My mother in law, as I must
have mentioned thousand times in my previous posts, is very fond of veggies
preferring it over anything else, fish, chicken, mutton and the like. She, most
of the time, abstains from adding tomatoes, onion or any other ingredient
deemed as sacrosanct in cooking a delectable curry, yet bringing out a taste
that far outweighs the ones cooked grandiosely with miscellaneous items.
This Alu Potol er Jhol that
I learned from her is very simple in concoction, yet mouthwatering and hence
one of my favourites because it saves me the pain of chopping onions, a loathsome
task of any cooking arrangement. It accompanies chapati, roti and rice very
well. Initially after marriage when I was not so fond of potols, my mother in
law whenever we visited them would cook this dish helping a great deal in
developing my taste bud for the veggie.
Ingredients: Cooking time: 20 minutes
ü 100 gm potols or pointed gourds
ü 1 large potato (cut into cubes)
ü 4-5 green chillies
ü 3 tsp cumin seeds
ü 1 tsp cumin powder
ü 1 tsp turmeric powder
ü 1 tsp kashmiri red mirch
ü 1 tsp ginger paste
ü Salt to taste
ü 2 tsp sugar
ü 1 tsp panch phoron (a mix of five spices
including fennel seeds, methi seeds, nigella seeds, black mustard seeds and
cumin seeds)
ü White oil for cooking
Method:
1) Snip the pointed ends
of the gourds or potols and then cut them into halves width wise.
2) Grind cumin seeds and
green chillies into fine paste with a sprinkling of water.
3) Heat oil in a wok.
When oil turns hot, add panch phoron and allow them to sputter.
4) Add potatoes and
potols. Shallow fry them, stirring sporadically.
5) Add cumin and green
chilli paste. Add turmeric powder, cumin powder, kashmiri red mirch, salt and
sugar. Add ginger paste and mix the ingredients well.
6) Add 1/2 cup of water
and simmer away the gravy for 2-3 minutes.
7) Finally you may add
little more water further to thin the consistency of the gravy or keep as it
is, as per your discretion. Boil the gravy a bit in case adding water.
8) Serve hot with rice or
chapati or roti.
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Thank you for this recipe. I had cut the Potol into halves and was wondering how to cook them, as I remember my mother-in-law using the full vegetable (slit lengthwise) for this recipe. The only change that I made here was to add a teaspoon of sugar, and it turned out very tasty.
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