Debs of Sovabazar do not have the tradition of offering cooked rice to the goddess. They offer quintals of uncooked rice and huge trays of sweets as bhog. Items offered are Kochuri (stuffed bread), Singara (samosa), Boro Nimki (like savoury biscuit), Radha Ballabhi (pulse stuffed bread), Padma Nimki (biscuit), Sweet Goja (sugar coated pastry), Dumo Goja (diamond shaped pastry), Jive Goja (elongated shaped sugar coated pastry), Jilipi (sweet chick-pea flour savoury), Darbesh (yellow sweet meat balls), Motichur (white sweet meat balls), Pantua (sweet brown caramel balls), Nora Pantua and a varieties of Sweet Balls, sugar coated pastries like Peraki, Pakkan, Khaja, Kotkoti Nadu, Balusai (a kind of sandesh), Chandsoi Magadh, Mutri, Somesha, Khurma, Khir Tokti, Labanga Latika, Muger Nadu (sweet balls of split green gram), Shon Papri etc. All these items are prepared in the household itself.
PERAKI
Ingredients:
- Refined Flour - 500gms
- Ghee - 500gms
- Kheer - 250gms
- Coconut (big) – 1
- Green Cardamom
- Sugar - 400gms
- Black Pepper - a pinch of
Steps:
Kneed flour with ghee properly to from a dough. Make small balls. Flatten in the size of small chapaties or rounded flattened cakes.
To prepare the filling first scoop out the coconut and then cook grated coconut with kheer and sugar. Add green cardamom and powdered pepper in the cooked coconut. Put the filling on the chapaties and cover with another one. Paste the corner with hands tucking inside the fold. Deep fry in ghee and then immerse in sugar syrup.
DARBESH
Ingredients:
- Besan (cheak pea flour) - 250gms
- Kamini Sabeda / Custard Apple - 200gms
- Kesar and Red Colour
- Silver Foil
- Ghee
- Sugar - 1 kg
- Rose Water
- Jaitri / Mace - 10gms
- Jaiphal / Nutmeg – 5
Steps:
Mix besan and sabeda (custard apple) well. Make a paste adding water to it. Fry the paste in ghee with a slotted spoon. When it gets fried immerse in thick sugar syrup. Grind all the spices. After removing the fried paste from the syrup add the grinded spices to the paste. Put some ghee in both hands and make small balls of the paste.