हिशोब दिवसांचा

Brahmi Chutney

Here I am once again sharing my new experiment in kitchen. In my last blog entry I had written about Thankuni Pata (Bengali name) aka Brahmi or mandukparni ( Sanskrit, Marathi and Hindi name) aka Centella asiatica ( English name). Before coming to Dhaka, I had read, heard about Brahmi in my Basic Ayurveda studies. Here, for the first time, I am actually seeing and using this medical plant,...as vegetable ! Last evening, finally I tasted it in form of chutney. 

While writing this, I googled about Brahmi just out of curiosity. Ohh! it's so useful they say. Brahmi is good for stomach diseases, it is used for treating anxiety, it is good for glowing skin ...and the list goes on. I was just knowing that its good for brain functions, memory and that Brahmi oil is good for hair growth. 

 So here is the recipe. 

Ingredients:-

25-30 Brahmi leaves,

6-7 Garlic cloves,

2 Green chillies,

1 tsp onion seeds,

and salt as per taste.

Method:-

Remove the stems of Brahmi leaves. Wash the leaves and strain the water. In a mixer jar put all the ingredients and make fine paste. Your healthy and hot chutney is ready.

Bengali people do eat this chutney with rice. I tried it with vadas and with chapati. My son had brahmi chutney in his sandwich. :-).

This chutney was so hot (basically because of chilies and garlic), that it made my tongue numb and nose run. But I liked it that way!

If you find these leaves please do try this chutney. I loved it. Hope you will also like it.

My lab for experiments and the studio for creativity

Namoshkar, Salaam from Dhaka.

After a long break, happy to post this new entry in my blog. The very first in the new folder named, " Dhaka Diary". New episode has begun with new surroundings, new set of people around and of course with new routine.  Life is getting charged here. 

Sabse se pehle to papi pet ke sawal ka jawab dena hota hai ! 

So eventually food, eating comes first! And Kitchen becomes my lab for experiments and the studio for creativity. 

Here I am ordering my groceries online. I am finding it very comfortable and time saving. The first time I opened the website and clicked the veggies option I found quite a few unfamiliar/exotic veggies.  I was surprised to find the strange pictures and names like thankoni pata and kolmi shak. I have started exploring them.  I googled to know their English, Sanskrit and Marathi names. That thankoni pata was none other than brahmi, very well known in Ayurvedic usage. The kolmi shak is water spinach in English, kalamba in Sanskrit and नाडी ची भाजी in Marathi. No doubt an addition to my knowledge. I have yet to try both of these plants. 

Surprised to find Mehendi leaves in the veggies list. Yes, I used that! Hope you are not thinking that I made chutney ;-). I ground the fresh Mehendi leaves in yogurt and applied that on hair.  Here is the pic of Mehendi chutney, natural hair tonic.

Last time I ordered lemons and got this thing. Here is the pic. what do you think it might be?

At first, I thought it's guava. Actually, it was what we call - Idlimbu. The leaves had a strange, peculiar aroma. So, I boiled those leaves in drinking water. That taste of water refreshed my sweet memories of our Bangkok visit and Thai food. Came to know that Idlimbu is from the family of Kaffir lime.  Made sharbat out of it. It's taste and aroma was closer to Kaffir lime. Loved that !

Today got  kaccha haldi aka raw turmeric and tried this healthy and yummy pickle. Its one my favorite pickles. Have added lemon juice, ground mustard seeds, methi dana, sauf, salt and til oil in it. Perfect !

Hope you enjoyed reading this. 

See you soon! Abbar dekha hobe!!!