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 

#Happyandhealthy - quinoa salad

Hey guys! As you know ive started my new #happyandhealthy section on my facebook page- with some daily tips and struggles. But I'm hoping to bring that more to my blog with some healthy recipes.

This is going to targeted towards those of us trying to eat healthy in Bangladesh, so will make try to use some local products as soon as I've figured out recipes!

I try to have a salad lunch 2-3 times a week, I feel refreshed and light. But sometimes what happens is that I get super hungry very quickly. Thus recipe:

ingredients :

Lettuce 2cups

Chick peas 1/2 cup

Cheddar 150 gms

Cherry tomatoes 1/2 cup

Quinoa 1/3 cups

And for the dressing-

Extra virgin olive oil 1tbsp

Balsamic vinegar 1tbsp

I cut the cheddar into cubes and tomatoes in half and tossed everything together. (I had some left over quinoa that's kind of why)

Super duper Yum!

To find these ingredients : you can try any large superstore- but specifically Dhali for quinoa.

Song of the day!!

I had the honour of singing at a collaboration with Clinton Cerejo at Berklee <3 br="">Check it out- this is my most favourite song by him 

Happy and Healthy Portions- (Steak)

Wow. Being a foodie and losing weight is Hard. Especially if you are trying to lose weight before your music video shoot but are also leaving your beloved city (Boston) for good (for now at least) and thus feel the need to eat everything.

With so many emotional ups and downs that comes with graduating, moving, packing- I have been feeling lethargic and carb loading a bit. But the great thing about my mind and body is that- I never stay down too long. I was getting sick of feeling guilty and realised that I cannot focus on how many pounds I lost- I have to enjoy my last few weeks here and I can't do that if I'm feeling unhealthy.

So earlier this week I went shopping and got some veggies and meat- and made my little portion meals again- have been feeling better- so much so I started biking again!

Here is my little steak meals: Makes 5

Ingredients:

• Beef steak - I cooked around 16oz (2 large steaks cut in strips)
• Rice 2 cups-(I used a medley of brown and white basmati)
• 3 medium zucchini 
• Small onion
• Radishes (as many as you like)
• Shredded carrots (I bought a pack of it)
• Corn, beans, peppers frozen pack (1 medium pack) 
• Onion 1 small
• turmeric 1/2 tsp
• curryleaves
• olive oil (or as you like)
• garlic paste

Things I did:

I started off my putting the rice in the cooker and heated up the beans/corn combo in a pan with some garlic paste. 

Then I cut my zucchini- i put some in the oven with some garlic salt and the rest I sauteed in a zuccini curry (with curry leaves and turmeric) - THAT recipe shall be posted another day.

I cut some radishes- but midway I forgot about them- so only a couple of them have radishes.

I made 2 versions with some grilled zucchini and radishes and some with sauteed zucchini 

Per plate: 

• 1/3 cup of rice  - 71 calories
• 1/3 cup of corn/beans - 47 calories
• 1/3 cup shredded carrots - 15
• around 3oz of beef - 164
• 1/2 cup of zuccini - 41
• sprinkled radishes (5 ish calories)

Total 336 Calories- Its quite filling and low cal and YUMMMM.

Here is my song for the day: my awesome bandmate Ava Sophia released her debut single


She's amazing so CHECK HER OUT! (also on itunes etc)

Pesto Recipe (Parsley & Mint)

My dear friends Shumi and Vivek bought me this superb processor for my birthday. (haha my friends know me so well!) I have been having a blast using it- mainly for spices. But I wanted to use it to make a dish, explore this cool toy!

Miranda's Heart www.mirandashearth.com is the awesome initiative that joins people from all over Boston once a month for music, food and art! If you guys have seen the video of my latest single "Graceland" you have seen one of the events which featured my music and thus became the premise of the video.



Each month the feature is on something special, and August was Food! The theme was "First time Recipe" - ie we all made something for the first time! It was Amazing- everyone's dishes were to DIE FOR. (That will be my next post- today is just mine) So I made Mint and Parsley Pesto for the lot with some Pita Bread.

The reason I used these ingredients is because I had them hehe.

 

So I had 2 bunches of Parsley, 1 mint, walnuts ( I hear pine nuts are the in thing for pesto but I didnt have any!) and garlic, olive oil.



So I put the Garlic, nuts and leaves in the processed. (Please note : I used 5 cloves of garlic but you should use 2 as mentioned in the recipe below, cos it was too much aaah)






After a few seconds of Pulsing I added the olive oil and parmesan and then zhhuuuuuu (that's me trying to be a food processor)



So while thats pulsing listen to this song we covered in Radio Shadhin this January- Aah my life is incredible :D




After  spooning the side parts down a few times and pulsing- here is the Finished blend.



Add a tiny sprig of Mint and VOILA!



Recipe:

• 1 cup packed mint leaves, plus mint sprigs for garnish
• 2 cup packed flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 1/3 cup almonds
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Procedure:

In a food processor, combine the parsley, mint, garlic and nuts and pulse until coarsely chopped. Pour in the olive oil and add the grated Parmesan; process to a puree. Season the pesto generously with salt and pepper.

It's so quick and simple I love it!! 

Seriously I've been using it with EVERYTHING. In my quinoa bowls, with bread, my friend Sandra was over from NYC and we had this with Pita bread as our late night snack and hangout session.

Till next time lovers <3 div="">

Crabmeat Sushi Recipe

I write this in woe. It's a coincidence or not, that I was actually at a sushi restaurant in Harvard square having an incredible meal with my friend Zoya when she suddenly got a message on her phone that Robin Williams had passed away.

Robin Williams, I hadn't thought of him for a while, after being a devout fan in my childhood. Have been weeping a few days, his suicide made no sense for awhile. But my friend JB and I talked about it, and here's what it is: he had an illness and it killed him, like many other people's illnesses do.

PS, if you my friends are suffering from depression please remember it really is a disease - seek help <3 p="">
Okay okay, I know what you really want see are my recipe pictures. So here it is- home made crab meat sushi.

So I started off with decorating the ingredients so I could take some pictures for you hungry bunnies!

(Crabmeat, Scallions, Sprouts, Avocado, White Rice)

Step 1: Cut up the crabmeat (100 gm) and mix with 1 tsp of Spicy spoon

Step 2: place white rice the in the middle of your nori sheet and layer avocado, crabmeat and sprouts

Step 3: pack ingredients, dab your fingers in water to wet the sides of the NOri sheet and roll it tightly

And cut in half or as many pieces as you like (I do half becuase its quick to eat and I'm lazy)

Song insert for the week: My first single Bhromor was recorded 10 years ago when I was in high school! I'm getting old- now I'm a double graduate 

 So for Lunch I had two sheets and this was my calories count:

• Crabmeat 4oz - 100 calories
• Avocado half0 80 calories
• Spicy mayo 1sp - 20calories 
• 2 Nori sheets - 10 calories 
• Green sprouts- 30 calories
• White rice 1/4th cup- 60
• Soya sauce 2 tbsp (to dip in ) - 20 calories

Total : 320 calories . That's pretty decent for lunch. If I'm having this for dinner I'd have 3 sheets worth to be honest. I just try not to add too much rice. :)

Okay peeps, home made pesto coming up NEXT. Love you

Teriyaki Sauce and some Meal planning

And I continue my newfound series of recipes, with this: Teriyaki..

The Teriyaki sauce has a sweet and soy favour I love! And thanks to one of my tuttees and the internet I combined a few recipes to make my own:

So first I made the sauce: (full recipe at the end) - with 1/2 cup mirin, 1/3 cup soya sauce and 1/4 cup rice wine and 1 tbsp suger. (You can lower you mirin and eliminate wine- its just an extra bounce and only use sugar)

boiled this on medium heat for 20 minutes or so

at one point it will be a glaze like sauce that I store in this cute cup!

I should actually get a new pan for the chicken, but I was lazy so I put the chicken breasts in with a tiny bit of olive oil.

stir stir stir

Once it is about done I added a bit more of the sauce I made and let it sit.

Then I chopped up some green onion - I LOVE the flavour it gives!

 Now I'm getting a bowl ready with 1/3 cup carrots, 1/3 cup green onions and 1/3 cup corn

 Added 1/3 cup quinoa too

So before we conclude here is my song excerpt of the post: I composed  for a film Shongram (my first film Yay) And this is a Nazrul Geeti that was arranged for this film by Adil Hadi and myself and sung by no other than Nazrul Geeti amazes Nashid Kamal (my mom, I truly think she sounds her best, and the non traditional arrangment brought out her voice)




  Can't wait for Dhaka when I will collaborate a lot more with her! (PS buy it here http://www.amazon.com/Rashmonchey-Dol/dp/B00K61KYZY)


Okay back to healthy heating stuff: 

I was making this meal to pack some lunches for the week. I feel like I do better when I have my portions pre planned, when I go to eat hungry I just eat mindlessly. So here's to a healthy new week for me. I am trying to lose 15-20 pounds before my album launch. Fingers Crossed!!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup mirin
• 1/4 cup sake/ rice wine
• 1/4 cup Japanese soy sauce
• 3/4 tablespoon sugar
• 4 chicken breasts 4oz each 
• Olive oil
• 1 green onion
  

Procedure:

• Boil soya sauce, mirin, sugar and rice wine for 20 minutes and then store away
• use 1 tbsp of olive oil and fry chicken till brown
• stir in the sauce on low heat and let boil

Serve with vegetables, quinoa, rice = whatever you chose.

For me, I calorie counted my bowl and here is what it was:

1. Quinoa 2/3 cup - 150
2. Corn steamed -40
3. Carrots raw - 15
4. Chicken 4oz  - 175
5. Green onion - 3   

total: 383 calories (give or take)

That's a pretty decent meal. I decided not to cut carbs completely because it's unrealistic, I am sick of losing and gaining so many times. This time its not the diet but the portions Im fixating on.