Kopi Paata Baata: A Cauliflower Leaf Pâté from Bengal
In September-October of the tumultuous year of 1947, refugees flooded West Bengal from East Bengal. Set in the context of this brutal partition, Srilagna Majumdar shares a recipe for a perfectly seasoned cauliflower leaf pâté. The dish is quick yet deliciously spicy, and goes best with steamed rice, and green chillies, embodying the spirit of frugal Bangaals, careful not to waste any part of a vegetable.
The ‘myth of homeland’ is a common topic in Migration studies. Although I have heard that my great grandparents’ house in Jhinaidah, Khulna in Bangladesh, was nested in a quaint neighbourhood, cushioned within taro gardens and betel groves, neither I nor my parents have been there. Yet, the coordinates of the village sit quietly in the corner of my work desk as I go through my day. I feel my roots there. Some nights, at the dinner table, my family reminisces about a home we’ve never been to. Most stories inevitably return to the food of opaar (the other side of the border).
In September-October of the tumultuous year of 1947, refugees flooded West Bengal from East Bengal. This typically festive season in Bengal, saw nothing but bloodshed, violence, and fear. The elderly and children walked barefoot, under a hot sun, carrying their belongings, without food or water for days, encountering death every step of the way. After reaching refugee camps on the ‘other’ side, the displaced searched for scraps of home. They tried cooking their foods, using the little ration they could procure. My grandmother’s soliloquies consist of how the Ghotis (original inhabitants of West Bengal) would ridicule the refugees for their choice of food and their unconventional ways of cooking. But the Bangaals clung to their dishes, their kochur loti (taro root) and khosha bhaja (fried vegetable skin).
This is reflected in our cooking to this day. Bangaals make dishes from foraged vegetables, roots, stems, leaves, vegetable peels, and fish offal. One of these is a dried, savoury dish made using cauliflower leaves. The dish is quick yet deliciously spicy, and goes best with steamed rice, and green chillies, eaten as the first or second course at lunch.
This specific recipe is made only with cauliflower leaves. Post Partition, the Bangaals were frugal, careful not to waste any part of a vegetable. So, after consuming the cauliflower, they found ways to cook the leaves as well. The green leaves of cauliflower are ground into a smooth paste on the sheel-nora (a pockmarked slab of stone used in all Indian homes used to wet-grind spices), then sautéed in mustard oil, until the water is dried out. In most Bengali households, one devours a large quantity of rice with only this delicious and savoury paata baata.
RECIPE FOR KOPI PAATA BAATA
Ingredients
200 g cauliflower leaves
7/8 pods of garlic
4 green chillies
Method
Grind and blend fresh cauliflower leaves, preferably in a mortar and pestle.
In hot oil, stir the chopped garlic and green chillies.
As the garlic turns brown, pour the blended leaf mixture.
Keep stirring the mixture at intervals, add salt to taste, and allow the water to evaporate.
Once the mixture is almost dry, remove from the heat, and serve with steamed rice.
Originally from Kolkata, Srilagna Majumdar is a Hyderabad-based archivist, curator, and cultural history practitioner. She works in the fields of public history, community outreach and art. Follow her on Instagram or Facebook
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