Kitchen Notes

Prepping fresh spices for my kitchen

A few notes from my kitchen, which is a digital as well as a physical space. I've realised that over time, the tips I write down about ingredient types or cooking methods get lost in each post I mention them. Hence, I'm gathering a lot of that information onto this page, and hopefully it will make the blog more usable. 

Dry Herbs & Ground Spices

I buy my spices already ground from supermarkets. I store them in a rotating spice rack, and keep them away from direct sunlight by living in Scotland. I don't cook everyday, as my family did when I was younger, so my spices stay in my kitchen for a while. And honestly, though ground spices lose their potency with prolonged storage, you can always just adjust and add more spice. This is what I do, so to someone who uses fresh spices, my measurements may seem a little much. I'd advise adjusting down, and spice balances are a personal preference anyway. For confident cooks, my measurements should be for guidance only! 

Of course, there are also some spices I buy whole. My family's gorom moshla mix comprises of black pepper, cardamom, clove and cinnamon, and I always buy these as is. I mostly use them whole too, but if a recipe needs them ground, I just pop them into my re-purposed coffee spice grinder. The other spices I buy whole are the ones that I use less frequently, like mustard or poppy seeds. I also keep a stock of dry herbs in my kitchen, with my Asian staples being bay, lime and curry leaves. I think these live forever and asymptotically decrease in strength ad infinitum, so make adjustments if using fresh substitutes. I also buy dried chillies, both flaked and solid, but I mostly use these to vary flavours and textures versus fresh chilli. I freeze the odd fresh herb, like lemongrass, as it isn't readily available where I currently live. And I love fresh coriander, whether on curries or in chanachur, and there's a always a bunch in my fridge. One day when I'm settled I'll have a coriander garden. 

As a general rule, when cooking I follow the following order of spicing strength: red meat > poultry > fish > vegetables. 

Garlic, Ginger & Other Pastes

I rarely list chopped garlic and ginger as ingredients in my recipes, always opting for "pastes" instead. Of course, by paste what I really mean is mince, which is how garlic and ginger are used in our house. Mincing releases more flavour, so a little goes a long way. And in the case of garlic, mincing avoids the toasted flavour that results from a chopped up bulb, which doesn't work well for curries. Of course, I don't usually mince my own garlic and ginger, as I can buy it ready-made preserved in vinegar. These ready-made pastes are a little on the weak side, so my recipes specify more than what would be needed from anything freshly minced. Additionally, the store bought pastes need a longer cooking time - this is to rid them of their vinegar-y smell. Some people make their mince in batches to freeze in ice cube trays for later use.

On a separate but similar note, onions. I usually call for them to be chopped finely then fried, until softened or caramelised depending on what flavours and textures the recipe calls for. What I rarely write about is raw onion paste, which my mom would add to curries to bulk out the sauce. Onion pastes add body to sauces, while maintaining a smooth texture you can't achieve with the chopped iteration. Crushing onion into paste is a painstaking task, and one that I've always avoided. A good smoothie maker could always be sacrificed for the purpose though - and many of my recipes would be improved with some onion paste. 

Cooking Meat

When I'm posting recipes for meat, whether red meat or poultry, I'll specify if the instructions are for meat on or off the bone. In general, while most of my dishes can be cooked with meat on the bone, I'll list boneless cuts in the ingredients. This is because boneless is what I can most readily get where I live. I admit that this presents a compromise on flavour (there is a reason why bone broth got so trendy), especially where the meat stews or slow cooks. If you do want to cook meat on the bone, increase the total cooking time for meat I list in my boneless recipes. As a general rule, allow just under an hour for every 500.00 g of chicken on the bone. I'm less sure for red meat, and would urge you to check in with other blogs. Indeed, most Bangladeshi dishes would be cooked with meat on the bone. 

Also a quick word on cuts of red meat for curries - I've never paid attention to this and it has never made a difference to the end result. I ask for cubed beef at the butcher's and buy anything that looks like cubes of beef at the supermarket. I have on occasion diced up sirloin for my curries too, though I've never used the thin stir fry cuts. My only advice is to wash the meat clean of blood - the flavour doesn't work well with most spicing. Finally, if you're going to cook innards or offal, I urge looking this up in greater detail on other sites. I generally clean these more carefully and spice them harder, but I'm no expert. 

My Photos

This is not a visual blog! My photos exist to make my recipes easier to follow more than anything else. They're often unglamorous phone shots taken from awkward angles, as I try avoid being splattered with hot oil or blasted with steam. These will rarely be edited, though they may be cropped to hide the messier parts of my kitchens. I will often edit my photos of a final dish though - and on the odd occasion I may even pause and think about presentation. 

Ingredients Precision

Every ingredient in this blog is listed to 2 decimal places. This is a (bad) joke that derives from structuring all my recipes like I would my science experiments in school. As should be obvious, there is no need to be so precise with the ingredients. In fact, most recipes on my blog require a very loose commitment to precision. Many other Bangladeshis will have their own ingredients and proportions they use for the same dishes I write about, and it is mostly just a matter of taste. 

More Information

I know I have an "About Bangladeshi Food" page, but for more information, have a look at the The Bengali Gourmet. She has a great section on her blog naming and defining formal Bengali cooking styles. I also use Bong Mom's CookBook for the Bengali to English translation page, which is invaluable for less commonly used ingredients and spices. These are Indian Bengali sites but a lot of the info applies to Bangladeshi food too. Also have a look at this Banglapedia page. It provides translations for many Bangladeshi vegetables, though it does get a few Bangla words wrong, like calling a gourd "kumda" as opposed to kumro.