Nga-Ayaiba and add salt. Cook for 10 mins in low flame.
• Add Palak and cover it for 2-3 mins.

Palak gets cooked real fast so remember not to cook it for more than 2-3 mins. Serve hot with Rice.

Palak

5 Yummiest pictures from Bangkok

During my last trip to Thailand, I had some really good food....food which were different from what I have had earlier....food which made me happy even after overeating. The pic above is what I had for breakfast boiled veggies with scrambled eggs and croissant @ Hotel Rembrant, Bangkok.

This was dinner at Chiang Mai night market...the Thai Green curry..baked fish and the noodles were really yummy.

After a day tour of Chiang Mai we had lunch at this really nice place called "The Riverside Restaurant" and ordered this sweet dish...Banana Cooked in Coconut Milk.

Ahhhh....this was super yummmm, Noodles with Bamboo Shoot and loads of veggies at Chatuchak Market.

California Rolls sushi at Bangkok International Airport

Tharoi Thongba ( Freshwater Snails Curry)

Tharoi Thongba

Tharoi (Fresh Water snails) Thongba is one of the delicacy Meitei's love to have, my dad doesn't eat Tharoi  but mom, sister and me love it. Having Tharoi Thongba at home was always frowned upon by dad as he thinks its not a very clean think to eat. I have had tharoi thongba many times but had never cooked it myself, its a long process and requires alot of hardwork. I decided to try cooking it as aunty "A" has been telling me for the past 3 yrs to have tharoi thongba, I called my mom n my very good fren "AN"  Manipur Food expert (acc. to me)to ask the recipe. 

Armed with the recipe and with full confidence I bought 1 kg of Tharoi and few other ingredients available from Lakechoumuhani Market.(Agartala)

Ingredients:

• 1 Kg Tharoi (Freshwater snails)
• 2-3 Potato's.
• Lok-lei (Optional)
• Meikthrubi Manna ( A special kind of ingredient used in Manipur for Tharoi Thongba) 
• 2 Bay leaves.
• Dry Red chillies powder.
• 2 Onion.
• 5-6 Garlic cloves.
• Turmeric powder
• Sa- Maroi.(Also known as Awa-Phadigom)
• Jeera
• 2 tbsp refined oil.
• Salt to taste.

Method:

(For Tharoi)

• Buy Tharoi atleast 1 day in advance ( I bought 2 days before). Cut the face and back of the Tharoi.  In a big vessel filled with water add all the cut tharoi. Keep it overnite. Remember to add  8-10 grains of rice, this will help in getting all the small baby snails out.
• Next day wash the tharoi atleast 10 times before boiling it. Tharoi is covered with some kind of algae making it slippery and slimy so washing/cleaning is very imp.
• Pressure cook the clean tharoi (3 whistle or cook for atleast 20-25 mins if not using a pressure cooker). Once done drain all the water and keep it aside.

For the Curry:

• In a separate pressure cooker boil the potato's, Loklei and chillies. Once done mix all the ingredients with nagri, prepare an eromba and keep it aside.

Tharoi-Thongba steps:

• Heat a Kadhai and add the boiled Tharoi fry it without any oil. This will dry the excess water, fry for atleast 10 mins and keep it aside.
• In a separate Kadhai add 2 tbsp of vegetable/refined oil and fry the Mikthrubi manna, Bay leaves, Thinly sliced onion, Garlic and Jeera for few mins.
• Add turmeric powder and fry for 2-3 mins, add the Eromba and fry for few mins. Stir and mix it well.
• Add the Tharoi , Sa- maroi and also add 2-3 cup of hot water in the kadhai.
• Add salt and cook till the gravy is thick.(10-15 mins)
• Serve hot with Rice and Chamfut (Boiled Vegetables).

Cooking Time: 60 mins

Serves: 5

Khao aur Khilao

Two weeks back my Facebook account was "temporarily suspended". I don't want to go into detail of why it was suspended but it was annoying, I could not access my account for 2 weeks and after trying...read writing several mails to FB team I gave up the hope of getting my account back....so I created a new account and decided to upload pics under three categories only 1) Manipur 2) Travel  & 3) Food, unlike my old FB id where I have uploaded a lot of pics over a period of 2 yrs....since food is a passion for me the first pics I uploaded were under the Food category....but the day I uploaded the food pics in the new id, I got a mail from Facebook Team saying my account has been unblocked....was I happy....yup I was really happy to get my account back. Uploading the food pics. in my new id inspired me to upload the same in my old id...so under the food category I uploaded the pics.

Pictures I had taken of almost everything  I have cooked till date, the album is titled "Khao aur Khilao- Food Pics" with a tag line "From my kitchen to Facebook". Mins within uploading the pics. alot of my frens commented, they food the pics. very tempting/mouthwatering and some of them wanted the recipes.

Well cooking is something I have always enjoyed and one of the reason I started this blog was to write about  my cooking...experimenting...innovations in food and about the need I felt to document my cooking, the comments in FB has inspired me to experiment more...cook some more yummy dishes and keep taking amazing food pics to upload in my blog and FB.

One Chillie....many names

Oo- Morok or Raja Mirchi or Bhut Jalokia or Capsicum chinense

Worlds Hottest Chillie (ex now)

Chilles are a very integral part of Manipuri Cuisine, Eromba will not be the same without chillies and if its prepared with Oo-Morok phir toh khane ka mazza kuch aur he hai. Imagine Kangsoi without chillies or Lafuu Tharo Paknam without any chillie...oh I can't even imagine that for it will not taste like Kangsoi or my fav. Paknam. Oo- Morok no doubt is or now was worlds hottest chillie it measures 1,041,427 on the Scoville Scale ( Scoville units are the measures that grade the hotness of a Chilli.) our fav. Ou-Morok is dethroned by the Infinity Chilli recently and it measures 1,067,286 on the Scoville Scale. 

Manipuri's love Oo-Morok, it adds flavor to any dish esp. Eromba and I feel it tastes best with Oo-Morok. Yongchak- Aloo Eromba with Oo-Morok...yummyyyyy....or Yongchak Singju with Oo-Morok ahhhhh. In Manipur Oo-Morok is mostly grown in Hilly Districts, when my dad was posted at Tameilong I remember dad getting fresh Oo-Morok during the season and the dried one during off season. Recently one of my frens in-laws sent her a Kilo of dried  Oo-Morok and I was just thinking the damage it'll do to the poor stomachs but also the mouth watering dish she and her husband will be having everyday.