Bengali/Bangladeshi Chicken Liver Curry

Bengal is a region of the Indian Subcontinent that transcends northeastern India and western Bangladesh. The nation of Bangladesh was long a part of India, as was Pakistan, but upon independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan was created from what were predominantly Muslim areas of northwestern and northeastern India, accompanied by a massive movement by some Muslims to these regions from what was to remain India, and by many Hindus from these areas to India. While these areas became the nation of Pakistan, they were separated by many hundreds of miles. The eastern part, called "East Pakistan," or sometimes, "Pakistani Bengal," gained independence from Pakistan as the nation of "Bangladesh" in 1971. West Bengal has remained a part of India. 

 

This is an easy dish to make. Many foods of the Indian Subcontinent are spicy hot to varying degrees, and this recipe is no exception (your taste buds will awaken), but you can tone it down considerably by using a mild chili pepper and then adding some ground red pepper AND sweet paprika. If you like "hot and spicy" foods and you live in the vicinity of an Indian/Pakistani grocery, or a supermarket with lots of ethnic food products, I hope you'll try "Indian" chili powder, which is hot and typically has a bright red color. I've made this dish several times, and the photos below are from two different times. You will need to add a little water to the dish, but you don't want this dish to be runny or with lots of sauce; so, add water by the tablespoon until you reach the desired consistency (I've suggested 3 to 5 tablespoons of water).   

Ingredients:

1 1/2 to 2 pounds chicken livers, cut into bize size pieces
2 cups chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 inch piece ginger, minced/grated
1 to 3 green chilies (serranos or jalapeños are fine), chopped
1 heaping teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoons ground red pepper (or 1 teaspoon red pepper and 1 teaspoon sweet paprika)

2 inch cinnamon stick

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 to 5 tablespoons water 

1 tablespoon butter 

2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

 

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the cinnamon stick and bay leaf. Saute for 1 minute, then add the chopped onion and continue cooking until the onion begins to soften, stirring often to make sure all the onion cooks. Add the ginger, garlic and chilies and cook a further minute. Now add the ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric, ground red pepper, black pepper and water; stir to mix, then add the chicken livers and stir again to mix everything together. Reduce the heat to low, cover, but lift the lid or foil to stir occasionally as the livers cook for 25 to 30 minutes. Add the butter and let it melt, then stir it in. Serve with rice. 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Fourth (Farthing)-"Farthing" was a measurement of "one fourth of a penny;" thus also, "the coin representing one fourth of a penny," which was used in England (later in the UK/Britain) until several decades ago. "Farthing" is closely related to "four" and all of its derived forms, like "forty," all of which are from the Germanic roots of English, but it is also distantly related to both "quart" and to "quarter," Latin derived words borrowed by English via French. "Farthing" traces back to Indo European "kwetwor/kwetwer," which meant "four." This gave the Old Germanic offshoot, "fetwor/petwor" (a sound shift took place, thus the uncertainty of the spelling) and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "feower," meaning "four." The form in Old Germanic for the ordinal number; that is, "fourth," is hard to determine, but it seems likely to have been like "feurtha" or "feurtho," with the pronunciation similar to "fe-ore-tha," and the other simply ending in "tho." This gave Old English "feorþa," meaning "fourth," and it later became "ferthe," with the ending 'e' pronounced 'eh/ah,' but don't be surprised if you look at some writings from like the 1300s and 1400s and see spellings other than "ferthe," some perhaps with a beginning 'v,' a use that gained more traction for the spelling, but not the pronunciation, of some words in German and Dutch, both continental relatives of English. Regardless of those spellings, English settled on "fourth." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German "vierte," Low German has "foerde" and "veerte" (Low German is not a standardized language, but rather a collection of dialects; thus, there are likely other spellings), West Frisian "fjirde," Dutch "vierde," Danish "fjerde," Icelandic "fjórða" ('ð' is called an 'eth' and it is equivalent to English 'th'), Norwegian "fjerde," Swedish "fjärde." All of these forms mean "fourth." The derived English word "farthing" is simply a form of "fourth" with the common suffix "-ing," a form that has been in English for well over 1000 years. It is a common suffix in the Germanic languages (as "ing" and sometimes "ung"), and it goes back to Old Germanic "inga/unga."