All that’s unique about the Kali Puja bhog traditions of Kolkata

Kali Puja is the time when Bengalis get to leave the Durga Puja blues behind and get into a celebratory mood yet again. With Diwali lights and diyas in the backdrop, the goddess is worshipped in the dead of the night with a plethora of traditional rituals. And of course, like any Bengali festival, food is an inseparable part of Kali Puja. And apart from the traditional bhog and noibedyo, the puja menu also includes a ‘vegetarian’ mutton dish.
108 noibedyo and bhog
For Kolkata-based teacher Manasi Mukherjee, celebrating Kali Puja at home is an age-old family tradition. “The tradition goes back decades when my family used to live in Khulna. On the previous night, we observe sanjam (abstinence) and have only vegetarian food. Our puja starts at midnight with an elaborate bhog of khichuri, fries of five seasonal vegetables, torkari with seasonal veggies, chutney, payesh, sooji and luchi. Along with that, we offer 108 fruits and other items as noibedyo,” she said.
The ‘vegetarian’ mutton dish
A distinctive aspect of Kali Puja is the tradition of preparing niramish

mangsho

or vegetarian mutton without using onion and garlic. The meat of the goats sacrificed on Kali Puja night is cooked in a special style. “In Bengali tradition, niramish mangsho is offered to goddesses twice — once during

Sandhi Puja

on Ashtami and Nabami in Durga Puja and once on Kali Puja. In Bengal, due to the

Vaishnavite

influence, we

traditionally

avoid garlic and onion in our veg dishes. Hence, the meat is cooked without onion and garlic. But nowadays, mangsho is rarely offered during Durga Puja though it’s still common during Kali Puja,” said food blogger Indrajit Lahiri.
Elaborating on the preparation style, recipe chronicler Debjani Chatterjee Alam said, “Traditionally, this mutton used to be cooked with ginger and asafoetida or hing. These days, we use curd. Typically, the sacrificial mutton is not washed but wiped with some edible leaf. The recipe and cooking process, however, varies for each representation of Kali.”
Along with ginger, curd, and sometimes hing, the mutton is cooked with an array of fresh spices. “Fresh spices
are key to the preparation. To prepare the spices for niramish mangsho, I use a pestle and mortar. There are three
spice mixes — a coriander-cumin-chilli-pepper-turmeric paste, a ginger and green chili paste, and lastly, freshly ground garam masala,” said food writer Poorna Banerjee.

The Chinese twist
The Chinese Kali Temple in Tangra has a unique bhog/prasad tradition. Dishes like chow mein, chop suey, fried rice etc are offered to the goddess at the temple every day. “Like every temple, there’s regular puja at this temple. On the day of Kali Puja, the rituals become more elaborate and yes, one gets traditional Chinese dishes as prasad,” said travel blogger

Rangan Datta

.

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