Celebrating the Bengali Legacy dishes with my twists this week- Poila Boishak Special....
Let me start today with a story. A story that the young me
got really shocked to star in. Once upon a time, a big while ago; I met my man
of dreams and together we went to seek a flat in the busy metropolitan Mumbai. Our offices were in Lower Parel, the southern neighbourhood of
commercialised mill properties. It started as a humble neighbourhood, which
fast became the most expensive part of the city. To us, it made sense to stay
near our offices better than travelling in the maddening traffic up and back everyday. There were
these humble 1 bedroom flats up on rent, a very basic setup but for a young love struck couple like us, it seemed perfect by many statures. The meeting with
the landlady started with a question; “what is your caste?” The answer put a
smile on her face. “Oh good, you are a Brahmin, our flat would be blessed. I am
extremely happy to have you here, especially because we are also vegetarians.” I
was perplexed. “Vegetarians?” I asked. She stared back blankly, “you are Brahmin
na… then?” “Yeah, but we are Bengali Brahmins, we eat non vegetarian food as
well. Is that a problem?” my husband asked. It took a minute for the landlady to overcome the shock. She calculated the copious amount of rent that we were
about to pay her and then mumbled out, “yeah OK, the sin is for you to bear!”
I had met many such vegetarian Indians who have cringed
upon us for being Bong Brahmins. Yes, the elite caste in every region apart
from the eastern, comes with a preconceived cuisine of vegetarian delicacies.
Nothing wrong in that I say, but the nose cringing and talk of sins is wrong.
Wrong if you think so, and wrong if you feel we are lesser Brahmins than you.
Every region comes with its history. Try to understand it and you would know
exactly why we don't follow what you might. Bengal is prone to floods every
year. Do you think it was a better idea for the whole sect to die hungry, rather
than eat what was available to us at the difficult times? And yes, after that
we chose to continue eating, respecting every single morsel of it.
A lot of our food revolve around fish, and it’s true. But another
fact that is as truer is that we eat a lot of veggies too, some really exotic
and exclusive to our region. A typical bong thali looks a bit like this- It starts
with bitter vegetables, transcends into a leafy vegetable- Saag and then does it give way to the non-vegetarian fare. And I remember
growing up like this. We ate a hearty amount of saag and veggies, and 1 pc of
fish daily.
Today, I am going to write about 1 of the most classic
vegetarian dishes that the Petuk Probashi
Bangal me loves to eat quite often than not. It’s rather easy to put
together, and respects the vegetable enough to keep its flavour clean. This is
how I like to make it, my way.
Ingredients
200 gms Pumpkin, diced
1 medium sized potato, diced
2 tbsp mustard oil
1 whole red chilly
1 bay leaf
½ tsp Bengali 5 spices (Panch Phoron- a proportional mix of cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds and black mustard seeds)
Salt and turmeric to taste
A pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1 tbsp + ¼ th cup water
1/4th tsp sugar
1 tsp cumin powder (jeera)
2 tsp coriander powder (dhaniya)
Optional
A big pinch of coriander leaf chopped to garnish
Method
Dab dry the diced vegetables and keep it aside.
Heat 2 tbsp. of mustard oil in a non-stick wok, till its
smoking point. Add the dry red chili and let it burn until its black in colour,
quite literally so. Trust me, the smokiness of this burnt chilly will impart
such a contrasting flavour to the dish that you would most certainly be bowled
over.
Once there, add the Bengali five spices and bay leaf to the
oil and let splutter. Add the potatoes at this stage and let it sauté in the
oil till it develops a golden hue all around. Now dump in the pumpkin along
with a big pinch of turmeric and cook on medium flame uncovered to develop a
beautiful colour all around. It’s important that the pumpkin is not covered or
salted at this stage. We need to caramelise both the veggies well, taking utmost
care to stir every once in a while.
Once its nicely golden and 50% cooked through, salt it to
taste.
Dissolve the pinch of hing
in a tbsp of water and add it to the hot pan. This is a unique step, but
believe me it adds to the dish pretty well. Thoroughly mix it with the
vegetables and cook for a minute till the aroma of hing wafts off.
At this stage dump in more water, stir and let it simmer on
low flame till you prep the 3rd unique step in the recipe- roasting dhaniya and jeera powder.
In a hot pan or tawa, dry roast freshly ground cumin and coriander
seeds. Let them colour well, taking utmost care to not burn the delicate
masala. Transfer it out of the tawa as soon as you feel the aroma pulsing
through the kitchen, and set it aside.
Once your pumpkin is almost cooked through, dump in the
masala and give it a good stir. It’s imperative that till this stage there is a
bit of water in the pan which will cook down the roasted masala a bit. Otherwise,
the masala would actually turn crunchy, and would mar the dish with too much of
uncooked strong flavour. Once there, put the flame on high and while stirring
constantly, let the water dry out. Taste,
season and serve it hot out of pan with steamed rice and an easy lentil curry.
Cheers!!
