Celebrating Bengali New Yr and Tamil New 12 months at household – IshitaUnblogged
6 min read
Shubho Noboborsho! Wishing all of you on the situation of Bengali New Year. Also wishing everyone for the other Indian regional New Yrs like Ugadi, Puthandu, Vishu , Baisakhi, Vihu, Gudi Padwa and some others. If you are not celebrating a New Year… may possibly we simply celebrate existence!
A new dawn and a lovely morning… and some powering the scenes hustle
We are blessed with spectacular sunrises in excess of an uninterrupted check out of the backwaters. It had rained in the early early morning hrs and the horizon was however darkish and thunderous on Noboborsho early morning. The morning breeze carried the earthy aroma of the new rains and the seagulls appear to be too drenched and weary for their everyday flights. There was a delighted hustle and bustle in the dwelling as well… sprucing of silver bowls that dates back again to our Annaprashan or to start with rice ceremonies, my enjoyment of cooking and getting ready some dishes specially for the working day … not to point out my flower arrangement in the urli that belonged to the Bearded Biker’s thakuma and handed more than to me by dear mum-in-regulation. The floral urli was an influenced concept from a resident in our neighborhood, who’s been performing this each day for the final 1 12 months. If you consider that it’s a breeze… consider executing a person and remember to share your secret suggestions!
Celebrating Noboborsho, the Bengali New Calendar year
Our lunch and the supper menu for ‘Poila Boishakh’ or ‘Noboborsho’ yesterday was a basic Bengali menu. It was a performing and a school day and I experienced requested the Z-Sisters what they would like to consume. Lil Z asked for for luchi, aloo bhaja and plain white Rosogolla, or rasgullas … “lots of it”, she claimed! She had been lamenting recently how nobody brings house the white dreamy roshogollas anymore. Major Z declared that she did not treatment as lengthy as there was Mishti Doi, manufactured by me. The latter has been a bit overdone in our kitchen and the previous time I produced mishti doi, which was only three months again, stayed in the fridge for practically two months. So I made the decision in opposition to it. “Then Mihi Dana please”… was her up coming ask for. Roshogolla and Motichoor Ladoos (in absence of mihi dana in most sweet outlets in this article) were being swiggy-ed in from the sweetshop Sri Gupta Sweets. Our excellent cook dinner Matree’s Malabari parota producing ability was created to use for the amazing ‘phulko’ luchis… meaning the correctly fluffed up Indian fried flatbreads. Our Noboborsho menu was as follows… luchi, aloo bhaja or fried potatoes, begun bhaja or fried eggplant, cholar dal with sensitive aroma of coconut items fried in ghee, Basanti or mishti pulao and Katla Kalia, a thick gravy preparation with Katla fish. The tactic was to concentrate additional on the luchi for lunch so that generous portions of pulao and Kalia would be remaining about for evening meal.
Bengali food is served in courses and I generally really feel that it can never be concised into a single thali, like lots of other regional food items from India. The only 1 thali that could at any time be … is the proshad, provided to the Divine Almighty. Appropriately, a thali with a mini sampling of the food items was put in our informal altar. I am not into rituals, that’s why the altar showcases several idols and photographs from a number of religions – a good deal of them gifted by good friends and households. Following we have experienced a couple spoonfuls from the proshad, it’s handed in excess of affectionately to Big Z… “why does thakurer proshad often style superior?”, she generally asks. I guess it is the intention and the coronary heart felt emotion of like and religion that go into the proshad. Sharing the blessed thali from our residence with you all… and then the rest of the Noboborsho menu.
Celebrating Puthandu, the Tamil New Year… back to back again celebrations
The working day ahead of was Puthandu, the Tamil New Calendar year and it was by natural means a holiday getaway below (for all those who are nevertheless wondering… Chennai is our new property). We had sapaddu, a traditional Tamil lunch served on banana leaf. Matree, herself a Christian, was eager to do a smaller puja in our puja area. She had adorned the place with bouquets and strung a garland with mango leaves and hung it by our entrance door. The puja was adopted by the classic lunch that she experienced cooked. She insisted that we sit on the ground and consume when she served us separately. We swapped her recommendation into sitting down on the floor and placing the foods on our espresso table! It was a gorgeous afternoon and we savoured every thing that she had cooked. She discussed the purchase in which we had to consume. 1st, we experienced to take in the plain white rice with Vendekkai Sambar, sambar dal cooked with ladies finger. Following, we experienced to try to eat the rice with Kara Kulambu, the spicy tamarind and tomato curry of brinjal, potatoes and other vegetables. The gentle Milagu Rasam or Pepper Rasam came previous with the rice. A carrot beans Poriyal or curry and Urulai Kilangu Masala, a spicy potato curry and some Appalam or papad ended up served as sides to the rice. The Ulundhu Vadai she made had been comfortable as properly as crispy and could be experienced on their personal or experienced to be dunked into the sambar. I have to confess that her vadas made from the batter that she had designed at house, ended up the best I had ever tasted in my lifetime. The Dessert appeared exotic and one thing I was tasting for the very first time. Javvarisi Payasam was a milk pudding or payasam manufactured with tapioca pearls. It had the fragile fragrance of cardamon. Cashews and raisins roasted in ghee, had been tossed in it. I purchased a new silk sari for myself, a classic weave that would be worn for this event and put a garland of malli, the heavy-scented jasmine in my hair. Sharing the Puthandu menu below… yet again, starting up with the prasad giving and then the rest.
In my happy space… in my residence, talking about Bengali food items
A prequel to Noboborsho was my Bengali meals chat with culinary expert Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal in her InstaLive sequence #SpiceChroniclesWithRMG. Rushina commenced this in May very last year during lockdown as an Instagram Reside investigation task and her culinary marathon was now headed to Bengal. Rushina captured me in my pleased place in her inauguaratory Bengal episode … in my dining place, in my home, chatting about Bengali meals. I wore a kantha stitch dupatta as an alternative of the conventional purple and white saree on Lil Z’s insistence on wearing something informal and this was the most relaxed I could get! Sharing a image that Lil Z took of me sitting amidst all my favorite cookbooks, dekchi, pots and pans and my shortlisted things from my Bengali pantry. You can take pleasure in the episode listed here.
I felt like sharing the therapeutic strength of our backwaters and the new working day in my digital Noboborsho video greeting with good friends and family. I want I could embed the movie below with the birds’ chirping and the seem of the seabreeze. Sharing a even now screenshot from a frame… hope you all will like it and and be engulfed with the exact emotion that I felt in the morning… a new journey crammed with hope, faith and joyful anticipation of a dazzling long term!
Unblogging it all… Ishita
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Some posts from my new Chennai Chapter:
Ultimately contacting Chennai dwelling
Home made spicy Chicken 65
Hen Chettinad cooked in a claypot
Celebrating Pongal with Sakkarai Pongal and other dishes
Some posts about Bengali food:
Shubho Noboborsho | A classic Bengali menu for Frying Pan Diaries podcast
Standard Bengali Cuisine | All The ‘Slight’ Details
A-Z of Bengali Fish
Bengali recipes from my website
Disclaimer: This isn’t a sponsored put up, nor are there any affiliated one-way links for any of the brands that may possibly have been mentioned in this blogpost. The topic, tale, viewpoints and sights stated right here are my personal and all pictures are from my own album. Although you appreciate reading through my posts with lot of visuals, please do not use any materials from these posts.
