28 July

Potol is my favorite most vegetable. If they were available whole year I could have survived just on them, that is how much I love them! Fried, curried, steamed, boiled - it gets better for me with every version.  I know potol haters would shiver at this line I wrote but I have an undying love for Potol what so ever.

In fact I will talk about an incident which happened way back in class 1 or 2. My mom enrolled me into a dancing class as all my known friends were enrolled there. On the very first day, I faced a kind of ragging session by the kids of the dancing class ( I was the youngest in the lot). Some girl asked me what did I have for breakfast, while 30 pairs of eyes were focused on me. I had innocently said - Luchi and Potol bhaja ( fried Pointed gourd) and the whole class erupted into laughter. I still cant figure out what was so funny in that ( its a staple breakfast combo in Bengal) but my little ego got terribly hurt and I felt pretty insulted - not only they laughed on me but also on my choice of food and that too potol which I was in love with. The result - it was the end of my dancing endeavor. No amount of persuasion from my mom or dad could make me go back to the tribe which had made fun of my food choices! 

Back at home in Kolkata Potol would be a staple during the warm months of summer. A light potol curry or a dry fry would light up any meal for me. But now a days being in Maharashtra, the cycle of getting potol starts post the summer months. Its already rainy season and now we are getting Potol in abundance. The only gripe is that the potols we get here are not of organic quality which grown on the roof of village houses. The organic potols have a little rough skin texture and they taste absolute awesome. The seeds are not that hard and its more juicy. Every time I would return to Pune form Kolkata, the day before my flight, I would go to the local produce market to get at least 1 or 2 kg of fresh organic potols to bring back to Pune. 

There was a time when  potol diye Magur macher jhol ( catfish in pointed gourd curry) was a staple at my Pune home. Catfish pairs up brilliantly with Potol. You can check out the recipe link below for fish curry with pointed gourd. But post pandemic I do not get good catfish near my area nor are they available in the online meat portals. So I have to satisfy myself with the regular fish like Rohu or Catla paired up with Pointed gourd.

The recipe I am talking about today is Dudh Potol, which is a traditional Bengali recipe where shallow fried whole pointed gourds are simmered to perfection in a mildly spiced rich gravy of milk. You can even replace the full fat milk with coconut milk to create a vegan version of this recipe.

Here are few pointed gourd (parwal/ potol) recipe that you can try form my blog.

• Potol Alu Posto
• Potol Posto Aam Diye ( Pointed gourd with raw mangoes)
• Kacha Potoler Macher Jhol (Fish curry with pointed gourd)
• Doi Potol

1. Wash and peel the pointed gourd skin in alternate lines. Make some shallow slits with knife or prick the peeled part with a fork. Marinate the peeled pointed gourd with little salt and turmeric and keep it aside for 10 minutes. 

2. Heat refined oil in a kadhai. When the oil becomes hot, add the peeled parwals and fry them turning sides till it is golden brown on all sides. Keep aside.

Tip: Use fresh pointed gourd for this recipe.

3. Grind to a fine paste all the ingredients mentioned under paste.

Note: Make sure you de-skin the almonds before grinding. You can soak them in warm water for 1 hour or soak them in normal water overnight and the skin will come out easily

4. Add more oil to the same kadai. On medium heat, once the oil is hot, temper it with cumin seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf, dried red chilli. 

5. Once the spices are fragrant, add grated ginger and sauté for few seconds till the raw smell is gone.

6. Add the ground paste now and on medium heat fry the masala until oil is released.

7. Prepare a paste of cumin powder, turmeric powder and 2 tsp of water. Add this paste, salt and sugar, fold in and cook for a minute.

8. Now add the warm milk and give it a good stir.

Tip : If you have cold milk, then you can put the milk in a microwave safe bowl and warm it for a minute to get it ready to be added to the preparation.

9. Now one by one add the fried parwals into the masala and simmer until the parwal is cooked through.

Tip: If you want to preserve the green color of the parwals, cook it uncovered on medium flame.

10. Now add the garam masala powder and cook it for about a minute. Finally add the ghee, mix it and take off the heat.

Serve it hot with rice or any flatbread.