When it comes to food, Bengalis cannot do without bhaat, mishti, macher jhol and obviously, kosha mangsho. These translate to rice, sweets, fish curry and Bengali chicken curry. Also, ask about the favourite street food of a true bong, it is definitely going to be phuchka. A contestant of MasterChef Australia, Kishwar Chowdhury is taking some of these comfort dishes to the global platform now and hands down, the judges are impressed. Kishwar, whose roots belong to Bangladesh, recently left the judges bowled over with a humble Bengali street food platter.
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The Bengali Street Food Platter With Phuchka, Chotpoti And Samosa
Potato was the primary ingredient of the Invention Test for Kishwar. And when a Bengali is asked to experiment with potato or aloo, magic happens. Kishwar utilised the potato to make spicy phuchka, potato-chikpea mix ( or chotpoti) and samosa. She also shared the picture of the platter on Instagram, stating, “In today’s Invention Test I made a Bengali Street food platter. I reinvented how we utilize the ‘ordinary’ potato by using it to emulate different pastries.”
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Kishwar also took her followers through the procedure of making the street delicacies in brief. In her Instagram post, she explained, “1/By lathing a potato with the Japanese lay, I made potato sheets that I then dried and used as filo pastry to wrap my ‘samosas‘. 2/ By parboiling some potatoes I could scoop out the inside and deep fry the outer shell. This looked exactly like a ‘phuchka‘ (paani puri) shell which is usually made with AP flour and semolina. I stuffed these with spiced potato and chickpeas and served with my sweet and spicy tamarind sauce. 3/ By deep frying julienned potatoes, they looked like ‘kurkure‘ usually made with chickpea flour. This is usually used as a crunchy topping for ‘Chotpotti‘…the one healthy, vegan, dish I could live off.”
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The Judges Were Impressed With Macher Jhol, Kosha Mangsho, Chingri Bhorta And Mach Bhaja Too
Earlier, Kishwar had the hearts of the judges with dishes like macher jhol, kosha mangsho with roti, chingri bhorta ( spicy mashed shrimp), and also mach bhaja ( fried fish). Recently, she has made a post on ‘no frills, authentic Bengali dishes’, stating, “Khichuri, Maach Bhaja (Pan Seared Spiced Bream), Begun Bhorta (Smoked Eggplant) and Niramish (Bengali 5 Spiced Vegetables). These are just some of the no frills, authentic Bengali dishes you’ll find in more than 200 million Bengali homes across the world…including mine.”
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MasterChef Australia is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar Premium. Kishwar, raised in Melbourne by Bangladeshi parents and now a mother of two, is one of the top contestants of the show.