Kumro Alur Tarkari
Posted by Sudeshna on November 20, 2008
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Bengalis have a tendency of putting potato in any kind of recipe. It feels as if potatoes are an integral part of all the recipes. You can guess from the average health of all Bengalis, barring some exceptions, generally every Bengali signifies that potato look, a little more fats here and there. I too am not an exception. I like to add potatoes in different curries, though because of peer pressure the quantity has reduced with the passage of time.
Everyday after coming back from office, it’s always a pain staking job to think what to cook for dinner. Last night I was only left out with a piece of pumpkin and some potatoes. In my flat I don’t have a mixer grinder so couldn’t think of experimenting any other curries with that pumpkin. I took to cooking a simple potato pumpkin curry.
This preparation uses a masala that is a widely used spice in Bengali cuisine. As the name suggests (“Five Spices”), panch phoron is a combination of 5 spices, namely mustard seeds (sarse), fennel (mouri), nigella (kalo jeera), cumin (jeera) and fenugreek seeds (methi), you canknow more at Wiki.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
- Pumpkin (Kumro): 100gms
- Potato (Alu): 2 medium sizes
- Onion (Peyaj): 1 small
- Green chili (Kacha Lanka): 2
- Turmeric powder (Halud Guro): ½ teaspoon
- Mustard oil (Sarser Tel): 1 teaspoon
- Salt to taste
Preparation:
- Heat the oil in a wok
- Sauté the onions in the heated oil and throw in the panch phoron
- Stir for 30 seconds before adding the vegetables
- Put in turmeric powder, salt and the chilies
- Stir for 2 -3 minutes, and add ½ cup of water for the vegetables to get cooked properly
- As the vegetables get cooked properly, take out from flame and serve with roti, paratha or rice
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Manasi said
Not just bengalis, the oriyas love their potatoes too! The hunny would put taters in tea, if he could! Bet, he would love this recipe 🙂
shaeri datta said
hello
thanks for the recipies.i try cooking bengali stuff but mess up most of the times.will try bandhakopir torkari too. i stay in dubai ar ekhane ekhono panch foron dekhini. so made them at home thanks forwriting what they consist of. i missed out on dubai
meetsudeshna said
@Shaeri,
It great to hear that my posts help people in need. yeh here in Bangalore, where I stay I dont get panch phoron, so had to get it from Kolkata.
Cook like a Bong » Tomato Chatni said
[…] It seems as if without a bowl of chatni Bengali platter is never complete. The little bowl of chatni at the end of any meal brings a fulfillment to the meal. Chatni, for those who are not so aware of this word, is a sweet serving prepared of tomato, ripe mango, pineapple, or for that matter any sour fruits and even dry fruits. Chatni is prepared in various styles in all Bengali households. The preparation also depends on the season; tomato for winter, ripe mango for the summers, or any seasonal fruits during its time. The main ingredient though a fruit it is often accompanied with sugar or jaggery for enhancing the sweetness of the dish. The last time when I went home, mom gave me a whole jar of jaggery. I had completely forgotten about it, last night I was cleaning up the kitchen when I found this jar, and the first thing that came to mind was having it with milk and rice. I was thinking of what else to do with that, when I saw the tomatoes. The answer to my question was instantaneous; chatni is the best option. I prepared it this way; you can prepare it in any way possible. I will try to post some other types of chatni on my following posts. The combination of jaggery and dry chili helps in increasing its shelf life to almost two days without refrigeration. For this chatni the only spice used is panch phoron. Panch phoron, as the name suggests is a combination of five different spices; “panch”, meaning five and “phoron” is spice. Nigella, cumin, fenugreek, fennel, and mustard mixed in same proportions are used for preparing panch phoron. This combination of spices is an earmark of Bengali cuisine. It is used in preparations like Khichudi and vegetarian dishes . […]