Eid specials
Brain masala
The first items which come to the kitchen from the butcher are the offal. Along with the liver, the brain is the choice of the housewife to cook for lunch. The meat will require a longer time to cook. So it is an ideal starter for the hungry family members to start the meal, followed by the bhunakaliji. Use this recipe to cook the liver, but omit the mint. And cut the liver into bite sized chunks. The beef salon will follow.
Ingredients:
1 oxbrain
½ cup soybean oil
½ cup ghee
4 onions, chopped
10 green chillies
1 tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
6 cardamom pods, cracked
5 cm long cinnamon stick
8 cloves
10 black peppers, pounded
1½ tsp salt
½ cup mint (pudina), chopped
Method:
Soak the brain in water for an hour. Take it out of the water and pick out with your fingers all the membranes and veins. Place brain on a wire strainer and wash thoroughly under running water.
Heat oil and ghee in a korai (wok); when smoking hot, lob in onion and cook until onion turns red.
Take korai (wok) off the flame and using a slotted spoon, strain out the fried onions (baresta).
In a stone mortar, grind the following: baresta, 1 tablespoon water, and 10 green chillies. Set mosla aside.Return korai (wok) to flame, and then add: ginger and garlic. Sauté stirring and scrapping constantly for a minute.
Add: coriander, red chilli powder, gorommosla, pepper and 2 tablespoon water. Continue sautéing the mosla stirring for another minute. To prevent catching and burning sprinkle with 2 tablespoon water and cook stirring frequently, until water dries off. Repeat and cook till the mosla releases its aroma.
Chuck in the brain; stir with a wooden khunti, breaking the lumps into small pieces. Cook until the oil separates.
Stir in the baresta mix and mint. Mix up and cover tightly. Lower heat and cook over very low flame for 10minutes.
Beef salon
The serving is for 40 persons, keeping in mind that you will cook with the Kurbani Gosth, which is available in large quantities during this time. And the leftoverscan be made into “Jhura-Gosth” by boiling the salon twice every day till the meat fibres separate.
Ingredients:
10 kg beef, miscellaneous cuts, 15 pieces per kg
2 litre mustard oil
2 kg onions, quartered
1 kg garlic crushed
½ kg ginger sliced
20 tejpata
3 tbsp cumin seeds
3 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
7 tbsp coriander seeds
100g dry red chillies
1 tbsp dry turmeric root
20 cardamom pods, gently cracked
10 cinnamon stick, 5 cm long
1 tbsp cloves
1 tbsp black pepper corns
10 tbsp salt
Method:
Heat a tawa (griddle) over medium flame, and toss in: tejpata, cumin seeds, mustard, coriander seeds, dry red chillies, turmeric powder, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. Roast shaking the griddle frequently until the mosla releases their flavour.
Transfer the roasted mosla to a mortar and pound them to a rough crush. Set aside.
Into a large 'patil' (large metal pot), chuck in the following: meat, onions, garlic, ginger, pounded mosla, oil and salt. Using 'kopir' (a large metal spatula) turn the meat around until the mosla coats all the meat pieces evenly.
Cover the pot with a lid. Place it over a high flame. Lead contents to a sizzle, stirring frequently.
As the meat releases its fluid, lower the flame and gently simmer uncovered, until meat is tender.
Hari kabab
For the next morning breakfast, you may prepare the Hari Kabab. A meat concoction cooked in a sealed hari (earthen pot), which is left overnight resting on the dying ambers of a grand feast. It is consumed the next morning with lalatta (whole-wheat) roti, saving the hostess the trouble of having to prepare a fresh meat dish after a hectic night of stowing away the huge quantity of kurbani meat.
Marinating:
The marinade should totally cover the meat in order for it to work effectively. When using tender cuts of beef, the marinade is used basically to flavour the meat so a soaking time of 2 hours or less is all that is required. Tougher cuts of beef should be soaked in the marinade for several hours or overnight in order to tenderise the meat as well as flavour it. Always marinate beef in the refrigerator.
Since the marinade contains an acidic ingredient, reactive containers such as metal bowls should not be used. It is best to use containers such as glass or plastic bowls or plastic bags that can be sealed. The marinade should not be reused for any other purpose because of the bacteria that may be present from having been in contact with the raw meat. The only way the marinade can be reused is to cook it with the meat as part of the gravy.
Ingredients:
2 kg bone less beef round, cut into pieces
½ kg onion, sliced
3 tbsp ghee
200g raw papaya, with skin
2 tsp cubeb pepper
10 cardamom pods
15 cloves
2 (5 cm long) cinnamon sticks
2 tsp black cumin seeds
4 tsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp black peppercorn
3 tsp salt
½cup and 4tbsp mustard oil
½ litre yoghurt
4 cups flour
Method:
Heat the ghee in a korai (wok). Lob in the onions. Sauté until they turn into golden brown (baresta) crunchy pieces.
Using a slotted spoon strain baresta out of the fat and add them to the ingredients later on. Reserve the ghee.
Fine grind the followings: papaya, cubeb, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon sticks, black cumin, coriander seeds, ginger, garlic, red chilli powder, pepper and baresta.
Place the yoghurt in a mixing bowl. Whisk until smooth.
Now add the ground mosla and salt. Whisk to get a smooth paste-like consistency. Drop the meat into the mixing bowl. With your fingers rub to coat the meat evenly with the spice-yoghurt mixture.
Cover the bowl with a cling film and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Two hours before cooking, take out the bowl from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature.
While the meat is getting warm prepare the hari (earthen pot). Rinse a new earthen pot and its matching earthen lid and let it soak in fresh water for 30-mins.
Once the meat is at room temperature; blend it with: ghee and ½ cup oil.
Drain the earthen-pot and pat dry. Liberally grease the bottom with oil; pile in the meat and drizzle with 1 tbsp oil.
Make soft dough with the flour and enough water.
Roll out the dough into a long thin strip; place the strand on the rim of the pot. Cover the whole circumference of the rim with the strip. Rest the lid on the dough strip, and firmly press down to attach the lid with the dough tightly.
Transfer the pot to a pre-heated oven (190°C) and cook for an hour. Lower the heat to 150°C and cook for another hour.
Take pot out of the oven. Open the lid, scrape off the dry dough from the pot and lid. Replace the lid.
Twist a table napkin into a long rope; circle it to form a bira (woven-ring). Set the ring on the dining table and drape with a ruffled Dhaka Muslin scarf. Rest the earthen-pot on top of it.
Teyluin Khabab
This recipe is to preserve the huge amount of meat. The dish gets its name from the earthen pot called 'Teyluin'; you may use commercially available earthen pots to get similar results. Teyluin Khabab is usually cooked with the sacrificial meat from the cattle slaughtered during the 'Bakri Eid' festival. A man of substantial means traditionally slays, more than the mandatory quantity sanctioned in Islam, as the number of cattle sacrificed is a yardstick of social status and fiscal might. The homemaker, swamped with a huge quantity of meat, has evolved many such dishes as Teyluin Khabab to hoard the meat for future consumption.
The meat in the earthen pot is simmered over a low flame, to encourage the fat to rise to the top, once the fat rises to the top; the pot is then taken off the flame and set in a cool place. When the content cools, the top-fat solidifies into a thick impenetrable airtight layer. This solid mass of fat acts as a seal and protects the meat from bacteria and other spores. Micro organisms cannot survive in the clarified fat, which also acts as a seal and prevents the liquid in the pot to evaporate.
The cut chosen for this recipe is the brisket and shank that lie beneath the shoulder and encompass the breast and foreleg of the animal. The brisket is tough and fatty and lends itself well to slow cooking in liquid. This cooking method also works well for the shank, a flavourful cut. Since shanks are full of collagen, which when cooked turns to gelatine and adds to the sealing capacity of the fat.
The recipe is indigenous to Chittagong.
Ingredients:
5 kg brisket and shank, cut into large chunks
1 kg beef fat
1 cup mustard oil
2 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp radhuni
1 tbsp red chilli powder
½ cup ginger, grated
1 cup garlic paste
2 cups onion paste
3 tbsp salt
Method:
Heat oil in a 'teyluin' (or any earthen pot). Lob in the onion and sauté until translucent. Stir in ginger sauté stirring vigorously for a minute. Add: garlic , cumin, coriander, red chilli, turmeric, radhuni and two tbsp water.
Sauté stirring all the time until mosla releases its aroma.
Chuck in: meat and salt. Stir to mix well, cook until meat releases its juice.
Lower the flame, cover with a lid and cook until meat is tender and the oil floats to the top.
Store the pot in a cool place, once cool enough the fat on top will congeal.
Reheat the pot, once every week, until you require the meat. The meat can be used as an ingredient for other beef recipes or eaten by itself with rice.
Comments