Indian Food Cooking | Bangla Rannar PalaParbon

Mango Buds TemptationMango yogurt with Mango Khakra and Mango Relish
Tangy finger foods for the summer party

Green Mango YogurtBy Barnali Dutta Published 03/28/2014This very light and delightful summer dessert made with instant raw mango pickle, a combination of grated mango, sugar, and dash of peppercorn.Ingredients8 to 10 mango buds, crushed peppercorn 1/2 teaspoon, 3 teaspoon sugar, 250ml milk for yogurt, yogurt culture, and khus syrup optionallyInstructionsFor sweet mango pickle I took scraped mango buds and 3 teaspoon sugar. First put the sugar in a pan and turn on heat, stir until sugar completely dissolved, add scraped mango and crushed peppercorn and mix it well, it will become a jelly like consistency. You can add 2 to 3 drops of khus syrup for natural green color at this stage.I took small glass bowls to set yogurt, added yogurt culture, added 2 teaspoons sweet mango pickles in each bowl, and slightly warm milk and set aside for 5 to 6 hours.Let it cool and set, then put in…

Sour legume - tok dal
Sour legume with mango buds [আমের কুশি টক ডাল]By Barnali Dutta Published 03/28/2014The mango tree is considered sacred both by the Hindus and the Buddhists. Also it is denoted as the favorite food of the God in "The Art of Cookery" What Lord of old wou'd bid his Cook prepare,
Mangoes, Potargo, Champignons, Cavare? Hindus use its twigs as tooth brushes and its leaves as spoons for libations. Applying ashes of the burnt dry leaves of Mango mixed with little mustard oil and salt as tooth paste makes the gums and teeth strong and shining. Taking Mango and milk regularly decreases anaemia, constipation, indigestion, and physical and mental weakness. That indigenous knowledge may be seeped into as a ritual to bring the benefits of helping the races as a belief that the mango tree puts forth fresh green leaves at the birth of a son. The plant being considered auspicious, its leaves are also hung over the doorways of a house where marri…

It always make my kids giggle whenever all of my examples end with food related subject, whatever may be the topic. While teaching chemistry, it happened to be ending with the basics of food and actually may be they are right. I was always oriented towards food from my childhood. My knowledge of atlas is regarding ingredients, spices, techniques of cooking etc and everything is food-centered. I know the people by what they eat, how they eat and most importantly what they love to eat. Surprisingly, today my reading habit is also growing towards food only, "mind blocking :-D !!" Anyways, I remember my childhood days when we did not have options to stay connected with friend and families digitally, we used to spend our leisure time playing various indoor and outdoor games and hunting treasures from libraries.  Our best holiday after annual examination was in the winter. I love to recall how I used to spare my times reading adventures or science fictions and also…

Dolyatra - The spring festival with thandai
Holi a grand bacchanal festival full of fun, frolic and revelry celebrated every year with gusto in the month of Phalguna (March/April). The lively elements of ancient festivals such as Madanamahotsava, Kamamahotsava and Vasantotsava have survived in the festival of Holi. On the eve of this two days festival, grand bonfires are lit to burn all impurities and on the second day people play with colored powder and water. People indulge in drinking as a ritual of drinking the nectar of Gods, singing of love songs and the temporary adjuration of certain restraints of everyday life, dancing, and merry making; Ritual obscenities are uttered to drive away evil spirits.
There is an easy naturalistic explanation of the Holi festival. After the apparent suspense of winter, the coming spring called people away from their houses out into the open as a symbolic gesture whilst a statue of Visnu or Krishna is brought out from the temple on the …

Curd RiceChennai ConnectionBy Barnali Dutta, Published March 6, 2014South Indian style Curd Rice [flavored with curry leaves]"Curd Rice" actually means unsweetened yogurt rice dishes of India and it is one of the very special preparations of South India. In dry and semi-dry seasons consumption of this dish maintains fluid balance in human body in a hot tropical climate country like India.In Bengal also, so many dishes includesyogurt as main ingredient like Chida dahi mahotsav [celebration with people - a festival vitalized by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu], Dodhikorma on puja, Dodhimangal a marriage custom, Adhibash on fasts, on feasts, and so on. Bengalis love to take curd in all type of meal. In our childhood we used to have flattened rice [চিড়া] with sour yogurt on breakfast Jalkhabar [জলখাবার], finish our lunch with homemade yogurt [an individual cup for everybody - yogurt did set in ramekins], evening tiffins consisted of sour yogurt and puffed rice with some minced c…