In my food dictionary there are a many musts that I want to make at least once every season. Winter being the most generous in terms of it's bounty of fruits and vegetables there are so many delicacies that needs to be whipped up in my kitchen. Be it alu methi paratha, cauliflower curry, karaishutir kochuri or gajar ka halwa. I need to treat my family with these at least once every winter. This year being an extremely tough one personally, I could not make most of these when in season but at least tried whole heatedly.

This Karaishuti'r ghugni or curried fresh peas with potato and cottage cheese is a child hood favourite. Not that Maa made it every week but at least once during the end of the peas season. It's the time when the peas would mature in the pod yet still lush green and pearl like. We would all go in the garden and will uproot the pea plants to get the last harvest of the season. Together will collect all the pods while discarding the mature plants with its stardy stems and shoots. Not good for another batch of stir fry or bora (fritters).

There are many ways a recipe comes to your home. Sometime you look for it, sometimes they come home with you and sometimes it's already there even before you know it. That happens more than once when your ancestors were as enthusiastic cook as you are. This is particularly true for me. Even before I could pronounce the word 'cooking' I was fed well and was pampered with variety. My grandmother whom we lovingly refer as 'Dida' was an avid cook and that combined with the transferable job of my Grand father resulted in a collection of recipes acquired from various regions of India. She cooked Macher jhol and Chicken do piyaza with equal Elan.

Steaming is one of the most ancient and healthiest cooking technique which could be traced back to some 10,000 years. This most probably is one of those methods that Human civilisation tried experimenting with. Steam pits, Stoneware steamers were the very old steaming utensils that were devised to cook food while retaining the taste and most importantly the nutrients.

But very unfortunately we donot use this very healthy technique much in our daily cooking. Apart from steaming some Hilsa here or a batch of Idli there, This still is not part of mainstream Bengali or North Indian cooking. And all thanks to Tupperware that this trend is going to change for good in my Kitchen.