Poila Boisakh: Make these traditional Bengali dishes for your child
Bengali New Year: On this day, make these Bengali dishes and have it with steamed rice and luchi (poori). or paratha.
Poila Boisakh or Bengali New Year is the first day of the Bengali calendar, that is, the first day of its first month Baisakh. And to celebrate the day, here are some traditional, authentic Bengali recipes, courtesy Avijit Deb Sharma, executive chef, ibis and Novotel Bengaluru Outer Ring Road, which you can try at home and enjoy with your family.
Kosha Mangsho
Ingredients
Mutton 750 gms, medium size onion 3 nos, bay leaf 3 nos, clove 5 nos, sugar 1 tsp, medium halved potato 3 nos, garam masala powder 1 tsp, black pepper 10 nos, green cardamom 4 nos, cinnamon stick 1/2 inch, mustard oil 100 ml
For the Marinade
Cloves garlic 8 nos, powdered turmeric 2 tsp, coriander powder 1 ½ tsp, yoghurt (curd) 4 tbsp, ginger 1 ½ inch, powdered red peppers 1 ½ tsp, salt 1 ½ tsp
Method
For marinating the mutton, bring together garlic, ginger and onions. Grind them together in a mixer to make a smooth paste. Wash and clean the mutton. Add to it the ingredients for the marinade – yogurt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, red pepper powder, some mustard oil, and half of the ginger/ garlic/ onion paste. Let it rest for about 2 hours in the freeze.
Heat 2 tbsp mustard oil in a kadai. Fry the potatoes till they turn golden brown. Keep them aside.
Now, for cooking the mutton, heat the remaining mustard oil in kadai. Temper it with the black pepper, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, cloves, cardamom and turmeric. Also, add sugar to it.
Add the remaining onion paste and fry for about 5 minutes. The oil will start separating from the mixture. Now add the marinated mutton. Cook at a low flame for about half an hour.
Add 2 cups water (depending on the gravy required) and cover the kadai. Let the mutton cook for at least an hour now till the it becomes soft and succulent. All this while ensure that the flame is at its lowest.
Now, add the fried potatoes and garam masala, and give it good stir. Let it cool for some time and then sprinkle freshly chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot with either steamed rice, maida luchi (pooris) or parathas.
Shukto
Ingredients
Potatoes cut in 1-inch pcs 2 cups, bitter gourd sliced 1 cup, plantain or kanchkola cut in 1-inch pcs 1 cup, brinjal cut in 1-inch pcs 2 cups, drumsticks cut in 2-inch pcs 2 cups, bori or vadi or lentil dumplings 1 cup, ginger paste 1 tbl spn, milk 5 tbl spn, radhuni or caraway seeds 1 tspn, bay leaf 2 pcs, whole dry red chili 2 pcs, bengali five spice or panch foron 1 tspn, mustard seeds 1/2 tspn, ghee 1/2 tspn, mustard oil 100 ml, sugar 1 tspn, salt to taste
Method
Peel the potato, plantain (kanch kola). Cut all the vegetables in 1-3-inch pieces.
Fry the bori till browned and set aside.
Also prepare the Shukto masala by heating 1 tspn of panch forn and 1/2 tspn mustard seeds in a pan and then powder this and set aside. Heat some mustard oil and add the ginger paste along with the sugar, some salt, whole dry red chilies, the radhuni or caraway seeds and the bay leaves. Saute for a minute.
Add all the vegetables and saute in the above mixture. Then cover and shallow fry the vegetables for seven minutes by turning them from time to time. Add a cup of water then cover and cook for another 10 minutes over medium heat.
Then add the milk and let the curry to simmer for 2 mins, add in the fried boris or vadis.
Cook covered for three to four minutes more. Finally turn off the heat, add the ghee and the Shukto masala.
Enjoy your bowl of Shukto with some rice.
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