West Bengal

Bengalis are famous for their varied taste buds, and called the greatest food lovers in the Indian subcontinent. Bengali recipes are mostly famous for their delicious sweets and sour taste, so their cuisines’ are also delicious in taste, unique in preparation and very tasty. These cuisines are prepared in such a manner that they satisfy the food palate of everyone. Most of Bengal's famous dishes are fish based items and they consider a meal incomplete without fish, and most of the dishes are cooked in mustard oil.

Bengalis have a special seasoning called 'Panchphoran' which is a mix of mustard, aniseed, fenugreek seed, cumin seed and black cumin seed. The Bengali garam masala is made up of cloves, cinnamon, cumin and coriander seeds, mace, nutmeg, and big and small cardamoms. A typical Bengali lunch or dinner generally comprise of bhat (rice), dal (lentils), tarkari (vegetables) and macher jhol (fish curry).

Though rice is what people of Bengal have most of the time in their diet, nowadays, people are also eating a lot of wheat roti/parata. The dishes of Bengal whether, veg or non-veg though have spice in them, but spices are never used in such quantities that they cause a stomach upset.

But what draws people to Bengal most, and is the specialty of the state, are the sweets made from cottage cheese or chaana. No description of Bengali food is complete without mentioning the famous Bengali sweets like rosogolla, sandesh, mishti doi (sweetened curd), chanar payesh and patali gur confectionery (date palm jaggery) whixh are all mouth watering.

Every district in Bengal has a special sweet recipe of its own. Langcha and mihidana, sitabhog of bardhaman, sharbhaja of krishnanagar, chanabora of murshidabad and so on. Luchi, bengali fish curry, cholar dal and aloo posto to gurer payesh and chum chum are any food lovers first choice.





Bengal Recipes

(* Specifies Changes for a Healthy Diet)

Aloo Posto (Khus Khus)

Ingredients:

Regular	Improvised*
1) Green chillies-2	-do-
2) Medium potatoes-5 – 6	2) lady fingers-7 – 8  medium
3) Sugar - ½ tsp	-do-
4) Pure ghee-1 tsp	4) remove ghee all together
5) Mustard oil-2 tblsp	5) refined oil-1½ tblsp
6) Poppy seeds (khuskhus)- 4 tblsp	6) poppy seeds (khuskhus)- 3 tblsp
7) Salt to taste	-do-
8) kalo jeera - ½ tsp	-do-

Preparation:

• Take off and cut the potatoes into one inch sized pieces.
• Keep them in water.
• Soak poppy seeds in one cup warm water for fifteen to twenty minutes.
• Remove and grind to a fine paste.
• Heat up mustard oil in a pot till it just reaches smoking point.
• Remove, cool and heat up the oil again on medium heat.
• Mix in kalojeera and stir-fry briefly.
• Mix in potato pieces and stir fry on medium heat up for five minutes, stirring frequently.
• Mix in the poppy seeds paste, stir and mix in half cup of water, cover and stir fry on low heat up till the potatoes are almost done.
• Take off the lid, mix in salt, sugar and slit green chillies.
• Continue to stir fry for a minute more or till potatoes are completely cooked, stir in desi ghee and serve hot.

Macher Jhol (Fish Curry)

Ingredients:

Regular	Improvised *
1) Lemon juice - 2 tblsp	1) lemon juice-1 tblsp
2) Mustard oil for frying - 2 tbsps	2) Mustard oil for frying-1½ tbsps
3) salt to taste	-do-
4) Fillets-8 fish	-do-
5) Red chilli powder-1 tblsp	5) red chilli powder-¾ tblsp
6) Red chillies -4 (whole)	6) red chillies (whole)-2
7) Mustard paste-1 tsp	7) mustard paste-½ tsp
8) Turmeric powder-1 tsp	8) turmeric powder-¾ tsp
9) Green chillies - 4 slit	9) green chillies -3 cut
10) Coriander powder-2 tblsp	10) Coriander powder-1 tblsp
11) Garlic paste-1 tblsp	11) Garlic paste-½ tblsp
12) Mustard seeds -1 tsp	12) mustard seeds - ½ tsp
13) onions - 2 cup chopped	13) onions -1 cup chopped
14) ginger paste -1 tblsp	14) ginger paste-½ tblsp
15) turmeric powder-1 tsp	-do-
16) onion seeds (kalonji)- 1 tsp	16) onion seeds (kalonji)- ½ tsp

Preparation:

• Clean and cut fish fillets, move excess water and then marinate with limejuice, turmeric powder and salt. Keep aside for 30 minutes. Heat a pan, mix 1 tblsp oil, shallow fry marinated fish from both sides until slightly browned. Keep aside.
• Heat the remaining oil, and mix it with mustard seeds, kalonji, whole dry red chillies and bay leaf, stir fry for a few minutes till seeds crackles, then mix in ginger, garlic paste and stir fry again for a moment.
• Mix the cut onion and stir fry until slightly brown in color. Add mustard paste, red chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder, stir fry nicely until oil starts separating.
• Adjust water and salt, let it boil and then mix in shallow fried fish, put green chilli slits on top. Stir fry on a slow flame until fish is cooked and oil starts floating on top of gravy. Take off and decorate with green coriander leaves.

Cholar Dal

Ingredients:

Regular	Improvised*
1) Ghee-1 tblsp	1) oil with omega-3-1 tblsp
2) Green chillies -4 -6 slit	2) green chillies -1-3 slit
3) Garam masala powder-1 tsp	3) garam masala powder-½ tsp
4) Coriander powder -1 tblsp	4) coriander powder-½  tblsp
5) Bay leaves 3	5) remove bay leaves altogether
6) Coconut-¼	-do-
7) Red chilli powder-1 tsp	7) Red chilli powder-½ tsp
8) Turmeric powder 1 tsp	8) Turmeric powder-½ tsp
9) Sugar-2 - 4 tsp	9) sugar-1 – 3 tsp
10) Bengal gram divide (chana dal)- 250 gms	10) bengal gram divide (chana dal)- 250 gms
11) Cumin powder -1 tblsp	11) Cumin powder-½  tblsp
12) salt to taste	-do-
13) Raisins- 1 tblsp	13) raisins-½ tblsp

Preparation:

• Wash the dal and boil with 4 cup of water, mix in turmeric, cumin, garam masala, and slit green chillies.
• Mix salt and sugar to taste. Stir fry till the time the dal is soft and thick.
• Heat up ghee in a kadhai and add bay leaves and garam masala.
• When it stops spluttering, thoroughly mix in it to the dal.
• Cut the coconut into small dices and fry in ghee till light brown.
• Mix this to the dal and stir, and serve hot along with luchi.

Chum Chum

Ingredients:

Regular	Improvised*
1) water-1 cup	-do-
2) lemon color-2-3 drops	2) lemon color-1-2 drop, non-toxic
3) Green cardamom powder-¼ tsp	-do-
4) Few strands saffron	-do-
5) Cottage cheese (paneer)- 250 gms	5) cottage cheese (paneer)- 225 gms
6) Refined flour (maida)- 2 tblsp	6) Refined flour (maida)- 1½  tblsp
7) Condensed milk (unsweetened)- 100 gms	7) condensed milk (unsweetened)- 75 gms
8) Sugar-1 cup	8) sugar-¾ cup

Preparation:

• Melt sugar in water and heat up to make a thin syrup.
• Knead the paneer with flour and shape into oval shaped fingers, mix in them to the sugar syrup and boil for eight minutes.
• Take off from heat up and mix in lemon color to the syrup.
• Cool for a while and take off the chum-chums from the syrup.
• Mix in saffron and cardamom powder to sugarless, creamy, condensed milk.
• Spread this on each piece and serve.