Day 12: Collaborative cooking | Recipes against VAW

On Day 12 recipes, techniques, and wikis of action--check them out!

However, I am cooking outside of the text again with my favorite recipe-cookbook blogs because I've learned that besides the Twitter, SMS, organizations, blogs, and images, we need roses and bread...or for many women around the world....rice or bhat-caul in Bangladesh.

One vegetarian cookbook blog that I adore, save and share recipes: 101 Cookbooks- by Heidi Swanson-a photographer and writer of her own vegetarian cookbook, Super natural Cooking (you want to eat the pictures, too, on both the blog and cookbook).

Also this time of year and also during rainy times, Bangladeshis eat and make big mounds of kichuri (mixture of rice, lentils, veggies and spices)--a kind of comfort or soul food--that I never learned to make until this fall (previously depending on my former students and VAW activists Dr. Rifat Akhter and AKM Saiful Islam--who needs to finish his path-breaking dissertation on domestic violence and Bangladeshi NGOs!).

This fall, I bought a small 6 cup rice cooker and have been making variations weekly on this recipe since then...in the following recipe...the cup refers to the small cup (3/4 cup) packed with the rice cooker

This is my adapted Bideshi Blue kichuri....that makes about 3-4 servings that are good warm-hot and/or as cold-room temperature leftovers for office lunches...and it's not so spicy for bideshis (foreigners). [NOTE IMPORTANT UPDATE--ADD WATER IN STEP 6]

1. rinse 1 cup of rice (mine does a great job with brown rice) along with 1/2 c mix of red lentils, moong dal (split hulled mung beans) and/or yellow split peas. rinse several times until water runs clear. put in large bowl.

2. make 1 cup of mixed veggies (i use frozen ) and or thinly sliced greens

3. chop small onion and several cloves of garlic

4. mix veggies, onion, and garlic with rice-lentils with pinches of tumeric, coriander, cumin, and ginger (salt if you like), also add one to two whole serrano or jalpeno chilis (depending on your heat tolerance) i also add a dried chilepotle pepper (smoky hot taste)

5. add 1/8-1/4 cup olive or canola oil and mix with rice, veggie, spice, chili mixture

6. stir in at least three cups of warm water-pani (rice cooker size cup) and pour into cooker insert pan-bowl

7. put in cooker, set to cook...and let steam for at least 15 more minutes after cooker clicks to keep warm mode (needed to steam and fully cook brown rice). the cook cycle takes about 30 minutes on my cooker. some times i steam more greens (kale, mustard, etc) in the steaming insert...toward the end of the cooking cycle...

you can check your email, blog, and/or relax, etc while the kichuri is cooking

8. fluff kichuri and eat. some times I add some cilatro sprigs, roasted nuts and/or some sliced baked tofu....by itself, kichuri is complete protein (rice+lentils).

Also I like to combine some leftover kichuri with some broth/water (1-2 cups), and after the mixture comes to a simmer, then I stir in one T or more of light miso (keep at simmer) to make soup. See also Heidi Swanson's post on miso soup!

This post fulfills the requests of several Carbondale, IL bideshis who have bought rice cookers after the New York Times article this fall and my summoning the courage to use my rice cooker.....and a big hat or rice cooker tip to Rifat e Saiful.

So what's your comfort food after a hard day of organizing, cold rallies, or computing??

Day 14.5 Calling all Men, Boys, Purush: What's Your Intervention

I would like to highlight the contributions of A.K.M. Saiful Islam, a sociologist-researcher who has worked with me in Bangladesh on domestic violence issues, and developed & field-tested the domestic violence brochure on Bangladesh resources on domestic violence (Bangla e English) as part of his research assistantship for an ALO-USAID grant on domestic violence 2003-5 (with Drs. Mahmuda Islam, Dhaka University, Ainon Mizan, SIUC, and myself. He has co-authored with Dr. Rifat Akhter, myself and others working with qualitative and quantitative data. Currently he is finishing his dissertation on women's NGOs and domestic violence networks with me at SIUC while working full-time in Canada. I've appreciated Saif's ally work with various groups in Bangladesh, tastefully challenging people, especially men, on some of their beliefs about VAW, women, and men, and his careful interviews with activists and organizations. Among other people, he also deftly steered me through my assorted research projects, action meetings, visits, in particular, during our Bangladesh time in 2004-2005 all while recovering from dengue fever, taking care of his son with his wife and assorted family obligations, e. g. supervising his brother's wedding after being away from Bangladesh for about six years. Oh, did I mention, he's a good cook, too!







Saif conducts a focus group discussion of the domestic violence brochure with the English 2 class at the Nari Jibon Project office. Dhaka, 2005. all photos, kbward






Dissemination meeting of domestic violence brochure at CEDAW organization network meeting. Men getting ready to take pledge against VAW. A.K.M Saif Islam on right (yellow shirt & tie). Salma Khan and Dr. Mahmuda Islam, middle, blue sari, ALO-USAID Domestic Violence Grant co-PI, Dhaka 2005).

Saif (white shirt) with Dr Bipul Krishna Chanda and staff of One-Stop Crisis Centre, Dhaka Medical College. ALO-USAID grant co-PI, Dr. Ainon Mizan, SIUC in light green sari, December 2004. This OCC was the first dedicated facility for the intake and treatment of female survivors of VAW: rape, acid throwing & assault. Several police officers were also stationed there.










Saif and his son Ilan, Dhaka 2004-2005.