Click for Bri: Home made Mustard, Bengali Kasundi

Ironically, after getting officially labelled as a chatterbox, there has been a sudden silence on my blog. We have been eating and cooking at home as often, with the enthu of a food blog fresher, but after reading about Bri, i just knew that my next post had to be Click for Bri. Every time I logged on to my computer, our past meals stared at me hopefully, patiently awaiting publication, but I had totally lost the inclination to post them, till I completed Click for Bri.

Briana Brownlow-'Bri' to her friends is one of the 5% of women diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 30. That was two and a half years ago.In August 2007, she started Figs With Bri - a serene, beautiful space where she shares with us her creative experiments with wonderful local organic ingredients. A month and a half ago, her worst fears came true. She learnt that her cancer has returned and metastasized to her lungs, her lymph nodes and several areas in her bones and is at Stage IV. Jugalbandi has organisd a fundraiser for Bri, to empower her to explore holistic treatment alternatives, which her health insurance company has shockingly denied !

Please visit jugalbandi and Bri to know more about her, and contribute in any way that you can to help her win this battle. You can make a difference in any or all of the following ways:

and,
Help spread the word
I have made my own humble contribution, and would like to post this recipe, which is special for me, only for Bri.
I normally dread mustard sauce, my memories tainted by years of escaping Nirula’s illogically popular mustard. But a couple of years back , at a Bengali restaurant called “Oh Calcutta” in Delhi,a freshly made version of mustard sauce called Kasundi, totally swept me off my feet , so much so that I tried to convince them to start retailing these. The restaurant manager, who knew that their flavourful mustard is what makes its customers repeatedly ordering those wonderful chops and cutlets, diplomatically managed his way out of my request. Ever since, I have tried all the different brands of kasundi that I could find, but none measured up to that one.
So, when this event was announced, I knew I had to finally try my hand at the lovely yellow kasundi, and began a frantic search for the right recipe, but managed to find only one recipe and dozens of kasundi fan clubs. It seems that most kasundi lovers buy the stuff readymade, from their trusty old sources. Since I am not so lucky, with much trepidation , I decided to use that lone recipe. Thankfully, I lucked out, as it was comfortingly close to the fabled Kasundi that I was seeking.:D/
This is how I made it:
1 small raw mango (green)
2 tbsp mustard seeds-I used a mix of
brown & yellow
5 green chillis
5 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt


Simply whizz them together in a blender, adding some water to facilitate blending. Despite adding yellow mustard seeds, the paste initially was pale green and not pungent enough, so in a moment of panic, I added a pinch of turmeric and 1 spoon of raw mustard oil. Later I realised that this was perhaps unnecessary, as the colour and flavour both intensified over the next few hours. The above proportions resulted in a nice and thick kasundi which was pungent and spicy, but does not batter your olfactory senses like some commercial ones do.
Verdict : This was so lip-smackingly good, that I actually skipped dinner and dipped anything that i could lay my hands on from crudités & crackers to ripe mango in it. It was also a fabulous dip for the pumpkin korokke ( the closest I can find to Bengali chops!) that I bought from a local Japanese deli, especially for this.

In fact, it was so addictive that I had to keep it by my bedside table, just in case !;)

So, finally how yellow was my Kasundi ?
I got so carried away, that I clicked it against all the yellow objects that I could find on my desk :-B
As you can see, a little later I almost completely lost it8-}

Dear Bri, sending this your way, with all my prayers for your speedy recovery. Your wisdom, warmth and wit so inspire us and we are all rooting for you.
Go Bri !

28 comments:

  1. WOW... that was a different recipe. Never tasted it. Looks great. Love the pictures... YUM!

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  2. nice kasundi recipe....good post for click

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  3. We love kasundi...your's looks perfect...lovely capture too :-)

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  4. beautiful and generous CLICK. I just loved ur post a lot!! :-)

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  5. very interesting...never had this before. thanks! :)

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  6. I've never tasted this but your description of it makes me want to... Looks great and a very heartfelt post too...

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  7. sunita:
    Your seal of approval is very encouraging. Thank you for coming over:)

    suku, bhags, arundathi, laavs
    Do try it out guys, its so simple, stores well and yummy!

    jz:
    Thank you so much for the nice words, and welcome to my blog:)

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  8. The mustard looks delicious :) never tasted , love the click

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  9. hi..first time to ur blog..gr8 recipes,
    nice kasundi entry

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  10. cham
    Its a pungent & mind blowing dip. Do give it a shot!

    sashree
    Thanks and welcome:)

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  11. Some awards for u on my blog

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  12. That mustard sauce is mouthwatering, great click of Rubik cube too. Good one DB!:))
    Kasundi is new to me, bookmarked.

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  13. thanks for your support and for your entry, dear rashmi.

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  14. ec:
    You are a sweetheart!Thanks

    asha:
    Lemme know how it turned out..

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  15. Home made kasundi!!Wow!Am going try it out.Just one thing ...does the mango have to be fully ripe or semi ripe for a slightly sour taste?Great pics too.

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  16. Rashmi,

    Nice recipe. Will give it a try.

    I would like to pass on the award, I got from a fellow blogger Andhra flavours. According to the rules, you will have to pass this award to four other fellow bloggers (I am sure you know it). Please copy the log from http://priya-kitchen.blogspot.com/2008_06_07_archive.html for you made my day.

    Priya

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  17. sharmila
    Do try it Sharmila.. it is so much easier than i thought, and i used raw mango.

    devi priya
    Thank you! You made my day too :)

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  18. wow, very different, and looks very easy too.. I sure will try..

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  19. Thanks! ..guess I got so carried away by the very thought of kasundi that i missed the ingredients part ...u had it right there :)
    If u don't mind ...can I ask you if you can guide me a little regarding the click event?I have been reading about Bri in everybody's blogs ...and want to do something ...but do not know how to or where to start from :-(

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  20. thanks sujatha, would love to hear your verdict

    heck no sharmila, it was entirely my mistake, which i corrected after you noticed it:)


    To know more about helping Bri, there are some links in the third paragraph of my past. I am copyin the main one for you here, which you can paste in your browser.
    http://jugalbandi.info/2008/05/click-june-2008-a-special-edition/
    In brief, you can do one or all of these:
    a. contribute for her treatment
    b. click anything food related and yellow
    c. Write about Bri and post it on your site

    Do let me know if you need any more info and I will be happy to help in any way I can.

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  21. :) main aaayi aayi aayi aayi aayiiiiii... wonderful post... and thats what puts u apart...

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  22. Thank you Swats..good to have you back !

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  23. Do we need both type of mustard ? My kasundi stock(that my Ma sends) is running out, so though of making this

    Looks lovely

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  24. Hi Sandeepa

    I made it with both sorts simply because I happen to have them on hand. Since I like the taste, I have stuck to this way.However, the book where I read about Kasundi only talked about the regular black mustard, so I guess that should work better/more authentic.
    You might also want to check Sharmila's post, she used only the black, i think.
    http://kichukhonn.blogspot.com/2008/06/potoler-chop-stuffed-parwal.html

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  25. Rashmi,
    I dropped into your post through Indrani's blog post.
    Thanks for sharing the Kasundi recipe, I had been searching for it for quite a long time. What's the use of the raw mango? Can we store it for sometime?

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  26. raw mango is not available in winters...what do we do then ?

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  27. Just tried this recipe with the first batch of raw mangoes I bought this season. Thanks for the little warning about the color! I did panic too when I didn't see it turn the usual yellow instantly, but after a while it was just fine :)

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  28. Bri--Sending you light and love. Can't wait to try the mango kasundi. Namaste. Kim

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