Nostalgic Odia: July 2015

Janhi Aloo Posto ( ଜନ୍ହୀ ଆଳୁ ପୋସତ୍ ) is a very popular dish in Odisha. It can also be made without the potato but what's an Odia dish without potato. Posto (poppy seeds or Khas Khas) are used in a lot of dishes to provide thickness , texture and flavour. Since this seed is obtained from opium poppy, any dish made out of poppy seeds, can make you a bit drowsy. It's the perfect sunday afternoon dish, eat, sleep and be merry ;) In Karnataka, posto is called gasagase and is used to make paysa or kheer. Kheer/Paysa/Paysam - is a dessert usually made with rice, milk, sugar and spices, though different states in India have different varieties of this same dessert using different ingredients. For example rice is sometimes replaced with semolina noodles or granulated semolina. Read more about Kheer/Paysa

In this dish I've also used Janhi (Ridge Gourd) which is extremely rich in dietary fibres and vital minerals like zinc, iron, magnesium etc. I found this article online that tells all the amazing things ridge gourd does for you. My husband tells me that my mother-in-law makes bhajjis (pakoras) out of ridge gourd, I can imagine how yummy they will be. Since my mom was here for a month she taught me this recipe and she also showed me how I can use the peeled off skin of these vegetables to make a bhaja (pakora).

This dish goes well with rice but you can eat it with rotis too. So here goes...

PREP TIME	COOKING TIME	SERVES
10 minutes	10 minutes	3 - 4

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients	Quantity
Janhi / Ridge Gourd	3 big sized
Potato	1 medium sized
Onion	1 medium sized
Ginger	1 small piece (a little smaller than your thumb)
Garlic	1 - 2 (optional)
Green Chillies	1 - 2 (add more if you like your dish to be spicier)
Cumin Seeds	1 tablespoon
Poppy seeds	2 n 1/2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds	1 teaspoon
Oil/Ghee	2 tablespoons
Salt	To taste

PREP

Peel the ridge gourd, take out the outer green rough skin and cut them into medium sized pieces
Cut the potatoes into small pieces and soak them in water to prevent from browning. It is important that potatoes are cut into small pieces since ridge gourd takes very less time to cook, smaller potato pieces will cook easily and you will avoid over cooking the dish.
Chop onions finely and keep aside

Soak the poppy seeds in warm water for around an hour or so
After the poppy seeds have been soaked for an hour, in a blender/food processor make a fine paste of ginger, garlic, poppy seeds (posto), green chilly and cumin seeds and keep aside. My blender does not blend well for smaller quantities so I made a small bowl full and used it later in a different recipe.

PROCEDURE

In a vessel, take two teaspoon of oil, add mustard seeds
When the mustard seeds begin to flutter, add the chopped onion

After this add the potatoes since they will take the longest to cook

When the potatoes are half done, add the Janhi (Ridge gourd)

Stir and cook for around 5 minutes and then add the poppy seed paste. Add around 3 tablespoon of the paste you made. Poppy seeds can sometimes make the curry bitter so be careful with how much paste you put in.

Cook until the smell of the raw ginger and garlic is gone, it should not take more than 10 minutes. Some people also add turmeric to the recipe but I haven't since the poppy seed mixture gives a unique colour to this dish
Now add around 1 cup of water and cook on low flame until the curry isn't watery and the poppy seed paste has formed a thick mixture. Poppy seed is used to thicken the curry so if you think your curry became too thick, add some more water.