Palong Shaker Ghonto

                                                   List of Ingredients

1. Palong Shak or Spinach (400 gm)
2. Bori or Vadi (1 cup)
3. Brinjal or Egg Plant diced (2 cups)
4. Carrots finely diced (1/2 cup)
5. Green Peas (1/2 cup)
6. Green Beans cut in 1 inch pcs (1/2 cup)
7. Whole Jeera (1 tspn)
8. Jeerey Powder (2 tspn)
9. Whole Dry Red Chilli (2 pcs)
10. Ginger Paste (2 tspn)
11. Sugar (1 tspn)
12. Salt to taste
13. Mustard Oil (3 tbl spn)
14. Turmeric Powder (1/3 tspn)
14. Red chilli powder (1/2 tspn) 

STEP 1 : Here is a look at the primary ingredients for cooking this recipe. Make a rough paste of the ginger. Chop the vegetables like brinjal, green beans and carrots in small cubes. You can also add some potatoes, in which case peel and chop potatoes too to small cubes.

STEP 2 : After cleaning the spinach leaves chop them roughly . I generally also add in the upper parts of the stems or the whole stem if the spinach is really young and fresh.

STEP 3 : Fry some bori or vadi till they are brown and set them aside.

STEP 4 : Now to some hot oil add the ginger paste, whole jeera, whole dry red chilies crushed, and sautee lightly. 

STEP 5 : Now add in all the diced vegetables along with the sugar, salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder and jeera or cumin powder . Sautee well for 4-5 minutes.

STEP 6 : Then add in the roughly cut spinach leaves . Mix carefully on medium flame . Go easy on the salt as the leaves will decrease in volume .

STEP 7 : Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes till every thing is nicely tender and soggy . Dont add any additional water and spinach will release a lot of it . Once the palong shak is cooked to the consistency that you like add in the fried bori and mix . The curry should be neither too dry nor too liquidy .

Shukto

List of Ingredients

1.  Potatoes cut in 1 inch pcs (2 cups)
2.  Red Potato cut in 1 inch pcs (2 cups)
3.  Bitter Gourd or uchchhey sliced (1 cup)
4.  Plantain or kanchkola cut in 1 inch pcs (1 cup)
5.  Brinjal or egg plant cut in 1 inch pcs (2 cups)
6.  Green beans & drumsticks cut in 2 inch pcs (2 cups)
7.  Bori or Vadi or lentil dumplings (1 cup)
8.  Ginger Paste (1 tbl spn)
9.  Milk (5 tbl spn)
10. Maida or all purpose flour (1 tbl spn)
11. Radhuni or caraway seeds (1 tspn)
12. Bay Leaf or tejpata (2 pcs)
13. Whole Dry Red Chili (2 pcs)
14. Bengali Five Spice or panch foron (1 tspn)
15. Mustard Seeds (1/2 tspn)
16. Ghee (1/2 tspn)
17. Oil
18. sugar (1 nd 1/2 tspn)
19. salt (to taste)

STEP 1 : Here is a look at the primary vegetables that are used to cook Shukto . You can scroll up to get the detailed list and amount of all the ingredients used. One vital vegetable that i have omitted is drumsticks or danta or danthhal . Peel the potato, sweet potato (ranga alu), plantain (kanch kola ) . Cut all the vegetables in 1 to 3 inch pieces . You can also add sheem or snap peas .

STEP 2 : Here is a look at all the primary spices for cooking this recipe. This will help you get a relative idea about the quantities. Fry the bori till browned and set aside. I generally use double or triple of the amount of bori shown here but then that is just my love for boris and is absolutely not needed. Also prepare the shukto masala by heating 1 tspn of panch forn and 1/2 tspn mustard seeds in a pan and then powder this and set aside.

STEP 3 : Heat some oil and add the ginger paste along with the sugar, some salt, whole dry red chilies, the radhuni or caraway seeds and the bay leaves . Some people use Mustard oil for this Bengali recipe but I like using white oil . Saute for a minute.

STEP 4 : Add all the vegetables and saute in the above mixture. Then cover and shallow fry the vegetables for 7 mins by turning them from time to time. Add a cup of water then cover and cook for another 10 minutes  over medium heat.

STEP 5 : Then Mix the maida or white flour with the milk and make a lump free mixture . Add this and mix well and let the curry to simmer for 2 mins . Then add in the fried boris or vadis .

STEP 6 : Cook covered for 3-4 minutes more. Finally turn off the heat, add the ghee and the shukto masala . 

STEP 7 : Enjoy your bowl of shukto with some rice as an opening to any bengali meal . I generally don't add turmeric powder but if you want you can add just a tiny pinch for a pale yellow color.