SLC-S31W1-"My taste My Culture/ (Mashed potato & eggplant with rice)!"

_{Hҽʅʅσ ҽʋҽɾყσɳҽ. I αɱ @mueeinislam
Fɾσɱ #Bangladesh 🇧🇩}

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Assalamu Alaikum, I hope you are all well, Alhamdulillah I am also healthy and well. I am very happy to participate in the first week of Steemit Engagement Challenge Season 31. This week's theme is "SLCS31-W1| My Taste, My Culture: Roots and Identity." And a big thank you to @alexanderpeace ma'am for organizing such a beautiful competition. "Roots and Identity"—these two words evoke a deep emotion in each of our hearts. But I am really happy to be able to showcase my culture on the platform through this competition. So let's get started...!

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^{𝙏𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙣𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙚}

As a representative of my culture in today's competition, I have not chosen any royal food, but rather, the potato bharta and brinjal bharta that are intertwined with the soul of our Bengalis. We say in words that we are "Bengalis of fish and rice", but to be honest, the place of ultimate satisfaction at the beginning of our day or at the end of our fatigue is the combination of these various bhartas with hot rice.

✅ Prepare a meal (not snacks) that represents your root and identity and show us the recipes and procedure of preparation.

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Required materials.

At the beginning of cooking, I measured and prepared all the ingredients. Below is a list:

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Ingredient Name	Quantity	Ingredient Name	Quantity
Potatoes	3 pices	Chopped onion	1 Cup
Eggplant	3 pices	Dried chili pepper	6-7 pices
Chopped coriander leaves	1 Cup	Mustard oil	According to quantity
Salt	To taste

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Step 01

✔ To make the potato and brinjal puree, I first boiled the potatoes and brinjals well and drained them. Then I peeled the boiled potatoes and peeled the brinjals as well. Now I mashed the boiled potatoes and brinjals very well separately.

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Step 02

✔ At this stage, I put a pot on the stove, added a little oil, and lightly fried the onions for the filling. I also fried the dried chilies well.

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Step 03

✔ Now I made the stuffing masala by mixing all the ingredients together well with fried onions, fried dried chilies, chopped coriander leaves, a little mustard oil, and a pinch of salt.

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Step 04

✔ Now I added half of the stuffing masala to the boiled potatoes, then mixed all the ingredients together well with the boiled potatoes. Now I took a small amount of the potato mixture and made it into round shapes.

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Step 05

✔ I similarly added the remaining half of the purée spices to the boiled eggplant, then mixed all the ingredients together well to make the purée.

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Final presentation of my recipe

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✅ Alhamdulillah! Finally my potato and eggplant stuffing is ready to serve. However, I tried to serve my potato and eggplant stuffing in a modern yet traditional way. I placed 2 dried chillies on a bowl of rice on the plate, which is a symbol of Bengali tradition. The potato and eggplant stuffing next to the rice and the cucumber, tomato and a slice of lemon on the side added freshness and color to the food. For me, besides cooking, serving it beautifully is also a part of culture.

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✅ Why is this food important to your people? When is it traditionally eaten? (Is it festive, ceremonial, daily, or symbolic?). What does it represent culturally? How does it reflect the lifestyle, values, and history of your people?

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The importance of Bharta in our Bengali society is immense. It is known not only for eating, but also as an integral part of our lifestyle:

Traditional Symbol: Any big festival of our country, especially 'Pahela Baishakh' (Bengali New Year), is incomplete without Bharta with Panta Hilsa. This is a reflection of our simple and beautiful life.

Hospitality: Especially when you visit any house in our rural Bengal as a guest, you may not get many dishes, but the love and care they will give you with a few carefully prepared Bharta and the hospitality they will give you will not be found anywhere else in the world.

Lifestyle and History: As a Bengali nation, we are very hardworking. The biggest way to enjoy delicious food in an easy and nutritious way after returning home after work is through these various types of Bharta.

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✅ What memories do you personally associate with it and the price of the ingredients in steem and local currency?

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Below is a list of the ingredients used in my potato and eggplant stuffing recipe, according to their approximate market price and current STEEM rate (1 STEEM = 7.25 Taka):

Ingredient Name	Quantity	Approximate Price (Taka)	Price (STEEM)
Potatoes	3 pices (Big Size)	15 Taka	2.05 STEEM
Eggplant	3-4 pices	40 taka	5.48 STEEM
Onion and dried chili	As required	5 Taka	0.69 STEEM
Chopped coriander leaves	As much as possible	05 Taka	0.69 STEEM
Salt and mustard oil	As required	10 Taka	5.58 STEEM

Total	Cost	75 Taka	09.60 STEEM

I have been making this low-cost, "potato and eggplant stuffing" recipe in our home environment, which has been a real pleasure.

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Personal memories and feelings.

Many of my childhood memories are associated with this potato and brinjal bharta. Especially when I talk about this stew, I remember my mother's cooking in my childhood. However, I still remember very well that when it rained heavily as a child, my mother would boil potatoes and brinjal bharta in the kitchen. When we all sat on mats on the floor and ate the bharta with steaming hot rice, the memories of that joy and family bonding still come to my mind. Nowadays, whenever I make this dish in the midst of work or in my own family, it feels like I am instantly transported back to that childhood memory. It is not just my food, it is a part of my childhood.

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✅ Present your recipe beautifully with a name tag and date and a selfie

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Engagement link:👇

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• https://steemit.com/ladies-universe/@mueeinislam/reply-bhvrtj
• https://steemit.com/ladies-universe/@mueeinislam/tdoi3v
• https://steemit.com/steem-for-lifestyle/@mueeinislam/tdohmu
• https://steemit.com/ladies-universe/@mueeinislam/tdoh36

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I want to invite my friend @suboohi @sergeyk @oswaldocuarta @jimiaera02 @solperez @ahsansharif @lhorgic @sduttaskitchen @max-pro to join this contest.

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Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post. May you all always be well and healthy by the grace of allah. I end here by wishing you all a long life.

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