Looking for Easy to make Bengali Dishes

teestabasu · Mar 19, 2009

Hello Girls,

How were your Holi celebrations? I badly missed it here. Anyways, it seems so many months that I have left Kolkata. I miss everything sometimes so much, but one thing that I would not want to miss is the Bengali food. I’m not a very good cook but I try to make something from whatever available here.

Actually, I’ve made some good friends out here, who for some unknown reason are extremely fond of everything Indian. They are really good people and often drop into my place in odd hours to borrow my saree and I have to help them to wear it. They love to wear sarees for parties.

OK! Now they want to learn some Bengali dishes and want to give me a treat. :cheers Can you gals forward me some recipes, that would be easy to cook. This will also help in improving my not so good culinary skills. Lol!!!

Start posting girls…
Love
Keep smiling,
Teesta

write2sreejata · Apr 6, 2009

Hey Teesta,

You have made very interesting friends out there. Good that they want to know about our delicious dishes, in fact everyone should know about how tasty the Bengali cuisine is.

Since there are varieties of dishes, lemme think a second which one to jot down here…

Alright, I think I will start with the most loved ‘bhape ilish’. What say? Here goes the recipe and the method.

Suppose that you are making bhape of 600 g ilish, in that case, you will need the following:

1 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, sea salt, to taste, 40g mustard paste, 20g green chilli paste, 4 whole green chillies, slit, 25ml double cream, 75ml mustard oil.
Cook 3 tsp mustard seeds in 120ml until the mustard seeds pop then allow to cool and strain.

Now the method:

First you will have to clean the fish and cut into steaks,
Rub some turmeric and sea salt into the flesh and skin of the fish then set aside in a bowl to marinate for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, blend together the mustard paste, green chilli paste, oil, cream and 1 tsp turmeric powder in a bowl.
Dip the fish pieces into this masala (flavoured paste) and place in a steaming basket then top with the slit chillies.
Bring the water beneath the steaming basket to a boil and steam the fish for about 8 to 12 minutes, or until cooked through.

I hope the rest you know and can do. My mouth has already started watering. Lol!!!!

You friends will surely like it. Start with this one and wait for more….
Don’t forget to tell how it worked…
Love,
Sreejata

aparajitasarkar · Apr 9, 2009

Hi Teesta,
You have come to the right place, being a Bengali I just love to gorge on all the Bengali delicacies, thanx to my grandmother, she knew some really really tasty Bengali dishes, and I have inculcated this both from my mother and grand mother. And yes Sreejata, you are right the whole world should know about the famous Bengali delicacies.

Right now I will be penning down my favorite Chingri Malai Curry.

For 500gms Prawns or Lobsters, you will need the following,
Coconut-1,
Onion paste-2 tsp,
Bay leaves-2-3,
Kismis or raisins-25 gms,
Curd-100gms,
Ginger paste-1 tsp,
Salt-according to taste, Oil and ghee accordingly.

The steps you will need to follow are:

Clean the prawns or lobsters, peel the shell and take out the black vein on the rear side of the prawns or lobsters. Boil the prawns in a little water, coconut paste and a little water and keep aside. In a pan heat oil and ghee, add onion paste, bay leaves, ginger and curd and stir well. Add the prawns. Cook for sometime add salt, coconut milk and when it gets thickened.

Have fun cooking the dishes….
Will be back with more….

And don’t forget to tell how all went…
Love,
Aparajita

teestabasu · Apr 9, 2009

Hello Sreejata and Aparajita,

I am thrilled to have such good recipes…thanx a lot both of you. Hope this will surely improve my poor culinary skills. You know what I am feeling quite jealous of you both since both of you know the most delicious Bengali recipes. I will have my friends a share of these two dishes and I am confident about the fact that they will be bowled over… Thanks a ton girls.

Also, keep posting about more and more delicious Bengali recipes…
Love you both,
Bye,
Teesta

sumshru · May 19, 2009

Hi all,
I am maharashtrian but fond of rasagullas. I hv tried to make rasgullas at home for not less than 50 times hv also attended various cooking classes to know the recipe but unfortunately i have not seen anybody who can make market like rasgulla. can anybody post the step by step recipe or it? i cuddle the milk using lemon and add 1 sp of maida to 1 litre cow milk..someone told me to add samolina to it..plz share the authentic recipe.

chandrimalahiri · Jun 8, 2009

Here's the youtube link to make the rasgulla:
YouTube - Bengali Rasgulla Recipe by Manjula, Indian Vegetarian Cuisin

and here's the recipe from Tarla Dalal:
RASGULLA Recipe - by Tarla Dalal

Hope these two recipes help you... But very frankly, I don't know any Bengali making Rasgullas at home... We also don't make it at home. We have so many sweey shops in bengal that we really don't feel like making rasgullas at home and these shops would never tell you the secret...

Bye, Chandrima

aparnamukherjee · Jun 8, 2009

Hi Sumshru,
I would love to share my recipe of ‘rosogolla’ and in fact it will give me immense pleasure to share it. The following is the recipe for ½ liter of milk.

Here goes:
Ingredients :
Milk - 1/2 litre
Refined flour (maida) - 2 tsp
Citric acid dissolved in water or lemon juice - 1/4 tsp dissolved in 1/2 cup water or lemon juice 2-3 tbsp.
Sugar- 1 cup
Water- 1 cup
Rose essence or cardamom powder - 2-3 drops or 1/4 tsp

Now the Method:

Heat milk in a pan and bring it to boil. Remove from heat. Add citric acid or lemon juice.

Stir slowly and gently until white curd forms on the surface and separates from whey.

On straining this milk, the curd that is obtained is called "chenna". Wash chenna well under cold running water and twist the cloth that was used for straining to extract water.

Knead chenna to make smooth dough. Add flour and knead again. Make small balls of equal size (6-7) of the dough and keep aside. Next make sugar syrup. Mix sugar and water in a saucepan and bring it to boil. Add chenna balls to the syrup and cook for 15 minutes with lid partially covered. Chenna dumplings will puff up. On cooling, add rose essence. Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Try this out and I bet that you won’t forget the taste. Lol!!! Lemme know as well.
Bye
Take care,
Aparna

sumshru · Sep 1, 2009

Dear Aparna,

Sorry for the delayed response. I didn't login here only. I tried your recepi yesterday and the rosogullas turned out very nice.. thanks a lot..regards,

aparnamukherjee · Sep 2, 2009

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CIS%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style>  </style> Hello Sumshru,

It’s alright. I am happy that my recipe has helped you and it has turned out good. If you need any more recipes then you are free to ask. Alright?

Take care,

Bye,

papiyarose · Sep 2, 2009

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CIS%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style>  </style> Hello Girls,

Good to see that you have posted recipes of Bengali dishes. I will surely try these out. Between thanks to Sumshru for reviving this thread. I wanna know the recipe of ‘maach paturi’. Can anyone give me????? Please?????
I hope you will.
Please do post the recipe.

Bye,

Papiya