Mustard oil, river fish and delicate sweets
West Bengal · Odisha · Bihar · Jharkhand
The history
The deltas of the Ganges and Mahanadi gave freshwater fish, rice and an abundance of greens. Portuguese cheese-making techniques met Bengali milk to create chhena, and with it the sandesh and rasgulla tradition that made Bengal India's confectioner.
Pungent mustard oil, panch phoron's five whole seeds, and a cuisine structured as a meal-sequence from bitter to sweet. Restrained chilli, generous ginger, and a fondness for the bittersweet notes of poppy seed and mustard paste.
Cumin, nigella, fennel, fenugreek and mustard in equal measure, added whole to hot oil — never ground.
A Bengali lunch moves deliberately: bitter shukto, then dal, then vegetables, fish, and finally chutney and sweets.
Fish and vegetables steamed in banana leaf with mustard paste and green chilli.
Hilsa steamed in raw mustard paste and mustard oil
Bengal gram with coconut, raisins and panch phoron
Potatoes in a raw poppy-seed paste
Odisha's temple dal cooked with vegetables and no onion
