The basics of CKP cooking - 1

A self-respecting CKP khavaiyya considers it a shame to not have certain basic cooking material in his or her house. These are things that cannot be tolerated if they are store bought. My mom would probably commit suicide if someone caught her buying some of these 'ready made'. These are the backbone of a majority of CKP dishes, so before we start with the actual dishes, let us learn the basics. 

The key to most CKP cooking is their fish, and at times meat dishes. No non-vegetarian food can be cooked without the pungent and aromatic ginger-garlic paste (which we call vaatan). Vaatan is one of those things that you HAVE to have in your home. Each CKP home has a slightly different version of vaatan based on the proportion of the different components that go into it ... some households add or delete some of the components. But each household also has a legendary story about the vaatan made by someone in their family - arre amchya aaji cha vaatan mhanje kaay! Nusta dagda la cholala tari chav yeil etc. etc. 

Here is my aaji's version of vaatan. I remember a time in Dadar when vaatan would only be made 'to order' as needed for the dish being cooked. But, in these times of modern conveniences, it helps to prepare a large enough batch of vaatan and store it in the fridge. It has a ridiculously long expiry date ... so no major worries about it going bad (other than changing color a bit over time). Also, if you are going to be a true CKP cook, then you never have to worry about your vaatan lasting too long. You'll always face the opposite problem - Ravivari banavlela vaatan Shukravar paryanta sampun jaata. But in case that does not happen, you can safely refrigerate it for 3-4 months.

Okay ... so here goes the vaatan recipe -

Ingredients

Peeled garlic petals - 3 handfuls - or as my mom says teen bachka bhar muthi bharun

Peeled ginger - A piece as long as your pinky finger and an inch wide 

Green chillies - 10-12

Coriander - A lot! (30 full strands of coriander - stalk and all)

There is no prep other than peeling the individual garlic petals, and peeling the ginger. 

The preparation is pretty basic - put all ingredients into a mixer/blender and blend to a fine paste. Add a little water (enough to grind everything together). No need to make this TOO thick.  You should get a nice dark green colored paste that has a pretty pungent fragrance to it. That's it. Store it in the container, put it into the fridge and use as needed. The color might turn brownish over time, but don't worry.