After making the lau luchi while thinking what to do with the rest of the lau, I found one Bitter Melon in my fridge. It reminded me of the chal kumro (Winter Melon) Shukto that used to frequent our kitchen during our childhood. This was made with a bitter tasting leaf from a beautiful flower, that we used to have in our garden, Shiuli, or Nyctanthes Arbortristis. In West Bengal, Shukto is essentially a mixed veg dish that is made with bitter melon, which in Bangladesh, sometimes may mean non-bitter or even non-veg.
One of my grandmothers who happened to be a vegetarian used to make some heavenly vegetarian dishes at that time. A lot of which either I am unable to recall, or are lost forever with her. I am trying to revive as much as I can from my mom now.
Ingredient:
Shredded lau (Bottle Gourd), medium about 2 and half1 bitter melon
1.5 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp whole radhuni (a spice from Bengal close to celery seeds)
1/2 tsp radhuni blended with ginger
2 tsp spice (poppy seeds and mustard blended together) paste
Oil, salt, sugar to taste
Wadis or bori
Milk about 1 tbsp
Recipe:
- Heat oil in a pan
- Fry the boris and set aside
- Add whole radhuni to the hot oil
- Lightly fry the bitter melon with a pinch of salt in this oil
- Add the shredded bottle gourd
- Add salt and sugar, cover and cook till gourd is done
- To this add the boris
- Now add the ginger-radhuni paste
- Stir for a minute or two
- Mix the spice paste with milk, and pour over
- Stir well. Cover and cook for 5/7 minutes
- Serve with hot rice
No comments :
Post a Comment