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.

Cafe with a difference- Cafe Ethnic, Zaheerabad

Cafe Ethnic- Organic Food Restaurant @ Zaheerabad, Medak Dist. AP

As a real foodie I make it a point to visit the best eating joints where I travel, I google search, read managines ask for suggestions and I have been to many eating joints- Small, Big, posh, road side dhaba's etc etc some of them were really good and some not so good. 

During my visit to Rural Andhra last month we happen to visit one restaurant which I believe is truly one of the best places I have ever visit. Started  on 26th Jan 2004 Café Ethnic is a family restaurant located at Zaheerabad town, 100 kms from Hyderabad, what was really cool and awesome about the restaurant was the menu, serving  organic, really healthy, nutritious and yummy food this restaurant is a must visit again. The  main ingredient was Millets of different kinds I never knew that in India we have Millets of atleast 5 types....all this info was written in the Menu Card and also info. posters were put up in the restaurant. The food was simple but very healthy and yummy, I had the Thali and the rotis made from different types of Millets, subzi and dal was one of the best meals I have ever had....the Kheer was just too good made with Millet and Jaggery. 

If anyone happens to be in Zaheerabad, do visit "Cafe Ethnic" its located in the Zaheerabad town main market area. The food is very reasonably priced and try the thali and "Til Laddu"  and don't forget to get a copy of the recipe booklet (given free of charge).

Twenty Eleven

Twenty Ten is over and its another brand new year Twenty Eleven....reflecting back, I feel Twenty Ten  passed so fast and it was a year full of activities in terms of my traveling, I went on some amazing and thrilling trips...visited beautiful places....went on a soul trip ( Bhutan)....a backpacking tour ( North East India)....free foreign trips( Thailand)....self discovery (Bhutan again)....surprised official trips (Arunachal and Rural Andhra) in short I traveled like a true wanderlust and enjoyed every moment....I remember starting Twenty Ten  with a trip to Imphal and ended the year with a trip to Bangalore. 

Its been nearly 3 years since I started to blog and I have stuck to topics I wanted to write about and I wrote for myself but starting from this year as few more people read my blog I will add few more things in my post :

1. I will add details of places I visited info like accommodation: Hotels/Guesthouse etc with contact details, best time to visit, must eat and buy  and also mention a "Clean Loo Guide" just like my fav. travel guide and Magazine "The Lonely Planet" .

2. Video's of my latest food/recipes and inventions/innovations will be uploaded.
3. Safety from point of travelling alone.
4. Approx Budget.

I was surprised to see that alot of people visit my blog (all thanks to google) and I wish that whoever reads my blog should feel happy about getting the right information. Twenty Eleven will be exciting as I plan to travel a lot more, learn Italian cooking, stay fit & healthy, lose weight (ah thats a priority) , blog more, stay happier, love myself a lil more and yeah I am getting married :) :). Happy New Year to me and I hope to have a Great 2011.

Field and food Trip

When we talk about Biryani is India theirs only one city we all associate Biryani with and thats Hyderabad.... the city of  Nizam, Pearls and Biryani's of course. I was on a four day tour to Hyderabad and this trip sure was one of the best field (read official trip) trip I've done on a long time. Despite the hectic schedule I still managed to shop (pearls), eat (biryani & many other AP special dish) and meet friends (AB and cutiepie her son). Talking about shopping I bought myself a really sexy pearl necklace and earings set, which is so beautiful that I fell in love with it the first time I saw, it looks so khandani that I was joking with my colleagues saying  that the Pearl set looks like "Rani Ki Beti ka haar" and I sure will look like Rani ki beti wearing that. Alot of people might not know but the pearls available in Hyderabad are mostly chinese pearl, I found out from Wikipedia that 80-90% of world's cultured pearls comes from China and m really not surprised with that...China wale kuch bhi bana sakte hai.

We had Biryani at the famous "Paradise" restaurant located in Paradise circle, Secundrabad...the biryani's of course were really good and what was really cool about the restaurant was the orders were taken not on a note pad or some piece of paper but mind you on a PDA...thats the first ever Indian Restaurant I have seen using PDA to take orders...it was damn cool...the PDA was connected with the computer in the kitchen and the order gets registered directly to the kitchen. The biryani was followed by "Khubani ka Meetha" and I must admit that was the best Khubani ka meetha I had ever had till now, it was not so sweet and the apricots just melted in my mouth....I am looking fwd to many more trips to Hyderabad to enjoy not just the biryani's but the whole lot of other yummy things the city has to offer.




Paradise Biryani @ Secunderabad



Khubani ka Meetha @ Paradise