Mochar Chop

The banana plant has been a source of multiple dishes in Eastern India. Bengali and Oriya cuisines pride themselves for conjuring delectable dishes out of each part of the plant. Whether it be the flower, stem or fruit, eastern Indians have derived recipes that inculcate the raw flavours of each banana plant part and hero them in their daily food intake. Mocha, a Bengali word attributed to the banana blossom, is a crucial vegetable used in various vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian dishes. Mochar Chop is essentially deep-fried croquettes made from the blossom which is boiled, mashed and then mixed with various spices like cumin, chilly, mustard, ground spices and even garlic. The mixture is well fried in low to medium heat and is then coated with breadcrumbs and fried preferably in mustard oil. These fried dumplings are often consumed as starters in Bengali households, and sometimes as a crunchy accompaniment to the more humble dal.

The dish derives its roots from 15th-century Bengal. In fact, famous Vaishnav saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was known to have a penchant for Mocha dishes as it bore a special place in his heart. An evidence of this is clearly recorded in Krishnadas Kaviraja’s detailed biography of him titled Chaitanya Charitamrita. The great philosopher and statesman Swami Vivekananda too was believed to favour the earthy Mocha dish over any other rich Bengali vegetarian alternative. An otherwise stoic public figure, Vivekananda apparently once passionately proclaimed that to eat Mochar Dalna (another Mocha variant that is a mashed curry of sorts) “one could be born again and again".

Mocha dishes have a strong root in the humble kitchens of various Bengali mothers and aunts, who spent many’a laborious hour undergoing the meticulous process of de-shelling each slim strand of petal. The strenuous process involves a generous lathering of mustard oil on the hands and fingertips to avoid the sticky, itchy sap that oozes out of the flower. Then each layer is removed by a swift, practised pull of the petals (which are then de-husked) till all of them have been extracted, leaving only the outer leafy structure.

The dish is a staple presence during Bengali festivities and special occasions, especially if prawns are also added to it. In fact, a running joke in Bengali culinary history even mentions that if your throat itches after eating a Mocha dish (a common occurrence due to the accidental consumption of the sap-infused portions of the plant), chances are that you are a highly argumentative person. The idea behind this superstitious belief is that the vegetable ‘heals’ the throats of those who are prone to dissent, thus causing the itching.