Common steps in Bengali cooking

1. Marination (often skipped for vegetables): oil, salt and turmeric powder is the common marinade for all vegetables, fish and meat. Red chilly powder is often added to it. For meat, some acidic item (curd/lemon juice/vinegar) is also commonly added to the marinade.
2. Phoron: In the second stage, oil is heated up in a hemispherical pot (kadaai) and spices are added and cooked. Each spice gives out its best flavour at a particular temperature of the oil and should be cooked for only around a certain duration. Hence, the sequence of adding spices is considered important.
   1. Heating the oil: First heat the pot until any water drops on it evaporate completely. Then add the oil.
   2. If there are any bubbles in the oil, they will vanish when the oil is sufficiently hot. Also, when vapour starts emanating from the top of the oil, it is time to start adding the spices.
   3. Items to be added to the oil first are called phoron (things that burst). These are usually dry spices. Most common is panch phoron, but may vary depending on the dish.

Start your kitchen exhaust at full speed in this stage as the strong smell of the chemicals coming out of the spices mixed with oil vapour is bound to make you and your neighbours cough and sneeze. Let this go on for about 20 seconds (until the seeds are done with bursting, becoming darker in colour).

3. Pasted and chopped spices: Second you can add the semi-dry spices and pastes. These will cool the oil down and prevent the phoron from getting charred. Ginger and garlic (paste or crushed) can be added in this stage. Add onion (chopped or paste) last in this stage. Keep mixing the spices and scraping the bottom of the pot with a spatula to prevent anything from sticking. If the spices still tend to stick to the pot, adding a little more oil will help. You may want to reduce the heat after adding all the spices. Keep cooking until the mixture of spices is golden.
4. Vegetables: Now add tomatoes, potatoes or other vegetables that go into the dish. If it is a meat dish, this the time to add the meat, too. Keep mixing the spices with the vegetables (or meat) until everything is evenly distributed. In case of meat, water will come out and you can reduce the heat and cover the pot and let it cook until completely/almost done (this is called kashaa – which is a dish by itself if completely done, or you can add water midway and cook the meat in the gravy to make jhol).
5. Boiling: Add water (amount varying according to the nature of the dish). When the water starts boiling, add cumin, coriander, turmeric paste/powder. Leave at low/medium heat until vegetables are completely cooked.

If you are cooking fish, add it last(when vegetables are almost done) and let it cook in the gravy for 5-10 minutes (usually the marinated fish is semi-fried in oil beforehand).

6. Finishing: For some dishes, additional dry spices are (roasted and) powdered and sprinkled on/mixed with the food just before serving. For example, “garam mashla” (cardamom, cinnamon and cloves freshly smashed without roasting) is added to most spicy meat-dishes. Cumin seeds are freshly roasted and coarsely ground and mixed with fish/daal/vegetables to add fragrance. Coriander leaves, curry leaves or mint are also usually added at the end to retain the freshness of the flavour.