The culinary journey can not be replete without the mention of the sweets of the region which has carved a niche for itself all across the globe. The tinned rasagulla are also easily available in most parts of the world especially the ones boasting of trendy Indian restaurants and eateries. They are also available on the shelves of supermarkets storing ready to eat Indian food.

I was greatly surprised to find that Rasagulla originally did not belong to Bengal but travelled from the neighbouring state of Orissa. The history of Rasagulla is also not very old and it reached in the hands of Nobin Das in West Bengal somewhere around 1868 who made a name for himself while perfecting it for the masses. His recipe was readily accepted by the people of Bengal thus giving him the title of “Columbus of Rasagulla”.

Some of you adventurous readers, if still willing to explore the popular recipe in its originality, you can undertake a visit to the small village of “Pahala”, just 5 km north of Bhubaneswar which is the capital city of the state of Orissa located in eastern India.

The village has a long history of selling milk based sweets but they are different from the popular size, shape and texture of Rasagulla.  What also came in aid of of Nobin Das was that his recipe also eliminated the possibility of the sweet turning sour which was precisely the case with the Oriya recipe; hence he was able to exploit the marketing potential of this sweet at the time when travelling was arduous and time consuming.

The now eponymous K.C.Das sweet shops and ready to eat Rasgulla is the best example of how the modified recipe has changed the destiny of this famous dish. K.C. Das co-incidentally is the direct descendants of “Halwai “Moin Das and have made fortunes just selling this delectable sweet.

How would one describe it to the person who wou;d taste it for the first time. I am not sure but one can develop their own description which somehow would sound like “soft, spongy balls of cottage cheese simmered in flavoured sugar syrup…. Nicely made Rasgulla melts in your mouth and leaves you wanting more…always and nobody would know it better than the Bengalis.

The recipe which I have given below also depends upon the kind of milk you are using. The one I prefer to use if the low fat cow milk containing around 2%fat. If this remains an obstacle, then remove the cream from the cold cow milk after it has been boiled to reach nearly to the stage of obtaining 1.5-2%milk fat.

Ingredients:

2 litres 2% cow milk

¼ cup lime juice

1/4 cup warm water

2 tbsp refined flour

Syrup

2 ½ cup sugar

5 cups water

1 whole lime, halved

Preparation:

Slowly bring the milk to boil in a suitable large stainless container stirring from time to time to prevent sticking to the bottom.. As soon as it reaches the boiling point, add the diluted lemon juice and stir to mix well. At this stage the whey will separate from the milk protein which appears like coarse big irregular cheese.

After the curdling, the good indication of which is the clear light green whey, strain the content through a muslin cloth and in the cloth itself wash the cheese with cold running water to remove as much lime taste from the surface as possible.

Rest the cheese in the muslin cloth, hanging it from a hook at this time for 30minutes to remove excess moisture. Do not press which will unnecessarily harden the cheese and ultimately affect the rasagulla.

Remove the cheese on to a marble/granite/kitchen surface and start kneading until cheese is almost smooth. This may make your hand feel greasy which good indication that it has been kneaded well is.

Sprinkle little refined flour at a time and slowly work it to amalgamate with the now smoothen cheese.

Mix the sugar and water in a suitably large stainless steel pressure cooker and bring the mixture to a boil (without covering the pressure cooker). Drop the lemon without squeezing to clarify the impurities

While the sugar syrup is getting ready, divide the cheese dough into equal size pieces. Shape them into balls rolling firmly between two palms until smooth on top.

Gently add the balls to the sugar syrup and cover the pressure cooker without applying the weight. Gently simmer them in the sugar liquid until they become double in size (getting the perfect shape and size requires some good practice before you can obtain the prefect rasagulla).

Remove the lid from the cooker and allow the rasagulla to cool down completely before touching them. They will have expanded to almost double their original size and will be delicate when hot.

When cool, pour the rose water or saffron syrup (made by soaking the saffron strands in a little warm water) on the Rasgullas and chill for a few hours before serving.

Bon appétit

Allow me to use the word Calcutta when I left the city after my hotel management education in the year 1999. The name itself does not matter a lot especially when the culinary offering of the city is always on a high much to the delight of the people who were a part of the thriving food culture in the past.

Culture descends immensely o the city and the fervour has also sneaked into for the food, right from the roadside eatery lovingly called Thela to the numerous five star hotels which dots the city line now.

Bengali cuisine has left some vivid memories in my three year association with the city and one thing is for sure, cuisine always followed the people of Bengal who migrated to different parts of the world.

I was in Delhi few days back and was not surprised to see that so many restaurants has cropped up in recent years to offer the flavour of Bengal. One that stands out to my memory is the Chowringhee restaurant located in the eastern side of Delhi. Well I may confess that someone looking for exact authenticity with the knife of high expectation may discount the experience but not everyone thinks the same. As the regional preferences and adherence are making way to new found wisdom of global cuisine, it is only apt that even non-Bengalis are making a beeline for the good Bengali food.

Chowringee lane which is close to Park Street in Kolkata has actually the real hub of pan Indian cuisine where a mere stroll will send your sensory organs on frenzy until you become a part of it and join hands to savour the spirit of the place.

The odd gramophone playing in a street corner in some old musical shop, the indiscreet amalgamation of the life forces, a few hand rickshaw pullers in the bylane is all reminiscent of old Kolkata which has somehow survived the test of time. Of course in the last nine year since I left the city, a lot has changed but what has not is the gastronomic spirit of the place.

Session in food:

Bengali cuisine is vast and consists of an array of sumptuous and healthy vegetable preparations in addition to the most delicate and eponymous fish curries and some meat curries. I frankly do not think of other state or place in India which can offer so many varieties of fish and  the related preparation right from their own fried fish, numerous types macher jhol (fish curries) like doi maach, shorshe illish, macher kalia etc. and even in the lentil preparations like muro Ghunto which is fish head with lentils).

More than the red meat, chicken dishes are very popular and some of them you would come across can by Chicken rizala, murg firangi roast, chicken biryanis, slightly sweetened chicken curries etc. I would advise you to visit few Muslim restaurant around metro cinema who would offer you some of the best biryanis, kebabs, kormas, wraps, kulfis and falooda.

If you are looking for a bit of Chinatown in Calcutta, no other place qualifies better than Tangra. Food from Tangra is a distinct variety of traditional Chinese food adapted to Indian ingredients and the Bengali palate. This has spread to the rest of India, along with the recipes earlier unique to Tangra.. While the regular fare would be all types of popular oriental soups, all types of fancy sounding chicken dishes, wide repertoire of noodles and fried rice and not so famous desserts.

The challenge, though, lies in adapting to the Bengali palate which prefers sweet much more than any other taste. Sweetening the curries a little is quite common when you eat there and often results in complain. Most of the restaurants, however, have managed to find a solution by modifying and tweaking the taste as per the diners demand.

One sure you to get stunned is looking through the numerous varieties, lines and types of sweets which is almost incomparable and more than any other shops the one you are likely to cross very other minute in Calcutta would be the shops offering right from misti doi, numerous sondesh, kulfis, rosogulla and pantuas and calling it the sweet capital of the world would be no exaggeration.

Some of the future blogs will definitely be dedicated to sharing some of the popular Bengali recipes and if somebody has got some specific request, you can always let us know through sonzyskitchen. Hope you enjoyed the journey and wait for much more to come.

Bon appétit

Well, if somebody is expecting me to be judgemental about the comparison between tofu and paneer and come out with endorsing superiority, I prefer to leave the decision on to you. All I can do here to present very objective view of the two wonderful ingredients and critically analyse their credentials against the backdrop of health clamour and diet regime.

Some of you may definitely have knowledge of tofu, its culinary applications and its versatility, but I wish to give some background for the rest of the readers to help them develop their understanding of the same.

Tofu or bean curd which is the literal translation is a food of Chinese origin, made by coagulating soy milk, collecting the curdled solid in special wooden blocks and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu that has been processed in some way. Tofu has very little flavor or smell on its own, but you can also incorporate the flavour of your choice just before the stage of straining the whey. The best example could be chillies, chopped fresh coriander, roasted cumin, sautéed garlic and onion etc. The other way to impart some flavour to this simple ingredient is by marinating them with the marinade you prefer the most. It can either me simple salt and mustard paste or more complicated western marinades.

In one of the following blogs I may be tempted to give the recipe of home made tofu which may be stretching you in the kitchen for first few times but worth taking the pain to keep the cost of this ingredient under your budget.

Some of the health aspect of tofu does portray their consumption in a very positive light, for tofu is low in calories and high in protein which is very good for people living on the vegetarian diet. It is especially good for growing child and athletes. It also contains beneficial amounts of iron (especially important for women of child-bearing age) and has no saturated fat or cholesterol. Depending on the coagulant used in manufacturing, the tofu may also be high in calcium (important for bone development and maintenance), and magnesium (especially important for athletes). Tofu also contains soy isoflavones, which can mimic natural human estrogens and may have a variety of harmful or beneficial effects when eaten in sufficient quantities.

Varieties of tofu:

There is a wide variety of tofu available in both Western and Eastern markets as a result of recent resurgence of interest in this wonderful product. It can mainly be divided into two type; fresh tofu, which is produced directly from soy milk, and processed tofu, which is produced from fresh tofu. Tofu production also creates important side products like okara which are often used in various cuisines.

Fresh tofu

Depending upon the moisture content of tofu, it can be divide into three main types namely:

• Silken/ soft tofu- Some people do make a distinction between these two but they are invariably the one. This tofu is made undrained which means that it possesses the highest moisture within itself and the texture is very similar to caramel custard of the west. It is often eaten as a dessert with minimal addition and fuss, but sometimes eaten with salty pickles or hot sauce. You can use this tofu to make power drinks also as a healthy beverage option.

• Firm tofu- this tofu is not only drained but also pressed to remove some of the moisture which is essential to obtain firmness. It has the firmness of raw meat but bounces back readily when pressed. This type of tofu is very good to replace paneer in the dishes like matar paneer (paneer and green peas), kadhai paneer (wok toseed paneer with vegetables), palak paneer (paneer with spinach) etc. This type of tofu often has the impression of muslin cloth on top of its skin as a result of gentle press.

• Western firm/dried tofu- This is an extra firm variety of tofu with the least amount of moisture of all fresh tofus. It has the firmness of fully cooked meat and a somewhat rubbery feel similar to paneer. When sliced thinly, this tofu can be crumbled easily.

Fresh tofu is usually sold completely immersed in water to maintain its moisture content. It is a good alternative for grated paneer dishes like paneer bhurjee (scrambled paneer), paneer paratha (flattened Indian bread stuffed with paneer) etc.

Processed tofu

Many forms of processed tofus exist, due to the varied ways in which fresh tofu can be used. Some of these techniques originated as the need of the hour to increase the shelf life of tofu and imparthing definite interesting twist to the otherwise blacd block of protein.

Fermented

• Pickled tofu Also called “preserved tofu, tofu is allowed to air-dry under hay which in turns produces aerial bacteria. The dry fermented tofu is then soaked in salt water, Chinese wine, vinegar, and minced chillies, or a unique mixture of whole rice, bean paste, and soybeans.

Flavored:

I have already described this version of tofu with the flavour component earlier. This is another step towards making its application universal as some of the cuisines are so robust in terms of flavour and taste. Much remains to your personal taste and preference when you make this tofu.

I will try to include few of the Indian recipes with tofu in the coming blogs so that it is easier for you to understand its boundless application in your kitchen.