Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Assistant Editor Nawaar Farooq recently attended a Bangladeshi National Day event at the Diplomat Radisson Blu in Manama with her family and ended up cooking up a treat for a show called Morur Iftar (Iftar in the lands of the sand) being produced by Bangladeshi national television channel RTV which is being aired during the holy month.
Ramadan is a time when Muslims want to enjoy more time in prayers and other religious activities and as a result there is always a healthy demand for recipes for meals that can be prepared quickly.
THE Morur Iftar TV cameras are highlighting the experiences of Bangladeshi expats around the world and this year they are focusing on the GCC countries, including Qatar, UAE and, of course, Bahrain.
During each episode, expat families are sharing their culinary experiences and expertise with viewers with one or more dishes featured. Some highlight traditional Bangladeshi fare, but many others are international favourites, including a fusion of cultural cuisines.
All of these, of course, are dishes that expat families prepare and enjoy at home and adapted for Bangladeshi taste and using ingredients that are common to Bangladeshi people.
My father, Mohammad, Associate Professor at the University of Bahrain, laughed at the notion of me using my limited culinary skills and suggested that my mother, Nahid, actually cook on the show and I could be her little helper when needed. My mum makes phenomenal food, while cooking has not been my forte, so that made a lot more sense to me.
I agreed to assist and on the day of filming my mother prepared her signature prune-tamarind chutney.
However, my dad told me that by special request from the TV producer I would need to prepare a dish myself … about five minutes before we were supposed to film. FIVE MINUTES. What was I supposed to make in five minutes – a microwaved omelette? Talk about parental persuasion!
Luckily, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve. Quick as a ninja, I hopped over to the kitchen and looked over what I could whip up.
After spotting three of my favourite ingredients, I knew what artistic creation I was going to make – my version of a ‘fruit fusion salad’.
It was something that reminded me of a sweet and spicy version of the savoury road-side treats in South Asia known as chaat.
I prepared my ingredients, which included chopped-up mango, spicy green chillies and my not-so-secret weapon of choice: CORIANDER LEAVES, of course.
I had no idea how this was actually going to play out, but I was just going to go with it. Chef Nawaar was ready for a debut with her merry mum.
Popular Bangladeshi TV personality Masuma Rahman Nabila, who goes by the stage name of Nabila, was very sweet and asked me what I had prepared.
With a cheesy smile on my face, I told her about my latest and greatest invention in my smooth English-accented Bengali, which I shall refer to as ‘Bang-lish’.
I originally had an idea of what I was going to say scripted in my head and when I practiced it, everything came out flawlessly. This is something I learned to do whenever I would participate in theatre performances in grade school.
However, once that camera was rolling and that ‘Bang-lish’ started pouring out in jumbled waves, I had to control myself from erupting with laughter. Everything that was coming out of my mouth could be characterised in iPhone Emojis, which I guess is quite fitting as I have been told that I resemble a cartoon thanks to my rather large and animated eyes.
Regardless of my fumbles, this wasn’t really about me as much as it was about my mother. With great care, she has taken a lot of time out of her life to make sure her family was well fed and that they ate deliciously.
Every dish she makes is a reflection of her personality, whether it is sweet, spicy or just bursting with flavour.
I look forward to watching the show and I’m proud of the fact that not only is she on a television show because of her talent, but that I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to learn from her first hand. Not before time!
* The show is being aired during Ramadan and can be watched on RTV: rtvonline.com. The show is broadcast usually an hour before the Iftar/breakfast time in Bangladesh, which would be about three hours before Iftar time in Bahrain.
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Fruit Fusion Salad recipe
Ingredients:
Mango: 4 (ripe, medium size)
Pear or Apple: 2
Cilantro (Coriander leaves): As much as desired
Green chili: 1 (or more for making it spicier)
Instruction:
Remove skin from mango and pears. Cut those in small cubes.
Chop cilantro in desired quantity.
Chop 1 or more green chili.
Mix all these ingredients. Add a little salt if needed. To increase the flavour of mango, the proportion of mango can be increased. The same is true for pear or apple.
Once mixed, serve as desired.
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Prune-Tamarind Chutney recipe
Ingredients:
Tamarind: 500g
Prune: 200-300g
Oil: 3 tablespoons
Salt: ½ teaspoon
Turmeric: ½ teaspoon
Chili powder: ½ teaspoon
Sugar: ½ cup
Water: 6 cups
Mango pickle (achar): 3 teaspoons
Cooking instruction: Wash tamarind and prune. Mix all the ingredients and boil for 30 minutes in a medium heat. Stir every five minutes. When done, serve it with any snack, or with specially main courses, such as Biriyani, pilaf (pulau), etc. It is delicious and healthy.
