By Pamela Nandi | Apr 11, 2019

Any Indian festival is incomplete without food and the City Of Joy – the paradise for food lovers soaks into this essence to welcome the upcoming festival ‘Naba Borsho‘ or ‘Poila Baisakh‘ celebrations with some eclectic recipes whipped up by the noted culinary expert and home chef from Bangladesh – Nayana Afroz at Durbari, Swissotel ringed as ‘The Padma Chronicles‘ who has established her identity in presenting the rich gastronomy of the ‘OPAR BANGLA’ on the plate.
It’s a great honour to meet and have Nayana di in the ‘City of Joy’ to celebrate the grand occasion of Bengal’s traditional festival ‘Nababarsha’ with some decadent food specially curated by her.

The lavish fine dining restaurant welcomes you to relish the Taste of Opar Bangla – which has been shaped by its diverse history leaving behind influences of Mughal and Parsis in terms of its culinary styles and adopting the cuisines regionally.

Though the Bangladeshi cuisine is closely related to the surroundings of Bengal in terms of rice and fish traditional favourites, the differences between their gastronomies purely reflected in each layer contrast in colour and distinctive taste starting from spicy appetizers, rich aromatic polao and korma to the tangy sweet signature dessert halwas.

IN FRAME –

WELCOME DRINK –

Bhurani –
Healthy digestive yoghurt based signature drink spiced with roasted cumin, cilantro, mint.

APPETIZERS –

Pauruti Chingri Roll –
Adorable crispy rolls are perfect for party appetizers. Spicy shrimps rolled in bread, battered and deep-fried until golden brown.

Chicken Jaali Kebab –
The signature dish all its way from Dacca. The word ‘jali” refers to net. The spicy minced meat wrapped in net style ‘envelop’ made from egg giving the outer texture a special effect. Look and tastewise a very interesting dish.

Daler Peyaju –
The red lentil fritters with spicy tinge of green chillies and onion inside – very popular snacks in Bangladesh consumed during the iftar. Locals call this dish as Masur Daler Bora.

Laupatay Pituli –
Bottle gourd leaves stuffed with grated coconut, mustard, green chillies and dipped into a thin batter and deep fried. The strong aroma and pungent taste of the mustard are very well balanced with the grated coconut.

Leave your spoons and dig in with the hands to titillate the taste buds during this ‘Baisakh‘ in order to unveil the secrets of humble ‘Bhortas‘ or ‘Vorta‘ – a culinary tradition of mash, roasted vegetables, fish with its origin from Bangladesh that created flavourful magic.

Its the ‘Vorta’ platter or thali served in handcrafted clay utensils (matir thala) with the food laid on the bed of banana leaf that is not only eye-soothing but enhances the flavour.

The delicious, fiery mash with its creamy texture is just extraordinary. Simplest comfort food of Bangladesh served with ‘radhunipagol’ rice.

IN FRAME –

Pora Begun Tomato Vorta –
One of the most popular mashed items of Bangladesh. A little burn on the mashed eggplant mixed with spicy roasted tomato, onion and chillis brings a sizzling flavour to the dish. Very simple but heavenly taste can beat any nonveg dish.

Hilsa and Pumpkin Vorta –
Hilsa – our much-loved fish is generally cooked with mustard, the sweetness of pumpkin gives a unique taste to bring out the flavour of the hilsa even better.

Potol Chingri Vorta –
Bangladeshi style of Potol and Chingri mash preparation. Unseeded Parwal mashed with chingri which turned very tasty keeping the flavour of the seafood intact.

Mochar Vorta –
From its stem to flowers, fruits everything is in use. Mocha (banana flower), boiled and tossed lightly in pan mixed with spices to give a smoky flavour. Delicious and semi-dry. Goes best with steamed rice.

Patuatuli Aloo –
Named after the place ‘Patuatuli’ in Dhaka. Potatoes sliced in the form of wafers and cooked in a mild white semi dry gravy with mustard.

Pachmishali Daal –
Bahari Bangladeshi Pachmishali Daal where 5 types of pulses (dried beans, lentils) – Moong daal ( yellow lentil), Masoor daal (red lentils), Arhar/ toor daal (pigeon peas), chaana (chick pea ), mattar dal (yellow pea) are dry roasted in a pan that pulls the actual flavour of the daals and then cooked into a thick spicy stew eaten with rice. A mainstay of Bangladeshi cuisine.

MAIN COURSES –

Mashkalai Khichuri –
The semi-dry healthy and comforting meal made with rice and lentils studded with a generous amount of green peas and served with ghee.

Ilish Korma –
Hilsa cooked in a mild white gravy of onion, garlic, ginger, yoghurt and almond. The spices and flavours are kept to moderate in order to keep the love for the original flavour and taste of hilsa fish intact when cooked. Garnished with deep fried onions. One of the tastiest fish due to its distinctly soft oily texture oozing out in the gravy. Goes very well with pulao.

Methi Duck –
Fresh fenugreek (methi) green leaves with a slightly bitter taste but its amazing aroma that emanates while the meat is slowly cooked in thick gravy of rich spices will make you drool.

Satkora Mutton –
A traditional Sylheti dish. Shatkora – a semi-wild citrus fruit used commonly in Bangladeshi cuisine of the Sylhet region. Thin slices of the fruit simmered with meat and other spices in the gravy that makes this dish a quintessential one. The mild bitter sour taste of this unique & aromatic citrus fruit is very well balanced with medium hot gravy which is very comforting to the palate with

Murog Pulao –
The pieces of chicken and the aroma of the ‘radhuni pagol’ rice doused in a perfect blend of fragrant spices and herbs. The dish just tasted heaven.

DESSERT –

Beetroot Halwa –
A unique delicious dessert with a rich and creamy texture tastes very similar to Carrot Halwa (Gajar Halwa). Prepared from nutrition rich beetroot, khoya, milk and dry fruits that comes with beautiful colour. Served as piping hot. Surely a festive delight.

Green Mango Halwa –
Kacha Aam Halwa – the tasty sour sweet dessert for summer Made with fresh raw mango pulp mixed with crushed green cardamom that gives a light pastel green colour and sweetness to the halwa. Very spongy, delicate and just melts into the mouth with a burst of flavours.

Thank you so much, Rukshana A. Kapadia, Sandipa Ghosh for the warm invitation.

Thanks a lot, Nayana di, chefAshis Rout, Subhrajit Bardhan for your gracious hospitality.

Last but not the least, kudos to executive chef Ashis Routfor dilligently executing the recipes.

What: The Padma Chronicles
Where: Durbari, Swissotel
Till: Apr-15-2019 (lunch and dinner)

Cheers !!!