For the next couple of blog updates, I will be posting about the recent dinners I had at various homes here in Pune, with as much detail as possible on the food served and the recipes. A series of food blog post for all you food lovers out there. :)
One of the perks of being a single bachelor who live alone is that all your friends across town feel sorry for you, and so you get invited to dinners regularly. Sometimes the awesome food they cook can fill up the emptiness in your heart to a certain extent… *cue dramatic response* :P
First up, is of course my dear friend Zodini, well renowned across our Pune Mizo community for her delicious cooking. Wife of my bro Daniel, you have to be completely sober when you are invited to her place for dinner otherwise you may miss out on the delicious food she had made with so much passion and intensity.
That night, Zodini had also invited a few other people to equalize the male-female ratio :P
A really merry bunch of people - Mazuii, Duati and Zoey. They filled that night with a lot of fond memories.
Below are the awesome dishes Zodini had made that night. She messaged me earlier about the description of each recipe, which I am reproducing here to the best of my abilities.
Arsa kan (Chicken Fry Mizo style)
After deep frying the raw chicken for a few minutes on high flame, take it out and then add onions, garlic, tomatoes, green peas, and other garnishes. And then slowly add the deep fried chicken back to the mix again and put the flame in simmer, until they smell like Heaven :)
Bawngsa leh Alu kan (Beef and Potato gravy)
Heat some oil in a pressure cooker and quickly add onions, garlic, a few pieces of ginger, one pinch of meat masala, turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt, along with leaves of Bahkhawr (Culantro). Add the meat and stir for some time until everything is mixed properly.
Add some water to the mixture and then close the pressure cooker and put the flame on high. Wait for the cooker to whistle at least 6-7 times, and then reduce the flame to simmer. After a few more minutes, switch the stove off, depressurize the cooker and open it. Add chopped potatoes in it, add some more water and then cook at high flame again. Wait for it to whistle 3 times, and then cook at simmer until it is ready.
Methi bai (Fenugreek Mizo stew)
Take salt, soda powder and ajinomoto and mix it in cold water. Once mixed properly, heat it to boil. As the water boils, add chopped brinjal (the small variant) and green chillies. Cook for some time and then add Methi and stir for a while until the dish is ready.
Tauh (Mizo mixture)
Take the sprouts of Moong dal (green gram) along with 3 different types of chana (chickpeas). Soak them in water until they hydrate and enlarge ("that's what she said!"). Mix them in a bowl with chopped onions, roasted chillies and salt. Squeeze some lime on the mixture. Heat a small quantity of oil and add that boiling oil to the mixture, hear that beautiful sizzling sound, and again mix it real well.
Hmarcha rawt (Mizo Chilli chutney)
This is perhaps the easiest to make but without it, no Mizo meal course is complete. Hmarchapui (large green chillies) are roasted directly on the flaming stove (yes, great care must be taken to ensure that there is proper ventilation in the house or else everybody's gonna cough and wheeze). Once they are roasted nicely, put it in a grinder with onions, tomatoes, and a pinch of salt and ajinomoto. Grind the mixture until they are all in small pieces. Thadaaa, Mizo hmarcha rawt.
Iromba (Fermented Fish Potato chutney)
This is a popular Meitei dish and not a Mizo one, popular across Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland. You can read about how to make a simple Eromba on my previous post Chp 738. How To Make Eromba. The way Zodini made it that night was a bit different though, she had put fermented fish, boiled potatoes, brinjal, tomatoes, bastenga, salt and ajinomoto in a vessel with water, and after boiling them for some time on simmer, she grinded them all together and then garnished it with onions with dhania (Cilantro). Super yumm!
And that was it, the awesome dinner Zodini made for us. My plate -
Here are a few bonus pics of that night. Great food, great time, great memories :)
Soon it was time to leave. Duati and Mazuii left, and I followed suit as my Uber arrived.
Overall, awesome dinner Zodin, thanks a lot for it. Looking forward to it again soon :D
I hope this post was useful to you all, do hit me back if you want more details about the recipes, tomorrow's post is going to be about Biryani. Signing off for now, cheers everyone. G'nite.
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