Mishtimukh (মিষ্টিমুখ)
Mishtimukh (মিষ্টিমুখ) refers to
anything sweet. The word literally means sweet(mishti মিষ্টি)mouth(mukh মুখ). Sweets are part of all
auspicious event(s) of a Bangali life. Starting from the announcement of birth
of a newborn to Kulkhani (prayer meeting held 3 days after burial), sweets are
everywhere. Sweets are big part of weddings especially gaye holud (ceremony
preceding wedding). Sweets are present when we pass major exams of our lives to
when we get a new job. There are many traditional Benagli sweets, but a lot of
desserts from other cuisines have entered Bangli kitchens and now claim their
special space in our palate. There are 3 basic classes of Bengali sweets.
o
Sweets from the sweet shop: Usually this kind of sweets are made by
moyra or a sweet maker and almost always never made at home. When I first moved
abroad, my intense craving for mawa laddu of Alauddin Sweetmeat or the
mishit-doi of Bikrampur mishtanno bhander pushed me to try different recipes.
You will find some of these recipes in this blog.
o
Pitha: Mostly homemade using rice flour, jiggery, and sometimes
shredded coconut. Back in the days in the midst of the joint family, women had
time to create different pithas and decorate them using different method. For
the modern nuclear family household where woman are often juggling child
rearing, work and household chores, the art of pitha making is gradually
decreasing.
o
Other homemade sweets
- Payesh: mostly milk based. Most common form is “poromanno” or what is popularly known in the west as rice-pudding. This can also be made by cream of wheat, luchi (deep fried small round flat bread)or different kind of rice. Most popular choice of rice is kalijeera or polau er chal. You may also use basmati if you like.
- Halua: Also known as halva. It is mostly flour, ghee (clarified butter) and sugar based.
- Cake: The British might have left India in 1947 but their legacy still prevails. No literary work before the Company era mentioned “cake”. This is one culinary gift that the British left for us.
