Press The Freaking Publish Button with This Freaking Fish Biryani!

Hello – Happy New Year to all of you! I had the pleasure of meeting Gordon Ramsay in October last year and found the above quote of his very compelling, specially for the state of mind I am always in. I am telling myself to absolve the essence of the quote into each and every cell that I have in my body. Otherwise, I will be doling out explanations that I think I owe to my readers and and myself… how could I write more than 30,000 words across 60 articles in 2016, but not a single word for my blog? Or why could I post more than 530 posts on my Instagram (@ishitaunblogged) but not a single image in this blog! I travelled to 4 different countries, eaten in more than 30 new restaurants, interviewed more than 20 chefs – a few with the Michelin fame, encountered several delicious moments – all of which deserve a space here. It’s not that I haven’t had the time – writing is all that I have done in the last year. Didn’t a single word or an image make the cut for my blog? I have lost count of how many did actually – all because I have been FREAKING OVERTHINKING! The only thing that I have realised is that the blog is the life line for my all my creative juices and it has to continue, no matter what. It started off being such a fun space depicting my Dubai life, my Bong heritage and my travels elsewhere. What happened? Dear Ishita… be Gordon Ramsay, and look for the next cow – or fish if that pleases your Bong soul! Debbie, my blogger friend (aka Coffee Cakes & Running) and editor at FoodeMag (the food & travel emagazine that I had cofounded and now edit, an oft repeated info in case any of you are joining me in my blog space for the first time), left me with the ultimatum – “Press The Freaking Publish Button before this midnight.” I promised her I will. “So what are you going to write about?” she asked. I answered: “A Freaking Fish Biryani!”

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BPPWrt-DMcx/?hl=en">https://www.instagram.com/p/BPEXotVjCoA/?taken-by=ishitaunblogged</a>

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ishita (@ishitaunblogged)

Sniffing into fresh herbs and greens and brightly coloured fruits, I plopped up random stuff in the grocery this weekend. I danced in excitement when I saw a promising loot on the iced shelves of the fish section. I cooked up a few recipes in my head – all in flat thirty seconds of crossing the grocery aisles. The way I tugged at Big Z’s sleeves, it seemed like I was at a fancy grocery for the first time. Well, the first time after many weeks for sure, for the #BeardedBiker (that’s S formerly, but now transformed into this new hashtag permanently, much to my dislike) has taken away the grocery chore from me. Two reasons – One, I was proving to be more expensive and two, there was more wastage. The Z-Sisters of course had a way of manipulating me into buying stuff that we either didn’t need or were so much in excess of our needs that they regularly overshot their expiry dates and had to be thrown. “Please Mummy, please please please, can you buy some….?” Lady M too would tell me to add things randomly at the last minute, or minutes after the bill had been paid. “I forgot to write down…” These things don’t work with the Bearded Biker. No more apparent wastage. The part about my conscientious wife’s dented ego – well, I forgot about it soon as it worked to my advantage – no more last minute tweaks in the grocery list for flavoured gummies – and visibly cheaper grocery bills, fuller tummies, ampler time and more energy for my fingers to type!

Gulf News Fun Drive; Image credit – my friend Sneha

Meditation… Freaking Meditation anyone?

Everywhere I have been reading about the power of Meditation. The more I read, the more frustrated and irritated I become as I stumble on my path to traditional Meditation. That’s where friends come in – they twist and tell you things that’s convenient for you! According to my friend and wellness practitioner Tanuka (aka Soulight Tanuka on Facebook), Meditation is doing any activity which doesn’t make you think of anything. Cooking for me is then, Meditation, otherwise my mind is full of nonstop chatter! Result of my meditation on last Saturday  was this ~ FREAKING ~ Fish Biryani. Although the Bengali soul longed for Hilsa and all I could remember was the taste of the Hilsas from my last Kolkata visit, I have to admit that these King Fish steaks did a remarkable con job. Just because it was still the weekend and just because the Bearded Biker was back home after bashing the dunes in GN Fun Drive and just because he had put in a request for a King Fish Biryani many moons back – it had to be this fish Biryani on the menu. A Fish Biryani request coming from a Biryani loving Bong came as a bit of a surprise, because since time immemorial, a Biryani for a thoroughbred Bengali, had always meant an Awadhi Biryani (here’s a recipe of it from my blog)!

During my Kolkata visit this time, my Mum-in-law’s ‘Shorshe Bata Iilish’ or the Mustard Hilsa was so subtly spicy and sublime, specially when she poured her love, thick mustardy love!

In the last few years that I have visited Kolkata, I felt that the Hilsa didn’t taste quite special. Glad that in my last visit, every Hilsa that I tasted, whether fried or cooked in gravy, had been supreme. And for those who vote for the Kolaghat Iilish, the ones shown here are from Diamond Harbour. The Hilsa is a perfect rainy day companion so, if in Kolkata Let it rain…