Chp 781. Bachelor Bai

Continuing with my series of Bachelor food dishes, this time I will focus on my favorite - Mizo Bai.

In case you have missed the previous post, do read it - Bachelor Potatoes.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I call this the Bachelor food series because:

1) They are easy to make

2) Do not require much culinary skills

3) Very simple ingredients involved

4) Extremely easy cooking instructions

5) And finally, they are so tasty that they can almost substitute the girlfriend you don't have.

So coming back to this topic - Bai.

Bai is one of our most popular Mizo traditional cuisines. Unfortunately, some of my dirty-minded friends like RTPa, Puia Hmar and Chhama Chenkual might interpret the name of this post in a different way because over here, "bai" means maid, and with their dirty-mind working in action, they might comment about a bachelor's desi maid etc. Kindly do ignore them :D

There are many types of Bai in our Mizo community, and as one of my foodie friends rightly said, no two Bai are the same. Even if you are making the same type of Bai, they will taste a bit different from each other because of the number of different ingredients added to the dish.

The type of Bai I make is a mixture of brinjal, potatoes and beans.

I once climbed the highest mountain in Mizoram - Phawngpui, and spent 7 days and 6 nights meditating at the peak without eating or speaking to anyone, until I gained the knowledge of how to make this particular Bai. :P

So this is how I make my signature bachelor bai. You will need -

Potatoes

Brinjals (small variant)

Beans

Green chillies

Soda

Salt

That's all.

First, peel the potatoes and chop them into medium pieces. Boil water and place the potatoes into the pan. Keep the flame at high.

Wait for some time because potatoes take the longest time to cook.

Meanwhile, wash the brinjals. DO NOT chop them yet, because they turn brown due to oxidation.

Once the potatoes are almost cooked, quickly cut off the stalk of the brinjal and slice them into two pieces vertically and then throw them in the pan immediately. Repeat this with the other brinjals.

After all the brinjals are in the pan, add half a tea spoon of soda. Stir immediately as the soda react with the broth.

When the brinjals are almost cooked, throw in the beans. Beans hardly take time to cook.

Add green chillies to the mixture as well, to give it a really spicy taste. Add salt along with them and stir again.

Finally once it is almost ready, add a fistful of dried fermented soybeans.

Make sure there is enough water because the dried fermented soybeans will absorb a lot of it. Also, the mixture will turn more brownish in color because of this.

Thadaaaa, the awesome and yet so simple to make bachelor Bai is ready for consumption. Have them with the Bachelor potatoes I wrote about in my previous post.

It goes great with bachelor Smoked Pork (will write a post about it soon).

Also goes great with bachelor Scrambled Eggs and bamboo shoot pickle.

And even Boiled Potatoes with Fermented Shrimp (Nghapih) paste. Yummm.

So that is my secret to how I make my signature bachelor Bai.

Do try it at home too, and let me know if you like it. Cheers everyone.

Chp 780. Bachelor Potatoes

As the popular saying goes, "Cooking is just like Sex. The more you practice, the better you get at it."

Which is why I suck at cooking.

But nevertheless, there are a few basic dishes that I do cook, and I'm putting them on my blog in this series of updates I call the "Bachelor dish" series.

I call it the Bachelor series because it is the perfect dish to cook if you are living alone by yourself. You can easily make it in a couple of minutes, and it does not require any complex culinary skills nor does it involve an assorted variety of condiments that are difficult to pronounce, as you are not cooking to impress anyone; it is just for you and your lonely soul alone. Hence, bachelor.

First up for this post, is my favorite - Bachelor Potatoes!

Really easy to make, and all my friends love it because of the simplicity.

All you need are just 1-2 onions, 5-6 potatoes, turmeric powder and salt, that's it!

First, peel the onions and potatoes, and slice them into thin pieces.

Heat around 5 tbsp of oil on a frying pan at high flame. Once it is heated, throw in the onions. Stir and wait for it to turn slightly brown. Add 1 tbsp of turmeric powder and stir again.

Finally, throw in the sliced potatoes and make sure you mix them really well, and that they are all covered by the oil.

VERY IMPORTANT: Keep the flame at low/simmer immediately.

Stir for some more time and then cover the entire frying pan with a lid.

Every 3 minutes or so, open the lid to stir. Stir gently in order to not mash them up. And make sure you bring the bottom part above so that they don't get burnt and stick to the pan. Apply salt once it is almost cooked and mix again. Thaadaaa, your "Bachelor potatoes" are ready!

You can spice it up a bit by adding Naga King Chillies.

Yummmmm!

You can also add chopped green chillies along with the onions at the beginning.

Ham and Salami also make really good add-on compatriots.

There are various other ways of modifying it, like adding ginger-garlic paste or zeera or dhania etc., but this is the very base. And all my friends especially my colleagues at work love it because it is "something they have never tasted before", simply because it is so simple that nobody actually makes it this way. No additional masala or gravy, just the pure and raw power of a potato :)

BONUS - Here is another potato recipe you can try out, which is also extremely simple to make.

For this, you will need the same ingredients as above, along with tomatoes.

Slice them onions and tomatoes into thin slices and then add the onions to a heated frying pan as above.

Throw in the sliced tomatoes once you add the turmeric powder.

You'll have to cook the tomatoes for a longer time to make it into a paste or gravy like. Make sure you cook it at low flame and with a lid on the frying pan.

You can also add some "tomato puree" to make it more gravy-ish. Finally, add the chopped potatoes. You don't need to slice them into thin pieces, just small pieces will do.

Keep stirring every 3-4 minutes, and thadaa, your potato dish is ready.

And so, these are my wonderful and tasty "Bachelor potatoes". Hope you like them. I will be updating my blog with other bachelor dishes as well, so stay tuned. If you have any comment or feedback, feel free to have your say. Until then, cheers everyone! :)