Recipes

Cook with the ghaani

Everyday Indian recipes, made with Truly Cold Pressed oils and bilona ghee.

Meetha Sattu ka Sharbat, a tall steel-rimmed glass of meetha sattu sharbat on a dark weathered wooden table
Drink

Meetha Sattu ka Sharbat

The colour of weak coffee, faintly grainy on the tongue, smelling strongly of roasted chana. Three minutes to make and it drinks...

Prep 10 min Cook 0 min Serves 2

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Sattu Paratha, a sattu paratha torn open on a steel plate
Breakfast

Sattu Paratha

The paratha puffs on the tawa and steam pushes out at the edge, carrying the smell of mustard oil, ajwain and pickle...

Prep 25 min Cook 25 min Serves 4

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Ghugni, plump soft white peas and small potato cubes in a thin dark brown gravy
Snack

Ghugni

Soft white peas in a thin dark gravy, a squeeze of tamarind, raw onion and bhaja masala over the top, eaten hot...

Prep 15 min Cook 45 min Serves 4

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Dhuska, three golden deep-fried dhuska
Breakfast

Dhuska

The batter hits hot oil and swells into a puffed golden disc in seconds, crisp all around the rim and soft in...

Prep 20 min Cook 30 min Serves 4

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Dhokar Dalna, six golden-brown diamond-shaped chana dal cakes half submerged in a glossy orange-brown gravy
Lunch

Dhokar Dalna

Golden diamonds of fried chana dal, crisp at the corners, sitting in a ginger and tomato gravy that they slowly drink up...

Prep 30 min Cook 50 min Serves 4

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Dalma, a thick golden-yellow dal with visible chunks of orange pumpkin half dissolved
Lunch

Dalma

Toor dal cooked soft with pumpkin and raw banana, a ghee tempering of panch phoron poured in hot, and roasted cumin and...

Prep 20 min Cook 40 min Serves 4

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Phulkopir Dalna, large cauliflower florets browned gold at the edges and big chunks of potato sitting in a thin glossy
Dinner

Phulkopir Dalna

Cauliflower fried gold at the edges, potatoes cut big, and a light ginger gravy that goes red at the sides of the...

Prep 20 min Cook 35 min Serves 4

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Chhena Poda, a very dark, almost blackened cracked top crust
Festive Sweet

Chhena Poda

The top burns almost black and cracks under a spoon. Under it the chhena is warm, moist and grainy, sitting on a...

Prep 40 min Cook 60 min Serves 8

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Beguni, five long beguni fritters
Snack

Beguni

A thin slice of brinjal in a lacy golden crust that cracks when you bite it, the inside gone soft and creamy,...

Prep 15 min Cook 20 min Serves 4

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Luchi with Aloor Dom, four puffed white luchi, pale and unbrowned
Breakfast

Luchi with Aloor Dom

The luchi swells into a white balloon in eight seconds. Beside it, small potatoes sit dented and dark in a mustard oil...

Prep 30 min Cook 45 min Serves 4

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Bhoger Labra, a thick mixed vegetable stew in deep orange and gold, chunks of pumpkin half collapsed, wedges of potato
Side Dish

Bhoger Labra

Panch phoron pops in smoking mustard oil, then eight vegetables go in and slowly collapse into one another until the pumpkin sweetens...

Prep 25 min Cook 45 min Serves 6

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Aloo Pitika, a rough hand-shaped mound of pale creamy mashed potato, glistening faintly with raw mustard oil
Side Dish

Aloo Pitika

Hot mashed potato with raw mustard oil worked through it, sharp enough to catch the back of your nose, with raw onion...

Prep 10 min Cook 20 min Serves 4

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Khaja, a stack of four pale golden khaja
Festive Sweet

Khaja

You bite the corner and about forty paper-thin layers shatter at once, and the sugar syrup that soaked into them the night...

Prep 45 min Cook 45 min Serves 6

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Soft rolled crepes filled with coconut and jaggery, arranged warm on a plate
Festive Sweet

Patishapta

Thin soft crepes rolled around a warm coconut and jaggery filling, cooked on a pan wiped with ghee. They rarely survive the...

Prep 75 min Cook 40 min Serves 6

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Golden chana dal with fried coconut slivers and raisins, served in a small brass katori
Lunch

Cholar Dal

Soft chana dal, gently sweet, warm with cinnamon and clove, with crisp gold coconut slivers through it and a spoon of ghee...

Prep 15 min Cook 40 min Serves 4

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Creamy jaggery rice payesh in an earthen bowl, finished with chopped nuts
Festive Sweet

Nolen Gurer Payesh

Milk cooked down slowly with short fragrant gobindobhog rice, jaggery folded in off the heat, and fried cashews on top. Warm in...

Prep 35 min Cook 50 min Serves 4

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Deep brown ridged thekua piled on a brass plate beside a clay diya
Snack

Thekua

Dark, dense, jaggery-sweet biscuits with fennel and coconut through them, fried low and slow until they snap. Chhath keeps them, but they...

Prep 30 min Cook 40 min Serves 20

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Golden khichuri with cauliflower, potato and cashews, melted ghee shining, served on a leaf plate
Lunch

Bhoger Khichuri

Roasted moong dal and short fragrant gobindobhog rice cooked soft with cauliflower, potato and peas, finished with ghee off the heat. No...

Prep 25 min Cook 45 min Serves 5

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Thick fried brinjal rounds with crisp caramel edges, served on a banana leaf with rice
Side Dish

Begun Bhaja

Thick brinjal rounds rubbed with turmeric and chilli, fried in smoking mustard oil until the edges go dark gold and the middle...

Prep 10 min Cook 15 min Serves 4

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Pale milky shukto with potato, drumstick and bitter gourd in a bell metal bowl
Lunch

Shukto

A pale, milky, gently bitter vegetable stew that opens a Bengali meal. Mustard and poppy paste, a little coconut, and a spoon...

Prep 25 min Cook 35 min Serves 4

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Creamy potato cubes in poppy seed paste served in a bowl with steamed rice
Lunch

Aloo Posto

Pale, creamy poppy seed paste clinging to soft potato cubes, two whole green chillies sitting on top, and a raw spoon of...

Prep 15 min Cook 30 min Serves 4

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Baked sattu-stuffed litti cracked open over ghee, served beside smoky roasted brinjal chokha
Dinner

Litti Chokha

Wheat balls stuffed with spiced sattu, baked till blistered, cracked open in your palm and dunked in ghee, with a rough smoky...

Prep 40 min Cook 40 min Serves 4

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