Pnatha'r Bangla - Mutton with Onions and Coriander

 

Pnatha'r Bangla is a very simple mutton preparation, the recipe for which I found in the book Thakur Bari'r Ranna by Purnima Debi (from the Tagore family).  This little cookbook is a part of nearly every Bengali cooking enthusiast's collection and with good reason. It's a little treasure box of recipes ranging from snacks, pickles and chutneys, daals and of course dishes for the main courses. The recipes don't give quantities or proportions for the ingredients therefore this book is ideal for a more experienced cook, and not for beginners. 

Bengalis have a special fondness for mutton or pnatha (goat meat) and it is cooked on most weekends and festive occasions are incomplete without it. And it is this love that has resulted in numerous recipes, some elaborate and some really simple like this one. I have no idea what the name of this preparation signifies, why it is called pnatha'r bangla, but it is definitely one of the lightest and most delicious mutton curries I have ever made. Here's the recipe as I made it.

Pnatha'r Bangla 

500gms mutton, curry pieces with some bones

3 medium onions

Fresh coriander, 1 cup tightly packed

2-3 fresh green chillies (optional)

2 inch piece ginger, smashed into paste

1/2 cup curd

1 onion sliced

2-3 potatoes cut into chunks

1 tsp chilli powder

3/4 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp roasted jeera powder

salt

sugar

ghee

Wash the meat pieces lightly and drain. 

Make a paste of the three onions, and then make a paste of the fresh coriander leaves. Add green chillies if you like - this is not part of the original recipe. 

In a pressure cooker heat a couple of tablespoons of ghee and add the chilli powder and turmeric. Let it fry for half a minute and add the ginger paste. Fry for a couple of minutes stirring well so the ginger doesn't burn and then add the onion paste. Add the curd after whipping it to make it smooth. Mix well and fry for a few minutes and then add the coriander paste. Add salt and a little sugar, mix well and cook for a few minutes. 

Now add the meat pieces and stir well to coat with the pastes. Add the sliced onion into the pot. Cook for a while till the onions turn pink and the meat is seared nicely.  Add the potatoes and enough water, mix everything and then shut the pressure cooker. 

Lower the heat after the first whistle and cook on simmer for 20 minutes. Switch off and let the cooker cool on its own and the pressure release. 

Open the cooker and sprinkle the roasted jeera powder over the curry. Be sure to check the salt and adjust if required. 

Serve the Pnatha'r Bangla with plain hot rice. 

Shish Palong Chorchori - Bengali Mixed Veggies with Spinach Stalks

There's a veggie vendor in the market who stocks 'Bengali veggies' and I have devotedly started visiting his stall at least once a week. I keenly miss Kolkata in the winter and all that winter bounty that the veggie vendor there brings on his cart to our doorstep every morning. It is from him that I learned about so many seasonal vegetables that are eagerly anticipated once the temperature dips and Bengalis begin anticipating all the 'sheet kaal'er shobji'. Thus, finding a source so nearby for many of those winter goodies has been a real godsend! 

On my last visit I found shish palong - the stalks and inflorescence of spinach that has been allowed to grow and mature. 

Sayantani of A Homemaker's Diary  explains that this ingredient is very seasonal and comes into the markets around the end of winter - which is now. In fact, I saw these in Kolkata on my visits also at this time of the year. I have followed Sayantani's recipe for shish palong chorchori as much as I could as per the ingredients I had in stock. 

Here's how I made Shish Palong Chorchori

A small bunch shish palong

10-12 bori

1 potato

1 small onion

half a medium brinjal

10 broad beans or sheem

1/2 tsp panch phoron

1-2 green chillies

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp poppy seed/posto paste

2 tbsp mustard paste

salt

Mustard oil

First prep the vegetables. Wash all the veggies before you proceed. 

Peel and cut the potato into neat thick-ish chips or batons. Cut the brinjal into long pieces. Slice the onion. String the beans and chop into 3 or 4 pieces depending on how large they are. 
Separate the stalks and leaves of the shish palong. Cut off the hard base and woody parts of the stalk and discard, use only the more tender pieces of stalk. Cut the stalks into two inch pieces and halve the thick ones length-wise so they get cooked properly. Chop up the leaves and any flowers and keep them separate from the prepped stalks. 

In a kadai or wok heat a couple of tablespoons of mustard oil and fry the boris. This takes a minute at the most, remove from the oil as soon as they brown. Keep aside. 

In the same oil chuck in a slit green chilli  or two and follow it with the panch phoron. Let it sizzle and then throw in the sliced onion. Stir well and let it fry on low heat till the onion begins to brown. Add some salt and turmeric and then add the shish palong stalks. Cover the wok and let it cook on a low flame for several minutes till the stalks have softened somewhat. 

Now add the potatoes and other veggies except the leaves and flowers of the shish palong, and mix everything nicely. Cover and cook till the potatoes are done. You can add a little water to help it along. 

Add the posto paste and mustard paste, and salt if required, and mix everything well. Cover and let it cook for a couple of minutes and let the flavours blend in. 

Finally add the fried boris - I like to keep a few intact and roughly crush the rest before mixing them in. I used Kolai Daal'er boris (urad daal boris) sourced from Amar Khamar a bridge between consumers from all over the country and women farmers in Bengal. 

Serve this shish palong chorchori with hot rice. It's a wonderful addition to a typical Bengali multi-course lunch with daal, bhaat, a bhaja or two, and machh'er jhol finished with some rosogolla or other sweet indulgence. Bengali food is replete with vegetarian and vegan recipes and this shish palong is just one more gem from this wonderful cuisine. 

Posto Sorse Dhyarosh - Bengali Style Okra with Poppy Seed and Mustard Pastes

Posto is a must-have in most Bengali kitchens. In fact, it would be a rare Bengali kitchen that didn't have it. Moni cooked different posto dishes quite often and I loved it. My favourite, and the most commonly made, was aloo posto. As far as the cooking method goes it's pretty much the same with whatever veggies you use - a tempering of nigella or kalaunji with some fresh green chillies in hot mustard oil, followed by the veggie of choice being sauteed in this oil, and ultimately the posto paste joining the party in the kadai along with seasoning and sugar. 

However, this darling of the Bengali kitchen has a bit of a murky past. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757 the British East India Company gained control of Bengal. The Company realised that there was a huge market for opium in China and decided to cultivate poppy as a cash crop in massive swathes of agricultural land in place of every other food crop. The Company made huge profits while the local populace languished without ingredients to cook with beyond a very few basic things. The extraction of opium from the poppy flowers left behind tiny dried seeds. Since the scale of this cultivation and the subsequent extraction was massive there was a large amount of these 'waste' seeds. In a desperate bid to bulk up their dishes and add some new flavour/texture to the food this waste product came into play and turned out to be quite delicious. It was used as a thickener and has a lovely nutty taste of its own. 

Read more about this here - https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/food-wine/how-british-greed-spurred-the-creation-of-one-of-bengals-most-loved-dishes/

Today posto or the poppy seed is  literally a part of a Bengali's identity. We have so many preparations with this one ingredient we could actually fill a cookbook. 

Anyway! I had some posto paste in the fridge and as a change from the usual aloo posto I decided to make something I haven't eaten in years - dhyarosh posto. I made it with a dash of mustard paste to liven it up. 

Posto Sorse Dhyarosh 

500 gm ladyfingers or okra

2 tbsp posto paste

1 tbsp mustard paste

1/2 tsp nigella or kalaunji seeds

2-3 fresh green chillies

mustard oil

salt

sugar

Cut the ladyfingers into two to three inch pieces.

Heat mustard oil in a kadai and chuck in the kalaunji and green chillies.

Add the cut ladyfingers and salt and fry for a few minutes on medium heat. I like to cover the pan and let the ladyfingers cook properly when I have cut them this big. The sliminess goes away when you take off the lid and dry it off. 

Once the ladyfingers are cooked through cook for a couple of minutes to dry it up. Then add the posto paste and the mustard paste. Also put in half a teaspoon of sugar. Stir to mix properly and let it cook for a few minutes on medium heat till the posto is no longer raw and whatever moisture is in the mix has gone. 

Serve the Posto Sorse Dhyarosh with daal and rice.

Sorse Katla- Catla Fish in Mustard Sauce

The machh'er jhols and jhals of Bengali cuisine are a veritable wonderland with some elaborate and some ridiculously simple preparations. All with delicious results! From frugal recipes that require barely three to four ingredients apart from the fish itself to more elaborate ones involving an array of vegetables and spices, the sheer variety of fish preparations in a Bengali kitchen is mind boggling. And it is this variety that keeps me seeking and learning more and more.

But not all the recipes are new or alien to me. Many are what Moni cooked. Like this sorse machh, mostly made with the 'peti' or belly pieces of a fatty Katla or otherwise Rui which were always in stock in Moni's freezer, thanks to the weekly shopping at Khar market.

I'd got a lovely Katla for a Bengali cooking workshop I did recently and I had some of it in my freezer. Like Moni, I had separated the peti or belly pieces from the gada or back pieces, put into bags and frozen them. And like her I decided to do this easy sorse katla with the peti pieces. You can use the gada pieces too but I wanted to cook like she used to so it was just the peti pieces for me.

Sorse Katla

6-8 peti pieces of Katla (you can also use Rui or Rohu)
a few fresh green chillies
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp kalaunji or nigella seeds
turmeric
salt
mustard oil
fresh coriander

Wash the fish pieces and drain. Smear the fish pieces with salt and turmeric and keep aside for a few minutes.

Soak the mustard seeds in warm water for around 30 minutes. Drain and grind to a paste with a couple of green chillies if you like. Strain the paste to remove the harder husk of the black mustard seeds for a smoother paste. Moni often didn't bother and thus her gravy would be speckled with black. Soaking the seeds is essential as it removes the bitterness. If you are using powdered mustard you have to soak that too before using. This is essential as otherwise you will end up with a bitter inedible gravy/sauce and the dish will be ruined.

Heat mustard oil in a wok/karai and fry the fish lightly. Remove and keep aside.

Add a little more oil to the karai if required, heat it well and chuck in a teaspoon of kalaunji or kalo jeere as we call it.  Let it sizzle for 30 seconds and then chuck in a few fresh green chillies. I used bullet chillies that I had brought from Kolkata. You can use whatever green chilli you prefer.

Pour in the mustard paste and stir well. Add a little salt and turmeric, cook for a minute. Add half a cup of water, stir to mix. Then add the fried fish pieces gently into the mustard gravy. Once it boils reduce the heat, cover the karai and simmer for five minutes or so. Switch off the heat and drizzle some raw mustard oil into the karai. Cover and let it sit for a few minutes.

Garnish with some fresh coriander and serve with plain hot rice.

You can make this recipe using Ilish, Katla, Rui, Aarh, etc. but my favourite is with a good fatty Katla! This recipe, as you have seen, is simple and very frugal. That is why the ingredients are important. Use good quality mustard oil only. Make sure your green chillies are fresh and flavourful. These are the details that will make the dish shine.

Moog Daal'er Khichuri

My oldest memory of moog'er daal is of Didin perched on her stool in her kitchen at her electric heater stirring moog'er daal or moong daal in a large shining iron kadai. The clinging sound of the 'khunti' and the swish of the daal as she leaned over the table stirring continuously was a common occurrence in the mornings as she prepped for the day's breakfast and lunch. Didin didn't cook a wide variety of dishes nor did she make special festive foods to mark the different 'parbon' that came by every month. She didn't observe fasts on the shastis and ekadashis either. The Hindu calendar was not a big part of our lives in Kolkata or in Mumbai as Moni didn't follow any of this either. But she cooked for us every day and we looked forward to our visits to her house for there would be a steady stream of everyday food tempered with special treats of mangsho'r jhol, machh'er chop, khichuri and other delights.

Though Didin had a frugal repertoire in the kitchen she fed us very well and we looked forward to our annual trips to Kolkata where we'd be pampered silly by Didin, and all the mamas and mashis - my mother's siblings and cousins. 

The smell of roasting moog daal is something most Bengalis will identify with - it is the smell of home, of Bengal, of grandmothers and mothers, of comfort and comfort food. The moog daal I saw at Didin's house was tiny in comparison with what I saw in Mumbai. Each grain was the size of a pin head, so different from the longish grains I had seen in the shops in Mumbai. This is Sona Moog'er Daal, a variety that is grown in Bengal and is naturally, the preferred variety in Bengali kitchens.

40 years ago it wasn't available in Mumbai and there was only that much Moni could carry back from Kolkata when we visited. So we ate moog'er daal only in Didin's house, Moni rarely cooked it at home in Mumbai. Nowadays it is far easier to find regional ingredients in Mumbai - not only do large supermarket chains carry good selections of regional ingredients, there are stand-alone shops that have a captive clientele for whom they source ingredients. That's not all - there are quite a few online stores that specialise in such products and deliver pan India.

In Kharghar I am very fortunate to have Jambon Stores in Sector 20 which has transformed from being just another cold storage shop selling chicken, fish, cold cuts, frozen peas, etc., to a Bengali ingredients emporium where fresh stocks arrive every week by train from Bengal. And among all the wonderful products are varieties of rice and daal from Bengal including the beautiful small grained sona moog daal.

One of the most popular dishes made with moog daal is khichuri. While khichuri is a must at the Durga Puja pandal bhogs, cooked without onions or garlic, and paired with a delicious mix vegetable preparation called labra, it also shows up on home menus depending on the season. The monsoon is deemed khichuri weather and in the first week when the rains have just arrived, while the rest of the world celebrates with chai and bhajias/pakoras, we Bengalis rub our hands in glee looking forward to a plate of steaming khichuri with a variety of bhajas on the side.

Winter is also khichuri season but with beautiful winter vegetables adding their flavour - cauliflower, red carrots, green peas, potatoes are the top favourites in a "sheet kaal'er khichuri" or winter khichuri. Here's how to make it.

Moog Daal'er Khichuri

Moog Daal - 1/2 cup
Gobindobhog rice - 1/2 cup
2 medium potatoes
1 tomato
1/2 cup green peas
3-4 large florets cauliflower
1-2 carrots (optional)
4 Indian bay leaves/tej pata
1 tsp jeera
4 cardamom
4 clove
2" cinnamon
2-3 green chillies
2" piece ginger
salt
turmeric
jeera powder
dhania powder
Bengali garam masala
sugar
mustard oil
ghee
water as required

Wash the rice and leave it in a fine mesh colander to drain.

Roast the daal gently in a dry wok for around 10 minutes till the colour changes and there's a lovely toasty aroma. The daal should change from its pale yellow to a nutty brown. Roast it to a level you like, just ensure you don't burn it. Once roasted, wash the daal once, drain and set aside. Don't wash the daal very vigorously or repeatedly as you will lose all the lovely toasty aroma and flavour.

Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Cut the cauliflower florets but not too small as they will then disintegrate into the khichuri. Peel the carrots an cut into thick barrels, if using. Shell the peas or thaw frozen peas. Peel the ginger and smash in your mortar and pestle till relatively smooth. This barely takes half a minute so use fresh. Wash and chop the tomato.

Now in a thick bottomed vessel heat mustard oil. Once properly hot fry the potatoes, then the cauliflower and reserve on a plate. Fry the veggies till they brown a little. This frying helps keep them intact while they cook in the khichuri.

In the same vessel add a little oil if required and then add the whole spices. Let them sizzle and then add the chopped tomato and the smashed ginger. Chuck in the green chillies, broken into 2-3 pieces depending on their size. Cook everything on a medium flame till the tomato has totally disintegrated and everything is mixed well.

In a small bowl mix all the dry spices in a little water to make a runny paste. Add this to the pot, stir well and cook till the spices have lost their rawness and oil is released.

Add the drained rice to the mix and saute for a few minutes. Then add the washed and drained bhaja moog'er daal or roasted moog daal. Mix everything well, add salt and enough water to cook the khichuri. Once the mix has come to a boil lower the heat and add potatoes. Cook covered on medium heat. Once the potatoes are half cooked add the cauliflower, peas, and carrots. Add a teaspoon or so of sugar at this stage. Cover the pot and let the khichuri cook.

If you're using frozen peas add them at the end, in the last couple of minutes. make sure they are thawed properly before you chuck them in.

Stir occasionally so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel. Add warm water only if required. Cook slowly till done. Once the khichuri is cooked add a good dollop of ghee and a sprinkling of Bengali garam masala to the pot and stir it in. Taste for salt and adjust if needed.  The khichuri should be thick and porridge-like, not dry.

If you're vegan, leave out the ghee.

You can serve this sheet kaal'er khichuri with begun bhaja, potol bhaja, or a simple omelette with onions and green chillies in it. A fried papor/papad will make it complete!

Palong Shaak Ghonto - Spinach with Vegetables

Spinach/palak/ palong shaak is the leafy green that was cooked the most often in our house. On occasion we would eat laal shaak or red amaranth which I loved because of that fabulous colour it oozed onto the rice in my plate. Moni was not fond of cooking though she was a good cook and tended to make the simpler dishes that required less prep. So greens like methi never appeared on our dinner table. In spite of its frequent appearance at meals I never got tired of palong shaak and I cook it quite often too.

Palong shaak features in many Bengali recipes and this one with brinjal, potato and 'bori' (dried lentil dumplings that look like Hershey's Kisses in shape) is a general favourite. Like most everyday dishes, this shaak ghonto is quite easy to cook. This dish is also vegan.

Palong Shaak Ghonto

1 bunch spinach
1 medium potato
1 small brinjal
a handful of bori
2-3 dried red chillies
1 tsp panch phoron
salt
turmeric
mustard oil.

Chop the spinach, wash thoroughly in plenty of water and leave aside in a colander to drain.
Peel and cut the potato into smallish cubes.
Cut the brinjal into proportionate cubes.

Heat oil in the wok and fry the potatoes, brinjals, and the boris separately and remove to a plate/vessel.

Add a little oil to the wok and let it heat properly. Chuck in the panch phoron and the dried red chillies and fry for a few seconds. Don't let it burn.

Add the drained spinach leaves and mix well. Add salt and turmeric, stir to mix, lower the flame and cook the spinach covered for around five minutes.

Add the fried potatoes and cook till the potatoes are soft and most of the water has dried up.

Add the brinjals, mix well and cook for a couple of minutes. Finally add the fried bori, mix them in and take off the heat after a minute or so.

Serve the ghonto as an accompaniment to rice and daal, or enjoy it with hot chapatis.

Chingri diye Kolmi Shaak - Water Spinach with Prawns

Leafy greens are a big part of Bengali cuisine and you will a wide variety of recipes for an equally wide variety of greens or 'shaak' as we call them. Pui, palong, notey, kolmi, methi, sorse, ...the list is long! My visits to Kolkata always include a few trips to Gariahat market to pick up seasonal veggies. And in addition, there is a sobji-wala who comes to the house every morning laden with produce. This means there is no lack of good veggies whatever the season. Luckily for me, I also have an excellent veggie shop near my house in Kharghar where I get almost everything that is available in Kolkata, enabling me to cook quite a lot of typical Bengali dishes even though I'm not in Bengal.

Most of us tend to pick up regular spinach but not so much the other leafy greens. I certainly spent many years cooking only spinach, not being confident with the other greens. But now, after having read innumerable excellent Bengali food blogs and having really chewed the two volume Amish o Niramish Ahar by Pragyasundari Devi (my Bible for Bengali recipes) I have broadened my repertoire considerably. I learned many recipes for the various shaaks in combination with root vegetables, peas, brinjals, and of course, prawns.

I also look at recipe videos on YouTube and among my favourites are the ones showing recipes from Bangladesh. The ingredients are mostly the same as those from West Bengal but the recipes can differ quite a bit! Like this recipe I saw for kolmi shaak or water spinach cooked with prawns from Rosonar Shad  that includes onions. The Ghoti (West Bengali) recipes from my family don't include onion when cooking leafy greens even when they have non vegetarian elements like prawns. I liked the newness of this recipe and how different it is from the pui chingri I cook very often. The instructions are detailed and the recipe is quite simple. 

Chingri diye Kolmi Shaak 

kolmi shaak - 1 bunch
shelled and deveined prawns - 1/2 cup
mustard oil
1 onion
2-3 green chillies
salt
turmeric
dhaniya/coriander powder

Apply salt and turmeric to the prawns and leave to marinate while you prep the kolmi shaak.
Cut the kolmi shaak finely including the tender stalks. Wash thoroughly and leave aside in a colander to drain.
Slice the onion.
In a wok heat mustard oil and fry the prawns till they turn opaque. If you have large prawns cut into halves or smaller pieces and then fry.
Add the sliced onions and the green chillies to the prawns. You can slit the chillies for more heat or break them into pieces for less heat.
One the onions lose their rawness, add the chopped and drained kolmi shaak. Add salt keeping in mind that the prawns have already been salted. Stir well and let it cook covered for around 5 minutes. The shaak will release water and everything will get cooked in the steam.
Sprinkle a little coriander powder and mix well. Cook open, letting the excess water evaporate.
Serve with plain rice and daal.

Chingri Bhaape - Bengali Style Prawns Steamed in Mustard, Poppy Seed, and Coconut

As my journey of exploration into Bengali cuisine continues I'm impressed again and again at the sheer simplicity of most of the recipes be they simple everyday dishes or quite often, dishes one would serve as a treat on a special day. The list of ingredients is frugal and the method quite simple. In fact it's often made me wonder if the recipe would actually work. But of course my doubts have evaporated every time I'm put my faith in the recipe and simply given it a try.

Yesterday I was meeting friends for a potluck lunch. I volunteered to make some Bengali dishes among which was Chingri Bhaape, which, translated literally, means steamed prawns. As I read through the recipe in the numerous Bengali recipe books I'm cooking my way through I was hooked. All you had to do was mix all the ingredients with the prawns and steam the whole thing. That's it. I'm a great fan of quick, no fuss recipes and I couldn't wait to try it out. The results, I must say, were excellent and Chingri Bhaape is going to feature on my menus quite often, that's for sure!

Chingri Bhaape 

500 gms large prawns, shelled and deveined
salt
turmeric

4 tbsp poppy seed paste
3 tbsp mustard paste
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup mustard oil
6-8 fresh green chillies
1 tsp sugar


Soak poppy seeds for around 30 minutes, drain and then grind to a smooth paste. I added a couple of green chillies (not the very pungent ones) just for added flavour while making this paste.

Soak mustard seeds for 30 minutes, drain and make a paste. You can grind the mustard along with the poppy seeds. I like to keep it separate in case the mustard paste turns bitter. In a pinch I use Sunrise mustard powder which I get easily (touch wood!) from my local fish shop. This powder also needs to be soaked before use.

You can keep the tails on the prawns if you like. I remove everything as the husband has a shell allergy. Marinate the prawns in salt and turmeric while the poppy seeds and mustard is soaking.

Once the prep is done you're ready to go. Take a steel box or dabba with a close fitting lid that's large enough to hold all the prawns leaving enough room. In the box put in the prawns and all the ingredients barring the green chillies and mustard oil. Give it all a good mix.

Pour the mustard oil over the prawns and place the green chillies on top. Shut the box.

In a cooker or large vessel (one in which the box will fit) with a lid put water to heat. Place the box in this water. The box should sit in the water but shouldn't get submerged and water shouldn't get into the box. If you're using a pressure cooker put the lid on without the whistle. If you're using a regular vessel put on the lid. Once the water starts boiling lower the heat and let the box of prawns steam for a good 15- 20 minutes undisturbed. Put a weight on the lid to keep the steam in.

Alternatively, you can also cook the prawns directly on a VERY LOW flame directly in a kadai or wok. Just remember to leave it alone so that the steam generated stays in and the prawns and the pastes cook properly. Keep an eye on the gas flame - since it's kept very low it might go off and you don't want any accidents thanks to leaking gas.

Serve the Chingri Bhaape with plain hot rice.

Edible Flowers from the Bengali Kitchen

Over the last few years my trips to Kolkata were quite frequent and in contrast to the standard visits in summer, I happened to be in Kolkata in the winters too. Moni's house is in a quiet lane in Selimpur and a variety of vendors come to the 'goli' or lane calling out their wares. From umbrella repair to ice cream, from variety plastic products to fresh veggies and fish, everything comes to our doorstep.

I found the steady stream of vendors quite entertaining and slowly began to buy vegetables and fish for the novelty of buying at the door, so much in contrast to my life in Mumbai where veggies were either bought online or from a supermarket, an entirely impersonal experience. As I chose vegetables every morning I started examining the variety on the cart more closely and questioning the vendor about specific vegetables I was unfamiliar with. I'd also ask Jethima from upstairs or go bug Moni to identify ingredients and then to cook them for me. My interest vegetables and local ingredients grew and if you've ever enjoyed winter vegetables in Bengal, you'll understand just why I succumbed.

What a glorious variety there was! Leafy greens, beans, brinjals, gourds, root veggies, the list can go on and on. And among all this bounty I found an array of edible flowers and inflorescence that are all a regular, even mundane, part of the Bengali kitchen, enjoyed in season and then looked forward to once the season was over. As I took photograph after photograph the subziwala, seeing my interest and quite entertained by my enthusiasm, started bringing unusual seasonal ingredients to show me every morning. I'd happily be awake at 6 am waiting for him to make his first circuit of our goli. Thanks to him I learned about many vegetables that are a part of the Bengali's winter meals. Not only did I learn from him, Moni and Jethima, the neighbourhood mashimas (aunties) also started educating me, making the entire experience richer and so much more interesting.

Edible flowers maybe trendy today and perceived to be modern and hip but for the Bengali they are a part of everyday meals and I discovered a wide variety in Kolkata, some of which I have listed here. Whether it's the blooms, inflorescence or stems, the flowering portions of many plants are commonly cooked into simple dishes or more elaborate fare.

Malabar Spinach or Pui Shaak is a common ingredient in many Indian kitchens, but did you know the inflorescence on this plant is also eaten? It's sold separately as an individual ingredient and I first saw it on the subzi cart.

Pui Mituni (inflorescence on Malabar Spinach)

Similarly the inflorescence on Spinach or palak, called Shish Palong in Bengali, is also a delicacy and Jethima made a quick stir fry with potatoes for me. 

Shapla or water lilies also star on Bengali menus. The stem is cooked with prawns or made into fritters. While prepping the stems may feel tedious the resultant fritters are perfect as a snack at tea time or are served as the accompanying bhaja in the daal course of a traditional Bengali meal. The flowers aren't eaten but they look lovely floating in a flat vessel full of water.

Shapla or Water lIlies

Then there were onion scapes or Peyaanj Koli as we call them in Bengali. Such a pretty vegetable! Mostly added to chorchoris or made into a simple bhaja with potatoes, the markets are filled with these in season. 

Peyaanj Koli

This post would be incomplete if I didn't mention Kumro Phool or pumkin flowers. Mostly served batter fried, sometimes with a stuffing of prawns (yes, we Bengalis cook many veggies with prawns) I had plenty of these thanks to my beloved Jethima.

Kumro Phool 

On my last trip to Kolkata I encountered Jukti Phool. This flower enjoys a very short season and, from what I understood from the vendor in Gariahat market, is gathered from plants growing in the wild. A strongly bitter flower, it can be stir fried with potatoes and panch phoron or can be used in a sukto to impart the bitter notes.

Jukti Phool in the foreground with other Sukto ingredients

I also found Bok Phool or Agasti phool on an earlier trip to the market. These are cooked by many communities across India and I have seen many getting excited over them on myriad food groups on Facebook. These too are mostly batter fried and served as a tasty snack, much looked forward to by the Bengalis when in season. A simple chickpea flour batter seasoned with salt and chilli powder, a dash of turmeric and some nigella seeds is made, the flowers (stamens removed) are dipped in and then deep fried till crisp and golden. Sometimes maida and/or rice flour are added to make the batter lighter and the fries crisper but all these are variations from kitchen to kitchen.

Bok Phool outside Gariahat Market

Mocha or banana blossom is very widely known so it wasn't really a discovery for me. This much treasured ingredient in cooked a million ways by the Bengali - ghonto, chop, with prawns, chop with prawns... the list can go on and on. 

Mocha or Banana Blossom

And here's a picture of the man himself, the shobjiwala or veggie vendor. As I write this I realise I've never asked him his name as I always called him 'bhai' or younger brother. 

Sukto with Jukti Phool

Sukto is a lovely light stew of assorted vegetables with a hint of bitter. Flavoured with a bit of mustard and a hint of poppy paste, this stew also has milk in it and must be cooked very carefully. Though you can make sukto without the bitter element, many Bengalis believe that a classic sukto must have the bitter ingredient. I always avoided sukto thanks to the bitter flavour and never bothered to even see how it was cooked, turning up my nose and shaking my head this utter waste of effort! 

Over the last few years my interest in Bengali food has increased greatly - maybe I'm feeling the need to understand my roots now that I'm well into my forties and the attraction of other cuisines has paled. Somewhere I also feel great ignorance where Bengali food is concerned - it is after all the cuisine of my forefathers and I should know it in some detail at least. My frequent visits to Kolkata and the discovery of new ingredients at practically every visit to the market only fuelled my curiosity. The door to door vegetable vendor, seeing my interest, would bring new things to show me - pui mituni, kolmi shaak, shapla, kochu'r loti, bok phul, shish palong... the list is endless. 

My visits to Kolkata are now incomplete without a visit to Gariahat market, if only for a quick walk through just to see what's available. The last visit to Kolkata was for less than a week and I squeezed in a quick trip to the market on my last morning there. This time I discovered Jukti phool. 

Jukti Phool  Dregea volubis is also known as Sneeze Wort or Green Milkweed Climber. This plant is known to many Indian cuisines and has names in many Indian languages. In Marathi it is called 'harandodi' or 'naaksikani'. In Hindi it's also known as 'akad bel'. The Malayalam word for it is 'velipparuthi'  while in Gujarati it's called 'kadvo kharkhodo', and in Bengali it's also called 'tita kunga'.  See here for more details - http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Sneeze%20Wort.html

I'd never heard of this ingredient nor seen it but the tiny, pretty bunches of blooms were irresistible and of course I bought some. I asked the vendor how to cook it and he said to either stir fry it with a little garlic and plenty of potatoes or to use it instead of uchhe (bitter gourd) to make sukto. It's quite bitter, he warned, and I wasn't to try to eat it on its own.

Back in Mumbai I read several sukto recipes before I attempted making it for the first time. My mother loved sukto - or 'suktuni' as she preferred to call it - and I keenly missed her because it would have been so easy to just call her on the phone and learn how to make one of her favourite dishes. I wish I had paid attention on the rare times she made it... 

Anyway! Here's the recipe for the Sukto I cobbled together today. This dish has a lot of ingredients and therefore there's a good amount of prep to do before you start cooking so make sure you read the recipe from start to finish and make a shopping list before you go to get the veggies. 

Jukti Phool diye Sukto

Jukti phool - half a cup

1 small potato

1 small sweet potato

1 small ridge gourd 

1 small long brinjal or a chunk from a large one

7-8 green beans (yard longs/borboti or french beans, either will do)

7-8 papdi or seem (flat beans) 

1 drumstick

2" piece of ginger

2 tbsp mustard paste 

2 tbsp poppy seed paste

1 tsp panch phoron

1 tsp randhuni (ajmod seeds)

1/2 cup milk

mustard oil

water
salt

sugar

ghee

Wash the jukti phool and drain in a colander. 

Peel the potatoes and cut into thick batons. Peel the ridge gourd, discard seeds and pith, and cut into batons of the same size as the potatoes. Don't cut the vegetables too thin or small or they will disintegrate while cooking.
String the beans and cut into 3" pieces.
Peel the hard outer skin of the drumstick and cut into 5" batons.
Cut brinjal into proportionate pieces, not too small.
Grate or pound the ginger into a rough paste. 

Heat a generous quantity of mustard oil in a wok or kadai and wait till it's properly hot. Fry the prepared vegetables one by one for a couple of minutes each and remove to a plate or other flat vessel. 

In the same oil, after you've finished frying all the vegetables, chuck in the panch phoron, randhuni and grated ginger (add a little oil if required before you throw in the spices). Let the spices sizzle for a few seconds and then add the mustard and poppy seed pastes. Add salt and sugar to taste. Keep the flame low and stir well to cook everything. See that the pastes don't stick to the bottom of the kadai.

After a minute or two add a cup of water and the milk. There are different methods followed with the addition of milk - some recipes add it at the end of the cooking and some add it early. I added it at this stage. Bring the whole mix to a gentle boil and then add the fried vegetables. Mix gently and then cover the kadai and let it cook over low heat till the vegetables are done.

Once the vegetables are cooked switch off the flame and drizzle good ghee over the sukto. Cover and let it infuse for five minutes.

Sukto often has bori (vadi or lentil cakes) in it. My mom would fry the bori and then crumble it over the cooked sukto before serving. I didn't have any bori so I couldn't do that bit. 

You can make sukto without randhuni. It will taste different but no one will accuse you of cooking a sukto that's not authentic. So don't stress out over the randhuni. 

There are many variations to the vegetables in a sukto. Use whatever you have at hand - brinjal plantain, radish, potato, sweet potato, beans of various kinds, gourds, and something bitter, be it bitter gourd or jukti phool. Did you notice there are no spices here apart from the panch phoron and randhuni?

Serve the sukto as the first course of your meal with plain rice. Follow it up with daal accompanied by a couple of bhajas and then a light machh'er jhol and you'll be on your way to a proper Bengali meal! Or just keep it simple and have it with hot rice and daal to follow.