A day of food and fun at a Bengali House(Dadur badi)
Food is an integral part of any Bengali house hold. My mom was the first person who made me love the food. She was a housewife but was having extensive taste in cooking including south Indian, north Indian and very few Maharastrian food.
There are two parts of being a bengali, East bengal(bangal) and west bengal(ghoti). My mom had learnt ghoti style of cooking from her mom and as my father is from the bangal style, so she learnt the this way of cooking also.
There is something special about the cooking and process of cooking of bengali food. A typical household in Kolkatta, who are not conscious of oil/sugar, will start the day with a cup of cha, which is mostly liquor tea(prefered Darjeeling, Orange pekoe, lopchu) with very less or no milk. This is accompanied with moori or shingara. In Kolkatta unlike Delhi you get jilapi(jalebi) in the morning. This is just the jol khabar or starter before the actual breakfast. As the day starts early in Kolkatta around Now the breakfast preparation starts with an arid choice of dishes.
The summer times are the best for food with Aam and Kathal with moori, kosha narkel, sugar and milk with moori(wow), radha bollobi, cholar dal are loochi, porotha are ghugni or porotha with special alloo bhaja with kalonji(kalojeera) and pyej, with loads of green chillies. Simple yet amazing breakfast. Other than this you can also have egg paratha, egg roll, omlette, desi version of Fritata (egg on top of potato and onion sauted.) All this is happening at around 10-11 AM.
Then if it is the Sankrant then pitha of various kinds are being made puli, chushi,patishpta. Remember the Unaan(anghithi) at my nani,s place. She used to put to light at 4.30 or 5 in the morning started cooking by 6 AM.
Before the breakfast, dadu used to go to the vegetable and fish market for the fresh supplies. this was a daily affair, nothing used to go waste, which we do now, left overs of the vegetables used to be given to the cows. Fish trimmings used to be given to the pet cats, it was such sustainable environment.
Then didu and mami's with mom would plan for the lunch menu and sit and cut the vegetables and gossip around. The life was so not complicated.
The lunch would have a variety of dishes, starting from bhaja-which could be neem pata bhaja, beguni, aloo, potol, bata maach, morola,kakrol, korola,kumdo, kumdo phul, bok phul, sojna phool, etc. the list is endless.
Then the shukto or the tito(Karela). Then dal, again an ample to choices- motor daal, bhaja moog dal matha diye: lau diye, kolair daal, musoor dal, aam daal, cholar dal, chola daler dalna, papder dalna.
Bengali special saag: pui saag with kundo, laal saag, data saag, kolmi saag, palak saag, sojna saag, kochu saag, loti, etc.
The variety of sobji that the list will be too short, kochu bata, kachakola bata, posto bata, aloo posto, jhinga posta, lau chngri, dal chorano lau/chalkumdo. kumdor chokka, khonto, ghet, bodir jhol, chichiga bhaja, borboti, bandha kofi, phool kofir dalna, macher matha diye ghonto etc.
After this the non-veg dishes-macher jhol, macher jhal, tok mach, sorse bata maach, malai curry, rui maach bhaja, telapia, pabda, tengra, chingri, and my favourite Illish, just zeera jhol or bhapa, yummy.
Mangsho khashi or patha the dish used to taste just wow. Manshor jhol, kosha mansho with lots of aloo, tastes yummy with porotha or bhat.
Chutni variety- Amra, chalta, aam, tomato, aam sotto, khejur, annanas, tetul, etc. with variety of phoron, panch phoron the common one or the sorsa, shukno lonka and adda(ginger).
Then is the turn for the sweets includes misti doi, rosogulla, kheer kodom, kacha golla, payesh, sandesh, kalakand, chanar jelapi, kalo jam, lengcha, chenna toast, chondropolli, gojja, gujia, lobongo lotika, etccc.
Misti paan ba saja paan to end the special lunch or the dinner. Maybe only supari or Mouri ba bhaja ajwain, and then the sleeping time to get up again at 4.00 PM for the tea and the snacks, which will include the jhal muri, roll, mughlai, phuchka, churmur, etc.
Eating was so much fun when we were young, now restricted food intake mars the appetite.
Just enjoyed my childhood so much that I had to write it out.
Food is an integral part of any Bengali house hold. My mom was the first person who made me love the food. She was a housewife but was having extensive taste in cooking including south Indian, north Indian and very few Maharastrian food.
There are two parts of being a bengali, East bengal(bangal) and west bengal(ghoti). My mom had learnt ghoti style of cooking from her mom and as my father is from the bangal style, so she learnt the this way of cooking also.
There is something special about the cooking and process of cooking of bengali food. A typical household in Kolkatta, who are not conscious of oil/sugar, will start the day with a cup of cha, which is mostly liquor tea(prefered Darjeeling, Orange pekoe, lopchu) with very less or no milk. This is accompanied with moori or shingara. In Kolkatta unlike Delhi you get jilapi(jalebi) in the morning. This is just the jol khabar or starter before the actual breakfast. As the day starts early in Kolkatta around Now the breakfast preparation starts with an arid choice of dishes.
The summer times are the best for food with Aam and Kathal with moori, kosha narkel, sugar and milk with moori(wow), radha bollobi, cholar dal are loochi, porotha are ghugni or porotha with special alloo bhaja with kalonji(kalojeera) and pyej, with loads of green chillies. Simple yet amazing breakfast. Other than this you can also have egg paratha, egg roll, omlette, desi version of Fritata (egg on top of potato and onion sauted.) All this is happening at around 10-11 AM.
Then if it is the Sankrant then pitha of various kinds are being made puli, chushi,patishpta. Remember the Unaan(anghithi) at my nani,s place. She used to put to light at 4.30 or 5 in the morning started cooking by 6 AM.
Before the breakfast, dadu used to go to the vegetable and fish market for the fresh supplies. this was a daily affair, nothing used to go waste, which we do now, left overs of the vegetables used to be given to the cows. Fish trimmings used to be given to the pet cats, it was such sustainable environment.
Then didu and mami's with mom would plan for the lunch menu and sit and cut the vegetables and gossip around. The life was so not complicated.
The lunch would have a variety of dishes, starting from bhaja-which could be neem pata bhaja, beguni, aloo, potol, bata maach, morola,kakrol, korola,kumdo, kumdo phul, bok phul, sojna phool, etc. the list is endless.
Then the shukto or the tito(Karela). Then dal, again an ample to choices- motor daal, bhaja moog dal matha diye: lau diye, kolair daal, musoor dal, aam daal, cholar dal, chola daler dalna, papder dalna.
Bengali special saag: pui saag with kundo, laal saag, data saag, kolmi saag, palak saag, sojna saag, kochu saag, loti, etc.
The variety of sobji that the list will be too short, kochu bata, kachakola bata, posto bata, aloo posto, jhinga posta, lau chngri, dal chorano lau/chalkumdo. kumdor chokka, khonto, ghet, bodir jhol, chichiga bhaja, borboti, bandha kofi, phool kofir dalna, macher matha diye ghonto etc.
After this the non-veg dishes-macher jhol, macher jhal, tok mach, sorse bata maach, malai curry, rui maach bhaja, telapia, pabda, tengra, chingri, and my favourite Illish, just zeera jhol or bhapa, yummy.
Mangsho khashi or patha the dish used to taste just wow. Manshor jhol, kosha mansho with lots of aloo, tastes yummy with porotha or bhat.
Chutni variety- Amra, chalta, aam, tomato, aam sotto, khejur, annanas, tetul, etc. with variety of phoron, panch phoron the common one or the sorsa, shukno lonka and adda(ginger).
Then is the turn for the sweets includes misti doi, rosogulla, kheer kodom, kacha golla, payesh, sandesh, kalakand, chanar jelapi, kalo jam, lengcha, chenna toast, chondropolli, gojja, gujia, lobongo lotika, etccc.
Misti paan ba saja paan to end the special lunch or the dinner. Maybe only supari or Mouri ba bhaja ajwain, and then the sleeping time to get up again at 4.00 PM for the tea and the snacks, which will include the jhal muri, roll, mughlai, phuchka, churmur, etc.
Eating was so much fun when we were young, now restricted food intake mars the appetite.
Just enjoyed my childhood so much that I had to write it out.
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