Flat beans (sheem) are very popular vegetables in India. These beans are used to make various traditional dishes. Sheem paturi is one of those popular Bengali traditional dishes. Here all the ingredients are kept inside a banana leaf made wrapper and cook over low flame. This way this dish owns a special flavor what makes this food very special.
As it is cooked on leaf (Pata in Bengali), that is why it is called paturi.
Though fish paturi is more popular but this sheem paturi is also very enjoyable and I love this shim paturi a lot since my childhood. Sheem (or flat beans) is a common winter vegetable. Particularly in West Bengal & Bangladesh, shim is very very popular. Many people even welcome winter with various dishes prepared with shim. They do not believe that winter has come until they notice a huge amount of sheem is available in the local market.
Almost every year, I eat this dish for atleast two or three times. But this year, it did not happen. I do not know why. I tried various shim based dishes at home like shim chorchori, sorse shim etc. But a few days back I realized it and decided to prepare this in the middle of March. Its okay I missed it in winter season. But its Spring and so we have a few more days to come summer season. Now still we can feel like late winter when mild wind is blowing.
The most important part of this dish is fresh banana leaves what you may face difficulties to find one in your locality if you are living in a city. But I have a few banana plants in our yard garden. So it is not a problem for me, haha.
Also read:
5 dishes prepared with different parts of a banana tree
5 Indian poppy seeds based recipe (without onion & garlic)
A few months back we actually had a small banana forest in our yard, almost 18-20 banana tree are there. But after cutting a banana tree, its waste management is very difficult because we are also living in a urban area. That is why, now we do not allow any young shoot to come from the ground.
Sheem paturi recipe
- 15 flat beans, cut into small pieces
- 2.5 teaspoons poppy seeds/khuskhus/posto
- 2.5 teaspoons mustard seeds
- 2 teaspoons dry coconut powder
- 4 almonds
- ½ inch ginger/adrak
- 1 small onion
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 8-10 whole black pepper
- 2 green chillies, chopped
- Salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon mustard oil
- Soak poppy seeds, mustard seeds, dry coconut powder, almonds & black pepper for approx 30 mins and then drain residual water
- Now take poppy seeds, mustard seeds, coconut powder, almonds, black pepper, ginger, raw onion & 2-3 teaspoons water and grind to make smooth paste
- Heat mustard oil in a kadai (Indian cooking pot) and add small pieces of flat beans (sheem) and saute till it releases water and become soft
- Now pour the paste and stir to mix
- Also add turmeric powder & green chillies and cook till curry becomes thicker
- Take a fresh banana leaves and heat it on a pan so that it becomes soft and easily can fold
- Now take cooked sheem curry in the middle of banana leaves and cover it by the banana leaves and tightened by using a thread
- Now sprinkle little oil over a cooking pan and place that semi cooked sheem curry covered with a banana leave, cook it over low flame for 5-6 minutes
- Serve off flame and serve it with plain rice
How to make flat beans curry cooked in banana leaves?
Saute small pieces of sheem in mustard oil and then add paste of poppy seeds, mustard seeds, coconut powder, almonds, black pepper, ginger & onion and mix. Add turmeric powder & chopped green chillies and cook till curry becomes thicker.
Now heat a pan and place a banana leaf on it so that it can easily be fold. Now put semi-cooked sheem curry on the banana leaf and wrap it with that leaf and tightened with a thread.
Now grease a cooking pan with any oil and place that item wrapped in banana leaf on that pan and cook over low flame for next 5 to 7 minutes. Cook both sides of the banana wrapper.
Now switch off flame and serve it with plain rice.
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