Durga Puja

This year, I shall actually try to do a festival series on the blog. This series is really for my little daughter. She went to the Durga Puja in Stamford, CT this weekend and now wants the entire lowdown!

The next two months are really festive season all across Indian - with a multitude of festivals, Durga Puja, Navratri, Eid, Diwali. I wish I knew all about each one of these in detail, but I think I know enough to cover most of them. Actually one of the benefits of growing up in a secular country like India, there really is no dirth of festivals.

Simply speaking the story of Durga is the eternal commemoration of the victory of good over evil.

The demon Mahishashura was rewarded by Shiva with a boon that he would not be killed by any man. He took advantage of this and continued to terrorize people. The gods fed up of this, created the goddess Durga, who epitomizes the power of the woman. She is a 10-armed mother goddess who rides a lion. She is show with her 4-children who come to earth with their mother and also in turn merit their own festivals. Durga is shown as slaying Mahishasura thus symbolizing the triumph of good over evil.

While this is technically a ten-day festival commencing with Mahalaya, most of the religious festivities take place during the last five days of the festivals. There are different religious offers, most notably prayers including pushanjali (floral
There are food offerings most popularly the myriad number of sweets.

However possibly what I miss is the incredible transformation that takes place in the city of Kolkatta during these days - the city gets caught up in a week long carnival where Mardi Gras meets Christmas with a very Indian flavor. There are makeshift pavelions created in every nook and corned with different variations of Durga, there are food stalls, balloon stands and the city forgets to sleep!

To bring back just a little memory of this period, I made Sondesh probably the closest to Indian Cheesecake make with fresh paneer. Here is how I made it

Sondesh - Indian Cheesecake

Prep/Cook Time 2 hours (1.5 hours for the cheese to drain)

Make 12 lime sized sondesh balls

Ingredients

1/2 gallon 2% milk

4 cardamoms

1 cup yogurt

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon rose-water

To garnish

Crasins

Powdered pistachios

Method of Preparation

1. Bring the milk slowly to a boil and gently stir in the yogurt. In less than a minute the milk separates into paneer and whey.

2. Turn the heat off, drain the solids into a cheesecloth, tie and hand the cheesecloth for about 1.5 hours to let the water drain out.

3. Remove from the cheese cloth and place into your food-processor with the sugar and process for about 2 minutes. The cheese actually begins to gather into a ball at this point.

4. Place in a heavy bottomed (preferably non-stick) pan and cook on low heat for about 6-7 minutes. The mixture begin separating form the pan at this point. Let this cool.

5. Shape into balls, top with a craisin and dust with pistachios and serve.