All You Need To Know About The Winter Food Culture Of Bengal

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Bengalis are very much foodie. They love food, veg or non-veg, doesn’t really matter to them. Bengal is rich in agro production and hence they have plenty of recipes with veggies. And the most beautiful thing is the variation of food culture in its different regions. And Bengal doesn’t mean only the state West Bengal, but also includes Bangladesh, so the range of variation is so high.

Here we'll talk about some of their regular home-made recipes and some of the winter food festivals.

Winter special recipes

Winter is famous for varieties of veggies. Here in Bengal, winter is the season of vegetables like carrots, radishes, beets, many types of beans, cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, cilantro etc. All of them are great in taste and can be cooked in so many different processes.
  • With Cabbage In the western countries, cabbage is used as salad or just boiled, but in Bengal, people cook it in a great manner. First to chop a cabbage, then to boil it for 5 minutes. Then, in a wok, a certain amount of oil is heated and Bay leaf, Cumin, Garam masala is added into it. When it leaves the fabulous smell, some pieces of green chilies and potatoes are added and fried well. Then the boiled cabbage is added along with the necessary amount of salt and turmeric powder, and the whole mixture is cooked in low flame for at least 20 minutes, unless it gets smashed well. At the end, a little amount of Ghee and Garam masala powder is to be added to make the taste heavenly.
  • With Beans Firstly, there are 4-5 types of beans that are used as food in Bengal. Bengali food culture has the heritage of recipes with beans. Beans are cooked with potatoes, the item is called 'Chochchori'. This can be made in different ways, with black cumin and green chilies; with poppies and mustards; with onion-garlic paste and also with other veggies like carrots and different types of beans together as a mixed veg. Beans can be cooked as curry as well.
  • With Cilantro Cilantro is an extra addition for any winter recipe. Most of the Bengalis love the flavour of cilantro. Whatever the item is, whether a mixed veg, or a curry, or Dal, cilantro makes it the finest. Besides, cilantro can itself be cooked as Chutney, or can be fried as 'Chop'.

Winter food festivals

  • Nabanna Nabanna is the festival of new harvest. Farmers have celebrated this festival for ages and this tradition is continuing till date. People do worship 'Devi Annapurna' or 'Lord Kali' or their harvested crops in some places. And the most important part is the arrangement of foods. People cook new rice, so many veggies and obviously, delicious 'Payes', a sweet dish of rice with milk. In villages, this festival is a must in Bengal.
  • Poush Parvana Another winter food festival, the festival of sweets. This is celebrated on the First day of Poush, the 10 th month of Bengali calendar. It is called the festival of Pithe Puli. Varieties of Pithe(Bengali homemade cake) like Malpo, Patisapta, Dudhpuli, Chushi, Roshbara and Payes also, we can find in every Bengali house during this time. They mostly use Maida,Rice powder and Nolen Gur to prepare these sweet items.