Bengali Five Spice Chicken (Inspired by Antara's Achari Murgh)

Bengali Five Spice Chicken 

(Inspired by Antara's Achari Murgh) 

This week our star is Antara of ' Antypasti ' I met Antara in my initial days of blogging It was my first Kolkata Food Bloggers' meet and it was great fun to meet this vivacious person. She runs a travel cum food blog and to me it is quite apparent that she loves the landscape and food from the North East region of India which is very fascinating for someone such as myself who has neither been to the land of the Seven Sisters and has practically no knowledge about the cuisine from North East except for the fact that one gets excellent pork in Meghalaya and as I have learnt from her blog and other food enthusiasts that the entire region makes excellent pork dishes.

Having said that the only time I have been to the North east was way back in 1996 as a child and what I remember is staying at a family friend's house where the grandmother of the house made some excellent dish out of squash which is a type of vegetable.

Anyway moving on to our star of the week. I had initially decided on her Pork curry which was extremely simple and which reminded me of the chicken curry that my friend Elizabeth from Mizoram had prepared for me a long time ago.She is my college friend and when she was studying in Kolkata I had the good fortune of visiting her in her hostel where she made this lip smacking chicken curry and I was extremely surprised when she shared the recipe which hardly contained any spice at all and yet it remains one of the tastiest chicken curries that I have ever tasted. Antara's pork curry is exactly like Elizabeth's chicken curry and so initially I had decided on that but then I am traveling to Delhi for a trip and so I had to opt for some other dish and the Achari Chicken caught my attention mostly because it uses the Bengali five spice and I have never used Bengali 5 spice to make chicken curry and this intrigued me greatly and so I quickly adapted the recipe to suit the ingredients I had at home and the result was lip smacking chicken curry which vanished in no time.

To be fair the way I prepared it makes it appropriate to be taken with Rice  but then you can always adapt this to suit your requirements. I wanted it really hot and used a lot of yellow chili power which happens to be my latest obsession.

Do take a look at Antara's Foreign Returned Achari Murgh .

Before I begin let me assure you that the Bengali five spice varies from home to home and while some use cumin seeds others use a local spice 'Rahuni' which has its own unique flavour

400gm chicken with bones (preferably from the leg an thigh)
1 tbsp Bengali five spice( An equal amount of mustard seeds ,Fenugreek seeds, Rahuni , Kalonji and Fennel seeds)
2 tbsp mustard oil (I used spice mustard oil since I always keep a jar of homemade Spice mango mustard oil 'Aaam tel' at home but otherwise the normal mustard oil would do)
1 tbsp smooth ginger garlic green chili paste (I used 2 hot green chili)
2 heaped tsp yellow chili powder or Paprika or Kashmiri red chili powder
Salt as per taste
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp whisked curd
Pinch of turmeric
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander leaves

Marinate the chicken with the curd  ginger garlic chili paste  freshly crushed black pepper and salt for 2 hours. Heat the oil and when it reaches its smoking point reduce the heat and add the 5 spice and once they splutter add the chicken and seal its juices on high heat for 1 minute stirring it constantly and then add the yellow chili powder and a bit of water and cook  covered on low heat till the oil separates taste an a salt if required and add the finely chopped cilantro and enjoy it with hot steaming rice.

Tip

Reducing the heat once the oil reaches its smoking point ensures that the spice does not get charred

Bacon wrapped chicken in burnt mango mustard sauce

Bacon wrapped chicken in burnt mango mustard sauce 

To be fair the reason why I am able to at all post this recipe includes a lot of people. Sometimes all you need is a bit of contribution even indirectly to make a difference. Let me confess that I have or rather had never been a fan of fusion cooking and so when I had read about some new restaurant called 'Bohemian' which amalgamates continental and Bengali flavours I was hardly interested and then my dear uncle introduced me to their dishes on a sunny winter day. This was way back in 2009 when I was still a college lass. Ah the first taste of his dishes and I was bowled over. It was unique and delicious.

I have ordered a good number of times from this delightful place and then cut to 2014 there was some discussion about bacon and using it in Indian cuisine at the forum Ranna-Bati and I had mentioned about Chef Joy's bacon wrapped chicken in aam kasundi reduction. For a week I had what is called Bacon wrapped chicken cravings and I was about to order the dish when I was intrigued with the idea of tryign my hands on the dish. I mean sure there was no recipe to be followed but then again the dish has all the information required in the name itself. Ah so at first I was scared because I was afraid it wouldn't be exactly like Chef Joy's and then I thought ah well it will be my very own recipe. Since I seldom create recipes of my own except the marination for grilled chicken or salads  this one is special indeed and I must sound like a pompous ass and declare that it tasted wonderful. Tangy sweet fiery it was a dream dish on a hot summer's day.

So this is what you need for 2 people :-

2 breasts of chicken
4 bacon rashers with full fat

For the marination of the chicken

2 tsp ginger  fennel paste ( I used about an inch of ginger and 1/2 tsp fennel seeds which were dry roasted and ground and 1 green chili  )
1 tsp chili powder (the hotter the better)
Salt as per taste
1/4th tsp turmeric powder
1/4th tsp clarified butter 'ghee'

For the mango mustard sauce

1 large raw green mango
1/2 tsp whole peppercorn
Rock salt as per taste
Sugar as per taste
3 tbsp yellow mustard
2 tsp mustard oil
2 green chili
A fat pinch of Panch phoron (Bengali five spice made with Cumin, fennel, Nigella seeds, Whole fenugreek seeds and either black mustard seeds or radhuni)
1.5 cups water

Start by making cubes of the breast (they need not have perfect shapes) and then marinate with the ginger fennel paste , salt, chili powder , turmeric and the clarified butter and let it marinate for 2 hours.

The bacon wrapped chicken post being baked

Now carefully spread out the bacon and wrap a bit of chicken in the four bacon rashers and then preheat oven to 200C and bake for 20 minutes to 30 minutes turning them mid-way on a tray . Now start with the mango by roasting it on the gas stove till the skin gets completelt charred and then wait till its cool enough to handle, peel of skin and get the soft flesh and make a paste with sugar, rock salt and whole peppercorn. Make mustard paste with the green chili  and strain (this straining helps ensure that there is no bitter taste from the mustard). Once the bacon wrapped chicken is baked take it out. There will be a lot of fat ,we shall use this indeed.

So heat 2 tsp mustard oil  and add the Five spice and when they splutter add the mustard paste and then add 1 tbsp raw mango paste which you have earlier made and add the water and bring to a boil and add the bacon fat and the bacon wrapped chicken and once it comes to a boil simmer and after 5 minutes take out the bacon wrapped chicken and reduce it to a thick stage.

I took about 13 minutes. Do this reduction on low heat and then add the bacon wrapped chicken and bring to boil and simmer for another 2 minutes and serve with hot steaming basmati rice , some fried dried lentil cones known as bodi if you ahve some and a leafy green vegetable.

Kolkata Food Blogger's Table : Tribute to Bengal with a modern twist

Bohemian

Cost - Approximately Rs1500 for 2. Alcohol is not served.

Address : 32/4, Old Ballygunge 1st Lane , Ballygunge, Kolkata

Cuisine : Contemporary and jazzy , a true tribute to traditional Bengali food jazzed up the modern way

It was for years that Calcuttans have had the delectable traditional Bengali fare served by a few restaurants in Calcutta be it Oh! Calcutta, Suruchi, 6, Ballygunge Place, Kasturi and a few other restaurants.                      

 While the city began to be filled with eateries in every nook and cranny Chef Joy suddenly forayed into the Calcutta gastronomical space with his beautifully unique  dishes in 2008. My first encounter was when someone had ordered in a couple of dishes from this joint and well , the meal was memorable even more so with the twist and turns.

So you see there were sandwiches with cumin and pizzas with nigella seeds and it was a beautiful innovation. So I present Chef Joy's delicacies. The consistency of quality and quantity over the years does deserve special mention, though in recent times he did switch his home fries with store bought potato crisps.

Now coming to 10th of November , 2013 , well the day was a bit different since it was my first group meeting with Kolkata Food Bloggers. The choice of restaurant had obviously but delighted me owing to my previous good experience. My dealings with the restaurant has mostly been in the department of home delivery but I did visit the restaurant somewhere in 2012.

Locating the restaurant is quite easy. If you are coming from the north of the city all you do is take Syed Amir Ali Avenue and then at the junction of Ballygunge Phari you take a left turn onto Bondel road and continue for another minute till you reach a small "kali mandir " basically a tree with a small deity and take a left turn yet again and you find the name Bohemian on the right side of the road. From the looks of it you realize it is an old house (well quite new compared to the heritage buildings of Calcutta but nevertheless a home and that itself gives  a very cozy feeling. The interiors is very youthful and jazzy. So there is rock n roll music with innovative pictures of Aerosmith and other Rock , Jazz and musical iconic idols attached with ropes on the big glass wall looking onto the street. The presentation is truly unique. The warm colour of the interiors is comforting as well. Now there aren't too many tables and quite frankly most of the tables are a size smaller for the number of occupants the tables are supposed to occupy. We did originally take a table for 6 but later moved onto a smaller table due to the number of diners being 4 and it being a Sunday. The table in my opinion was a bit too small for comfortable dining. The interiors does full justice to the name with the colourful settings.

The food is well in one word Bengali contemporary. So each dish has some spice which is a common ingredient of most Bengali kitchens but low and behold it is not your usual fare. So there is panch phoron flavoured chicken escallops, gondhoraj julep, Bacon wrapped chciken in aam kasundi sauce and so on so forth.

Chicken escallops flavoured with 'Panch Phoron' 

Gondhoraj Julep 

                                                                                                           
   






We decided on the panch phoron escallops and some refreshing drinks. I had ordered the gondhoraj julep which was delightful at first with the mild aroma and flavour of the beautiful lime and the sharp taste of coriander leaves but over the course of time found the sharp taste of coriander a bit too strong for my taste. Of course I have to mention here  my taste buds like subtle flavours. My fellow diner who had ordered the same drink liked it a lot. The pricing at Rs149 seemed reasonable as compared to the present scenario of dining outside.

The escallops were delightful with the subtle hint of well ground Bengali five spice , the exact amount of salt for my taste. It did not require any condiments due to the beautiful flavours lent by the five spice and when a fellow diner asked for some condiment the server politely informed the same. This one is a perfect start.

Now we did also order Vodka Soaked Prawns but since I am highly allergic to sea food I cannot write about it.

The bacon Wrapped chicken delight

For your main course everything here is A la carte. The crockery is also a tribute to the Bohemian theme , colourful , mismatched and beautiful. I opted for bacon wrapped chicken and my fellow diners had ordered spicy pork curry , Royal Bengal roast mutton and I do not remember the fourth choice. My Bacon wrapped chicken was truly a delight be it for the succulent and juicy chicken pieces and the perfectly baked bacon. The sauce is a beautiful amalgamation of mustard , mangoes and subtle hint of  spices . Along with the rice and tossed vegetables this alone is a sufficient meal. I could not finish off my entire meal and had to pack it but I do have a small appetite. Priced at Rs399 it seems very reasonable. I do clearly remember the distinct taste of my friend's Anglo-Indian Pork curry  and must say it was spicy indeed but delightful. I remember getting a  strong taste of black pepper which beatifies the dish even more.

Gondhoraj Souffle

We were all happily full and yet insisted on dessert and so finally settled for the Gondhoraj souffle which was shared among all 4 diners. While the taste was beautiful with the subtle hint of the zest from the lime and the perfect amount of sugar. It was more a mousse than souffle because it clearly had not been baked. The bill seemed quite reasonable.  The pricing of Rs219 seemed quite reasonable.

In all a delightful lunch with delightful company makes it a wonderful Sunday.

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