Bengali duck egg curry - hasher dim kosha
In the past, eating chicken was frowned upon in Bangladesh, however, it was OK to eat eggs and duck meat. In Bangladesh, backyard poultry often marketed ducks for eating and chickens as game birds for fighting. Due to their scavenging behaviour and lack of veterinary care, the inputs needed were incredibly low. They were willing to consume any type of egg, including those from ducks, quails, tortoises, and even pigeons, but due to social and religious taboo, they were reluctant to consume any chicken eggs. Throughout the past two decades, the tenacity of this philosophy has waned.
Besides serving as a source of protein for food, poultry animals on farms served other crucial functions. Insect population was managed by using the hens. If allowed to roam the farmyard, chickens would consume ticks and larvae that could infest other animals in addition to the numerous pests prevalent in gardens. Animals used for poultry farming were permitted to glean the fields after a harvest, where they consumed any lost grain and spread fertiliser while foraging. The alarm system of poultry was also effective. The farmer would awaken to a new day each morning from the rooster. As vicious as any guard dog, the domestic swan [rajhans] can be.
On the weekends during the winter, we enjoy the traditional Bengali comfort brunch, which consists of a bowl of overcooked, flavorful gobindobhog rice with a dollop of clarified butter, some hot, mashed potatoes with amul butter, and a number of soft-boiled eggs or hard-boiled eggs cooked simply in mustard oil before being mashed with a potato and combined with sliced onion and green chilies. Every single time, it acts as a stimulant in our mind caused by the delicious smell of somebody cooking in the neighbourhood in the winter days and the aroma of this special rice with ghee is so tempting that it enhances our hunger and we wait throughout the week to have that awaited brunch. Nonetheless, a Bengali today cannot go a day without eggs. I've never seen a duck egg at a social gathering, though.
Ingredients
- Hardboiled eggs, 4
- Boiled and cubed potatoes, 1 large
- Ginger garlic paste, 1 tbsp
- Minced onion, 2 tbsp
- Turmeric powder, 2 tsp
- Red chili, black pepper, coriander seeds paste,1 tbsp
- Whole garam masala [1 inch cinnamon, clove, and cardamom], 2 each
- Bay leaves and whole dried red chili, 1 each
- Salt and sugar, eatingto taste
- Mustard oil, 2 tbsp
- Whole green chili and coriander leaves for garnishing, optional
Instructions:
- At first pierce the eggs with a fork and season the eggs and cubed potatoes with salt and turmeric. Heat oil in a deep pan, fry the seasoned eggs until golden brown, keep aside.
- In that same pan add bay leaves and whole red chili, add whole garam masala. Now add minced onion, add salt and sugar, fry a little. Add ginger and garlic paste, fry until changes color. Now add cubed potato. Mix well.
- Now add masala paste and 2 to 3 tsp hot water. Mix well, keep the fire simmer and wait until oil oozes out. Now add fried eggs mix and put off the fire. Add coriander leaves and green chili. Cover for a few minutes. Duck egg masala is ready to be served by then, serve this dish with any type of rice or bread as a complete planned food.
Ande ki Fanda
Perhaps the very first animal product that humans consumed was an egg. Early hunters and gatherers adopted eggs from nests as a food source since they were usually the perfect size to be eaten in one sitting. Every society on Earth seems to have a people, a tribe, an environmentalist, or an ethnic group that utilizes every culinary resource at its disposal. They unconsciously acquired taboos over time as a result of the ritual restriction of some meals at specific times when they are required for reproduction and appropriate productivity. It's critical to distinguish between proper limits and improper taboos. This practice has been thoroughly studied, it also involves prehistoric hunters and gatherers to maintain the balance of production and availability for conserving natural resources as well as a person's health since different foods have different effects on a human's body in different circumstances. Slokas have been employed by eminent intellectuals to create their works since they are easy to teach and memorize.
See the food thoughts in Bengali traditional folk counting-out riddles :
It is simple to understand how occasional abstinence can develop into a custom and ultimately become a historical food taboo. Eating taboos have frequently been attributed to magico-religious causes or the contrast between positive and negative rites in social anthropological studies of eating. Even yet, the beginnings of rituals and taboos based on spiritual, religious, and magical ideas must have had a "history" and "started going" in some way, which demonstrates the broad range of origins of food taboos.
This opinion has generated a lot of discussion, and no one hypothesis can fully account for why humans have certain food taboos. However, any dietary taboo that is accepted as a part of a community's traditions and has no legitimate medical justification promotes social cohesion and helps that group maintain its identity in the presence of outsiders, which brings relief and a sense of "belonging" to the group. Food taboos are typically imposed at "coming-of-age" or initiation rites, and they may also be required during dry spells, floods, lunar eclipses, and many other natural disasters. Food taboos thus serve the purpose of drawing attention to specific events.
Food taboos: their origins and purposes
Street vendors in Kolkata still sell duck eggs in baskets. Chicken eggs arrive much later in Bengali food. There was a conflict between chickens and caste religion even in the last century. Again in this Bengal, this Masan Kali is located under a banyan tree in Dhumpur Balasi village of Dewanhat block under Cooch Behar district headquarters. A pot worshiped as an idolless symbol of Kalimburupa Masan deity. Puja is performed here every Tuesday. The main ingredients of the puja are panchkhol curd, chira and atiyakala. The people of the neighboring villages gather together and perform puja. Goat, pigeons, duck eggs and fruits are offered as vows at this Kali Than on the orders of Bhongria.
ref : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2711054/During any religious ceremony for a Brahmin who was educator by profession in the caste system, the offering of food to the gods always precedes food intake. Food, thus, becomes sanctified and is called 'Prasad - God's Mercy', which is then partaken. This practice follows from the ancient scripture "Bhagavad Gita" [31], in which the Lord says: "If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it" [Text 26] thus all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away as well as austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me" [Text 27].
They studied that plants also have life, though in a more sedate and sedentary form. The use of plants as food is considered less sinful than taking the lives of animals, but they must not be broken or harvested after dark [because of scientific reason about CO2 released from the plants and active insects!!]. The saying "You are what you eat" is explicitly mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita [Chapter 17: 31]: "Foods in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one's existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such nourishing foods are sweet, juicy, fattening, and palatable. Foods that are unclean, too bitter, too sour, salty and pungent, dry and hot, are liked by people in the modes of passion. Such foods cause pain, distress, and disease. Food cooked more than three hours before being eaten, which is tasteless, stale, putrid, decomposed and unclean, is food liked by people in the mode of ignorance". Thus, this powerful message does not contain precise instructions to "do" or "not to do", it describes the effects of different kinds of food and leaves the final choice to the individual. The non-selected foods may therefore be declared food taboos by society.
Modern people have fewer food taboos to observe, but nevertheless some also exist even today. The people belonging to particular race, creed, caste or class sometimes partake in fish, eggs, and even meats commonly chicken, goat or mutton, these are never to be cooked or eaten during religious occasions, marriages, times of mourning, breaking religious fasts, pilgrimages, and similar times.
It is a well-known fact that India has gifted the world with the species Red Junglefowl [kukkut कुक्कुट] and the Silver Junglefowl of whose progenies domesticated and crossbred. The history of poultry in India is about 5,000 years old. The strange paradox is that although this country introduced poultry to the world it remained indifferent to it for a long time. The main factor was a religious taboo on poultry products in many Indian communities. The credit for developing the poultry in this country should go to the Christian missionary organizations and some Britishers who brought a few superior exotic breeds at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Indigenous Knowledge
For ethnic tribal groups and communities indigenous poultry are of special interest because of their socio-religious use. They are not only efficient converters of agricultural byproducts, particularly of wastes into high quality meat but also provide eggs, feathers and rich manure. They separate the spoiled eggs from good eggs by emerging them in a bowl of water. It is believed that the spoiled eggs are those which float whereas good eggs sink into the water. This practice is also followed in the rural areas.
See some great interesting facts about egg at https://www.foodtimeline.org/foodeggs.html