Following on from my previous post, I will post another recipe today.
Pumpkin shoots and leaves with poppy seed paste is my favourite dish. I loved it when my mum made it for us in India. Prior to 2020, I had never attempted to make this in London and neither had my mum during her several visits to London. The reason for that was because, we never had the opportunity to find either pumpkin or bottle-gourd (lau) shoots in the shops or had attempted to grow this ourselves. So yet again, this was a lockdown project.
What sets an Indian Bengali apart from their Bangladeshi counterpart, in terms of their cuisine is undoubtedly poppy seeds (posto as we call it)!
A Bengali’s penchant for poppy seeds is well known (believe me, there is a far better side to poppy seeds than opium). Therefore, if you ever visit West Bengal, you have not really made the most of your travel, if you have not tried 3 items of the Bengali cuisine which forms their staple diet- a vegetable dish prepared with poppy seeds, fish curry and bengali sweets. If you are vegetarian, just replace the fish with lentils.
The region of Bengal I come from, you might as well cook any vegetable with poppy seed and it becomes exquisite. I digress. Coming back to my London home back garden this summer, during lockdown, the sunshine helped me fulfil my craving for such a bengali dish- pumpkin leaves with poppy seed paste.
Poppy seed is widely available in the Indian shops around London. I always have some in my kitchen larder. When I told my mum that I have managed to grow some pumpkin plants, for the sole purpose of trying out this dish, she advised me to rub the leaves together or by rolling over on the chopping board, to soften the spiky bits (handy tip!). We usually use the leaves and shoots of bottle-gourd (lau, lauki) to make this dish. But, that is a tad harder to grow, so pumpkin works fine with me because I just do not have much time to spend in my garden tending to veggies.
One morning, I clipped off some of the tender pumpkin stems and leaves from the top. Gathered up quite a handful, washed and drained them. Then rubbed off the spiky bits (as suggested by my mum) and roughly chopped them up.
Ingredients-
- Poppy seeds (1/2 cup)
- Salt and turmeric
- Nigella seeds
- Mustard oil (or sunflower oil)
- A couple of dried red chillies
Grind the poppy seeds (I use a coffee bean grinder-takes 2 minutes). Pour it out in a bowl and add water to make a paste.
Heat oil in a pan and add the chillies and nigella seeds. When they start crackling, add the chopped up pumpkin leaves and shoots. Toss around, cover and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Add salt and turmeric and keep it covered for a couple of more minutes. Then add the poppy seed paste, stir and cover it again. Allow it to simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
Simple, healthy and exquisite. A bit of Bengal in your kitchen. Enjoy!
