Made in Bangladesh

11 Jan

Written By Antony

By Dina Begum

If you’re like us, Bangladeshi is not a cuisine you know particularly well. And any book that expands our culinary horizons is always welcomed so we were chuffed to be sent a copy of London-based Bangladeshi writer Dina Begum’s latest book, Made in Bangladesh. It’s a lovely introduction to the flavours of this far-eastern corner of the Subcontinent, which arguably shares similarities with Indian cuisines (particularly Bengali) due to historical, cultural, and geographical connections. But its distinctiveness kind of gets lost under the overall umbrella of ‘Indian’ food in most of our minds, and it’s this that motivated the author to document family, and other favourite, recipes.

There are around 75 recipes and they’re a mix of "the humble to the extravagant, from simple village fare and street food… to everyday eats and lavish meals” as Begum explains in her intro. She organised them in seasonally-themed chapters – Summer, Monsoon, Autumn, Late Autumn, Winter and Spring, kicking things off with a pantry section describing staple ingredients. Some are familiar but shatkora, shutki and ghondoraj? See – this is why we love a book like this. We learn stuff about things we’ve never heard of and that’s exciting. (FYI in order, these are aromatic cooking citrus, special large green lemons, and types of dried, fermented fish used in sauces, stews and broths).

We find out Bangladesh has a cuisine reliant on pungent mustard oil, a raft of spices (the fennel, fenugreek, cumin, nigella and mustard seed mix called panch phoron is quintessential) and fish, both riverine and sea. Mango and jackfruit are favourite fruits. Bhorta, an everyday dish based on pounded vegetables, fish, or meat with various spices, sounds rustic, soulful and delicious and there are a variety of recipes here for it. Duruj Kura, a braise of whole chicken with spices and golden fried onions up the wazoo, has us salivating just reading the ingredient list. Doi chira, a type of rice pudding, sounds like the milky flaked rice of our childhoods only way, way better. There are snack recipes (Savoury Nigella Seed Pastry bites, anyone?), alluring drinks, plenty for vegetarians and lots for the meat eater too. Speaking entirely for ourselves, we gotta love a cuisine that is not afraid of mutton.

As we flick through, we’re lured as much by the evocative location pics as much as the hero food shots. Overall the flavours read bold, aromatic and rich and the recipes, in the main, reasonably simple. A few ingredients might be challenging to source but Begum helpfully suggests accessible alternatives, including for fish varieties. We appreciate that recipes are set out clearly and are easy to read; most of them, although not all, have accompanying photographs.

The kind of fare best eaten family-style and with a number of dishes served at once, Begum offers up a few sample menus as a guide. We’re eying off the Rainy Day Comfort one, featuring Turmeric & Ginger Spiced Rice & Lentils, Spiced Fried Aubergine Slices, Lemon Pickle, Spiced Halwa and Spiced Black Tea with Lemon. Then again, we’d be happy just to chow down on the Potato Stew Topped with Omelette, sling some rice to the side, and die happy.