Bhai Fota and Beyond
Setting up for Kali puja, bhai phota, and other late autumn festivities
Mutton curries for every mood
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.
Mutton Kosha
Slow-cooked, rich, bengali mutton curry
- 3 hours
- 560kcal

Bengali Mutton Curry
A Sunday-special mutton curry
- 2.5 hours
- 557 calorieskcal

Pressure-cooker Mutton Curry
Bengali mutton curry, cooked in a pressure cooker, with tender pieces of meat and potatoes, and a light, flavourful broth.
- 2 hours
- 653kcal
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Niramish Mangsho
Mutton cooked without onion or garlic
- 2 hours
- 640kcal

Bhai fota treats
Some nice things to cook when families get together.
- 40 mins
- 234kcal

Kakrar Jhal
Bengali crab curry with a twist
- 90 minutes
- 272kcal

Machh'er Chop
Spicy fish croquettes
- 90 minutes
- 257kcal

Calcutta Chicken Rezala
Chicken cooked in a thin, pearly white gravy such as the kind served in restaurants like Sabir, Aminia, Shiraz, Royal, Arsalan, etc.
- 90 mins
- 371kcal

Chhanar Paturi
Subtly flavoured cottage cheese cooked in leaf parcels
- 45 mins
- 249kcal

Some end-of-autumn recipes before time runs out!
You have maybe a week or two before to get hold of chalta, jolpai and, if you are very lucky, taal in the markets!
Jolpai diye Chaltar Chutney
A seasonal chutney with elephant apple and Indian olives, made during autumn
- 40 mins
- 69kcal

Taal'er Kheer
A palmyra fruit pudding
- 30 minutes
- 254kcal

Taal'er Luchi
made with taal (palmyra) pulp
- 60 minutes
- 93kcal

Amra'r Chutney
A sweet, sour Bengali chutney made from two kinds of hog plum (biliti amra and deshi amra), spiced with bhaja masala
- 30 minutes
- 73kcal

A hint of winter ...
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!
Koraishuti’r Kochuri
Deep-fried, puffy bread stuffed with a spiced green-peas-and-hing filling
- 90 minutes
- 138kcal

Chirer Polao
Beaten rice with fresh winter vegetables
- 45 minutes
- kcal

Moolor Ghonto
Red winter radish cooked in spices
- 75 mins
- 158kcal

Chicken Curry with Winter Vegetables
Pressure cooker chicken curry
- 50 minutes
- kcal

Tyangra Machher Jhol Mulo Diye
Tyangra fish curry with winter radish
- 45 minutes
- kcal

Doi Begun
Brinjal cooked in a yoghurt sauce
- 40 mins
- 173kcal

Notun Alur Dom
Curried, new, winter potatoes and peas
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- kcal

Phulkopi’r Data Chorchori
Waste nothing!
- 1 hour
- kcal

Looking ahead to Christmas!
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!
Calcutta Christmas Fruitcake
The classic Calcutta fruitcake—a fixture in many homes around Christmas-time—is a rum-soaked, fruit-and-nut encrusted indulgence.
- 4-pound cake (20 servings)
- 331kcal

Christmas Fruitcake without Alcohol
A festive, rich, spiced cake with dried fruits and nuts
- 4 hours
- kcal

Steamed Carrot & Ginger Pudding
An old fashioned pudding, with tea-custard sauce
- 3 hours
- kcal

- 2 hours
- 304kcal

- 1 hour
- kcal

Chocolate Cake
A chocolate cake for the ages
- 1 hour, 30 minutes
- kcal
