Bengali Food
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Stories of Love, Nostalgia And Memories |The Ingredients To My Cooking
What’s the one item in your kitchen you can’t possibly cook without? A spice, your grandma’s measuring cup, instant ramen — what’s your magic ingredient, and why? Photographers, artists, poets: show us KITCHEN… that has been the WordPress Daily Prompt and I am waking up to it. If there is one ingredient that I can’t possibly cook without, then that is some story. A story with some magic attached to it along with my childhood memories and nostalgia, the aroma of cooking from the kitchen, each dish arriving on the dining table, cooked with much love by some loving hand – either my Ma‘s, or my Thakuma’s (paternal grandma) or my…
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Kumro Bhaaté or Mashed Pumpkin Bengali Style – and I ask what the heck is Halloween?
I didn’t grow up celebrating Halloween in India. Nor Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day or Father’s Day for that matter. Not that I belong to the black and white generation. Just like I can’t recall the pre-digital days, now I can’t recall those days when pumpkin was remembered for the simple vegetable that it always was, not a medium for creating strange artwork in the name of art – pumpkin carving. I am definitely learning something new from the Z-Sisters every day, aren’t I? The bottom line is, we didn’t associate pumpkins with Halloween when we were kids. Quite naturally, pumpkins teared apart and carved into scary faces, is something…
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Shorshe Bata Maach – Mustard Salmon In This Case | A Detour From Thailand To Wish Shubho Noboborsho!
The mustard fish is one of the most popular Bengali dishes and although this signature preparation is best complimented by the traditional Hilsa fish, I (and now Lady M) make the same with salmon for my guests ~ the texture is very similar and it's less bony. Moreover, the Mustard Salmon prepared #inmykitchen always leaves everyone wowed.
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Rasgulla Macapuno On TV & Shubho Bijoya to all
Rasgullas are made from balls of Chhana/Paneer/Indian Cottage Cheese or Ricotta Cheese and Suji/Semolina dough. Then these soft and spongy balls are cooked in a sugar syrup. The quality of the channa is vital in making of soft rasgullas, as I realised while making rasgullas at home. A few months ago my Rasgullas or Roshogollas was aired on Noor Dubai TV and Dubai One during Ramadan (above video). And whoosh by some sudden act of magic, I got the video in hand today just as I had sat down to write a festive post wishing all of you Shubho Bijoya! If you are hopping into my blog for the first time and wondering…
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Traditional Bengali Cuisine | All The ‘Slight’ Details
A guide to traditional Bengali cuisine which is vast and elaborate. Every time someone asks me, 'What comprises Bengali Cuisine?', I falter for a while as there is no simple answer to that. There are so many layers to the cuisine, so many regional variations and if we probe into the evolution of the cuisine, it will also reflect the history of Bengal.
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Aam Dal or Mango Lentil Soup – A summer combat
Aam Dal or the Mango Lentil Soup is very easy to make. Green mangoes are also therapeutic in nature and keeps the body temperature down, precisely why the recipe must have originated in some Bengali kitchen during the sweltering summer heat. Summer is slowly waltzing into Dubai. A few more days and suddenly the celsius scale would be touching the 40ºC on a regular basis. I have spent so many summers in Dubai, yet the temperature in any random summer day still shocks me every time I know the exact magnitude of it. Conversations with other mums on school runs during the summer while picking up the Z-Sisters sound…
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Mashed Potato Bengali Style/ Aloo Bhaaté
Steamed in Rice or ‘Bhaaté’ In Bengali, mashed steamed vegetables are called ‘Bhaaté. The term literally means ‘In Rice’. It must have originated because very often these vegetables were traditionally steamed in the same pan in which the rice has been cooked. Mashing these steamed vegetables – assorted vegetables or any particular vegetable along with a dash of Mustard Oil or Ghee (Indian clarified butter), the Bhaaté creates a delicious and a healthy accompaniment to plain white Rice and Daal (lentils). Bhaaté or Mashed Vegetables of Aloo/Potatoes, Kumro/Pumpkin, Ucche/Bitter Gourd etc are very popular. Add to the Mash a bit of chopped green chillis or onions, may be some fresh…
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Meydan Fireworks By The Walk in JBR & Yoghurt Aubergine
Sometimes you have all the time in the world to do things but you are stuck in such a situation that it doesn’t permit you to do anything. Except pump your heart faster and clog your brains. And then comes a lightening of ideas which require super-fast execution. Otherwise, both the moment and the idea is Oops, gone! That’s when my super-fat notebook tucked inside my super-heavy handbag comes handy – to jot down these on-the-spur ideas. Dubai right now is in the grip of Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest horse race which concluded only yesterday. A pre-glimpse to this glamorous event was the inauguration (some say it was…
