The streets of Kolkata are famed because the mecca of India’s confectionery realm. For hundreds of years, West Bengal’s capital metropolis has witnessed the creations of assorted culinary sweets which have delighted numerous palates. Of those, a 160-year-old dessert generally known as Girl Kenny or ledikeni, a light-weight reddish-brown candy ball beloved by locals and named after an Englishwoman, stands out with its uncommon backstory. Let’s get to understand it.
Courtesy of Ramsha Zubairi
What Is Ledikeni
Ledikeni is a Bengali mishti, or candy, that may maybe be thought of the cousin to a different native well-known delicacy known as pantau, or the extra well-known Indian candy, gulab jamun. It’s ready by kneading a combination of chhena or cut up milk with a bit of flour to make small balls full of both uncooked sugar, jaggery (gur), or mimosa sugar balls (nakuldana).
As soon as prepared, these balls are then fried till golden brown and soaked in sugar syrup because the final step. The crispy outer floor transforms right into a tender juicy texture because the candy syrup fills the mouth upon consumption. In contrast to its present small dimension, this dessert was as soon as made giant sufficient to be minimize into smaller slices and served.
The Origins of Ledikeni
Again within the nineteenth century, the British colonial Bengal witnessed not only a social reform but in addition one within the culinary practices of its confectioners. It was a interval of experimentation and invention, when candy makers together with Bhim Chandra Nag, N.C. Das, and others reworked the Bengali dessert menu with their creations. The necessity to serve an prosperous and rising city center class led to the change from khoya, an evaporated milk stable generally utilized in Indian sweets, to chhena, or contemporary curd cheese, as one of many essential substances of their desserts.
A Bengali sweets store. Photograph courtesy of Flickr/Giridhar Yasa.
“The prevalent rationalization of why Bengali candy makers use chhena as an alternative of khoya as the primary ingredient,” says Colleen Taylor Sen, creator of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Delicacies, “is that they had been influenced by the Portuguese, who settled in Bengal within the late sixteenth century and made cheese by separating curds from milk.” However the creator additional explains that the usage of the ingredient goes again to at the least twelfth century India. “The twelfth century cookbook The Manasollasa comprises descriptions of candy dishes made with chhena combined with sugar, made into small balls and fried. So there are two tales.”
Bhim Chandra Nag, a famend confectioner of his time, invented a chhena-based and syrupy dessert for Girl Charlotte Canning, the Vicereine and spouse of the primary Viceroy of India, Lord Charles John Canning. Although the precise interval of its creation stays unknown, meals historians typically settle for it was conceived someplace between 1858 and November 1861, the loss of life of the Vicereine. However why was the ledikeni created?
Girl Charlotte Canning. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Numerous tales encompass the delivery of ledikeni. In keeping with one, the Bengali mishti was created after the confectioner Nag had the thought to organize a delicacy to commemorate Girl Canning’s birthday.
“One other model of the story,” says Sen, “is that after the Sepoy Mutiny/First Struggle of Independence of 1857, candy makers within the Bengali metropolis of Berhampore ready a particular candy to honor Girl Canning, who was supposedly touring together with her husband, the Viceroy.” She provides, “Nonetheless, this sounds slightly inconceivable to me.”
One more legend narrates that not lengthy after the Sepoy Mutiny, whereas on a go to to Calcutta in 1858, it was the Vicereine herself who requested Bhim Nag to organize a particular candy for the event of her birthday. On the time, the confectioner was one of the crucial sought-after candy makers among the many aristocrats.
Whereas every of ledikeni’s origin tales suggests a special motive behind its creation, there stays the query of whether or not the well-known British girl ever took a chunk of the confection created in her honor. All through her time in colonial India, Girl Canning penned many letters to her mentor and the then-ruler of the UK, Queen Victoria. Nonetheless, not one of the missives point out or talk about this explicit dessert. Regardless of these uncertainties, a number of historians proceed to assert that “Girl Kenny” turned her favourite dessert, and she or he loved it on each big day.
Sadly, not lengthy after her arrival in India, Girl Canning handed away in November 1861 after contracting malaria and was buried in Barrackpore, a metropolis and municipality of north suburban Kolkata. Following her premature loss of life, the mishti that finally got here to be generally known as ledikeni (because of the Bengali dialect) discovered fame among the many locals.
The recognition of ledikeni aka Girl Kenny continues even right this moment, making it a necessary a part of West Bengal’s culinary panorama. No competition or big day is deemed full with out it.
A sweets store in Kolkata. Photograph courtesy of Flickr/Mike Prince
The place to Strive Ledikeni in Kolkata, West Bengal
It stays a should to attempt some ledikeni whereas in Kolkata! Listed below are two retailers that can carry it.
Bhim Chandra Nag (5 Nirmal Chandra St., Bowbazaar; map)
The legendary store based in 1829 by Paran Chandra Nag is credited for inventing ledikeni, amongst many different delicacies. The just about 200-year-old iconic confectionery store continues to be thought of the most effective locations in Kolkata for treating your candy tooth.
Jashoda Mistanna Bhandar (50/1 S.N Banerjee Highway, Kolkata; map)
Established in 1935 by Lt. Shankar Chandra Poddar, Jashoda Mistanna Bhandar is one more iconic sweets store in Kolkata. In addition to ledikeni, the menu additionally contains different of its famed mishtis equivalent to laal mishti doi (candy curd), kora pak talshash, rabri, and dofali.
In regards to the creator: Ramsha Zubairi is a contract author. Her work has appeared in BBC, Smithsonian Journal, The Juggernaut, Dwell, Atlas Obscura and extra.
