Dim Potol er Sohagi

When you have such loving friend cum neighbor (Taniya Mitra), it’s a bliss. She had made this dish and had send it across to my place. The dish was very delicious. Me and my daughter enjoyed it till the last bit. She told me it was her mother’s recipe. The name of the recipe "Sohagi" means love in Bengali derived due to the love for the dish and I am sure you will fall in love with the recipe too.  I got the recipe from her and made the dish again for my family. It’s a dry dish, which can be eaten with roti or paratha or luchi. 

Ingredients 

250 grams medium size Pointed Gourd - alternatively peeled and slit from center lengthwise. 

3 Eggs

2 medium size Onion coarsely ground 

2 tbsp Ginger - Garlic - Green Chilli Paste 

1 Green Chilli slit

2 medium size Tomatoes puréed 

Few Coriander leaves chopped 

Salt to taste

1 tsp Sugar 

1 tsp Turmeric powder 

1/2 tsp Red Chilli powder 

2 tsp Cumin - Coriander powder 

2 Bay Leaves 

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

1 small Cinnamon stick

2 Cloves

2 Green Cardomon

4 tbsp Mustard Oil

2 tbsp Ghee

Method 

Take the pointed gourds and add salt and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder to it. Rub the salt and turmeric powder well on the pointed gourds. Heat mustard oil in a wok. Add the pointed gourds and fry it till it’s light brown in colour. Remove the pointed gourds and keep it aside. Now in the same oil, add the cumin seeds, green chilli, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Stir it, till it crackles. Add the onions, stir and cook for a minute on medium flame. Add the ginger - garlic - chilli paste. Stir and continue to cook for a minute. Add the sugar, continue to stir and cook for another minute. Add the tomato purée. Stir and add the remaining turmeric powder, salt, chilli and cumin - coriander powder. Stir for another minute. Add 1 tbsp of ghee and stir it.  Add the pointed gourds. Stir for another minute. Add 1/2 cup of water. Stir and cover the wok with a lid. Let it cook till the water has almost dried up and the pointed gourds have cooked well. Add the eggs. Stir the eggs and continue to cook till the eggs have incorporated well with the masala and the pointed gourds. Add the remaining ghee and stir it once more. Switch off the flame. Sprinkle coriander leaves. Serve it hot with roti or paratha or luchi.. 

Potoler Khosha Bata....

Peel of Pointed Gourd made into paste... 

 "Bata" means paste. It is a kind of a coarsely ground chutney. It is a dish from Bangladesh and West Bengal. It is served as a side dish and eaten with the hot steaming rice. There are different types of Bata, made from any vegetable peel like raw banana, green peas, pumpkin, bottle gourd, pointed gourd etc or green leaves or fish. Earlier days people living in the country sides having large families preferred to use all the parts of the vegetable for cooking. Apparently now with nuclear family, moving into cities and change in generation, this dishes are rare to find. 

You can actually land up eating a good amount of rice with the Bata. Today I making Potoler Khosha Bata / Pointed gourd peel paste. There are different ways to make this dish.. This is my version of making it...

Ingredients

Pointed Gourd peels from 300 grams Pointed Gourd

2 Green Chillies 

1 Garlic clove

1/4 tsp Nigella seeds / Kalonji 

1 tbsp Fresh or Desiccated Coconut 

Salt to taste 

1/4 tsp Sugar ( Optional ) 

1/8 tsp Tumeric powder

1 tbsp Mustard Oil 

1/2 tsp Mustard Oil for garnishing 

Method

Add the pointed gourd peels, 1 green chilli and garlic into the grinder. Grind it into a coarse paste. Take a pan, add 1 tbsp oil. Let it heat. Add the Nigella seeds and 1 green chilli into the oil. Sauté it till the seeds crackle. Add the paste, on a low flame stirring it continuously, cook it for 5 minutes. Add salt, sugar and turmeric powder. Continue to cook for 5 minutes more or till the rawness of the paste disappears. Add the coconut, cook it for another 3 minutes. Before serving add 1/2 tsp Mustard oil. Serve it hot with steaming rice.