Narkel Moshla Potol -- moving up

Yesterday was LS's "moving up ceremony". Moving up to where? To Kindergarten from September.

As we, the parents, sat in tiny chairs waiting for the pre-kindergartners to begin the show they had been working on all these days, the owner of the school said she hoped there were enough tissue boxes for everyone.

Most parents went "awww" and "sniff sniff" on cue.
I scoffed. Silently.
Really dude, these are 4 year old. 4yr olds are supposed to turn 5 and go onto bigger schools.
That is Nature. And I am the ever cynical Mom.

And then all the little children came in , dressed in their best summer clothes, shiny and neat and stood in rows. Their earnestness was infectious and they all looked so darn cute. And there was this one little boy who, the minute he got onto the stage, hollered "Mommy", then "Daddy". He laughed. We all laughed. No idea what the parents did. They were at the far end of the room. I looked tentatively at my almost 5 yr old. She smiled. Not a bold smile but "Yeah okay, good to see you if not great" kind of smile. I was a bit afraid as she had previously suggested that we sit somewhere at the back rows but as luck and hyper-parents would have it we were right there at the front.

Once the show started the kids came into their element and forgot all "Mommy-Daddy". They sang loud and clear shaking legs, hips, hand, head. And then when it all ended, I felt a teeny-tiny lump at the throat.

Not because LS would be a Kindergartner soon but because our ties with this pre-school comes to an end. BS had started here almost 7yrs back when the school was new in our neighborhood and stayed on through Kindergarten. The owner, the teachers, the building had grown familiar. And so without a thought we had started LS in the same pre-school almost 2 yrs ago.

Now we won't really have any reasons to drive into their parking lot to drop-off a bawling child who eventually turns into a happy skipping one by end of school year.  There won't be morning throw-ups in the car and face-to-face chats with the teacher every day. We don't have to carry the blankets and pillows back every Friday remembering to wash and return next week. We will be onto bigger things come Fall when LS will ride the yellow school bus to school and nap-time at school will be a tale of the past.

Wait, actually that will be only a half-day school and she will have less school time than now. So she will be actually spending more time at home. And we won't even have to pay half the pay-check for it. And I can use that half of the pay-check to buy me a Le Creuset, actually many Le Creusets and God-willing even a Vitamix. On retrospect, the deal doesn't sound that bad. Kindergarten, we think we are ready.

That said, I made this Narkel Moshla Potol. The coconut-masla paste made here is the kind my Ma used to stuff the potol for Potol er Dolma.

But stuffing Potol to make Potol er Dolma is not my cup of tea. Not my bottle of beer either but anyway I don't drink beer. I think it involves all that tying with twine part. No, not the beer, silly. The Potol er Dolma. Remember how afraid I am of twines ? If not twine, there must be something really difficult that needs to be done to lock the potol after stuffing. So anyway, I always feel this is the easy way out where the stuffing is actually outside the potol. So I end up doing it this way at least once in the potol season. It does help that it also tastes very good.

Some more plug-in about the book. The book is now available across stores in India. If you do not see it in a store like Crossword, Landmark etc., leave me the store location and I will try to check behind the scenes. The book is also available at Amazon.in which I think has a Free delivery, so check that option. Folks in US, book is now on Amazon. You can order now and get the book by mid or end July.
There is also a giveaway for folks in India at "My Diverse Kitchen", a fabulous blog in its own rights. So even if you don't win the giveaway you only gain by visiting her.

More reviews on book here

Narkel Moshla Potol

Buy Potol. Also known as Parwal or Pointed Gourd. More here.

Wash and peel the skin in stripes. Then chop in half along the length.  I started with about 10 patol.

Heat  1 tsp of Oil

Add
few methi seeds
1 tbsp peeled, chopped ginger
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Fennel seeds
1 tsp Coriander seeds
4 Laung
1/2 cup of grated coconut

Roast the spices until you get a warm spicy smell. Cool and put everything in the blender jar.

Add 1/2 cup yogurt and 4 green chillies. Make a smooth paste

Now heat some more oil(~3 tbsp) in saute pan.

Fry the potol with salt and turmeric till they are yellow with some brown spots. Remove and keep aside

Season the oil with 2 cardamom and 1 tej patta

Add coconut-masala paste.

Add salt, 1/2 tsp kashmiri Mirch and little Turmeric powder. With sprinkle of water fry the masala at low heat till oil seeps from edges

Next add the fried potol and mix with the masala. Add couple more green chillies if you want.

Add about 1 cup of water, sugar to taste, cover and cook till potol is done. Now remove cover and dry off any excess water. The gravy should cling to the patol, "makho-makho" as we say in Bengal.

Serve with luchi, parota or rice

Ma's Doi Potol -- no choices there

All Photo Credits Courtesy my Dad@Kolkata

Food is a topic of much discussion these days. Umpteen channels on the television talk, discuss, present and even produce insane competitions;all on food. There are millions of blogs and websites all over the internet bursting with tantalizing food and bulging with information. There are hundreds of opinions churned out every day about what food is good and bad for you. There are umpteen lists about "Five Foods to Never Eat" and as many about "Five Foods to ace an interview". You would think "Five" would be an easy number to handle ? Naah.

All around me there seems to be a Food bubble. And I do hope earnestly that the bubble does not burst. I am enjoying it.

But as much as I love this gastronomical propaganda I must admit I am also highly confused. There is too much information which is hard to assimilate and even trust these days. There is too much of competition about making food faster, prettier, healthier, better and while one day that means oodles of butter, on the other none of it.There are studies being churned out faster than the dollar bill and when it comes to food it is hard to ignore them even in my standard lackadaisical mode. Why my family's health might be affected by the brand new study, that still smells of fresh ink and crisp paper hot from the printer. My child might grow up to be a psycho because she was deprived of Himalayan acai berry juice as a toddler.

Local or Organic, Paleo or Vegan, Chinese Study or American, South Beach or Calangute, your garndmother's or mine ? The questions are just too many. And honestly if you notice the core of each of these studies and sum them up it might just be what your Mother had been saying all along and you blindly ignored. Ahhh, what does she know after all. Now grandmothers might be more knowledgeable.

When I was a child growing up in India, food was not a media darling. Few recipes in the Sunday newspaper and a couple of half hearted food pictures in the Bengali magazine was all we had to be satisfied with. Glossy magazines like Femina did not talk about food. News Magazines like India Today stayed far away from recipes and if at all, talked about the dearth of food or the high price of it. "Eat it, all of  what is in your plate. Food is precious and there are people who are doing without it" was my Mother's common refrain.Food was revered and recipes were all hand me down or shared with neighbors. My Ma would sometimes cut out of recipes from the Sunday papers and with years they would begin to look like  fragile parchment.

Food was a mainstay of the middle class household though. Starting with the morning bazaar routine, getting fresh supplies of seasonal vegetables and fish every day, cooking 3 meals from scratch each day without fail was the norm. We discussed food with love and passion, as something to be cherished and thankful about. Each time my Thama lamented the milk that the milkman got, comparing it with the creamy, almost reddish hued warm milk from the cows in her parent's home in Munger, we collectively sighed. When my Baba said that nothing tasted as good as his grandmother's ghee parathas and mohonbhog we imagined days dripping with drops of grainy tassar silk ghee.

My Ma's cooking usually bordered on the healthy where it was never oily or too spicy for comfort. Yet it was flavorful, always had a vegetable, a fish and grains. The vegetables and fish changed along the season, the dishes varied from light to rich with the temperature. Meat was cooked once a week. I lived my entire childhood yearning for an omlette made with 6 whole eggs which she steadfastly denied spreading the quota over the entire week instead. She or none in her generation stopped to think if it was right to feed this or that. The everyday diet was naturally balanced.

All her life my mother's food style remained the same unlike mine which jumps from no-grain in one week to brown rice only in another and raw salad one day to junk food the next. While she lived with maybe three main kinds of grains, my pantry has branded as well as un-branded packs of brown rice, quinoa, daliya, couscous, semolina, flax seeds, wheat germ and other un-inventoried item which I amass because the recent study said so. Needless to say I forget about many of them.

I don't know whether her style was correct or whether it worked because the raw food products then were not maligned by harmful chemicals. I am not justifying anything, all I am saying is it was much more easier to think of food and plan a meal then. There were set choices.

Now,every week we run around three different grocery stores. For what purpose I do not know. Organic spinach and strawberries from Whole Foods, flax seed from Wegman's, Bitter Gourd and hot green Chiles from Patel Bhai. And then someone comes and says "Local is far better than Organic" and so I again run around, driving 35miles, getting Zucchini from the farm stand which said "Local Produce". In between I have spent an hour debating whether the more expensive wild caught salmon is less contaminated than the farm raised.Thankfully Organic Milk and Eggs is now mainstream and so we can get that anywhere but now they say Milk is not at all necessary for the diet anyway so there my precious 265 hours were wasted.

Finally when I am home, drained both physically and financially I decide I need some rest and order a processed cheese artisan pizza from Domino's, glug down a splenda infused coke and try to think of the  most edible way to cook the couscous so that I can contribute more food to the world wide web.

Of all the "gyaan" that is out there I probably like Michael Pollan's Twelve Commandments best.  
More Vegetables. 
Less Meat. 
Minimal processed food. Cook more. 
Eat at the table. Though I don't follow them strictly, they make sense.

But here is where I stumble.
"Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food".

Ideally eating what my Grandmother recognized would have been right because I guess that is what my body was suited for but then came globalization and messed it all up. I eat pasta and broccoli in abundance, and I am guessing she would too if she lived with me in the US. Also when I eat some of what she ate like this "Potol" I am actually committing a crime by not eating "local". I have no idea where my Patel Brothers get their potol from but I am sure it grows nowhere in my backyard.

Potol was a vegetable I was never fond of but summer heat brings back memories of patol and grandmothers. I however did not buy potol again, twice in one summer is enough I decided. This recipe of Doi Potol -- PointedGourd in a Yogurt sauce is a recipe sent by my Mother. I haven't cooked it yet but the recipe I see is pretty universal and might go well with even eggplants. So that is what I am going to do with this recipe next, cook it with eggplants. You can do the same or if you have access to plentiful potols you can make one more dish with the same boring veggie.


1. Potol - 6 pc
2. Onion - half
3. Yogurt/Curd - 1 cup
4. Green chilli-- 4/5
5. Cumin/Jeera powder - 2 tea spoon
6. Ginger - 1 table spoon
7. Turmeric Powder - 1 tea spoon
8. Chilli powder - half tea spoon
9. Sugar - 1 tea spoon
10. Salt- according to taste
11. Garam masala - 3 elaichi, 1/2 " dalchini, 4 cloves
12. Tejpata - 1
13. Rosun - 1 koya /1clove

Prothome potol take bhajar moto ga ( body ) ta cheche niye ektu haldi & salt lagye bheje nite hobe. Then potol ta tule rekhe in that oil, garam masala & tejpata phoron debe. Then ote onion & rosun debe and ginger paste & sugar diye bhjte hobe. Now 1 cup doi ( curd ) haldi, lanka & jeera powder diye bhalo kore phetiye nite hobe. Onion bhaja hole or modhye ei curd diye debe and gas sim kore bhalo kore nere niye ote potol guli diye nara chara kore salt debe. Tarpore jal ( water ) diye dhaka ( lid ) debe. Potol boil hole green chilli long size chire (cut ) ote diye namiye nebe.

Scrape skin of potol/parwal and toss in salt and little turmeric powder.

Heat Mustard Oil in a Kadhai.

Fry the patol lightly, remove and keep aside.

Temper the same oil with Whole Garam Masala and TejPatta.

Add the finely chopped onion and garlic and saute. Next goes in the ginger paste. fry with a tsp of sugar till onion is soft and browned.

Meanwhile in a bowl add the yogurt, Cumin Poder, Chili powder and littel turmeric powder. Beat well.

Once the onion is done, take the kadhai off the heat  and slowly add the yogurt. At low heat cook add the fried potol and mix well with yogurt and masala.

Add water for gravy, add salt, cover and cook till the potol is done. Once the potol is done add the green chili and switch off heat.

Potol Posto -- stuff dreams are made of

Potol. Posto. Potol Posto. Period.

Oh no wait...first I need to tell you this conversation I had with Little Sis. Okay ? Okay. Period.

So it is one of those days and I am tired and I tell LS: "If I knew magic I could come home from work in a second and wouldn't have to drive so long".

LS: " Well, for that you need to ask someone who knows that kind of magic".

Me: " Well, how do I know someone like that?"

LS appears to ignore this and then after a minute says : "Or you could Dream. Dreams come true, you know?"

Me, excited at this optimistic, positive child of mine: "Really? So what do you dream of ?"

LS: "Well that I am a famous singer". Whaa...at, really???? " And that I am eating chocolate cake" That is better. "And I am watching Food Network". Really kiddo...this...this is your dream... of watching stupid Chopped on FN.

But I don't say all that. Instead I say: "Ahhh that sounds great. So tonight I am going to dream then".

At this LS goes into deep thought and then after a minute says : "Well, actually dreams don't even come true. They say all that in the TV. Anyway nothing that they say on TV is true. On TV, Franklin the turtle talks. Do turtles ever talk in real life ? No.They are all puppets on TV and dreams will never come true"

I give up. Let us eat the Potol Posto instead. Don't ask me why I added Onion, you might as well skip it.And if you don't get Potol, don't even dream of it. Will not help. Period.

Scrape the skin off Potol/Pointed gourd/Parwal and peel strips in alternate. I had about 10 small potol .Chop each potol in 4 along the length. Chopping in two should have been fine but these potol were not very fresh so I did 4.

Toss them with salt and turmeric powder and keep aside for 10 mins.
Meanwhile dry grind 1/4 cup of posto aka poppy seeds and mix with little water to make a thick-ish wet paste.

Heat a tbsp musard oil. Fry the potol till they develop brown spots. Need not get all crinkly. Remove and keep aside

If there is not enough oil in the kadhai/frying pan, add about 1 tsp more.

When the oil is hot temper the oil with 1/2 tsp of Kalo Jeera/Kalonji and 4-5 hot green chili slit through.

Once the spices pop add half on an onion chopped in thin slices and fry the onion till it is soft and light brown.

To the pan add the fried patol and toss it with the spices and onion. Next add the poppy seed paste and with sprinkle of water fry for next 3-4 minutes till raw smell of posto is gone.

Now add a little more water, a little less than 1/4 cup, add salt, sugar to taste and cover and let the patol cook till done. Remove cover and serve with rice.

Alu Potol diye Maacher Jhol -- a fish curry with veggies

As a kid growing up in India we ate seasonally. There was no other way. Cauliflower, Carrots, Green Peas and Beets only in Winter. For a short period, maybe November to late February. By March, the carrots in the haat were shriveled old things, the cauliflowers absent and nary a green pea could be found spilling the bean. 

The most that we missed once winter wrapped itself up in a Pashmina and traveled further North were the Tomatoes and green, leafy coriander. Ma, made bottles and bottles of Tomato ketchup which we hung on to until April or even May and after that dearly missed the maacher jhol with tomatoes and generous garnish of coriander which was a winter staple. Not a speck of green coriander leaf or a squishy red tomato could be found once summer set in. Later, even in the early nineties, the bunches of coriander that were sold post-Winter were sad, raggedy bunches that clearly wanted to join their sibling in a colder climate.

Summer always meant green vegetables with more water content and fruits brimming with juice. Jhinge or ridgegourd with raised thick skin, Pointed Gourd or Potol with its deep green stripes, and pale green Lau or BottleGourd were the standard. The tender potol in the early days of summer had a glamorous life. They were pounced upon to be made into stuffed dormas, fried to grace a cholar dal or steamed with coconut and mustard in a paturi. But as they say a life of  fame does not last forever.

As summer progressed it was the mango which stole the show while  potol and jhinge were forced to lead a sad backstage life featuring in every B-grade home cooked movie and being berated by home cooks. Just as the populace in the gangetic plains waited for the monsoon, for the summer to be over, they also craved for more color in their menu. For that though they had to wait. For Winter.

Thus there was a clear demarcation of Summer and Winter Menu with some overlap and rarities thrown in Spring when Drumsticks and copper colored baby neem leaves made a brief appearance.

Now as we all know it is not so. Six pack tomatoes, shiny and un-squishable lead a comfortable life all through out the year. Green, striped Potols stay put and no one's heart misses a beat on their first day, first show appearance. Here in the US though, the Indian grocer gets his Potol only in Summer. Good for me. I feel privileged to eat overpriced potol, a couple of times a year. The mundane is uplifted to the precious and I blog of alu potol diye maacher jhol which makes me go all mushy and tearful just like the tomato-dhone pata diye maacher jhol did with the first batch of deep red tomato.

Did you eat seasonally while growing up ? How did your menu change from summer solstice to winter ?

This alu -potol diye maacher jhol is a soupy, runny gravy of fish and vegetables. Suited best for hot summer afternoons it is a delight when mixed with rice and a squeeze of lime.
It is also my Ma-in-law's recipe as proffered by the husband. Unlike me, I think he hung around in the kitchen while his Mother cooked. He rattles off recipes without picking up a single phone to anywhere. And said that his Ma puts a little bit of onion in this jhol. Now,in my home a jhol will not have onion while a dalna might but this one does and it is from a Bengali home so you see when it comes to a dish there is nothing written in stone.


If you do not like Potol or do not get it you can make this same jhol with cauliflower and it will taste as good.

Alu Potol diye Maccher Jhol

Wash and clean fish pieces. The favored fish is Rui/Rohu. I have used fresh Tilapia. Rub with turmeric and salt. Keep aside for 20-30 minutes.

Chop 2-3 small potatoes in quarters and about 10 potol in halves. Before chopping the potol you need to scrape off its skin lightly and then peel of alternate strips. Heat some Oil and saute the potatoes and potol with turmeric powder and little salt, till golden. Remove and keep aside

Heat 2 -3 tbsp of Mustard Oil and shallow fry the fish till it is golden brown on both sides. Remove and keep aside.The health freaks can broil in the oven. It works.

Add a tbsp more oil to the pan. Once Oil is hot temper with
2 Green Cardamom
a 1" thin stick of cinnamon
roughly 1 tsp of PaanchPhoron(this time my PaanchPhoron had Radhuni instead of Mustard seeds)

Let the spices infuse the oil. To avoid the spices getting burnt I often switch off heat at this point and let the spices mingle in the oil.

Switch back the heat and to the oil now add 1 tbsp of minced onion and fry with half a tsp of sugar.

Once the onion has browned add 1 tomato finely chopped and 1 tbsp of fresh grated ginger. 

When the tomatoes are totally mushed up add a wet paste of
1 tbsp Cumin Powder
1 tsp Kashmiri Mirch
Optional: 1/4 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch


Fry the masala with sprinkle of water for next 3-4 minutes till you see oil seeping from the edges. 
Add the potatoes and potol that you had fried and kept aside. Mix well with masala.
Next add water for the gravy. Since this dish has a lighter gravy I usually add about 3 cups of warm water. Add salt to taste.


Let the gravy simmer and come to a boil. Once the potatoes and potol are cooked add the fish pieces. Lower the heat and simmer for 4-5 more minutes.


Serve with rice and a slice of lime on the side.

Alu Potol er Dalna

Alu Potol er Dalna | Potatoes and Parwal in  Curry

The Dalna in Bengali Cooking is a gravy dish where the gravy is thicker and richer unlike a jhol where the gravy is soupy and runny. In this Alu Potol er Dalna recipe, I have shared a rich gravy made with potatoes and potol/parwal/pointed gourd. This recipe is niramish/vegetarian. In a non-veg version of this same dish, you can add shrimp or prawns.

Little S loves bandhakopir tarkari or cabbage sabzi. Only she calls it "Baba Kopi". This makes us laugh because "Baba"=Dad in Bengali.
She does not like Fulkopi or Cauliflower as much as "BabaKopi". Also she refers to Cauliflower as "White Broccoli".

And then she calls Swami Vivekananda -- Ferdinando.

Otherwise her Bengali is impeccable.

The Dalna in Bengali Cooking is a gravy dish where the gravy is thicker and richer unlike a jhol where the gravy is soupy and runny. For evey jhol there is an equivalent Dalna. So if there is a Alu-Kopir jhol there is the Alu-Fulkopir Dalna, for a Alu-Potol er Jhol there is an equivalent Alu-Potol er dalna, so on and so forth.

The Dalna can be Niramish, which means vegetarian with no onion or garlic or can be Aamish with not only onion and garlic but sometimes fish being added to it. Also almost always dalna has a phoron of Whole Garama Masala and is cooked in Ghee or White Oil but it might vary a little amongst families.

I made the Alu Potol er Dalna yesterday after years. Potol/Parwal or Pointed Gourd is a summer vegetable back home. No one pays much attention to it after first few days of its arrival in the summer market. After that it is just one more staple summer veggie.

Here Patol/Parwal is expensive, not in its best form and seen occasionally in the Indian Grocers. Me buying Patol is same as someone buying Celery sticks in the heat of Mumbai.Does not make a whole lot of sense except for making mundane Potol a very fancy vegetable for me and cooking it as a special Sunday meal.

I made a Niramish Alu Potol er Dalna, no onion to chop always tips the scale for me. We really enjoyed it with some Rice and for once did not miss the mandatory meat or fish that is on the Sunday lunch menu.


Read more...

Alu Potol er Dalna

Chop the ends of the Potol/Parwal and then scrape the skin.Chop in halves. I had about 10 potol/parwal

Heat Vegetable Oil in a wok and fry the potol with a pinch of turmeric till they are a pale golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.

Heat some more Oil in the same wok

Temper the Oil with
a pinch of Hing/Asafoetida(optional)
1&1/2" tin stick of cinnamon
1 small Bay Leaf
4 small green cardamom
4 clove
2 Dry red Chili

When the spices sizzle add 1 medium potato peeled and chopped in quarters. Sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of Turmeric Powder and saute the potatoes until they start taking on a pale golden color

Take 2-3 peeled whole tomatoes from a can or 1 big juicy tomato and blend to make about 1/4 cup tomato puree. Add the tomato puree to the pan.Add 1 tbsp of grated Ginger OR 1 tsp of Ginger paste

Add a little salt and fry the tomato till the raw smell is gone. If you are not the smelling type, check to see if the oil is separating from the masala. This will take about 6-8 minutes at medium heat

Time for the masala.
Mix
1/2-3/4 tsp of fresh ground Coriander Powder +
1/2-3/4 tsp of Roasted Cumin Powder
1/4-1/2 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch or Red Chili Powder

in little water and this.

Alternately, you can mix the spices with 1 Tbsp of yogurt and add the masala paste.

Note 1: I roast coriander seeds and grind them to a fine powder. Ditto with Cumin Powder. My Ma however uses jeere bata or cumin paste in this recipe. You can do that too. I also use Kashmiri Mirch so use Red Chili Powder according to taste.

Note 2: In a variation of this masala you can do this --> Dry roast 1 tsp Coriander seeds + 1 tsp Cumin seeds + 1/2 tsp Fennel seeds + 1 Dry Red chilli til fragrant. Cool and grind to a powder. Mix this powder with 1 Tbsp of yogurt to make a masala paste. Add this masala paste.

Sprinkle a little of the tomato juice or a little water and fry the spices for about 5 minutes. This is called "kashano" in Bengali or "bhuno" in Hindi and a lot depends on this step. You need to fry the masala till the oil surfaces and the masala takkes a deep red color. Don't try to hurry it. I have done that and there has been a difference in taste.

Add the lightly fried poto/parwal and gently mix everything together.

Add 1 cup of warm water. Add salt to taste. Cover and cook till potatoes are done. Potol/Parwal should be done by now. Remove the cover and reduce the gravy to your desired thickness.

Add about 1/4 tsp of sugar for an authentic Bengali taste.

Adjust for spiciness, add a little ghee and garam masala powder if you wish. Keep covered and serve hot with rice or chapati