Mumtaz Mustafa, co-author of the book, shows Amity how to make the Burmese dish while talking about their inspiration from around the globe. #newdaynw
you know sitting around a table and enjoying a meal with friends and family it’s just it’s more than eating right it’s actually feeding the soul and that is the feeling you get from this book gather and graze authors mumas Mustafa and Laura cintra filled it with globally inspired small bites along with gorgeous tablescapes and mumas joins me now in the kitchen we’re already cooking things up thank you for being here my friend oh absolute pleasure ah this smells so good already so what we are making something that’s very very important and very personal to your heart tell us so this is a dish it’s called cway it’s originated from BMA it made its way to Pakistan in the ear in the 1960s and there’s every family in Pakistan has their own version of it okay this one is uh basically a combination of my mom my grandmother my friend uh and what it is is this warm comforting bowl of noodles of Curry and then like Curry a coconut and chickp flow Curry um not the typical Curry that Indian ones know and then you can put it you know I have made it with beef with tofu and with chicken so you can like make whatever you so this is a perfect yeah and it’s perfect to have you know when you’re having a dinner party so what is in here cooking already so this is basically onions ginger and garlic I processed the processed the three of them which is a great base for any kind of dish I was just going to say uh you just blew my mind so you just put in the food processor and it’s all kind of oh that’s it comes look how it’s beautiful it’s golden and I’m going to add some Curry leaves to it but basically this can be used for a pasta base it can be used for a curry it can be used for any kind of you know it just creates that initial deep Foundation right for whether it’s meat whether it’s vegetables whether it’s a rice POF POF dish yeah that’s genius I’ve never even thought about that but I’m going to do it tonight and what we’re going to make today is the chicken version of of this we already have a chicken beef and tofu prepared the tofu is for my little nieces who live in Seattle not so little anymore they’re about to go to college no they’re not yep Arya and Ria hi guys thank you for can’t possibly be that old that we have nieces going College I know I know I know I know they make you feel young though I know yes they do they do okay so once you’ve got the Cur leaves in there cooking they’re starting to like regain some of the moisture from that and soften what else do you add so I’m going to add some chili powder I’m going to add some uh roasted cumin okay now I’ve already marinated this chicken with yogurt soy sauce a few spices overnight so it really makes it nice and soft and you know gives it that again depth of flavor uh and then and salt and pepper of course and now there’s just a few more spices and some tomato which is freshed tomato and tomato paste of course the recipe and it looks like maybe it was roasted tomato yes yes I mean and and that’s because that’s what I found you know so anything goes though hey it’s a melt you know I live in New York it’s a Melting Pot so but you you could do roasted tomatoes you could do regular Tomatoes it it the roasted adds again a little more depth I like that um so it’s nice so basically this is this is now again a dream base to put anything throw in some fish throw in some vegetables throw in some chicken you put potatoes in that anything you can and then bake it it’s like shakshuka shakshuka recipe also with the main tomato it’s got all the spices so yeah so and then this is the main base you can do a million things with it C the chicken in actually yes oh okay and then the chicken will go but what I’m doing now is as I’m cooking it I’m wanting all the spices to cook and the flavors to release and you know when it’s not cooked then you get this uncooked feeling with with the spices oh okay so how long how long would you say once you get the spices in the pan that you want to let them um I would say like four 3 minutes three minutes for about 3 minutes for them to release cuz that the heat exchange starts to release all the different molecules that make it taste delicious when mix together exactly and the oil begins to separate a little bit too but yeah and then we add the chicken and then it simmers and cooks for a minute I mean not a minute like 5 6 minutes and it’s like Cubed chicken and it’s been marinated so it’s going to cook quickly you know I have to say when it comes to chicken even more than beef for me the longer you marinate the better off right absolutely I mean you can do it 2 hours or you can do it overnight I always recommend overnight overnight is always so much better if you have the patience exactly or if you remember to defrost the chicken in time exactly I don’t always I just remembered by the way I was supposed to take chicken out but oh well oh well oh well all right so do we have time do you think it’s about ready now to add the chicken or no absolutely so you just add it right on top mhm okay and then you can stir it if you like to I would happily do that so how many is this like two breasts or three uh this is a pound of chicken okay a pound of chicken okay and then I’ve cubed it and um yeah look at how beautiful that color is y’all and that just oh wow that just and would you bake this or would you keep it on the stove oh it’s going to cook in the on the stove oh okay so we’re just going to keep mixing this around you mix it you can even cover it for like 5 minutes 10 minutes or it can just saute it okay and and then yeah it’s going to be ready I like that that I don’t have to be here the whole time leave for 5 minutes and do something else cuz you know there’s always something else to do right absolutely the idea is just for it to fully integrate with the spices and the onions and the garlic and to fully cook well as we’re letting that cook a little bit let’s talk a bit more about the book because I wish y’all could see the back I mean there’s so many different beautiful aspects to this book you’ve got like my Crohn’s on the back you’ve got my favorite bread from Mexico right there yes and speaking of that like so Laura who is my co-author brilliant the sugar behind the spice and sugar table which is our Instagram but uh she has done a bunch of the Savory but all the sweet and unfortunately she’s not here today I’m representing us you’re representing yeah and um she’s amazing and she’s the most amazing Baker and she’s the most amazing Des dessert maker and she’s the most amazing what’s that I want to eat that uh so that is a rice balls that is a Italian Dish yep here for that what’s that that is in part of our New York branch section it is Jos uh Ranos MH I’m here made that one this is the chart uh board which is again a street food in Pakistan and it’s a combination of different chickpeas and spices and Chutney and you combine again to build your own board kind of thing I’m right I’m ready for all of these things and you to come pist you just said you would I want to I so and I’m coming apparently in December is the time to go December Stan that’s where you have to December Stan I love it um you mentioned your friend uh Laura is this you said she’s the sweet and you are kind of the the spice in in the cookbook right just bringing each part of your history and your expertise to the book right yes and interestingly I we’re both um art directors we met in publishing uh I design book covers and uh so does she and we design other people’s cookbooks I oversee our cookbook and lifestyle imprinted Harper Collins um and Laura uh designs cookbooks and uh on a freelance basis for other companies too so we’re like we need to do this together we need to build a bigger table instead of a bigger wall and we need everyone we want everyone to be welcome at our TBL did you say build a bigger table instead of a bigger wall oh it makes me want to cry that’s beautiful I love that and you can see I mean this book is beautiful you can see that like obviously the expertise that both of you have cultivated over the years is come to fruition in that book and photographed it styled it wrote it designed it so we’re like a twom show I love it I don’t know how I’m still standing I don’t know how I’m still I’m here but we did it and we yeah well that’s all right you you stand here I’m going to keep mixing um before we try this and put it all together I want to know about the other favorite dishes in the book so I I mean there’s a a bunch that are close to me to my heart there’s a bunch that are close to Laura’s but like um one cow way is one of my favorites again because that’s something as a kid I’ve always try to look for those recipes um I really like the Moroccan section and I think that is because I also went to Morocco I spent some time there I took a bunch of cooking courses I learned how to make 3 million versions of tajines so that is u i i loved the people there I felt like I was at home and I think so the ones where I kind of spent time another one was Portugal I spent 2 months there and uh I learned so much about the food I learned so much about just spices how they’ve traveled around the world you know it’s just each and each section is you know the Ethiopian section has nothing to do with us but again every part of the dish is like a Pakistani dish so it it’s I think every dish somehow has its a little um you know something special some yeah okay so let’s finish this dish off as that chicken is going to keep cooking so I get to choose whatever I want on here yes all right so this is the chicken I want to try the chicken cuz that’s what we’re making here and as you can see it gets that lovely amber color the more that it Cooks through okay so I just kind of plop this on top yeah and we want to put some of the the curry for you cuz that’s one of the main things you get your beautiful dress all right and and so this is again a a personal choice you can put an a lot you can put little I like mine soup Ramen like like buies but you you know you can that can just be enough for you that might be enough for me today okay and then I can put some egg on it that’s egg yeah all right I love a hardboiled egg and it’s protein and then I’m going to skip that but I’m going to add this cilantro yummy Andy lemon and the garlic yeah lemon and you can squeeze that gives it a bit of a t I love the lemon and then the this is garlic chips we make at home also it just adds this other dimension that adds the Crunch and yeah all right I’m just going to give this a try Okay um oh my gosh this looks so good all right here we go that is beautiful yeah is it too spicy for you mm no not at all oh and flavors are very oh wait wait it came the spice came get you in the back a little bit but this is really really really delicious and you never had anything quite that tastes like this oh and really quickly before I go I want to taste this too Dess now the yeah it’s been sitting for a minute so it usually looks much more beautiful oh that’s delicious all right Hey listen this is from Laura she spent sent with love thank you Laura and thank you mumas cuz by the way she’s sharing her recipe with us just text the word recipe to 206 448 4545 we’ll send it straight to your phone the new day Northwest kitchen is brought to you by Safeway