Petpujo and Adda: Durga Puja 2012

Durga Puja 2012: Luchi ar Alur Dom (spicy potato cooked in Bengali style served with Luchi)

Alur Dom

We Bengalis call them Luchi. Others call them phulca, puri etc. whatever we choose to call it, most Indians love this fluffy balls. Bengalis love it at all times- be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. It holds a highly honored position in a wedding feast and as bhog during puja. Luchis can be served with a various kind of dishes according to ones liking, occasion and depending on time of the day. The most favorite vegetarian combinations are Luchi with begun bhaja (fried aubergine), Luchi with alu bhaja(potato fried), Luchi with cholar dal, Luchi with payesh and of course Luchi with alur dom. Luchi with kosha mangsho ( mutton curry in Bengali style) is very popular Bengali combination. It is often served for dinner or other special occasion like birthdays, Bengali New Year or just a special dinner.

Today is Mohasashthi –the sixth day from the new moon. Today marks the start of five day celebration of Durga Puja, putting an end to the long wait. It is also weekend in UK where we do not get any special holidays for puja like everyone at home in kolkata. Therefore, I decided to make best use of the time and start the celebration with some traditional puja food. Hence Luchi ar Alur Dom for breakfast.

Ingredients for Alur Dom

4-potatoes, de-skinned and cut into large dices

1-tomato cut in to small pieces

½-nigella need

1-teaspoon of turmeric

1-teaspoon red chili (optional. Use Kashmiri chili for the color if you do not want the alur dom to be hot)

1-teaspoon cumin seed powder

1-teaspoon ginger powder or paste

½- cup yoghurt

2-bay leaves

Pinch of sugar (optional)

½-teaspoon Bhaja Masala (method below)

Salt to taste

2- tablespoon oil

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes for 10mins so that they are half done

2. Soak all the spices ( red chili, turmeric, cumin, ginger)in water

3. Now heat oil and add little turmeric

4. Add the half-boiled potatoes and fry them. It will give a nice color to the potatoes

5. Once fried keep them aside.

6. Heat more oil in the same pan and add bay leaves and Nigella seed

7. Add the soaked spices, add sugar ( optional) and fry until oil separates

8. Add tomatoes and fry until tomato is totally paste. Add little water if needed

9. Add salt

10. Add the fried potatoes and fry until dry

11. Add yoghurt and mix well and fry

12. Add pinch or two of bhaja masala and fry

13. Add little water and cover.

14. Cook until potatoes are cooked and gravy is thick

Method for Bhaja Masala

1. Dry roast cumin seed, coriander seed, fennel seed, 4/5 cloves, 5/6 cardamom, 3/4bay leaves, inch cinnamon, and 10 black pepper

2. Grin them and your bhaja masala is ready

Ingredients for Luchi:

2- Cup of all-purpose flour

Water as desired to knead

2-tablespoon of oil

Pinch of salt

Pinch of carom seed (optional. I used it as it is good for digestion specially Luchi is very oily)

2cups-oild for frying the Luchi

Method

1. Place the flour in a deep bottom bowl

2. Add salt and Carom seed and mix well

3. Make a flour well and pour the oil

4. Mix the oil very nicely with the flour

5. Warm the water and add slowly with the flour ( careful not to give too much oil)

6. Knead into soft dough

7. Take the dough and knead into small dough, make small round balls

8. Roll each flour ball with roller pin into rounds

9. Heat oil in a deep pan or kadai

10. Fry the flour rounds

11. Do not fry them in too much or they will burn. They should look little golden, not totally white though

Luchi

12. Enjoy your luchi r alour dom!

Luchi ar Alur Dom

at 23:48

Durga Puja 2012: Bhoger Khichuri- Version 1

In my house, we usually make two kinds of khichuri/ khichdi- one that is little runny and with lots of vegetable and other one little fluffy like Pulao and without vegetable. The runny khichuri which we call ‘patla khichuri’ will be made on a rainy day and days when my ma is not in a mood to cook something nicer. We would eat it with something fried like an omelette, fried potatoes, fried chicken etc. The fluffy khichuri which is called ‘bhuna khichuri’ is made on occasions like puja for offering or ‘Bhog’, as lunch on a special day (not the dinner. It is preamp for dinner at night). When it is cooked for puja, it will be accompanied by fried vegetable always in odd number, so like it will be accompanied by 3 or 5 or 7 kind of vegetable fries. Usually potatoes, pumpkin, aubergine, pointed gourd, okra, sweet potatoes, kakrole (Teasle gourd) etc are fried to eat with Bhoger khichuri. However when it is cooked to eat on special lunch for mortals like us ( not goddess) , it is accompanied by egg dopiyaja, chicken kosha or mutton kosha, fish, tomato chutney and the list can go on.

Today I am making bhuna khichuri and this version of the recipe is made for offering or ‘bhog’ is my house. Puja or no puja, this preparation of khichuri is something that I have not had anywhere other than in my family. Maybe it is a very Bangal or Noakhali thing. I do not know! All I know is I like this one for its rich texture and flavor. Add few leaves of tulsi pata (Basil that is used for prayers in Bengal not Italian basil though) and it smells like puja.

Ingredients:

200gm godindo bhog or atop or basmati or any other flavored rice

200gm Mung dal (yellow lentil) (you can give 150gm too but when I am cooking for bhog I use rice and dal in equal quantity)

4/5- cardamom

2 inch- cinnamon

2- Bay leaves

2-dry red chili

2-green chili

2 inch-ginger, grated

1- teaspoon turmeric

½-teaspoon red chili

1-table spoon oil

1-tablespoon ghee

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash the rice and soak it for 10 mins

2. Dry roast the mung dal until they a slightly golden and releases nutty flavor

3. Wash the roasted mung dal and keep aside

4. Heat oil in a deep bottom pan

5. Add bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, red chili and grated ginger.

6. Fry until you can smell the cinnamon and cardamom

7. Add hot water ( I usually add 1: 2 ration of rice and water)

8. When the water boils, add the mung dal

9. When the mung dal is half cooked add the rice

10. Add turmeric, chili powder and little bit of ginger

11. When almost cook add the green chili and add the ghee

12. Cover and let it dry and become fluffy

13. Add the tusli leaves and cover, it will smell like pujo.

14. Serve with panch meshali sobji ( see blog for recipe)

at 00:32

Durga Puja 2012: Bhoger Panch Meshali Sobji (Five Vegetable Medley cooked for offering during puja and a little bit of sadness

I cannot wait for Saturday to come- Durga puja to start. I can feel the softness of the sun, the chill in the wind, the smell of marigold. I can hear the ‘Dhak’ in my minds ear. (Listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnT4iXg0OPs&feature=related). Across seven seas, I am homesick. I am missing my mother; club er puja, Astami r bhog, shopping and friends.

I am standing in rail station along with a young woman I work with. I asked her ‘did you speak to your parents? How are they?’ she said ‘Ya I spoke to them. They are all good in their own world’ I wondered what she meant by ‘their own world’. I asked ‘do you miss them? Don’t you want to go back home’ she gave this sad look at me and asked ‘do you miss home a lot? Does your parents love you.’ She did not wait for my response. ‘No I do not want to go back. Where will I go and where will I stay if I go back. I asked my parents if I could go back to them. They told me never to go back. They told, Ek bar sadi kara di, bass abhi aneka jarurat nahi. They think it was my fault that my marriage broke. They don’t believe that I my husband hits me every day. They said it was all right, pati kabhi kabar haat uthah saktehe. They cannot take me back. Samaj ke baki log keya kahenge? I have four sister, they will not get marriage if I go back.’ She looked at me with those big eyes full of tears and smiled.

She is 22 years and was married to a 37 year old British citizen of Indian origin. She was forced to marry; as it was best she could ever think of -a man who stays in London. All she got was 7 months of hitting by husband & parent in law, starvation, servitude and finally when she complaint to police she was thrown out of house and husband confiscated of all her documents and belongings. She is homeless, passport less, parentless and loveless!

We celebrate Durga puja every year! Goddess Durga, a mother and a woman- is called upon to fight the evil. Every year! For so long! How many more years do we have to wait to fight the evil in ourselves.

Recipe for Bhoger Panch Meshali Sobji

Durga puja like any other festival in Bengal and India is associated with food. Durga puja is incomplete without khichuri, panch ba saat rokom bhaja (five or seven kind of vegetable deep fried individually) panch meshali sobji, labra, tomato ba am er (tomato or mango) chutney and then of course there is payesh (rice pudding in Bengali style) , misti doi (sweet yoghurt), rosogolla. All these are offered to goddess Durga as bhog (offering). Once puja is over and mother have had her share of food, the left over is distributed among her children (us). This is best part about puja. I have cooked Bhoger Panch Meshali Sobji today but did not cook khichuri to go with it. I will cook khichuri soon and post the recipe. Today just the vegetable and it is very very easy to cook.

Ingredient:

3- Potatoes, medium cubed

1-aubergin (begun/brinjal)

250gm-sweet pumpkin, medium cubed

10/12-couliflower floret

150gm- Asian flat bean (sheem)

1-White long radish (mula) cubed

8/10-lady finger/ okra (bhindi)

100gm-french bean, medium length

1-sweet potato,cubed

8/10- pointed gourd (potol)

1-teaspoon panch phoron

1 1/2inch- ginger, grated

2-bay leaves

2-green chili

1-dried red chili

1-teaspoon turmeric

2-tablespoon oil

Salt to taste

Pinch of sugar (optional)

Method:

1. Wash all the vegetable properly

2. Cut the vegetable in medium sizes except lady fingers (okra)

3. For okra or lady finger just cut both the ends

4. Heat oil in a large pan

5. Add bay leave, red chili and panch phoron

6. When panch phoron starts to sputter, add the vegetable except lady finger (okra)

7. Add salt and turmeric and cover the pan

8. Let the vegetable cook for a while and leave water

9. Add the ginger , green chili

10. Cook until vegetable is 70% done

11. Then add okra and cook. Do not add water as the vegetable cook with its own water

12. Add sugar ( optional)

13. Cook until all vegetable is cooked, little broken and water has dried out

14. Sprinkle little ghee if you like before offering to goddess or on your plate

at 00:26

Durga Puja 2012: Mahalaya er Misti Mukh -Komola Rosogolla-Orange Flavored Rasgulla

I can feel Durga Puja is the air, even in London! Today was a wonderful sunny day, little chilly, just like winter morning in Kolkata. Moring that indicate the arrival of Durga Puja or Sharodotsav (festival of autumn)

“Durga Puja is the biggest festival in Bengal. This is also known as Dussehra and Navaratri in other parts of India. Durga is the Goddess of divine power against all evils. The story goes that Mahisasur, the Buffalo Demon, through years of praying, received blessing from Lord Brahma, that no power can kill him, which means he is invincible. But once gaining this power he started ravaging the whole world and killing people. And finally he wanted to uproot the Gods too. The Gods, in dismay, combined their powers to create a beautiful maiden, and each placed his or her most potent weapon in one of her ten hands riding a lion. Her return in each year in the Bengali month of Aswin (September-October) commemorates Rama's invocation of the goddess Durga before he went into battle with Ravana.The tableau of Durga with her four children - Kartik, Ganesh, Saraswati and Lakshmi, representing respectively the Protector, the Initiator of the puja, Knowledge and the Provider - signifies the complete manifestation of the goddess” (www.calcuttaweb.com)

Tomorrow is Mahalay- an auspicious occasion observed seven days before the Durga Puja. It is a kind of invocation or invitation to the mother goddess to descend on earth. It is only from the day of Mahalaya that the preparations for the Durga Puja reaches the final stage. The pandal gives it final touches, shopping gets it final stages and offices gets slow and people wait for the all the fun to begin. The midnight chants of 'Mahishasura Mardini' sets the beginning of Durga Puja. The day of Mahalaya is also the day of remembrance. On this day, people offer 'tarpan' in memory of their deceased forefathers. Many of my family members will go to ganga ghat to pray and remember their forefathers. Mahalaya also is brings back the memory of listening to all India Radio program Mahisasura Mardini” or “The Annihilation of the Demon. This program has almost become synonymous with Mahalaya. We used rise along with whole of Bengal in the early hour of morning to tune in to the “Mahisasura Mardini” broadcast.

I miss those days of listening to mahalaya. London celebrates Durga puja with all its color, festivity and spirit. My new sari’s are ready with matching shoes and ornaments. Office leaves booked and puja plan made. Still it is never like being in kolkata never like being home. I miss those days of standing in pandal queues at mid night, eating puchka at 5am in the morning and welcoming the new sun. Those days with friends and adda. The day of meeting my mashi’s on astami, nabami at R mama’s place where the puja is 250 years old, Dashami in kolkata and ma’s cooking. Still collecting so much of money after bijoya pronam like a child. I miss home. But now that I am here in London, I will celebrate is as much as possible.

Therefore, Durga puja is here again and the celebration begins from 20^th October to 24^th October. Let us start the festival with some sweets from Bengal. And it has to be rosogolla.

Ingredients:

4-Litre full fat milk for chana/paneer

4-cups sugar

3-cups water

2-tablespoon plain flour

3-tablespoon sugar dust

2-Lemon (juice taken)

1-cup Orange juice

4-drops orange flavor

3-drops orange eatable color

1-orange cut into small pieces to go inside the rosogolla

2-slice orange for decoration

1-Orang zest for garnishing

Method:

1. Boil 4 litre the milk in another pan and heat well until boiling point

2. Slowly add lemon juice to make the chana

3. Drain the chana using a strainer/ Muslin cloth. Wash the chana so that it does not smell of lemon.

4. Hang the cloth so that water drain properly from the chana

5. Take the chana in large bowl or on kitchen slab

6. Add the flour, sugar dust

7. Use your palm to knead the chana into smooth dough. The better the kneading the better will be your roshogolla

8. Add orange color and orange flavor and mix well with the dough

9. Meanwhile take water and orange juice, mix well and heat

10. Add sugar on flame and make sugar syrup. It is not thick syrup.

11. Now make balls of the chana. While making the chana ball insert small piece of orange inside each ball. Remember that they will become twice their size once they are in the syrup. Also make sure there is no crack on the chana ball, otherwise they will crack once in the syrup