Chana-Motorsutir Dalna(Cottage Cheese-Green Peas cooked in a spicy vegetarian gravy)

Bengali cuisine has a wide array of vegetarian dishes. Contrary to popular belief, Bengalis do eat vegetarian food and not all our dishes revolve around fish or mutton. The annals of history state that in Bengal, when a Hindu and more particularly a Bramhin Hindu wife lost her husband and became a widow, she was dictated by society and religion to sustain herself on vegetarian fare for the rest of her life. This was primarily done as our Vedic texts suggest that the intake of onion,garlic, meat or fish increases sexual desire in a person. As widows constituted a considerable portion of the Bengal society, such desires were to be cured even before they began. Studies have been conducted on this and people have debated since time immemorial, but there is no concrete evidence to back this theory. Things are not the same as before as liberalism managed to change the staunch Bengali view on certain things. As such Hindu Bramhin widows had to abstain from meat in earlier times. But then women are intelligent and they found a way to work around this. They cooked vegetarian fare with simple spices and ingredients, items that were not banned to them, and often ended up making delicious meals that outdid non-vegetarian dishes.

Later on Bengalis realized that these vegetarian dishes were tasty enough and could be offered to the Gods/Goddesses during puja/holy days where non-vegetarian fare was strictly forbidden even to this day. During Durga Pujo, when the Bengalis celebrate the Goddess Durga and welcome her into their homes, vegetarian fare is eaten on Ashtami. No Bengali or rather most Bengali mothers will never allow anything in close association to non-vegetarian items into her kitchen on that day. Hence to make peace with the cribbing children or the sulking husband regarding vegetarian fare, innovative and delicious food items are prepared and peace is maintained in the household.

Now a Dalna is a spicy gravy and in Bengal one will find a variety of Dalnas- Fulkopir(Cauliflower) Dalna, Oolkopir (Kohlrabi) Dalna, Dhokar( Split Bengal Gram) Dalna, Chanar(Cottage cheese) Dalna and Dimer(Egg) Dalna to name a few. Dimer Dalna is a non-vegetarian dish and not consumed on Puja days or Niramish (days when Vegetarian food is eaten) days. These base of the curry for all these dishes remain the same with a few changes made here and there.

Most of the Vegetarian Dalnas in Bengali food have a base of Ada-Zeera Bata( Ginger-Cumin Seed Paste), plump red tomatoes in addition to the holy trinity of Bengali spices- Holu-Nun-Lonka Guro(Turmeric-Salt-Red Chilli Powder) Some dishes are tempered with Gota Gorom Moshla(Cardamom-Clove-Cinnamon) with the addition of curd or Greek yogurt(I like it personally) and a dash of Ghee or clarified butter in the end. My dish is made on similar lines. Other dishes may require a tempering of whole cumin seeds or dry red chillies or both. It differs with every dish and no two dishes have the same tempering. Growing up in a Bengali household, these things are embedded in your brain so that you don't go wrong in the future. Also, if in confusion, Ma is only a phone call away.

Now an interesting thing about Bengali food is that no two Bengali kitchen makes food the same way and the reason behind that is a huge portion of Bengali recipes are handed down from one generation to the other. We observe and learn. No cookbooks, no YouTube or Pinterest but by observing Ma and Dida's cooking for years. My mother learned cooking from my grandmother and later on added variations to the dishes to give it her own unique touch. I learned everything from my grandmother and mother and add my own unique touch to every dish I cook. This is the same in every Bengali household. As such, a simple item like Musurir Daal ( Red Lentil Soup) from my kitchen will not taste similar to the one my mother makes. I may prefer mushy Daal and boil it more, she may prefer Al Dente and hence boil it less. She may temper it with fried onions and green chillies and I may add a spoon of ghee in the end. Hence the food that comes out of individual Bengali kitchens vary in taste, color, flavor and aroma. But one thing is for certain- the food is damn tasty every bloody time!