Chingri diye jhinge poshto (Ridge Gourd in a Poppy seed gravy with Prawns)

                   

poshto is nothing but khus khus or poppy seeds in Bengali. and jhinge is not prawns it means ridge gourd, pirey in tulu as I know it or hirey kai in kannada and thori in hindi. and chingri is prawn. so this dish is ridge gourd with prawns in a poppy seed gravy. its pretty straight forward and easy to make and tastes great. me being a non Bengali am not too fond of everything Bengali and nor are my friends or family. but there are certain Bengali dishes that non Bengali people around me have liked to the extent of asking for the recipe. and poshto is one among them.

 The first Bengali dish I ever tried making was a aloo poshto (I will post a recipe later) and this one has been on the list for a while now so I tried it and liked it. so here im sharing my experience with you. my mil likes the potol poshto and pyaz poshto so these are also on my list and will be trying them aswell. but for now heres the recipe

Ingredients


4-5 tablespoon poshto 
4 green chillies
1 teaspoon haldi
salt to taste
3-4 ridge gourd cut into med cubes
12-15 prawns cleaned and deveined

2 tej patha

mustard oil about 4 tablespoon

method

soak the poshto for atleast 30 minutes, then grind it along with 2 green chillies,1/2 teaspoon  haldi and little salt. make into a fine paste, I use my mortar and pestle but the traditional way would be using a sheel bata (in hindi its called a silbata) even though I do have a sheel bata I find it more convenient just using the mortar (the mlorean in me would prefer the kadepina kal aka grinding stone :) but unfortunately I don't have one) I have tried using the mixy but no luck the poppy seeds just dance around the mixy and just waste my time. so go traditional use a stone to grind them it hardly take 10-15 minutes.

scrape the ridge gourd (see pic for details, for those who don't know how to do this we are not aiming at peeling the veg just scraping the pointy edges) wash them and cut into medium cubes.

clean and wash the prawns and marinate in 1/2 teaspoon haldi with about 1 teaspoon salt.

heat oil in a kadai and fry the prawns till they turn opaque and remove and keep aside.

now in the same oil add the tej patha and 2 green chillies slit, when they start to sizzle add the poppy seed paste and fry nicely till oil doesn't separate. then add the ridge gourd and fry little more and cover the lid and let the gourd cook(generally the gourd would leave water, but if it doesn't seem enough add little water) , when half way thru add the prawns and let it mix together and cook for another 3-4 minutes, when done serve with dal and rice.