Bandhakopir Ghanto

RCI concept is good to know about various delicacies from India.I always tried sweets from bengal and I know great writers like late Ravindranath Tagore and Saratchandra Chatterjee.My grandmom had a collection of novels like nauka doobi(one of my favourite),Kabuliwala,Gitanjali written by Tagore and from Saratchandra Chatterjee written devdoss and Munshi Premchand though he is not a bengali writer but she had his lots of books like godaan(my grannys favourite),kaffan .She had her own collection hindi literature books in her bookshelf.Summer afternoons are the best time for story telling.But there is a lot to say about the books and my granny.
Coming back to Bengali cuisine,Once i tried using "panchphoron".I used brinjal,potato together as a dry subzi by using this spice mixture and it came out well.We enjoyed the dish with chapathi along with hot rice.(recipe got from internet and website name is out of my mind.)
Later my panchphoron box went into the shadow.Happend some changes in life but no idea where i dropped the little packet.Recently I got a delicious recipe on search.
Tried and decided to make again and again in future.Good to go with chapathis and rice.Yum Yum
Ghonto :
Ghonto is a dish of cultivated plants such as potatoes and eggplant mixed with uncultivated shak. It cannot be made up of cultivated or uncultivated plants alone as it is by definition the mixing of unrelated plants or unrelated parts of plants in the medium of water. The use of spices in Ghonto is minimal, focusing instead on using water to extract and make available nutritional and medicinal properties. The mixing of unrelated items is needed to manage tastes in the dish as many valuable plants or parts of plants are very bitter or tasteless when cooked alone. Ghonto is consequently a kind of cooking method used for plants that are otherwise not so edible but can add to the culinary repetoire.
coutesy:idrc

Ghonto: Different complementary vegtables (e.g., cabbage, green peas, potatoes or banana blossom, coconut, chickpeas) are chopped or finely grated and cooked with both a phoron and ground spices. Dried pellets of dal (boris) are often added to the ghanto. Ghee is commonly added at the end. Non-vegitarian ghantos are also made, with fish or fish heads added to vegetables. The famous murighanto is made with fish heads cooked in a fine variety of rice. Some ghantos are very dry while others a thick and juicy.
Courtesy:Experience festival.com

Cabbage is very good for salads .Usually i will always have in my fridge.Easy and quick side dish for rice or can be used as a stuffing for sandwiches too.My mom always reserve shredded cabbage especially for me atleast one tablespoon because no one likes fresh uncooked cabbage in our house.
Iam very much impressed about the recipe ghonto and quite easy to make this dishes too when you dont have much time to prepare food for lunch.
Never added cabbage with potato .I usually make cabby pea and potpea subzis seperately.But 3 items in one kadai with spicy panchphoron mix.Ohh got the real experience when we had this last week with hot chapathi.
Ingredients:
Cabbage - 3 cups,shredded /Bandhgobi in hindi
Potatoes - 2 medium size,cubed
Fresh Green Peas - 1 cup
Crushed ginger garlic paste - ½ tspn
Paanch phoron mix - 1 tspn,ground
Red chilli pwd - 1 tspn
Turmeric - a pinch
Cumin seeds - ½ tspn
Dhaniya pwd - 1 tspn
Green chillies - 2 no
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking.(Add ½ tspn of Ghee in oil to get the flavor if you are non weight watchers)
Though recipe calls for tomato i ommitted that .
Pressure cooked potatoes and fryed in littel bit of oil until golden brown.Remove from kadai and keep it aside.
Add crushed ginger garlic and fry until raw smell goes.Add green chillies and fry .Add shredded cabbage ,peas ,turmeric and sprinkle some water,close lid and cook in medium flame until cabbage becomes tender,stirring occasionally.Add red chilli pwd,dhaniya pwd,salt and stir well.Add fried Potatoes,Paanch phoron pwd and stir well.Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes and remove from fire.Serve hot with rice and chapathi.
Recipe courtesy:indobase.com
I tried mochar ghonto/banana blossom subzi too.Post the recipe on another day.
Must try recipe:
lau ghonto/Bottlegourd Ghonto.
Came to know what boris is from this blog Homemade Boris and Saar er ghanto .

This is my entry for event RCI - Bengal hosting by Sandeepa.