Feeding the Masses

I finally got around to cooking a full, multi-course vegetarian meal for my friends. Here’s what finally came out…

1. Kumro bhate – Steamed pumpkin mash with coconut and raw mustard oil, and rice
2. Posto bhate – poppyseed paste with raw mustard oil, and rice. This was actually the surplus poppyseed paste from the aloo posto, but it tastes great nevertheless
3. Methi shaag – Fenugreek leaves stir fried with roasted peanuts
4. Aloo posto – Potatoes in a poppyseed and nigella sauce
5. Boti Chocchori – Cauliflower, peas and snow peas steamed with mustard. Snow peas, of course, are not traditional but substitute nicely for broad beans (sheem) which are.
6. Mushur dal – Masoor dal with panch phoron and chopped cilantro
7. Chhanar Dalna – Paneer in a ginger-cumin sauce with whole garam masala
8. Shujir Payesh – Rawa milk pudding with saffron and cardamom.

(Its actually five courses, because 4,5 and 6 are meant to be had together)

All this, of course, with steamed rice. I ran out of Gobindobhog, but there was the local Ambe Mohur. Nothing wrong with Basmati, but that’s not what you would usually have it with at a Bengali home. Of course, we don’t normally have rice at all for dinner – usually rotis or parathas or pooris, but that’s outside my capabilities so rice it was.