Pohela Boishakh

[Fkread]

In April of 2010 I was fortunate enough to be involved in a teacher exchange program. 21 of us went all over Asia, Africa, and South America. I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks in Bangladesh. A fellow teacher who spent time in Afghanistan told me that I would lose weight -- that the food would be nearly inedible and I would have serious gastric distress.

It's been 3 years since I've been and there were 2 things I brought with me:
1. Traditional wet-shaving -- I'd always used a blade, but it wasn't until I lost my can of goo that I was introduced to soap and eventually migrated to a DE.
2. A yen for their cooking -- in the 3 years since I've been gone I've missed the meals there. Some of the freshest food I've ever eaten.

So today in honor of Pohela Boishakh 1420 (Bengali New Year) I had a shave with my tube of Kool Monsoon and I made a meal of chicken biriyani. It wasn't perfect, but my kitchen smell like the restaurants I experienced in Bangladesh. My kids told me that I could make it again sometime -- and they are picky eaters.

Shuvo noboborsho (happy New Year)

Kelly

 

[YetiDave]

No pics!? I do love Indian food

 

[Fkread]

No pics!? I do love Indian food

I'll have my daughter send me the one she took.

 

[memnochlv]

::droools:: I really do love food... way too much. I especially love Indian Food! My paramour and I regularly dine out at Indian joints and I even dabble at cooking it myself. I've (very successfully) prepared Chicken Tikka Masala on a few occasions, done some amazing vindaloo, some basic chicken curries as well. I've tried doing Saag a few times, but it's NEVER quite right, it's always missing something! I think it's fenugreek (methi), but won't be sure till I try again. I made some decent Methi Mater Malai (not as good as our favorite restaurant though) recently. I've always wanted to try a biriyani. It's always been one of both mine and the paramour's favorites. We've had good, bad, all ranges in between all over. Could you post your recipe so I can give it a whirl?

 

[Fkread]

::droools:: I really do love food... way too much. I especially love Indian Food! My paramour and I regularly dine out at Indian joints and I even dabble at cooking it myself. I've (very successfully) prepared Chicken Tikka Masala on a few occasions, done some amazing vindaloo, some basic chicken curries as well. I've tried doing Saag a few times, but it's NEVER quite right, it's always missing something! I think it's fenugreek (methi), but won't be sure till I try again. I made some decent Methi Mater Malai (not as good as our favorite restaurant though) recently. I've always wanted to try a biriyani. It's always been one of both mine and the paramour's favorites. We've had good, bad, all ranges in between all over. Could you post your recipe so I can give it a whirl?

Recipe to follow, but since you're in Cincy get all the spices at Col De's in Findlay Mkt. Except the Garam Masala. Get that from Dean's in the market. We use both, but my daughter prefers the one from from Dean's

2lbs of chicken
2 tbsp of oil
1 onion (red) but I used yellow (sliced into thin strips)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 knot of ginger (also minced) -- think quarter in diameter and inch thick
large can of diced tomatoes
8 oz yogurt
1/3 tsp chili powder, cumin powder (I only had whole seeds), cinnamon
3 cloves
3 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom pods (I used 4 black)
3 black pepper corns (I added 3 white because I had them)
tsp coriander powder (I used seeds)
tsp garam masala
tsp curry
2 bay leaves
1.25 tsp salt (I used fine sea salt)
2 green chilies (I used Thais)
fresh cilantro (recipe calls for a tsp -- I used a small bunch) chopped
1/3 pinch of saffron
3 cups basmati
4.5 cups water for saffon

Soak rice for 30 minutes then rinse til water runs clear. Cook
Fry onions in oil til brown
Add ginger and garlic (your kitchen smells great now)
Add chili powder, cloves, cardamom, pepper cumin, curry, garam, coriander, cinnamon, bay, and salt. (I used my mortise and pestle to grind)
Add yogurt
Add tomatoes and cook off most of the juice
Add meat and green chilies and cook til meat is done (add water if needed)
Add cilantro -- I put in way too much, but I really like cilantro
Mix saffron with water
Put rice in a baking dish and pour saffron over top add the mixture and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

I put raw cashews on top 'coz I saw it in another recipe. I didn't know what I was doing with the saffron so my rice wasn't yellow all around. Also I put the garam on everything. The stuff from Col De's is good from tea. Put a bit in tea with milk. Reminds me of what I had overseas.

My kids really loved it.

Also there is an Asian supermarket off Reading Road. When we had guest teachers at our school I took them there. That market has all the ingredients that Findlay doesn't. Good meats and speciality fish (Hilsa from Bangladesh).

I'm going to repeat this dish or make something similar this summer, but I will replace as much as possible with items from my garden -- fresh tomatoes, curry, cilantro, chilies, onions, and garlic

Good luck,
Kelly