Sankranti Week !

2 years- that I posted anything here! If I look back - it seems like an era. Life was simple, simpler were my posts with low quality mobile photographs. Not that I was a regular blogger but it is always a good feeling to resume something that we had stopped doing long back & start off that thing again which we so much love to do with more zeal & freshness. So, here I am again :)

P.S. I still capture photos with my mobile & cannot guarantee high quality posts either. So, please bear with that :)

There have been quite a lot of writing and then backspacing to decide what I can post. As I was conversing over phone with my Maa the other day & describing the massive Radish that I had brought from market - she instantly reminded me that I have to finish that off before Friday i.e. 15th Jan no matter how massive it is. As Friday being Sankranti and apparently we CANNOT eat Radish after that in Maagh Mash. Well that's my mom - a custom is a custom, should be followed no matter what. Anyways, so the point is all I could note that Makar Sankranti was nearby and that word itself brings a bundle of recipes in my mind & leaves me drooling, 

For those who don't know what Makar Sankranti is - Its basically a harvest festival and is celebrated mostly in all parts of India in different ways, also known by different names. It also marks the arrival of Spring. As it is a harvest festival - almost all the delicacies are prepared with Rice or Rice flour. Going back to my roots in Assam and Bengal - the first thing that comes to my mind is the typical sound in those silent wintry afternoons that we heard when women used the traditional wooden mortar to beat rice into powder. This marked the onset Sankranti & was so popular in our colony, which was a blend of Assamese & Bengali families. 

Not sure if this is still done in this traditional way considering that we have many easy handy gadgets now to grind rice. This powdered rice is then used to prepare all the delicacies both savoury and sweet. Jaggery (Notun Gur) is another mostly used ingredient in these recipes that has a warm and earthy aroma. Traditionally, women in the family used to sit around the Chulah  & make those pitha & payesh. Since it was winter, this was quite a comforting activity & the food although being rich was easily digestible.

So, I have decided to bring a new post everyday till Friday with a new Sankranti (Pitha-Payesh) recipe. Keeping in mind that we are all busy & don't have that much expertise like our moms - will be trying to keep everything very simple and easy-to-make with little bit of easy hacks which  I have learnt while making them. So, stay tuned :)