mongo_jones

i mentioned chhana in my previous post. what is it? click and read on http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/Publication/apah85/163.htm

while it is possible you are being at least a little bit sarcastic i'd like to point out anyway that my knowledge of bengali sweets is entirely experiential: that is to say, as a bengali i have eaten almost every kind of bengali sweet there is--and like most calcuttans have uncles who claim to know the best shop for every particular variety. however, while this knowledge extends to knowing that neither the bengali shondesh nor the kalakand has any relationship with gulab jamuns (which are not even bengali sweets) i know very little of the chemical/compositional makeup of all the sweets and so am not able to provide a detailed breakdown. with that caveat here's a general description: essentially, bengali sweets break down into two categories: dry and wet. the shondesh is the king of the dry, and while the roshogulla is the king of the wet, this category includes a lot of other things as well. both types of sweets are usually made from chhana, though mishti doi (a close second to roshogulla in the wet category) is made directly from curd. in the shondesh family the water is removed from the chhana after curdling and sugar syrup is rarely used--nor is there usually any frying. the roshogulla and other wet sweets of its ilk are either cooked in sugar syrup or soaked in it (with or without frying involved). there are also flour based sweets, but i personally don't think bengali versions of these are as good as the north indian ones. all of this is open to correction by people who know more about the ins and outs of these things--i am not a professional food writer or sweet maker. vikram may be able to point us towards more definitive information. in the meantime i'd advise a cursory glance at the pictures of the sweets on the page i posted a link to earlier today: it'll give you a sense of the family affiliations of different sweets.

a brief history of the rossogulla from a member of the founding family: http://www.angelfire.com/country/bengalifo...ood/food05.html

no, no people, kalakand is not a member of the gulab jamun family--not in bengal at least; there it is a member of the sandesh/shondesh family (dairy, not flour). perhaps we need crash courses in bengali and other indian sweets.

here's a link to a site with pictures of assorted indian sweets (bengali and others): http://www.geocities.com/parasu41/Indian_Sweets/ keep in mind that many sweets have multiple variations and therefore there is no definitive look for them--especially true of chom-choms. also this is not an exhaustive list. by the way, i am still mystified by the statement made by one simon majumdar in an earlier thread about gulab jamuns that the black ones are called "sandesh" in calcutta. ( http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...T&f=40&t=10192& -- scroll down to the post of sep 5, 2002. ) i have never heard of this--the shondesh is a completely different sweet with multiple variations of its own. on the other hand comrade majumdar is frequently referred to here as an expert on bengali food so perhaps i am mistaken. i can clarify this this weekend when i talk to my parents but can someone else shed some light on this? (edited to make the links work)

are bengali sweets made with cow's or buffalo's milk? if the latter, that may have something to do with it.

gautam, it is an even simpler recipe than that--comes out delicious. mongo

will report once the deed is done--won't be for a week or so (need to work through a lot of other stuff in the freezer first).

episure, my sister and i used to eat butter and tomato ketchup sandwiches (on white bread)--quite the incipient gourmets we were. i am a big fan of ketchup though i don't cook much with it. by the way, i have a great recipe for a quick chicken curry involving a mixture of yoghurt and ketchup--sounds gross but is great--is from an aunt who is an amazing cook, so it figures. if people won't throw tomatoes at me i'll even post it here. which brand of tomato sauce was that ad in the 80s for again? "ketchup hota kaddu bhara" and with all the brands of ketchup in the u.s, and given the pride of place of ketchup in the american kitchen, it is surprising that there is nothing here that can compare with maggi india's hot and sweet tomato sauce or their chilli-garlic sauce. of course it goes without saying that there is no chilli sauce here that can compare with the green chilli sauces from cal. mongo

thanks a lot episure--i am going to sin and try making it with ground dark turkey meat. by the way, i am amused to see the effect bhasin has had on you: while you note your reservations about the classic egg step you nevertheless don't omit it from the recipe!

anyone have a simple recipe?

no, but i know where you can get a prescription filled for a statin.

bong, so, you're saying the tea sold in railway stations in bengal is brewed and not boiled with milk and sugar as it is in, say, punjab? and while it may not be as masaledar as masala chai in other parts of india i submit that the addition of ginger and cardamom puts it in the spice tea category, rather than that of the classic english brew. mongo

bong, it is westernized bengalis, especially ones from calcutta that drink their tea in the brewed english style. people from other classes tend to boil their tea, milk and sugar (with or without cardamom etc.) in a manner that would make your average english tea snob cough up their buttered scones.

you have been misinformed. your best bets on this board for info are episure and vikram.

the breads did give me pause too. but just steamed rice might be a little minimalist. i hope the paratha on the menu is the great, thick, layered bangal porotha. i'm willing to forgive them the naan and roti's just because they kept the vindaloo (chicken/lamb/beef--mild/medium/spicy) and its ilk off the menu. and they do seem to have a lot of bengali specialties, including alu/jhinge posto. of course, we've received two opposing reviews on the subject of whether they actually do them right.

and there's a series of "india's tandooris" in los angeles. in addition to everything else i think it is a matter of time. indians in the u.s have not yet achieved critical mass except in a few areas. they've only just begun to show up in non-caricaturish bit-parts on t.v and in hollywood movies. i say it takes another 5-10 years for something to spring up outside of just a few metro areas.

what is wrong with you people with your hatred of lau? lau is heavenly--my mouth is watering in anticipation of eating my mother's shredded lau with coconut. less than 2 more months!

homechef, the bangladeshi wholesalers in los angeles import whole frozen hilsa/ilish. i'm sure the same is true in the bay area, nyc and chicago as well. i bought and cooked a fair amount of it in my 10 years in l.a. not sure if it is padma ilish but the taste survived the freezing and flying pretty well. somehow i had a 80% strike rate of getting a ilish full of eggs. as any bengali (bangal or ghoti) will tell you, shorshe ilish with a side of fried ilish eggs is like foie gras with a side of caviar. glad to hear a good report of charulata. now we need a bengali opinion. mongo

anil. lau chingri is awesome when done right. you should try it in a home when next in cal. i'm definitely trying this place on my next trip to the bay area (in the indefinite future). there are so few bengali restaurants (even in bengal) that there really is very little to compare it to--many of the standard indian restaurant complaints ("nothing like home food" etc.) don't apply--since there really is almost no tradition in india of bengali restaurant food. most non-bengali indians outside bengal have never eaten bengali food. there certainly are a lot of bengali classics on the menu--hope they're done well, and cooked using good shorshe tel.

bong, other bay area folks: if you haven't already been there, how about making a trip and reporting on your findings. if you have been there already what is it like?

it also isn't completely out of the question for two similar things to develop separately in two separate places that have access to similar raw materials. which came first, the chapati or the tortilla?

the menu looks great! is this a first? http://www.charulata.com/index.html

it is customary for every male guest to kiss the bride's mother. as part of the tradition, which requires loud protestations of virtue from the matron, she will act surprised, and sometimes even offended, but the true offence is to not kiss her.

i wonder if there are any sociological studies out there of the growth of indian food in the u.k--i can't imagine there wouldn't be. it would be interesting to read accounts of the changing audiences, chefs, expectations, definitions, ideologies for/of the food.