html#glossary
If you would like to learn more about Bengal and her people you should definitely visit the
the following websites:
A Bengali Bazzar
Anaj Bazaar
(A Vegetable Market)
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Maachher Bazaar
(A Fish Market)
With the shopping done, the scene shifts to the ranna bari (cookhouse). The
storage, cooking and eating areas in a Bengali home were a separate unit and the
domain of the womenfolk. This barrack-like cookhouse was a row of rooms running
parallel to a wide airy veranda often used as the dining space. In an orthodox
Bengali home, fish and vegetables were cooked over separate fires, rice over
another and meat, if cooked at all was done in a portable bucket fire outside the
kitchen. However, recipes that were once cooked on these cowpat, wood or
charcoal fires have now been adapted to emerge almost perfect from the gas,
electric and microwave ovens that are in use today.
Here are some essential items you are sure to spot if you ever take a peek into a
Bengali kitchen (even today!).
Among the cooking vessels, the karais (woks) where most of the
cooking and frying is done, the tawa (griddle) on which rotis and
parotas are made, the handi - a special large pot for cooking rice
and the handleless modification of the sauce pan - the rimmed, deep,
flat-bottomed dekchi are all hallmarks of the Bengali kitchen. And of course you
will also find the pressure cooker which is indispensable to any Indian kitchen. As
for the other utensils you absolutely can't do without the hatha (ladle), the
khunti (metal spatula), the jhanjri (perforated spoon), the sharashi (pincers to
remove vessels from the fire), the ghuntni (wooden hand blender) for puréeing dal
and the old wooden chaki belon (round pastry board and rolling pin).
The action in the kitchen begins with the cutting of fish and
vegetables and the grinding of spices. And this is when the two star
attractions of the Bengali kitchen - the sil nora (grinding stone)
and the boti (a cutting tool) appear. The items to be ground are
put on the heavy sil, a pentagonal slab of stone and are crushed
over and over by its moving partner the nora, a smooth black stone you hold with
your hands. This inseperable pair lasts longer than a lifetime and is usually handed
down from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law.
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Although knives and peelers have made their debut into the modern Bengali
kitchen, the boti, that unique cutting tool, has not yet been ousted. Boti, the
Bengali woman's pride and joy and her proverbial weapon, is fitted
on a wooden stand and held in place by the feet on the floor so
that both hands are free. The blade of the versatile boti varies and
is sharp enough to cut off the head of the toughest carp and yet
safe enough to peel vegetables (with some skill that is!).
BHAPA : Fish or vegetables steamed with oil and spices. A classic steaming technique is to
wrap the fish in banana leaf to give it a faint musky, smoky scent.
BHATE : Any vegetable, such as potatoes, beans, pumpkins or even dal, first boiled whole
and then mashed and seasoned with mustard oil or ghee and spices.
BHUNA : A term of Urdu origin, meaning fried for a long time with ground and whole
spices over high heat. Usually applied to meat.
CHACHCHARI : Usually a vegetable dish with one or more varieties of vegetables cut into
longish strips, sometimes with the stalks of leafy greens added, all lightly seasoned with
spices like mustard or poppy seeds and flavoured with a phoron. The skin and bone of large
fish like bhetki or chitol can be made into a chachchari called kanta-chachchari, kanta,
meaning fish-bone.
CHHANCHRA : A combination dish made with different vegetables, portions of fish head
and fish oil (entrails).
CHHENCHKI : Tiny pieces of one or more vegetable - or, sometimes even the peels (of
potatoes, lau, pumpkin or patol for example) - usually flavored with panch-phoron or whole
mustard seeds or kala jeera. Chopped onion and garlic can also be used, but hardly any
ground spices.
DALNA : Mixed vegetables or eggs, cooked in a medium thick gravy seasoned with groung
spices, especially garom mashla and a touch of ghee.
DAM : Vegetables, especially potatoes, or meat, cooked over a covered pot slowly over a
low heat.
JHAL : Literally, hot. A great favorite in West Bengali households, this is made with fish
or shrimp or crab, first lightly fried and then cooked in a light sauce of ground red chilli or
ground mustard and a flavoring of panch-phoron or kala jeera. Being dryish it is often eaten
with a little bit of dal pored over the rice.
JHOL : A light fish or vegetable stew seasoned with ground spices like ginger, cumin,
corriander, chilli and turmeric with pieces of fish and longitudinal slices of vegetables
floating in it. The gravy is thin yet extreamely flavorful. Whole green chillies are usually
added at the end and green corriander leaves are used to season for extra taste.
KALIA : A very rich preparation of fish, meat or vegetables using a lot of oil and ghee with
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a sauce usually based on ground ginger and onion paste and garom mashla.
KOFTAS (or Boras) : Ground meat or vegetable croquettes bound together by spices
and/or eggs served alone or in savory gravy.
KORMA : Another term of Urdu origin, meaning meat or chicken cooked in a mild yoghurt
based sauce with ghee instead of oil.
PORA : Literally, burnt. Vegetables are wrapped in leaves and roasted over a wood or
charcoal fire. Some, like eggplants (brinjals/aubergines), are put directly over the flames.
Before eating the roasted vegetable is mixed with oil and spices.
TARKARI : A general term often used in Bengal the way `curry' is used in English.
Originally from Persian, the word first meant uncooked garden vegetables. From this it was
a natural extension to mean cooked vegetables or even fish and vegetables cooked
together.
The Bengali people are perhaps the greatest food lovers in the Indian subcontinent. A
leisurely meal of many items which requires long hours of labour and ingenuity in the kitchen
has long been a major part of Bengali culture. The traditional way of serving food is on the
floor, where individual pieces of carpet, called asans, are spread for each person to sit on. In
front of this seat is placed a large platter made of bell metal/steel or on a large piece of fresh
cut banana leaf. Around this platter a number of small metal or earthen bowls are arrayed in
which portions of dal, vegetables, fish, meat chutney and dessert are served. In the center of
the platter sits a small mound of piping hot rice flanked by vegetable fritters, wedges of lime,
whole green chillies and perhaps a bit of pickle. Finally in the center of the mound a liitle
hole is made to pour in a spoonful of ghee to flavour the initial mouthfuls of rice.
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A distinct culinary tradition emerged in Bengal based on the availability of local ingredients.
The great river systems, heat and humidity combine with the fertile soil to allow rice and an
abundance of vegetables to thrive; these became the corner stones of the diet. Mangoes,
bananas, coconuts, and cane sugar grew in abundance; fish, milk, and meat were plentiful;
yogurt and spices such as ginger and black mustard would season the dishes.
Even though fish and meat were generally popular, there was a predisposition to
vegitarianism, based on religious principles, that has continued to the present. Strict
vegetarians also omit onion and garlic from their diet, foods that "heat rather than cool",
preferring to substitute a garlicky-flavored spice called asafoetida. The taboo against the
consumption of fish and meat became even stronger with the flowering of religions such as
Jainism and Buddhism. But with the decline of Buddhism in the ensuing centuries, fish and
meat returned to the menu.
Rice, the staple of Bengalis since ancient times, has remained untouched by the currents of
religious change and its preparation has held to a continuing high standard. One crop a year
was sufficient to sustain the people, providing ample leisure time for the Bengalis to pursue
cultural ideals: folklore, music, and the culinary arts.
The 16th-century Mongol kings left their mark on the cooking of Northern India, which to
this day is known as moghlai cooking. With the introduction of Islam, Bengali Moslems
adopted dishes such as kababs, koftas and biriyani from their Moghul conquerors. But the
major portion of Bengali Hindu cuisine retained its original characteristics except that the use
of onion and garlic became more popular.
The European traders introduced food from the New World - potatoes, chillies, and
tomatoes. Bengalis incorporated them into their diet, combining them with a variety of native
ingredients creating new dishes.
Food is a major part of Bengali culture. Here are some interesting articles on Bengali
cuisine, its uniqueness, how it has developed through the ages and how it plays an important
role in rituals and festivals:
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 poppyseeds. You will not find these types of
fish dishes elsewhere in India.
Bengalis also excel in the cooking of vegetables. They prepare a variety of the imaginative
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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
seeds and five-spice (a mixture of cumin, fennel, fenugreek, kalonji, and black mustard). The
trump card card of Bengali cooking probably is the addition of this phoran, a comination of
whole spices, fried and added at the start or finish of cooking as a flavouring special to each
dish. Bengalis share a love of whole black mustard with South Indians, but the use of freshly
ground mustard paste is unique to Bengal.
All of India clamors for Bengali sweets. Although grains, beans and vegetables
are used in preparing many deserts, as in other regions, the most delicious
varieties are dairy-based and uniquely Bengali.
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suwarer
suwar-ka-gosht pork
mangsho
kochuri kachori fried wheat pastry with seasoned filling
luchi luchi puffed fried fllour bread
BREADS porota paratha thick crispy bread grilled in ghee
pau ruti pau roti loaf bread
ruti chapati unleavened whole wheat flour bread
ada adrak ginger
boro elach bara elaichi black cardamon
daruchini dalchini cinamon
dhoney dhania coriander seeds
dhoney patta dhania patta cilantro/coriander leaves
(choto) elach elaichi green cardamon
cloves, cinamon, cardamons (and black
garam mashla garam masala
pepper for the rest of India but not Bengal)
gol morich kala mirch black pepper
halud haldi turmeric
S hing hing asafoetida
P jaffran zaffran saffron
I
C jaiphal jaiphal nutmeg
E jaitri javitri mace
S (sada) jeera jeera cumin
and jowan,
jwain carom seeds
randhuni
S kala jeera kalonji nigella
E kancha lanka hara mirich green chilli
A
S kari pata kari patta curry leaves
O labongo lavang cloves
N mashla masale spices
I
mauri saunf aniseed/fennel
N
G methi methi dana fenugreek seeds
noon, laban namak salt
five spice: aniseed, cumin, fenugreek,
panch phoron panch phoran
mustard and nigella
postho khus khus poppy seeds
pudina pata pudina patti mint leaves
rasoon lasoon garlic
rai sorsey rai sarson mustard seeds
shukno lanka sukha lal mirich red dried chilli
tej pata tej patta bay leaf
til til sesame seed
Resources Used:
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