Durga Pujo: Fasting, Feasting, Family, Friends And Fun

Ya devi sarvabhuteshu bhakti - rupena samsthita

Namas tasyai, namas tasyai, namas tasyai namo namah.

This is the chant that most Bengali families wake up to on the day of Mahalaya. This year it was on 23rd of September. It is a chant to invoke the goddess to descend to earth. For years my family has been listening to Mahalaya on radio, and when we cannot find the signal we play it on CD. And then starts the wait for the start of Durga Pujo celebrations.

At the core, Durga Puja is the celebration of Good over Evil. The idol which is worshiped during the ceremony, depicts the triumph of Ma Durga over Mahisasur.

It is also said that this time of the year marks Ma Durga's yearly visit to her father's house, with her four children. And on Dashami she returns to Mount Kailash to her Husband Lord Shiva.

The preparation for Durga Pujo begins months in advance. The artisians start making the beautiful idols of Ma Durga and her Four Children: Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik along with their vahans(rides), Lion, Owl, Swan, Mouse and Peacock. And Pujo organisers put in extraordinary hours to make the celebrations a success.

Durga Pujo is an integral part of Bengali Culture. It marks a time of togetherness for family and friends. The morning starts with fasting till the prayers are offered by afternoon. After that the feasting begins. And fun escalates when friends drop in. Believe me Durga Pujo is best celebrated in the company of family and old friends. For me the Pujo Adda(group gossip) and Pandal Hopping are integral to Durga Pujo. And last but not the least the food.

The Pujo Pandals are lined up with street food, traditional food even big restaurants put in stalls to woo customers. The big hit with people are generally the street food. Just writing this is making my mouth water.

The Phuchkas/Golgappas stalls are always busy, you literally have to push your way in.

And i must not forget the Fish Fry.

 And the Chilly Chicken, Noodles, and the varieties. Ooh......i cannot wait for next year.

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The Tikkas and the Kebabs ofcourse.

And the lovely Biryani.

 And the lovely Mutton Ghugni( minced lamb with chickpeas).

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The end of festivities is marked by immersion of the idol of Ma Durga on Dashami. We bid her good-bye and count our days to the time next year, when she will be here again to spread goodness and happiness.

Aaschey Bochor Aabar Hobey.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to my good friend AS Biswas for the "Durga idol in the making" photographs.
Thanks to my husband, for patiently bearing with me while i was taking the photographs and he was getting the weird stares.
And thanks to all you my friends, without you the Pujo festivities can never be complete, even if we meet for a little while, it is worth it.

What's Cooking???????????

Since my last post, our parents had visited us, Gosh, we were so happy and excited. Time flew by so fast and we got to eat really good Ghar Ka Khana (home cooked food), after such a long time. I am not saying that my cooking is bad, but it simply cannot match up with the senior ladies of the house.

It goes without saying that, mothers bring a special touch to the food, which i may dare not compete with.
Meanwhile, I got a chance for the first time, to cook an entire meal for the family. I went a bit experimental and cooked lamb. Here are some clicks and the story of how I proceeded.

500 gms lamb.

4-5 potatoes sliced.

3-4 onions sliced.

Ginger paste( best if home made)

Red wine vinegar.

Meat masala.

Red Chilli powder.

Turmeric

Mustard Oil

Lil bit a sugar.

Salt to taste.

First I marinated the lambs with salt , red wine vinegar, meat masala, red chilli powder and turmeric for about 2 hrs.

Then in my extremely neat and new Stew pot, I added mustard oil, garlic paste, and fried the onions, i love my onions a li'l caramelized so added a li'l bit of sugar.

After that i added the potatoes.

Then let them cook together for sometime.

After being satisfied about the potatoes and onions i added the lamb chops.

Now, i let it cook for about 1 hr at lowest flame.

Look at the colour.. :)

And we enjoyed happily.

P.S.:

Durga Pujo, the biggest festival celebration of the year is around the corner and we will be gorging on a lot of delightful stuff, both home made and street side. Will keep you posted.

Durga Pujo Elo Bole.. :D :D

Pizza Delights

Last two weeks we were relishing the delights of Ganesh Chaturthi -The Puran Polis, Gujiyas, Chakris and Coconut Laddoos. I could not find any Modaks, though there were quite a few varieties, but I was looking for the authentic Modaks, made of Steamed Rice and stuffed with Coconut and Jaggery. Anyways, I had a great time. But i am sorry also as I do not have any pictures of them as we were at a friend's place and I thought that clicking pictures of goodies they were serving for us to eat, may appear weird.

Now, last fortnight we had the chance to visit two restaurants who are primarily pizzerias.
Pizza has always been a curious food object for me since childhood, as back then, pizza was only known to us via Hollywood movies on television, it seemed liked such a tempting object it tempts me now also. The cheese strings, the big slices and all thing about it entice me.
I got to have my first slice of pizza during college years.There were not may pizza outlets back then and pizzas were comparatively costlier. Now-a-days we have a pizza outlet in each and every major street and the prices do not pinch the pocket as much as they used to earlier.

So, coming back to these pizzerias, at one of them we had the option to go for a buffet also, so we ordered the buffet and at the other we simply ordered pizza. In the buffet the Soup, Garlic bread and Chocolate Brownie with Ice cream trumped over the pizza. And at the other one, Pizza only was the object of our affection.

I guess my fascination with pizza will never end. Will keep all of you posted :) .

A Bengali Delight- Fish Kabiraji

Last weekend I was having a really hectic time, we had, but only once cleaned the kitchen and the house since we moved here a month back, so we decided to do that again last week, hence the blog could not be updated.

Last week i had the chance to have Fish Kabiraji. I had heard about it, seen its pictures, but did not get the opportunity to taste it earlier. So when i saw this dish on the menu of a Bengali stall at a mall's food court, i pounced on the opportunity.

Fish Kabiraji is basically a fish fillet coated in beaten eggs and deep fried in oil. So you get a beautiful combination of eggs and fish.

Looks beautiful, doesn't it.

I am thinking of cooking this at home. Will do update, as and when the mission is accomplished.

Signing off  :) 

B'DAY BASH BUFFET

It was my Husband's first birthday after we got married, so it was extra special this time. I took him out for lunch at this semi-open-roof restaurant. It was spacious and the walls were decorated with potted Money Plant saplings. We were very nicely attended to by the staff.

This restaurant in Jayangar serves unlimited barbecue and buffet, both veg and non-veg. We obviously went for the non-veg one.
The Barbecue menu included Chicken,Mutton, Egg, Fish and  Prawns. We were also offered Paneer to taste.

We have been to other such kind of unlimited buffet restaurants, but what we liked about this one, was the fact that it provided us various options in both veg an non veg buffet. I do not have pictures of the buffet dishes as we were too busy eating.
I especially have to praise the Mutton curry dish. It was so nice and simple, yet flavorsome. I gorged on the Biryani with it. I went for small refills, three times, just to satisfy my greed of that yummy taste.

Then came desert, and then again the variety was good. Chocolate Marble cake, Pumpkin Halwa, Vanilla Ice cream with options of Chocolate sauce,Green Mango jelly and Strawberry jelly. They also had mini pastries and fruit salad.
It was a great day spent .

:)

Main Yummmmmm-li Pagli Deewani.....

Between this blog post and the last one, i have eaten out almost every alternate day. I am still setting up the kitchen here in  Bangalore, so that kinda makes for a good excuse for eating out. My Ma is though expecting me to lose a few inches by Durga Puja in October.Anyways, coming back to the post, i had this nice Mutton Pepper. The Mutton was coated in spices, and tasted nice.I hope to make my version of it some day in my own kitchen. For now, my friends, feast your eyes on the pic below.

Hey, I also had this "Special Thali", at a restaurant, very economically priced, last week too we had gone to this place, but the queue was so long for placing an order at this self-service restaurant, that we decided to come another day. So, this time there wasn't any queue and we managed to get our "Special Thali" comprising of - 3 Kerala style Paranthas/Laccha Paranthas, 1 Chicken Kabab, 1 Boiled egg, 1 Katori of Curry and a Glass of Grape Juice.
The food tasted good, was value for money and the roof top sitting in the restaurant with the cold breeze, uplifted the mood further.

Yummmm....

Chicken Iguru & Andhra Style Biryani

Having worked hard and sulking all day, to have to work on Saturdays, it was heart felt joy when my Husband took me out for dinner on Saturday night.

We went to this restaurant named after a spice. It serves Andhra Dishes.  I looked for the most interesting  named dish to order and so we ordered Chicken Iguru for starter and Biryani for main course.

The Chicken Iguru was way too spicy for my palette but then you just can't give up on chicken. I literally drank up the Raita to cool off my tongue. My nose also gave way. The Biryani was good enough. But all that spice of the Chicken Iguru overshadowed the taste of the Biryani.

I wish they would actually start displaying spice meter along with the dish names.