Chicken ChickPea Salad - Video Recipe

Yay! We are back with another video recipe, and to continue my salad series, here is Chicken ChickPea Salad.






Vegetarian friends, as I mention in the video- just replace chicken with eggplant/tofu or don't, the chickpea may be enough 

Ingredients

• 1 large cucumber
• 1 Can or 1.5 cups of Chickpeas
• 2 cups of chicken breast (cooked- can be boiled, grilled or baked)
• 1 stalk of green onion
• 2 tbsp of crunchy chanachur pieces
• 1 tbsp of pesto (you can use more if you want)

Procedure

• Peal and cut the cucumber in half and slice into half moons
• Boil and drain the raw chickpeas or pour in the canned ones
• Layer the chicken
• Cut spring onion into bite-size pieces
• Sprinkle Chanachur
• Add the pesto and mix

And you are done! The Fabricators also seem to like it heehee

I love this salad because it is super filling and is the perfect 5 minute recipe for left over chicken. I actually made this for Sehri one day and it was perfect. 

If you guys want to make your own pesto you can use this recipe I have: (the title photo of my Page is now using the images)

http://dhakadelicacy.blogspot.com/2014/08/pesto-recipe-parsley-mint.html

Also, I added the chanachur element for my "bengali" effect but you can also use croutons if you wish- or eliminate it completely if you are watching your calories. In fact, if you want to lower the calorie content I'd say use olive oil and lemon as the dressing instead of the pesto.

Okay- hope you guys like this one, please don't forget to share. And anyone wanting to know what the song in the background is: It's my first ever song of my first album, and this is the first music video I ever made :D

Bengali Greek Salad- Video Recipe

The day has come. Thanks to EVERY single one of you readers, especially those on the Facebook page who have so incredibly encouraged me to do this, I am launching my Video Recipe Series on "Healthy Living in Dhaka!"

 


I have to give a small tribute, to this art- the art of cooking. Since my father passed away, sometimes more than music, the blog, the cooking, the planning has all been a great help, a great stress reliever. Sometimes I have to spend the whole day doing the tons of duties that I've inherited, and then I remember that I'll go home and make my own sehri, and it has cheered me up.

For  many of you who won't know My dad passed away 3 weeks back. About my dad, there's much to know about him including the fact that he loved loved loved food. He loved to cook, in addition to these duties I have inherited some kitchen equipment and lots of recipes books. And he really loved salads. So to start off in his memory, I present "The Bengali Greek Salad."

I coin the term Bengali because in the video I have stated you can substitute the Feta Cheese with Poneer. In the photo series though, I have only feta- sorry it was a boo boo on my part.

Ingredients 

For the Salad:

• Poneer (1/6 of a circle) OR Feta cheese (half a packet)
• Onions 1/3 cup (or more if you like more)
• Tomatoes (regular or grape) 3/4 cup
• Olives 3/4 cup
• Cucumber - 2 small or 1 large
• Lettuce 3 small stalks
• 1 green capsicum

For the dressing

• 2 small cloves of garlic
• Lemon juice 3 tbsp
• olive oil 7-9 tbsp (you choose
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar/ red wine vinegar
• Italian Herbs (fresh of Jar) 1 tsp

Procedure:

Chop up the lettuce and make a bed of it in a large bowl

Peel the cucumber, and slice in the middle and cut into small pieces

Slice tomatoes and capsicum and add.

Add sliced onions (you may wish to marinate in balsamic vinegar to get a less harsh taste)

Slice olives and add (or buy presliced ones if you are lazy like me)

Cut Poneer/Feta into large cubes and add.

To make the dressing:

Cut up garlic into tiny tiny pieces

Add lemon juice and oil

Add a dash of vinegar and the herbs and whisk.

The mixture should become a bit creamy.

Add the dressing to the salad and mix. Et Voila- a yummy #happyandhealthy salad. I am currently eating this at Iftaar. It's also Big enough for 2 people if you add another course!

Have to give out a shout out to The Fabricators - amazing work with the video, thank you so much. We had a blast making this. Also to Shihab Khan for the Photo of me, and, Aurna for volunteering <3 p="">

This whole video process has been so exciting and fun, has really helped me in my healing <3 p="">

Hopefully there will be more videos and recipes. Please keep reading, watching, listening.

The song featured on the video is "Besame Mucho" a cover by myself and Zak Dylan Wass from our EP "Finding Fall"- You can buy it on itunes/amazon/googleplay etc. Or just click here and buy from my site. http://armeenmusa.bandcamp.com/track/besame-mucho

Prawn salad for Sehri

Dealing with my fathers death has been hard and strange. We all deal with grief so differently. For me the easiest time was when I was by the sea. 

Oh well I shall post more on coxs bazar another day. But being back in Dhaka I have worked hard to get back to my healthy eating and living.

Ramadan is a great discipline that really helps with that. This is what I ate for sehri. 

A prawn salad with what I had left in the fridge.

Ingredients- 

Lettuce

Prawns lights fired in salt and chilli poneer (3 big pieces)

Kidney beans 1/3 

Corn 1/3 cup

Cherry tomatoes 1/2 cup

Feta cheese 

AND TOSS:

Okay I will now drink some water and hope for a great fast.

Btw if you have some times don't forget to check out my music on iTunes/YouTube/facebook

Www.armeenmusa.com 

Support my journey of soul searching- music and love! Good night lovely ones. 

Shaak Chingry (prawn and greens) Recipe

Today is my 2nd day fasting and thankfully came home early enough to prepare my own iftaar.

Of course my first iftaar yesterday was all the fried stuff accompanied with biryani! The worrying thing is that, that is "normal" - fasting is much harder when eating such oily things everyday!

Anyway- I will hopefully be doing more recipes this month to inspire myself and you guys to eat healthy especially during this beautiful month of cleanse.

Today I tried something inLOVE BUT HAVE never made myself. Shaak Chingry! 

Ingredients:

1 bunch of Kolmi Shaak (use any greens you like)
1/4 kg Chingry (Prawn)
4 green chillis
Pinch of holud (turmeric)
1 onion
Salt as preferred

Directions

Chop onions and sautee In a bit of olive oil.
Chop up the prawns and add to the onions.
Cut 2 of the green chillies and add to the mix
Add a pinch of turmeric and some salt and let the prawns cook
Once the prawns are done add the greens and rest 2 chillis and stir.
Turn off the heat and the greens cook in the warmth of the pan (usually a minute or 2.)

Serve with some rice or roti as you please. I am having Brown Basmati for my Iftaar :D

Hope you guys like this recipe. Please dont forget to Like my page on Facebook.: https://www.facebook.com/dhakadelicacy?fref=ts

And check out my music, buy my album, support me as a freelance musician. OKAY THANKS. :P

www.armeenmusa.com

Egg Salad and Honey Mustard Dressing

I am on a ROLL people!

3salads in 3 days. 

Today's salad is based on Egg.

I took out cheese today- to keep the focus. However I did make my own honey mustard dressing!! 

Anyway first things first. This is a salad for two, I had company today. Yay!

INGREDIENTS:

2 boiled eggs (I always keep 5/6 boiled eggs ready- such a great snack)

1 green pepper (and I added some left over red and yellow I had)

1/3 cup beans (I would have used 1/2 but I was out)

1/2 cup corn

A bunch of lettuce 

1 small tomato

1/2 avocado

Having said that- egg goes with a lot of things. These ingredients are kind of incidental because of what I had leftover. But I recommend always having a crunch in your salad- (pepper- celery- carrot- nuts) something creamy (avocado or egg) . Textures make a big deal you know?

Now for the dressing. I was up till 7am watching Pioneer Woman make dressings. Damn so good! I didn't have the exact ingredients. But I did a make shift honey mustard

A few tbsp of olive oil

A few drops Apple cider vinegar

A few drop of Balsamic vinegar 

2 tbsp of honey infused mustard

1 tsp of honey 

It came out pretty okay! 

I poured the whole thing on the salad and tossed 

Okay Hokies. That's me signing off. Btw I'm thinking about the VLOG AS I MENTIONED ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE.

Oops sorry for the caps, don't know what happened there! Anyway don't forget to support my music, listen to my songs, love them as your own.

Www.armeenmusa.bandcamp.com 

Feta avocado Salad

Here is today's salad! I used most of the ingredients from yesterday's one but added tomato and feta cheese and took our beans and hhalloumi. 

I could have used chicken instead of cheese. But I'm a cheese lover, plus eating vegetarian is some thing I'm starting to incorporate in my life ❤️

Feta cheese

Avocado half

1/3 cup corn

1/2 cup tomatoes

1/3 peppers 

Dressing - olive oil and balsamic vinegar 

Don't forget to add me on faceook "delicacies from a Dhakaite" and check out my music? Maybe?

Www.facebook.com/armeenm

Salad - Multipep Haloomi

Okay here goes. My new Salad posts. I have been posting FB photos of my salads for months, but you fussy readers want more. (I mean what's more? Ingredient, mix and eat, but oh no, you must know every little detail mustn't you?)

Anyway today was a weird day. I slept super late and woke up at noon and had to rush to a meeting- (On that note I am doing this fantastic new project woooo can't wait) but by the time I got back it was 4pm and I was starving. I was kicking myself for not eating breakfast and I could feel the inclination to have some bhaat and just get it over with.

Many of you may know if you follow my Facebook page, I have an eating problem when it comes to rice so am doing my best to control it. Last night I had binged on rice (thats why I slept late, was feeling overly stuffed) so I really didn't want to cave. I even did for a moment, my mom said she was sending, but then said it would be in the evening. (Will handle that as it comes)

So I took charge, thankfully I dont stock up on junk or bingy food, my fridge is just full of veggies and goodies. Also it is Meatless Monday! so I wanted to have a post. OKAY I WILL STOP TALKING NOW.

Today's Salad I call "MultiPep Haloomi" because it features Multicoloured Peppers and Haloomi Cheese as well as others.

Ingredients:

• Haloomi Cheese sliced 4 pieces (roughly 100 Grams)
• Red, Yellow and Green Pepper thinly sliced 
• 1/3 cup of or sweetcord
• 1/3 cup of mixed beans
• 1/2 of a green avocado

I didnt have cucumber or lettuce (usually my staples) but the peppers were the perfect crunch, and I enjoyed mixing it up a bit.

After taking a pretty snap, I went on to add some extra virgin oil and balsamic vinegar for my dressing (less than 1 tbsp each) But you can do lemon and olive oil and salt or any other dressing you have.

Okay till next time! I promise I'll keep doing more salads. 

Brunch at @Commonwealth Cambridge

First sorry folks for not posting anything in April or May, have no felt very inspired since I was in Cox's Bazar and posting a away. My camera is currently gathering dust. But I promise I will be back soon.

Kendall Square near MIT is a pretty posh part of Cambridge/Greater Boston. Modern architecture was always a pleasant sight for my biking days, aah how I miss. Somedays I don't think about my days in Boston, because it hurts to miss it so much. Anyway- all for you big foodies, I sacrifice.

You guys probably know by now I'm not a brunch person, but my friends certainly are. And I always end up having brunch when Jeff is in town. But I'm glad, it pushes me to explore a different kind of restaurant that I usually wont.

So this is Commonwealth Cambridge.

It was a beautiful day. I biked and took some photos <3 p="">

Oh yes and the rowers were there <3 a="" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgswD96__kwJi-7ng0o8su9Zn1dJs9tCleya_VDaovJSE7kcOVLMfq2CShs0uBmavnUhqCDtE62dt2a0l0F0UGLYGliH5fD6FpG-Ey3CnP1SdkYdqnqfi23g1sfgiJbcLgK3A6z8jQ_sJim/s1600/IMG_7022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">

Our table

The different kinds of Brunch Items.... 

Regular steak hash bcaon and eggs kind of thing, not my style really but seemed to be okay

This was my order- a Mexican infused brunch item and I liked it. (you know me I like to eat lunch/dinner food for breakfast)

But the best part....wait for it! This lovely lady, chef who works here is friends with my friend Taj, so we got to have the best bread in town <3 america="" and="" butter="" homemade="" honey.="" i="" miss="" much="" omg.="" p="" so="" with="" you="">

 We ended with some doughnuts, not my fav item here. But THAT BREAD THOUGH.

Someone take me back like right now. #BostonImissYou


Thanks Taj, Ezzy and Jeff for this outing.

Okay foodies- till the next episode.

Bhoomi - Kathmandu

Since I am a foodie, I am always searching for good eats. This also means I suffer from a lot of bad meals, mainly abroad when I am not familiar with the people in town.

This happened to me on my last Nepal trip. I was desperately searching for a good mutton curry, but Nagarkot had no mutton available, later in Kathmandu went to Bhoomi for the same reason. But was kind of disappointed.

But that doesn't mean I didnt take some nice photos. Hehe

The inside was SUPER dark- like almost night, but outside it was beautiful! 

So we started with this Nepali pizza kind of food, its this bread with stuff on it.

It sucked. But was pretty to photograph :P

 

Next we tried our luck with the thali. Yes It looks gorgeous but in reality was not very yummy.

To be honest I could not really anything at this place- but I liked the outdoor restaurant as well as the food decor.


All in all I give the food 1 star. 

Okay Hello, this is me in the cold :D

On a positive note: here is Song of the day: Yeh Jo Des - covered by us The Berklee Indian Ensemble

Our follow up to the Jiya Jale video- this one features AR Rahman himself. This song, being about India and all- still would remind me of my Desh and was essential to my decision moving back to Bangladesh. I love you songs and music, you always guide me.