Fresh and seasonal eating is crucial to Bangladeshi cuisine, as the nation has not four, but six seasons.
Each two-month season brings its own distinct flavours and festivals.
How to cook like a Bangladeshi at home
Mango and jackfruit season in summer, also known as Aam Katli, ushers in an abundance of these fruits, as well as watermelon, pineapple, lychee and Jaam (deep, damson-purple stone fruits that stain the hands as you eat them).
In the Sylhet region, mango, jackfruit and sweetmeats are gifted to married women by their brothers, fathers and uncles to welcome in the New Year and this culminates in lavish feasts, or ‘Iftars’.
Summer
Boishakh, the first month of the summer season, is marked by celebrations and festivities, in particular Boishakhi Melas (summer fairs).
A popular meal during this time is fried ilish maach, the king of Bengali fish, and panta bhaat, overnight soaked rice, accompanied by various bhortas (spiced vegetable mash).
Milk-based sweets include shondesh, a popular sweetmeat, and payesh, Bengali rice pudding.
Rainy (monsoon)
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This season ensures a healthy allotment of fried or bhaja dishes such as begun bhaja (aubergine fritters) and daler bora (lentil fritters).
Pair these crispy fried snack with steaming cups of masala tea for the Bangladeshi equivalent of hygge.
Autumn
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This dry time of the year marks the beginning of the wedding season and, of course, wedding food.
Feasts are incomplete without chicken roast, a pan-fried chicken dish in a rich onion gravy, and various biriyanis and beef dishes.
Firni, a ground rice pudding flavoured with rosewater and cardamom, is always present at the wedding table along with mishti (Bangladeshi sweetmeats).
Late autumn
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Winter harvest begins and so do the festivals such as Nabanno, or ‘new food’, bringing with it the deliciousness of pitha.
This Bengali art form celebrates winter harvest through the preparation of various rice flour cakes, which range from simple flatbreads to intricate sweets.
A favourite is bhapa pitha, a steamed rice flour and molasses cake.
One of my favourites is chaler pitha; rice flour flatbreads, eaten with a light meat curry.
Winter
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Date juice is collected in clay pots overnight from palm dates and simmered for hours to be made into various types of molasses, or gur.
Gur is essential to Bangladeshi confectionery and an ingredient in handesh (fried molasses and flour cakes).
Bhaajis, or sauteed vegetables, include winter greens and smaller gourds, such as pointed gourd and bitter gourd.
Shatkora, a citrus fruit native to the Sylhet region is readily available during this time and traditionally cooked with beef.
Spring
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This is the season when fruits begin to ripen and mustard fields explode into splashes of yellow-gold.
Mustard is a key ingredient in Bangladeshi cuisine and a component of panch phoron or Bengali five spice.
Mustard oil is used in bhortas and mustard greens are used in broths with shutki (dried fish).
Finely shredded amaranth greens (laal saak) are cooked with garlic and chillies – a popular dish during this season with a serving of steamed rice.
MORE : What is Bangladeshi cuisine? The classic spices, staples and desserts of Bangladesh
MORE : How to eat like a Bangladeshi in London
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