Pitter Patter, Fritter Batter

A drop of that transparent nectar as the parched woods find their reincarnate, the mouth-wateringly overwhelming aroma of freshly drenched lands ready to blossom greens, the gentle drubbing of misty raindrops on weather-beaten glass-panes… the squelch and squalour of muddy monsoons matters not as the moist respite assaults our every sight, sound and smell. In this godsend of a season, Bengali tastebuds get an experience in the guise of ‘tele-bhaja’, steaming hot vegetable fritters in chickpea flour batter, bathed in the robust aroma of bubbling hot mustard oil! 

Telebhaja, translated literally into 'fried in oil',  paints portraitures of gray-tinted havens, of muggy air tinted with a faint chill, of good times replete with familial bonding, and of endlessly enjoyable addas. All these elements come to a head with the very first shower of relief. Out comes the kadai, and with it the spluttering crackle of the batter hitting the bubbling hot mustard oil… and platters full of fritters vanish faster than an eclipse sighting!

So, what goes onto the making of this delectable concoction that forms such an integral part of a culture? The obvious condiments, but not without a dollop of passion, love and a wee bit of syrupy gluttony! The rule of the thumb for picking the veggies for the fritters is to choose the blandest ones possible so as to create an apt canvas for the batter to work its palette of flavours. 

While the creamy-white softness of eggplants finds perfect coupling in the chickpea flour batter (besan) speckled with onion seeds (kalaunji), often the opaque blandness of potatoes find an able foil in a generous smattering of fiery hot cayenne powder in the batter! And of course, to assault the taste buds one can always take the custard-yellow mellow sweetness of pumpkin slices and let some spicy batter play havoc, or, for a recipe for special occasions, let pumpkin blossoms engulfed in crisp fritter batter join hands with the zany choke of kasundi (mustard sauce)!

A Bengali’s scheme of things is ever incomplete without a generous smattering of smattering of gastronomic pleasures and aimlessly wandering intellectual platitudes! The customary evening chai session forges a marriage bond with adda better than fish and water… and of course how can one ever forget the conversations, piqued with the mention of anything so much as anointed with the wand of controversy, be it Marxian idealism, Tagorean poetry, Dada’s pitch-‘im’perfect performances or the age-old Mohun Bagan-East Bengal rivalry?! In this reverie fit for a world etched by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, amidst the impassioned tussle between robust bangal cuisine and luxurious ghoti cuisine, one star that shines out bright and right is the Bengali passion for food! Endless Baudrillardian discourses on globalisation could be proven faulty if we witness how, despite the obvious influx of westernisation and globalisation, the good old laconic evenings  remain a visible motif in the Bong connection… thanks to the small ‘fries’ in a big, fat cultural pond!