Kharkol pata bata

Chandana Ganguly’s Kharkol Pata Bata, published by Cookingenuff, is her Bengali leaf paste with nigella seeds, garlic, green chillies, mustard oil, salt and sugar. Her formula uses both a prepared nigella paste and a separate portion of seeds in the frying oil.

Fresh kharkol leaves are washed, roughly chopped and kept aside. A portion of the nigella seeds is dry-roasted over low heat, ground to powder and ground again with water into a paste, then covered and kept aside.

Garlic and green chillies are ground into another paste. Mustard oil heats in a frying pan with the remaining nigella seeds, then the garlic-and-chilli paste is sautéed in the same oil.

The leaves are made into a paste in a food processor with their separate water and stirred into the pan. The reserved nigella paste, salt, sugar and supplied slit green chillies are added, and stirring continues until the mixture dries and leaves the pan sides.

The heat is switched off and the mixture cools. The remaining raw mustard oil is mixed in and the pan is covered. The leaf paste is served with prepared steamed rice.