Bengali Dal: Fat Free or Low Fat Bengali Recipes

Bengali people have gotten into the bad habit of choking their food with oil. It doesn't have to be this way. My grandmothers were both from present day Bangladesh: one cooked with almost no oil, and the other one cooked with lots of oil. The former was frugal, the latter was extravagant.

And what are we all, today? LAZY.

Here's a low fat recipe. Measure your oil with a measuring spoon.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup musoor dal (red lentils) washed
1 tsp oil (mustard preferred)
1/2 tsp Kalo Jeera (kalonji) - NOT onion seeds
1-2 dried whole red chilli
1/4 tsp haldi (fresh or powder turmeric)
1 cup water
salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat the 1 tsp oil in a pan on medium heat. When it gets hot, add the Kalo Jeera and dried red chilli.
2. As it starts smoking, take the pan away from the heat, add haldi, dal.
3. Put the pan back on the flame, add water and bring to a boil. Boil for 20 minutes on medium low. You dal should be gently boiling. If you bring it to a rolling boil, then keep checking and adding water until the dal is completely cooked.
4. After the dal is cooked, add salt to taste.
5. Optional step: if you want, you can take a hand blender to the cooked dal, blend it a little till it's a nice thick smooth-ish dal and let it come to a boil once more.

Serve 'Daal Bhaath' by pouring Dal over fresh Rice.

Low carb Sweet and Sour Shrimp

You won't be able to stop eating this. The sweetness is mild... not the comatose sweetness one is accustomed to at the Chinese store (which I absolutely love... that sweetness that makes you wonder why it isn't in the dessert menu).

It's quick to cook, but if you buy shrimps with their heads on, it takes a while to shell and devein them. If you get the pre-shelled deveined stuff, this is going to be a cinch. But leaving the head on the shrimp makes a big difference in the end product. I think the bulk of the shrimp flavour is left in the shrimp head.

Sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sweetner (Splenda)
2 tbsp cooking wine or sherry
2 tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup water

Stir Fry:
2 lbs shrimp
2 cups red onions, cut into chunks
2 cups green or red or yellow peppers, cut into chunks
2 cups of pineapple, chunks

2 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Steps:
1. Heat the oil on medium high. Add oil.
2. When hot, add ginger, garlic. Stir till fragrant.
3. Add onions, green peppers. Stir fry on high for 2 minutes.
4. Add shrimp. Stir fry till it turns pink. Turn heat to medium.
5. In a separate bowl, mix all sauce ingredients together and add to the stir fry. Stir until sauce thickens.
6. Add salt to taste. Stir thoroughly.
7. Mix in pineapple pieces. Turn off stove and let it stay on the heat so the pineapple pieces get warmed through.

Enjoy with rice/barley/noodles/shirataki noodles.

yum, yum, YUM!

Avoid Drinking when losing weight

Drinking alcohol while losing weight is extremely tricky. So tricky in fact that I have decided to stop drinking until I've achieved my target weight. It's not easy saying no to a glass of wine when it brings back pleasant memories.

(source:http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Danilo Rizzuti)

The disadvantage is not strictly in the alcohol in itself. It is in the temptation to eat junk food WHEN buzzing or drunk.

Here is a nice list of items to order when out "drinking" with your friends:
http://voices.yahoo.com/non-alcoholic-drinks-order-bar-1756261.html

I think Virgin Daiquiris and Virgin Pina Coladas are calorie dense. I really like the "Bartender's suggestion" idea. You'll be up for a surprise each time. Just say, "I want a non-alcoholic drink that's not too high in calories... a little calories is okay :)" Always finish the request with a winning smile :D

(source:http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Danilo Rizzuti)

Did you know TONIC WATER has CALORIES? How can you call something "Water" and add calories to it? It's so wrong! So unethical. Here's an idea... How about I open a hamburger store and call my main dish the 'Water Hamburger'. It sounds like it's low in calories, but it'll have double the calories of a BigMac. No one will clue in, and it'll be a big hit. Then I'll be sued on grounds of being unethical.

Silly.

Fruit Salad - A Delicious Lowfat Treat

Shopping in a certain pattern means your pantry is filled with foods of a certain kind ... which leads you to create dishes that line up with that pattern. Logical.
I found a few ingredients in my kitchen this weekend that when put together were absolutely delicious and to my surprise the whole thing was very nearly fat free!

This is absolutely delicious, creamy and really feels like a treat. It is sweet, though.

(source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Sura Nualpradid)


Ingredients:
2-3 cups (total) of fruits, chopped
          Kiwis
          Apples
          Grapes
          Bananas
          Strawberries
          Anything you want
1 package Vanilla fat free instant pudding mix
1 cup fat free or 1% milk
1 cup fat free Coolwhip, thawed in the fridge
2 tbsp of fat free or regular Sour Cream

Method:
1. Take a bowl into which all of the ingredients will fit.
2. Mix the Vanilla pudding mix with milk.
3. Stir in the coolwhip and sour cream.
4. Mix in the fruit, thoroughly.

Refrigerate for 1-2 hours and serve.

So so so so good.

Eggplant Lasagna

This is absolutely and incredibly delicious. Try it.

Substitute "noodles":
1 large eggplant, cut into 3mm thick slices
White sauce:
1 small clove garlic, minced
150g low-fat cheddar cheese
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp flour
1 cup skim milk
1 tsp oregano
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
Red sauce:
1 cup pasta sauce
1/4 cup ground beef
a few sliced black olives


Salt to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lay out the eggplant in single layer and bake for 20 minutes.
2. The white sauce: Make a roux with the oil, flour and garlic. Stir in the milk, mushrooms and cheddar cheese until it all mixes together and thickens. Taste and add salt if necessary.
3. The red sauce: Cook the ingredients for the red sauce together. Add salt if necessary.
4. Layering: 1 layer eggplant, all the red sauce, remaining eggplant in 1 layer, all of the mushroom white sauce, and a thin layer of cheddar cheese.
5. Bake in 350 deg oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Lau Maach, Squash with Salmon in a Mustard and Poppyseed sauce, লাউ মাছ পোস্ত দিয়ে

I couldn't find a Bengali recipe for Squash or Lau (Gourd) with Salmon. Since Lau-Chingri (Gourd with Shrimps) exists, then why not mix Lau with another oceanic creature?

So here is my lovely creation. I have to say, it tastes absolutely wonderful with some rice. Doesn't take long to prepare either.

400-600g salmon, cut into 100g pieces
1 large squash cut into thin 1 inch pieces (roughly 3-4 cups)
2 tbsp black mustard, ground
1 tbsp white poppy seeds, ground
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp turmeric/haldi powder
2 tbsp mustard oil
1 tsp panch phoron
2 green/red chillies (optional)
salt to taste
1.5 cups of water

1. Place the ground mustard seeds, ground poppy seeds, 1 tsp red chilli powder in a non-reactive bowl and add 1/2 cup of water to soak the seeds in. Leave this for 10 minutes or so. If the mixture looks dry add a little more water until it is the consistency of cooked oats  or beaten eggs.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the Salmon with 1 tsp of haldi and some salt. In a heated pan, add 1-2 tsps of oil and lightly fry the salmon for 1 minute on each side.
3. Remove the fish from the pan and keep it on a separate plate.
4. To the pan still on the heat, add the remainder of the mustard oil. Wait till it's hot then add the panch phoron.
5. Once the panch phoron sizzles, add all of the squash/gourd/lau at once and mix thoroughly. Add salt to taste.
6. After about 5 minutes of cooking, add the mustard/poppy seed paste, 1.5 cups of water, green chillies and stir till everything is evenly combined.
7. Drop in the salmon pieces gently. Submerge under the liquid. Cover the pan with a lid and turn the heat to medium-low and let it come to a boil.
8. Cook all of this for at least 10-15 minutes.

Serve with hot rice.

Yum! Yum! Yum!

Low-fat low-points Banana Pineapple Walnut Cake

Makes 12 slices

Ingredients, PointsPlus value
Group1:
2 cups flour, 24
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup Splenda
1/4 cup powdered or regular sugar, 4
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a little freshly ground nutmeg

Group 2:
1 cup (8oz.) pureed pineapple or 1 can crushed pineapple
2 cups pureed or mashed bananas
2 tbsp oil, 6
2 eggs, 4
1 egg white

Group 3:
1.5 cups chopped or sliced bananas
1/2 cups chopped pineapple
1/4 cup walnuts broken, 4

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix Group ingredients
3. Mix Group 2 ingredients
4. Combine the Group 1 and Group 2 ingredients till just thoroughly combined
5. Add in Group 3 ingredients and fold everything together till thoroughly combined.
6. Divide into 2x9-inch round baking tins. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

This cake is quite moist and quite sweet. I left a little bit of oil and sugar in for a nice taste and partly for texture.

Delicious served cool or warm. If you can splurge a few calories, a light cream-cheese frosting will be nice.

PointsPlus value per slice: 3.5

Lower Calorie, Yet Delicious, Cakes

Some ways to get lower calorie yet very delicious cakes:
1. Replace oil with apple sauce.

2. Use diet-soda instead of eggs and oil while making a box cake:
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/12/diet-soda-cake-35-pts.html

(source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ Stuart Miles)

Example:

Here is a lemon-poppyseed cake I love, but I replaced the oil with apple sauce and eggs with mostly egg whites:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/lemon-poppy-seed-bundt-cake/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=poppyseed&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e13=A%3aSearch%20Results-List%28control%29&e7=Recipe%20Search%20Results

PointsPlus Calculation:
1 box cake (lemon flavour) = 55 PointsPlus
1 instant pudding mix (vanilla flavour) = 11 PointsPlus
1 egg = 2 PointsPlus
4 egg whites = 1 PointsPlus
1/2 cup apple sauce = 1 Points Plus
TOTAL = 70 Points Plus

Total weight of cake made = 892g
Each slice (1/6th of cake) or 1 Cupcake = 72g

Points per slice or per cupcake = 6 PointsPlus

Broccoli with besan

A very nice idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZibdpSaep4

I also added a bunch of vegetables I had in the fridge: cauliflower + green peppers.

A Treat: Stuffed Peppers

And its low calorie + low carb!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aQat94Ixig