Hey there!
I am Sudeshna Banerjee and I created this blog to help people longing for Bengali food get started with, and eventually master the art of Bengali cuisine.
Thank you for visiting Cook Like a Bong. As a token of thanks, I’d like to send you my popular eBook Saradiya Rannabati, a collection of Bengali Festive Foods. All you need to do is email me at bengalicusine(at)gmail(dot)com, and Boom! The Free eBook will arrive soon. Over 10,000 people have benefited from this free eBook and I hope you will like it too.
This site has now grown to over 300+ recipes, and has a companion Facebook community (Cook Like a Bong) with over 8000 likes. But I am getting ahead of myself. Here is the story of how all this happened.
I moved away from the comforts of my Kolkata home for my job in Bangalore back in 2007. Eating out was expensive, and worse, I didn’t always get food of my choice. So I started cooking every once in a while with my Ma guiding me over the phone about her, and my Dida’s (her mother’s), recipes. Sometimes, I would take help from the cookbook or two, and also would look up Bengali cooking blogs from time to time. Sutapa’s Kitchen, BongMom cookbook were of big help.
As I started to get interested in Bengali cuisine and the diverse experience it had to offer, Kalyan encouraged me to start a blog where I would document these experiments and experiences. Over time the site grew organically and based on suggestions from various readers, I started the Facebook page, and eventually the BengaliCuisine Instagram.
What started as a my own notebook of Bengali recipes, slowly evolved into a place where I documented my cooking experiences, showed off the pictures I took while cooking right after, interviewed other Bengali food bloggers and helped others with their cooking questions.
Meanwhile, Kalyan and I got engaged, and we eventually became a married couple. Long story short, we moved from Bangalore to Austin and experienced many adventures together, the latest being the arrival of Samiron Banerjee. As
you can see in my Youtube channel, we have our hand full now.
Now back to the present.
Currently, I am experimenting a lot with the Video format. I try to shoot short videos while cooking, mainly when Samiron is asleep, and then with minimal editing I post those. Here are two popular ones – How to make Payesh, and Radhuni Diye Masoor Dal. If you have any tips to improve the video experience, I’m all ears and grateful.
If you read this far, thank you again. Do drop me a note on what you liked and if you have any questions or suggestions for me. You can visit our popular posts on Mishti Doi, Phuchka, or check our whole list of recipes.
And don’t forget to email me at bengalicuisine(at)gmail(dot)com for your free eBook Saradiya Rannabati.
Bhalo Theko.
Dear Kalyan Banerjee ,
This is Loga from Anil Foods company which is located in Dindigul. We came across your website in online found that your blog looks more interesting so we are planning to engage with you for an contest currently we are running in Social Media (Facebook) you can see the contest details on our blog here: https://goo.gl/YcVmRd and contest participants here: https://goo.gl/C1iYgW. If you’re interested you can feature our contest on your blog which your blog audience can participate and win cash rewards..We happy to receive your feedback on this proposal if you need any more clarity please do call us here: 9500070850
Regards
Loga
Theanilgroup.com
You are really welcome Jenny! Happy it was helpful!
Dear Ladies,
If you are a hidden gourmet chef, just submit your best recipe(s) at http://www.anandautsav.com/foodcontest and you get to win Havells cooking appliances. Top 3 winners get cash prizes of upto Rs 50,000. The theme for the contest is ‘Tok Jhaal Mishti’.
The selected participants get to cook off at Park Plaza amidst glitz and glamour. Also, the winner co hosts the “Friend’s Kitchen” show at 91.9 Friends FM with RJ Arijit! So what are you waiting for? Logon to http://www.anandautsav.com/foodcontest
The website is really good!! I am a food freak and I happened to come across your blog. Its really good. I usually go through blogs of cooking often and now I am a follower of you for sure. Thanks for the blog. Internet has played its magic on cooking too.
I hope to read your blog often. Thanks.
Thanks Nidhi for the comment. But unfortunately I has to remove the link you shared.
No problem Sudeshna. It doesn’t matter!! I liked your blog and that is the real meaning which had to be conveyed!! Thn=anks.
You have an amazing blog!! I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. Please collect it here.http://bandragirl.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/chocolate-cake-and-my-first-award/
That is really fascinating, You’re an excessively professional blogger. I’ve joined your feed and look ahead to searching for extra of your wonderful post. Additionally, I have shared your web site in my social networks
Great. My thanks for writing that. I will return again to read more and recommend my people about your writing.
Good website. My thanks for posting that. I will check to this site to see what’s new and tell my friends about your website.
Hi Kalyan nd Sudeshna ,
your’s is a fantastic site for a true food lover…Keep up the good work…
I work in a manufacturing company in Delhi and am a regular visitor to your site…And here’s another similarity. I am a ghoti and my husand a Bangal… and both love to cook and gorge tasty food…
Thanks once again for this wonderful site…
Hi Sudeshna & Kalyan,
I love ur site.(esp, the argument part!). Actually, I find it very interesting to read the “About” section of every website be it food or other stuff. I guess it started with reading cover to cover whenevr I lay my hand on a book.
I was searching for authentic mishti doi and came across ur blog. It is very well designed.
Honestly, I was like gaping when I read about ur study background. Both of you are very lucky and made for each other.
Well, I see a sort of connection since we are from Bangalore & Mysore. I have been to Kolkatta once to visit my cousin and tasted this mishti doi and shinkara. It was awesome.
I am going to try mishti doi recipe and tell you the results.
Hi,
We’re interested in advertising on your blog / website. Let me know if you’re interested in discussing further about it.
Thanks
Amandeep singh
aman@accu-ratemedia.com
We would love to. Please do mail us at bengalicuisine@gmail.com with further details.
Dear Sudshna and kalyan
I am rediscovering you !
Bhalo theko
pl send me the sarodiya e book of ranna
Your article is wonderful, very interesting, I would like to express my suupport to your idea in your article. I want to learn from you!
Hi Sudensha,
We are organizing an event for bloggers this coming Monday at Bangalore. This will be an exclusive Four Seasons Food & Wine Pairing Event. We would love to know if you would be interested in participating. Mr. Abhay Kewadkar, Head of UB Four Seasons Wines will be the Guest for the evening.
You can revert back to us through mail.
Thanks and have a nice day.
Hi Sudeshna!!
Not sure if you recall but we were in school together several years ago!
I chanced upon this website through Facebook. I am so impressed with your cullinary talents! I recently started my own blog after contemplating for several long years. I hope to see you on my page some day.
Needless to say, I love your website and am certain to follow it every day going forward! Wishing you great success with this endeavour!
Best wishes,
Shatarupa
Shatarupa,
I think I remember you. Its great to find old buddies :). Do send me your blog link, and welcome to the blogging world.
Hey both of you,
Love your site!as a life long probashi bangali(andamans,Bombay,kerala),and mum who is only a sokher radhuni(good,but temperamental ),never had much touch with authentic Bengali cuisine.Always found the recipes quite complicated.find your recipes really easy and they work!would appreciate some more vegetarian torkari recipes as husband strict vegetarian.
Sincerely,
Suparna
Hi Suparna,
Thanks for your comment. We would definitely put up more vegetarian recipes. Please let me know if you have something specific in mind.
This is a really good read for me, Must admit that you are one of the best bloggers I have read.
Thank you so much for the complement.
It is thelove and affection that make home cooked food tasty and we miss it.
Wish u good Luck and lots of success.
Hi Sudeshna and Kalyan,
thanks a ton for putting these recipes on the web in an easily searchable well formatted way. Your recipes are nice and simple. I am a Bong living at a place far from Bengal and the only way I can taste my favorite cuisine is by cooking it myself. Your recipe helps me a lot.
Thanks Sourish for the comment. Do let us know if you have any queries regarding any dishes.
Hi Sudeshna and Kalyan,
Stumbled upon your blog and fully understand the nostalgia and craving every ‘khaddo roshik bangali’ feels. I’ve been away from home for nearly a year now and it will be my first Nabo Barsho away.
I’m planning a small bengali lunch for my new friends who have never tasted authentic indian food, let alone bengali food. However, as an impoverished student with no access to a blender nor a pestle and mortar, I’m not quite sure how to go about preparing something authentic, especially something as ambitious, if not entirely surprising, as chingri maacher malaikari.
Any suggestions?- it would truly be appreciated.
Thanks and Best Wishes for your bl
Nice Blog on Bong Food. But my one suggestion – get the diet catch – find out nutritional value . Explore into Bong Food for the future children of Bengal which will make them healthy and disease free.
Can delve into traditional recipe and the diet based recipe
Thanks for doing yoman/yowoman service for the Bong community with free downloader
I agree with you it’s a good idea.
Hi Goutam,
nice suggestion.
I am also a Bengali and believe like you, yea it’s present trend now. I have blogs about recipes because I love cooking,so i will keep your suggestion on mind and will work for that. Thanks.
Hi Sudeshna,
I was searching for patishapta recipes on Google when I came across your website. Great job!:) Your aloo kabli recipe and comments brought back so many memories of those good old days in south Calcutta. I was born and raised there, and now live in Hyderabad. My Telugu husband loves kosha mangsho, luchi, aloor posto, dal..pretty much most of our dishes:) Am now trying to impress him with our desserts…have never tried them before, so pls wish me luck..lol!
Mala
Mala,
Definitely, I wish you all the luck. After all the route to a man’s heart is through his stomach 🙂
Hi Mala,
You can make Patishapta in a healthy and low fat way and make your husband’s tummy more impressed from inside but not size wise.It’s an oat patisapta; The recipe you can find at my website
From your message it’s sounds that you like to cook so we are in a same boat. I also love cooking with new recipes.
i stumbled upon your blog from FB. great job!
Thanks a lot :). Wish to see you here more often
Hi Sudeshna di and Kalyan da,
I keep track of all your recipes occasionaly and let me share with you my small achievement–
I am a konkani brahmin married to a Bengali since 1.5 yrs , its only post marriage that I learnt to cook and when I started, I kicked off with Bangla raanna…
Being a working woman, a torrid traveller who shuttles from one corner of Bangalore to another for work, I experiment on weekends and holidays. As I didnt have any aid in the beginning , I used to download recipies from the NET and sometimes take reference of your site..
Now I hear that everyone in my soshurbaadi , including my mother-in-law say that I really cook as if I am a born-Bong..
Really ,Bengali cooking is simple and delicious!
Cheers to all of us!
Jyotsna ( now Anushri Sarkar)
Jysotsna,
That feels so good to hear. Wish you all the luck in your cooking adventures. I know the hurdles to shuttle between two corners of Bangalore, thats really a tough job. Hope you make your in-laws happier. 🙂
Feel flattered, Jyotsna (or, should I say Anushri?). Thanks for the complement.
With Durga Puja so close, we plan to have a series for recipes for each day of Navratri. Stay hooked.
What would you like to learn more about?
Hi,
I am Sucheta Banerjee married to a marathi brahmin so i write as Sucheta Banerjee Kurundkar. I have another connection –my MSc. was in Cell Biology and i did my Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Pune. I travelled to Pune some 12 yrs ago where i was working with a Biotech organization and left Kolkata after my MSc. I realized the feeling what Sudeshna had mentioned, so i started cooking at home. I also did post gradutaion in Fisheries from CIFE, Mumbai. So fish was always clsoe to me. My mother is a pure ghoti and father a pure bangal, so i’m an admixture of both. I love cooking, its a relaxation for me. Last 10 yrs i have turned myself into a veggie (99% vegetarian) because my mom in law is a pucca marathi brahmin & do not touch even egg. Now she is in US so i explored options to cook bong dishes before she returns back.
I really liked the site & receipes. I prepared few items from them. It a great work. If i can contribute do let me know.
SuchetaDi,
Its so nice to hear from you. We would love to have some recipes from you. Please do mail us with the details.
Thanks,
Sudeshna
Hi Sucheta,
Please do that for me as well. I will appreciate.
http://www.facebook.com/VegeterianRecipes
Really enjoyed reading the bio .. very well done. I miss bangla food and have been secretly visiting your blog to get tips and try the recipes..
Hi Ipshita,
Thanks for the visit. You don’t need to visit the site secretly. Its for the Bong and by the Bong, so enjoy every bit of it 🙂
Hi kalyan / Sudeshna,
How are you ! Just discovered your blog & details while surfing the net. I’ve just started my own co. called Esperienza ( India’s first lifestyle experiential vacation co. ) I am based out of Bangalore & am planning to do in a small manner ( shoe string budget ) a choto khato Bengali food restaurant. I know you people are famous & busy as well d I dont know you personally but will it be possible if you can give me your no. I can talk to you for sometime need suggestion & advice. As a 39 yrs( OLD ) young entrepreneur am looking for few suggestion + point is you know bangalore market as well bcos of your past background. This is just a request & I will totally understand if you dont reply ….
regards
Parthaa Kundo ( Numerology ) its actually partha kundu
Thanks for those encouraging words Parthada. I’v emailed you. Would be happy to help.
Hi there,
I really liked your novel concept of ‘Cook like a Bong’. I’m a foodie myself and nothing relaxes me more than cooking for my family. You’ll find quite a few recipes that I try out based on my own experiments and ‘inspired’ by cook books in my blog.
http://www.tanyamunshi.blogspot.com
and
http://www.tanyasarticles.blogspot.com
I am surely going to look up your site for recipes in the future. Since I lead a nomadic life, where ever I go, people ask me to prepare Bengali style fish and mutton curry for them 🙂 Now with your site, I’ll surely get more recipes try out.
Just wanted to say, great going and all the very best.
Thanks,
Tanya
Hiya…good work you two. Blogging about the vast array of Bengali food is a formidable task in itself.I’m dabbling in molecular biology too…I like Hyderabadi and Bengali cuisines…And, I too(hold your breath for this) am a true-blue Ghoti!!!
Thanks for the praise, Amarnath. Good to know another Ghoti. Thinking of a comprehensive article on Bangal Ghoti cuisine difference. Any comments?
Sounds good to me.