Kaliji Bhuna/ Beef or goat liver bhuna

Eid-ul-Adha was never complete without Kaliji bhuna and parathas in the next morning of Eid !! Ahhhhh !!! After coming to USA , I started my culinary journey alone . Mom is not there , Aunts are not there , none , whom I can ask for “Garma garam ” / just fried parathas and liver bhuna . Everytime I tried making them , they became so hard , hard as a rubber , tasteless and tough . I didn’t know , what could be the problem . I tried every single tips my Mom gave ; don’t cook too much , don’t add salt before . But still then !!! I gave up thinking may be only few can cook kaliji perfect , unfortunately I’m not one of them !! Well , until I came across some of my Pakistani neighbors and I realized the mistake . Yes I do wash kaliji in boiling water which is a complete no no. The moment I found out the mistakes I made ,till then , I love cooking kaliji/ liver . Instead of being upset , now everytime I cook them ,I always feel like , I am really one of those luckiest people who can cook kaliji properly !! 😀 Yahoooooo !!!

Before I share the recipe , I would like to share some tips . Many , just like the old me , “the unhappy , total failure kaliji cook” ,complain that their lever bhuna gets tight, smelly and rubbery !!! here you go with some tips , if you follow , you will never go wrong !!

1. Don’t try to wash the lever with hot water . We don’t need hot water to let the blood and impurities inside the lever come out . Just use regular water . Soak the lever in regular , normal temperature water with salt and little vinegar for minimum half n hour . Change the water . Repeat the process 3 times . No need to use vinegar these times . Soak the lever in water only . You will see the color of the lever changed and there is no more red , bloody water .
Soak the lever in milk for another half n hour . Wash with water. This process would help the lever not to smell bad and to be cleaned properly .

2. Don’t over cook the lever , that would make it tight and rubbery . Maximum 15 -20 minutes . The time may vary depending on the stove and the power . The easiest way to know the kaliji is done , is to poke a toothpick , if it comes clean and without hassle , it is done . So don’t use lots of water to cook the lever.

3. Don’t add salt before you finish cooking . Add salt at the end of the cooking . If you add salt before , the lever will get tight and at the same time no spice is going to get inside it as salt tends to lock the flavor . Just add salt at the end and enjoy flavorful kaliji bhuna .

4. Another important point , many says that the kaliji looks so dark . The reason behind is kaliji gets darker with time . The fresh liver or kaliji will look less dark than the days old liver . So try to cook the liver immediately .

5. If you can manage do the cleaning process without cutting the liver in pieces . Just but the whole , intact liver than wash as mentioned above . Then cut in pieces . It helps to prevent the liver to get darker ,at the same time removes bad smell from it .

Now Let’s come to the recipe ;

Ingredients :

1 lb beef/ mutton liver
1 large onion , thinly sliced , ( around 3/4 th cup)
1 tbl spoon ginger paste
2 tea spoon garlic paste
3 or 4 garlic cloves , pounded
1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder
2 tea spoon chili powder
4 green cardamoms
1 stick of cinnamon , (2″ stick )
2 bay leaves
Salt to taste
oil
Whole green chilies
Kaliji masala , apply all

Kaliji Masala :

3/4 th tea spoon dry roasted cumin powder ( bhaja jeera gura)
1/2 tea spoon dry roasted coriander powder
1/2 tea spoon fennel / sauf/ mouri powder
1/4 th tea spoon nutmeg powder,

1/4 th teaspoon mace powder
3 green cardamoms,1 black cardamom

2 dry roasted red chilies ( don’t blacken )

1/4 tea spoon nigella/ kalojeera

1/4 tea spoon fenugreek or methi

1 tea spoon black pepper
4/5 cloves

Grind them together in fine powder .

Procedure :

1. Take little kaliji masala and rub on the kaliji , that would help to remove the bad smell too .

2.Heat oil and add the whole garam masalas- cardamoms , cinnamon and bay leaf . Add the sliced onion and fry until golden brown . Now add ginger paste , garlic paste . Add little water . Now Add chili powder , turmeric powder , pounded garlic and cook . Cook the masalas well until the raw flavor is gone . Careful , don’t burn the masala , or don’t burn the onions or make it too dark , resulting in dark kaliji bhuna .

3. When the masalas are cooked well , add the kalijis/ liver and cook them on medium flame . Add water little by little and cook until the kalijis are almost done and the water inside it dries out . Now add little water and cook until the desired consistency comes . Just little before of turning off the stove , 5 minutes earlier, add salt and whole green chilies . Don’t add salt at the very begining of cooking , that would make the kaliji hard too . Add the kaliji masala at the end of the cooking , turn off the stove and keep the kaliji pot on the warm stove with lid on until the oil separates .

Notes :

1. many loves cubed potatoes with kaliji bhuna . You can add the potatoes just before adding the kalijis .

2. Sometimes we cook the kidneys , lungs along with liver . Remember , kidney( gurda) , Lungs (phepsa) takes more time to cook than the kaliji . So When cooking together . Add the gurda and phepsa before kaliji and when those are half done , add the kaliji .

কলিজি ভুনা:

উপকরণ :
১ পাউন্ড গরু/খাসীর কলিজি
১ কাপ মিহি স্লাইস করা পিয়াজ
১ টেবিল চামচ পিয়াজ বাটা
১ টেবিল চামচ আদা বাটা
২ চা চামচ রশুন বাটা
৪ বা ৫ কোয়া ছ্যাচা রসুন
১/২ চা চামচ হলুদ গুড়া
২ চা চামচ বা স্বাদ অনুযায়ী মরিচ গুড়া
২ টা তেজপাতা
৪/৫ টা এলাচ
১ টুকরো দারুচিনি স্টিক
লবন,স্বাদ অনুযায়ি
তেল
৫-৬টা আস্ত কাচা মরিচ
১/২ টেবিল চামচ স্পেশাল কলিজার মশলা