Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Kueh Makmur (Malaysian Prosperity Cookie)

7:56 PM


Here is one more Malaysian recipe to celebrate the month of eating all things sweet. As usual, I have been very busy and could not bake or make things to celebrate Christmas other than my Mother's homestyle fruit cake for the family. Not that I didn't want to but a project with Ananda Bazar kept me so busy that I couldn't make any time for other bakes. Am sharing the picture of the cakes I baked and decorated for them based on Bengali fairy tale stories called Thakumar Jhuli by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. Do let me know what you think about it.

Meat n Poultry

Malaysian Spiral Curry Puff

7:50 PM


As a food enthusiast, I love to explore a country through its cuisine. So every time we plan a travel I do extensive research on what to eat and where to eat. So my joy knew no bound when my husband took up a new job in Singapore.

Singapore can by no means be defined by its tiny size. Rather its the melting pot of various cultures with people coming from all over the World. But the four prominent culture that could be seen in its culture, food and art are the Chinese, Indian (Tamil), Malay and Peranakan or Baba Nyonya.

Curry

Mutton Do Pyaja (Goat meat with two types of onions)

9:01 AM


Now that winter is here t and we find reasons to veer towards the richer spicier gravies, let me present to you this rich, spicy, soul satisfying dish called Mutton Dopiyaja or dopyaja. Do piyaja literally means with two types of onions. Traditionally fried onion or birista and fresh onion are used to create a thick brownish gravy. But in my recipe, I have used onions thrice. The third variant is those whole small purple onions, which I cook along with the mutton and by the time the dish is ready the whole onion becomes soft and jammy, a delightful addition to the succulent meat and spicy gravy.

Bengali

Amra Chutney two ways (hog plum recipe)

7:55 AM


“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” 
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Every day when the huge Grandfather clock over the dining table will strike 9 and will make the ringing sound exactly 18 times I knew it was time. The time that I was waiting since morning. Ready with my hair combed and a belly full of Breakfast made by Dida. Which was funny because the thing that I waited for was food.

Congee with Chinekamini rice with a quick chili-scallion sauce

6:58 PM



Most of us associate the food congee to China but if you look closely then you would find that similar food is available all through the world, albeit in different names.  The basic dish is called gruel where some kind of cereal is cooked with water or milk and depending on the thickness and grains used in the dish, it changes it's name.

Going back in history reveals that Gruel came into existance as a baby food once human learnt farming. Before that in the time of hunting and gathering when the group were mobile the mother had to breastfeed the infants till he or she was able enough to eat foraged food or meat. but the process made the mother stay away from conceiving again and hence the tribe wasn't growing much. After farming came into existence, the mush cooked with grains and cereals were easier to feed the babies and made the mother to conceive again and increasing the size of the tribe much faster.

But hardly anybody knew of it rather it had always been considered as the food of the have not. It was much easier to imagine hungry peasants or as Charles dickens vividly portrayed in his Classic -Oliver Twist, famished orphans eating this very basic mush of grains and water. More so because even broken damaged grains worked better in such concoctions, cooked in the most simplest of form for sustenance and keep one full for long.

This made Gruel popular all over the world.  Depending on the region and its climate the grain changed from pinhead or ground Scottish oats to cheap variety of rice, maize meals, broken corn kernels, millets and even broken wheat, wheat flour and stale bread.  Literally everything that the riches would turn their nose down on were fit to be cooked down with water to a big bowlful of gruel for sustenance. It's that part of the history that no one ever wanted to take notice as not until recently we ever wanted to explore what was on table for the under privileged.

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