Now that Durga Pujo is
knocking at the door and just like last two years, this year too I am away from
home, I have already begun to miss the euphoria and excitement the countdown of
puja incites in Kolkata, the very ambience overrun by a pujo pujo feeling. I am
missing the roads chockablock with shoppers wrapping up their last minute
pujo shopping, the clamor of haggling between buyers and sellers and last
but not the least the exhilaration upon the purchase of new clothes. The madness
of Durga Pujo in Kolkata in one word is beyond description, something one ought
to experience first-hand.
I have many memories
connected to pujo starting from childhood days when me with my three cousins
would venture out for pandal hopping with a meager amount of money handed in by
the elders. The eldest of all, five years senior to me would play the role of chaperon
overseeing our safety. We were strictly instructed by the elders to hover within
the boundary of Behala, which is about few kilometers distance from our homes.
Once or twice, however, the eldest cousin planning to check out the pujos of
Kidderpore, a little faraway from our home, told us to keep the plan hush-hush
from elders, which all the time save once got leaked to my parents through me,
thanks to my elder brother who always getting a hint about our pujo plan would try
messing it up by informing the elders if the plan went beyond the permissible
course while he himself would go around with his buddies to all the nooks and
corners of Kolkata for pandal hopping.
The following is a recipe
of a very traditional cholar dal that is cooked without onion in a typical
purist vegetarian fashion, offered as obeisance to the deity during Durga Pujo
or Lokkhi Pujo. Among all the wholesome bhog items (offerings), if any that is
consumed with unstinted appetite, next to bhoger khichuri, is cholar dal with
luchi. I know many who literally would get into a fierce competition of outdoing
each other in the number of luchis eaten during pujo, such is the frenzy
luchi-cholar dal combination triggers.
Ingredients: Cooking
time: 30 minutes
ü 200 gm chana dal or cholar dal or split
Bengal gram
ü 1 cup green peas (frozen)
ü 1/2 cup coconut (chopped or grated)
ü 1 tsp ginger paste
ü 1 tsp turmeric powder
ü 1 tsp dry red chilli powder
ü 1/2 tsp hing powder or asafetida
ü 1 tsp garam masala powder
ü 4-5 green chillies (chopped)
ü Salt to taste
ü 2 tsp sugar
ü 2 tbsp raisins (soaked in 2 tbsp of water)
ü White oil for cooking
ü 1 tsp ghee
For sauté:
ü 1 bay leaf
ü 2 dry red chillies
ü 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
ü 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
Method:
1) Soak chana dal
overnight for 5-6 hours. Then put them in a pressure cooker covered in 2-3
cups of water. Add turmeric powder and stir in. Tighten the lid and cook on
high flame till the pressure cooker emits a hissing sound. Without waiting
any further, turn off the flame. (The
grains of the lentil should be separate and not mushy.)
2) Heat oil in a wok and
when oil reaches a smoking point, add the ingredients for sauté and allow
them to sputter.
3) Add chopped or grated
coconut. Shallow fry. Add ginger paste, green chillies and stir around.
4) Pour the lentil in,
add dry red chilli powder, hing powder, salt and frozen peas. Measure out 1/2
cup of water into it and cook covered for 5 minutes.
5) Add sugar, raisins,
garam masala powder and ghee. Simmer for 2 more minutes before turning off
the flame.
6) Serve hot with luchi,
paratha or fried rice.
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