The kitchen in Bangla is known as RannaGhar- the most favorite place of any Bengali women. The reason I call it as favorite is - for one thing all Bengalis are big time food lovers and another thing Bengali women take pride in preparing variety of dishes as part of their daily chores.
Born in a Maharashtrian family and then later on married to a Bong I was hardly aware of the mysterious cooking that happens into this equally amazing Bengali Rannaghar. I call the cooking mysterious because it was indeed a mystery for me when I first entered the kitchen at my in-laws place. The whole thing smelled different, the aroma was captivating but completely alien to my palate.
I must say Bengali cuisine is unique in its own way, their daily platter contains variety of vegetables, at least one non-veg item and how can one forget the sweet - without which the food is incomplete. From this one can easily guess that Bengalis are synonymous with food and both are inseparable entities.
I did face some challenges when I stepped into the kitchen and now when I look back I am amazed by my own blunders!!
Understanding the essence of Bengali cuisine was a herculean project in itself, because since childhood I was exposed to Maharastrian food which is much spicier than the Bengali counterpart. Also belonging to a Metro city like Mumbai which has a prominence of Punjabi and Gujarati cuisines this whole new world of Rannaghar was a rollercoaster ride!!
I hardly had an opportunity to cook at my in-laws place after marriage as had to accompany my husband to USA. Thereby the only thing I prepared during my short stay was Tea. Usually there is a tradition of Bau-Baath after marriage wherein the new bride makes Payesh (rice pudding) for the guests in the kitchen for the very first time. Fortunately for me and also for others this didn’t take place and the guests were saved from my disastrous attempt :)
I made my way to USA and here began the whole series of experimenting with cooking and especially giving the Bengali touch to it. My friends from iflex (company that I worked for before marriage and the place where I met my husband for the first time) had gifted me a recipe book on Bengali cuisine and this became a bible for me for the next few months. Although whatever I tried from it looked and tasted different as per my husband’s verdict and they really didn’t qualify for a mouth-licking bong delicacies. However as it is with every newly married couple a husband don’t really complain at the beginning and the usual tone is "whatever you cook tastes good". But believe me this fairly tale doesn’t last forever and soon you are made to face the reality.
The very first dish I made was every Bengali’s favorite - Aloo Posto, it is a preparation with potatoes and poppy seeds paste. The poppy seed paste has got special place in the RannaGhar and one can find so many varieties made out of it. It is something similar to using coconut in Keralite cuisines. Other than aloo posto we can find posto bora which is poppy seed vada and literally you can find poppy seed paste making its mark in almost variety of vegetable potato combinations. We can have lauki- aloo posto, drumstick-aloo posto, biangan-aloo posto, tomato Posto, pyaaz posto and any other combination one can think of. Bengalis love their potatoes and their postos. They are must haves on everyday plate. So back to my first attempt at aloo posto, one need not take much effort in guessing it would have been disastrous. I added my own imagination and tried making it spicier by adding garlic and what not as I had a doubt about its taste because the only spice it was supposed to use was green chilies.
These and similar kinds of blunders and re-blunders finally after 6 years of marriage I can now say I have somewhat managed to have attained the art of cooking the Bengali cuisine and now my Rannaghar has the same aroma and the same atmosphere like most Bengali households.
No comments:
Post a Comment