Odia Mahalaya Thali
Married into an Odia family, over the years, I have developed a deep love and affinity for the “Durga Puja” celebrations held by the Odia and Bengali communities in the US. This year Mahalaya, which marks the beginning of the much-awaited festival of Durga Puja, arrived over the weekend. And this gave us the time to make a Vegetarian Odia Thali to savor. Each of the dishes on this thali have been taught to me by my mother-in-law, who is an excellent cook. Unlike the other meals that we have cooked up as part of our Weekend Thali Project, each of which take a lot of research and experimentation, this meal comes to me more easily as I have cooked these dishes over the years slowing learning and perfecting them.
No festival Odia meal can exist without Dalma - which is a dal mixed in with nutritional vegetables like papaya and pumpkin. Dahi Baigano and Gobi Tarkari are staples at our home - both of which have kalonji to elevate the taste.
Bhindi Khatta is my all-time favorite Odia dish. It has my favorite vegetable - bhindi, which is simmered in a sweet and tangy tamarind based sauce. This dish pairs excellently with Dalma.
Beans Bhaja and Tindora Bhaja are the simple vegetable fry dishes that are combined with potatoes for extra flavor. Saago Badi was made out of Amaranth leaves and eggplant. It’s a healthy and nutritious dish.
The final flourish to the thali is ofcourse the Berhampuri Sesame Papad that we get yearly from India - painstakingly selected and bought by my father-in-law. No trip back to India is complete without a few (or more) packets of these papads!!
Now if you are a true Odia, you are right if you want to completely discredit this thali for the simple reason that there is no sweet dish included. How can there ever be an Odia thali without a sweet - the very thought is sacrilegious!! This is not an oversight but firstly the result of running out of time and secondly wanting to pace ourselves through the sugar overload we are about to head into during the next 10 days!!
I will sign off wishing all of you a very happy Dussera and Durga Puja. May the good over-power and win over all evil in your life this festival season.
