Lau shak chorchori

Debjani Chatterjee Alam’s Lau Shaker Chorchori combines bottle-gourd leaves and stems with cubed vegetables. Her Bengali family recipe uses mustard oil, panch phoron and the selected optional lentil dumplings.

The greens are washed and cut into long strips, using both leaves and stems. The selected microwave step briefly heats them; potato, eggplant, tomato and the optional ridge gourd are peeled and cubed.

Half the mustard oil fries the lentil dumplings, which are lifted out. The rest of the oil is added to the same pan and tempered with panch phoron and dried red chilli, then the potato cooks until partly done.

The other vegetables cook with turmeric, chilli powder, sugar and salt before the greens join them. Covered cooking releases the greens’ moisture; the mixture is stirred and cooked until that moisture evaporates while the vegetables keep their shape.

The fried dumplings return for a short final cooking stage. Debjani serves this vegetable mishmash hot with steamed rice and dal.