Flavours Of India

An archetypal Bengali considers food an important aspect of daily life. That’s why you will find Bengali food full of variety and having the essence of freshness and experimentation to make them better and best. Fish, Meat, Mix Vegetables, Sweet dishes and other food items are debated and discussed well among Bengali intellectuals. The housewives and cooks of Bengali recipes spend enormous time in their kitchens to prepare delicious dishes. The Bengali recipes are known for their variety. They make perfect combination of all types of vegetables, leafy green vegetables, some raw fruits like raw mango, raw papaya, and dry fruits to prepare different types of recipes.

What again differentiates Bengali recipes from other recipes in India is their extensive use of mustard oil for cooking. Health wise mustard oil is also a good oil to cook and it adds a different kind of flavor to the food cooked. The use of spices too differs, that is they use the same spices which are used throughout India, but their application is different. The specialty of all types of Bengali cooking lies in the use of a particular mixture of spices called Panchphoron, a mixture of five spices – zeea, saunf, fenugreek, mustard seeds, and kalaunji. They also mix some sweet flavors in some recipes for incredible taste and color. Sugar added to mutton recipes or chicken recipes of Bengali provides a very good color to the gravy.

The staple diet of any Bengali is rice, sabji, dal and fish. They prepare different types of fish recipes to relish with rice. A discrete flavor is instructed to the fishes by frying them in mustard oil. They fry the fishes deep brown till they become something crunchy.  Then they cook the fishes in gravy. Whatever you eat, the typical Bengali dishes end with sweets – either misti dahi or rasogolla.

If you ever go into a Bengali market, you will find the fish market crowded with different types of fishes and sea food like – carp, hilsa, salmon, rohu, bhekti, magur, prawns, koi, lataya, singe and other types of nutritious and delicious fishes.

Here is a recipe:

Bengali Style Mutton Dry

You would require:
500 gm mutton for 4 servings, minced garlic cloves, 2 onions finely chopped and blended with garlic and ginger in a blender, turmeric powder, chilly powder, garam masala, meat masala, 1 cup curd, 2 bay leaves, 1 cup mustard oil, salt to taste, and tomato finely mashed.

Before you start the dry mutton recipe, put the mutton into a pressure cooker cutting them into bite pieces and put over the flame till you hear 7-8 whistles. Now put the pressure aside. Take the pan and heat the oil and sauté the mixture of onion-garlic-ginger till the color turns brownish. Add the mashed tomato and sauté in low steam for 2-3 mnutes. Now add all the types of masalas and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add little water to it and sauté for 1 minute. Open the cooker and add the mutton on the frying pan. Add salt of required amount. Add little water and mix them well with the mutton. Cover it and cook for 10 minutes in medium steam. The mutton dry is ready to be served with sauce or toasted bun.

The seafood recipes of India prepared in Indian style has different flavors of them. Though they are cooked and prepared in different styles in big restaurants by chefs, but the common man of India cook them in home completely in Indian style spreading the sweet aroma around the corners. Here are few Indian seafood recipes that you can try in your home and have a taste of it.

Tuna Curry

You would require ingredients for 4 servings. The cooking time would take approximately 15-20 minutes depending on your preparation and collection of recipes. It is a Kerala style non-vegetarian dish. 

You would require:
300gm tuna filled in oil, one cup of coconut grated, 1 tbsp chopped garlic, 5 green chillies choppedfinely, 1 tbsp chopped ginger, 1 large onion finely chopped, 1 tbsp coriander-powder, ½ tbsp turmeric powder, 2 tbsp red chilly powder, 1 tbsp fine tamarind paste, 1 spring of curry leaves, salt for taste and ½ cup water.

Make a kind of coarse paste with all the ingredients and grated coconut. But don’t use the water, tamarind, and curry leaves now. Add little amount of water if required while grinding is done. Take the paste in a pan. Now add water to the paste and also the curry leaves and tamarind paste. Take a spoon to mix all well and bring them to boil. Pour the grated coconut paste to it and water too. Cook till fine gravy is prepared. Open the can of tuna fish. Don’t forget to drain off the oil. Put the tuna fishes in the boiling mixture in the pan. Cover the pan with a good lid and cook for at least 5 minutes. When the gravy is coarse the tuna is cooked. Serve the hot curry of tuna with bread or rice.

Shrimp in Spicy Sauce

You would require:
¼ cup vegetable oil, 1 lb small raw shrimp de-veined and shelled, 2 small onions chopped finely, 1 clove garlic, ½ crushed red pepper, 1 cup coconut milk, 1 tomato chopped to fine pieces, 1 green bell pepper thinly sliced into rings, 1 tbsp packed brown sugar, ½ tbsp salt for taste and freshly grounded pepper.

Heat the oil in skillet till it is hot. Now add the onions and garlic and red pepper and sauté till they turn pink. Now add the shrimp and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Simmer without covering the pan till the shrimp are tender. The shrimp in spicy sauce is ready to serve with fresh bread.