Always a Hit, Alu Kumror Chokka

At my home, a kumro always swings between a Chenchki and this Chokka. Both are traditional Bengali ways of cooking pumpkin with other ingredients.

A Chokka is usually made with Alu (Potato), Potol (Parwal) and of course, the Kumro (Pumpkin). A handful of Red Gram (Lal Chola) is added to give it more personality.

A Chokka pairs well with porotha or phulko luchi, I chose to serve it with the latter today, since P favors them over the triangular parathas.

Ingredients for Alu Kumror Chokka are:

300 grams pumpkin/ butternut squash, cut into two inch cubes
2 medium size potatoes, quartered
Handful of red gram, soaked overnight
1 medium size ripe tomato, coarsely chopped
2-3 green chilies, slit
2-3 dry red chilies
1 teaspoon panch phoron
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
Generous pinch of asafoetida/ hing
Quarter teaspoon garam masala powder
Half teaspoon ghee
3-4 tablespoons mustard oil
Sugar
Salt

Heat the mustard oil in a deep pan. Add the panch phoron, dry and red chilies and hing in no particular order. Sauté them for a minute before adding the diced potatoes.
Toss the potatoes around in the oil for a couple of minutes and see them getting slightly golden yellow at the edges. Throw in the handful of red gram then. Stir continuously for a couple of minutes on medium heat.

Now add the pumpkin. Sauté for a minute or two before adding the turmeric and red chili powder. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, mix all the ingredients. Add half a cup of water, cover and cook till the potatoes are done. The pumpkin gets mushy quickly so it helps to add them a little later than the potatoes.

Finish the Chokka with quarter teaspoon of garam masala powder and a spoonful of ghee.

The sweet, fragrant Alu Kumror Chokka is ready to be served now.

And its no coincidence that Soma of eCurry too made the Kumror Chokka today. Its an abundance of the mishti kumro.

Amala Sen’s Bitter Gourd Side with Mustard, Garlic and Tamarind

Every cook needs aunts and great aunts to pass down their recipes. And cooks who Blog have an extended family who are also happy to pass down their family recipes.

Amala Sen is Sumana Mashi’s Kakima (Aunt) whose signature bitter gourd side was the star of many meals.

Its a simple bitter gourd-potato sauté but with some unusual ingredients for karela. Since Sumana Mashi took the pain to type out the recipe, and make my work simple, I will just go ahead and do something that I don’t usually do on PreeOccupied – use the Ctrl C-Ctrl V keys.

Amala Sen's (my aunt) Karela recipe: Since she never really provided any measures, here I go.

• Two large or four medium karela, cut in crescents, washed and rubbed with salt and turmeric
• You'll need also enough similarly sliced potatoes to make about 2/3 of the karela amount
• In karahi/pan heat 3tbsps oil (I use olive, she did mustard) and pop 1 tsp or so 'panch phoron seeds' i.e. mustard, methi, kalonji, fennel. Jeera (in some kitchens, randhuni/celery seeds).
• Add karela slices and fry for 5 minutes so all pieces seem lightly browned. Now add the potatoes, stir fry for another 5 minutes.
• Sprinkle salt for the whole amount and a 1/2 tsp or so more of turmeric.
• Cover and cook on medium heat as usual. Meanwhile in a small blender jar or coffee grinder crush fine 2 tbsp mustard seed. (if it's wet ground always add a pinch of salt and a small piece of green chili to stop the acridness) I always check dry ground stuff by taking and pinch of it and adding a few drop of water--is it smooth or rough at this stage?
• Back to 'karela'--also crush in pestle 4 cloves of garlic and have some freshly ground black pepper handy.
  Check to see if karela is cooking in its own moisture--best not to add water which dilutes taste. If its too dry add a sprinkle of water.
• When karela and potatoes are cooked, make a well in the centre of karahi pushing veggies up the side, turn up the heat a few notches and when the well-bottom has no moisture add 2-3 tbsps of mustard oil.
• Bring oil to smoking point, add the crushed garlic cloves and brown slightly before mixing it all.
• Now add the mustard paste, ground black pepper and stir around.
• For the final touch you need about 2tbsps of thick tamarind paste thinned out with a bit of warm water.
• Mix this all in gently, taking care not to break karela pieces. The result should be on the dry side--a happy combo of bitter, tangy, garlicky, tartish tastes spiked by the pepper and mustard oil. You can eat this with rice or chapatis. All I did was follow Sumana Mashi’s instructions and out came a tangy, garlicky, delectably good Bitter Gourd side, which we had with Rice and Sambar.

Thank you, Sumana Mashi.

Other bitter gourd recipes from PreeOccupied are here.