Tag: bengali vegetarian food

bengali, India, Indian, Kolkata

Radhuni (Mirza Ghalib Street / Free School Street, Kolkata)

In a nutshell:

Spartan interiors, fast service, tasty long lost Bengali food & easy on the pocket.

the logo

Address & other details: Radhuni

Meal for 2: Rs. 100 onwards

kochu pata chingri

Cuisine type: Vegetarian & non vegetarian

Background:

Bengali food is usually associated with fish, meats & everything non vegetarian. However there r some extraordinary vegetarian food items made from leaves, stems, flowers, roots etc that cost minimal but taste YUMM e.g. Mocha (banana flower), thor (the pith of the banana stem), oal (root), bok Phool (flower), kumro Phool (pumpkin flower), kochu pata (leaf), kochu (root), lau shak (leaf) etc. These have unique tastes & flavours and most of these r different from the mainstream usually available Indian vegetarian food.

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

Unfortunately, availability of most of the items mentioned above have limited availability nowadays in bigger city markets of Kolkata. Some of these dishes r difficult to make & the rest r painstaking to make / need lot of patience. A visit to Radhuni can however bridge this gap – u can enjoy the excellent taste traditional Bengali vegetarian gems without having to sweat it out to make these. Some of the ‘vegetarian’ dishes contain shrimps etc.

Menu card with prices

Radhuni also has a long list of Bengali nonvegetarian dishes that r good but not outstanding. However, if u r visiting Kolkata / planning to eat out local cuisine, it cannot get better than this at that price.

The service is fast. The people here r nice – they r not typical trained Restaurant Server types. They r normal human beings who respond well to good behaviour from customers.

The interiors r Spartan – a lot like South Indian Udipi Restaurants.

Prices r unbelievably low (by Delhi / Mumbai standards).

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bengali, For the Chef in u……, Guest Blogger, Indian

Chhanar Dalna (Bengali style ‘homemade paneer / cottage cheese’)

This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u

Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS
Super easy to make & Super good to eat……………

Chhanar Dalna – Bengali style home made paneer / cottage cheese

Historically curdling of milk was not considered to be good generally in India & particularly in Bengal. With the advent of the Portuguese in mid 1600s, came the cottage cheese & it is from there that the Bengali cooks learnt the use of chhana (paneer) for cooking as well as for making sweets.

Chhanar dalna is a homemade cottage cheese & potato curry.

For making the chhana, boil 2 liters of full cream milk. When it comes to a boil, add juice of 3 whole lemon. The milk curdles. Take a muslin cloth, place it over a large vessel. Pour the curdled milk over the muslin to separate the chhana (cottage cheese) from whey.

Discard the whey & tie the muslin cloth to a potli (see picture). Hang it for 2-3 hours from a height so that the excess whey drains out.

From here , there are two methods –

Method 1: What I have inherited from my family.

Method 2: Experimented as advised by Paromita Dey

Draining the whey by hanging it from a muslin cloth

Method1:

Place the potli on a flat surface & put something heavy on the top for 30 minutes to flatten the Chhana.

Flattening the chhana

Take out the chhana from the cloth carefully & place on a cutting board.

The lump of chhana on a cutting board

Use a sharp knife to cut the chhana chunk into pieces. If u use a blunt knife, the chhana might break / become uneven.

the chhana cut into pieces

Fry the chhana pieces in 1 tablespoon oil on slow fire till they start getting golden brown.

Continue reading “Chhanar Dalna (Bengali style ‘homemade paneer / cottage cheese’)”

yummraj3 Comments
bengali, For the Chef in u……, Guest Blogger, Indian

Mochar Paturi (Bengali Classic vegetarian food cooked in Banana leaf)

This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u

Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS
Takes a bit of patience to make but Super good to eat……………

Mochar Paturi

For all of u who stay in Coastal states of India, procuring banana leaf is easy. For the rest, there are markets in all cities that sell regional food – check those places out. In case u do not get it, use aluminum foil instead. The taste will almost be the same. The flavor of banana leaf will be missing.

Take one mocha (banana flower). Remove the red flap layers at every stage. What u r left with is tiny 1 inch sized sticks that look like mini bananas. Take each stick in hand & remove the central piths (the style of the flower / central stock). Mince the sticks into small pieces. This whole process might take a ton of ur patience – Ur problem gets solved in case u have domestic help.

Mocha - Banana flower

Soak overnight in water after adding ½ teaspoon each salt & turmeric.

Boil the mocha with plain water. Discard the water once the mocha softens.

Grind 3 tablespoons of mustard with 4 green chillies to a smooth paste. Grate ¼ coconut & keep aside.

Mix together the mustard paste, grated coconut, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon mustard oil, 1 teaspoon sugar & salt to taste. Apply this paste to the mocha evenly & leave it to marinate for 1 hour.

Marination of mocha

Cut the banana leaves into approx. 15cm X 15 cm squares.

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