Day 15 - Bangladhesh! Up next, Barbados - click on the link for recipes

Cooking in Bangladesh tonight was especially fun, because the recipe did not come from the internet. Instead, I was given the recipe by my friend and colleague, Sangeeta Dey - a brilliant Pediatric Neuropsychologist I first met while working on a very complex case, but who has since become a wonderful friend. Sangeeta's father, Gopal Deas, is Bengali, so she was kind enough to pass on a traditional  meal that is regularly eaten in households through out Bangladesh.

Because Bangladesh has such a rich and complex political and religious history, I didn't feel I could do the country justice by condensing it's historical time line into a few sentences, so I've included a link which I think gives a fairly good overview for those who are interested: http://www.discoverybangladesh.com/history.html and a band to check out as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VMtZ8B4tCU

The dish is called Mangsho'r Jhol - translated, Beef Curry. Now, I know what you're thinking...aren't cows sacred in India? Yes they are, but Sangeeta tells me that 80% of the population in Bangladesh is Muslim,  the remaining 20% are Hindu who do not eat beef for religious and spiritual reasons.

Here are some of the wonderful ingredients I used to prepare this meal: potatoes, ginger, onions, garlic, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and cloves

 Turmeric, Coriander and Cumin

It was well over 90 degrees today, and my kitchen must have been at least 100. As I was seriously sweating over the stove - okay, and I had really big hair too,  I imagined this is what a kitchen in Bangladesh during the summer would be like, so I suppose the sweltering temperature lent authenticity to preparing this meal. And, once again the smell of the rich spices filled up the house with such an exotic aroma, that in combination with the heat, I felt I could have been in Bangladesh, preparing an evening meal for my family. Bridging cultural divides, crossing oceans to distant continents without leaving my kitchen - what an adventure on so many levels.

We ate the meal outside, because it really was too hot in the house. My family LOVED the dish - it had just the right amount of heat and spice, but was offset by the tomatoes and yogurt.  Final assessment - we'll mos' def' be having this again.

Gopal Deas's Mangsho'r Jhol - Beef Curry

• 1 lb. beef (any cut) cubed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• a few cloves
• 1 medium finely chopped onion

Sautee onions in oil, add beef, bay leaves, cinnamon stick and cloves in a heavy pot.
Cover with lid and simmer, adding a little water at a time for form a gravy.

When beef is cooked about half way, add more water to make gravy then add:

• 2 chopped potatoes
• 1-2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. garlic paste or chopped garlic
• 2 tsp. ginger paste of chopped fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp Cumin
• 1 tbsp Coriander
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 2 small chopped tomatoes or tomato paste
• 3 tbsp. yogurt

Serve with Basmati rice and enjoy!!!

Great Summer Cookbooks

Winter is the easiest time of year to feel motivated to cook. When it's cold outside nothing is better than hunkering down in a cozy kitchen to braise and bake and simmer the day away. Summer time is perhaps the toughest season for cooking. Who wants to be in the kitchen when the weather is beckoning you to stay in the sun? When I think of Summer I think of tomato salads, guacamole, ceviche and big antipasto platters served al fresco. And of course anything and everything on the grill.

There are tons of grilling cookbooks and each season a new batch comes out (in fact you can find a recent round up of grilling book reviews on MattBites). But this year there are two Summer cookbooks that go way beyond just grilling, giving you many more options when things heat up. They are very different books, though either would be perfect to take with you on Summer vacation to a beach house or mountain cabin, or make a great hostess gift.

The Big Summer Cookbook is a soft cover book with 300 recipes written by author Jeff Cox who seems particularly attuned to what is ripe and in season. The book starts with a Summer seasonality chart and perhaps even more interestingly a section on how to stock your Summer pantry. This would be helpful in planning meals for a week at a Summer house. There are recipes for no-cook dishes such as Mango Watermelon Salad and Caprese Skewers as well as some baked goods that you will want to eat during the Summer such as Plum and Nectarine Crisp and Sour Cream Breakfast Cake. Recipes I have bookmarked include a No-Cook Blackberry Pie that features a graham cracker crust and a Couscous Salad with Pine Nuts and Summer Fruit. The vegetable and fruit recipes are more interesting in general than the meat recipes which tend to be standbys such as burgers and grilled chicken. There are some new ideas in this book, but it's really more about the basics. Read an excerpt.

By contrast, the substantial hardcover Recipes from an Italian Summer will make you dream of Summer in a villa eating dishes like Grilled Sardines scented with Orange, Wild Duck with Figs, and Spaghetti and Lobster. It begins with a seasonal food calendar and features nearly 400 exciting and adventurous recipes. These are primarily Italian recipes, many you have not likely seen before. With a few notable exceptions, they are generally not complicated dishes and in tune with the season but written for someone who is a confident cook. By "in tune" I mean things you might want to eat in Summer, as there are recipes using ingredients not strictly available in the Summer like apples and radicchio. Here and there the recipes suffer from less than optimal translations. But they are the things you will want to eat when you get bored of tomato salad and grilled chicken. The book has gorgeous photos of food in a rustic style and lots of photos of Italy. If you love Italian food you will find this book deeply satisfying because of the many fresh ideas it presents although there is some overlap with the Silver Spoon cookbook. Personally I can't wait to make dishes like Potato Pizza and Sunflower Petal Salad. It's a book that inspires. Look inside the book.