Kasundi is one of the most popular mustard based relishes in India synonymous with Bengali cuisine. On a rainy day or a warm winter afternoon, Kasundi can be relished with fritters of your choice, cutlets, chops or to jazz up a simple dal chawal meal. Modern cooking also uses kasundi as a marinade for your meats, dressings for salads, whip it up with mayo to increase the oomp-factor or just elevate your boring sandwich by using kasundi as a spread for your breads.
Recently we decided to review the best packaged Bengali kasundi brands in India. To test the packaged brands we conducted a blind tasting of all the contenders and gauged them on parameters like color, consistency, pungency and flavor. We also made a bottle of kasundi in our test kitchen to get a gist of how a fresh, homemade kasundi should taste like. For that we asked the experts, Anindya Basu and Madhushree Roy from Pikturenama, for a basic homemade kasundi recipe.
Lets have a look at how to make kasundi at home.
Ingredients
- Black mustard/kali rai 1/4 cup
- Yellow mustard/peeli sarso 1/4 cup
- Mustard Dal/Rai ki dal 1/4 cup
- Turmeric powder/ haldi 2 tbsp
- Salt/namak 2 1/2 tbsp
- Dry red chillies/sookhi lal mirch – 2.5
- Nigella seeds/kalonji- 1/4 tsp
- Cumin/jeera – ¼ tsp
- Coriander/dhaniya khada – ¼ tsp
- Radhuni/bengali ajwain – ¼ tsp
- Black pepper/kali mirch 1/8 tsp
- Fennel seeds/saunf 1/8 tsp
- Green cardamom/choti elaichi 1/2
- Black cardamom/badi elaichi – 1/2
- Fenugreek Seeds/methi dana – 2 to 3 seeds
- Water/paani – 2.5 cups
Method
- Clean and wash Black and Yellow mustards and the Mustard Dal.
- Spread them on a muslin cloth to dry up. Keep it till completely dry.
- Grind in a mixer or mortar and pestle.
- Pass it through a sieve and use the powder for making the kasundi.
- Slightly warm the spices – dry red chillies, nigella seeds, cumin, coriander, radhuni, black pepper, fennel, green and black cardamom and the methi.
- Crush them in a clean mortar and pestle.
- Sieve and use the fine spice powder.
- Boil water till it is reduced to 2 cups.
- Pour the mustard powder and the spice powder in this water.
- Mix well. Add the salt and the turmeric.
- Mix again. Keep it covered well with a muslin cloth and a lid.
- Leave it untouched for the next 2 to 3 days in a cool place.
- Homemade kasundi is ready for use.
Serving Suggestion
- Original Recipe Credits – Madhushree
- Serve with Bengali cutlets.
- Goes well with fried fish.
- Serve it with other fried stuff like the fried potato, beguni, rice and dal for lunch.
- You may wash the spices before grinding. I did not wash as the spices were clean.
- Dry roasting the spices for a few seconds help them in crushing well.
- Use a mortar and pestle to grind the mustard and spices as it will give a super authentic flavor to the kasundi.
- If using a mixer ensure that it is free of impurities.
- The kasundi should be made preferably in an earthen vessel.
- Earthen vessel absorbs excess water and gives a nice texture to the kasundhi.
- This home made kasundi can be stored in an air tight bottle.
As you can see it’s a super quick and easy recipe. Do try it out and let us know your comments in the comment section.
If you have any other recipe of kasundi which you would like to share with us, please do post it in the comment section.