Throughout her career in food, Kishwar Chowdhury’s mission has been a simple one: to spread the good word on Bengali cuisine. In 2021, she reached millions on national TV, showcasing the depth and breadth of Bengali food and placing third in the MasterChef kitchen. Since then, the chef has hosted pop-ups, trained at Melbourne’s two-hatted Ishizuka and written a menu for a very special appearance at Tonka – all before putting together her brand-new cookbook, Smoke, Rice, Water.
Here’s she is talking about how Smoke, Rice, Water came together, and why you need to make the Bengali answer to the Aussie sausage roll.
I wrote Smoke, Rice, Water to fill a gap on my bookshelf that had been missing for way too long. I love cookbooks, and it was kind of miserable that there wasn’t much written about Bengali food that let people vicariously travel to this untapped part of the world. More personally, being born and brought up in Melbourne to migrant parents, I wanted to document how my diaspora lives and eats, and share this incredible food culture with the world.
The main thing I learned writing it was that it’s more than the food. I realised early in the writing process that the way of life I was trying to preserve was about inviting the reader into my world. The cooking methods, the stories behind the dishes, the history, culture and anecdotes were all important in truly passing these dishes on to the reader.
If you take one thing from this book, it should be don’t be scared to riff on the recipes. If there’s a dish that pops out at you through the beautiful photography, read the ingredients, read the instructions and then, after following it, get comfortable throwing caution to the wind and start playing around with the spices according to your taste. These recipes were created to be owned by you, the reader. Try this method out on the achaari begun (pickled eggplant) or keema (minced lamb).
But I’d also love it if you tried the bakes. If you’re privy to a little warm spiced afternoon snack, try my beef patties – the amped-up Bengali answer to the sausage roll.
If you’re a relatively new cook, give the green mango bhorta a try. You have to try my green mango bhorta – green mango salsa. It’s a shaved mango salad and a delicious way to spruce up a summer salad with chilli salt, lime, coriander and a kick of mustard oil.
If you’re looking to extend yourself a bit more, meanwhile, there are a few recipes that ask more time, like the kachi biryani. It starts with marinating the lamb a day before, layering flavours and techniques, and though there are quite a few steps, it’s such a rewarding dish that is a feast for the senses.
When you’ve finished reading Smoke, Rice, Water I hope you’ll know a little bit more about this part of the world, and how 300 million people eat every day. Step into my home kitchen and see the incredible Australian-Bengali food story that I collected over a lifetime.
Smoke, Rice, Water (Hardie Grant, RRP $50.00) by Kishwar Chowdhury is out now and available at excellent independent Victorian bookstores such as Readings and Hill of Content.