POUSH PARBON

Welcome back and happy Poush Parbon (January 14)

Aloo Posto [ পোস্তো ] or Potatotes cooked in Poppy Seed Paste

Aloo Posto (Potatoes cooked in Poppy Seed Paste)

পোস্তো or Posto is common name for white poppy seeds in West Bengal and used widely as base ingredient for many bengali recipes.

Probably ‘aloo posto’ is one of the most famous Bengali vegetarian delicacies.

Almost a month without mom’s Bengali food is difficult, but it is even more challenging to cook something when you are away from home. Today, watching rain wash away my summer Sunday afternoon plans; I decided to make aloo posto! This is the perfect way to have house-warming party of my new 18^th floor room in the Netherlands. Aloo posto is a simple recipe cooked with potatoes and poppy seed paste. And fortunately, the Netherlands has one of the best qualities of potatoes as well as poppy seeds.

Jewish food shops is best place to buy culinary poppy seeds in the Netherlands: If you are planning to buy best quality poppy seeds (known as maanzaad in dutch/ graine de pavot) in the Netherlands try to get it from one of Jewish food shops. Though I prefer white poppy seeds, the blue poppy seeds they sell here are good and less bitter.

What do you need?

Nice big potatoes

Posto paste (poppy seed paste)

Water

Vegetable oil

Turmeric powder

Bay leaf (optional)

Panchphoron – it is five spices; refer my previous blog post(optional)

Green chilies

Salt

How to make poppy seed paste?
Clean and soak the poppy seeds in luke warm water for about half an hour. Drain the excess water and grind it to thick paste. If you like bit hot add the green chilies in the grinder.

Aloo Posto
Wash and peel potatoes. Often I don’t peel potatoes and it tastes good too!  Cut them in small cubes. The number of potatoes and the amount of poppy seeds paste depends on your taste. I prefer lots of poppy seed paste about five tablespoons for two medium sized potatoes. Heat the oil (typically mustard seed oil, but any vegetable oil is ok too) and add the potatoes, panchphoron and bay leaf (optional), salt, turmeric powder and fry them for couple of minutes in slow flame. Add the posto (poppy seed paste) and fry for another four mins. Add sufficient water to cook till potatoes are done (not overdone) and dry. Aloo posto is ready to be served with steamed rice along with other side-dish.

I remembered after lunch that we missed to click photograph of my aloo posto! I'm using this image from webpage :)

Mochar torkari chola daler bodar deeye (banana flower)



Mochar Torkari (banana flower veg)


Mochar torkari chola daler boda deeye (banana flower vegetable)

Ask any Bengali and s/he will tell you how to use each and every parts of a banana plant. Stems (thor in bangla), flower (mocha), raw banana (kach kola), and ripe banana (paka kola) are eaten while the leaves are used to serve food. Preparation time for mocha is longer than cooking time. To remove the flower, clean and cut it takes time. Moreover after cutting into small pieces it needs to be soaked at least eight to nine hours (or overnight). My mother’s recipe is even tedious, not to mention it make is more delicious. She elaborates the cooking process by adding deep fried lentil choladaler boda.   

You need fresh mocha/ Banana flower, nicely chopped potato (mom uses sweet potato (rangalu), cumin seed, coriander powder, red chilli powder, fresh tomatoes chopped, fresh grated coconut, turmeric powder, salt, vegetable oil (typically Bengalis use mustard oil, but any other refined oil can be used),

For cholar daler boda you need lentils (preferably Bengal gram dal/ chola dal or any broken lentils), salt and oil. Soak the lentils overnight, drain water and grind it to thick paste. Add salt and green chillis (optional). Deep fry by pouring one tablespoon of lentil batter to make small balls. Fry till the boda turns golden brown/ cooked. Remove excess oil and let it cool.

For mochar torkari, boil the pre-soaked flower pieces with pinch of salt. Drain the water and leave the boiled chopped banana flower aside. Heat oil and fry the chopped potatoes (or sweet potato/ rangalu) till tender. Remove excess oil. Heat oil in deep frying pan and add all spices (cumin seed, coriander powder, chilli and turmeric powder) and add the chopped banana flower, tomatoes and salt (and little water if required). Add grated coconut and fried potato pieces and fried cholar daler bodas. Cover the pan and cook it till tender. Serve it with steamed rice.  

You won't find this recipe in the menus of restaurants... either find a Bengali friend or try to find mocha in supermarket, whichever is convenient ;)

Next blog I'll bring another authentic recipe from mom's kitchen.