A somewhat "Shutki" (dried/fermented fish) substitute for Bangladeshi people living in North America

 

      by Raha

Photos from shutterstock and istock

Hello everyone. I know everyone clicked on this blog because of the title, in particular, the word "Shutki substitute", but I will get to that a little bit later. First, I would like to talk about my reason for suddenly trying to find substitute ingredients. I am sure quite a few international students from Bangladesh can relate to it.

So, I have been in Canada for a few years now and I have been missing Bangladeshi food like crazy. I came here on a student visa. With my studies and my part-time job, I have been very busy. I didn't have the time to figure out which Canadian ingredient names relate to which Bangladeshi ones. Moreover, the place where I am living now doesn't have many Bangladeshi or Indian people around. So, the closest convenience store lacks many ingredients that are necessary for Bangladeshi cuisine. On top of that, the nearest Indian store is pretty far from here and you can just forget about Bangladeshi stores or restaurants. I have heard that there are some in the next city. But I don't have a car, so I rarely go that way. So, all I can do is miss desi food. 😴

But, recently I have been staying at home because of Covid-19 (I hope everyone is making sure to stay safe) and I decided to use this time by cooking desi food. It took me quite a while, researching online and discussing with my mom, to figure out the different types of vegetables and ingredients I needed. First of all, I rarely cooked when I was in Bangladesh. I had my mommy dearest, so hot food was always ready and on the table (moms are magical 😁). Also, the few times I cooked, the ingredients were already prepared (thanks to the awesome kitchen helpers). So, my familiarity with many of the ingredients in their original form can be guessed. Moreover, a lot of the vegetables here look quite different from the ones we use in Bangladesh (radish for one). So, I will be posting a few posts on the results of my research. This is the first one from this list. 

Shutki, something so common back home, but so difficult to find here. I can order them online, but I have heard that the quality doesn't match the price. As a poor struggling student 😁, I didn't dare to try. The other thing about shutki is its smell. I live in a very small place with lots of neighbors around me. And my landlord has a rule that tenants are not allowed to cook anything with a strong smell (I feel like that's a rule just for me 😄). So, it's very difficult to satisfy my craving for this fishy smelling delicacy. 

But, recently when I was researching for groceries, I noticed a North American food item, "canned Anchovies", that is known for its fishy smell. I was just looking for small fish substitute (I believe small fishes are a very important part of a balanced Bangladeshi diet). So, I just bought one can thinking of trying it out. However, when I opened the can and took a sniff, I found that it has a very weak "shutki" like smell. The texture is also a little like the meaty shutkis (e.g.Lakha shutki). I decided to try it out and cook a "shutki alur torkari"(potato with shutki curry). To my pleasant surprise, it turned out pretty well. The flavor and the smell is much milder than the actual shutki, but it can be used to stave off that shutki craving (I thought the taste was good enough, but this is coming from a person who hasn't tasted shutki for almost 2  years 😉). Best of all there wasn't enough smell for my neighbors to notice 😁. Here is the recipe. I forgot to take pictures, sorry about that.

Recipe:
1 canned Anchovies
1 large Potato
1 egg
1/3 cup of sliced Onion
1 teaspoon of Chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of Turmeric powder
1/3 teaspoon of Coriander powder
1 teaspoon of Ginger
1/2 teaspoon of Garlic
1/3 cup oil.
Salt (use according to your taste)
2 cloves of Garlic, chopped 

Direction:
Cut the potato into half-moon slices. 
Make a thick paste with chili, turmeric, coriander powder.
Heat oil and sauté onion and garlic for a few minutes, slightly cooked. 
Add the chili, turmeric, coriander powder paste.
Cook for a minute. Add a little bit of water so it doesn't burn ( around 1- 2 tb spoon).
Now add the potatoes. cook for a minute.
Add the anchovies. Mix and cook for a few minutes. 
Add around 1 cup of water. let it boil.
 Add salt. 
Cook until the potatoes are done and there is a little bit of gravy. Add more water if there isn't enough gravy.
Turn off the stove and just break the egg on top. Make sure the egg gets cooked on the "jhol" or gravy.
Serve with steamed rice.

So, try it out yourself. I used the "Anchovies" canned in salt and olive oil. Don't know about any of the other types. If you try this out leave a comment and let me know how it went. If you find any other substitutes that work better you can leave a comment too. I would love to hear from fellow foodies. 

That's all for today. Take care and stay safe. 👋

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Recipe - Lachcha shemai

Have you ever heard of lachcha shemai . It is a very traditional and tasty dessert from South Asia, specially Bangladesh. The wonderful thing about this dessert is that it is kind of like those instant food. So it is very easy to make. You have to pour hot, sweetened milk and raisins, nuts etc and lachcha shemai will be ready. I am going to give a detailed recipe here. Try it.

Ingredients:-
1 packet lachcha shemai, [ghee (south asian clarified butter) e vaja/ toasted in ghee will taste better]
1.5 liter milk,
2 table spoon condensed milk,
sugar according to your taste,
2/3 cardamom,
1 1" piece cinnamon,
1 bay leaf,

For garnish
Raisins (according to your choice, but not too many)
Nuts for garnish .(according to your choice)
Cherry (according to taste, cut in 1/4 pieces)

Recipe:-

First heat the milk in a pot to thicken it. Use medium heat. Stir it constantly . Do this till the milk becomes close to 1 liter. Mix in the condensed milk, sugar, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf. Stir till the sugar dissolves.
In a separate pot/ bowl place the shemai from the packet. First place a portion of the shemai in the pot/bowl and sprinkle some raisin and nut on it cover it with another portion of the shemai and sprinkle rest of the raisins, nuts and cherries. Pour the hot milk from the other pot on it. Cover it with a lid for half an hour. Remove the lid. and your lachcha shemai is ready. you can eat it hot, or you can keep it in a normal refrigerator and eat it cold. It is tasty either way. enjoy.

* You can use any kind of nut you want. Use according to your taste.
* when you are hitting the milk keep a constant watch and stir it, or milk might spill.

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Prevent Data Loss

How many of you have been in this situation?

Without any warning or notice your seemingly dependable and very trusted PC crashed. And with that, all the important files, folders, pictures and other important objects that you so diligently stored in it, are suddenly gone.

If we find ourselves in a situation like this we curse the fates, try to retrieve the data in any way we can (which is rarely 100% successful), we keep thinking of all the things we could have done to prevent it and regret not doing any of those things (should have thought before losing all the data).

  When we store things in our PC we scarcely think of the possibility that we might lose it. So when we do lose it, the most common situation is we don't have any back-up. And even if we think about back-up (most possibly because all the experts keep recommending it, or a notification keeps suggesting it) we are often too lazy to do anything or keep postponing it for later. That's what I did. I was stupid enough to think whatever I store in my PC will be always there. And I kept postponing creating a back-up because I thought it will take a lot of time. I told myself, I will do it when I have enough time. I mean, I have good anti-virus software and I am a very careful user. So what is the worst that can happen? Idiotic, right? I know. And I had to suffer for this idiocy by losing most of my pictures and documents.

I'd like to think that I gained at least something from this horrible experience. I now know the steps that I could have taken to prevent this disaster. So, I will share it. I hope it will help at least one person avoid this kind of loss.

So here is what I think should be done,

1. Create a back-up of your important files and folders. There are lots of free and paid "cloud back-up" services available. Even Google provides a "cloud back-up" service. Search the internet and choose according to your preferences.

2. You can also buy a separate hard-disk to back-up your important data.

3. If you don't want to buy a hard-disk you can buy some pen drives, memory cards, sd cards, CDs etc. and back-up your important data in them. If you use portable devices like this you should label them.

4. Always copy-paste, never ever cut-paste. There is a bigger possibility of a mishap & losing data in cut-paste then in copy-paste.

5. Try not to use CTRL D to delete things, instead delete normally by selecting delete option. If you use CTRL D it deletes completely. But when you delete using delete option it 1st goes to recycle bin. So if an accident happens you can always go to recycle bin and restore it.

6. There are many data recovery software, both free and paid. Choose a suitable one and install it. You might want to install it to a portable drive and use it from there. Because if something is deleted from the PC, then it is better not to use the PC too much, or else the data might become corrupt or irrecoverable. Even if somehow data like this is recovered it might be broken.

7. You can also keep your pictures in an album in your Google or Facebook account if you trust them. You can use privacy settings to control who can see it.

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Luigi Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" .

Eric Bentley credits Pirandello as being the first playwright to actually use the stage as a stage. In his most renowned masterpiece "Six Characters in Search of an Author" Pirandello uses stage in the most unique way. The play is an absurdist metatheatrical play about the relationship between authors, their characters, and theatre practitioners. It premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome to a mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" ("Madhouse!"). I wonder how many in the audience realized that the "madhouse" they had witnessed was a turning point in the history of drama. 

When the lights come up on Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), the first thing the audience sees is a bare stage, with no scenery and only a few folding tables and chairs scattered about. The curtain is up, the stage is empty of props and background, and the lights illuminate the bare wall at the back of the stage. A stage-hand is starting to build a set, but the stage manager interrupts him to say that it is time for rehearsal. The producer and a company of actors arrive and begin reading out stage directions; the actors complain about the script, but the producer (who also serves as director) explains that he “can’t get hold of good French plays any more so that now we’re reduced to putting on plays by Pirandello.”

The play they are rehearsing is called "The Rules of the Game". It is an actual play by Pirandello. The technique he uses here is called "play within a play", which is an ancient concept and a frequently used technique in theatre. But in this play Pirandello took the  metatheatrical games to a new level. 

Suddenly, this ordinary rehearsal is interrupted by the sudden entrance of six characters. These characters are simply identified as Father, Mother, Stepdaughter, Son, Boy, and Girl. They are six unfinished characters who have stories to tell, stories of their lives, but it is not fully written. They were abandoned by their author so they are searching for a new one in hopes of completing their story. As Pirandello said in his 1925 introduction to the play: "Every creature of fantasy and art, in order to exist, must have his drama, that is, a drama in which he may be a character and for which he is a character. This drama is the character's raison d'etre, his vital function, necessary for his existence."  

The play than proceeds with the characters telling their stories, some scenes of incidents in their lives, which are accompanied by comments, quarrels, dialogues, interactions among the characters, between the characters and the actors, the director and the characters etc. It creates a theatrical Hall of Mirror effect. The actors who will acting the parts of this six characters become the audience of their life story. For them the stage becomes more real than the world and the line between reality and acting, imagination and fiction becomes blurred.

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How Much Water To Drink A Day?

Water is our body's principal chemical component and makes up about 60 percent of our body weight. Research shows us that the body needs water to function correctly (from helping the brain to work at its optimum, to eliminating waste).
Enough water helps your energy levels to be more consistent, improves concentration & is helpful to people with gut problems such as IBS and constipation. As the cells of your skin & cells at the roots of your hair will be hydrated, your skin will be clearer and hair bouncier!
How much water to drink a day? Though there is a rough estimation of 2.5 liters a day, needs vary by individual. The water needs depend on many factors, including lifestyle, health status, size & weight, how active people are and where they live, the climate they live in, and if they’re pregnant or breast-feeding.
If you don’t drink enough water to replenish your daily needs you can get dehydrated. If you think you may not be getting enough fluids, check if you have any of these other common signs of dehydration:
One of the first signs of dehydration is feeling thirsty,
Dark-colored urine and not passing much urine when you go to the toilet,
    Headaches,
    Lack of energy,
  & Feeling lightheaded.

What is the amount of fluid needed by an average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate? According to the Institute of Medicine an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day. The Institute also recommends that pregnant women drink 2.3 liters (about 10 cups) of fluids daily and women who breast-feed consume 3.1 liters (about 13 cups) of fluids a day.

To many people water is boring, but the more you drink, the less of a chore it becomes. In fact your body learns to recognize it and crave it when dehydrated.
Though it helps to stagger your water intake throughout the day rather than going for hours without anything, then downing half a liter - if you do this your kidneys will struggle and you'll find yourself dashing to the loo.
Water is the healthiest choice of drink because it has no calories and contains no sugars that can damage teeth. Don’t like the taste of plain water, add a slice of lemon or lime, or try sparkling water. You could also add some squash or fruit juice for flavor.
Milk and juice are good source for our fluid needs too.
Milk contains calcium, vitamins and other minerals, and does not cause tooth decay.
As for fruit juice and fruit smoothies, they contain a variety of vitamins that are good for our health. But while their water content is high, they can contain quite a lot of sugar that can damage teeth. And Smoothies should be treated as a food, not a drink, because they contain very little water. So it’s better to stick to one glass a day.
Fruits that have high level of water in them are healthy fluid source too.
Fizzy drinks, diet versions of fizzy drinks, squashes contain lots of sugar and very few nutrients, so keep them to a minimum.
Some nutritionists and doctors say that 2.5 liters of squash a day will hydrate your body in the same way as plain water, which is physiologically correct. But this amount of squash will also give you a lot of other substances, from sugar or artificial sweeteners to additives and preservatives, which can affect behavior, energy levels and your waistline, as well as dental health.
Getting children to drink fewer sugary drinks is a good way to reduce the amount of sugar they consume. Children who drink a lot of sugary drinks are more likely to become overweight and have damaged teeth.
The best drinks to give children are water, milk and milkshakes without added sugar. If you or your children like fizzy drinks, try diluting fruit juice with sparkling water instead. Remember to dilute squashes well to reduce the sugar content in the drink.
Sports drinks & Energy drinks are no different to any other sugary soft drinks, which mean they are high in calories and contribute to tooth decay. Energy drinks also often contain high levels of caffeine & Sports drinks can be only useful if you are taking part in endurance sports.
Energy drinks are not suitable for babies, children or pregnant woman.
For adults beer, wine and caffeinated beverages — such as coffee, tea or soda — can contribute, but these should not become a major source for your daily total fluid intake.
And pregnant women should have no more than 200mg of caffeine a day( One mug of instant coffee contains around 100mg of caffeine). High levels of caffeine can result in babies having a low birth weight, which can increase the risk of health problems in later life. It might also cause miscarriage.
Try to choose healthier drinks as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Water, however, is a pure liquid with virtually no additives and the healthiest drink there is.
To ward off dehydration and make sure your body has the fluids it needs, make water your beverage of choice. It's also a good idea to:
Drink a glass of water before going to sleep & in the morning after waking up.
Drink a glass of water or other calorie-free or low-calorie beverage with each meal and between each meal.
 Drink water before, during and after exercise.
Try keeping a small water bottle in your bag when you go outside and drink a little whenever you are thirsty.
So Try to drink enough water & don't forget to encourage your children to drink water, too, aiming for around four to six glasses a day. And if you have specific concerns or questions about how much fluid you need, check with your doctor.



There are also some Hydration Calculator on inetrtnet you use to get an idea of how much water you need to drink. The links are given bellow

nutrition.about.com
miniwebtool.com

  Vote for Us: link directory

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Currently reading:-The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the most famous and widely read novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Through the character of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Stevenson  gives an extraordinary peak into human psychology and the eternal battle of Good vs Evil that goes in there. Though through Jekyll's character Stevenson states that it might not be all Black and white and there is a lot of grey. In the Book Jekyll himself notes that a person may be divided into many more than two distinct personalities — he expects that researchers in the future will discover that a person is made up of many different selves, which we now know to be True. The real scary thing is the realization that deep down inside of us we all have Mr.Hyde that if given opportunity can take over and shove our normal selves to the side. But what’s more is the secret desire or curiosity to let out the monster within us to live outside of the laws of the social order and press on the restrictions of the society.But If you don't want to think about all this things or any psychological mumbo-jumbo, you can still enjoy the Book as the wonderful classic literature it is. And what more, it is short too.

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Budget phone, helpful sites & links

Hi again. So as you already know, I need a new handset and I am searching the net to find one that will suit me. As I was surfing for more information on handsets I came upon these sites that have a lot of information on Budget phone. If you're on a tight budget but still want a decent  phone then Budget Phones are perfect for you. Though Compared to most Smartphones they can be considered low on apps and not that packed , but hey, they are cheaper.
So here is some websites I thought are helpful if you are looking for phones on a budget.

I think everyone knows the first one on the list.

cnet.co.uk
techradar.com
cell-phones.toptenreviews.com
confused.com


This are sites for Chinese handset . If you are interested,
pandawill.com
chinatronic.com
chinabuye.com

This sites are for handsets in India,
techulator.com
pricebaba.com
mobiles.pricedekho.com
pricedealsindia.com
gizjets.com

This site is a little different. I came upon it while surfing. It has some advice on Contracts,Tarrifs & PAYG .

moneysavingexpert


Hope This post is helpful. Goodbye.

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