FULKOPIR PATA BATA

This is something I always enjoy having with piping hot rice. Few decades back such kinds would have been my third option, keeping a fish curry or fry at forth or even a meat curry given meat was a weekly once affair.... hence we treated it as a weekend celebration. Now, I have crossed the prime phase of my life..... meat is no more the main interest although I am unwilling to quit it... fresh water fish still remains a love. We do not get the kind of fish I prefer here in this island on a regular basis, so I lean more on the vegetarian dishes that I have grown up eating. By God's grace, this island sells those vegetables that Bengali homes eat.... we even get packeted jackfruit and broad bean seeds. I saw the grandmother and mother roasting broad bean seeds in sand and then storing them for year long to be used in curries. It is not possible to follow every step of them in our modern homes, some I do... those which I can. This very rustic, humble vegetarian dish with cauliflower leaves & stem FULKOPIR PATA BATA is one of them. 

I can have it every week, the rest in the family would not mind to taste anything that may feel like "shutkir bhorta" but the problem is that this island sells "fulkopi in nyara form".... all leaves are thrown and then sold, even the stems are rarely kept.... they make a lovely  dish when cooked in chilli-mustard paste. No part of a cauliflower was been wasted in our family. I try to follow that. For a cauliflower with leaves, I have to go hunting for it in the Indian shops who gets their supply from India or say South Asia, even the Taiwan Gobi I love in curries comes without leaves. I had an existing picture of this dish stored in Google Photos but I was not keen on sharing that one, I felt I should do a better plating so that my family does not feel being left out. It was quite an exercise yesterday.... a single cauliflower gives you this little amount of leaves if ain't you are getting it from your family's farmland. So, I included the stems too, never mind we need to cook them too well to avoid bloating.

This was the earlier one, the present one is definitely not a perfect one either. I am unhappy with my photography skills! Actually we had a couple of dishes to have yesterday night, anything seems excess beyond 3-4 dishes at this home. 

We had "maacher jhol" too. So the boiled potato was refrigerated in good amount. I prepared an "aloo chokha" this morning and packed their lunch boxes with "ruti o aloo chokha"..... You can see I must have one "ruti" with my morning tea. The "chapatis / rutis" today were not good, perhaps I could not maintain the heat level of the oven well.

Food is my religion, the kind of food I like energises me. I am not an energetic person, not 1/10th of our mother but whatever little I cook, I try to do it with love like her and her kinds. By the word "authentic Bengali" I always refer to an era I have immense respect for because I have seen what hard work is, what doing it for the family is and I would continue to stick to my belief.... who ever says what. I do not know how authentic this vegetarian recipe with cauliflower stems FULKOPIR PATA BATA is, when it dates back to the history of Bengali Food, I am doing it the way our mother used to do. Among us, it is done with good amount of onion, a tempering of crushed garlic too is a must.

INGREDIENTS :

CAULIFLOWER : 7-8 [WHOLE]

SLICED ONION : 2MEDIUM SIZED TEA CUP [2-3 MEDIUM SIZED]

CRUSHED GARLIC : 1TBSP [3-4 PEELED CLOVES]

GREEN CHILLI : 2-3

DRY RED CHILLI : 2-3

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2TSP

NIGELLA SEED / KALONJI / KALOJEERA : 1/4TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

SUGAR : 1/2TSP 

OIL : 4-5TBSP

PROCEDURE : 

Tear off the leaves from the cauliflower and wash well!

Switch on the gas, place a wok and add the cauliflower leaves. Keep stirring at low heat and after 3-4 minutes, it looks like this.

Add the dry roasted leaves to a blender along with the green chillies. Blend it to a paste.

Now, get the rest of the ingredients ready on the kitchen top. The sliced onion, crushed garlic, dry red chillies, kalonji, the prepared paste.

Heat the oil in a wok. Temper with the nigella seeds, crushed garlic and the dry red chillies.

Give a stir and add the sliced onions. Fry until light brown and then add the leaf paste.

Add the rest of the turmeric and salt, fold in well and keep stirring for 2-3 minutes. Reduce heat to minimal and cover cook.

After 10-12 minutes, open cover and you can see that the water have dried up and the colour of the content turned darker.

We would stir cook for another 2-3 minutes and take down. 

Enjoy it with piping hot rice or chapati.