[{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/bangla-cooking/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Bangla Cooking"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/charred/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Charred"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/categories/chicken/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Chicken"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/chicken/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Chicken"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/categories/home-cooking/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Home Cooking"},{"content":"All recipes and kitchen experiments in one place — newest first.\n","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/posts/","section":"Posts","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAll recipes and kitchen experiments in one place — newest first.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Posts"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/saucy/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Saucy"},{"content":"Sometimes I think the food from our part of the world (Bangladesh) is really complex.\nJokingly, my grandmother used to say - It takes two hours to prepare, two hours to cook, ten minutes to eat and then two hours of dish-washing.\nBut sometimes the brain needs some rest while the heart doesn\u0026rsquo;t want to compromise the taste. But we compromise at the end - one way or another. Either we eat something we don\u0026rsquo;t like that much, or we order, or even we\nSometimes, we really want to try hard to work less and eat home food (without ordering).\nThis was one of those dishes.\nI wanted something chicken-based, saucy, maybe a little charred!\nA little sweet, a little spicy, and with enough vegetables inside so that I could pretend the whole thing was a balanced life choice. 😃\nThe plan was not to make a traditional curry, not to make grilled chicken either, but something in between - chicken pieces sitting inside a thick, sticky, spicy-sweet vegetable gravy.\nSo I am naming it:\n😋 Saucy Charred Chicken with Veggie\nThe “veggie” in the title is singular, because may be the English language gives up when many vegetables enter the room 🤣 🤣.\nUnfortunately, no video was possible this time either. So, as usual, I will go with photos later and a dry description now.\nVery premium laziness 🤘.\n🤌🏽 Ingredients:\nChicken 🐔 🍗 - 12 pieces (around 100/120gm each) Carrot 🥕 - 4 pieces, thinly sliced Onion 🧅 - 4 pieces, peeled, cut into 4 pieces each, then separated Onion paste - made from 4 onions Green beans / french beans 🫛 - 150gm, cut into halves Ginger paste 🫚 - 3 TBSP Soya sauce - 3 TBSP Tomato ketchup - 3 spoons Hot salsa dip - 3 spoons Black pepper powder - 1 TSP Cardamom + cinnamon powder - 1 TSP Turmeric powder - 1 TSP Cumin powder - 1 TSP Mustard oil - 3 TBSP (Olive oil will also do, but mustard oil gives that familiar loud Bangla entry music)\nSalt 🧂 (to your taste, I never understand or comply with the measurement) 🤌🏽 Preparation: First, I took the chicken pieces in a big mixing bowl. And sliced and prepared the other veggie.\nThen I added the sliced carrots, separated onion pieces, onion paste, cut beans, ginger paste, soya sauce, ketchup, hot salsa dip, pepper powder, cardamom-cinnamon powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, salt and mustard oil.\nMustard Oil\nThen came the most important kitchen technology - hand mixing 🤚.\nYa! That\u0026rsquo;s my hand ✋\nI mixed everything properly by hand so that the chicken, vegetables, sauces, and spices became one messy but promising family.\nThe mixture looked like something between a marinade, a stir-fry base, and a small vegetable protest.\nBut it smelled good, and that is usually a good sign.\n🤌🏽 Cooking: In the air fryer tray, I placed aluminium foil first, then a baking sheet on top. This helped keep the whole thing manageable because this dish has sauce, onion paste, vegetables, and general enthusiasm. Without protection, the air fryer might remember this recipe forever.\nThen I poured the whole mixed chicken and vegetable situation into the tray and spread it as evenly as possible.\nI cooked it in normal fry mode at 200°C.\nFirst round:\n15 minutes at 200°C Then I turned the chicken pieces Another 15 minutes at 200°C At this point, the chicken started getting some nice charred edges, but the bottom part still had more sauce and vegetables waiting for their moment of fame. So I mixed things again - bringing the bottom stuff to the top and the top stuff to the bottom.\nSecond round:\n15 minutes again at 200°C Then another turn/shuffle Another 15 minutes at 200°C By now, the chicken pieces had become nicely cooked, a little charred outside, saucy around the edges, and carrying the flavour of the onion, ginger, salsa, ketchup, soya sauce, and spices.\nThen, using tongs, I brought out the chicken pieces one by one.\nThe vegetables and gravy were still inside the tray, looking thick, oily, saucy, and not fully defeated yet. So I cooked them for another 10 minutes in the air fryer. This made the gravy thicker and helped the vegetables soften more while keeping some texture.\nFinally, I mixed the chicken pieces back with the cooked gravy and vegetables.\n🤌🏽 Final Result: The result was a saucy, slightly charred chicken dish with soft onions, sweet carrots, long beans, and a thick reddish-brown gravy sitting around everything.\nThe soya sauce gave it depth, the ketchup and salsa gave it sweet-spicy stickiness, the mustard oil gave it a familiar sharpness, and the air fryer gave the chicken that roasted-charred attitude without needing a full grill setup.\nIt is not a curry.\nIt is not a barbecue.\nIt is not exactly Chinese, Bangla, Indian, or anything properly respectable.\nIt is just one of those home experiments that somehow works.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s the one! ☝️ 1️⃣ 🥇\nAnd honestly, that is enough reason to save the recipe.\n","date":"17 May 2026","permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/posts/saucy-charred-chicken-with-veggie/","section":"Posts","summary":"Chicken pieces in a thick, sticky, spicy-sweet vegetable gravy — not quite curry, not quite barbecue, but a lazy home experiment that somehow works.","title":"Saucy Charred Chicken with Veggie"},{"content":"A personal cooking notebook from our kitchen — home experiments, Bangla twists on world dishes, and the occasional recipe pirate moment. No food critic credentials, just stories, photos, and whatever actually ended up on the plate.\n","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/","section":"Stuffs I Cook","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA personal cooking notebook from our kitchen — home experiments, Bangla twists on world dishes, and the occasional recipe pirate moment. No food critic credentials, just stories, photos, and whatever actually ended up on the plate.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Stuffs I Cook"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/vegetables/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Vegetables"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/citrus/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Citrus"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/lemon/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Lemon"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/categories/mutton/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Mutton"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/mutton/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Mutton"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/orange/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Orange"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/tangerine/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tangerine"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/tangi/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tangi"},{"content":"I was thinking of a dish I tasted long ago (I forgot even where and when) called \u0026ldquo;Chicken Tangerine.\u0026rdquo; I remembered it to be a flavour explosion inside my mouth. Of course, it was not a day-to-day dish as it required a lot of preparation, but most of all, I forgot the recipe or even never acquired it.\nI was thinking of recreating the dish with my own touch \u0026ndash; rather I say re-inventing! 😁 I was thinking of doing it with mutton (goat 🐐 meat 🥩 - not lamb 🐏). Now chicken and mutton are very different types of meat \u0026ndash; formation and nutrient-wise. Chicken meat has more unsaturated fat than mutton, Goat meat mainly contains more minerals (like Zinc and copper) than chicken meat.\nOn the other hand, as everyone already knows \u0026mdash;- cooking-wise, chicken is kind of easier to cook because it is a soft meat. However, mutton can be tougher and require longer cooking times if not prepared properly.\nTalking about all this already-known stuff - just to say this - I rethought the dish with mutton and some more citrus fruit along with tangerine 🍊. What can go wrong?\nWell, nothing did! It was a birthday party and I decided to do the experiment on the guests 🫢 who are some family friends. Well - they are the persons to judge how it actually was, but to me it was close to what I imagined - hence, sharing this here. Once again, a video was not possible - so sharing it dry - with some photos.\n🤌🏽 Ingredients:\n2KG goat meat 🥩 - hacked into 40 pieces (approximately 50gm a piece) 8/10 big onions 🧅 - \u0026ldquo;Julian cut\u0026rdquo; 2 TBSP roasted onions 2 full garlic 🧄 - whole cloves separated 8 green chilies 🌶️ - sliced in the middle vertically Garlic pickle Sour Yogurt (approximately 200 gms) BBQ Sauce Tomato Sauce / Salsa 1 Tangerine 🍊 (mandarine/clementine, any similar citrous will do) 1 Orange 🍊 1 big Lemon 🍋 (yellow one with thick skin) 2 Tomatoes 🍅 3 TBSP onion paste 2 TBSP ginger paste Kabab Spice (I used the \u0026ldquo;Shaan Shami Kabab\u0026rdquo; spice pack) Cooking oil (to taste and depending on how much gravy there should be - in my case, it was something like 4 TBSP or a little more) Turmeric powder Chili powder Cinnamon powder Cardamon powder Salt (to taste) 🤌🏽 Preparation:\nFirst I poured 1 TBSP of turmeric powder, some salt, 90% of the yogurt, 2 TBSP of BBQ sauce, 1.5 TBSP cooking oil into the meat I mixed it properly Rested the mix for 1 hour with a plastic sheet covered - in refrigerator. After 1 hour, I removed the plastic sheet. Then in the cooking pot, I heated some oil (approximately 1 TBSP) Then I fried the marinated meat pieces until they change color (red to pale white) I made sure all the sides of the pieces were equally fried. Then with a tong, I brought out the pieces one by one and put them into the same pot where I marinated them. I left the cooking pot in the hob with heat switched on so that all the spices, yougurt, sauces etc. bring out some more flavour. After 4/5 minutes, I poured that mix in a separate small pot. I will need them later. 🤌🏽 Cooking:\nAfter cleaning the pot with a kitchen tissue carefully (not removing any goodies 😂), I started the actual cooking. Poured rest of the oil (approx. 1.5 TBSP) into the pot. Poured the sliced onions, sliced garlic, sliced chili into that and fried them until the onions are little brown. Poured 1TBSP Garlic pickle into the mix and stirred and mixed well, fried a little more When the onions are garlic were a little softer and browner, poured the onion and ginger pastes in the mix. After frying a little more, added the roasted onion. Then poured the whole pack of the Shaan Shami kabab spice into it. After frying the whole mix for some time - until they are mixed properly, added some salt into the mix along with the sauce. Then poured around 150ml of water into it, mixed it again and covered the pot with a lid. After 8/10 mins (needed to check periodically if the mix was sticked to the pot bottom and if the oil was floating on the top) when the oil was floating on the top of the mix, added the meat and mixed again. Added the tomato salsa (sauce will also do - this is to sweeten the gravy a little) Added the previously separated marinated exerts into the pot. Heat the mix for 5-8 mins more - so that the whole mix fries a little bit more \u0026ndash; this gives a chance for the mixes to go inside the meat and the meat to exert some flavour. Then added approximately 150ml of water again. Added all the citrous (Lemon and Oranges) pieces. Covered the lid for 20 mins, until the mutton is soft and boiled. Checked periodically and mixed everything again and again. When the meat is boiled and soft - that\u0026rsquo;s when the cooking ends. The food is ready. 🤌🏽 Final Result:\nHowever gloomy or dark it looked - it tasted awesome to me 🤓😋 🤌🏽 .\nWhoever tried it - will be thrilled to know how it tasted.\n","date":"25 November 2024","permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/posts/tangi-mutton-little-flavour-experiment/","section":"Posts","summary":"Recreating a forgotten Chicken Tangerine memory with goat meat, citrus, and a birthday-party gamble on family friends.","title":"Tangi Mutton (a little flavour experiment)"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/bengali-new-year/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Bengali-New-Year"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/noboborsho/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Noboborsho"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/categories/persian/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Persian"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/persian/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Persian"},{"content":"My day-to-day routine includes watching cooking videos and food review vlogs - as a must-do. I know my place and don\u0026rsquo;t consider myself a food expert, even a critic/reviewer. I am a mare food-lover at most. I really appreciate the science and arts of cooking and food altogether.\nOne of the channels, in one of the countless media, I follow with a lot of respect and lots-lots of awe is \u0026quot; Wilderness Cooking \u0026ldquo;. A couple of weeks ago I watched an episode where Chef Tawakkul cooks \u0026ldquo;Pilaf\u0026rdquo; with homegrown ingredients, with passion, on Navruz, which is a Persian New Year event on the verge of Vernal Equinox and celebrated widely in Uzbekistan.\nInterestingly, Navruz means new day or new year literally. And since 14th April is the Bengali New Year day, I thought, what if I try the dish and give it a \u0026ldquo;Bangla\u0026rdquo; touch! What can go wrong?\nWell, nothing did go wrong and I was in for a surprise. I will try to share my experience with cooking Pilaf and Tandoori chicken as a side dish (which was a protection - if something goes wrong the kids will be at least not hungry 😋 🤤). Unfortunately, shooting a video of it, was not possible, so I will go with still photos and dry descriptions.\n🤌🏽 Ingredients:\n500gm boneless chicken 🍗 (ideally first preference would be lamb or mutton) 5 big onions 🧅 2 full garlic 🧄 (yielding 8/10 cloves) 6/8 green chilies 🌶️ 5/6 small carrots 🥕 Cilantro or Coriander leaves 🌿 (max) Green peas 🫛 (150 grams) Chickpeas (150 grams) Ground roasted mixed 🥜 🌰 (I bought a roasted mixed nut box for this) Raisins Dried Apricots Dried Tomatoes 🍅 Basmati Rice 800gm approximately 🍚 (Jasmine or any other long-grain rice will do too - but preboiled or soft-boiled rice will result in disaster) Cooking oil (as required) 1 TBSP Ghee (or butter will also do) Salt (to taste) Coconut milk (100ml) Spices and Herbs (here comes the Bengal touch 😏) Turmeric Powder Red chili Powder (or you can go by with Paprika if you are not that into hot stuff) Cumin Powder Coriander Powder Biriyani Masala \u0026mdash; (readily available in India/Bangladesh \u0026mdash; and can be acquired at Indian/Asian shops abroad. If not found, the ingredients of Biriyani Masala are Chilli, Garlic, Cinnamon, Ginger, Coriander, Sodium chloride, Aniseed, Cumin, Black pepper, Bay leaf, Cardamom, Mace, Caraway, Nutmeg, Clove, Food grade flavor. ) 🤌🏽 Preparation: 🤌🏽 I washed the rice and used a strainer to rinse all the water. Put the rice in this state until it is needed.\n🤌🏽 In boiling water, I baked the mixing of green peas and chickpeas for 5 mins. That will soften them but they will not be completely baked. Then I let them dry by rinsing the water.\n🤌🏽 Then I tried to cut the onions in a \u0026ldquo;Juliene cut\u0026rdquo;, it actually became a mix between sliced and Juliene 🤭\n🤌🏽 Then I cut the carrots into thin slices, which will ensure better cooking.\n🤌🏽 Then cut the chilies into half (but not separated - a little tricky - just need to make sure not to go all the way)\n🤌🏽 Then I separated all the cloves of the garlic. Then \u0026ldquo;gently\u0026rdquo; crushed them with the blade of the knife (Gordon Ramsay style 🫠 🧑‍🍳)\n🤌🏽 Then comes the coriander leaves/cilantro. I tried to make them as small as possible. They are for garnishing/flavor purposes. So it might depend on your liking/disliking of it.\n🤌🏽 I cut the boneless chicken fillets into block sizes. Chicken is softer than lamb/mutton. So it will be cooked earlier than them. So to balance the cooking time and make sure all the elements are cooked properly, I would recommend making thicker pieces if Chicken is used.\n🤌🏽 There should be some tiny pieces of meat left over on your cutting board when the bigger chunks are cut. I used them in the preparation of peas. In your case, this might not be the case, but you still can get hold of some almost-grounded meat while making the main meat chunks.\n🤌🏽 Then I ground the mixed roasted nuts. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t have to be very fine-grained, a little grainy would also do.\n🤌🏽 Then the final prep part. I half-cooked the half\u0026ndash;boiled peas mix. First fried the onion and chilies until they are soft and a little fired, put some turmeric powder, chilie powder, salt. Then put the peas into it fry them for 8/10 mins until they are half cooked.\n🤌🏽 Cooking: Now comes the cooking part. Although the preparation is a little heavy, while cooking, it\u0026rsquo;s essentially a one-pot dish. It will take a longer time, for sure, but the actual cooking process is not very complex.\n🤌🏽 First I sauteed the meat in cooking oil. The amount of oil I found varies from cook to cook and person to person, I used 4 TBSP oil. Once the oil is hot, I put the meat into it, and fried it until the meat became white.\n🤌🏽 Then I poured the rest of the onion, garlic, and chilies into the meat and saute it for 4/5 minutes.\n🤌🏽 Then I poured the carrot into the mix. And side-by-side pour 1TBSP of each of the mentioned spices and ground nuts. The spices can also be mixed together and made into a paste before putting it in the pot.\n🤌🏽 I poured a cup of water and cooked the mix for 8/10 minutes. Just need to make sure if the carrots are soft and boiled (at least half-boiled).\n🤌🏽 I poured half a pack of dried tomatoes, dried apricots, raisins (half a pack of each), and the previously cooked peas into the mix. Cook for 4/5 minutes more. Stir the whole pot to make the mix even.\n🤌🏽 Then I pour the rice over the mix, kept it for a minute. Put some more tomatoes and dried fruits over it. Spread the coriander leaves over the whole thing.\n🤌🏽 I stirred and mixed the whole mix properly for a couple of minutes.\n🤌🏽 Then I poured approximately 8 cups of hot water into it.\n🤌🏽 Then I sealed the pot with aluminum foil and covered the pot.\n🤌🏽 Then I let it cook for 25 minutes like this in medium heat (6 in my induction hob).\n🤌🏽 After 25 minutes, I opened the seal and checked the condition of the rice. In my case, it was still a little unboiled and hard. I poured 2 more cups of water and covered it again for 5 more minutes.\n🤌🏽 Then I opened the seal. Found that everything was cooked. I mixed it properly.\n🤌🏽 Pilaf is ready.\nI served it with Tandoori Chicken fry.\nThe recipe for the fry? - well may be in a later post 😎\n","date":"13 April 2024","permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/posts/persian-pilaf-got-bangla-touch-on/","section":"Posts","summary":"Chef Tawakkul\u0026rsquo;s Navruz Pilaf meets Bengali New Year — biriyani masala, dried fruits, and a Tandoori chicken safety net for the kids.","title":"Persian Pilaf got a \"Bangla\" touch on Noboborsho (Bengali New Year)"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/pilaf/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Pilaf"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/tags/uzbekistan/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Uzbekistan"},{"content":"I have lost (willingly deleted on a lousy day) my previous recipe blog. But the videos I prepared for them were backed up.\nThese two items are very much favorites to me; hence, I am storing them here as a memory.\nConsidering style, I am a very unconventional cook. I try to replicate things I like and in the style I like. Most of the time I don\u0026rsquo;t consider them to be appreciated by mass, but sometimes it does. And those are very happy moments for me.\nI will not be regular, of course, but I will be posting recipes and possibly videos of my cooking endeavors here from now on.\nGuten Appetite!\nVegetable Khichdi\nSpiked Jeera Pani\n","date":"9 July 2022","permalink":"https://kitchen.ifelseandetc.xyz/posts/video-recipe-from-old-recipe-blog/","section":"Posts","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have lost (willingly deleted on a lousy day) my previous recipe blog. But the videos I prepared for them were backed up.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese two items are very much favorites to me; hence, I am storing them here as a memory.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Video recipe from Old recipe blog"}]