Bhai Fota and Beyond

Pithe-puli-payesh

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

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  • Cooking time
    3 hours
  • Nutrition
    560
    kcal

Bengali Mutton Curry

A Sunday-special mutton curry

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45109
  • Cooking time
    2.5 hours
  • Nutrition
    557 calories
    kcal

Pressure-cooker Mutton Curry

Bengali mutton curry, cooked in a pressure cooker, with tender pieces of meat and potatoes, and a light, flavourful broth.

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4563
  • Cooking time
    2 hours
  • Nutrition
    653
    kcal

Niramish Mangsho

Mutton cooked without onion or garlic

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4081
  • Cooking time
    2 hours
  • Nutrition
    640
    kcal

Bhai fota treats

Some nice things to cook when families get together.

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  • Cooking time
    40 mins
  • Nutrition
    234
    kcal

Kakrar Jhal

Bengali crab curry with a twist

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  • Cooking time
    90 minutes
  • Nutrition
    272
    kcal

Machh'er Chop

Spicy fish croquettes

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  • Cooking time
    90 minutes
  • Nutrition
    257
    kcal

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.

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  • Cooking time
    90 mins
  • Nutrition
    371
    kcal

Chhanar Paturi

Subtly flavoured cottage cheese cooked in leaf parcels

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  • Cooking time
    45 mins
  • Nutrition
    249
    kcal

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

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  • Cooking time
    40 mins
  • Nutrition
    69
    kcal

Taal'er Kheer

A palmyra fruit pudding

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  • Cooking time
    30 minutes
  • Nutrition
    254
    kcal

Taal'er Luchi

made with taal (palmyra) pulp

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  • Cooking time
    60 minutes
  • Nutrition
    93
    kcal

Amra'r Chutney

A sweet, sour Bengali chutney made from two kinds of hog plum (biliti amra and deshi amra), spiced with bhaja masala

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  • Cooking time
    30 minutes
  • Nutrition
    73
    kcal

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

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  • Cooking time
    90 minutes
  • Nutrition
    138
    kcal

Chirer Polao

Beaten rice with fresh winter vegetables

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  • Cooking time
    45 minutes
  • Nutrition
    kcal

Moolor Ghonto

Red winter radish cooked in spices

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  • Cooking time
    75 mins
  • Nutrition
    158
    kcal

Chicken Curry with Winter Vegetables

Pressure cooker chicken curry

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  • Cooking time
    50 minutes
  • Nutrition
    kcal

Tyangra Machher Jhol Mulo Diye

Tyangra fish curry with winter radish

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  • Cooking time
    45 minutes
  • Nutrition
    kcal

Doi Begun

Brinjal cooked in a yoghurt sauce

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  • Cooking time
    40 mins
  • Nutrition
    173
    kcal

Notun Alur Dom

Curried, new, winter potatoes and peas

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  • Cooking time
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Nutrition
    kcal
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  • Cooking time
    1 hour
  • Nutrition
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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.

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  • Cooking time
    4-pound cake
  • Nutrition
    331
    kcal

Christmas Fruitcake without Alcohol

A festive, rich, spiced cake with dried fruits and nuts

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  • Cooking time
    4 hours
  • Nutrition
    kcal

Steamed Carrot & Ginger Pudding

An old fashioned pudding, with tea-custard sauce

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  • Cooking time
    3 hours
  • Nutrition
    kcal

Orange Poppyseed Cake

A tender, moist orange and poppyseed 'pound cake' with a sweet-sour orange drizzle

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  • Cooking time
    2 hours
  • Nutrition
    304
    kcal

Rum balls

Decadent, chocolatey, rum-soaked cake pops that are perfect for the holidays and require no baking.

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  • Cooking time
    1 hour
  • Nutrition
    kcal

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake for the ages

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  • Cooking time
    1 hour, 30 minutes
  • Nutrition
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