Oukabi Atouba

Oukabi (Koi Mach in Bangla and Climbing Perch in English) is one of the most yummest fish found in Manipur. Okay its not as yummy as Ilish mach but its sure beryyy beryyy tasty. The price is more or less the same when compared with mid size Ilish mach. The other day I went to the market near G.B Hospital to buy some veggies, I ended up buying 1/2 kg of Oukabi. Fried Oukabi  taste best with sougri kongsoi or any other Kangsoi.

Marinating the Oukabi with salt, turmeric powder and lil musterd oil before frying it enhance the taste and frying  it in mustard oil instead of vegetable oil is the best ....my best fren AN lovesssss Oukabi athouba and whenever I travel to Delhi I always take atleast a kg of fried oukabi for her....the mouth watering pic is below yummyyy :)

Sougri- Eromba

Okay I know it sounds weird Eromba adusu sougri ge...howgadaba maande da but trust me if u ever try sougri eromba you will love it. Sougri is bit sour and wen I was younger I really used to hate sougri kangsoi but now I love it...Sougri Kangsoi, Morok metpa and Rice....yummmmm. The way to prepare Sougri eromba it is lil different compared to other Eromba preparation's, I use a lil more ngari and it taste best wen you add atleast 2 fried fish , the main ingredients are:

- Sougri.
-Aloo
- Red Chilles
- Ngari ( a lil extra)
- Fried fish (must)

Method:
- Wash all the ingredients and pressure cook the Aloo and red chillies.
- In a separate container, steel tiffin box preferably put the sougri and lil water.
- Put the tiffin box inside the pressure cook and  cook it only till one whistle
- Steam the Ngari and fried fish. Prepare a paste with ngari, fried fish ,salt & boiled red chillies.
- Squeeze excess water from the boiled sougri to drain the sourness
 -Mix the paste of ngari with boiled aloo and add the sougri.
-Garnish with spring onion....yummmy.

Yendem- Eromba

Yendem (I have no idea what its called in English) is quite a popular vegetable in Manipur. Yemdem kangsoi and Yendem eromba are two of the most popular Meitei dish, two types of yemdem are found in Mnaipur the green one and the black one. The more popular one is the green one and for some reason I don't like the color of black yemdem, below is the picture of yendem and ingredients for Yemdem Eromba

Ingredients:
- 1-2 yemdem.
- Dried Red Chillies
-Aloo (I used the small red ones)
-Koli Hawai Maru (Fresh Rajma not the socked one)
-Ngari
-Fried fish (opitional)
-Salt to Taste

Method:
-Wash all the ingredients and make round slices of Yendem.
- Put all the ingredients (Yemdem, aloo, koli hawai maro and red chillies) in a pressure cooker, add 1 cup of water.
-Wait till three whistle and let it cool down.
- Steam the Ngari and fried fish (Optional)
- Prepare a paste of Ngari, fried fish, boiled red chillies and salt.
- Mix the paste with the boiled ingredients and mix it well.
- Garnish with spring onion and have with rice.

Lafuu Tharoo Eromba

Lafuu Tharoo (Banana Flower)is one of my all time fav. veggie. I like Lafuu Tharoo Paknam (Meitei Version of Pancake), Lafuu Tharoo Eromba and best of all is the lafuu tharoo bora (Pakora).Thankfully it's available through out the year here in Agartala and I normally make Eromba as its more convinent and easier. The recipe is simple:

- Make round slices of Lafuu Tharoo and pressure cook it with potato's and dried red chillies.
- Prepare a paste of steamed/Roasted Ngari, Chillies, salt and fried fish.
- Mash the boiled ingredients and mix it with the paste. Add water if required.

Lafuu Tharoo eromba is supposed to have medicinal qualities, it helps our internal system get quickly adapted to change of climate while travelling from one place to another. My mom always prepare this eromba when we go home for holiday and for some reason I can never make eromba as good as my mom's.

Poha for breakfast

I never used to like Poha (Cheng-paak in Meiteilon), it reminds me so much of the TISS, DH evening snacks. They used to make it so horribly, I don’t knw how the cooks at TISS, DH  prepare food....everything tasted the same which in short was “BAD”. I don't know how we survived those 2 yrs.

Coming back to Poha, one fine morning out of the blue I decided to make Poha for breakfast and as usual with few of my own additions. I was not surprised when it turned out so yummy that since then I normally have Poha for breakfast on most Sundays. Making Poha is easy the only issue is with chopping the veggies... its time consuming... so I normally have it on Sundays or holidays only.

Poha

Ingredients:

• 1 Onion, chopped.
• 4-5 Green chilies, slit and chopped
• 1 Potato finely made into small cubes.
• 1 cup fried/roasted peanuts
• Few Curry leaves
• 2 tbsp Oil
• Turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 Cups of good quality Poha (Socked for few mins and the water drained )


Method
•On a non stick pan add 2 tbsp oil. Heat it for 2 mins.
•Add the chopped onion and fry for 3-5 or till it turns golden brown.
•Add the small cubed potatoes, green chilies, tomato and fry for 8-10 mins on low flame or till the potato’s are cooked.
•On a separate pan, fry the curry leaves and add the fried curry leaves  in the pan after the potatos are cooked.
•Add turmeric powder, roasted peanuts, salt and mix it well, fry for another 5 mins.
•Add the socked poha and mix it with the fried ingredients.


Serve hot with a Tea or coffee.
Cooking Time: 25 MinsServes: 3-4 

Fasting?????? Nah Feasting

The only additional alphabet in “Feasting” when compared to “Fasting” is “E” but the “E” can make hell lot of difference; I am talking in terms of calories. Since I love to cook n eat so much I normally cheat on my diet plan every Sunday and make something really good, last Sunday I made myself the best meal of the month. What was the best meal??? Well what could be better than a typical Meitei Sunday Lunch, “Ooti Thongba (Hawai Mangan ga Ousoi ga Ooti), Pulao/Khichidi and Morok Metpa” lethal combination to make any Meitei foodie go weak on the knee.

I tried my best to prepare the food as healthy as possible using less oil, adding potol, brinjal, chana & moong sprouts in the pulao, the result was a super yummy Pulao. Ooti can never be cooked in a healthy way the only thing I did was I put less cooking soda, Ooti is very heavy for the stomach in Manipur we have Ooti with Lafuu(Banana Steam) Eromba, the fibrous Lafuu helps in the digestion but I was dying to have morok metpa (Typical Meitei Chile Chutney) so I made this really good morok metpa with fresh green chillies, Ngari and fried fish. I am always happy when I eat a heavy and yummy meal without any regret :)