This Durga Puja, what’s cooking?

Barnali Pal Sinha

Durga Puja for a Bengali is all about kash flowers, the rendition of Mahishasura Mardini by Birendra Krishna Bhadra on Mahalaya, the day marking the start of Puja, and shopping. All these notwithstanding, we forget what food is to a quintessential Bengali.

When it comes to food, you will never find any Bengali cooking at home during the festival rather, they enjoy feasting and festivities. Hence, Durga Puja food pop-ups are all the rage. In Mumbai and Kolkata, chefs and restaurants are readying for pop-ups next week. Here’s what they are dishing out.

Taste of two Bengals

Mumbai-based celebrity chef Ananya Banerjee has curated a nine-course Ghoti (West Bengal) Vs Bangal (East Bengal) dinner pop-up menu along with chef Abhinanda Bhattacharya. The pop-up will be organised at Flavour Diaries, Khar. The two will cook an array of delectable and long-forgotten recipes like chitol macher muitha, mochar paturi and the Ghoti and Bangal versions of posto and plastic chutney. The menu has dishes like luchi, cholar daal, begun bhaja, kumro ful bhaja (pumpkin flowers batter fried) and paat patar boda (jute leaves pakora). Ghoti-style jhinge posto (ridge gourd in poppy seeds paste) and Bangal-style pyaaj posto (onions in poppy seeds paste). Murighonto macher matha diye (for non-vegetarians), phulkopir murighonto (for the vegetarians), among others.

The sixth course has pulao, doi mangsho/channar dalna; seventh course consists of palate cleansers like peper (payaya) plastic chutney. The eighth and final course comprises desserts — patisapta and kheer komola.

Chef Gitika Saikia has been doing Durga Puja pop-ups for three years now. This year Gitika’s Pakghor (kitchen in Assamese) is hosting a Bengali, Assamese and Nepali (to celebrate Dashain/Vijaya Dashami) puja pop-up at the ABP Cook Studio in Mumbai. Her four-course meal comprises dishes like sel roti and aloo ko achar (potato and sesame curry), gundruk jhol (fermented leaves soup), egg chatamari and tomato chutney (rice-based pizza with toppings and fried egg), smoked pork curry /desi chicken curry/bhatmas curry, puli (leaves stuffed with dry fish and friend crisp), bhuttan (stir fried goat gizzard, liver) with steamed rice. The fourth course features desserts like booniya bhujiya with fresh cream and assorted sweets. 

A lot to savour

Chef Rhea Mitra Dalal is offering a Bengali food pop-up with set vegetarian and non-vegetarian lunch at The A in Lower Parel. It will have luchi, alur dom, radhuni diye daal, oal er kofta, begun basanti and plastic chutney. Non-vegetarians will be treated to dimer devil, chingri bhaape and robibar er mangshor jhol. 

For those who like to eat in the comfort of homes, Madhumita Pyne’s three-day home delivery menu, Pujor Bhojon consists mostly of traditional lost recipes. The menu consists of moong sohag (moong daal with pumpkin and potatoes), phulkopir roast, the very unusual shoshar shukto (bitter sweet cucumber curry), tok doier dalna (yogurt dumpling curry), rui posto, ilish bhaturi (hilsa fish wrapped in taro leaves steamed in rice), mushur daal e chingri bhapa (prawns steamed in masoor daal), dhonepata murgi (coriander chicken), mangsher dom (village-style slow-cooked mutton), anarosher chutney (pineapple chutney) and subur payesh (tapioca pudding).

The Bengali and French fine dine restaurant, Mustard, is hosting Unsavoured Pujo curated by Debjani Chatterjee Alam and Madhushree Basu Roy, food bloggers from Kolkata. To name a few specials — the khichuri thala, special panta bhat thala (available only on Dashami), gur tentuler shorbot (a summery drink with jiggery, tamarind pulp and gurer batasa), macher patishapta or thin crepe rolls with stuffing of fish served with kasundi and salad, mangsho ghugni crostini (yellow peas and mutton keema cooked together in a spicy curry and served as a crostini) and Kolkata fish fry with bandel cheese. 

Some unique desserts are thakurbarir halua, a rich halwa made with cauliflower, which was a favourite of Rabindranath Tagore, and daaber roshomalai (mini rasgullas in a milk base thickened with tender coconut along with tender coconut chunks).

Fasting, feasting

For the feasting Bengalis, Kolkata also has a plethora of options. Chilekatha in Ballygunge will host a meticulously curated Bengali Durga Puja special menu. Monkey Bar and home chef Iti Misra have collaborated for their ‘Chayna Ochayna’ puja menu that has traditional treats with a twist. For example, the rosogolla gets a news avatar as a chaat (topped with yoghurt, chaat masala, sweet and sour chutney and crunchy bhujia). The Italian panna cotta transforms into a nolen gur panna cotta. 

Add loads of fun to your Durga Puja with food and happy feasting!