Schezwan Rice

Few days back I took a day off from work and utilized it in the best possible way I could. I did whatever I had planned for that day but amid of all the chores, suddenly a thought ran through my mind - What to have for lunch? Well, I opened my Fridge and found some cute little veggies peeping through the vegetable basket. 

After seeing those I thought of preparing Noodles (usually that's the best option I get when I want to finish off my veggies). But with the flick of mind I thought why not Schezwan Rice! It was completely impromptu preparation but the end product was so palatable that I couldn't resist the blogger inside me to click few pics to blog. 

Schezwan Rice is one of the most loved dishes in Indo-Chinese cuisine. You can find this dish in almost every Menu Card of Indo-Chinese restaurant. If you love a little spicy food I'm sure you will love this dish too. I'm not a full-time spicy food lover but I do like it sometimes. It's hot, spicy and completely irresistible. 

The prime ingredient of this recipe is the: Schezwan Sauce. If you have it handy then making Schezwan Rice is like a child's play. I like to add lot of veggies to my Fried Rice. You can make this recipe completely Vegetarian or add meat of your choice. This time I added few shrimps. 

So, let's start with the recipe: 

Bhature

Chole-Bhature is one of the most popular recipes of North India. It is a breakfast invented in Delhi after partition and now a days, it is a popular breakfast around Northern India and other parts of the country too.

I had spent almost 8 years of my childhood in Punjab and may be that's the reason I have a great affinity towards North Indian cuisine. I have posted the recipe of Punjabi style Chole long back. Here is the link of the recipe for Punjabi Style Chole. It took me almost a year to post the recipe of Bhature (to be very frank I don't know the exact reason). 

Bhature is one of my family's favorites. These soft fluffy deep fried breads are so delectable that I consume 1-2 Bhatures while making them. One might think procedure of making these Bhatures seems to be very tough but trust me this "no failure" recipe will prove them wrong. The first time I made these, I was quite amazed that how soft and fluffy they came out. Since then every attempt I made, I ensured I have it accompanied Chole with Bhatures and nothing else.

One more specialty of this recipe is that its Yeast Free. So, let's keep the calorie part aside and indulge yourself into this lip smacking recipe of Bhature:

Patishapta.......Crepes with Coconut Filling

Last week we all celebrated the Harvest festival which is known as "Makar Sankranti" in India. As India is a very diversified country this festival is known by many names; Bhogali Bihu, Pongal, Magha Sajji, Suggi, Sankrat to name a few. We Bengalis called this festival as "Poush Sankranti" as this festival marks an ending of Bengali month called "Poush".

For us this festival is known for the reason of making "Pithes" so another name for this festival is "Pithe Parbon". I still remember the tradition of making Pithe-Paayesh in my family. My Mom along with my Grand Mother used to make lots of Pithes to celebrate this festival.

To keep the spirit alive I too make some Pithes which I learnt from my Mom. I have posted few recipes of Pithes here. You can have a look here:

Golap Pithe/ Edible Rose Garden

Hridoy Horon Pithe/ Heart Shape Pithe

Malpua/ Sweet Indian Pancakes

Gajorer Patishapta/ Carrot Crepes

Gurer Paayesh/ Rice Pudding with Date Palm Jaggery

As these days Nolen Gur (Date Palm Jaggery) is widely available in West Bengal, so I wanted to combine the goodness of Nolen Gur with the awesomeness of Patishapata. So, let's begin with the recipe: