Malpoa

Let everybody else praise Bengal for everything inspirational — from poetry and cinema, to music and bandhs. In my opinion, Bengal outdoes every other state in one major field — and that’s the vast area of snacks and sweets.

That is why they devote two whole weeks to just eating and feeding savouries and sweets. Through the year, of course, they relish their potato cutlets, keema samosas and luchis. But after the Pujas, they do so with a real vengeance, sparking a fierce competition among friends and families to present the best kinds of snacks. After Diwali, they are back to the usual afternoon tidbits that could anyway feed a huge army.

Fish kabiraji

Sweets, of course, form a major part of the feast of Vijaya. Sandesh rules, for this is something that you can prepare in different ways — with orange, mango, dry fruit, and so on. I spoke to four Calcutta chefs about their favourites for the season — and last week we feasted along with them as they came up with some awesome recipes. This week, they give us a few more treasures.

Chef Sushanta Sen Gupta of 6, Ballygunge Place, loves to bake some date palm sandeshes. To feed six, he suggests we take 300gm cottage cheese (chhana), 25gm sugar, 25gm palm date jaggery (patali gur), 100gm liquid molasses, 50gm thickened milk (rabri), ½tsp chopped pistachio and ½tsp almond flakes.

In a non-stick put the chhana, sugar and jaggery and cook for about 10 minutes. Cool this and add the molasses and rabri. Set in individual earthenware bowls and sprinkle chopped pistachio and almond flakes on top. Put the bowls in a preheated salamander — with heating from top — and bake for about three to four minutes. Serve warm.

Baked nolen gurer sandesh

In my opinion one of the simplest and most delicious sweets ever is the malpoa. Chef Sukumar Roy of Nola tells us how to make the perfect malpoa. Take 1000ml milk, sunflower oil for deep frying, 250gm sugar, 2tbs flour and 2tbs grated coconut.

Now boil the milk over slow fire, stirring all the while. When it has thickened to half, keep it aside. Dissolve sugar (keeping aside 2tbs) in 2-3 cups of water. Boil, and prepare a thin syrup. Transfer this to a serving dish. Add flour, coconut and the remaining sugar to the milk. Stir till completely smooth. Mix well to form a batter. Heat oil in kadhai, pour one spoonful of the batter to form a circle. Flip it over. When both sides are brown, drain and place in the syrup. Serve hot or cold, garnished with some chopped pistachios.

But when people come visiting, make sure that you have delicious savouries to go with the sweets. Try out this recipe of golda chingrir Chinay kabab, offered by Chef Joymalya Banerjee of Oh! Calcutta. Take 2 whole jumbo prawns, 100gm shrimps, 90gm chopped onion, 50ml refined oil, 30gm chopped ginger, 70gm chopped tomato, 25gm chopped green chillies, 3gm whole garam masala, 2 bay leaves, 30gm cashewnuts, 15gm chopped kismish, 3gm turmeric, 20gm chopped coriander, 1gm mace-nutmeg powder, 1gm garam masala powder, 100gm khoya, salt and sugar to taste, 10ml lime juice and 5gm red chilli powder.

Wash the prawns. With a sharp knife, make a sharp lengthwise incision on the prawn from the head to the tail but ensure you don’t halve the prawn. Scoop out the flesh and wash the cavity thoroughly. Dice the scooped out flesh and peeled shrimps. Apply some salt and turmeric to them. Boil the cleaned shells till they change colour. Drain and keep aside.

Golda chingrir chinay kabab

Heat oil in a kadhai. Temper with whole spices and bay leaves. Add the chopped onion and ginger. Sauté on high heat. Add diced prawns. Sauté well. Add chopped chilli and tomato. Season and add turmeric. Cook well. Add chopped cashew and kishmish. Add half the khoya, the powdered spices, lime juice and chopped coriander. Remove from fire.

Divide the cooked mixture into two parts. Stuff each portion into the cavity of a jumbo prawn. Put the prawn back in the cleaned shell, sprinkle the remaining khoya on top and grill till crisp.

Two other great savouries for the week are fish kabiraji cutlets and cornfed chicken in a wonderfully simple recipe suggested by Chef Jayanto Banerjee of Hotel Hindustan International.

For the kabiraji cutlet, Chef Sukumar Roy says he has his own recipe that he has reached with a few variations here and there. A Bengali cutlet, the chef explains, is usually a fish fillet or meat that has been spiced, coated with bread crumbs and fried. In kabiraji cutlet, the coating is prepared with eggs and breadcrumbs.

To serve kabiraji cutlets to 4-6 people, assemble 10 green chillies, 1 small onion, 1 lime, 2tbs ginger-cumin-coriander paste, 2tsp salt, ½tsp turmeric, 10 fish fillets, 3 eggs, 2tbs flour, 2tbs breadcrumbs and oil for frying.

Make a paste with the onion, chillies and lime juice. Mix with the ginger-cumin-coriander paste, turmeric and 1tsp salt. Marinate the fish fillets with this for at least 2 hours. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Whip the whites till fairly stiff. Mix the yolks with flour, salt and breadcrumbs. Stir in the whites. Coat the fish with the batter. Heat the oil till it starts to smoke. Add the fish, lower the heat and cook till done. You can serve this with either a spicy mayonnaise or ketchup.

Somebody once said that all good things come to an end. In Bengal, that’s not true at all. The good things that start this fortnight continue till next year, when they start all over again. That’s the perfect circle — no end, but what a beginning.

Cornfried chicken

Ingredients

• 200gm chicken boneless strips • 25gm ginger garlic paste • Salt and pepper, to taste • 5ml lime juice • 1 egg • 50gm refined flour • 200gm cornflakes • 250ml refined oil lRed chilli, to taste

Method

Marinade the chicken with the ginger garlic paste, salt, pepper, lime juice, egg, flour and red chilli powder. Keep it aside for at least 15-20 minutes. Coat each strip with crushed cornflakes. Heat oil. Fry the chicken till golden brown.