Recipe: Khitchuri Bangladesh

* Ingredients

-3 cups fine rice
-1 cup of split yellow lentils (dry-fried)
-¾ cup oil
-8 cups boiling water
-1 tablespoon melted butter
-½ teaspoon crushed turmeric
-1 teaspoon crushed ginger
-¼ teaspoon crushed garlic
-2 onions peeled and sliced
-4 pods of cardamom
-2 Cloves
-2 bay leaves
-5 whole green chili, chopped
-3 pieces of cinnamon
-Salt:as required

* Way to do it

1- Pour some water into the rice and let it soften a little for 20 minutes. Then mix the rice with the lentils and next with crushed ginger, garlic and turmeric.

2- Pour oil into a saucepan. When it is hot, add the onion followed by cardamom, clove, bay leaves, cinnamon and salt. Keep the heat low.

3-When the onions turn a little brownish, add the mixture of rice, lentils and spices and stir them as much as possible.

4-When it is fried enough add boiling water; stir well and cover it with a lid. Raise the heat. Keep stirring now and then, opening the lid. When it starts to simmer and the water and the solid mixture are leveled on the surface, add the chilies. Keep the heat low and keep it like that for to 20 minutes. Open the lid and stir in the melted butter . Keep it covered with the lid for 5 more minutes and you are ready to serve.

* Necessary time

30min

* Number of persons

5 persons

* Variants and other comentaries

This is a very popular Bangaldeshi recipe.

Recipe: Paella

* Ingredients

- 100g rice for each person

- 1.75 litres water

- 100 ml of olive oil

- ½ chicken cut up into little chunks

- ½ rabbit cut up into little chunks

- 1 tin chopped tomatoes. Approximately 500g

- A red bell pepper, sliced

- A head of garlic

- Salt

- 1 teaspoon of yellow food colouring or saffron

* Way to do it

1- Cut the red bell pepper into strips. Roast them using a pan; set aside.

2- Fry the head of garlic; set aside.

3- Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium-high heat until it begins to smoke. Place the chicken and rabbit pieces into the oil and fry lightly until golden brown on both sides (this takes about 5 minutes); set aside.

4- Fry the chopped tomatoes, adding some salt. Cook for 5 minutes; set aside.

5- Boil the water in a saucepan. Stir in the meat and the fried tomatoes. Let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes until it’s well combined and the meat is well done.

6- Heat a little olive oil in a very large pan with two handles or paella pan over medium-high heat until it begins to smoke.

7- Add all the rice in one go, stirring to make sure it doesn’t stick.

8- Immediately mix in the meat and tomato mixture. Stir it again.

9- Add yellow food colouring or saffron. Taste the mixture. If you like, add a pinch of salt.
Stir the mixture again to make sure it doesn’t stick.

10- Spread the rice around the paella pan, (make sure the pieces of meat are well spaced. Remember that the bigger a paella pan is, the better, since a good paella mustn't be thick.)
Let the paella cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes.

11- Put the fried head of garlic in the middle of the paella, but if you don’t like the garlic taste, you can omit this step.

12- Decoratively place the strips of pepper on top of the paella (drawing a daisy shape is the most common way)

13- Continue cooking for 15 minutes over medium heat until the rice is done and the water has evaporated. Be careful! Make sure that the rice isn’t overcooked. Rice, in any good paella, has to be a bit hard, or chewy, but never tender. So, you’ll have to control the water level and the tenderness of the rice. If the rice appears to be getting too dry during the last 10 minutes, add more water. If the rice is too wet at the end of the 10 minutes, uncover and the unwanted liquid will evaporate.

14- Turn off the heat. Cover the paella, and let it settle for 5 minutes.Garnish with lemon wedges to serve.

* Necessary time

0ne and half hour

* Number of persons

6 persons

* Variants and other comentaries

Here are the instructions on how to make a traditional Valencian paella. This is my mother’s recipe, and I’ve chosen a typical paella made of meat, because it’s my favourite. However, instead of meat you can choose to cook a paella made of fish, seafood or a mix of meat and seafood.