This recipe is for my friend N, who posts here as therapy. She asked for a chochchori, and I had my heart set on kopir dNatar chochchori. It's a winter special, and winter in the tropics is already packing its going-away lunch. If I miss this window, I won't see a decent kopir dNatar chochchori for a whole year. Well, for about nine months, anyway. But life has been hectic, and one day I came home to find that all the juicy young dNatas had been cooked into a delicious bowl of chochchori in my absence. Now, I don't mind letting someone else do the cooking, and I am deeply grateful to our wonderful cook for all she does, but that is one photo-op that isn't coming back in a hurry.
So this afternoon, I made aloor chochchori. All you need for it is a potato, and half or quarter of a tomato. And you need some oil, salt, and a pinch of sugar. And you're all set. If you want to fancy it up, you can add sliced red onions and chopped green chilies. Sometimes we add leftover kucho chingri -- tiny little shrimps, fried till they're red before cooking them in. But today's version is minus all trimmings. Keep this template handy, it'll stand you in good stead. See if it doesn't :-)
So this afternoon, I made aloor chochchori. All you need for it is a potato, and half or quarter of a tomato. And you need some oil, salt, and a pinch of sugar. And you're all set. If you want to fancy it up, you can add sliced red onions and chopped green chilies. Sometimes we add leftover kucho chingri -- tiny little shrimps, fried till they're red before cooking them in. But today's version is minus all trimmings. Keep this template handy, it'll stand you in good stead. See if it doesn't :-)
All you need.
First cut the potato in thin slices, then halve those slices to get "nouka" aloo, potatoes chopped in boat-shapes.
Chop the tomato really small so they cook super-quick. Pulping them will be vital.
Rub the potatoes with a little salt and turmeric and sauté them. I scooped some of the pulpy seeds inside the tomato and added it here for extra flavour. If using ickle shrimps, fry them after this.
Use the old trick to effectively pulp tomatoes while cooking them: add to hot oil and sprinkle salt on top. Then attack with a spatual while holding the wok steady. If using onions and chilies, they go before the tomatoes.
When it's pulped and the oil just begins to spearate, add the sautéd potatoes (and shrimps). Fry the two for two to three minutes on low, with a little salt and sugar added.
Now add a little water. Just a little, mind! Chochchori is a dry curry. We need water to cook the potatoes, not make gravy.
This is a killer with paratha and rooti, but feel free to eat this with steaming hot rice :-)
And once more :-)
6 comments:
Yum. And so easy.
Yes, very easy. But I'm still harbouring hopes of a kopir dNata.
Prefer without tomatoes, with knachalonka, kalojire and holud, ar nouko noy, lomba. Er, is this the same dish I'm talking about?
No you're not! :-)
We have that dish too, but the potatoes are cut in small cubes and fried with tiny florets of phulkopi in winter.
Chochchori may look like an ordinary dish but when you taste it, you might not want to stop eating it.
Quite so. Especially little little crispy-fried shrimps in it :-)
Love and miss bagels *so* much, btw!
Post a Comment