By KANKANA SAXENA
In her first cookbook, Taste of Eastern India, author Kankan Saxena shares the tastes of her Bengali roots in Northeastern India, and the dishes she grew up eating, ranging from comfort food to street food. With accessible ingredients and helpful tips. Kankana recreates her favorite Begali recipes and all of their sweet, sour, bitter and spicy flavors.
In her first cookbook, Taste of Eastern India, author Kankan Saxena shares the tastes of her Bengali roots in Northeastern India, and the dishes she grew up eating, ranging from comfort food to street food. With accessible ingredients and helpful tips. Kankana recreates her favorite Begali recipes and all of their sweet, sour, bitter and spicy flavors.
'Bengalis’ love of food is legendary. I grew up in a family where everybody loves food, everybody knows how to cook and when we all get together, there is always a lot to eat,” Kankana writes.
Kankana has stayed true to the authenticity of the cuisine and organized the book in the order of a traditional Bengali meal, starting with hearty lentils paired with deep-fried fritters, such as the delicacy Llish Maach Er Matha Diye Daal (Hilsa Fish Head Lentil Stew) with Beguni (Crispy Eggplant Sliders), a popular street food. The next course includes a vegetarian main dish, Dudh Phulkopi (Califlower in Mild Spiced Milk Gravy), followed by a dish with slow-cooked fish or meat, for example Kolkata Chicken Biryani (Chicken and Potato Spices Pilaf). Afterwards, enjoy sweet chutney such as Tomato Khejur Er Chutney (Tomato and Date Chutney). And for weekend and special occasions, the meal always ends with desserts like Malpua (Sweet Fried Dumpling) dipped in sugar syrup or Choshi Payesh (Rice Flour Vermicelli Sweet Pudding).
With the help of Kankana, and a nutty whiff of paanch phoron, a traditional spice blend, crackling in hot mustard oil, readers will be cooking as if in Kolkata. Saxena is the founder of the popular food blog Playful Cooking, which has been featured on Saveur, the Kitchn, Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. She is a recipe developer and food photographer, and she collaborated with brands to create recipes and photographs for their products. A native Bengali, she currently lives in California with her husband and son.
Kankana has stayed true to the authenticity of the cuisine and organized the book in the order of a traditional Bengali meal, starting with hearty lentils paired with deep-fried fritters, such as the delicacy Llish Maach Er Matha Diye Daal (Hilsa Fish Head Lentil Stew) with Beguni (Crispy Eggplant Sliders), a popular street food. The next course includes a vegetarian main dish, Dudh Phulkopi (Califlower in Mild Spiced Milk Gravy), followed by a dish with slow-cooked fish or meat, for example Kolkata Chicken Biryani (Chicken and Potato Spices Pilaf). Afterwards, enjoy sweet chutney such as Tomato Khejur Er Chutney (Tomato and Date Chutney). And for weekend and special occasions, the meal always ends with desserts like Malpua (Sweet Fried Dumpling) dipped in sugar syrup or Choshi Payesh (Rice Flour Vermicelli Sweet Pudding).
With the help of Kankana, and a nutty whiff of paanch phoron, a traditional spice blend, crackling in hot mustard oil, readers will be cooking as if in Kolkata. Saxena is the founder of the popular food blog Playful Cooking, which has been featured on Saveur, the Kitchn, Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. She is a recipe developer and food photographer, and she collaborated with brands to create recipes and photographs for their products. A native Bengali, she currently lives in California with her husband and son.
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