Shukto

The shukto remains one of the best instances of a Hindu Bengali cook’s ingenuity, with a combination of subtle half-tones rather than any dominant taste. The bitterness is rarely allowed to overpower the other flavours, which include the sharpness of mustard, the grainy blandness of poppy seeds and the caramelly flavour of ghee. In the old days no woman was considered a good cook unless she could produce a creditable shukto: a nursery rhyme in my childhood heaped ridicule on a poor girl cal