Palong saker ghonto

Debjani Chatterjee Alam’s Palong Shaker Ghonto cooks spinach with potato, eggplant, pumpkin and radish in a Bengali vegetable mishmash. Her selected version also includes optional radish leaves and fried sun-dried lentil dumplings.

Potato, eggplant, radish and pumpkin are peeled and cubed. The selected microwave option briefly heats the spinach and radish leaves before their later addition to the pan.

Mustard oil fries the lentil dumplings, and the same oil is tempered with cracked dried red chilli and panch phoron. Potato cooks first, followed by the other cubed vegetables, which soften under a cover.

Turmeric, chilli powder, panch-phoron powder, the selected optional sugar and salt season the vegetables. Chopped spinach and radish leaves are mixed in, and covered low-heat cooking lets them release moisture; the same fried dumplings are added during cooking.

Debjani describes ghonto as a partially mashed vegetable mixture. She serves this spinach version piping hot, with the selected accompaniment of steamed rice and dal.