Bengali cuisine is a style of food preparation that originated in Bengal.

Characteristics

Characteristic ingredients include rice, broken red lentils, broken mung beans, mustard oil, mustard paste , and coconut. Bengali cuisine is especially rich in seafood. More than forty types of mostly freshwater fish are common, including carp, catfish, prawn, and scampi, as well as some dried sea fish (called shutki maachh). Hilsa is a delicacy which migrates similarly to salmon; the varied salt content at different stages of the journey is of particular interest to the gastronome. Migrants from Bangladesh (earlier called East Bengal) tend to use more dried fish while natives of Bengal use more fresh water fish. The spices commonly used include cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, bayleaves, and peppercorn. A very commonly used spice combination, Panch Phoron (meaning "the tempering of five ingredients") includes fennel, cumin, nigellaseed s, mustard seeds, fenugreek seed s, and (in some versions) randhuni celery seeds.

Courses in a meal

The typical Bengali fare includes a certain sequence of food. Rice remains common through out the meal until the chutney course. The starting course is generally bitter and is usually fried bittergourd or fried neem leaves, although this may be replaced with a thin, soupy, bitter sweet item called Shukto. Shaak or leafy vegetable preparations like spinach or fenugreek or amaranth follows this, accompanied with a sharp mustard paste called Kasundi. This is followed by a dal and bhaja (fritters made of aubergine or pumpkin or plain potatoes or even fish) and a vegetable preparation usually made of multiple vegetable components. Depending on the type of preparation, the vegetables might include Labras, Chorchoris, Ghontos, or chanchras. There also are a host of other preparations that do not come under any of these categories and are simply called Torkari. The next course is the fish course. Common fish delicacies include maacher jhol, tel koi, Pabda maacher jhaal, Doi maachh, Chingrimaachher malai curry, and bhaapa ilish. Then comes the mutton course (chicken and eggs are a recent addition). Beef and pork are by and large still taboo, except in certain sections. Then comes the chutney course, which is typically tangy and sweet; the chutney is generally made of tomatoes, pineapple, tamarind, raw papaya, or just a combination of fruits and dry fruits. Papads usually accompany the chutneys.

Sweets

The sweets of Bengal are generally made of cottage cheese (chhenna), Khoa (reduced solidified milk), or flours of different cereals and pulses. A few of the sweets of bengal are rasogolla, chumchum, sandesh, mishti doi, chhanar jilepi, kalo jam, darbesh, raghobshai, Payesh, nalengurer sandesh, Shor bhaja and an innumerable variety of peethe.