Begun Chachchorhi

Side dish

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Brinjal (begun, "eggplant") – 500 gm

Mustard paste – 3 tea-spoons 

Nigella – “black Caraway” (Kalo jeeray) – a pinch

Salt,

Sugar -- a pinch

Turmeric powder – half a tea-spoon

Mustard oil (or sun flower oil) – one tablespoon

Green chilies -- 2 small

Coriander leaves (shredded)

How to prepare:

Cut Brinjal into small pieces.

Heat oil. Add nigella and thinly sliced green chilies to it.

Add brinjal pieces. Add salt. Make the flame small. Cover. Let it cook till the brinjal becomes a little brown. Add turmeric. Stir well. Cover. Let it cook till the brinjal becomes soft. From now and then stir as the brinjal cooks.

Now, as the brinjal has become tender, add the mustard paste. Stir well so that it gets mixed well. Add coriander leaves. Cover and cook further for about 5 minutes. 

Serve with steamed rice.

  

Patisapta

The Famous Bengali Pan-Cake

Main ingredients:
Flour,
Semolina,
Milk,
Sugar,
Kheer (one can use grated coconut instead)
Sun flower oil
Important Note: In Bangla (Bengali language) "kheer" does not mean rice pudding but the thickened and sweetend cow milk. The Beangali synonym for what the rest of India calls "Kheer" is "Payes".

Soak semolina in milk for about half an hour. Mix flour and sugar very well to this mixture and make semi-liquid dough so that you can spread it over the pan. The ratio of semolina and flour should be 3::2.
I added a little cinnamon and cardamom into it. (It is Chrismas time after all!)

Put very little oil on the hot pan and spread it uniformly all over it.
Now add some dough on it and spread in a way so that it takes a circular shape. Add some kheer at one corner of it.

Then roll it. Patisapta is ready!

Luchi and Mangsho

I can't remember when I experienced luchi after I left West Bengal.
Luchi is a deep fried flatbread made of bleached wheat or maida and much more, much more than just something delicious to eat! Luchi means a puja (worship), a birthday clebration; luchi means a Sunday breakfast! When luchi is there, we know we are going to have payesh or halua and/or alur dom or mangso or alubhaja or chholar dal! Luchi is closely associated to festivity, to happy occasions! That is why I used "experience" instead of "eat" or "have".

In Germany I never prepared luchi or roti although I cooked for my friends often but always chose something I could cook fast, even though the preparation before cooking was long sometimes. Every time I had such a party, I wished if my sister could be there! So, I decided to cook chicken curry which was popular among my friends in India and abroad and luchi for dinner because my sister loves chicken and I missed luchi.

                                                               Luchi

                                             Murgir Mangsho: Chicken Curry
I bought sandesh and lal doi to have at the end. We, Bengalees, love sweets and our meals must end with some sweetness: madhureNa samapayet!

                                               Lal Mishti Doi and Sandesh
Not just in our food culture, the popular luchi has its well-desereved place in our literature as well.
Who among us doesn't feel nostalgic about the popular rhyme by Mohit Ghosh: "phulko luchi phulko luchi/ pet ta phule dhak/ phulko luchi phulko luchi/ peter bhitor phank!/ "?
But not all children can enjoy luchi since their parents cannot afford it. Examples are Apu and Durga, the young protagonists of "Panther Panchali" by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, another classic of Bangla (Bengali) literature: Apu felt happy seeing luchi on his plate as he accompanied his father to his disciples' house and sad too, at the same time, since he could not share it with her sister at home. Luchi is something they seldom had.

Pasta with Vegetables

Gesztenyepüré

Gesztenye means "chestnut" and püré is "puree".

This is my friend's favourite dessert. Even though I do not really have a sweet tooth, I too, had it.

It was good and not too sweet.

The Indian Dishes in Our Indo-Hungarian Dinner

These were my additions to our Indo-Hungarian dinner:
1) The typical Bengali egg curry. I added some peas, too. Since I did not add even a pinch of pepper or chilies  it was good for my friend.

2) The Bengali chicken curry in thick onion gravy was, on the contrary, a bit hot for her.

And here are the drinks:

These were something new for me.
It was an amazing treat for our taste buds. 

Toltott Kaposzta

  This was another amazing experience in Budapest, thanks to my friend's Mom.
She put really a lot of effort to make our weekend so tasty.
  This is Hungarian stuffed cabbage made with minced meat and rice.