Garlic Chicken

6 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 egg white
4 green onions, thinly chopped
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
10 cloves of garlic, thinly chopped
1 tblsp cornflour
2 tblsp of cooking oil
1 tsp sesame oil

Ingredients for the sauce:

1 tblsp of sugar
2 tblsp of cornflour
2 tbsp vinegar
1 glass of water
5 tblsp soy sauce
1 tsp of chilli powder

Method:

In a bowl, lightly beat the egg white.
Mix in the cornflour.
Coat the chicken with the cornflour mixture and marinate for 30 minutes.
Combine the sauce ingredients , mix well and set aside.
Heat the oil in a pan.
Add the chicken and fry till the flesh is not pink anymore. Remove the chicken with a perforated spoon and keep aside.
In the same oil, add the onions, ginger and garlic and stir fry for 1/2 a minute
Return the chicken to the pan.
Re stir the sauce ingredients and add to the pan.
Cook, stirring constantly, till the mixture is hot and bubbly and the sauce thickens slightly.
Turn of heat and add the sesame oil.

Alu Potol er Dalna (Parwal with Potato)

500gm Potol/Parwal.
2 medium potatoes (cut like thick potato wedges sort of to be similar in size to the potol)
1.5 tbsp ginger paste
2.5 tbsp jeera (cumin) powder
1/2 tbsp dhania (coriander) powder
1 medium tomato (chopped fine)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp sugar (optional)
red chilly powder and salt to taste
pinch of fresh garam masala powder

The Bengali garam masala is not exactly what we buy at the Indian stores. For typical Bengali cooking I make my own by dry grinding equal parts of cardamom, cinnamon and cloves

Method:

Cut the Potol into long pieces
Mix the ginger, jeera, dhania and turmeric with ~ 1tsp water to make a paste
Fry the Potol pieces till they start becoming light brown. Remove from heat and keep aside.
To the same oil, add the chopped tomato (can replace with about 1tbsp canned tomato sauce if you are out of fresh ones) and potato pieces.
After this add the masala paste, salt and continue to fry till the oil comes out of the masala, the potatoes are cooked and well coated with the masala.
Bengali’s add a little sugar at this time.
Add Potol pieces mix well with the masala.
Add a little water (depending on how dry or wet you’d like the end result to be), bring to a boil and let it simmer till it well cooked and the gravy is slightly thick.
Add garam masala and cover till you turn off the flame.