Mohabhoj thali: Durga puja recipes from the Ghosh household

As you enter the plush apartment of Lekha Ghosh in Baridhara, Dhaka, you are greeted with a glass of chilled lassi as a welcome drink. Your awe for her culinary skill will begin from the first sip. Unlike traditional lassi of white sour curd, hers is slightly flavoured with lemon and garnished with lemon leaves; the fresh scent of our deshi kagji lebu takes the lassi to a completely different level and leaves you yearning for another glass.

Her aloo bhujia, a traditional crunchy snack made with potatoes, is spiced with curry patta leaves and salted peanuts. The art of cutting the potato in such threadlike julienne cuts makes you wonder if it is truly humanly possible. Her phulko luchi, the tempering of her niramish and the creamy taste of her payesh attests to her fine and subtle skills of cooking; she is indeed a master of cooking Bengali dishes.

Born and brought up in Narayanganj, Lekha Ghosh carries a special love for food in her blood. Her maternal family is from Bikrampur and her grandfather was the founder of the legendary Bose Cabin of Narayanganj, but she actually started going to the kitchen only after getting married into a joint family. Although the journey started-off with responsibilities, soon she discovered her innate talents in the art of creating perfect flavours, and Lekha transformed into a keen enthusiast of culinary skills. Anyone who has tasted her food became an instant admirer, keen on the next opportunity to enjoy some more.

Durga Puja season is obviously one of the most awaited annual food-week at the Ghosh household. Lekha loves experimenting with new items, multi-cuisine delicacies or fusion dishes, but during Puja week, she goes traditional all the way! Only the age-old delicacies of Bengali-Hindu households are served. 

Her family and her guests expect and enjoy the usual stars of her ceremonial puja feast on the dining table during Puja. A nurturer of cultural traditions, good food and heartfelt hospitality, Lekha Ghosh has always been a perfect host, highly admired by family and many circles of friends.

Assisted by her daughter Srabanti Datta, the mother-daughter duo have presented a Mahabhoj Thali for Star Lifestyle. Srabanti is a busy businessperson with a keen knack for culinary experiences. Her mother is a constant inspiration for her to learn and conserve the delicate recipes of conventional Bengali-Hindu cooking. She plans to preserve and publish her mum's recipes in English as a recipe book.

Mohabhoj thali: Durga Puja recipes       

All dishes in this thali are prepared with the local ingredients of riverside Bengal in their traditional cooking style. Tempering is the most important step of conventional Hindu cooking and the art of precise tempering ensures the delicate flavour of the savoury items.
For the desserts, most recipes use milk, chhana, coconut, and jaggery.  

CHHOLAR DAAL
Ingredients
Boot'er daal, small cubed coconut, raisin, turmeric powder, ginger paste, salt, sugar, garam masala powder, oil and ghee
Tempering spice —
Bay leaves, dry red chilli, cumin

Method
Boil the boot'er daal with salt. Add a pinch of turmeric powder, ginger paste, salt and sugar into the boiling daal. Meanwhile, fry the coconut pieces and raisin in ghee in a separate pan.
In a deep wok, heat oil. Temper with the tempering spices. Pour boiled daal into the wok and stir. Add the fried coconut and raisin. Taste, and adjust salt and sugar. Add 1 tsp pure ghee, garam masala powder and green chilli. Stir well and take off stove. 

MOCHA GHONTO
Ingredients
Banana flower (kola'r Mocha, finely chopped), potato – small cubes, boiled chickpeas, grated coconut, raisins, green chilli
Tempering spice —
Bay leaves and whole cumin
Spice paste —

Make a paste of these with a little water: turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, ginger paste
Salt, sugar, oil, ghee and garam masala paste

Method
Boil chopped banana flower with salt, and drain. In a pan, heat oil. Temper with bay leaf and cumin. Add chickpeas and fry a little. Add potato cubes and fry a little. Add grated coconut and raisins and fry a little. Add spice paste and keep frying until oil separates. Add boiled banana flower and stir fry with the spice. Add salt and sugar. Lower the heat, cover and simmer. When it dries up to a gooey consistency, add ghee, garam masala paste and green chilli. Stir well and take off the stove.

CHHANABORA CURRY
Ingredients
Chhanabora —
Crumbled curd cheese (chhana), turmeric powder, chilli powder, ginger paste, baking soda, flour, oil, salt and sugar
Tempering spice —
Bay leaves, whole cardamom, cinnamon and clove

Spice paste —
Blend these into a paste: white sesame seed, poppy seed, green chilli, grated coconut, ginger paste
oil, ghee, salt and sugar

Method
Blend the 'chhanabora' ingredients into a fine paste. Make balls from this mound. Shallow fry them until brown. Place them on kitchen towel to soak off extra oil.
In a wok, heat oil and temper with tempering spice. Add the spice paste and fry until oil separates. Add boiling hot water, salt and sugar and boil until it thickens a little.
Add the fried cheese balls, whole green chilli and ghee. Simmer for 1 minute and take off stove. 

SHORSHE-KASUNDI PABDA
Ingredients
Pabda fish – lightly fried with turmeric and salt, mustard seeds, slit green chilli, mustard oil and salt 
Spice paste —
Mix together: mustard paste, kasundi, green chilli paste, ginger paste and turmeric powder

Method
In a pan, heat mustard oil. Temper with slit green chilli and mustard seeds. Add spice paste and a little water. Cook until oil separates. Add hot water and salt and stir. Add fish pieces. Cover and simmer for 2 minutes. Add whole green chilli and drizzle over 1 tbsp mustard oil. Take off stove.   

RUI KALIA
Ingredients
Rui fish and potato wedges – lightly fried with turmeric and salt
Tempering spice —
Bay leaf, slit green chilli and whole cumin
Spice paste —
Blend together cashew paste, ginger paste, turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, raisin, yoghurt and a little water
Raisin, salt, sugar, oil, ghee and garam masala paste
 

Method
In a wok, heat oil and temper with tempering spices. Add spice paste and fry. Add raisin, fry a little and add salt, sugar and hot water. Add fried fish pieces and potato, cover and simmer. After the potato is done, add whole green chilli, ghee and garam masala paste. After 1 minute, take off the stove.

ILISH PATURI
Ingredients

Hilsha fish – freshly cut pieces, bottle gourd leaves — washed and deveined, whole green chilli, salt and mustard oil
Spice paste —
Mix together mustard paste, coconut paste, green chilli paste, turmeric powder and salt with ample mustard oil

Method
Smear the fish pieces thoroughly in the spice paste. Wrap each spiced fish piece and 1 whole green chilli neatly with a leaf (use 2 if needed) and pin with a toothpick. Steam or microwave them.
Lay the fish pieces in the serving dish. In a tempering pan, heat mustard oil and temper with slit green chilli and mustard seeds. Drizzle the hot fragrant oil over the fish pieces. 

BASANTI POLAO 
Ingredients
2 cups chinigura rice (washed and drained), 4 cups of boiling hot water, fried cashew and raisin, sliced pistachio and almond, bay leaf, whole garam masala, ginger paste, green chilli, yellow food colour and turmeric, milk infused with saffron thread and jorda colour, salt, sugar, oil and ghee

Method
In a saucepan, heat oil and ghee together. Add bay leaf and whole garam masala. Add sliced nuts and fry a little. Add rice, ginger paste, food colour, turmeric, salt and sugar. Stir-fry well. Add the hot water. Cover and cook. After water dries up, add whole green chilli, cashew and raisin, saffron mix and a little ghee. Stir well, cover and simmer on a tawa (dum). After 10-15 min, take off stove.

JHIRIJHIRI ALUBHAJA
Ingredients
Finely julienned potato, turmeric powder, salt, curry leaves, peanuts, chaat masala, oil and mustard oil

Method
Wash the potato in cold water, drain and smear with pinch of turmeric powder and salt. In a deep-frying wok, deep-fry the potato in batches until crisp. Keep the fried potato in a strainer to drain off excess oil.
In a tempering pan, heat mustard oil. Temper with curry leaves and peanuts. Fry a little and strain out. Loosely mix this fried condiment with fried potato and sprinkle chaat masala over it. 

CHUTNEY
Ingredients
Boiled and smashed olive, green mango pieces, five-spice (panchphoran), mustard seed, dry red chilli, turmeric powder, black salt, salt, sugar and mustard oil 

Method
In a wok, heat mustard oil. Temper with five-spice and dry red chilli. Add olive and mango. Fry with turmeric powder and salt. Add hot water, cover and simmer until mushy. Add sugar and black salt. Cook until sugar dissolves and the chutney thickens up. Meanwhile, in a tempering pan, heat mustard oil and temper with mustard seed and dry red chilli. Drizzle it over chutney, mix well and take off stove. Sprinkle chaat masala over it. 

DESSERT PLATTER
Coconut naru
Ingredients
Grated coconut, sugar, milk powder, cardamom powder

Method
Blend together grated coconut, milk powder and sugar into a mound. In a heavy-bottomed pan, keep stir-frying this mound continuously until it gets sticky, releases oil and comes out of the pan easily. Take the mound off the pan into a dish. Make little round balls from this mixture with your palms.  

Payesh
Ingredients
1 litre full cream milk, 100g chinigura rice, 4 tbsp condensed milk, 1 cup sugar, cardamom powder, raisin

Method
Boil the milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Mix all dry ingredients together (except cardamom powder and raisin) and add to the milk. Cook until the rice is cooked, while stirring occasionally. After rice is done and soft, add cardamom powder and raisin. Stir well, take off stove and cool it.

Kheer sandesh
Ingredients
Full cream milk, sugar, grated coconut, cardamom powder

Method
Cook the milk and sugar together in low heat and condense it to kheer. Add grated coconut and stir continuously until it becomes stiff and comes off the pan easily. Add cardamom powder and take it off the pan. Shape portions of this mixture into decorative moulds and lay them in a flat dish to cool.

Photo: Sazzad Ibne Sayed

Recipe & Food: Lekha Ghosh

Special thanks to Srabanti Datta