A soft and porous Bangladeshi cheese that stretches and melts like mozzarella but offers more complex flavours has made its way into Kolkata’s growing artisanal dairy scene.
Meet the new big cheese — the Dhakai Poneer — that is now making waves in Bengal.
Long treasured in the kitchens of old Dhaka and Austagram, the Dhakai Poneer, unlike mozzarella, is made from cow milk. In Dhaka, it is eaten with bakarkhani, paired with tea, or even drizzled with honey.
Small-batch maker Ayon Bhattacharya and Aritraa Sengupta, a couple from Bakreshwar in Birbhum who run a family dairy farm, are behind the fillip to Dhakai Poneer’s popularity in Bengal.
“I first tasted Dhakai Poneer when my sister got it from Dhaka,” Ayon said. “I learnt the recipe from the internet, and my prior experience of making mozzarella helped me a lot. For the last three years, we have been into making ghee, unsalted butter, paneer, khowa since we started our little dairy at our farm Punoscho Krishikaaj at Tantipara village near Bakreswar Hotspring.”
A cheesemaker’s journey
Ayon and Aritraa prepare the cheese in small batches using milk from their own farm. “It is like a family set-up,” Ayon explained. “As a regular exercise we keep on adding new items to our list of milk-products, traditional Bengali sweets and pithe-puli. Anyone interested in procuring our dairy products has to pre-order. We want to keep it fresh and handcrafted.”
As he experimented, Ayon realised he could find no reference to anyone making Dhakai Poneer in West Bengal. “I found no one making it here,” he said. “Most people who had tasted it in Dhaka said they missed it in Kolkata. My objective was to make it available in Kolkata and around because I felt there is a nascent demand for this particular cheese.”
Ayon describes Dhakai Poneer as a cheese full of character. “The tiny holes inside form a beautiful pattern once you cut it. The best part is that it is made without using heat, so all the good bacteria in the milk stay alive. That makes it naturally probiotic.”
Kolkata chefs take notice
Kolkata’s food and beverage community has started paying attention. Prithvish Chakravarti, a cheese and meat connoisseur with years of industry experience, recently tasted Ayon’s Dhakai Poneer after receiving a batch from him. He placed it on sourdough and was impressed.
“Beautiful acid-set cheese, nice porosity, admirable melt and pull, excellent chewy texture,” he said. “I just loved the taste. It felt somewhat like a grilled halloumi.”
How to enjoy Dhakai Poneer
The cheese behaves much like mozzarella when heated. It melts quickly, turns soft inside and develops a light crust when grilled. Prithvish Chakravarti believes its versatility is its greatest strength.
“This is a paneer you can enjoy for breakfast or roast lightly,” he said. “You can even prepare desserts with it. You can put it on pizza and make an Indian version if you want. It all depends on the creativity of the chef. People should try fresh cheese.”
Where to find it in Kolkata
Those interested can pre-order Dhakai Poneer directly from Punoscho Krishikaaj. Details are available on their Facebook page, and deliveries are made in small, carefully handled batches.