Bhai Fota and Beyond

For Kali Pujo, here are four mutton curries with quite distinct flavour profiles, even if many of them use the same set of ingredients. The difference lies in the method of cooking. In our cabin-style 'mutton kosha', the mutton is not boiled or pressure-cooked, but braised in a pan until tender. This allows it to develop a dark, rich gravy that can be eaten with porota. Then there's the 'Sunday pathar jhol', where we braise the onions and meat well, until brown and caramelised, and then add water and allow the mutton to slow-cook and soften in a kadai. Finally, we have a fresh, light 'pressure cooker mutton curry', in which we don't braise the onions as much as we 'sweat' them so that there is minimal browning, allowing to curry to retain it's fresh flavours. And if you're in a mood for a different take on Bengali mutton curries, try the oxymoronic 'niramish mangsho'. The upside is that you do not need to spend time here waiting for the onions to brown.

Some nice things to cook when families get together.

You have maybe a week or two before to get hold of chalta, jolpai and, if you are very lucky, taal in the markets!

No time like now, when the anticipation of winter is enough to excite you to go to the markets and pick up the loveliest, freshest vegetables, and use them to make not only torkaris, but also incorporate them into your snacks, fish, and chicken dishes!

This has been our private yearly ritual for over a decade, and now since 2017, we are honoured to have so many of our audience members join us for it—soaking dried fruits for Christmas fruitcake!

Do you need to soak your dried fruits this long? Maybe not, but it is right after Kali Pujo when places like New Market start stocking candied ginger, candied orange peels, and so on. We also soak early because we like to bake the cake early—at least a couple of weeks before Christmas, so that we can 'feed' the cake rum or brandy, and let the overall flavours mature before cutting the cake.

So get your jar of rum-soaked-fruits going now, and come Christmas you'll be glad to have planned ahead!

[Pssttt ... since many of you over the years have been asking for an alcohol-free fruitcake recipe, here's one we developed a few years back. It obviously has a very short soaking time, but we've added a few extra steps, such as making a 'burnt sugar' syrup, to add those rich, warm, festive notes to this cake.]

Besides the fruitcake, here are a host of other cakes you can bake, that don't need weeks-long prep!