Kumro Saag diye Motor Dal

We are regular visitors to the local Farmer’s market. We love the fresh organic produce as well as the artisan food. In one of those visits I was flabbergasted to find Kumro saag (Pumpkin twigs) and pumpkin flower being sold in a corner. I bought a bagful (literally!!) and made some delectable Saag with Yellow split peas using my grandmoms recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup motor dal (Yellow split peas)
• 2 cups chopped pumpkin twigs along with their leaves (Cut into 1” pieces)
• 1 tsp. kalojeera (Kalonji)
• 2 dry red chilies
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. oil
• Salt to taste

Procedure

Wash dal thoroughly and cook in a pressure cooker with 2 cups water, turmeric powder and salt till one whistle comes.

In a pan heat 2tbsp. oil and temper it with kalojeera and dry red chili. When the spices stop sputtering add pumpkin twigs to it. Sprinkle one pinch salt and sauté for a minute. Cook it covered for about 3-4 minutes. By this time the leaves will start wilting.

Remove the lid and add boiled dal to it. Add sugar and mix. Check the seasoning and adjust accordingly. Let it simmer for about another 5 minutes on medium heat. This dal will have a medium consistency.

Serve with plain rice. 

Palong Shaager Ghonto (Spinach and Vegetables Medley)

My father in law was one of the few vegetarian Bengalis. He used to really like this dish. This recipe is of standard Palong Shaager ghonto with a twist that comes from my mom’s side of the family. They always ended with a spoon of nigella seed and green chilli paste which imparts an unique flavor.

Ingredients

1. 2 bunches of spinach cleaned and roughly chopped
2. 1/2 cup green peas
3. 1 cup pumpkin diced
4. 10 – 12 beans diced
5. 1 medium potato diced
6. 1 small radish diced
7. 1 medium carrot diced
8. 1 small brinjal (egg plant) diced
9. 10 sundried lentil cakes (bori)
10. 1tsp. paanch phoron
11. 2 – 3 dry red chilies
12. 1tsp. turmeric powder
13. 1tsp. kalo-jeera (nigella seeds)
14. 2-3 green chilies
15. 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander greens
16. 1tbsp. sugar
17. Salt to taste
18. Mustard oil

Procedure

Heat oil and fry the lentil cakes till they are nice and golden brown. Remember boris tend to burn fast so keep an eye on it. Remove and keep aside.

In a grinder grind 1tsp. nigella seeds with 2-3 green chilies and keep ready.

Heat oil and temper the same oil with paanch phoron and dry red chilies. Allow them to sizzle and then add all the vegetables other then spinach and coriander greens.

Add turmeric powder and season with salt and sugar. Cook them covered on medium heat till they are half done.

Add chopped spinach and mix it with the rest of the vegetables. Cover and cook till all moisture is dried up and the vegetables are done. All the ingredients will be cooked by the juice released by spinach.

Remove the lid and add the fried lentil cakes. Add nigella, green chili paste made before and chopped coriander leaves. Drizzle a tsp. of mustard oil over it before you give a final round of mixing.

Serve with plain white rice.

Moong Palong / Spinach with yellow lentil

Our last couple of dine outs have been to African restaurants. Interestingly I saw that Ethiopian and Moroccan food has heavy use of lentils. It is served as one of the main course in both Queen Sheba and Marrakesh restaurants that we visited. It reminded me of some of the traditional Bengali lentil recipes. These are not the traditional daal soup or curry but more dry and filling.

In Winter when fresh spinach hit the markets my mom used them with yellow lentil to make a thick dry side dish which we used to have with white rice. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

1. 1/2 cup yellow moong dal
2. 1lb spinach coarsely chopped
3. 1" grated ginger
4. 1tsp. cumin seed
5. 2,3 bay leaves
6. 3,4 dry red chilies
7. 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
8. 1 tsp. ghee ( clarified butter )
9. Oil
10. Salt
11. Sugar

Procedure

Dry roast moong dal on medium heat till you get a nutty smell and the dal turns light brown. You need to stir it continuously.

Once you are done, wash dal thoroughly. Now cook dal with a pinch of salt and turmeric powder in a pressure cooker with one cup of water. If there is any excess water allow it to dry on high heat. Don't overcook the dal.

In a pan heat 2 tbsp. of oil and temper it with whole cumin seeds, bay leaves and dry red chilies. Wait till it sputters. Add grated ginger to it. Next to go in is chopped spinach. Season with salt and a tsp. of sugar.

Mix well and cook it covered on medium heat. Soon the leaves will start wilting and release enough water. Remove the lid and cook it on high heat allowing all the water to evaporate. Add boiled dal to it. Mix the dal well with spinach. Check seasoning and adjust accordingly. Let it cook together till all excess moisture dries up.

You need to stir frequently to avoid sticking to the bottom. Add a dollop of ghee and turn off the heat.

Enjoy with hot rice.

Lau Shaager Morich Jhol

I suddenly discovered bottle gourd creepers (lau saak) at the local farmer’s market. I had never imagined that I’d be able to get freshest of lau saak here in US. I tried to ask the Chinese lady selling them how they eat it. However, her English was too limited for me to figure out the recipe.

I brought them home and cooked it following my mom’s traditional lau-saak recipe. I didn’t use bottle gourd itself with the vegetable because my mom used to tell me that you never cook fruit along with it’s plant because cooking mom and kids together isn’t really a good idea. So I used pumpkin instead.

The same recipe can also be used with pumpkin twigs with bottle gourd (remember no same plant and it’s fruit :))

Ingredients

1. 1 lb. bottle gourd twigs cut into 2” pieces
2. 1/2 lb. orange pumpkin cut into cubes
3. 2 medium potatoes cut into cubes
4. 2 green chilies slit lengthwise
5. 1tsp. kalonji ( Nigella ) seeds for tempering
6. 1tsp. whole wheat flour (Atta)
7. 1 tbsp. nigella seeds and 1 green chili grind into fine paste
8. 1 tsp. sugar
9. Salt
10. Oil

Procedure

Start by heating mustard oil in a pan. Drop nigella seeds and slit green chilies. sauté them for 1-2 minutes. Add potato and pumpkin cubes in the midway of your sautéing process. Sprinkle salt and sugar and fry the vegetables for 3-4 minutes on low heat. Add a cup of water and continue cooking till they are half done.

Now add bottle gourd twigs and mix everything well. Continue cooking covered till all the vegetables are tender.

Adjust consistency of the gravy to how you like it Traditionally it is runny. Stir 1 tsp. of whole wheat flour in 1/2 cup of water and pour it over. Gently mix it. It will give a mild thickness to the runny gravy.

Now last but not the least add nigella and green chili paste to it and mix well before you finish.

Enjoy with plain rice.

Ilish Macher Matha Diye Pui-Saag Charchari (Hilsa Head with Pohi Greens)

The day we get hilsa, we end up making our entire course of lunch out of it. Starting with Hilsa fry with it’s oil, followed by charchari, then jhol, jhal and finally tak.

I have already covered most of the other receipes, today it’s the turn for the charchari.

Ingredients

1. 1 hilsha head washed and cut into halves
2. 1 bunch pohi saag washed thoroughly in running water and cut into 2-3" pieces
3. 1 medium Chinese eggplant (long brinjal) cut into big cubes
4. 200 gm. of pumpkin cut into medium cubes
5. 2 potatoes cut into thick wedges
6. 1 tsp. paanch phoron
7. 3,4 green chilies slit length wise
8. Turmeric powder
9. Chili powder
10. Salt
11. Sugar
12. Mustard oil

Procedure

Smear the hilsha head with turmeric powder and salt and keep aside.

Heat mustard oil in a pan till it smokes and fry the head on medium heat till all sides turn brown. As hilsha's head is bony don't break the head much. Once fried remove from oil and keep aside.

Since we want to retain all the flavors of hilsha we won't discard the oil. Temper the same oil with paanch phoron and chilies. Once you get the pungent smell reduce heat and add eggplants. Fry on medium heat. Remove when it is cooked. We want all our vegetables to be cooked evenly; without making them mushy. That's why I removed the fried eggplants, which will be added later to the rest of the vegetables.

Add potatoes and pumpkins followed by turmeric and chili powder. Sauté on medium heat and cook it covered for 5 mins. Remove the lid and add pohi leaves and stems to it. Season with salt and sugar. Mix them well.

Cover and cook for about 2-3 mins. The greens will start wilting and releasing water by this time. Remove the cover and cook on medium high flame stirring occasionally.

When you see that the vegetables are almost cooked add fried eggplants and hilsha head to it. Mix everything together and wait till all the moisture gets dried.

Charchari is generally eaten with white rice.

Palak Moorg (Chicken in Spinach)

I had heard a lot about the Andhra Palak Ghosht from my friend Devyani. I didn’t realize how good it was until she made it once for me. I tried this recipe on both chicken and goat meat. I prefer the goat meat version but the chicken also turns out pretty good. For this post I used chicken, you can also substitute that with goat meat (and accordingly increase cooking time).

Ingredients

1. 1 kg chicken on bone
2. 1 kg palak or spinach finely chopped
3. 2 large onions finely chopped
4. 5,6 green chilies finely chopped
5. 1 tbsp ginger paste
6. 1 tbsp garlic paste
7. 1 tsp. turmeric powder
8. 1 tsp. chili powder
9. Whole garam masala
1. 1 tsp. shajeera (caraway)
2. 1” cinnamon stick
3. 2 green cardamom
4. 3-4 cloves
10. Salt
11. Sugar

Procedure

Heat oil in a pan and temper with whole garam masala. Once the oil becomes fragrant add chopped onion and green chilies to it. Fry on medium low heat till the edges of the onion turns brown.

Add ginger garlic paste to it and sauté till the raw smell of ginger subsides. Add chicken pieces to it followed by turmeric and chili powder. Fry the meat pieces on medium heat till it looses its raw color.

Season with it salt and sugar. Once you add salt to it it will start releasing lots of water. Cook till all the moisture dries up.

Add chopped spinach to it and give it a stir. Again you will see moisture releasing from spinach. The amount of moisture released from the chicken and spinach will be sufficient for the chicken pieces to get cooked, so you don't have to add any water to it. Cook it covered on medium heat till chicken becomes soft and all the chicken pieces are well coated with spinach and spices.

Allow all the moistures to evaporate. This is completely a dry dish which can be best enjoyed with parantha or kulcha.

Note saager charchari (Vegetable Medley with Amaranth)

The other day I published the recipe of Amaranth (note saag নটে শাক) with Poppy seed (http://www.bongcook.com/2011/12/note-saag-posto-amaranth-with-poppy.html). I had some left over amaranth and made a vegetable medley with it ( পাঁচ মেশালি চর্চরী panch mesali chorchori).

I used to have this as a kid when I visited our ancestral home. My boro-pishi (dad’s elder sister) used to make it. She never cooked it without shrimps. She’d let note-saag rot and feed them to the cattle in the house but still not make it, if there were no shrimps in the house. However, today recipe I have is a variant without shrimps, feel free to add it.

Ingredient

1. Note saag - 500gms(only leaves and soft stems need to be taken)
2. Pumpkin – 100 gm।
3. Potato - 1 medium sized
4. Eggplant - 1 medium
5. Green chilie 3,4
6. Paanch phoron - 2 tsp.
7. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp.
8. Coriander powder - 1 tsp.
9. Cumin powder - 1 tsp.
10. Dry red chilies – 2-3
11. Garlic - 2,3 cloves crushed
12. Salt
13. Sugar

Procedure

Heat oil in a wok and temper it with paanch phoron, dry red chilies and crushed garlic.

As soon as you start getting the aroma add the cut vegetables. The harder vegetables first followed by the softer ones, this ensures all the vegetables cook evenly.

Add turmeric powder, coriander powder and cumin powder to it. Mix it well. Now add the green leaves along with salt and sugar.

Give it a nice stir. Cover and cook in medium low heat. The vegetables and the greens will release enough water to get themselves cooked .

Stir occasionally. Once the vegetables are done, cook it uncovered on high heat till all the water dries up. By this time all the vegetables should be mushy. End it up with a spoon full of mustard oil and green chilies.

Enjoy with steaming hot rice.

NOTE: In case you want to add shrimps, fry them (use the oil for the rest of the cooking) and add the shrimps at the very end. Then cook for 5 more minutes.

Related Posts:

1. Note-saag posto
2. Labra

Note Saag Posto (Amaranth with Poppy Seed)

Bottle gourd leaf and poppy seed paste makes for an excellent bong saak (or saag in general hinglish).

This post is about amaranth, then why am I referring to bottle gourd? The reason is because this dish is traditionally made with bottle gourd leaves/twigs. However, like a lot of things it is not available in US, so I replaced it with the nearest thing I could find. To my surprise amaranth turned out to be an excellent alternative, and if I may say so a better alternative.

In these days of pesticide overusage, remember to wash the leaves thoroughly in running water to remove as much as you can.

Ingredients

1. 1 bunch note saag / amaranth (I could easily find it in the local Indian store, you just need to know what its called. Note saag is not a notable name)
2. 1 large potato cut in wedges
3. 1 tsp. kalonji / nigella seeds
4. 3,4 green chilies slit length wise
5. 1 tsp. turmeric powder
6. 3,4 tbsp. of poppy seeds

Procedure

In a grinder make a smooth paste of the poppy seeds by adding very little water.

Clean the leaves and the soft stems and chop them. Wash it thoroughly under running water. Preferably do the washing  in a colander. It will help you to get rid of the mud and sand very easily.

Heat mustard oil in a pan and temper it with kalonji and green chilies. Once the spices start popping up add potato wedges and turmeric powder. Fry on medium high heat for a while. Now add chopped greens along with salt and a pinch of sugar. Once you add salt, the greens will start releasing water. Mix it well and cook it covered till the potato becomes soft. Be careful  about the quantity of the salt because the final volume of the dish will decrease to 1/4th of what you start with. So adjust accordingly.

Now add poppy seed paste and give it a nice mix. Wait till the water is completely dry. Finish it with a spoonful of raw mustard oil and enjoy with steamed hot rice.