Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Completing the Classic Sweetmeat Trio

গোলাপ জাম 

Golap Jaam


Golap jaam in rose and cardamom syrup,
served with crushed pistachio

This post about golap jaam (and by extension kalo jaam) feels like a big milestone. Being able to cook these sweets, along with roshogolla, completes an important trio of Bengali sweetmeats that I grew up with. Roshogolla, golap jaam and kalo jaam were the safe, go-to desserts in our family, bought en masse for special occasions, celebrations and the traditionally Asian practice of delivering sweets with good news. They are rarely cooked at home in Bangladesh. All three are milk-based, but while roshogolla is traditionally made from boiled cheese curd, golap and kalo jaam are made from deep-fried milk solids. The difference between golap and kalo jaam is the sugar added to kalo jaam, which creates a dark, caramelised outer layer during the frying process. Some sweet shops even add purple food colouring to their kalo jaam, making it look more like the fruit it is named after. This recipe is obviously not all that traditional, constrained by ingredient availability and practicality outside Bangladesh. It grew from a mishmash of recipes collected by word of mouth, with ingredient amounts cross-referenced from various sources online. As such, I don’t really want to claim it as mine. I do, however, want to highlight a few things I learned from cooking these sweets multiple times. First, to address the various horror stories of disintegrated dumplings or sweets with uncooked centres: I think these are more the result of our habits – not writing down recipes and estimating ingredients! If you’re a beginner, then yes, these sweets will be a challenge. But if you’re a fairly regular cook, used to forming dough and deep frying, there’s not much to worry about here. The “dough” from the recipe below doesn’t disintegrate easily, even with slight cracks, as long as you add enough milk to hold it together. 

Kalo jaam in syrup
Some of these were overcooked, some were burnt
Hard to tell them apart in my opinion

Also, make sure you have enough oil for the dough balls to properly float in; otherwise they will burn at the bottom where they touch your pan. While making golap jaam, you can quite comfortably cook the sweets on medium-low heat for some time without any burning. And if do you start to burn them, it’ll be obvious from the blackening on the dough – immediately take the pan off the heat and scoop out the sweets.  And if you undercook them, leaving a hard, uncooked lump in the middle, boiling and soaking the sweets in syrup will usually soften your centre. It only gets difficult, in my opinion, with the kalo jaam: it’s hard to tell while frying whether the dark (almost black) sweets are the result of sugar caramelising or actual burning. I’ve found no way around this, apart from making sure I have plenty of light directed towards my stovetop! My second note is on ingredients (the below amounts make approximately 20 sweets). I haven’t specified the fat content of the milk in the recipe, largely because I have obtained similar results whether I opted for whole or semi-skimmed. I like to think this is because the fat content is mostly provided by the double cream. Despite the very non-traditional approach here, the end result feels surprisingly authentic (a dangerous word!). Of course, the sweets will be lacking the earthy flavours of ghee made on a kindling stove, and the rich flavours of raw, unrefined sugar – fortunately the rose and cardamom will go a long way in masking those “deficiencies”. And with that, I feel like my Bangladeshi dessert repertoire has grown a strong backbone. Time to move onto shandesh! 


Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Review: Sushiya

Wrapping Up Edinburgh Fringe



Tokyo roll: deep-fried breaded chicken fillet
and avocado


Our annual trip to Edinburgh for Fringe was slightly chaotic this year. On the Thursday night, we were still looking for a place to book for dinner on Saturday. We thought everything would be packed, but by some stroke of luck Sushiya were able to give us a table for 5 at 8pm. The place had come highly recommended by word of mouth, and it was just 5 minutes from Haymarket Station, letting us catch the last train home after stuffing our faces. I had been told it was small and casual, and I knew nothing beyond that as I refrained from Googling (I've decided to make this rule for places that people IRL recommend!). At worse, I thought, we'd have some reasonably priced sushi. However, we actually had great sushi, and I came away wishing that my local was as good (sorry Yorokobi!).



 On the left: 20 pieces of beef tataki
On the right: BBQ eel nigiri


We were, I suppose, the perfect group for a sharing menu: at least three of us were sushi-obsessed, accompanied by two other easygoing diners. At the very start of the meal, we rattled off a long list of "wants" to our waitress, and bolstered this with two or three additional dishes during our meal. I will let the (phone) photography do most of the talking but I'd like to say that my favourite dish of the night was BBQ eel nigiri - sweet, oily and luscious. The Tokyo roll deserves an honourable mention - I have a particular weakness for the nori, breaded chicken and mayo combo. The beef tataki was very fresh, and I almost felt like I didn't need the sauce to swallow down the slivers of meat. I was also impressed by the soft shell crab roll, which isn't one of my usual preferences. 



 On the left: chicken and egg donburi 
On the right: grilled miso aubergine


Most of the prices were very reasonable: 5 pieces of sashimi cost £5 and upwards, most sushi costs £4.50 and upwards, rolls start at around £8. The rice and noodle dishes hover around the £10 mark, apart from the fancier beef sirloin and mixed seafood dishes. The only surprise is the tempura, which starts at £8 for a rather small portion. Dessert is limited to sesame or matcha ice cream, and will perhaps feel an unnecessary expense for £4 a scoop, but it is good quality. In fact none of the ingredients - raw ingredients included - made me feel like the restaurant was skimping on quality. We paid £30 per head for food and alcoholic drinks, and I wouldn't claim this is a cheap meal, but it is good value for money considering what you get. 



Dragon roll: avocado, cucumber, king prawn tempura


My only advice would be to skip the noodle and rice dishes unless you need something big to fill you up. The oyakodon (or chicken and egg donburi) we sampled was good, but not great. Similar, or even better versions of those dishes can be had elsewhere, albeit probably for a bit more money. Visiting in a group of three or four is also a good idea - this gives you a group small enough to fit the space there but lets you try a large cross section of the menu. Service is quick and friendly, but at no point did we feel like we were being pushed out,, even on a crowded Saturday night. Beware that the seating isn't the most comfortable: high stools and tables abound, simulating counter-top eating everywhere. Indeed, the restaurant does feel like a bit of a takeaway, though it probably seats almost 30. Given the size, I would definitely recommend booking before you go. And if you're in Edinburgh and like sushi, you should definitely go.





Food: 7.5/10
Service: 7/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Value: 7/10

Final Score: 7.5/10



Contact Information
A: 19 Dalry Road, Edinburgh, EH11 2BQ
T: +44 (0)131 313 3222

NB. The final score, while influenced by the sub-scores, is a qualitative reflection of my overall impression of the establishment.