Sitabhog

Sitabhog (সীতাভোগ) is a sweet from Bardhaman in West Bengal. It is characterized by white slivers that look like rice grains or thin noodles, served with small brown milk sweets, and its appearance recalls the rice dish pulao.

The white part is made from a dough of chhena kneaded with rice flour, formed into thin strands, fried and soaked in syrup. Although it looks like a rice dish, it is actually made as a sweet with the flavor of milk.

White slivers made from rice flour and milk

Chhena is an ingredient made by curdling milk with acid and draining off the liquid. For sitabhog, it is combined with rice flour to make a smooth dough. Gobindobhog, an aromatic rice, is cited as the representative rice of the producing area, but some home recipes (ingredient proportions and method) use ground basmati instead.

The geographical indication application documents include a process using 1 kilogram each of chhena and rice flour, while another description gives a ratio of 1 to 4. The proportions are not consistent even within the documents.

The dough is pressed through a perforated utensil or a coarse grater and dropped into hot fat to form short slivers. The rice flour helps the dough, mixed with the dairy product, hold its shape, while the chhena adds the flavor of milk. A distinctive feature of how this sweet is shaped is that rice is ground into flour, kneaded with milk, and remade into a shape resembling rice grains.

The fried slivers soften as they absorb the syrup. A characteristic of the sweet is that it is eaten as a sweet, soft milk dough that still keeps the shape of the slivers. A white finish is typical, but some home methods give it a fried color.

Sitabhog with white slivers paired with small brown sweets. Photo: Rajeeb Dutta, 2020-09-30, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the source; no further edits.

Slivers and nikhuti: combining two doughs

The white fine grains are accompanied by small fried sweets called nikhuti. Nikhuti are close to gulab jamun in both appearance and method: a dough made with milk is rolled into balls, fried, and soaked in syrup prepared separately. Some methods use milk powder, wheat flour and ghee, and some home recipes also mix in yogurt.

The fine grains and the nikhuti are each shaped and fried separately, soaked in syrup, and then combined. The small, thin pieces and the compact round pieces differ in how they resist the bite and in how they take up the syrup. The appearance, like a white rice dish topped with other ingredients, also comes from this process of making the two separately and combining them.

Mihidana, from the same town, is likewise a sweet of fried fine grains soaked in syrup. Mihidana differs, however, in that a batter of rice flour and pulse flour is formed into tiny droplets. Whereas sitabhog consists of slivers of a dough containing chhena, mihidana consists of even smaller grains. When the two are served together, one can taste different doughs and grain shapes at the same time.

Some methods scent the syrup with bay leaf, cloves or saffron. In such fragrant syrup, one can compare two kinds of milk dough: the white slivers and the brown nikhuti.

An example of white-slivered sitabhog served together with small yellow grains of mihidana. The differences in shape and color are visible. Photo: বাক্যবাগীশ, 2018-07-05, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the source; no further edits.

A family tradition of receiving the Viceroy

The origin of sitabhog is linked to the confectionery work of the Nag family, who were connected with the royal family of Bardhaman. According to the family’s story, Khetranath Nag began making it in the time of Mahtab Chand, and later Bhairab Chandra Nag served it, together with mihidana, to Viceroy Curzon, who visited in 1904.

This family tradition places the beginning at 19th-century production by an earlier generation, and describes the 1904 offering by the next generation as the turning point at which its fame spread.

Bardhaman’s sitabhog, like mihidana, was registered as a geographical indication in India in 2017. In August 2021, India Post issued a commemorative cover featuring the two sweets. The pair, whose history is tied to royal hospitality, has now also become an image representing the town’s food culture.

Glossary