From the farmland to your dining table, the journey is quite long and it needs hard work & proper care. But for me, this journey is short and full of happiness because I am growing my own vegetable in the rooftop garden. It needs continuous effort and dedication. But there is also happiness in observing the journey from sowing seeds to harvesting fruits. Yesterday I harvested a few fresh vegetables to make Bengali dish shukto.
A traditional Bengali meal always includes shaak bhaja, shukto, dal, fries, fritters, fish, mutton, payes and sweets. Without this shukto, a Bengali traditional meal is incomplete. But did you ever try shukto? How does it taste?
You may say that shukto is a simple Bengali style mixed veg curry. It is not spicy. But it has two versions, one is with milk and another one is without milk. Milk version is common in Bengali traditional meal served at a traditional Bengali ceremony like annaprashan, birthday, marriage reception party etc. But without milk version is prepared to have as a regular Bengali dish served at home.
As you know that I grow various vegetables in the containers which meet almost 70% of vegetables need of my family. There are some vegetableS what I did not buy from the market in this season like okra, cucumber & bitter gourd.
Yesterday I harvested yardlong beans (borboti), cucumber, bitter gourd (karela) leaves & vegetables, brinjal/eggplant (begun), gotu kola/Indian pennywort (thankuni pata), chillies. I was so happy to see all those fresh vegetables from my rooftop garden. I decided to make a dish by using all those vegetables. So only one dish came in my mind that was Bengali dish shukto. It is healthy & delicious.
Bengali dish shukto recipe
- 2 cups chopped vegetables (yardlong beans, potatoes, brinjal, cucumber, raw banana, green papaya, bitter gourd fruit or its fresh leaves, gotu kola/thankuni/Indian pennywort leaves etc)
- 1.5 teaspoons radhuni
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds paste
- 1 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoons turmeric powder, optional
- 2 green chillies, chopped
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds paste
- 1.5 teaspoons ginger paste/grated
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1.5 tablespoons any vegetable oil
- 1 cup of water
- Heat oil in a cooking pot and add radhuni & whole mustard seeds and saute till it starts cracking
- Now add all chopped vegetables and cook for next 3-4 minutes
- Then add ginger (grated/paste), green chillies, salt & turmeric powder and stir to mix
- Now pour water and allow it to start boiling
- Add sugar, mustard seeds paste, poppy seeds paste & milk
- Cover the pot with a lid and cook over a medium flame for next 5 mins
- Check the gravy & switch off the flame
Leave a Reply