Month: September 2020

Durga Puja 2020 Recipe | Shojne Pata er Borar Jhol | Bengali Style Broth with Moringa Leaf Fritters

Durga Puja 2020 Recipe | Shojne Pata er Borar Jhol | Bengali Style Broth with Moringa Leaf Fritters   Shojne Pata er Borar Jhol is another Bengali dish from the Bengali kitchens of yore, which definitely needs some limelight. This traditional Bengali dish called Shojne Pata er Borar Jhol or Bengali Style Broth with Moringa Leaf Fritters is an almost forgotten Bengali dish that has humble origins but is so flavourful that it befits the menu of Durga Puja 2020, when people are opening up to the flavours of the bygone era. Women in simple, traditional Bengali joint families always created a few dishes out of very ordinary ingredients, as they had to feed many people in the family. Simple ingredients would become the element of praise at lunchtime. Ingredients like vegetable peels, jackfruit seeds (Kaathal Beechi), pumpkin seeds, stems of banana (Thorh) and water lily (Shapla) and tender stolons of Colocasia (Kochur Loti) would turn into beautiful culinary pieces with touch of the expert hands of a Bengali homemaker. These women would be praised …

Durga Puja 2020 Recipe | Mouri Potol | Bengali-Style Pointed Gourd with Fennel Seeds

Durga Puja 2020 Recipe | Mouri Potol | Bengali-Style Pointed Gourd with Fennel Seeds   It is the Mahalaya of 2020 today: the day when we Bengalis deeply believe that Goddess Durga descents to Earth from Heaven. Surprisingly, for the first time in my life I experienced that Durga Puja is almost a month away from Mahalaya. Such a big gap between Mahalaya and Durga Puja is very rare. This is a strange year indeed.   Nothing can stop us from the euphoria of Durga Puja As we live in Mumbai, for the first time, my family will probably not visit any Durga Puja Pandal, although we will worship Ma Durga at home with the same devotion. Debi darshan will be on social media and TV! Owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, we are still avoiding social events and gatherings. So, this year, there is no thrill of Pujo shopping, too! But that doesn’t stop us from the euphoria called Pujo. We will do shopping, but of some different kind. Time will unfold more on this. …