Wherever you go after the Bijoya – Kucho Nimki is a must. Bijoya for us, meant that we visit the elder relatives and neighbours, touch their feet to seek blessings. This was followed by Pet Pujo. We were served home-made delicacies as a part of mishti mukh. Some sweets were bought from outside and Narkel Naru and others were home-made. Nimki, ghoogni and others were part of the savoury part of the platter. Kucho nimki is part of that reportoire and needless to say that everyone liked it.
The break and the surprise
Madhushree and I had decided not to work during Pujo. We had ended the Pujo reels the Saturday before. The moment we ended, it was a void. In case you haven’t watched it, you can catch them here . Pujo reels was a series of conversations on Kolkata Pujo, nostalgia. This was the first time, where I was going live on Instagram, where I was the host and the star studded line up had some of the most respected names in the food world.
It was a slow week otherwise, where nothing much happened. Till Wednesday morning it was. We planned to shoot more videos for our youtube channel and had a long shoot day. The video of Kucho Nimki can be found here. The next day, on my working table, I found an A4 page inside the laptop. Tugga figured out that we had reached 500 subs in Youtube and left a nice, touching message. We plan to preserve it for lifetime.
Kucho nimki vanished within no time
Just like my childhood, Tugga recreated it by picking up Kucho Nimki from the plate, the moment we stopped the camera. I remember, Baba used to love Kucho Nimki a lot. He loved to munch from time and again and this was one of his favourite snack in the evening. Other than home-made, kucho nimki was also sold in sealed plastic packets. The problem with these were, once opened them, you needed to finish them quickly or else a stale smell used to come. This was a great timepass and I used to have this between the study breaks, after a shower and even before dinner. Small, crispy and savoury, these are definitely power packed.
Much later, we started making Nimki makha at home, after encountering it at Madhushree and Debjani’s second pop up at Chilekotha. Added some chopped onions, tomatoes and chilies. Some lemon juice need to be added with rock salt preferably and then slight stir with a spoon. I still have Nimki Makha as evening snack.
Reaching 500 on youtube and few thoughts – celebratory video
How to become a youtube influencer and have millions of subscribers? Like many, I have also searched this and after a while I gave up. Just like the blog, Madhushree and I love creating content which is close to our heart. We had opened the Youtube channel years back. Till March this year, we had only 4 videos which are not worth mentioning. We had started uploading the videos from lockdown and some of the first ones that we uploaded were – Aloo Bati Chorchori, Golden fried prawn balls and others. We were sure to keep the making process simple. Mobile shot, edited on mobile phone and no voice over. Like many, we didn’t focus on huge production budget, getting customized music, swanky kitchen and others . We didn’t because we couldn’t. We didn’t want to.
Some bloopers and yet so much fun – the process of making Kucho Nimki
This Pujo has been a blooper in all possible way. Yet it brought in some holiday feeling, some great moments for Madhushree, me, Tugga and Brishti. We had some great conversations with Tugga over food. We all prayed silently that hopefully next year will be better. Wabi Sabi is all about accepting and appreciating the imperfect and incompleteness isn’t it? The Kucho Nimki video also had bloopers. Madhushree cannot roll a roti or a perfect round dough, it’s evident in the video. However the kucho nimkis turned out to be as perfect as they could have been. I tried adjusting my camera twice before the nuimkis came out of the oil and in the process, both times, they were little extra browned.
Shubho Bijoya and let’s pray that next year will be better than this.
Here is the video of making of Kucho Nimki and you will surely like it. If you like it don’t forget to leave a comment, like and share too –
Do try this recipe and share your feedback. You can reach out to us at our social media handles: Instagram, Facebook or any of our personal Facebook (Madhushree and Anindya) and twitter profiles. Post a picture and tag us.
Pin this on your recipe board? You can find some awesome recipes at Pikturenama recipes in Pinterest
It was after 2 years that we made this reel and the comments on this goes to prove how Kucho Nimki is still one of the most popular Bijoy snacks. Here is the link –
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjZq8mMMyX0/
Kucho Nimki
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil odorless
- 1/2 tsp nigella seeds
- 1 pinch baking soda
- salt to taste
- oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Take the flour in a mixing bowl. Make a well and add the oil.
- Mix the flour with the oil , like a crumb. Add salt, nigella seeds and baking soda.
- Add water little by little to make a tight dough. Knead for at least 8 to 10 minutes to get a smooth dough. It shoud not spring back immeditely, if a hole is poked with a finger.
- Divide the dough into three parts. Take one part and roll it out in a disc shape and as thin as possible, about 1 mm in thickness.
- With a knife, cut long strips and then cut diagonally to make diamond shaped nimkis.
- Heat oil in a deep vessel and then add the nimkis into the oil when it is hot.
- As soon as it touches the oil, it starts to puff up. reduce the temperture immedietaly and slowly flip the nimkis around to evenly cook all of them.
- When they are beautifully golden, then them out of the oil and place on a paper towel.
- Repeat the process with the entire dough.
- Serve nimki hot and the balance, you can store in a air tight container, once it has cooled down.
- It will stay well for a week, in case you don't finish before that.
Video