Chola Shaaker Ghonto (Chana saag / Chickpea green medley)

Winter is here and everything is already so beautiful. Winter is a time for going on a gastronomic frenzy as the produce you get at this time of the year are simply so fresh, flavorful and tasty. 

I am having a gala time in my kitchen exploring many new dishes, adding new dimensions to existing traditional dishes, creating fusion of Bengali and Marathi cuisine, its just too much fun! 

When I am alone I usually avoid preparing leafy vegetables as its a hell lot of hard work to clean them. At the same time I just love the greens. Give me any leafy vegetables and I am a happy person. But the amount of hard work deters me every time. This time since mom is visiting me, I dared to try out a number of leafy vegetables. Chola shaak or Chole ka saag or Harbhara is such a thing.

Mom says, I have had chola shaak as a kid. But by seeing the shaag I couldn't recollect. Only when I tasted it did I remember that I indeed had tasted it earlier. Usually other years we get the whole bush of Chola Shaak along with the green chola, but I didn't notice chola shaak being sold. The chola shaak which has chickpeas are not suitable for this preparation as the leafs are dry and hard. The shaak which is just sold separately needs to be picked for this recipe.

Actually I went overdrive with this leafy vegetable thing due to my colleagues who would bring different greens every day to lunch. Maharashtrian saak recipe usually has shenga or peanuts in it which I totally love but never tried making myself. So this time I thought lets make it the Marathi way. But then mom wasn't too confident neither did I have the time to look up in net. Hence we mutually agreed to do it the old Bengali way with fish. I had some good potions of Rohu in my pantry too so everything fell into place.

Once the dish was made and I tasted it, it revived a good lot of childhood memories. The earthy flavor of Chickpea greens really is out of the world. It goes very well with steamed rice alone. I finished my whole rice just with this and didn't even touch the other dishes. Do try this simple yet tasty preparation if you happen to get these leafy vegetable anywhere near you.

Preparation Time: 60 minutes or more 
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4
Cuisine: Bengali

Ingredients:

• Chola Shaak/ Chikpea greens/ Harbhara - 1/2 kg
• Green Chilli - 3-4
• Jeera / Cumin whole - 1 tsp
• Turmeric as required
• Salt as per taste
• Refined Oil/ Mustard Oil - 2 tbsp
• Fish - 250 gm (Rohu  curry cut (peti) / Shoal fish head)

Procedure
1. Cleaning the shaak:  This is the most important, tricky and time consuming part of the preparation. You need to separate the leaves from the stalk as soon as you get it from market. Because if you keep it in fridge it will wilt and become difficult to separate the leaves from the stalk. 

Pic Courtesey : Internet

Separate the soft leaves and soft stalks from the hard stalk. Now wash the leaves. I usually take a big strainer and keep it inside a bigger vessel. Then I fill the strainer with the shaag and let the water run over it. The water accumulates inside the bigger vessel. And now you can dip the strainer two three times inside that water so that your shaag is clean and less water is consumed for cleaning.

2.  clean and marinate the fish/fish head in salt and turmeric for about 10-15 minutes. Fry them in mustard oil and keep aside.

3.  Heat a pan and add mustard oil. When its hot enough temper it with cumin and split green chillies. When the cumin is fragrant add the washed shaag. Add turmeric and fold in. 

4. The shaag will sweat and start reducing. Cook till all the water is evaporated. Adjust the salt.

5. Add the fried fish. With the spatula break the fish as small as you can and mix well with the Shaag.

Note: The dish can be prepared without fish as well. Fish is just to add an extra flavour to the already flavourful greens.

Serve it with steamed rice and daal.