Lebu Elish- a recipe from Abbasuddin

This one is for Gf Bhai and Shamin apu who've been requesting the recipe Ever since I posted The Lebu Elish (Hilsa Lemon Curry) from Mum's Bday Spread.

So I asked Mum, and I found out a beauitful story, it was my great grandfather Abbasuddin's find. He used to travel a lot for his music, and would come home and teach my great grandma the various recipe. This is one of them: which later Moyna learned to master

Ingredients:
1. Elish mach (Hilsa)
2. Lime/lemons
3. challots/ bite-sized onions
4. green chillies

Procedure:
Marinate with Hilsa and the mini onions with the juice from the lemons for a few hours. (make a proper juice dip, not sprinkle)

Make a curry with oil, salt, turmeric (holud) and very little boiling water (no onions in the curry), and cook the fish and onions in the curry, towards the end add the green chillies.

Et Voila! cooks, please cook and send me the pictures, we'll blog it :D

Please don't forget to click on my music pages and support my journey as an independent artist. Ah my dear great grandfather- how you lovingly did it all, a family, a career, your audience, your community your religion. Please send me your prayers as I try my best to live up to the name <3 p="">
www.armeenmusa.com

Late lunch with Navz

Had an impromptu meal with Navin today. I was yet to see her and R's own apartment, which they moved into after tying the knot. Had a free afternoon and when I called, she said she was making chicken curry for the first time at her own place. Have a heard a lot of Navz' cooking from the TO bunch, but was yet to taste it.

And it was yum- she used a curry powder and her own methods and make a chicken bhuna type curry. There was also prawn from Sangeeta Aunty's place and Daal from mine.
I have to say, it was a good meal; there's something about watching the food cook and then eating it, the appetite and the appreciation increases:

Mum's Birthday Bash

Today was a super feast at my place today! Was mum's bday, and we had items cooked by Mum herself, Moyna (my great aunt), and we had catered from Ayisha Aunty's (amazing chef our family regularly uses for our big dinners.)

So I'll start with the food made by Mum at our house:

Firstly is Mum's famous tandoori chicken-

I do know the recipe of this one:
very basic marinate the chicken with tandoori masala from before and then roast slowly in the oven, add potatos (or other veggies) halfway through. Can also be done in the microwave (yes it's bad for you, but we dont have an oven right now)

2 veggie dishes by Mum, the sauteed veggies were featured in my last post, the 2nd one is a niramish with no holud (turmeric) or chili powder. Just Pach Foron and olive oil.

To be fair, this one was made by Mushi Bua (our old cook who comes over every time we entertain to help us out), but Mum's recipe was used, lots of onion and oil is used to make this RUI MACH BHUNA.

Next comes Moyna's SUPERB cooking. She made all of my personal favourites :D

Firstly the salad she makes for Iftaar during Ramadan. It a fruit salad with potatos, apples, lettuce, chicken sausage and oranges. What I love about this dish is how healthy it is: The dressing is made with yogurt and salt and pepper :D

And the one me and lightlovetiptoes frequent her house for : Lebu Elish (Hilsa in Lemon Curry)
The yummiest part of this dish are the whole miny onions that float in the gravy. I had 2 helpings of this one!

From Mrs Ayisha's Kitchen were Dohibarra (Yogurt Dish), Deshi Murgi Jhal (Chicken Curry), Achar Gosh (Beef):

Lastly the cake from Shumi's Hot cake: A bakery whose standard has always been maintained for years and years, HATs off!

And here's a pic of the Happy Party feasting away, yum yum..

Till my next food adventure.....
~moondizzy

Home-cooked Farewell Dinner

My sister (lightlovetiptoes) was leaving for London, and we knew she would fuss about her last meal at home, so me and mum took no chances and cooked it ourselves.

Mum made Chingri Do-peyaza (Prawns and Onion) and Sauteed Vegetables in Sesame Oil, I made Bengali Chicken Curry (pretty much the only thing I can cook) and we had the usual Daal, tomato chutney, Shaak alu torkari (Spinach-potato curry), borboti bhaji etc...

Mum's V:eggy up close

My Chicken being cooked:

The meal:

Dinner by Chef Anté Huq!

An impromtu invitation to dinner at Anté's resulted in us feasting to her yummy creations.
We had fresh veggies with Blue Cheese dip

 Home made Hot Wings:

A special treat was this pasta in garlic, olive oil with shrimps and homegrown organic sundried tomatos! (speciality from the Huq rooftop terrace garden)
And some Corn on the Cob:

My plate with a bit of everything :D:D

Hopefully Chef Anté will be cooking more yums for me to post and maybe give us some recipes too!

Late night Hunger at Regency

Yes usually Regency Hotel is the last place you'd find me in Dhaka. But i was there to watch Lokkhi Terra perform at their Club 13 venue. It's a shame, the hotel is actually quite nice, the crowd has sadly made their rep kind of go downhill.

So after the show, we were chilling with the band late night, when we decided we were starving and went wandering around. Regency has this 24 hour restaurant, and yes the prices are steeper than normal restaurants in Dhaka. But it was Really late, and we were starving. So we just ordered whatever we were craving, taking little care that most of the time, what is said on the menu is rarely what is served.

And lo and behold, we were in a for a pleasant surprise. the 3 of us ordered 3 things and 1/3rd everythign.

1. Burger - this what a real burger should be like. the bread wasnt squishing the meat in a mesh of mayo and ketchup, the bread was of the right softness, the meat was yummy, the salad was fresh. Best real american burger i've had in a while

2. Green curry with rice (chicken)- anyone who knows me, knows i CRAVE good green curry. I dont like it over sweet, over coconutted, or too smelly like the streets of Bangkok, but rather a "restaurant" version, the right density in the gravy, and not too spicy or sweet, AND of course, there is no green curry without the beautiful aubergine (which rarely is added, and yes ive had green curry at hundreds of restaurants, all over the world.) This one was perfect, i could have had another EASILY. BEST green curry in Dhaka


3. Frutti de Mare- (Seafood Pasta) another of my regular loves, bella italia in dhaka, is the only place i dare to order this, but I have to say, Regency's chef beat the cooking out of Bella's. The sauce was just PERRRfect, enough seafood (i missed the presence of squid tho)


All in all, i think this meal was the BEst meal i've had in Dhaka in the 4 months i've been here (I do admit that I 'll have to go again to make sure it wasnt my late night hunger that drives this post) . And yes the price is steeper than the usual and quantity is medium, but oh SO worth it.

5 stars from me, to Regency's Chef!

Mollika- some things never change

From my O'levels to A'levels, I think me and Sami ate at this place everyday, parking our car on the side of the road, before or after (sometimes both) our coaching classes. Phuchka at 20taka and the most FANTASTIC chicken sandwhich, made in a sandwhich maker with a side of Bangali tomato sauce, and egg mayo. Was heaven.
Ever since I moved back to Dhaka, i promised myself the treat of this sandwhich, which I havent had more almost 6 years, but I was kind of scared to taste them, in case my inexperienced taste buds at age 17 had built it up too much.

But today was the day, Nusha was craving phuchka so I decided to face my fears and head over to Mollika. AND BOY I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED! It is still the yummiest roadside sandwhich you can get EVER!

Of course, it's the sentiment that adds the value, but this is one of my favouritest little meals in Dhaka City.

My heavenly chicken sandwhich

Phuchka..

Till my next meal out :-)