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Shubho Noboborsho – Makha Gurer Shondesh and other homemade Bengali sweets
I am sharing the recipe of Makha Gurer Shondesh - it's pretty easy to make. Made from fresh homemade chhena (cottage cheese), this shondesh is called makha because it is simply kneaded until it is soft and not cooked. If you have shondesh moulds at home, they make pretty shapes too.
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A Tale of 2 Cities & Naru/Coconut Jaggery Truffles | A Dubai Expat’s Summer Story!
At any point of time the story of my life revolves around 2 cities – the city that we are living in at that point in time and which we refer to as our home and Kolkata – the city which has shaped my life and which has brought me up. Again which I also refer as home. Lucky to have two homes at any point in time! Right now these two cities are Dubai and Kolkata. It has been for the last one and a half decades with a gap of 3 years in between when when Frankfurt had replaced Dubai. Or in the beginning of my married life…
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Notun Gurer Payesh/Traditional Bengali Rice Pudding | Remembering My Dida
Today’s dish is special and very primitive. The only other way to explain the importance of a traditional Payesh/Rice Pudding is to compare it with Champagne. If you can understand the importance of Champagne to bring in a family celebration then you can probably understand the importance of Payesh. Or say, cutting a cake on a birthday. For a Bengali, a spoonful of Payesh is a must on a special occasion. Also, the first spoon of non-solid food that goes into a Bengali child during Annaprashan or the First Rice is Payesh. Annaprashan’ or the First Rice The first ceremony or celebration that a Bengali child witnesses is Annaprashan or…
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Rasgulla Macapuno – When a Filipina Turns into a Bong
Rasgulla Macapuno is our fusion dessert inspired by Rasgulla, the popular Bengali sweet and Macapuno, the sweetened tender coconut flesh used in several Filipino desserts. This recipe has been aired on Dubai One TV for a special Ramadan Episode. I am back to Rasgullas once again. Being a Bengali doesn’t take you too far away from them. Rasgulla or Rôshogolla is a very famous Bengali Sweet and probably one of my favourite topics to explore and experiment. I have previously written an essay on it. Today’s recipe is very close to my heart as it involves my Lady M, our Filipina nanny without whom my endless photographic sessions on food…
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Rôshogolla or Rasgulla – Bengali’s Own Sweet
We are just 2 days into the Bengali New Year and what better excuse can there be than this to share a bit of Bangaliana (everything Bengali) with everyone – the ones who are already familiar with Bengali culture and tradition and also those who are absolutely uninitiated to it. But where to start and how to start? When you grow up amidst a certain culture it becomes so much a part of you that it is not very easy to dissect oneself from it and write about it, specially if the intention is to introduce that culture to the world. But nothing is impossible. One just has to make…
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Purple Haze Yoghurt With Purple M&Ms
The Purple Story A beautiful wedding where the bride is in love with the colour PURPLE. An emotional church wedding followed by a beautiful wedding dinner amidst white silk linens & purple bows, silver & purple butterflies, bubbles & bubblies – signed off by purple M&Ms! M&Ms are perhaps the World’s most popular and colourful chocolate candy lentils and our family is besotted by them. Hence this recipe is my personal favourite. Since the Z-SISTERS were left at home amidst hue and cry of utter unfairness and injustice, we decided to recreate some purple magic with the Purple M&Ms and the butterflies that came back home with us in the tiny…
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Icecream Rasgulla with Blueberry Sauce Inspired by Holi
Holi Nostalgia – The inspiration behind this dessert dish Holi, the festival of colours is probably the most famous of all Indian festivals. The entire land as well as the people of India turns into a big canvas on which colours are smeared upon. I’m always debating as to which Indian festival is more popular – Holi or Diwali? And which is more fun – the blurbs of colours in Holi or the bursting of crackers during Diwali? If you are in India, there isn’t any debate. You can have a super colourful Holi and a very noisy Diwali without getting into any trouble with the law! But, if you…
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