How to treat a delicate fish in nice way?

Hey there!
How are you all?! It has been while I wrote something in my blog! Lot of things were going on in between.. so could not make time to write! I apologize for that unintentional delay. Today I am back to write again! Basically I was feeling low for couple of days, tried different ways to cheer up myself then it came up in my mind all on a sudden that why I am not trying to write?! Writing is the best way to keep mind busy in a good work. And also make a communication with all the good people around... 😄😄

Today I am going to write about a very delicate fish specially for Bengali people. The fish name is "Hilsha" which is probably a distance cousin of Salmon. Hilsha is delicate because of it's nice smell and amazing taste. In Bengali cuisine, it got full respect and treated as a royal element. Actually how many words I will write it will not be enough to justify the elegance of this fish. So I am trying to hold myself not to be confined only putting words about elegance of this f
ish but also moving forward to the main recipe. Oho !! one more thing I forgot to mention that "Hilsha" is the national fish of Bangladesh. Almost 70% of Hilsha get caught in Bangladesh. You can google it for more accurate and amazing details!! 😇😇😇😇

Hilsha Fish

I am living abroad for more than 3 years. And unfortunately the places I lived so far there was no Bangladeshi store nearby. So it was not possible to get Hilsha here and obviously I was missing it a lot. But a few days ago I managed to get this fish with the help of my friend. I am very thankful to my friend for this great work!!.. Than what I did to it by giving proper respect to it's delicacy.

If you ever heard about biriyani you know how much we adore it. It's the most popular dish all over the sub-continent. Now, it's getting many more fans all over the world. And I already mentioned the delicacy of Hilsha. So I thought about combining these two in one dish. So, I am presenting "Hilsha Biriyani" in my own way. Simple, Easy but delicious!

I am dividing this in three parts for better understanding!

Hilsha Preparation:

I took 5 big pieces of fish. Than put all the spices and other ingredients according to my taste. And I do believe everyone's taste is different so it might vary. I took a large pot where I will cook the whole recipe. Than I  heat mustard oil, put cumin seeds, wait till to crackle. Then., Put onion slices. Fried onions till light brown. Than put 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste. Cooked until the raw smell went out. Then put a little water which will save the powdered spices from burning. Then assemble curry powder, turmeric powder, chili powder, salt according to taste (Not much but at least 1 tea spoon). Mix well. Put the fishes. And with lid on cook one side. Then carefully change the side. And cook this side with lid on in the same way.  When fish get cooked take the fish pieces out carefully from the gravy and put aside.

Rice Preparation:

Took  2 cups of  basmati rice. Soaked in water for 30 minutes.

Combination:

The gravy which is left in the pot. There put a mixture of milk, water, 1 piece of each whole spices ( cardamom. cinnamon, bayleaf). The whole mixture will be around 3-4 cups. Adjust it according to how much water is needed to cook your rice. Boil it for around 2-3 minutes. Then put rice into it. Then just wait to the time needed to cook the rice. For me it took 25 minutes. then when rice is done, arrange cooked fish pieces on top, garnish with chilies and fried onions. Lid on. Keep it on low flame for a while ( 5 minutes!) . Then it's done. The gorgeous " Hilsha biriyani".

Take a look into my one!-💗💗💗💗

 
                                                                 
                                                        My Hilsha Biriyani

N.B: You can try it with salmon or other fish. It may taste close.

And don't forget to follow my writings, read and leave your graceful comments in comment section. Thank you for your time! 👩👩

Minnesota- A Short trip!!

Hello Everyone! How are you all?? I always write in my every post, writing here also please do comment if you are reading my post. Leave your valuable feedback in comment section. I really appreciate that. I started writing blog post keeping in mind that I will be able to make a good friendly communicating network with different people around the world. So hope that you will be communicating through my writing.

Now intro is done! I am writing after a long time as I was little busy with different works. Could not manage time to sit down for writing. Today the topic is about my short trip to Minnesota. Actually that was not trip for travel. It was for work. So could not do much for fun. But I feel to share whatever the trip was.

I was in Minnesota for almost one week. I started one Sunday. That was very uneventful flight. Only things may be I would like to mention that the Minnesota airport is too huge that I got hard time to find the rented car!!.. 😐😐

Next day, In the evening after work, I went to the "The Mall of America", biggest mall of USA. Heard that this mall is larger than Rhode Island ( one of the states of USA). This mall had an amusement park inside!!...👀👀👀 Airlines give special offer for European tourists who come and stay in two hotels- Radisson Blu & Sheraton inside the mall and explore the mall. I think I have seen only 1/100 th  of mall in 2-3 hours. Legs got tired of walking. So did not go out anywhere for dinner. Found a thai restaurant inside mall and ate red curry there.
This is the link for the picture I have taken inside the mall. (A glimpse of amusement park)!!..😵😵😵
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq87HxSnSwo/


Except the mall visit, I did not do any sightseeing or anything because it was winter and I had to work in day time. So explored different restaurants to feel Minnesota flavor. I tried to find something which may be solely from that place and I will not be able to find anywhere else. One iconic local dish of that area is pan fried whalley with potato noodles ( As local people said). Tried that one, no doubt it was tasty. But I found it quite heavy dish which may create discomfort in stomach.

I tried some other phenomenal dishes over there. In one restaurant ate two consecutive  days. There food was that good. First day I had snapper with noodles & broccoli. Another day, I ate sushi. I can't believe that I liked sushi (it was cooked though). That coconut shrimp roll was absolute beauty. It was Hawaii inspired American restaurant. One dish in menu shocked me. They got Mumbai chicken in there menu. I felt curious to know how they execute it. So ordered it and in my first spoon I was disappointed as it was not the thing I was expecting. But as a different it was good. And I appreciate their effort.
This link is for the picture of that amazing sushi!!😋😋
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrEcvyggFWk/

Well, that's all. I think I write up what was the highlight for my this trip. It was not for travel. So could not share much exciting thing. But hopefully next time when I will write any of my travel, I will share some more exciting things.

Hope you will like my writing and leave your valuable feedback. Bye & Enjoy.
 😁😁😁
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https://soundcloud.com/nandine-mitra

https://www.instagram.com/nminstastories14/

https://twitter.com/NandineMitra

How I spent my thanksgiving weekend?

Hello.. How is your long thanksgiving weekend? Did a lot of black Friday shopping?? Ready to get back to work?? Please let me know in comment sections. I really want to converse with you and make a friendly connection through my writing! So do give your graceful feedback! I really wait for that!

Now moving on the topics- how I spent my thanksgiving weekend? Well, now it's time to open up the stories. When I came back from work on Wednesday, I thought of packing up for the scheduled move out from my old apartment to new apartment on  Friday. But I did not feel to do so. Then what I did?-Nothing. Just freshen up a little bit. Ate all the coconut cream pie left in the fridge. Then went for bed. That night sleep was not very comfortable. Woke up at the middle of night for couple of times. Finally made to get up from bed in the morning around 8. Then ate a poached egg as breakfast and started day with packing for move out. Did packing till 12.30 PM. Then got ready to go for thanksgiving lunch in my co-worker's place.

It was very nice lunch prepared by his wife. She made turkey, cauliflower casserole, green beans, mashed potatoes, bun, pumpkin pie, soup. I really loved all the food specially turkey. It was very well cooked. Her wife was so kind to let me bring some leftover turkeys.  Then after a family style lunch, we chit chat for a while. We had a great time. Then I came back to my place again started packing. It went till late at night. I packed very light only the essentials. Because next day as it was thanksgiving weekend so not more people was there to do this moving. but I had to do that because that's the last day of moving to new apartment.

Next day, around 9.30 with my packages I moved to my new places. Done some formalities, then got into my new apartment. Yaahhh!!… Then rest of the went by unpacking packages. Felt a bit of sick. So just made turkey soup and pasta from the leftover (Will share recipe in future posts). Slept early after having medicine.

Saturday morning wake up early in the morning because I needed to go for shopping. Did shopping for almost two hours. When returned home I was very hungry. But I did not want to eat anything accept rice & curry ( Bong!!!). Then just prepared lentil and radish leaves fry. After taking bath, had a pleasant lunch. then it was as usual.

Today is Sunday. The day is almost over. The highlight of the day is this writing. Nothing much happened today. Cooked two dishes-potato curry, tuna kofta.  That's it.

Already, my writing is done. If I made u bored, I am extremely sorry for that. I just felt to share. So I wrote it down. Hope you will like it and let me know how you feel about my writing. Also if you would like to introduce yourself you can do that in comments. I will be glad to converse with you.

Good Night! See you in next post!!…. 😊😊😊

Onion Chutney- with my twist

Hello Everyone?!😄
How are you all?? Hope you all are ready for Monday. 😰😰 I am also trying to convince myself that weekend is over and should get ready for Monday. Before that thought of sharing a very easy recipe from my cookbook 😋. Which I instantly came up with the idea of making a chutney when I prepared tuna rice in 20 minutes and did not have any other gravy to eat with it. So the best quick recipe which came in my mind it was a chutney made of onion. May be the conventional onion chutney is different. But when I prepared it no other thing came up in my mind except chutney!
It goes very well with tuna rice ( I will write about that some other time!)
This post will be very short as the recipe is just one minute recipe!

What you will need??
Onion sliced as cube size( 1 cup at least)

Tomato Ketchup

Chili- Garlic Sauce

Salt

Curry Powder

Green Chilies

Chili Powder

Oil

Every ingredient as required how much you want.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl ( except onion). Then heat a pan, pour the mixture into it. If water is needed it can be added as requirement ( a little not much). If it boiled once, then it's time to add the sliced onions. mix well. Just cook until the onions get little translucent not fully cooked. Then nothing to do. Serve it with polau, fried rice an so on. ( I will share the rice dishes also sometimes)

Trust me in just one minute you will get something which compliments your rice dish perfectly.
Keep eye on my blogs for easiest rice dishes recipe.

I really eagerly wait for your feedback what you think about my writing or recipes. Please follow, read and comment. Your inspiration is my motivation. See you in next post. Till than Bye.. 😊😊😊

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https://twitter.com/NandineMitra

https://soundcloud.com/nandine-mitra


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My First Thanksgiving in USA!!

Hello! How is everyone?? Ready to start weekend?? My weekend has started with a writing for you all. Today I am going to share my first thanksgiving experience in abroad. This is a very precious experience for me. I always adore that experience. I think I am so overwhelmed with the experience because I was never introduced with thanksgiving before I came abroad. It's thanksgiving week, so I think no other time will be great to share the story.

I feel myself fortunate as my friend invited me to her home to spend the thanksgiving weekend with her family. It was a great weekend. She and her family treated me vey well and gave me a homely environment what I was missing a lot as I just came abroad. 😢😢

We started early in the morning before thanksgiving day. It was 1.45 hours away from the place I used to live near school. The road was beautiful. Because fall color was still there on roadside. We made a few stops. It was not wet, snowy  November. The time we had reached it was late afternoon. We ate chicken & green beans for lunch. Then we took rest for a while. In the evening, we went out for a coffee. Then I proposed "Why not I prepare some curry for dinner?" They felt very happy and told me "Absolutely!!, nothing can be better plan than that" So we went to grocery stores to buy spices and all. I made potato curry and rice. Everyone loved it. My friend packed a few leftover to take with her at work! Then we started preparing cookies. Her mother shared wonderful recipe of pie and cookies. We helped her as much as we can. When everything is done, we all had a good night sleep.👌👌👌

Next morning! we had a light breakfast. I can't remember what actually we had. Then went out for shopping. Oh! Before that my friend's mother put the well marinated turkey in stove for baking. When we came back from shopping the turkey was almost done. Then we started preparing mashed potato, devil eggs, green beans, hash brown, corn, bun. When her siblings came from outside we all set our plates and ate together. We laughed, gossiped. It was fun. In the evening, we went out with dogs to make them a walk. When returned home, we all set the Christmas tree. We ate a lot in late afternoon. So did not eat much at night. Just had a glass of milk and cookies.


                                  The Thanksgiving platter with full of goodness!!…. 😄

Next day was black Friday, so we went to a cloth store where good sale was going on. We shopped cloths. Then it's time to return home. My friend and I drove to my home. My friend dropped me at home. It was wonderful thanksgiving weekend for me. I felt at home with them. I am so thankful for that.

Well, that's all. You might think why I am sharing this. But I felt to share. Hope you will like it and cherish your all good memories about thanksgiving and let me know in comments. I eagerly wait for your kind feedback.

Good Night! See you in next post. Till than bye!!….😊😊😊😊

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Music & Me... !!

Hello Everyone!

How was your Monday??…. I know Monday is the longest day in the week! After a lazy weekend, it's very difficult to get into work moreover in winter. I also had a long Monday. After coming back at home in the evening, I thought of doing something refreshing. I feel refreshed when I write in my blog. When it is about my hobby... I can't explain how excited I am!!… 😄😄
From title, you already got to know what I am talking about. Yes, it is music. I like every kind of music. Obviously it depends on different mood. I also try to sing sometimes. A few I uploaded in SoundCloud. The links are below:

https://soundcloud.com/nandine-mitra/akash-khule-bose-asitao-keno-dekhso-na
https://soundcloud.com/nandine-mitra/tomarei-koriyachi-11
https://soundcloud.com/nandine-mitra/1a-2
https://soundcloud.com/nandine-mitra/1a-1

Hope, you will listen and tell me in comments how bad singer I am!!..  😋😋 Waiting for your feedbacks.

Before ending the post I would like to share the story how I get introduced with singing. My mother taught me the "A B C D" of singing. Then I got admitted classical music class. My father did a lot to give me the best music lessons. Every Monday after coming from work, Papa used to take me to the music classes. I did well in my lessons. In first 9 months, I passed two grades. After one year, I quitted classical music classes because at that age understanding classical music was tough for me. Without understanding it was difficult for me to keep continuing classical music. Started practicing Bengali music at home. With time, when study pressure increased ,left practicing at home also. Now I regret why I quitted the classes. I could be little more patient. May be I could be a good singer now! who knows!!.. 😛😛😛

Okay! That's all for today. Hope you will listen to my music and let me know can I start singing again or singing is not for me!!👀👀👀

Oh! By the way, all the songs are in Bangla. But I believe the language of music is universal. ❤❤
See you all in next post!!!!….  😊😊

Craving for something delicious??!!!

Hello! Hello!
I am back with another post! Today I am going to share a very delicious recipe in simplified manner. It's my version of chicken biriyani. As I have committed to share all the possible stories in my blog post! So there is an interesting story behind this recipe!!!👀👀
What is that??😲😲
Hold on.. I am here to share that!!!....😄😄
when I first came abroad for school I did not know how to cook at all. I was surviving on Noodles!.. 😢….. And also the place where I used to live it was kind of a place where there is no Asian/Indian/Bengali store, shop or restaurant. So I kept missing biriyani or all other Bengali delicacies I used to eat at home. One day, my friend who is from Africa asked me which is significant food over my region. I told him the significant  food of my region is "Rice & Fish Curry"...but those kind of fishes were not available in our local stores. So what could be next??..Yes, if you are from sub continent than you already guess what it could be? yes..you are right. It's biriyani!!! My friend told me then "Okay, I would like to eat biriyani".. Then I thought how I can accomplish this tough recipe (As I knew)! hmmm... What to do?!!...Then thought to try a easier version which is my own way nothing authentic! But when my friend tried it, he told me that he tried several biriyani in different places and restaurants, but I made the best one!!… 😃😃

Now without taking any time, I am going to share the simplest recipe of chicken biriyani! I am not going to mention  detailed ingredients. I believe it's vary by taste and choice. So I am sharing the process. Tan tana.... 😛😛

Rice Preparation: Fry Rice (Basmati/Jasmine) with whole spices (Cardamom, Cloves, Cinnamon, Bay leaves) in clarified butter till get brown. Keep it aside.

Chicken Preparation: Marinate chicken (curry cut) with yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric,curry powder, salt, tomato paste. Keep it aside for  at least half an hour. Then Heat a pan in the stove. Put oil. Fry one cup onion till brown. Then put marinated chicken into the pot. Mix everything well. Let it cook with lid for 10 minutes. Then need to check. If needed pour some water. Not much. Cook the chicken till almost done.

Biriyani Preparation: Here the final part!... When the chicken is almost done, pour enough water than rice can be soaked into it but not much that everything will be flooding. After pouring water, pour the fried rice, mix well. Water will be just one inch above from the rice and chicken mixture. Cook in medium flame until the water almost gone and rice is done. then put it in low flame for 20 minutes. Then...………… it is done!! Yes you made it... 👌👌

Look how gorgeous the outcome is....😮😮😮

                                         Chicken Biriyani....Simple & Easy

N.B: Amount of chicken will be double of rice. That will taste better. Others ingredients can be tuned as per taste.
Enjoy don't forget to comment, follow my blogs. Your inspiration is my motivation of writing. Good Bye, see you in next post.
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What do you know about me?

Hello, I can understand "Title is a little creepy!" There is 600 crore people  in the world, Whom do we know?! or care about to know? But I believe every individual has a story which can be astonishing. Everyone's dream can be unique! But it's not possible to get to know about everyone or not everyone does want to let others to know about them or get the opportunity to do so!...
Already talked a lot before introducing myself. Now it's high time that I should write who I am otherwise you are gonna mad at me! … 😋😋
Me  Nandine, a dreamer who dreams to do a lot of things. Not only for myself but also for the earth, for the mankind. To earn my livings I work as an engineer. But if you think I am a robot than hold on.. it's my profession, as a person I have a very great sense of humor. I have great taste in music, culture, novel, history, travel etc.. I love to travel a lot, I don't like to travel for selfies. I love to travel to feel my soul. I am a nature person more specifically I am in love with ocean, mountain, green, different colors of life. Oh!..😲😲 I forgot to mention I can sing, dance, act, ramp walk, painting (Very talented 😜😜)! !
Currently, I am living all by myself. But it does not mean that I don't have anyone who loves me. I have a very lovely family, lover, friend. But because of current circumstances, I am living alone. Hope this will end soon. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to make some more new friends, well-wishers through my blog! That's my motivation of writing blog. Here, I will share all I experience while living alone, how it feels, how to manage it. how to keep relations alive from distance and also fun activities travel, cooking what not!

That's all for today! I am really expecting comments about yourself or what do you think about my writing!..
Hope to come back soon with a new post. Till than bye and stay well!.. 😊😊😊😊