First of all wish you a very prosperous Maha Ashtami. Just two days ago the much awaited Durga Puja started now already it's halfway over.  Today being a weekend will start our pandal hopping and eating out, rather pigging out even if I say so myself. And if we talk about food sweet is an inseparable part of any festival in India.

Who doesn’t love sweet? And Bengalis are famous for their sweet tooth. In earlier times a meal had to end with a sweet dish. My Grandpa loved  sweets. I remember whenever we visited Kolkata during the vacations there was not a single day when we had breakfast and at least two variety of sweets was not present in the side.  Dadu (grandpa) used to go to the market every morning and buy the best sweet available that day at the moyerar dokan (sweet shop).  The freshly made spongy hot Roshogollas dipped in thick sugar syrup which the moyera would pack in big earthen pots were my favorite.

Dida(Grandma) would make Chaler Payesh (Rice pudding) with a generous seasoning of Raisins. She would add Nolen Gur instead of regular sugar which enriched the taste. Chaler payesh was always more flavorful than the Sevaiyan payesh (Roasted Vermicelli pudding) because of the Gobindobhog Chal (a type of flavored rice like the Basmati).  Once we visited North Bengal during the Durga Puja and my mother got hold of some “Choshi” from the local market. Till then I had never seen or known about Choshi - little dull white colored rice flour cylinders with bulging centre and tapered ends. Ma made Choshir payesh with them and it turned out to be one of the most delectable Payesh I have ever tasted. Add Nolen Gur to it and you will be in paradise. Choshir Payesh is a very old traditional fare, which is hardly made now-a-days and I bet there are a handful of people in our generation who has had the good luck to taste it.

During the summer vacation it was Dadu’s regular practice to have Aam-Dudh-Bhaat(Mango+Milk+Rice). A portion of the rice was kept aside, at the end of the meal he used to mix sugary ripe orange mangoes and warm milk with the rice and a pinch of sugar/sondesh. The aroma of the king of fruit was too tempting but the looks of it deterred me from trying it. The elders of the house however relished it with much joy. Now when I look back it seems I should have had tried it. Since Dadu passed away we don’t have such big family get-togethers anymore where all the family members would sit together and have their meals, interspersed with the usual adda and sharing of interesting stories.

As a kid I was a real Sweet freak. I loved anything sweet and hated anything salty or spicy. Mom also liked to have sweets. The love for sweet was in the blood. Whenever Dad used to go to the market I would tag along with him to go to the Sweet shop – Bimala Sweets (I still remember the name!). To admire the array of mouthwatering sweets arranged on the glass shelves was a very exciting thing for me. I would look out if any new type of sweet was on display and ask my dad to buy it. When I was very small dad used to leave me at the shop while he fished his bajar. I would happily stay in the shop and mingle with the shop owner and his workers. Sometimes he would offer me a sweet or two just like that. I would sit on the counter and witness the mundane activities inside the sweet shop. As I grew up a bit I became a bit shy of the surroundings and would not stay back in the shop, just buy the sweets and come back. Bimala sweets was a part of my growing up years- my metamorphosis from absolutely loving sweets to just about liking them. It was the only Sweet shop within the IIT campus during those days. During Durga Puja my entire friends group would flock there and have Matka Kulfi or Chocobars while catching up.


My Ma is a very good cook, got her culinary skills from Dida. Her culinary skills enhanced meeting my ever increasing demands of making new dishes and sweets. Now when I look back I wonder how she managed to cook 3 times a day plus interesting snacks during evening, I get worn out if I have to make 3 meals in a day. So all my evenings were filled with interesting snacks or sweets. I absolutely loved the bread Malpua she used to make more than the traditional malpua, because the former was much softer and succulent in texture and taste. Though the dish was a bit sweeter, the loving traces of malai on it was absolutely  irresistible. I am drooling even now thinking about it.

At times when there was no sweet I would resort back to Bourbon biscuit. They were always there in our home as I loved them. When I was not yet inducted to tea I would most of the times wait for ma to settle down with her evening tea so I could dip it and eat. This irked ma to no extent because my constant stirring with the biscuit would make the tea cold or sometimes even too much stirring would result in breaking the biscuit which would sink into the tea. But I never gave up and finally Ma gave up. So cleverly she permitted me to have tea so that I have my own tea to stir the biscuit in. If it was not tea time and I wanted to have Bourbon biscuit, I would separate the two biscuits, lick off the chocolate cream inside and then eat the biscuit separately. There was this friend of mine who would lick off the chocolate inside and throw away the biscuit! I was of course a better behaved kid :D.

As I grew up my love for sweet dishes decreased exponentially. I began loving salty and spicy things better. As of date I only have sweets in form of cold desserts, gajar ka halwa or if it’s a very tempting looking dessert. The other day I was flipping some recipes on the net and came across the recipe of Sahi Tukda. It’s a bread pudding soaked in hot milk and spices, a north Indian specialty which has its roots in Pakistani cuisine. It is particularly prepared during the festive month of Ramadan and on Eid Some people say it’s similar to Double ka Meetha which is a specialty from Hyderabad.

It’s easy to make but is too much calorie packed and involves quite an amount of work in the preparation. Assembling is the easiest part. For this festive season it’s the perfect reason to indulge. This one reminds me very much of the Bread Malpua that my mom used to prepare.

• Bread (White / Brown) - 4 slices
• Full Fat Milk - 1/2 litre
• Dry Fruits ( Pistachios, Almonds, Cashew) - 1/4 cup
• Sugar - 1/3 cup
• Cornflour - 1 tsp
• Ghee - 3/4 cup
• Rose essence - 2 drops
• Saffron - 4-5 strands

Method:


1. Remove the edges of the bread and slice them diagonally into two triangles. You will get 8 triangles from 4 slices.

2. Chop the nuts. Heat a non-stick pan and add 3 tsp of ghee over it. Add dried fruits and toast for a couple of minutes and keep aside. 

3. In the remaining ghee fry the bread triangles till they turn uniformly golden on both sides.


4. Take milk in a thick bottomed pan and bring to a boil. Cook on medium flame and allow the milk to reduce to half its original quantity and get a Rabri like texture. Add sugar as per taste. The mixture will be sweet enough. Add saffron strands and stir. Mix cornflour with 2-3 tbsp milk and add it to the reduced milk and mix. Add the rose essence and roasted chopped nuts.  Cut off heat and let it cool down to room temperature. Chill it in the fridge till serving time.


5. In another pan take some water and sugar. Boil it till the sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes a bit thick. Turn of heat and let it cool to room temperature.

6. Soak the bread pieces in the sugar syrup as you fry for a couple of minutes only and take them out and place on a serving dish.



7. While serving, pour the chilled rose flavored thickened milk over the bread slices, garnish with some more toasted nuts, bits of silver foil, rose petals, drizzle some rose syrup and serve.


The desert tastes better when chilled.



Sending this recipe to Pari & Jiya's "Only Traditional Recipe", Priya's and Spicy Treat's "Diwali Delicacy" event, Recipe Junction's "Spotlight : Festive Treats",Guru's "Vegan Special'13", Merry Tummy's "Cook with White", Motion and Emotions' "Theme Party" event, Gayathri and Asiya's WTML event, Simply Tadka's and Swetha's foodabulous fest .
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O aaere chute aae pujor gondho eseche
Dhang kurakur, dhang kurakur baddi bejeche
Gache shiuli futeche, Kalo bhomra juteche,
Aar palla diye akashe meghera chuteche||

Come on everyone, the  whiff of Puja is here
The dhaks have started to sound
The Shiuli’s have blossomed in the trees , Bumble bees have flocked around them
And competing with this the clouds have started sailing in the sky||


This old song by Antara Choudhury still sends shiver down my spine…it vividly reminds me of the Durga Puja time during my childhood days. A simple and picture perfect description of the onset of this Autumn celebration in Bengal…how the weather changes declaring the festival time has arrived, the sublime smell of Shiuli mingling with the dew laden morning air, Kash ful adorning the grasslands, the powder blue sky with whipped cream like clouds, the rhythmic beats of the Dhaks along with the baritone chants of the Purohit  and of course the yummilicious Pujor bhog or Khichdi with begun bhaja. For any Bengali there is nothing more important at this time of the year than welcoming Goddess Durga to Earth.

It’s time again for the 10 day festivity. Today is Sashti. This would be my second Durga Puja at Pune. It’s not the same here as it’s back home. The air misses the fragrance of the flowers and scents that we are so used to during the Durga Puja. Quoting Vir Sangvi – “You can take the craze of Diwali in Delhi, Christmas in London, Summer Carnival in Rio de Janerio, Valentine’s day in Paris and then add it to the month long madness of Olympic Games or the World Cup and cram all that into a span of 5 days and you still wouldn’t know what you are missing if you haven’t been in Kolkata during Durga Puja”

Mahalaya ticks off the countdown timer. Earlier it was waking up early for listening Birendra Krishna Bhadra’s Sanskrit recitation of the Mahishasura Mardini on radio. Later on it was replaced by mahishashur vadh drama telecasted on TV. Audio-visual of the Goddess Durga fighting the evil was more interesting than Sanskrit slokas but still the dramas also incorporated parts of Birendrakrishna’s recitation.

In Bengal at this time the excitement among people is palpable , ladies  doing the last round of Pujo shopping, teenage girls combing every store in the street to find that right pair of Oxidized earrings to go with her new Anarkali kurta, elders deciding on the  elaborate menu for ashtami and nabami, youngsters deciding the list of all the pandals to be visited – everyone is super busy gearing up for the Pujas.

In Pune you won’t find the same hype but within the Durga Puja Pandals it’s a different story all together. It’s a mini Bengal out in there. Women in heavy silk or 'taant' sarees flaunting cartload of gold and signature big 'bindis', the men in crisp kurta-pajama or dhoti-kurta and kids in colorful festive attires add to the color of the celebrations. Dhakis are brought in from Kolkata to play the Dhak. The best part of the probashi pujas is the very traditional “Ekchala Thakur” (Durga and her children in a single frame) unlike the Theme pujas happening in Kolkata now-a-days wherein sometimes it’s more like the enigmatic modern art than traditional puja. Durja Puja is also the time for eating all the goodies, indulgence at its height. Weight gain concerns are pushed to the back seats and people prefer to dig into their food. Keeping the Bengali appetite in mind puja pandals usually have arrangements for heavy snacks and eatables. Good food also attracts more crowd. So, several stalls are set up selling Cutlet, Biryani, Rolls, Moghlai parathas, Mutton-kosha, Kabiraji, Kababs, Kochuri, Fuluri and other drool worthy eatables. The usual chat stalls of bhel puri, chowmein and burgers, soft drinks are also there. In fact in one of the Pujas last year one stall was serving sojne datar Macher-jhol bhat( Fish curry with drumsticks and rice). That was the first time in my life I tasted a fish curry with drumsticks that too in a Puja Pandal. Seems like it is more of a Ghoti preparation than Bangal. So while I was super-surprised at the combination.

Usually the housewives during Durga Puja would not cook at home and the whole family would dine at the pandals eating Bhog or other delicacies available. During my childhood, we used to spend all morning in the IIT Puja Pandal, have our lunch then come back home for a quick nap and by the time its evening get decked up and spend the rest of the evening in Pandal as well. In the evenings there used to be many cultural programs like song and dance, the usual Dhunuchi competition, lamp lighting competition or magic shows. In Mumbai big starts were hired to perform in the evenings. In Pune its more homely, local people usually perform.

Sometimes in perspective I feel Probashi Pujas still have the old world charm and integrity left, too much pandal hopping defeats the serenity of the celebration. Here it’s like the Colony Pujas where you sit in the same Pandal for long hours and peacefully enjoy the festivity. But then to each his own. Kolkata loves the madness and now it’s a part of their celebration.

After writing so many lines about the Durga puja and the food it’s time for the recipe. There is nothing like having a comforting serving of chilled dessert after pandal hopping the whole day. And when it’s chilled Bengali dessert it should be Malai Kulfi.

• Full Fat Milk - 1 litre
• Milk Powder - 1/2 cup
• Nestle Milkmaid (condensed milk) - 1/2 tin
• Corn flour powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
• Cardamom Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Dry Fruits (blanched almonds, pistachios, raisins) - 1/3 cup
• Saffron - 1/4 tsp
• Powdered sugar as per taste 

1. In a heavy bottomed pot or pan, mix in the milk, condensed milk and milk powder and cook on low heat. Keep stirring in between to prevent the milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

2. Pulse the nuts in a blender, till they are coarsely ground. Add the ground nuts and raising to the milk and fold in.

3.Add the condensed milk and milk powder and mix well. Keep stirring, the milk will start to reduce. Adjust the Sugar at this point.

4.In  a glass take some of the boiled milk and dilute the cornflour in it. Now add the cornflour mix to the reduced milk.

5.Add the saffron strands

6.Cook till the milk attains a thick Rabri like consistency.  When the milk is reduced to half the original quantity and looks ivory- brown, turn off the heat.

7. Let it cool for half an hour at room temperature. A layer of thick cream will form on the surface after a while, mix that with a spoon.

8.Pour the mixture into Kulfi moulds, or shot glasses or dessert bowls and refrigerate for about 3-4 hours.

9.Top it off with a little rose syrup and honey and enjoy your chilled dessert.



Sending this recipe to Kolkata Food Bloggers event, Pari & Jiya's "Only Traditional Recipe", Priya's and Spicy Treat's "Diwali Delicacy" event,Recipe Junction's "Spotlight : Festive Treats",Guru's "Vegan Special'13", Merry Tummy's "Cook with White", Motion and Emotions' "Theme Party" event, Gayathri and Asiya's WTML event, Simply Tadka's and Swetha's foodabulous fest .

Note: This gravy is supposed to get its color from the fried onions and is a turmeric less recipe.


Sending this recipe to  Priya's and Spicy Treat's "Diwali Delicacy" event.

Biryani forms an integral part of of the menu for any special occasion in this subcontinent. Among Bengalis Pulao also is almost of the same stature but Biryani still takes the cake always. The basic difference between the two is the cooking technique applicable to each. Pulao or Pilaf(also known as pilau and plov) is delicately flavoured rice, sautéed in ghee and flavoured with whole spices like cumin, cloves etc and sometimes poultry, meat and shellfish are added as per choice. 

Biryani derived from the Persian word Beryan meaning fried or roasted is made from fragrant par boiled rice, which is then assembled with with variety of meat, seafood or assorted vegetables sealed and put on "dum" (cooking on very low flame, allowing the meats to cook, as much as possible, in their own juices and bone-marrow and the flavours of the spices are infused well) for an hour or so till the meat and rice is cooked to perfection. Biryani can again be categorised as Pakki and Kacchi Biryani. In Pakki Biryani you cook the marinated chicken, layer it with fragrant rice and cook it in dum. Kacchi biryani or ‘Kacchi Yeqni’ is a more enticing form of Biryani in which one puts the marinated chicken at the bottom of the pot,  cover it well with par boiled fragrant rice, layer the masalas on top of it and cook it in dum. Personally I always felt that Kacchi Biryani is more flavourful and succulent than Pakki.

I tried Biryani at many places, but got more and more disappointed so much so that I began to detest it. Since I am so choosy in the taste  I always shied off from preparing it at home thinking I will never be able to make what Dida  used to make. My Ma is also not a connoisseur of Biryani hence I could never learn how to cook it. This weekend while watching a chef prepare Biryani on a food Channel  I thought lets give this a try.

The Biryani they showed on TV had mint (!!!) and no way that was going to be a part of Biryani cooked in my Kitchen.So I customised the Biryani as per my taste. Finally after much anticipations and apprehensions that the chicken would remain uncooked when we tasted the Biryani at 11 pm, it tasted like heaven. It was beyond my imagination that the first try would yield such a superlative result, hence couldn't wait to share it with my readers.

We prepared the Kacchi Biryani. The list of ingredients may look as never ending but do not get intimidated by it, believe me each plays a big role into making the perfect-est Biryani. Also precision and patience is the key to get it right. When I say 45 min of dum it means exactly 45 min- not more not less. I used 1:1 ratio of rice and chicken, you can alter the ratio depending on your choice.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Marination Time: 4 hours
Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Serves:2

Cuisine: Bengali

Ingredients:

Marination:
Procedure :

Marination:
1. Wash and cut the chicken and lay them out in a mixing bowl.
2. Beat the yoghurt into a uniform paste and add it to the chicken
3. Take 1/2 a Nutmeg and pound it coarsely.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients mentioned under Marination and the pounded Nutmeg into the mixing bowl. Mix well.
5. Cover the bowl and keep it in the refrigerator for 4 hours or more.
Note: If you don't have that much time to spare even an hour of marination is fine. But I like the chicken to be marinated for longer hours as it soaks up the flavour better.

Barista (Deep fried onion):
1. Slice the onions longitudinally with a sharp knife. Separate all the layers with your finger so that they are not in cluster.
2. Julienne the fresh ginger piece in thin slices. The deep fried onion is usually known as Barista but I have added the ginger to it as well
3. Heat oil in a wok and add the onion slices. Fry it in medium heat and keep stirring it so that all the slices are evenly browned.
4. Once all the onions are even in colour add the ginger juliennes and fry for a while
5. Take out the fried onions and ginger from the oil and spread it on a Tissue paper. The extra oil will be soaked up by the paper and the onions will become crispy as they cool down

Kesar Milk:
1. Take the milk and add the Saffron strands to it. The milk will take on a yellow hue.

Kewra & Rose water( To be done before Assembling the Biryani):
1. Take the Kewra Essence and Rose water in a bowl and mix well.

Readying the Rice and Spices:
1. Wash and dry the Basmati rice. The better dried the rice is the lesser chances are that teh Biryani will turn out to be mushy. So take care to dry the rice.
2. Halve the medium sized potatoes so that you have 4 pieces of halved potatoes.
3. Shallow fry the potatoes for about 3-4 minutes and then keep them aside.
4. Pound the spices mentioned under "Spice Bag" coarsely. Take a muslin cloth of the size of a ladies hankie and place the pounded spices on the cloth and tie it in a pouch.

If you don't have a muslin cloth you can use a normal cotton ladies hankie just like me which shall yield the same result. 

7. Take a deep bottomed wok. The water measurement for cooking the Basmati rice will be given at the back of the packet. I used 600 ml of water. Put the water in the wok and turn on the heat. When the water becomes warm place two medium sized Bay leaves at the bottom.
8. Add the washed and dried Basmati rice to the warm water .
9. Add 2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of sugar in the wok and mix well.

The taste of this water will be the taste of the rice. Hence add salt according to the taste you want. I also added sugar to balance the saltiness.

10. Immerse the Spice Bag into the water in the wok. Cover the lid and boil it on high flame for about 7-7 minutes.
11. Par cook the rice (3/4 cooked). Avoid overboiling.
12. Drain the water and remove the "Spice Bag"
13. Take out all the spices from the Spice Bag and keep it aside in a bowl.
14. Take 1 tsp of ghee in a skillet and when the ghee is hot add all the dry fruits along with cashew and raisins. Fry for a couple of minutes and keep it aside.


Assembling the Kacchi Biryani:
1. Take a deep bottomed wok with a lid, preferably those glass lids from which you can see what's going on inside the wok.
2. Spread 2 tsp of ghee on the bottom of the wok.
3. Place the chicken marinade as a uniform layer over it.
4. Sprinkle half of the fried dry fruits over it.
5. Arrange the Partially fried Potato halves on it.
6. Sprinkle the punded Spice from The Spice Bag that you had kept aside.
7. Layer the parboiled basmati rice on top of it.
8. Sprinkle rest of the dry fruits and Barista over it
9. Pour the Kesar milk and Kewra-Rose water evenly covering the entire area
10. Take 1 tsp of yellow food colouring and spread it with a spoon in one particular area of the rice (1/5 rice)
11.Pour the ghee on top of all the layers generously and evenly.
12. Repeat the layers if you are left with chicken marinade and rice. For me only two layers were sufficient as I was cooking only 600gm of Biryani.
13. Roll the dough into a long strip. Cover the lid and seal the rim of the lid with the dough strip half on the lid and half on the wok . If you are using a glass lid it will also have a opening on top. Cover it with dough as well. Do not be a miser with the dough sealing as if you use less dough it may come off once the dough starts to get hard from the steam.

An alternate to the dough strip sealing : Cover the wok with a silver foil and place the lid on top. Though the dough strip sealing is more full proof.

14. Cook on high flame for 5 minutes and then lower the flame to minimum.
15. Place a tawa under the wok and cook the biryani for 45 minutes.

It's bad news if during the 45 minutes of cooking at any point you happen to get the awesome aroma of the Biryani. It simply means that your sealing has given away and it's time for damage control. Quickly prepare some more dough, let it be slightly watery, and stick it over the portion you see steam coming out. Since the wok would already be too hot hence the dough will immediately stick and become hard.

Serving:
Cut open the dough along the rim and you will be greeted with an aroma to die for!
Carefully mix all the layers so as to not break the chicken pieces. It will be a nice combination of yellow and white rice.
Arrange the piping hot biryani on a plate and garnish it with 3-4 slices of cucumber and top it off with the halved boiled agg.
The Biryani is a bit moist due to the presence of a generous amount of ghee and can be eaten alone. But if you want you can serve it with raita.


Vegetarians can also relish this Biryani. Substitute the meat or chicken with vegetables like cauliflowers, carrots, peas,potatoes or paneer. Just adjust the "Dum" time accordingly keeping the rest of the procedure same.

This Biryani is unique because it has the goodness of two cuisines : the perfect Bengali blend of sweet and spicy flavours and traditional Hyderabadi cooking technique. Try if and I bet you wont be disappointed.

This post is an entry for the "Awesome Cuisine's 2012 Favorite Recipe Contest" event.