Bengali recipies

Traditional Bengali Recipes

Authentic Flavors from the Heart of Bengal

Alu Posto

Description: A comforting dish made with potatoes simmered in creamy poppy seed paste. Served best with steamed rice, it’s a staple in most Bengali homes for its simplicity and flavor.

Recipe: Soak 4 tbsp poppy seeds in warm water for 30 minutes. Grind with 2 green chilies into a smooth paste. Heat mustard oil, temper with nigella seeds, add 3 diced potatoes and fry. Add poppy paste, salt, a little water, and cook until potatoes are soft and coated. Finish with mustard oil drizzle.

Shorshe Ilish

Description: Hilsa fish cooked in a pungent mustard seed paste with green chilies and mustard oil. It’s a rich, seasonal delicacy relished especially during monsoons.

Recipe: Make a paste of 2 tbsp black mustard seeds + 2 tbsp yellow mustard + 2 green chilies. Mix with salt and turmeric. Fry 6 hilsa pieces in mustard oil. Add mustard paste and green chilies to the oil, cook briefly, add fish, and simmer for 5 mins. Serve with rice.

Dhokar Dalna

Description: A traditional no-onion, no-garlic lentil cake curry. Made from chana dal, it’s a favorite during festivals and vegetarian meals.

Recipe: Soak 1 cup chana dal, grind into paste with ginger, green chili, and salt. Cook to thicken, then spread, cut, and fry the lentil cakes. Make curry with cumin, bay leaf, tomato, turmeric, chili powder. Add water, simmer with cakes. Garnish with ghee.

Mishti Doi

Description: A chilled, caramel-flavored yogurt made with thickened milk and jaggery. Mishti Doi is a must-have dessert for any Bengali celebration.

Recipe: Boil and reduce 1L full-fat milk. Cool slightly. Mix in 1/2 cup date palm jaggery (or sugar). Add 2 tbsp yogurt to set. Pour into clay pots and let set for 6–8 hours in a warm place. Chill before serving.

Shukto

Description: A unique bitter-sweet mixed vegetable stew with bitter gourd, drumsticks, and milk. Often the first item in a Bengali lunch, it cleanses the palate and starts the meal.

Recipe: Fry bitter gourd slices. In ghee, temper panch phoron, bay leaf. Add veggies (raw banana, potato, drumstick, brinjal), sauté. Add salt, sugar, and a paste of poppy seed + mustard. Add milk and simmer. Add fried bitter gourd last. Finish with ghee and radhuni.