S-I-X and Counting years, and Bengali Mutton Biryani

Life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.                                                                                                            Martin Luther King, Jr.

 The first time I met the. Husband. He came across as a hermit. He’d think a lot before speaking. During our dates, he’d just nod in agreement at whatever I wanted to order, even if it meant fiddling with food for him. Once, he came to meet me from Portugal and got a small souvenir from there as a gift– he never gave me that present lest I hate it. He was shy and reticent and nowhere near the ‘Happy –go-Lucky’ attitude I sported. Then the oddity happened, the journey of the opposites began.

I continued being me, just the spirited social soirees were re-scheduled for the day and the nights were reserved for the happy home cooking.  It was frowned at but tolerated well. Year after year, city after city. Then, almost six years later I’m practically running the risk of sounding like him. It amazes me how we’ve changed almost effortlessly over the years, it’s cozy to share a life with someone who enjoys watching Little S patiently as I work at my home office or whose idea for a great weekend is selecting the best thriller movies and waiting for me to watch it with him. I know the.husband has come a long way since the day I first met him, when for the New Year’s night he offered to party at chic nightCLUB while I was happy just huddling with my fellas at home.

Of course my daily life is not all that musical as it sounds now.

We have our rough rides every now and then, still in the middle of all the daily chaos and chunks of months that moves in almost a clockwork fashion, I have to admit that I have now started longing for these quiet days at home, with nothingness on the mind and where the only agenda be laughing nonstop with our daughter and cooking a one pot meal before settling in with a movie to watch together—and as I rush to seize these moments, I pray that they will become less rare and more a way of life.

That’s just the beginning of how we've been tied together in time.


Somewhere I suspect, this Bengali version of Mutton Biriyani has a major role to play too. When the extent of our marital disharmony revolved around the debate of Who’s from a better Biriyani place -The Hyderabad vs The Lucknow, this Bengali Mutton Biryani version entered the kitchen to save our souls.

Bengali Mutton Biriyani

 Ingredients

1 kg Mutton/ lamb meat (marinated overnight in raw papaya paste, can use any other tenderizer)
500 gm. of basmati rice(washed and soked for an hour)
3 tbsp. ginger-garlic paste
2-3 potatoes cut into big cubes
1 large onion finely chopped
1 cup plain yogurt/dahi
2 tsp. red Chili powder
Kewra essence few drop
Few strands of saffron soaked in 1 tsp warm milk
Salt to taste
1 tsp Sugar
2 tsp Biryani Masala

Biryani Masala (powder roast the masala, or you can use the readymade Biriyani Masala from Store)
7-8 Cloves
3-4 green Cardamom
A pinch of grated Nutmeg
1/2" Mace
1 tsp. Cumin
1tsp of white Peppercorn
2" Cinnamon stick


PROCEDURE
Cook the rice in a deep bottomed pan spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Cook till done, but not mushy, drain the water, add a tsp of ghee and keep aside.

Take oil in a heavy bottom pan or in a pressure pan and once the oil is hot, add chopped onions and fry till they are golden brown. Add the meat pieces sauté on high heat. Now add the ginger, garlic paste and sauté with the meat pieces. Now add yogurt and red chilies powder and add 3 tsp. of the Biryani Masala. Finally add the potato halves add the salt and sugar, and fry all of them together with the meat and spices. Cook in the pressure pan until the meat is tender.Once done, assemble the biryani.

In the serving pan add a layer of rice, then meat and gravy, add the saffron infused milk, then a few drops of Kewra. Repeat the process. Till all the rice is exhausted.This is the easy way out without the dum and cuts my time in half! Let it stand and heat well before serving.

Straight-from-my-heart Chewy Oats Cookies

Valentine is just round the corner. And here I’m sitting and pondering about love.

Not the sweet mushy sort of love though (and if that's what you came looking for here - this is NOT for you. Rest- Read on)

B--ut the morbid fear of this artificially manufactured day of Love called Valentines, I once had. Not that I need to worry about singledom anymore and thankfully (even when I was a single person pushing mid-twenties) I never really felt the pressure to be accompanied at any other time of the year. You know - being single is the least of the single person’s worry – it’s  the parents woe in the country I live in. Ha! Still in my 20s the anxiety of an onrushing V day was just too much.

I never had the grief of celebrating this holiday in my teens as this concept of dedicating a day to love was still taking roots in India. A decade later was when it hit me hard.  Cookies, cakes, coffee shops with love sorbets and shakes. All I wanted was to sit in one of those celebrating love cafes and gaze deep into the eyes of my so-called valentine, being serenaded by chocolates or roses. None of it would actually happen. I hated the day with all my might. I hated the fact that it would make a repeated appearance year after year, taking the couples to dizzying levels of love, but me. I had been patient with it. Fast forward a few years and I thought all my problems were solved with our marriage.

Looks like the Richard Gere of pretty Woman (who visibly turned my life upside down)had no telltale effect on my husband. In his dictionary Valentine’s is just another day.

My dreams went kaput. 

Year on year I tried to coach him with heavy doses of the chicklits. No avail.

Enough is enough. This year on – I decide to serenade myself. I have promised to bake love potions and foods which captures my heart and makes it flutter.

Add to it a gift that my credit card can bear without cringing.

And I’m set.


Somewhere along the line I think this s quote from the movie ‘Love Actually’ too did its bit to help me survive "Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinions starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there -- fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends."

Yes, I’m a romantic at heart, and waiting for the day when these movies cause a change of heart for my husband. Till then- there are these Chewy oats cookies.

My preparations start now. A huge classic oat cookie is the first to arrive. Hearts sure are missing as I baked and took pictures last Christmas, but who says I cannot do it again for the love of me.

C’mon wear your aprons and bake some love for yourself.

Chewy Oats Cookie (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar, packed
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup (120 grams) raisins
1/2 cup walnuts (65 grams), chopped (optional)

In a large bowl, whisk together the butter the sugar, the egg and vanilla.  Now mix the flour salt and soda in another bowl. Now add the oats and walnuts. Mix all of it together.

Chill the dough for an hour and then scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them. If you are impatient like me, you can sure bake them right away. Whatever you choose to do, you need to first heat oven to 175°C or 350 F then put them in for 20-25 minutes.

I like mine super thick so I doubled the dough for each one and covered each with a parchment paper.
Once they are out they’ll look like indulgence.

Just my way to celebrate the season of love !!