Potpourri: The Carnival of Bengali Cuisine Part 2

After the good response (800 views and counting) to Part 1 of Potpourri, we’re here with the second edition. Read on for interesting resources on several aspects of Bengali Food:
Book Review – Critiques of Chitrita Banerji’s 3 books on Bengali Food

Popular Culture – how the time around Durga Puja is the Sweet Season in Bengal

City Bites – Bengali food chains spreading wings across India and more

Gits KaraiSutir Kachori Mix – Product Review

This post reviews Gits Karaisutir Kachori mix. If you cook regularly, I’m sure you may want to take a break sometime and enjoy this ready to cook snack.

In case you cook only occasionally, all the more reason to try it out. I mean, why spend half a day in kitchen preparing kachori when you can do the same using Gits Karaisutir Kachuri Mix in 20 minutes.

How do people find this blog: 5 keyword goof ups

Which Beatles record started as egg and bacon? If you search for this in Google, which website would you land in? Beatles official site, some record store or a music review website may be possible options. But surely not a site on Bengali food?

But this site had received such visitors. And several more thanks to keywords like – mishti doi food poisoning, how to color diya crafts etc.

Read on for a funny treatise on keyword traffic.

Potpourri: The Carnival of Bengali Cuisine #1

Which is the best online resource for interesting links Bengali Food? Can’t remember? Well, you can’t find it because there isn’t any. But there is a silver lining.

Starting today, every alternate Saturday we’ll talk about several interesting aspects of Bengali food – influence of popular culture, bengali food in bengal, outside bengal, heritage and history and issues of the day.

Here’s Potpourri Edition 1 for you. Please contribute and spread the word.

P.S.: Cook Like a Bong clocked 1 lakh pageviews in 6 months and 100 facebook fans in 3 weeks. 🙂

Shukto

A Bengali lunch can be complete without the shukto. Shukto is a vegetarian preparation with loads of vegetable, and for a change its among the very few dishes which require minimal quantity of oil and spices.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20min
Cooking time: 15 -20min

Patla Ilisher Jhol (Hilsa with Nigella)

What better way to celebrate the Lakshmi Puja with a pair of hilsa at home and a health conscious curry at the lunch table with warm white rice. This hilsa curry with nigella seeds and raw banana satisfies all your needs of an authentic Bengali fish recipe with the health factor into it.

Kasha Mangsho – Bengali Mutton Curry

With less than a week to go for Saptami, its time for a brief on the relevant pujas and a savouring dish. Two events passed by – Vishwakarma Puja and Mahalaya.

Pujor Ranna features Kasha Mangsho today.

Preparation time: 1hr
Cooking time: 30min
Reading Time: 5 min

Chicken Keema Curry

11 days to go for the Durga Puja, and I am overwhelmed with what to write and what to leave out. Here’s a special Bengali style keema curry served hot.
Preparation time: 10min
Cooking time: 15 – 20min
Reading time: 3min

Top 7 Bengali Food Blogs

Here’s a list of Top 7 Bengali Food Blogs. The list includes:
1. Bangali Meye of A Bengali Girl in US
2. Jayashree Mandal of Spice and Curry
3. Sandeepa of Bong Mom’s CookBook
4. Sharmila of Kichu Khon
5. Indrani of Appyayan
6. Sharmishtha of Cook a Doodle Do
7. Angshuman Das of Cooking in Calcutta
The list doesn’t include Sutapa Ray’s Bengali Recipes on the Web (most popular websites for bengali recipes) and Cook Like a Bong.

Enjoy!

Prepare Phuchka (Golgappa) at home

Street food in Kolkata epitomizes the pada (neighborhood) culture. Having something at the nearest roadside vendor is not only about eating and fulfilling ones gastronomic urges, but it is also a means of having food with family, friends and sometimes even strangers. Street foods that are in vogue are phuchka, jhal muri, papri chat, muri makha, vegetable chop, and beguni, but phuchka ranks above all.

Reading time: 3min
Cooking time: 8-10min
Preparation time: 12min
Makes 20 phuchka