Poila Boishakh

Spices for Poila Boishakh

Poila Boishakh, the first day of the Bengali year, is a day for new account books (halkhata) with sweets for customers and a lavish table at home. Dishes such as shorshe ilish, hilsa in mustard sauce, and chorchori, a vegetable dish tempered with panch phoron, the five-seed blend of cumin, fennel, fenugreek, mustard and nigella, define the Bengali spice palette. Mishti doi (sweet yoghurt) and sandesh are scented lightly with cardamom, and panta bhat with green chilli is eaten in Bangladesh. The mustard paste, ground wet with green chilli, gives a sharp heat that rises through the nose.

The spices

Panch phoronThe five-seed Bengali blend tempered in hot oil.Mustard seedGround into the paste for hilsa and vegetables.Black cuminBlack onion seed, one of the five in panch phoron.