You don’t have to be a cook to appreciate all the time and effort that Rinku Bhattacharya has put into her latest cookbook “The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles”.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is so much more to the book such as personal stories and tons of colourful pictures to whet your appetite.

Since I’m not the best cook, I solicited the assistance of my good friend Rene and we made a meal of it. She cooked. I ate. Here’s what she came up with.

On the menu, Chicken with Black Pepper and Fenugreek.

I picked this one for several reasons; all of us like chicken, it was “kid-friendly” and most of the ingredients are things that I regularly have on hand.

Unfortunately, when it came time to purchase all the ingredients, we were at a loss for fenugreek leaves.

Fortunately, we had the seeds and it gave me a chance to help out by using Rene’s oft-forgotten mortar and pestle set. It made her happy.

Since we both live in the suburbs, we don’t have the variety of the big city. Next time I’m in the city, I’ll be sure to stop by “Little India” and pick up a bunch of ingredients.

Did I mention that the dogs ate the whole cloves (literally)? We tried to get some from the neighbours but they were out (what ever happened to asking for sugar!?). In turn, we had to be creative and used ground ones instead. See how versatile Rene and the recipe are!

The recipe was really easy to follow, made enough for leftovers and even with the substitutions (nothing was added in replacement of the fenugreek), it tasted amazing!

Rene’s “hard-to-please husband” ate all of his and said he’d have it again.

The kids ate a few bites and then dove into the peas and rice portion of the meal.

If you like this book or are interested in more Indian cooking, check out Rinku’s first book, Eclectic Indian (2007).

The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles is Kid Endorsed!

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Journeys of The Zoo received a copy of this product that enabled us to complete this review.