It is in South Asia and borders India, Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal. Bengalis make up 98% of the population there are also many small tribes and some immigrants from India. There are also refugees from Myanmar who live in camps. The main religion is Islam but there are also some Hindus and Buddhists.
The cuisine is similar to Indian food with staples such as rice, Chapati and curry being common. Fish is very popular.
For our Bangladesh meal we made Homestyle Chicken Korma, Stirfried Cabbage with Garlic and Bengali Spices and Dharosh Bhaji with a simple pilau rice.
There was quite a bit of preparation to get all the spices together. Some we couldn't track down locally so I had to make substitutions - thank goodness for google! Also everything needed to be cooked at pretty much the same time so it was important to be prepared.
I was excited to make the stir fried cabbage. The recipes author had 'simplified' the spices by only using 3 rather than the traditional Bengali five spice mix. I decided to make the five spice mix anyway. HOWEVER - we couldn't find black mustard seeds or black cumin (nigella) so I substituted fennel seed, fenugreek and oregano.
I bought a bag of frozen okra for a previous country but I had forgotten to add it to the dish! 😁 I hadn't cooked with okra for years and I remembered it going all gloopy and nasty so I was interested to see how the frozen vegetable would work. The recipe stated that several of the spices were optional - I added them all!
It's quite difficult to find chicken breast meat on the bone but I tracked down these thighs instead. I don't usually like thigh meat but sometimes the bone is necessary to add flavour to the dish.
I rinsed then soaked the rice, then added it to boiling water, brought it to the boil again and then switched off the heat after adding a bay leaf, cardamom, cloves, and some cinnamon stick. I find this is the best way to cook rice - you leave it on the warm hot plate with the lid on and it just steams itself and is ready without you having to keep fiddling with it.
Now to start the korma. I had to puree the onion, ginger and garlic until it was liquid. Oh my goodness, my eyes were streaming with tears! This was way worse than just chopping an onion!
Then I had to add some plain yoghurt. We get our yoghurt from West Dublin Buffalo Dairy. It is an awesome local business that also makes amazing mozzarella cheese. Now while I am pretty sure a true Bangladeshi would not be using Buffalo yoghurt it was in my fridge so I used it!
This was all the liquid for the dish, I just added the chicken thighs and the spices, put the lid on the pan and let it cook away. I was really surprised that there was no stock but the juices came out of the meat and mixed in with the pureed onion and yoghurt.
Now onto the Stir fried Cabbage. I melted ghee in the pan and then the spices until they began to crackle and the aromas filled the kitchen. Then in went the garlic to caramelize and finally the cabbage. I was able to cover the pan and let it finish cooking.
The rice and the chicken dish needed caramelized onions as a garnish so I begun that process next. I was running out of rings on the hob!
Time to add the chillies to the chicken.
The cabbage is nearly ready!
On to the okra. A really easy dish, melt the ghee, caramelize the onion and garlic, add the spices and cook for a bit and then stir in the okra. I had debated thawing the okra but I didn't and I think that helped prevent any gloopiness!
The pilau rice with onion garnish
Korma chicken
Our Bangladeshi meal.
The verdict?
Delicious!
I would cook all of it again. Lots of flavour from the spices and a little heat from the chillies. It took time to prepare the ingredients but all the dishes were really straightforward to make - I must look for some of the spices in Halifax next time we visit though.
