Bengal (before its partition into eastern and western parts) has been ruled by Dravidians and other ethnic groups, and later further settled by the Aryans during the Gupta,Muslim from the early thirteenth century onwards, British for two centuries. It also saw a fair share of immigrants from various parts of the world – most prominently Jews, Chinese and Afghans who settled down in their own distinct communities in and around Kolkata. So all kind of traditional recipe is fallowed in Bengali food .
The traditional society of Bengal has always been heavily agrarian; hunting, except by some local clansmen, was uncommon. However, cattle rearing have been common, as reflected in use of milk primarily for sweets and desserts. Also, as one would assume, ordinary food served at home is different from that served during social functions and festivals, and again very different from what might be served at a larger gathering (e.g.a marriage feast).
An abundant land provides for an abundant table. The nature and variety of dishes found in Bengali cooking are unique even in India. Fish cookery is one of its better-known features and distinguishes it from the cooking of the landlocked regions. Bengal’s countless rivers, ponds and lakes teem with many kinds of freshwater fish that closely resemble catfish, bass, shad or mullet. Bengalis prepare fish in innumerable ways – steamed or braised, or stewed with greens or other vegetables and with sauces that are mustard-based or thickened with poppy seeds.
Bengalis also excel in the cooking of vegetables. They prepare a variety of the imaginative dishes using the many types of vegetables that grow here year round. They can make ambrosial dishes out of the oftentimes rejected peels, stalks and leaves of vegetables. They use fuel-efficient methods, such as steaming fish or vegetables in a small covered bowl nestled at the top of the rice cooker.
The use of spices for both fish and vegetable dishes is quite extensive and includes many combinations not found in other parts of India. Examples are the onion-flavored kalonji (nigella or black onion seeds), radhuni (wild celery seeds), and five-spice or paanch phoron (a mixture of cumin, fennel, fenugreek, kalonji, and black mustard seeds). The trump card of Bengali cooking probably is the addition of this phoron, a combination of whole spices, fried and added at the start or finish of cooking as a flavouring special to each dish. Bengalis share their love of whole black mustard seeds with South Indians, but unique to Bengal is the use of freshly-ground mustard paste, which is used to make fish curry gravy or in the preparation of steamed fish. Mustard paste called Kasundi is an accompanying dipping sauce popular in Bengal.
Fish is the dominant kind of meat, cultivated in ponds and fished with nets in the fresh-water Rivers of the Ganges delta. Almost every part of the fish (except fins and innards) is eaten; the head and other parts are usually used to flavor curries. The head is often cooked with dal or with cabbage.
More than forty types of mostly freshwater fish are common, including carp varieties like rui (rohu), koi (climbing perch), the wriggling catfish family of tangra, magur, shingi and the pink-bellied Indian butter fish, the pabda katla, magur (catfish), chingŗi (prawn or shrimp), as well as shuţki (small dried sea fish). Chingri could be of varieties – kucho (varieties of shrimp), usual (prawns), bagda (tiger prawns), and galda (Scampi). Shorshe Ilish, a dish of smoked hilsa with mustard seeds paste, has been an important part of both Bangladeshi and Bengali cuisine.
Salt water fish (not sea fish though) hilsa (hilsa ilisha) is very popular among Bengalis, can be called an icon of Bengali cuisine. Ilish machh (hilsa fish), which migrates upstream to breed is a delicacy; the varied salt content at different stages of the journey is of particular interest to the connoisseur, as is the river from which the fish comes – fish from the river Pôdda (Padma or Lower Ganges) in Bangladesh, for example, is traditionally considered the best. To some part of the community, particularly from West Bengal, Gangatic Ilish is considered as the best variety.Fried Rohu served in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
There are numerous ways of cooking fish depending on the texture, size, fat content and the bones. It could be fried, cooked in roasted, a simple spicy tomato based gravy (jhol), or mustard based with green chillies (shorshe batar jhaal), with posto, with seasonal vegetables, steamed, steamed inside of plantain leaves, cooked with doi (curd/yogurt), with sour sauce, with sweet sauce or even the fish made to taste sweet on one side, and savory on the other. Ilish is said be cooked in 108 distinct ways Chicken is a late entrant into Bengali cuisine relative to mutton. Khashi, the meat of younger goats, is preferred.
The variety of fruits and vegetables that Bengal has to offer is incredible. A host of gourds, roots and tubers, leafy greens, succulent stalks, lemons and limes, green and purple eggplants, red onions, plantain, broad beans, okra, banana tree stems and flowers, green jackfruit and red pumpkins are to be found in the markets or anaj bazaar as popularly called.
Bengali people are primarily rice eaters, and the rainfall and soil in Bengal lends itself to rice production as well. Many varieties of rice are produced from the long grain fragrant varieties to small grain thick ones. Rice is semi-prepared in some cases when it is sold as par-boiled, or in some cases as un-polished as well, still retaining the color of the husk. Rice is eaten in various forms as well – puffed, beaten, boiled and fried depending on the meal. The first two are used usually as snacks and the other as the main constituent in a meal. Lightly fermented rice is also used as breakfast in rural and agrarian communities.
Luchi (circular deep fried un-leavened bread) or Porothha (usually triangular, multi-layered, pan fried, un-leavened bread) are also used as the primary food item on the table. It is considered that wheat based food came in from the north and is relatively new in advent. Both Luchi and Parothha could have stuffed versions as well, and the stuffing could vary from dal, peas etc.
Pulses (or lentils) form another important ingredient of a meal. These dals vary from mushur đal (red lentils), mug đal (mung beans), kshadhaier dal, arhar dal’ etc. and are used as an accompaniment to rice.
Shorsher tel (mustard oil) is the primary cooking medium in Bengali cuisine although Badam tel (groundnut oil) is also used, because of its high smoke point. Of late, the use of sunflower oil, soybean oil and refined vegetable oil, which is a mixture of soybean, kardi, and other edible vegetable oils, is gaining prominence. This later group is popularly known as “sada tel”, meaning white oil, bringing out the contrast in color between the lightly-colored groundnut and the somewhat darker mustard oil and the other white oils. However, depending on type of food, ghee (clarified butter) is often used, e.g., for making the dough or for frying bread.
Mustard paste, holud (turmeric), poshto poppyseed), ada (ginger), dhonia (coriander, seeds and leaves) and narikel (ripe coconut usually desiccated) are other common ingredients. ‘The pãch poron is a general purpose spice mixture composed of radhuni (Carum roxburghianum seeds), jeere (cumin), kaalo jeere (black cumin, also known as nigella), methi (fenugreek) and mauri (anis). This mixture is more convenient for vegetarian dishes and fish preparations. In addition to the specific flavour and taste obtained by these combinations, behind the recipes, there has been a solid knowledge of the medicinal properties known in the traditional system of aayurveda.
Bengali cuisine is rather particular in the way vegetables and meat (or fish) is prepared before cooking. Some vegetables are used unpeeled, in some preparations fish is used un-skinned in contrast as well. However, in most dishes vegetable are peeled, and fish scaled and skinned.
In many cases the main ingredients are lightly marinated with salt and turmeric (also an anti-bacterial and anti-septic). Vegetables are to be cut in different ways for different preparations. Dicing, Julienne, strips, scoops, slices, shreds are common and one type of cut vegetables can not replace another style of cutting for a particular preparation. Any aberration is frowned upon. For example, in Aaloo-kumror Chhakka the potatoes and gourds must be diced not shredded and if they are shredded it will be ghonto and not chhakka.
In East Bengal, now Bangladesh, the culinary style developed rather independently; it was not greatly influenced by the rest of India and Southeast Asia because of the difficult geography of the Ganges delta. Some characteristics stand out: fresh-water fish, beef (only for Muslims), the extensive use of parboiled rice, and much spicier food (some of the hottest dishes in the world). Floods are common in the region, so there is an extensive use of root vegetables and dried fish (shuţki). Milk and dairy products, so widely used in the neighboring India, are not as common here; the geography prevents large-scale dairy farming, thus making dairy products an expensive indulgence. Although, some food calls for curd/yogurt or ghee. However, sweets do contain milk and dairy products as well as jaggery and rice paste.
As you move eastwards, anthropologically the people become more and more different, and the language takes a different tone and flavour all together. The far eastern parts are closer culturally to Burma than to India. In western parts of Bengal, more connected with the rest of India and dominated by the megacity of Kolkata since the late eighteenth century, the culinary style evolved to become different. The delta is thinner there, with fewer rivers and more open plains. There is significant commerce with the rest of India, leading to a flow of spices, ingredients and techniques and more importantly culture. The presentations are more elaborate and a significant feature of the cuisine is a vast array of sweets based on milk and sugar as part of tradition. While fresh-water fish is still common, mutton is more common among the Muslim population than beef and dried fish. Wheat makes its appearance alongside rice, in different types of breads such as luchi, kochuri and pôroţa. For the former however, flour, not wheat is used. Mustard paste is extensively used, and so is mustard oil. There’s a greater use of coconut, both in cooking and in desserts.
Prosperity and urbanization also led to the widespread use of professional cooks who introduced complex spice mixtures and more elaborate sauces, along with techniques such as roasting or braising. Also introduced around this time, probably as a consequence of increased urbanization, was a whole new class of snack foods. These snack foods are most often consumed with evening tea. The tea-time ritual was probably inspired by the British, but the snacks most popular are Kolkata – chaţ, kachori,beguni,mochaar chop, samosa, phuluri and the ever-popular jhal-muri also referred to as bhelpuri . Puchka is the ever-popular street food.
PRAWN MALAI CURRY/CHINGRI MACHER MALAI CURRY – A Delicious Bengali Food Item
Ingredients :-
Medium Prawns 500gms
- PRAWN MALAI CURRY
Coconut 1pcs
Ghee/oil 2 tbsp.
Green chillies 4pcs
Onion 1pcs(pest)
Garlic paste 1/2 tsp.
Ginger paste 1/2 tsp.
Chilli powder 1 tbsp.
Turmeric powder 1 tsp.
Roasted & powdered garam masala* 1 tsp. (Roast & powder 3cloves, 2 green cardamom & 2 sticks of cinnamon)
Salt to taste
How to make Prawn Malai Curry:
Grate coconut and extract thick milk by adding hot water. Grind onion, garlic, and ginger into a smooth paste. Apply salt & turmeric to prawns, fry and keep aside. In the same oil add the paste and fry till leaves oil. Add coconut milk, boil and add prawns. Cook till the gravy becomes thick. Add garam masala and mix well.
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ILISH MACHER PATURI : A Delicious Bengali Food Item
Ingredients :-
Ilish (Hilsha): 8 pieces
Mustard (paste): 5 spoons
Turmeric Powder: 2 small spoons
Red Chilli Powder: 1 small spoon
Green Chillies: 6-8 piece (each around 6 inch square)
Banana leaf: 8 pieces
Mustard Oil: 100 gram
Salt: 2-3 small spoons (as per test)
How to make Ilish Macher paturi :-
Grate coconut and extract thick milk by adding hot water. Grind onion, garlic, and ginger into a smooth paste. Apply salt & turmeric to prawns, fry and keep aside. In the same oil add the paste and fry till leaves oil. Add coconut milk, boil and add prawns. Cook till the gravy becomes thick. Add garam masala and mix well.
Wash the fish well, pat dry and rub the pieces with about ½ tsp of turmeric powder a little salt and keep aside
Bengali Food–Recipe–technology-Preparation 