The Closest to the Courses of a French Meal is a Bengali Meal

Couple of weeks ago when I was talking to a bunch of 17/18 year old kids about the courses of the classical French Menu, it suddenly crossed my mind that we Bengalis have an equally elaborate meal with just as many number of courses. So we started a discussion about this similarity in class. Being a Bengali I suppose it is our food culture that crossed my mind at the very outset, and I am not quite certain if any other Indian meal can come anywhere close to it! I will, however, do a research and if and when I do find a similarity document it right here.

The quintessential Bengali will always have rice as the base with all the courses served. However, certain courses during a more formal occasion may also be served with luchi, a fried unleavened bread made from flour.

A classic French meal will begin with a hors d’oeuvre, this course allows the diner to build up an appetite for what is to follow. It is usually piquant in nature and is served in small quantities. Similarly the Bengali meal starts with a course which teases the taste buds and allows the person to look forward to an appetising meal. The Bengali meal usually begins with a starter of bitter vegetables (karela/ucche aka, bitter gourd) or herbs (neem) or flowers (sajna phool aka flowers of the drumstick plant), either fried or boiled and served in a very small quantity. Sometimes a mixed vegetable curry made with the bitter ingredients called shukto is also served. This course apart from enhance the appetite also cleanses the palate and the body and is considered to have a lot of medicinal value.

Following the hors d’oeuvre, the French enjoy a course of soup. We Bengalis have a course of dal instead. Dal can be equated to soup as it is has soup like consistency and is made from various lentils. Amongst the Bengalis the common dals are masoor dal (split red lentils), moong dal (split green gram), cholar dal (split Bengal gram) and matar dal (split yellow peas) are most common, although kalai/urad daal (spilt black gram) is common in certain areas only. Dals are usually made with a tempering of spices after boiling them. They can also be made with vegetables or fish head added to it. On special occasions cholar dal is served with luchi, but as mentioned earlier dals are also eaten with rice. Some dals like the moong dal can also be served as a starter course if cooked with ucche/karela. Dals are served with an accompaniment of fried vegetables like brinjal, red pumpkin (kumro), potatoes or even fish or fritters made from a variety of vegetables including onions.

Like the French, the Bengalis too have a separate vegetable course. Apart from being an accompaniment to dals vegetables are served in a myriad of ways. Ghonto, cchyanchra, labra, chorchori are different ways of cooking a variety of vegetables all into a single dish. The Bengali housewife is also very adept at cooking the most insipid vegetables in the most delicious way. To give an example of this, potol (pointed gourd) or jhinga (ridged gourd) are quite insipid to taste, but in a Bengali household they will be deliciously made with a variety of spices to give it more flavour. Potol is made into dolma (which is not indigenous to Bengal but a technique imported from Greece), similarly jhinga is cooked with potatoes and poppyseed (posto) paste. Sometimes pulses as well as fish head are added to vegetables. Various parts of the banana plant is consumed as a vegetable; the tender stem called thor is made into chechki (a method of slow cooking vegetables), the flower (mocha) after removing the stamens are made into ghonto, the raw banana (kancha kola) is churned out into delicious koftas.

No Bengali meal is complete without a course of fish. The French too have a dedicated course for fish (poisson). Fish steamed with mustard paste (bhape) is one healthy way of cooking fish. Fish is also made into paturi, wrapping marinated fish in banana leaves and steaming it. Other ways to cook fish are jhol, jhal, kalia, rosha etc. Each method is defined by the spices used. Jhol is a gravy tempered with green chillies and whole spices whereas in jhal one would use sliced onions as a base. Similarly there is very little difference between kalia and rosha, both gravies are made with onion ginger garlic paste, one has a thicker gravy than the other. Incidentally it is more a difference of opinions between the Bangals (Bengalis from former East Bengal) and Ghotis (those from Western part of Bengal). (Discussing this brings to my mind an altercation I had with my friend, Sujan Mukherjee, now the esteemed Executive chef of Taj Bengal and my batchmate from college, regarding the difference between jhol and jhal. That was what he was asked to differentiate for the campus interview, I gave my perspective of it and he his, and we both disagreed with each other’s logic. Mine came from the knowledge bestowed upon me by my mother in law which I thought was the ultimate!!!)  

The meat course is optional otherwise but essential during occasions. Bengalis unlike the French will not consume the meat of any other animal other than the goat. Kochi pathar mangsho (meat of a young goat) is much sought after even today and kosha mangsho a delicacy. The French have three courses assigned to meat and that too of various kinds and prepared in different manners.

What follows next is chutney a sweet and sour preparation made from a variety of vegetables like raw mangoes, tamarind (both raw and ripe), pineapple, dried plums, chaalta (elephant apple), jolpai (Indian olives), tomatoes, raw papayas or fruits like dates, pineapples, dried plums etc. This course like the sorbet in a French meal help cleanse the palate and prepares the diner to finish the meal with a dessert as with the French meal.

Along with sweets one would be served doi (yogurt), typically sweetened, this not only aids digestion but also prepares the palate for the final dessert. Doi is considered a part of the dessert course in a Bengali meal. Finally no Bengali meal is complete without the serving of paan (beetle leaf) which helps in digestion the elaborate and heavy meal served.

It has been rightly mentioned in Wikipedia that “the Bengali cuisine is perhaps the only traditionally developed multi-course tradition from South Asia that is analogous in structure to the modern Service à la russe style of French cuisine, with food served course-wise rather than all at once”. The only possible difference between the two being that the primary accompaniment of the Bengali cuisine is rice and the garnishes are quite minimal also that a Bengali meal will never have any alcoholic accompaniment like the French.

While writing this article I felt that there were some parts which overlapped with my earlier article. However, the two are travails of different kinds. I hope that my readers have gained fruitful insight to our Bengali cuisine. I will refrain from writing recipes here as I feel there are more than enough recipe books available. However, if anyone wants recipes for a Bengali preparation please feel free to leave a comment with your email address and I will oblige. Happy reading!!!

Bygone days of the Bengali wedding feasts

The first recollection of a wedding was my aunt's in December 1971. Then days weddings were like a festival, not that they aren't these days, but it was different then. There were no wedding planners, no catering companies, no fancy decorations and yet everyone had loads of fun.

The weddings were planned by the elders of the family making sure that no one was neglected. The presence of the senior members was mandatory to ensure that the rituals, which were fairly elaborate, were adhered to. The menu was planned meticulously, the trousseau was equally well planned for both the bride and the groom. And all this was done not by a wedding planner but by the family members themselves.

Since this is essentially a blog on food let me now look at the menu that was served in the yester years and how they differ from the present day menus. Let me start with the 70’s, the wedding festivities would start at least 3 to 4 days prior to the D-day then. The food was prepared by the “bheins” or cooks and the sweetmeats by the “moiras” or the sweetmeat makers. There was one person in the family who had complete control and knowledge about what was to happen in the kitchen. Huge stoves were created with brick and mud and coal, cowdung and wood was used as fuel, not LPG and essentially mustard oil was used to cook the food barring of course the luchis which was fried in peanut oil (Postman - that's the name that crosses my mind). Thus the food tasted different and people were not calorie conscious!

The days leading to the D-day usually started with luchi along with kalojeera kancha lonka phoron diye alur torkari (potato bhaji with kalonji and green chillies) and bonde – sweet boondi (albeit made in house). Lunch a simple affair of daal, bhaat, either a bhaja (fried brinjal/potatoes/cauliflower) or a mixed vegetable sabzi made with or without the fish heads, and maach (fish curry) followed by sweets. For tea there would be either samosas (shingara) or khasta kochuri or radha bhallabi with aloo dum along with whatever was the sweet of the day. Usually there would be a sweet of the day – bonde, pantua, rosogolla being the favoured ones.  The dinner menu would usually be a repeat of the lunch.

On the D-day itself, lunch would be slightly more elaborate. It would start with a shaak bhaaja (fried greens), followed by daal made with or without the fish head (a bhaaja moonger daal was usually the choice), along with a round of bhaajas (fried brinjals/potatoes/caulifowers etc.) followed by either by a potoler dolma (parwal or pointed gourd dolma) or fulkopi aloor torkari (cauliflower and potato sabzi) or a mixed vegetable (chyancchra), then came fish (usually rui/rohu or katla) made into a kalia or with shorshe bata (mustard paste) or with doi (curd), followed by chutney made from whatever sour vegetables available during the season (green mangoes) or tender tamarind or chaalta (elephant apple) or jolpai (Indian olives) or tomatoes or even with raw papayas or dates) served with papads, and finally mishit doi (sweet curd) and sweets of the day followed by paan. This was a sit down meal and the food was always served on banana leaves and water in conical mud baked glasses. The banana leaves were laid on long tables lined with paper, the youngsters were given the task of serving water, salt and lime wedges to the guests. The food came in brass buckets and the one serving the rice had an important role to play. He ensured that the guests were offered a second helping of whatever item they liked best. The elders (senior citizens) along with the children were served first, then generation wise with the ladies of the household eating last. It was the men folk who served everyone, and when it came to their turn to eat it was the women who served them. However, when the ladies of the household ate it was their husbands or brothers in law who served them and that too with a lot of pride. The cousins and siblings of the bride or the groom use to compete with each other while they ate, who could eat the maximum number of fish or sweets etc., and it was taken for granted that this would happen.

The dinner on the D-day was slightly more elaborate. The meal started with luchi, cholar daal (chana dal made with fried bits of coconuts) and begun bhaja (fried aubergines – cut not in roundels but lengthwise). This was then followed by fish fry or fish roll (indigenous to the Bengali cuisine) or chingri cultlets (tiger prawn cutlets) served with kasundi (mustard sauce again indigenous to the Bengali cuisine). The pulao was then served with katla macher kalia (katla fish cooked in a rich gravy) followed by kosha mangsho (mutton curry). Chicken was looked down upon in those days as it was considered a meat for the poor (mainly Muslims – I apologise to all my Muslim friends who might read this, I don’t mean to be a racists but that’s how it was) and it was not served in any Bengali wedding. The more affluent would serve at least 2 – 3 varieties of fish and mutton. Chutney and papad then followed after which was served mishit doi and at least 2 – 3 varieties of sweets. The meal was finished off with the paan. Food was served on banana leaves, water in mud baked glasses, and the concept of a fingerbowl was the glasses itself. People used lime and salt that was served in the beginning of the meal to cut down the grease and used the water in the glass as their fingerbowls and tore a part of the paper which was used to line the tables to wipe their hands. Priority was given to the groom’s family and friends (bor jatri) followed by the friends and extended family and finally the immediate family when serving the meal. When the bor jatri and outsiders were being served the elders used to be present to ensure that everyone ate well and never was this a rushed affair. The person in charge of the kitchen always went ahead with over a 20% extra on certain food items to factor in the competitive youngsters.

The day after the D-day (Baashi Biye) is particularly important for the Bangals (people from East Bengal, today’s Bangladesh) as the groom would take his bride home only after sunset and there would be a fair number of rituals held on that morning. With the grooms immediate family being present for the rituals it was only natural that they were invited for lunch. Lunch was similar on this day to the dinner of the previous day except that the meal did not start with luchi and daal but with plain rice served with ghee and shaak bhaaj (fried greens) followed by the bhaaja moong daal with fish head served with bhaajas like before, fish like topse (mango fish) or bhetki fry, followed by at least 2 – 3 varieties of fish made in different ways, with chutney, doi and mishti (sweets) to finish off as always.

I have been all this while writing about the feast from the perspective of the bride’s family. It is really not much different in the groom’s house just that on D-day dinner is evaded. The lunch on the day of the bou bhaat, which is on 2^nd day following the D-day, is meant for both the families (bride and groom) and their very close relatives. Bou bhaat is a ceremony where the bride serves food (rice) to her new family to gain acceptance amongst them. The menu that is served on this day is fairly elaborate and similar to the one served on the day after the D-day (baashi biye). The dinner on this day was also a replica of the one served by the bride’s family on the D-day with minor changes.

So far I have documented what the wedding feasts were like in the 70’s. The early 80’s saw a change creeping in with families getting smaller. The catering companies started coming into being and the spread started changing as a result. Bengalis started getting more adventurous. Mughlai dishes, especially biriyani and chaap made its way into the menu especially on the D-day and bou bhaat dinners. The service was also taken care of by helping hands employed by the catering companies to do so. By the 90’s it was the catering companies who were given the task of managing the food for the weddings. The menus started changing and so did the service pattern, and an essentially Bengali menu that was served in the yester years moved on to accommodate the changing palate. The turn of the century saw more changes, sit down dinners on the D-day and the bou bhaat gave way to buffets and theme weddings came into being. Bengalis started emulating the cultures of the Marwaris and Punjabis to include ceremonies like Mehendi and Sangeet. Likewise they also started including food from the world cuisines to be different. However, there are some families like my aunts (who has been mentioned earlier), who have still maintained the tradition of the Bengali wedding feasts.

This article would have been best expressed in Bengali, but for the larger segment of my readers. Hope I have been able to give an insight to the Bengali food culture. Keep looking out for more!!!

Introductions of a cook

A good cook, is a very cliched word, who is a good cook? A person who can cook well in terms of following a recipe or a person who can rustle up a recipe with whatever is on hand. I would personally choose the latter.

I am passionate about food and cooking. I went to study Hotel Management and it was there our professor Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee showed us the way to be a good cook. This was way back in the late 80's, herbs and other exotic ingredients were not so readily available to us and as a result we had to improvise. This improvision made me turn and twist recipes, sometimes making the recipe taste real good, but there again, did I even know the original taste of the recipes I sometimes churned out? There were times I even cooked from my memory of the taste of a certain dish I had in my childhood.

It is the ability to transform something ordinary to a work of art adding personal touches is what makes a person a good cook. This is just the beginning of my journey as a food blogger. There is so much that I would like to share that I don't quite know where to begin. My friends and family believe that I am a good cook, but am I? I do not know, I hope to find out more about my passion as we travel through my blogs.