Tamarind, mustard, chilli and dal … Bangladeshi food packs the biggest punch in Asia. In this final extract from his book, Far Eastern Odyssey, Rick Stein captures the fiery flavours of the delta
Driving through Bangladesh and observing village life can be immensely calming: a panorama of paddy fields, water buffalos with a white egret or two on their back, men and women planting rice, and the villages themselves, gardens filled with banana plants or fruit trees, wooden houses near rivers and children shouting and scampering.
You often read of Bangladeshis saying their cuisine is not worth making a fuss about, that it’s just the sort of stuff they cook at home. But I found the local food fascinating. If you ask me for three or four of the most distinctive flavours of Bangladeshi cooking, I’d say mustard, ghee and a particular spice mix, panch phoran, unusual in that the combination of mustard, nigella, cumin, fennel and fenugreek seeds contains whole rather than powdered spices. I’m still marvelling at the subtlety of the mango chutney I had when eating lunch with a family in Dhaka, a sweet one flavoured with panch phoran.
Spicy pea and potato samosas (aloo matar shingara)
The filling is some simply spiced potatoes and peas, and the pastry deep-fries to a pleasing crispness. Makes 20.
For the potato filling:
500g evenly sized waxy potatoes,
such as Charlotte
4 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for
deep-frying
2 tsp black mustard seeds
275g onion, finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric powder
30g garlic, crushed
4 green cayenne chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
150g frozen peas, thawed
For the pastry dough:
225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tbsp vegetable oil
For the pastry, sift the flour and ½ tsp salt into a bowl. Add the oil and about 150ml warm water and mix together to make a soft, pliable dough, adding a little more water if necessary. Turn out on to a surface lightly dusted with flour and knead for 2-3 minutes until very smooth and elastic. Wrap in clingfilm and set aside to rest for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, for the filling, put the potatoes in a pan, cover with water, add 1 tsp salt and bring to the boil. Cook for 20 minutes or until tender. Drain, cover and set aside for 20 minutes. Then peel the potatoes and break into small pieces.
Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the oil, then the mustard seeds, cover with a lid and fry until they have stopped popping. Add the onion and fry for 5-6 minutes, stirring, until soft and lightly browned. Add the turmeric, garlic, green chillies and chilli powder and fry for a few seconds, then add the potatoes, peas and 1 tsp salt and mix well.
Unwrap the dough, divide it into 10 evenly sized pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Work with one piece of dough at a time, keeping the others covered with clingfilm so they don’t dry out. Roll it into a thin 15cm disc. Cut the disc into two D-shaped pieces and brush half of both the curved and straight edge with a little water. Spoon 1 slightly heaped tablespoon of the filling to one side of the D and fold the other side over so the edges meet.
Press together well, then place on a tray lined with greaseproof paper. Continue until you have 20. Set them aside for at least 30 minutes to dry slightly, as this will make for better deep-frying.
Heat some oil for deep-frying to 180C.
Fry the shingharas one or two at a time for 3 minutes until crisp and golden brown, turning them over now and then as they cook. Lift out with a slotted spoon on to another tray lined with plenty of kitchen paper and leave to drain. Serve hot or warm.
Aubergine curry with tomatoes, ginger and fennel seeds
If you can get them, use finger aubergines for this. They are shaped rather like a small courgette and hold their shape well during cooking. This is a simple curry, but interesting to me, as it uses a lot of fennel seeds, a common flavour in Bangladeshi food. Incidentally, they call them aniseed there, but they’re not. I wandered into a kitchen in Sylhet and tried them for myself. Serves 6.
600g aubergines, ideally Asian finger aubergines
150ml vegetable oil
40g peeled ginger, roughly chopped
40g garlic, roughly chopped
2 green cayenne chillies, finely chopped
2 tsp cumin seeds <strong
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp freshly ground coriander seeds
½ tsp turmeric powder
400g chopped tomatoes, fresh or from a can
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp each of chopped fresh coriander and mint
Top and tail the aubergines and cut in half lengthways. If using larger, Mediterranean-style aubergines, then cut each one across in half and then each piece lengthways into 6 or 8 wedges. Toss them with ½ tsp salt and set aside in a colander for 10 minutes.
Heat a large frying pan over a high heat. Pour the oil into a shallow dish. Brush the aubergine pieces, a few at a time, with oil, put them in the frying pan and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until richly browned. Cooking the aubergines in this way helps prevent them from absorbing too much oil, which would make the finished dish greasy. Set aside in a bowl and repeat with the remaining aubergines.
Put the ginger, garlic and chilli into a mini food processor with 2-3 tbsp water and grind to a smooth paste.
Put 2 tbsp of the remaining oil into the frying pan and add the cumin and fennel seeds. Leave them to sizzle for a few seconds, then add the ginger and garlic paste and leave this to fry for a further 2-3 minutes. Add the coriander and turmeric and fry for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes, black pepper, 3 tbsp water and ½ tsp salt. Cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes until reduced and thickened slightly. Return the fried aubergine slices to the pan and stir well to coat in the sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes, stir in the coriander and mint, and serve.
Toovar dal with tamarind, tomatoes and curry leaves
This dal is unusual in that it is referred to in Bangladesh as “sour”, which often indicates the presence of tomatoes. We don’t normally consider tomatoes sour, but they are, and together with the tamarind and lime they give the pulses a particularly enjoyable, slightly astringent note. Toovar (or toor) dal is a dark ochre-coloured split pea with a rich, earthy flavour. Serves 4-6.
250g toovar dal
2 tbsp each vegetable oil and mustard oil
100g onion, thinly sliced
15g garlic, crushed
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp freshly ground cumin seeds
1 tsp freshly ground coriander seeds
200g chopped vine-ripened tomatoes
1 tbsp tamarind water (see below)
4 green cayenne chillies, slit open lengthways
1 large pinch asafoetida
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
10-12 curry leaves
4 cloves
10cm cinnamon stick, halved
lime wedges, to serve
Put the dal into a medium-sized pan with 1 litre of water, bring to the boil, then lower the heat and leave to simmer for about 45 minutes or until the dal is soft and the mixture has reduced and thickened.
When the dal is almost ready, heat 1 tbsp each of vegetable and mustard oil in a medium-sized pan. Add the onion and fry for 6-8 minutes until soft and lightly golden.
Add the garlic, turmeric, cumin and coriander seeds and fry for a further 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook until they just begin to soften. Add the mixture to the dal with the tamarind water and green chillies and simmer gently for 3-4 minutes.
Heat the remaining vegetable and mustard oil in a small frying pan over a medium heat. Add the asafoetida, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, cloves and cinnamon, cover with a lid and leave to sizzle for 1 minute until the mustard seeds stop popping. Add to the dal and season to taste with salt. Cover and leave for 5 minutes for the flavours to infuse. Serve with lime wedges.
Tamarind water
Take 60g tamarind pulp (about the size of a tangerine) and put it in a bowl with 150ml hand-hot water. Work the paste with your fingers until it has broken down and the seeds have been released. Strain the slightly syrupy mixture through a fine sieve into another bowl and discard the fibrous material left behind. The water is ready to use and will keep in the fridge for 24 hours.
• Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey is on BBC2 on Thursdays, at 8pm. Nigel Slater returns next week. Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey is published by BBC Books, at £25.
