Gangajali Narkel Naru
There is a concept in Baishnab families in Bengal – it is the narkeler ‘gangajali’ mishti. It can either be a naru or a sandesh or a chhapa sandesh. The word gangajali eludes to two things – pristine white and dissolves in mouth like water.
It is said that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a great lover of the gangajali narkeler naru as Priyadarshini Chatterjee had mentioned in her patpadyekhabardabar post on narkol naru. In our family, gangajali narkel naru was reserved for Bijoya Dashami and Janmashtami. For Lokkhi pujo, it was always gurer naru. The gangajali sandesh is another beast altogether, which I have been discussing with Ishita Dey for a while now, trying to gather courage to make it!
I started off with making some gangajali naru, and the coconut turned out to be too matured and the sugar caramelised to a pink the moment I put in over fire. As a result, mixed some gur and made it into a gurer gangajali naru, if there was ever such a thing! If Sri Chaitanya can look beyond appearances, the texture is absolutely melt in the mouth.
