CURRY AND SPICE: DUDH DIYE BAEL ER PANA

A BENGALI SMOOTHIE IS OUR POINT OF DISCUSSION TODAY!

I was born & spent my childhood in an environment where every home in the neighbourhood had a BAEL FRUIT / WOOD APPLE / BENGAL QUINCE tree! I have seen it all, the technique of bringing down the "holy leaves" of it required for the daily prayers. From it's green raw self to growing into a yellow-brown ripened form sometime during February; I have seen the entire process! I have also heard the stories of ghosts sitting tight on the branches of wood apple trees with their entire family. What I do not remember is if the concerned home had a "bael gaach" in particular or they used to get it from "Tung Tung Dadu der bael gaach" who shared the same boundary wall on their left. "Tung Tung Dadu" I called him may be because he was a guitarist and practiced or taught all day in one room. I also remember his wife and two daughters. Both home were not great friends but in those days nothing went to extremes. They visited each other during occasions; I remember visiting so many neighbourhood homes there with either of the two aunts; specially with the youngest. Since then, visiting anyone's home to me was to expect a plateful of food. I still remain the same; people visiting my home should be treated with good food. Our mother had very little relationship with that neighbourhood or township; I was more attached to that place, the heart stored it's minute details. Our mother went there, spent time within that house and visited the cinema halls; tickets bought by her youngest brother. She had never been a friendly being; she was concerned only about her home and family!

WOOD APPLE / BAEL FRUIT / BENGAL QUINCE IS BLAND IN TASTE BUT WITH HEALTH BENEFITS!

Our family oriented mother always made it a point that we have almost all known fruits available in the Kolkata market during their season. You see, certain fruits like BAEL / WOOD APPLE, Talshash / Ice Apple are kind of bland, but with health benefits. Till date, the mother and probably her son loves it, I never did. I think I have seen it here, did not get and the son did not learn to eat it. The son's father, except his skin colour; is basically a westerner as per his habits; food & otherwise. I am a rustic who eats with her hand, sneezes and yawns in public. Even a poor little girl was feeling awkward yesterday when I used my fingers to pick up chicken 65 from the plate; the son would have scolded, his father never says anything. I do not like it that the son never did learn to eat with his hands which is a part of our culture. Both of them are okay if they do not get to eat talshash, they are content with grapes, papaya, apple, mango, pears and few others. Like my father, I immensely love mango, banana, litchi, jackfruit, okay, watermelon is my love too. The mother eats a variety of fruits, uncommon ones; ice-apple to melons to some local fruits you get only in season. About this BAEL, it is a must in season for us, I think this is true for the Bengali Community. I do not know of the present day Bengalis; we seem to be a "Khichuri Community"; but yes, we are very accomodating. The man at home thinks I am rigid and it is wrong for any community to live in a dark well; never to come out and explore. There is no end to a debate and there is room for debate at this home; we do it while sipping this BAEL FRUIT DRINK; DUDH DIYE BAEL ER PANA!

WHAT IS DUDH DIYE BAEL ER PANA?

Wood Apple / Bael Fruit / Bengal Quince is another bland stuff. But it is made into a DELICIOUS VEGETARIAN SMOOTHIE using various taste enhancers like milk or yogurt, at times lemon juice. In all of them, ice cubes are a must. When done properly with all the necessary taste enhancers; we just love it. Serve it in tall glasses and make it restaurant like; add dry fruits & nuts and make it royal. I love this HEALTHY DRINK; a BENGALI SMOOTHIE so much that I plan to prepare few more drinks and dishes with it, in future. I already have two existing recipes with BAEL in the blog; DAB ER JOL DIYE BAEL ER SHORBOT & DOI DIYE BAEL ER PANA ! These are all HEALTHY SUMMER DRINKS done with few ingredients. If you do it with little patience, it tastes great. Some amount of patience is required to get rid of the fibres & seeds; at first we need to mash the fibrous pulps and then add water, mash well, strain; add all the enhancers; adding sugar is a must. I get it as long as it is available in the season! One Bangladeshi shop, Rajdhani Stores keeps it! The family veterans say it is very healthy; it specially helps soothing my bowel movement! It is filling, one glass of it equates a full meal.

Let us stop here today; my cousin, an elder brother passed away early morning. He hardly would have been in his early 60's; was suffering from high blood sugar! As part of the family, my mother, brother, may be his wife too will be observing 11 days of mourning. He left behind a flourishing garments business, a wife, a graduate engineer son who is a Physics teacher in an Assam Government School, a daughter who lives in Amsterdam. Think of my "Boroma / Jethi", she was very close to this son, because he was the biggest support for the family; the most successful of all her eight sons! She had lost one son when he was only 12, a year older than me; we were very good friends. Our father's eldest brother was a typical rich father's lazy son but very good at heart who loved my mother and me a lot. Boroma had to be shrewd to bring up her cubs! We are so miles apart, that consolations are to be sent via others. I think I last met "mejda" on our son's rice feeding ceremony; yes he was there in West Bengal and attended our invitation with his family; the album I have in our Kolkata home!

INGREDIENTS :

BAEL / WOOD APPLE : ONE STANDARD SIZED

BOILED MILK : 1 COFFEE MUG

SUGAR : 3-4-5 TBSP

WATER : AS REQUIRED

ICE CUBE : 2 PER GLASS

PROCEDURE :

Breaking the fruit is a bit of an exercise; more if you are living in apartments, the residents below may get some noise. If they are in the habit of complaining, they will. We sustain a lot of noise all day, we are less bothered and think they are a part of life. Actually, the family that lives above in our Kolkata home, have destroyed even my water pipes because of their callousness, lack of decency; so I think I can manage any other nonsense. The hopeless association there did nothing against an insensible woman; here definitely a fine would have been charged!

Anyway, you need to hit on the ground, the fruit. Then, scoop out the flesh in a bowl.

Did you wash your hands with soap? Do it please! Now, mash the pulps well.

Add 1/2 coffee mugs of water, keep mashing for 5 minutes or so! Take a big strainer and strain it slowly. Add a little of water at a time if it seems too thick.

Honestly, Cristine did this straining part. It was a Saturday morning last month, I was storing energy for the entire day of cooking!

The milk has to be boiled for a pretty good time; say 12 to 15 minutes at minimal heat. It has to be cooled thereafter; then the required amount is to be added to the strained bael fruit / wood apple.