Tuesday 19 May 2015

ALOO PEPER DALNA / POTATO N RAW PAPAYA CURRY




A simple, humble, Bengali vegetarian dish is my pick today. It is a curry made of raw papaya and potato. As a child I hated vegetables, but now I love them as much as a scrumptious fish curry. Perhaps, I understood the importance of including vegetables in our daily diet. This vegetable curry is an age old traditional Bengali one, we generally call ALOO PEPER DALNA. Any weekday lunch / dinner is just perfect with such a vegetarian curry, dal, a fish curry and any kind of fritter with piping hot rice. That is what a Bengali meal is all about.

Raw / Green Papaya has many nutritional benefits. It is a powerful fruit full of essential nutrients and enzymes to promote digestive health. Many may not like it because when raw, it does taste bland! I remember, in our childhood, we had a couple of papaya trees at our maternal grand parent's place. Whenever the grandmother wished to prepare  a curry with papaya, she would pluck one and do. It was as simple as that. No doubt it tasted amazing. We use it as a natural meat tenderiser! In our family, whenever we had / have any issue in our stomach, we were given curries made with it without spices or boiled pieces to be eaten with steamed rice!

Later, we had papaya tree at my parent's place too. They are easy to grow without any special care taken. But you cannot allow water clogging near the roots! This island has papaya trees growing everywhere, somedays I may pluck one or two from the roadside! thats for fun because it's sold too cheap here! It can be enjoyed ripened as a fruit or raw in curries; with gravy or dry. [SKIP USING GHEE IF YOU ARE ON VEGAN DIET]



INGREDIENTS :

Raw Papaya : 1 medium
Potato : 1 big
Tomato : 1 [I skipped because originally tomato was not used]
Ginger Paste : 2 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder : 1 tsp
Cumin Powder : 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder : 1 tsp
Salt : As required
Sugar : 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seed : 3 pinches
Bayleaf : 1
Bengali Garam Masala Powder : 2-3 pinch [1cinnamon stick of one inch, 2 green cardamom, 2 cloves....ground together]
Oil : 4 tbsp
Ghee : 1tsp

METHOD :

Peel and cut the papayas into cubes discarding and scraping the middle portion nicely. Peel n cut the potato into cubes. 

Wash both separately. Rub with half turmeric and required amount of salt.

Heat the oil in a wok. Lightly fry the potato and papaya pieces separately. Keep aside.

Temper the oil with a bayleaf and cumin seeds.

Add the ginger paste. Fry till the raw smell goes.

Add the cumin powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Stir for 1 minute at low heat.

Now add the fried potatoes & raw papaya, fold in well and stir for 2 minutes.

Add 1 coffee mug of water. Stir and cover.

After 5-7 minutes, remove the cover and add Bengali garam masala, sugar and ghee. Stir and boil for another 1 minute.

Serve hot with steamed rice or flat breads!




7 comments :

  1. Such a delicious curry,Never mind taking this bowl with some chapathi.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sathya thank you so much dear....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sathya thank you so much dear....

    ReplyDelete
  4. A great recipe with raw papaya... looks delish

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice recipe, thank you. I just prepared seeing your blogs, awesome 😀

    ReplyDelete