Chirer Pulao | Poha the Bengali way

Chirer Pulao | Poha the Bengali way

Bengali Chirer Pulao or Chirar Polao is largely similar to a Poha, with small differences like the former does not usually have kari patta, is sweeter and is overall Bong. Made with flattened rice, called chire or poha, the Bengali version is studded with vegetables like potatoes, cauliflower, carrots and sweet peas in winter. Garnished with fried peanuts or cashews, coriander leaves and a squeeze of lime it is a sweet and tart delight, prefect for breakfast.

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Food happiness is when your food takes you back to a happy place. It is like a short vacation to a place where you will probably never return to or at least not for now. The few minutes in your mind makes up for it and the warmth of the memories are enough to piggyback on for rest of the day. Like this Chirer Pulao today took me back to my home in the small town that holds a special place in my heart. I will never be able to go back to that home and the sepia toned memories, now colored in my mind, makes it all the more special.

Winter is a season of beauty and fresh vegetables in the plains of Bengal and nowhere else it makes as much as a show as it does in the smaller towns and villages.

 In the small town that we lived, every house or rather quarter/bungalow had a stretch of overgrown lawn in the front and a patio at the back called uthon. The uthon which was usually cemented had a few trees, a koltola (an area for washing clothes and utensils) and a water storage tank called choubachcha, as water supply through the pipes was only twice a day and water had to be collected in large quantity for later use. I loved our uthon with its huge mango tree and spent most of the winter sitting there under the sun with my books.

The front lawn however was a different story. Depending on the interest of the dwellers, the front lawn could be a fully maintained vegetable farm producing everything from potatoes to cauliflowers or a flower garden that could put a prize nursery to shame or even a rectangular badminton lawn.

 

Unfortunately our front lawn was none of these. It was just a large expanse of green grassy lawn from the gate to the front porch bordered by orange marigolds and shadowed by a huge banyan tree in a corner. The banyan tree took all the attention, praised for shade and breeze in summer and blame for blocking the sun in winter -- oi ashwatha gaach wala bari ta was how our house was identified.

Towards the back of the lawn were a couple of guava trees, and a patch of kitchen garden on the side by the kitchen, tended by my mom. Her kitchen garden in winter boasted mostly of juicy red tomatoes, some carrots and coriander. Not much compared to the huge haul of vegetables that our neighbors would produce. However we did get the occasional cauliflower and potatoes as gifts from the neighbors. 

Even otherwise, vegetables at the nearby haat were as fresh. All local. All organic. Smelling of earth, air, water and manure. I don't know if winter vegetables just tasted better in their texture and taste  but I was way more fond of cauliflower, carrots and sweet peas than the summer veggies of parwal and lauki!

So in winter, Chirer Pulao studded with tiny cauliflower florets, orange jewel like carrot pieces and emerald green sweet peas was a favorite for breakfast or school tiffin.

As far as I go Chirer Pulao is largely similar to a Poha, with small differences like the former does not have kari patta, is sweeter and is overall Bong. The experts may differ. My Mother made chirer pulao with a tadka of cumin seeds and finished it with lime juice and fresh coriander leaves. Sometimes she seasoned it with mustard seeds and curry leaves. It would be a little sweet and tart. That chirer pulao would be studded with crunchy brown fried chinebadam pale on the inside, alu bhaja -- finger length potatoes fried and soft, crunchy florets of cauliflower sautéed to a soft golden brown and luminescent green jewel like sweet pea motorshuti . It was a simple dish, I thought.

The first time I tried to make it on my own in the US, my self-esteem took a good beating. The chirer pulao turned into a chirer khichuri. And it all happened in the split second that I was searching for the mustard seeds while the poha was soaking. I did not know of a term called "mise en place" and I did not know I was using thin poha. It was the wrong kind. The thick poha stands a better chance of holding its own and is the poha of choice for Chirer Pulao.

Having survived that tragedy, I have been making the chirer pualo the way my Mother makes and it is still a favorite. I add more vegetables than the Poha and I also add cooked Oats at times to the same recipe,

Thakurbari r Beet Baata -- Beetroot paste

Though we get each and every vegetable around the year and at all times, every season I tend to gravitate towards those vegetables which were specific to that season  while growing up. 

Well, I make an exception when it comes to three of my favorite vegetables -- tomatoes, cauliflower and coriander leaves. These were very much winter vegetables in my childhood and even while waxing merits of seasonal eating, I am so very glad that now I can have them at any time of the year.

With veggies like Beetroot, I have seen I inadvertently end up buying and cooking more of this veggie in winter than summer. Similarly with Lauki or bottlegourd, which I am pulled towards in summer months but not so much in the winter.

So anyway, every winter, beetroot reminds me of 3 things, Yes the rule of 3 is ruling me today.

Bhejetebil Chop with grated beet and carrots, Beet Gajor er Chechki and a soup that my mother would make with big chunks of carrots, beet, thick slices of onion and potato sautéed in butter and then cooked in a pressure cooker with lots of broth spiced with whole black peppercons, cardamom and probably ginger.

No doubt I loved #1 and #2 but hated #3. I have tried to make that soup a couple of times as an adult and quite enjoyed it but I don't know why LS calls it "chemical jhol" and refuses to have anything to do with it!!

This time when I got beetroot, I wanted a quick easy recipe and found the Beet Baata in the slim book titled Thakurbari'r Ranna.  Now in contrast to popular belief, the recipes included in this book were not necessarily what was cooked in the Tagore Household, neither were they Rabindranath Tagore's favorite dishes.

This book is written by Purnima Thakur, daughter of Nalini Devi and Pramatha Chaudhuri. In the preface, the author very clearly says that these recipes are collected from a tattered recipe book handed down to her by her aunt, Indira Devi Chaudhurani. Indira Devi, the favorite niece of Rabindranath Tagore, had never entered a kitchen or cooked on a regular basis. But she was a connoisseur of good food and whenever she liked a dish that she tasted, she made sure to collect the detailed recipe from the cook and diligently note it down in her book. Purnima Tagore has also included some of her mother's recipes in the book. 

Surprisingly, never once in the book has the author mentioned a dish being cooked in the Tagore Kitchen nor anything about Rabindranath Tagore enjoying "beet baata" on a winter afternoon. She has very deftly and cleanly kept Tagore out of it and yet every time, someone cooks and shares a recipe from "Thakurbari r Ranna"  they want you to believe that the dish will make a poet of you.

If that is your intention, you have to skip this recipe. However you would be foolish to do so. From whomsoever this recipe of "Beet Baata" was collected, was a genius. It is the  easiest thing to do with beets and gives you way more value than the effort you put in. 

Potol er Dolma | Potoler Dorma | Stuffed Pointed Gourd

Potol er Dolma | Potoler Dorma | Stuffed Pointed Gourd

The word Dolma, from the Turkish verb Dolmak, means to be filled and refers to all kinds of stuffed food in the Ottoman cuisine, the most popular being stuffed grape leaves. The Persians call it Dolmeh. The Bengalis call it Dolma or even Dorma. Potoler Dolma or Dorma is a very popular Bengali dish made with the summer vegetable potol or pointed gourd. It is believed that dolma came to Bengali households holding the hands of Armenian families who were originally from Persia and had followed the trade route to finally settle in Chinsurah, near Kolkata. While the original Dolma was stuffed with minced meat and rice as mentioned earlier, the fusion potol’r dolma in Bengali households was stuffed with minced meat, fish and even a vegetarian stuffing of paneer and coconut.

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Potoler Dolma is the kind of dish that always, always reminds you of your grandmother and her kitchen. A slightly hunched figure, sitting on the kitchen floor, on a raised wooden plank called pinri, her gnarly fingers expertly stuffing hollowed out potols (pointed gourd) , which would then be lightly fried and simmered in a gravy. I don't know how my Dida felt about making Potol er Dorma or where she learned it from. It was not really an easy task and since it was always made when there was a house full of people, there were lots of Potols to scrape and stuff. She cooked happily, tired but satisfied, and we thought it was given that she would make Potol er Dolma for us.

My Mother prepping Potol

More than the potol or pointed gourd, I loved the stuffing that went in it. My Dida's standard stuffing for Potoler Dorma would be made with fish. Fish filet was not easily available in North Kolkta in those days and my Dida steamed pieces of Rohu, deboned them patiently and then made a delicious stuffing with the fish. Usually when she was making a large batch of Potoler Dorma for the whole family, my mom or one of the aunts was delegated to make the stuffing. But rest of the Dolma was always hers and hers alone.

Ma stuffing the Potol. This stuffing was made of Ricotta as I was too lazy to make Chhana

Unlike my grandmother, I never ever make Potol er Dorma when there is a house full of people. I want to hold on to my lyaad-quuen crown and cooking difficult stuff for a crowd doesn't get you one!

So it is always made in small quantity for the family and then depending on the availability of the right size Potol(Pointed Gourd) in our Patel. I think I made it multiple times a few years back in 2019, while writing "Those Delicious Letters" as there was a chapter around this dish. This summer I made it once more. My mother was surprised and couldn't believe her eyes that I was doing such a thing !!

Now what I have realized is with a dish like this if you can break it down into smaller tasks, it is much easier to do. 

1. Day 1/Task 1 -- Make the stuffing. Depending on your choice you can make a niramish stuffing with chhana/paneer or  amish stuffing with fish or keema. Refrigerate and make sure no one eats it.

2. Day 2/Task 2 --  Make the base for the gravy/curry. Scrape the potol, Peel in alternate strips, hollow it out, wrap it in a damp cloth and refrigerate.

3. Day 3/Task 3 --  Fry and stuff the potol. Finish the gravy. Simmer the potol in the gravy. 

There are two things I do to make stuffing the potol more easy

1. I first sauté the potol, cool and stuff. In the original recipe, the raw potol is stuffed and then fried. There is a chance that the stuffing might come out if you do this so I do the sauteing first.

2. I try to make my stuffing with a very smooth texture, so that it kind of sits nicely inside the potol and doesn't  spill out. My Dida would securely tie the potol but I don't do that and so far it has been fine.

Hope you make this dish at least once to see what a star Mr. Potol Babu can be too. I have shared the recipe for both the vegetarian Paneer stuffing OR the Fish stuffing, you can use either.

Ma'r Peper Shukto -- Green Papaya Shukto

Peper Shukto | Raw Green Papaya Shukto

Shukto, in Bengali cuisine holds a very important place as a palate cleansing starter to a gourmet meal. Dating back in origin to the medieval period (as mentioned in Mangal-Kavya, shukto recipes might vary over time and region but a bitter vegetable is always the mainstay. The more common Bengali shukto is cooked with a mélange of vegetables. This very different Pepe Shukto made by my mother, has grated raw green papaya and bitter gourd, both vegetables having immense medicinal qualities and is the perfect start to a meal on a summer day.

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Some people cook a lot in times of stress. I am not one of them. I think my Mother is.

Last year, when India went into lockdown during Covid, I had suggested that my parents get food delivered from a caterer. A friend suggested a home caterer recommended by her elderly parents in the same area as my parents. There was some initial resistance from my parents,

My Mother had always cooked all our meals as far back as I can remember. She never liked the idea of a cook and on the few occasions that she had one, she couldn't wait to get rid of the "cook" person.  Naturally she was not very eager about this home delivery. However I was getting worried about them going out for daily grocery, vegetables, fish etc. during Covid and so the home delivery seemed like a wise decision at that point. Simple Bengali dishes, cooked at home by the gentleman's wife, enough for two meals for my parents. 

Surprisingly, they soon took to the home delivery, in particular the person who ran the business, and on occasions my Baba would even praise the cooking. "Enchorer torkari ta besh bhalo korechilo, laal rong hoyechilo jhol tar," my not-interested-in-food Baba would say over the phone.

Many of you know that I was in India in the later part of last year. The home delivery was still continuing. The food was good but for someone like me, who cooks mostly in Olive oil and always chooses low-oil options, the aloo-potol er dalna with a slick layer of oil floating on top or the jackfruit curry with a shimmer of oil like a placid lake, was too much for everyday meals. The oil was not in excess for those used to full course Bengali/Indian meals but I realized it was me, whose food habit had changed with time and environment,

So to complement the food delivered with healthier options, I started popping across to the small store across our housing complex, every other day to get some vegetables that could be steamed or boiled. I bought the same vegetables every time -- a raw papaya (pepe), a couple of bittergourd, carrots, green chilli and lime. I would then add all these vegetables to a pot of lentils and boil them together, to make a dal with vegetables. I was in no mood to do anything more.

One day for lunch, I saw a beige colored vegetable dish with a bay leaf peeping out for lunch. It was not from the home-delivery tiffin carrier. My mother sheepishly admitted, that she had made Pepe'r Shukto. I had never heard of it. Neither did I understand the point of making hundred different types of shukto.

Maybe my mother got tired of the raw green papaya and bittergourd that I would always steam with the lentils, maybe she just wanted to do something that would keep her mind busy, maybe she wanted to be engaged again in her kitchen, to go back to a routine...I don't know. What I admired was that with so many things going on, she gathered strength to grate a raw green papaya, chop bittergourd and make a dish which was far more complex than the boiled fare I had been doing all along!

I have never been fond of any kind of shukto ever but I have started making this Pepe'r shukto often. My friends and the husband-man seem to love it. In my mother's version it is more sweet than bitter and with a generous amount of ghee, it could pass off as an almost dessert!! Naturally, my version has less sugar and ghee but if you want be generous with those.

Lau with Dhonepaata - Lauki in Coriander-Poppy Seed paste

Some days you wake up in the morning on a weekend and your life is so mundane that you sit down with a cup of chai and a foot long bottlegourd. No, you do not do anything new with the bottlegourd, you just chop it! You might also be watching something on your iPad while all the mundane chopping. Something like Bridgerton, which I had been resisting for a while and then finally gave in. Your life seems just more mundane.

You then wonder who were the first people who discovered turmeric and cumin and coriander, and then decided to make a paste of these spices, and add it to flavor their food. Long before wars were fought and new lands discovered, who was the one who said --"Let me add a dash of cumin and a pinch of turmeric to today's dish".

Who were these interesting people? Did they go to debutante balls and ride horses? Did they work in chemistry labs with pipets and glass flasks?

This was not just slapping a piece of meat on a fire and cooking it. This was far more nuanced. Like, who decided to grind certain lentils into a paste, whip them up all airy, then put dollops of that batter to dry in the sun and make Vadis/Boris? They never went to a culinary school or any school and yet they knew all the techniques. In that situation, I would never know to experiment to that rigorous level. At the most, I would pound green chilies and salt and add it to the meat which I would then throw onto the fire. Isn't that sad ?

Frustrated by your lackluster life, with no Duke of Hastings in the horizon, you are hell bent on unleashing your innovative, genius inner soul to unsuspecting family members. So you do best with what you have in hand. A little different combination of spices for the familiar.  So instead of making my usual Lau Chingri or Bori diye Lau, I made a Lau in Coriander-Green Chili -Poppy seed paste. Yeah, big deal. Not. 

But Dhonepaata baata diye Lau tasted very good and different. Not radically different but different enough to jazz up my morning. You must try it.

The tender lau, lauki or bottle gourd with its soothing green skin soothes the eyes in harsh summer and because of its high water content has a cooling effect and so is one of the preferred veggies in the summer months. According to ayurveda, the cooked bottlegourd is cooling, diuretic, sedative and anti­bilious(corrects secretion of bile). It gives a feeling of relaxation after eating it. It is rich in essential minerals and fiber.

Bengalis make a variety of dishes with lau over the summer from Moog Dal Chhora Diye Lau, Doodh Lau with milk and a little sweet in taste, Lau er Malaikari where the bottlegourd is cooked in a rich coconut gravy to the all time favorite Lau Chingri where bottle gourd is cooked with shrimp. The Dhonepaata Lau now got added to that lau repertoire .

Lau with Dhonepaata - Lauki in Coriander Poppy Seed paste

Ingredients

Lau/Lauki/Bottlegourd ~ 3 cups. Peeled and chopped in small cubes

For Paste
Green Chilli ~ 3-4 Green chili
Coriander leaves - 1/2 Cup(loosely packed) fresh coriander leaves

Posto/Poppy seeds - 1 Tbsp

Make a paste with little water.

For Tempering

Kalojeera/Kalonji/Nigella Seeds -- 1/2 tsp

Ginger - 2 tsp grated

Green Chilli - 2 slit

Other 

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Sugar - 1 tsp

Mustard Oil - 1 Tbsp

Start Cooking

Heat Mustard oil in a Kadhai/Frying pan

Temper the oil with

1/2 tsp of Kalonji

1 tsp grated Ginger

2 Green Chili

Add the chopped bottlegourd and stir it for a few minutes. Sprinkle salt to taste and a pinch of turmeric powder. Cover and cook until bottle gourd softens. Bottlegourd releases water and the vegetable will cook in its own juice.

Once the lauki/bottlegourd is almost 3/4th cooked, add the coriander-green chili-poppy seed paste. Add 1 more tsp of grated ginger.

Add about 1 tsp of sugar and adjust salt to taste. Sprinkle a little water if necessary.

Mix the spices and the vegetables and cook until the bottlegourd is fully cooked. 

Garnish with some chopped coriander leaves and this light dish is perfect for the summer heat.

Alternate option: For a richer dish, add some grated coconut along with the coriander-poppy seeds

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Chana Bhaapa | Bhapa Paneer -- Steamed Paneer in Mustard sauce

Chhana Bhapa | Bhapa Paneer | Steamed Paneer in Mustard sauce

Chana Bhaape or Steamed Paneer is a very popular Bengali Dish where fresh home-made chhana (ricotta cheese) is steamed in a a sauce of mustard and coconut. It is a very quick and simple recipe. Traditionally steamed in a pot or pressure cooker but I do it in the microwave. This recipe for Chhana Bhapa tells you both methods.

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This past weekend, close friends across 2 states came visiting. They wanted to meet my mom but were waiting to get vaccinated before coming. 

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One of them has converted in her food habits and is now a complete vegetarian. She really loved fish and meat and then one fine day, she just stopped eating any of those. And not for health reasons or because someone told her to. For the past year, I kept thinking she would quit, would start eating at least eggs, but nope she is still a vegetarian.

I think it takes a lot of discipline to do that. To give up something, not for the purpose of achieving a goal or anything but to just let go.❤

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So anyway, we being Bengali and she being Bengali, I am always worried as to what vegetarian food to cook for her. I mean she is a good cook and cooks a variety of vegetarian food anyway at home. Also she is more fond of Bengali vegetarian than say a plate of pasta.

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Bengali vegetarian recipes are in plenty and with little nuances each one is very unique.

This time, I made two dishes, that she had not tasted before. She really loved them. We chatted so much and she talked to my Mom about her spiritual journey and in the middle of all that, I forgot to take photos of the other food items, or the table, or people!! I forgot to even look at my phone almost all weekend!!!

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🌱This was our **vegetarian spread** -- Motor Dal, Motor Dal er Bora (lentil fritters), Kolmi saag with Begun, Peper Shukto, Paneer Bhaape, Phulkopi korma(again my Mom's recipe), Pineapple Chutney and Malpua.

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🌱This here is **Chhana Bhaape** with shorshe posto (Steamed paneer with mustard and coconut). Many of you know this and it's an easy dish with great taste.

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🌱The other dish that she loved was **Pepe r Shukto**. Shukto with grated green Papaya. That's my Mother's recipe and has a delicate taste.

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The Chhana Bhaapa or Steamed Paneer in mustard sauce is exactly like our Shorshe Chingri Bhaape.  It has all the key Bengali elements of mustard paste, coconut and loads of mustard oil. The "bhaape" here means a cooking process where the food is cooked by steaming. Traditionally these "bhaape" dishes were done in two ways.

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a steel tiffin box, close the lid and put it in a pressure cooker to steam.

2. Mix all the ingredients together, wrap in a banana leaf, tuck the leaf parcel in the pot of rice which is almost cooked and still hot and steaming. Here the leaf parcel is cooked by latent heat. Often such dishes steamed in a leaf are also called paaturi.

Here I have made this in microwave and it is super simple. Don't get intimidated by the steps. I have deliberately broken down the steps to making the mustard paste, posto paste etc.

Lal Shak Bhaja - Red Amaranth Stir fry

Laal Shaak or Shaag Bhaja | Red Amaranth Leaves Stir Fry

Lal Shaak Bhaja is usually a stir fry made with the red amaranth leaves and some garlic and Chilli. A sprinkle of dry posto seeds or bori adds the crunch to this dish. Sometimes the red leaves are also stir fried with shrimp and finished off with a sprinkle of roasted poppy seeds. These red amaranth leaves are a good source of Vit A and C. In some parts of India these red leafy veggies are called laal math,

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I don't know why I am posting this recipe.I mean it is a simple dish.
"Shaak niye adikhyeta korche," as any nosy Bong aunty would proclaim while rolling their eyes. "Eto boyesh holo, ekhono laal shaak bhaja jaane na, ajkalkar meyeder shob dhong" as another Bong pishima would whisper to her neighbor across the street.

It could well be because it is a very easy recipe to post, so perfect for someone lazy like me.

It could also be because I am at that age when I should get excited with red mustangs but in absence of that I am excited seeing Laal Shaak (Red Amaranth leaves).

So the thing is, every year I grow some perfunctory vegetables, just to make sure that my kids know vegetables come from plants and not aisles of grocery stores. That a tomato actually grows on a tree and not in a box at Costco. yes, these are important parenting tips.

And then this year, one of my neighbors gave me a bunch of amaranth seeds and some saplings and said that Amaranth grows very quickly and easily. Now if anywhere in the Universe I hear the word "easy", I just latch on to it. So I quickly put the seeds in soil without even knowing what exactly Red Amaranth was. Turns out Red Amaranth leaves is what we call "laal shaak" in Bengali. Though as a child, I wasn't fond of green leafy vegetables, I liked "laal shaak" because of their magical power to turn boring white rice to a pretty pink!!

They are also packed with nutrition and several sources say "Amaranth leaves are nutritionally similar to beets, Swiss chard and spinach, but are genetically closer to their wild ancestors and offer a far superior source of carotene, iron, calcium, protein, vitamin C and trace elements."

Even after the chipmunks ate half of the amaranth seeds I planted, we got decent number of plants growing. So with the red amaranth leaves growing in my backyard, I made this simple stir fry. Usually this is how I cook spinach too.

Laal Shaak Bhaja or Laal saag bhaja is usually a stir fry made with the red amaranth leaves and some garlic and Chilli. A sprinkle of dry posto seeds or bori adds the crunch to this dish. Sometimes the red leaves are also stir fried with shrimp and finished off with a sprinkle of roasted poppy seeds.

I love my greens with soft, flesh eggplants and so have made this stir fry with eggplants and laal shaak.
You can use potatoes instead of eggplants in this recipe.

Avial or Aviyal -- the BongMom version

Kerala Avial Recipe

Avial is a traditional Kerala dish where a variety of different vegetables is cooked into a thick coconut based stew. There are some mythological references as per which, Bheema is said to have prepared Avial, when there were unexpected guests for King Virata and he needed to serve meals for them. There were no sufficient vegetables to cook any single recipe for a side dish, so Bheema used whatever available vegetables to make a new dish, which came to be known as Avial. However these might not be true

Every time I make a Shukto, someone tells me that it reminds them of Aviyal. I am not a Shukto fan so I never get riled up with the comparison. I mean at least Aviyal doesn't have bitter gourd (or maybe some version of it does but the most generic version of Avial doesn't have bitter gourd). Anyway I am not an Avial fan either. But the husband-man loves all kinds of vegetables, be it Shukto, Charchari or Aviyal and so we end up cooking and eating them once in a few weeks! (I won't admit how many weeks :-p)

Before I go into this post, let me tell you the Avial I made is not exactly the traditional Kerala or Tamil recipe. The traditional recipe has a list of 13 or 15 vegetables and cooked in coconut oil. I have also heard that depending on the region, the recipe of Avial varies a little. While I have followed the same base recipe and used coconut paste, I have taken some liberty with the vegetables used and the tempering of the dish. The end result was fantastic though your Tambram MIL or  Kerala ammachi might beg to differ.

So, last weekend, we had a couple of friends over for a backyard-social-distancing get together!That sounds so cool right?
Now that we are in the 2nd phase of reopening and outdoor meetups are allowed, we meet in small groups of friends in the backyard (For all in India and places where Covid cases are rising, stay safe and don't meetup yet, you will get there 🙏).
I am loving these backyard meetups more than the indoor one honestly!!! 🌳🏡
No compulsive cleaning needed...yaayy😛 and under the sky adda can be actually very relaxing in our summer evenings.
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The husband-man made his killer pork-vindaloo for the party. To keep in theme with it I also made the Kerala Egg Roast from my blog. Then a Avial and a Goan Shrimp Curry. Only my Goan Shrimp Currry was a fusion and tasted more Chingri Malaikari than Goan!!!

So the Avial I made was based off 3 different recipes -- the base recipe was from here, the tadka/tempering was as suggested by a friend and the vegetables were as per my convenience. To understand the actual vegetables that go into an Aviyal please refer to this recipe. I had toned down the coconut a notch as I did not want a strong coconut flavor but I wanted the sweet creaminess that coconut brings, so I used only 1/2 cup of grated Coconut as opposed to 1 Cup. I did not have Coconut oil to cook the dish so I have used Vegetable oil and ghee. I will never claim this as the authentic Avial recipe but we loved this version.

Lau Ghonto with Bori and Lau Chingri

BottleGourd with Bori and BottleGourd with Shrimp...

Lau Ghonto Bori diye | Bottlegourd Sabzi with Vadi

Lau Ghonto is a popular Bengali vegetarian dish for the summer months made with Bottlegourd that has been chopped fine and garnished with fried Bori. There is also a non-veg version of this dish, Lau Chingri, where fried shrimp is mixed with the dish.

This post was first done in 2008 when I was pregnant with LilSis. Given that my pregnancies were never an easy affair, I don't know how I made a Lau Ghonto and posted a recipe then. The Recipe and photos updated on June 22, 2020.
I have been eating real simple these days, simple food not laced with too many rich spices or garlic and onion seems to have become my favorite. It is still spring here but my food cravings are like those served in my home during the hot summer months.
Summer veggies like Lau(Bengali)/Lauki(Hindi)/Bottle gourd, Parwal, Green mangoes have caught my fancy. These veggies prepared with simple spices and no onion or garlic and a light fish curry is what is staple food, in most Bengali homes in the Gangetic Plains where summer is hot and humid.

Green View from my Kitchen

Is it the green all around that makes me long for these veggies ? Before the days of air conditioned grocery stores and easy availability of exotic veggies, vegetables in the local markets were seasonal in India. So while winter was colored with deep red beet-root, orange carrots and rich red tomatoes, summer was green with deep green striped parwal, mellowed green bottle gourd, vivid rich green of cucumber and smooth green of raw mangoes.

Chopped Lau/Bottlegourd

The tender lau or bottle gourd with its soothing green skin soothes the eyes in harsh summer and because of its high water content has a cooling effect and so is one of the preferred veggies in the summer months.
According to ayurveda, the cooked bottlegourd is cooling, diuretic, sedative and anti­bilious(corrects secretion of bile). It gives a feeling of relaxation after eating it. It is rich in essential minerals and fibre.

Lau Ghonto

I am sharing this veggie and the dish with Laurie from Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska who is hosting WHB, originated by Kalyn, this week

The bottle gourd was used in several different kinds of dishes in my home ranging from the dal, the lau-ghonto which I think was made with milk and usually white in color, another lau-ghonto with fish head, the lau ghonto with bori where the dish was garnished with fried moong dal vadis, the lau-chingri where the shrimp was mixed with the dish to dress up the simple homely dish.

The recipe of Lau Bori and Lau Chingri here is as my Ma made it.

Recipe and photos updated on June 22, 2020.

Lau Ghonto with Bori

Ingredients


Lauki/Bottlegourd ~ 3 cups. Peeled and chopped in small pieces. You need to cut the bottlegourd in really small & thin pieces, large chunks are a NO NO.
Tomato ~1 medium finely chopped in small pieces
Green Chilli ~ 3-4 slit through the middle. I use hot Indian Geen Chillies
Ginger - 1" piece

For Tempering

Bay Leaves ~ 2 small
Cinnamon Stick ~ 1” stick
Whole Jeera/Cumin seeds ~ ½ tsp

Wet Masala Paste

Cumin seeds - 1.5 tsp Cumin seeds
Ginger - 1" ginger chopped ~ 1 Tbsp

With a sprinkle of water make a paste of cumin and ginger in a mortar-pestle.

Note: If you cannot make a fresh paste like as I said, then grate the ginger and mix with 1 tsp of Cumin powder to make a paste

Dry Spice powders

Red Chilli Powder ~ 1/2 tsp or according to your spice level. I go with the green hot chillies and do not use any chilli powder.
Turmeric Powder ~ about 1 tsp

Sugar ~ 1/2 tsp or none if you don’t like it sweet
Salt ~ to taste
Oil

For garnish

Bori ~ 1/4th Cup of Moong Dal Bori fried and crumbled. If you do not have any Bori, you might skip it. The Bengali Vadis are known as Boris and are small sun dried cones of lentil paste, the shapes are like Hershey's Kisses. Here is a recipe of boris made of Urad Dal. These boris are fried and then added to the dish.
Coriander Leaves ~ a fistful finely chopped


How I Did It

Heat Oil in a Kadhai/Frying Pan.

Fry the Bori/Vadi till it is a nice warm rich brown. Remove and keep aside

Temper the oil with Bay leaf, Cinnamon Stick and Whole Cumin seeds
When the cumin starts sputtering add the finely chopped tomato and green chillies.
Sauté till the tomatoes are soft and mushy with no raw smell.

Add the wet masala paste of ginger-cumin. Saute the masala for 2 minutes. Sprinkle some water if necessary

Add the chopped bottle gourd and mix with the spices. Sauté for 3-4 minutes.
Add Turmeric powder, salt and mix well

Once you have mixed it nicely, cover and cook. Intermittently remove the cover and give it a good stir. You don’t need to add water as bottle gourd releases water on cooking. If the bottlegourd is dried up or not that fresh you may need to add little water while cooking.

When the bottlegourd/lau is fully cooked, add sugar and cook for a minute. The water should have dried up by now and the result would be a dish with no gravy but moist.

Now crumble the fried bori on top
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves

Lau Chingri aka Bottle Gourd with Shrimp

Everything is same as the Lau-Bori recipe. Except for the Bori you need about ½ cup of shrimp. Wash the shrimp and mix with a little turmeric and salt and let it marinade for 30 minutes. Fry them to a light yellow and remove and keep aside. Cook Bottlegourd exactly as above. Instead of the bori, mix the shrimp with the bottlegourd at the second last step. Sauté for a minute and you are done.


Other recipes of similar Bengali Lau er Tarkari:

Tetor Dal with BitterGourd and BottleGourd



Trivia: Ektara the most ancient form of string instrument found in the Eastern parts of India, is constructed out of a half of a dried gourd shell serving as the sound-box, with a metal string running right through the middle of the shell. The Ektara was used by the Bauls of Bengal for their folk singing

Chanar Dalna | Chhanar Dalna - Bengali Style Paneer Curry

Chanar Dalna - Bengali Style homemade paneer curry

Chanar Dalna | Chhanar Dalna 

Chanar Dalna is a typical niramish (vegetarian) Bengali dish where homemade paneer balls or koftas are fried and cooked in a lightly spiced, subtly sweet gravy with potatoes. I have shared my Mother's recipe of Chanar Dalna in this post which is cooked with a fresh ground paste of cumin and ginger.

Every Friday, as far along as I can remember, my Mother kept a fast and therefore did not cook any meat or fish on that day. She herself ate a single one-pot meal of rice and vegetables cooked together with some ghee and salt. But for some reason unknown to me, she felt that one day of not having any protein would render us weak and feeble. Trust me, there was not a sign in my health to make her believe such. But she steadfastly did. And according to Bengalis that protein can never ever come from a "dal" or lentils. It has to be meat, eggs or if those failed then dairy!

Fresh chana simmering in gravy

So, my Mother made Chana or as we say Chhana aka cottage cheese. Diligently. Week after week. She boiled whole milk and squeezed lime juice in it until the milk had a rent and tore apart to form blobs of white cotton like milk solids suspended in a greenish whey. She then drained the whey out on a piece of starched white cloth, usually cut from one of one of her old saris and washed and dried to act as a cheesecloth. That paneer or chhana then rested under the weight of our black stone nora until all the water was squeezed out. She sometimes tried to feed me that raw chana with sugar sprinkled on it, saying it was good for me, but I hated it so very much that she soon gave up that idea.

Instead, she made flat disc shapes from that chhana, shallow fried them golden brown in oil and dunked them in a lightly spices sweetish gravy with potatoes and spice blend.The gravy would always be a thin one, spiced with freshly made paste of cumin and ginger. That niramish chanar dalna with those pillowy soft balls of cottage cheese was a much loved dish from my childhood. If that was how I was supposed to get my protein fix, I was all for it!

Niramish Chanar Dalna - Bengali Style homemade paneer curry

And so Chanar Dalna stayed on as a staple in our home on most Fridays. It would also pop up twice or sometimes thrice in the course of the week but if it was Friday then it was almost sure that Chanar Dalna was on the menu.

I usually make a chanar dalna with store bought paneer as that is easier and quicker. Also, my kids like that paneer a lot, we get really a very good Nanak paneer which is soft and delicious. However I have to agree that they are not the same thing. The Chanar Dalna that my Mother made, with homemade chana or homemade cottage cheese is definitely a dish that Bengalis will find more superiors.

Cumin-Ginger-Green Chilli paste

Today, I re-created the same dish with chana or paneer made at home. I wanted to get the exact flavor of my childhood dish and so instead of using cumin powder, I made a fresh ground paste of cumin and ginger  in my mortar, the quintessential jeere-ada baata, and used that paste as the masala for this dish. I must say that the fresh ground paste played an important role to enhance the flavor of this light curry. I thoroughly enjoyed the subtly sweet Chanar Dalna with rice for dinner today.

The kids thought that there was no need to go the extra mile of making chhana at home!! But sometimes you do things, for your own happiness, and that's fine.

It wasn't a difficult dish to cook, maybe takes bit more time to make. If you are running short of time, you can make the chhana a day ahead and then do the gravy the next, that might make the process easier. Also for an easier version of the dish with store bough Paneer follow my other Chhanar Dalna Recipe.

Tomato Kasundi -- adapted from Leela Majumdar

Tomato kasundi | Tomato Kashundi

This Kasundi is great as a dip for anything or a dressing for your cucumber-carrot salad. It has more of a tangy tomatoe-y taste than a mustard-y taste. Be generous with the mustard oil and you won't be disappointed.

Aam Kashundi

This Tomato Kasundi recipe is adapted from one of my favorite cookbook of all times. It's in Bengali by my favorite author Leela Majumdar. For those who don't know about her, she is a very famous author of Bengali literature and most loved for her writings for the young adults. Her books like "Podipishi'r Bormi Bakso" or "Monimala" are legends in their own times. Her memoir "Paakdondi" still remains in the list of my favorite books. She also happens to be Satyajit Ray's aunt.

I am not a big time cookbook reader. Never was. My recipes are mostly from friends, families and now blogs. My mother too never had a cookbook as far as I can remember. Cookbooks were not the "in thing" in those days. However she used to often copy recipes from magazines like Jugantor or Sananda and write them down in a diary. We both loved reading the recipes in colorful pages of Sananda or Femina those days. And of course the Personal columns :-p

The first cookbook I ever bought was just before I moved to US. It was a bengali cookbook by Bela De, very popular in those times. It had lots of recipes and was very cut and dry but useful. The recipes were written just like my Mother would say if you asked her how she made a particular dish -- a little of ginger and some cumin seeds. It gave you a basic framework and you took it from there.

Along with Bela De, I had bought another book, not because I wanted to learn the recipes (though they are excellent) but because I was a(still am) huge fan of the author Lila Majumdar. By then I had read all of her writings and when I landed one afternoon at the Dasgupta book stores in College Street asking if I had skipped reading any of Lila Majumdar's books, they gave me her "Ranna r Boi".

To be honest, I wasn't too enthusiastic. I had hoped for an unpublished manuscript maybe. But then I started reading it without the intention of cooking and started loving it. Her words in the introduction of that book became my mantra.  She wrote recipes in a conversational tone, again missing out on the measurements, but they were honest. They told you about substituting ingredients and things like "You can use this instead of this but it won't taste as good :-D". I read through that book often when I felt homesick in those early days in a foreign country. I cooked from it too but mostly I just read those recipes for pleasure.

"If you have to eat to survive then why not try to eat well. And eating well  means eating food that looks good, tastes good, is nutritious, inexpensive, easy and takes little time to cook "

I was craving for some Aam Kasundi or Mango kashundi  but did not have any mangoes. So I settled on Tomato Kasundi. I have adapted this Tomato Kasundi recipe from the book. The ingredients are as she suggested. It made for a very delicious dip. This Kasundi has more of a tangy tomatoe-y taste than a mustard-y taste. Be generous with the Mustard Oil and you will not be disappointed.

Vegetable Fried Rice with leftover rice -- By Little Sis

Vegetable Fried Rice | Stir Fried Rice with Vegetables and Egg

Left over rice is stir fried with vegetables and eggs in this easiest one pot-meal to make a delicious fried rice

This Veg fried rice was a staple in our home with left over rice. I don't know how my Mother made the exact amount of rice for each meal but there were some of those rare days when she overestimated or we ate less and there was left over rice. Usually she would eat the left over rice herself the next day and serve us freshly cooked rice, a practice I vehemently protested against.

But then on some days when she had excess left over rice, she stir fried it with eggs and vegetables like carrots and peas to pack a fried rice for school lunch. How I loved that stir fried rice. I think it was one of the best school lunches in my childhood memory.

During this Quarantine, LS, the 11-year old has developed a sudden interest in cooking. It is usually her sister, the 16 year old who is the cook if me or the Dad are MIA and LS is the sous chef helping with chopping vegetables. She is a good vegetable chopper and often chops vegetables for me too.

But in the last few weeks, it is LS who has taken over lunch duties. Her online classes get over earlier than her sister's and so she keeps asking me if she can make lunch. She started with baking, then mac and cheese and today she made this fried rice with the leftover rice that we had. I took a video of her cooking to remember these precious memories.

It was delicious and though she made it for only the two of them, I couldn't stop eating. It is really a very quick, one-pot meal to make if you have leftover rice ready.

Narkel Posto Bora -- inspired by Mitan Ghosh

Narkel Postor Bora

Yesterday I got a delivery slot from Costco on Instacart. Yessss!! Never thought things like this will give me so much joy.

If a month ago to this day, you would have asked me what was the greatest accomplishment in life? I would have fumbled. Now I know the answer. Getting a delivery slot on Instacart after trying for a whole week! That is my major accomplishment.

The husband-man is kind of the nonchalant types and is ready to go to Costco once a week at least. During this quarantine he misses Costco the most I think. More when he is stuck at home with all of us all the time. However I don't want to go out in the next two weeks since our Governor keeps saying that cases will peak in our state in these two weeks. Honestly, I don't think anyone knows the correct model that predicts the peak but given that we have been in lockdown for 3 weeks now and the curve hasn't flattened, this better be the peak!

So I am trying to get essential grocery items home delivered and it has not been easy. Delivery slots are never ever available and harder to get than winning a lottery.

However I am not going to complain about this lockdown at all. It has given me time to relax a little both mentally and physically. We are also connecting with friends a lot over Zoom and Hangouts. We even celebrated our favorite twins' 14th birthday over Zoom.

We have had  Virtual chai time with the neighborhood ladies on Zoom, each with our own cup of chai in our own favorite corner.
No one had to make 8 cups of chai or wash all those cups or clean house before guests were coming😂😛
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We have even had Zoom morning meetup with college friends from different parts of the world which has not happened before because weekends are always busy.🤩
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Every day now, I have the time to video chat with my parents 2-3 times a day. 💕
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LS's Bharatanatyam class with 14 others girls and teacher is via Webex. I don't have to drive her to class and I can now watch her dance😍

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We had enough time to watch movies like Tootsie, Murder on the Orient Express, Wajda  so far🎬. Not many but this is a rare occasion in my home. The four of us hardly have time together or if we do, each wants to spend that little free time doing their own thing.
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The girls are baking and even cooking a lot, making lunch for themselves almost every weekday. Lil Sis has become quite the baker with her steady supply of banana muffins for our breakfast and is often seen making pasta for lunch during the week.
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I have never had better weekends!! And never as connected as with social distancing in place!
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This is a difficult time indeed and my prayers for all who are suffering. But for others, whose only fallout of the pandemic so far, is quarantine, we really have NOTHING to complain about.

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Now today I made these Narkel Posto Bora aka Coconut Poppy seeds fritters after drooling over my friend Mitan's photo of the same. Mitan is a talented designer and also an amazing cook. Every day of this quarantine she has been luring us with her food.

Since Posto is nothing but Xanax for us Bengalis, I finally gave in and made these following her recipe. Since I am running low on Posto, the addition of coconut was a very welcome idea. These are so good and makes you feel so happy, that you will exude positvity when you make them


What You Need

Grated Coconut -- 1 Cup (we get frozen grated coconut. I have defrosted and used that)
Poppy seeds -- 1/2 Cup

Green Chilies -- 2-3 chopped fine
Kalonji/Nigella seeds -- 1/2 tsp

Maida/AP Flour  -- 2 Tbsp

Mustard Oil -- 2-3 tsp

How To make the Paste when you have a good mixer

Soak the Poppy seeds in little water for 10-15 minutes. Strain the poppy seeds

In the mixer jar add
1/2 Cup of Poppy seeds with a little water
Make a paste

Add grated coconut to the above. Now blitz to make a fine coconut+ poppy seeds paste

How to make the Paste when you only have Magic Bullet which is not working at its best

Bring out the Coffee Grinder, it is an inexpensive and a familiar feature in a sambar smelling, begun bhaja greasing grad student apartment (I hope!).

Put 1/2 cup of Posto/Poppy Seeds in the coffee grinder and make a fine powder, as fine as the machine can without burning up that is.

Transfer the powder to a bowl. Make sure it's not too grainy.

Add approx 2-3 Tbsp of water to this powder and try to make a paste.

Now in your Magic Bullet jar, add 1 Cup of grated Coconut. With a splash of water make a paste.

Add the Posto/Poppy seeds paste to the Magic Bullet Jar and blitz to make a Coconut-Poppy seed paste.

Now make the Bora aka Fritters

The paste will look a little runny. There is no way you can make bora(fritters) with them. So add a little Maida/AP Flour. Depending on how much water you added while making the paste, you might need Maida anywhere from 2 tsp to 2 Tbsp. Mix well.
Note: If you happen to have a good mixer or a sheel or anything where you can wet grind the posto to a fine thick paste, you might not need the flour.

Next add the chopped green chilies, kalonji and salt to the Coconut-Poppy seeds paste

Grease a flat pan with few drops of Mustard oil and put on the hob. Very little oil is needed to make these, 2 tsp at most.Mustard oil is the oil of choice here. If you don't have that again weep and use Canola.

Shape a flat fritter/tikki/bora kind of structure with your bare hands, it will be irregular and just hold its shape. Put it on the pan and let it cook at medium heat. Once the edges have browned flip. Now it will be flippable. Do the other side till both sides are nicely browned.

You can have these just by themselves or with rice. Tastes awesome. Ok, you already know that.

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