Heritage From Elsewhere

Apple & Blackberry Crumble

Apple and blackberry crumble served with frozen yoghurt

I first encountered crumble at a pub in Selly Oak during my university days in Birmingham. Served warm with a side of vanilla ice cream, it appealed to my fondness of hot-and-cold contrasting desserts. However, poor iterations over the years have made me wary - sometimes the apples have been a tasteless mush, or a side of custard has been bland and flavourless. I'm sure I've been sampling it in the wrong places (the work canteen is hardly the place to seek out good food), and so I'm glad to finally have a recipe of my own to use.

The instructions below come from my partner, who I called up one evening after having bought blackberries for the first time without knowing what to do with them. I am happy to report I have since found out that blackberries can be eaten raw as is, but more importantly the conversation precipitated a request for homemade crumble from me. Surprisingly my partner obliged - apparently crumble was one of the desserts he grew up on - and the results are what you see in the photo above. The actual recipe is adapted from an original by Merrilees Parker, and is available on the BBC website.

Eggs From Our Sundarbans Trip

ক্যাপসিকাম ও পাপরিকা দিয়ে ডিম ভুনা 

Eggs, Red Pepper & Smoked Paprika Bhuna

Egg bhuna, served with khichuri on the boat during our trip
through the Sundarbans. From my Instagram feed.

Curried eggs have a long history in my family. In Bangladesh, they represent a cheap, inexpensive way to incorporate protein into a family's diet. Growing up, I had a great dislike for eggs and currying them used to be one of my mom's tactics to get me to eat them. They're also easier (read: quicker) to cook than meat, and therefore often a common enough recourse when she was pressed for time in the kitchen. This recipe is my own, based on the basic chicken curry recipe I posted long ago here. The addition of smoked paprika is the result of a slight personal obsession, and the red pepper gives the dish sweet-sour notes without resorting to sugar or yoghurt. I have been cooking this dish for a while, and have served it to guests when a vegetarian main has been called for.

On the left, the banks of the forest as we sailed past.

On the right, the beach our walk eventually took us to.

Our trip to the Sundarbans for New Year's Eve served as a reminder to post this, as the chef on board our ship served a very lightly spiced version of this with khichuri for breakfast. It made for a heavy breakfast, which was reasonable in light of the walking we were going to be doing throughout the day. Unless you're preparing for a similar excursion, I would recommend serving this as a main or side dish for dinner or lunch. 

Adding Ingredients

Jaggery-Laced Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Jaggery-laced chocolate & peanut butter cheesecake.
And yes, I did have this for breakfast today.

I'm not a baker, and this is undoubtedly a good thing. I have a sweet tooth and a great love for cake, and if I were a baker I'd have to accept becoming a balloon as well. That being said, baking is a skill that adds a degree of versatility to my abilities in the kitchen, so there are a few things I want to make sure I know how to bake. My first ever attempt at baking involved a sponge cake - a dense mass of flour, sugar, butter and eggs that refused to rise. My baby brother was the only one willing to try it, probably because he didn't know any better at that age. Over the years, things have gotten a little better. I can make a decent pumpkin pie, and am occasionally successful with my brownies and lemon tarts. 

I've always had a thing for baked cheesecake, a dessert I was introduced to in Hong Kong. Last week I decided it was time to add a version of it to my limited repertoire. My childhood memories are of a rich, solid salty-sweet cheesecake, but the recipe below produces something more delicate and definitely sweeter. It is adapted from a BBC Food recipe by Nigella Lawson, and the original can be found here. I am changing the instructions for hand-mixing, modifying amounts and substituting a few ingredients, notably jaggery for brown sugar in the topping as I wanted to use something Bangladeshi. Note that if you do have access to a food processor, use it - it makes life a lot easier! 

Review: Hotel Star (aka Star Kebab)

Hunting Down the Original

The original Star Hotel in Thatari Bazar, from
where all the other Star Kebab and Star Bakery
branches have their roots

I'm not sure who introduced me to Star Kebab, but I'm willing to bet it was someone on my mom's side of the family - that's where all the original foodies in my life come from. Star in Dhaka takes on various incarnations - there's Star Kebab in Panthopoth, two Star Kebabs and a Star Restaurant in Dhanmondi, as well a few Star Bakeries dotted around town. This list is by no means exhaustive, and then of course there's Hotel Star in the Thatari Bazar area of Old Dhaka, the place where it all started. It's a fifteen minute rickshaw ride from my grandma's but I'd never visited as Panthopoth used be on the way home from college, and that's where I'd stop to get kebab for the family. 

Review: Hirajheel Hotel, A House of Purity Foods

Home, Chaos and Other

The entrance

Despite its rather unfortunate full name, Hirajheel is a stalwart on the Dhaka food scene. Located in the Motijheel business district, its proximity to the Dhaka Stock Exchange, big banks and various other offices guarantees the restaurant a steady flow of customers. Known for its breakfast “soup” (more on that later) and Ramadan staples (it does a good kebab, almost as good as Star), Hirajheel has been around for over a decade. Dhaka has quite a few even older historic eateries, and each venue has established itself a reputation for doing particular dishes very well. For example, next door to Hirajheel is Ghoroa, which beckons from mom's youth and is the local go-to for good khichuri. 

The interior

I'm willing to bet that Hirajheel at its inception represented a slightly upmarket version of the traditional Bangladeshi “restaurant” - often locally misnamed as "hotels". These are quick and dirty operations: menu-less with a set number of largely unchanging dishes served in a canteen style space. Business is geared towards feeding a regular, local clientele of blue collar office workers, day labourers, rickshaw pullers etc. Decor and ambience do not exist as concepts, prices are rock bottom and the food is simple yet often very good. With Hirajheel things are a little more elaborate - the waiters (sometimes) wear uniforms, and the interior is clean, painted and tiled. Prices are beyond what a rickshaw puller could pay, though they are within reach of most and nothing compared to certain newer restaurants in town. There is still no menu that we could see, however, and finding out what's being served today beyond the usual required a friendly yelling match with the staff.