Aloo-r Nimki from Maa's kitchen

This past week I was at home, chatting with Baba, Maa, shopping in Gariahat and eating food that evoked memories from my childhood.

You know there was a time when I hated anything that was deep-fried. My favorite meal used to be "sheddho -baat," steamed rice and boiled vegetables with a generous helping of butter and that I could eat even for breakfast. Back then, before leaving for parties, Maa would always remind me, "Ja deoya hobe khabe" that is 'try what ever is served,' and me being the sweet obedient girl that I was, would begrudgingly try the samosas, pakoras and puris which the kakimas would prepare with care and diligence... until one fine day I began to like what I was eating and was doomed for life... :)

Nariyal Samosa (Coconut and Lime Samosa)

Unless we have company, I usually do not prepare evening snacks. A cookie or a toast is good enough with our evening tea. We like an early dinner. It isn't like that at my parent's place. They like to munch on something for tea and then have dinner around 9 - 9:30 at night... sometimes even later. Not a very healthy habit... but that is how it is... Earlier, when I was small my mother used to prepare one sweet and one savory snack everyday. Again not healthy... but that was how it was.. With time the number of snacks reduced to one but she still makes a little something everyday... and sometimes when I ask her for ideas for the blog she tells me what she prepared the evening before. That is how I was reminded of this Nariyal Samosa..

   

These samosas are a bit different from the ones that you get in the Indian stores. Typically it takes some time to prepare the stuffing for the Samosas.. but you barely need to no anything for these. Just spice up some grated coconut with green chili, add chopped onions and coriander to it, squeeze some lime juice, season with salt and sugar and your stuffing is all set. 

This recipe is my grandmother's....

After the Indian-Pakistan partition, owing to the unstable job scenario in Bangladesh, many of my mother's cousins from Bangladesh came to India and lived with them for a good many years. That meant that in addition to her family of five, my grandmother had to prepare meals for four to five more people everyday for all those years. I guess quick-fix snacks and meals would have been her saviors during that phase..  I am not sure if she bickered about the extra work load back then.. but in the years that followed I have only heard my grandmother, mother, uncles and aunt talk very fondly of the times they spent together..

I made these a couple of week's back when my cousin was here. She helped me take the step-wise photographs that you see below. In case the samosa fold feels like too much work, fold the dough empanada-style and fry them. I do not when I have to make bigger batches..

My Mother's Special Gujiya

Gujiya is one sweet that most North Indians symbolize with Holi... but that I learnt only in my freshman year in college. At home, my mother used to make them all the time. Father and I liked them much, so Maa would often make them to go with the evening chai or just like that, as munchies after a long day's work. She even packed some in my tuck box when I left for college and that is when I realized how good and special her Gujiyas were. My friends loved them and reminded me to get some back after the holidays. Maa obliged and soon that became a ritual...a ritual that continued even after my marriage. I believe she would have continued to pamper us with her supplies had we still been in India... but... we are not... So the other day, at my request, Maa finally parted with her special recipe and said I could share it with all of you if I liked....  

Anyone who has had Gujiya  will testify that besides the filling, a crunchy crust is the next best thing about it. Often, a wrong  proportion of ingredients and incorrect frying temperatures are considered responsible for a not-so-crisp exterior. Maa says, besides taking those obvious precautions, one also needs to add a bit of sugar syrup to the dough mixture while kneading it. According to her, this little detail does wonders to the texture of the crust. My grandmother had apparently cracked this halwai's-secret and had shared it with Maa and she claims that it is this little thing that makes her sweets stand out. I tried out her trick this time and was so thrilled with the outcome.. 

The initial plan was to take some of the sweets to our friend's place and play Holi there. But it got too cold to go out, so we smeared colors on each others faces and celebrated Holi at home with colors and my mother's special Gujiya....

Now a quick word about Mawa , before I go on to the recipe...

Mawa, also known as Khoya, is made by simmering full-fat milk over low medium heat for hours until it reduces to a mass of slightly caramelized granular dough-like milk solids. If you have the time and energy, you can make your own Mawa at home, just as Maa did,  or like me, you can skip the hard work and buy your mawa from the Indian store... (You can find the recipe here.)