Lau shak posto vate

Debjani Chatterjee Alam’s Posto diye Laushak Bhate combines bottle-gourd leaves and stems with poppyseed paste, onion, green chilli and mustard oil. She describes this Bengali mash as part of a meal with dal and rice.

The greens are washed under running water, checked and roughly cut, keeping both leaves and stems. Poppyseeds soak in warm water before being ground to a smooth paste with one green chilli and part of the salt.

The selected separate-vessel method boils the greens in water under a lid. The boiling water is discarded, and the greens are moved to a bowl once they can be handled.

The greens are lightly mashed with the fingers, releasing their moisture. Chopped onion, the remaining green chillies, the same poppyseed paste and mustard oil are mixed through, with more of the same salt if needed.

Debjani keeps the greens somewhat chunky and prefers the runniness of their moisture and the poppyseed paste, alongside mustard oil’s pungency. The finished mash is offered with simple dal and rice.