Paat Shaak

If Mom accompanies me, even a day-out turns into a quite nice food experience. Mom is the person who pampered my taste buds the most and actually spoiled them. Now it is not so easy to satisfy them. On the other hand, it contributed a lot to build my food culture.

This time Mom packed chholar dal (chick pea dal), paat shaak (jute leaves), kankrol bhaja (fried yet-to-find-the-english) and rice for lunch, and luchi & alubhaja for snacks.


I am sure you know ‘Jute’ but did you know that you could make curry of tender jute leaves? Jute is ‘Paat’ in Bengali and tender jute leaves that is edible is called ‘paat shak’.


---- Paat Shaak: the green one in the caserole

Ingredients:

Mustard oil
Kalaunji (kalo jire),
Green chille (chopped)
Ginger paste
Paat shaak i.e. tender jute leaves(shredded)
Turmeric powder
Salt
A little water

How to do it:
Heat mustard oil in a kadai till the color looks lighter and the smell goes.
Add a pinch of Kalauji (kalo jire), and chopped green chille
Add a little ginger paste
Add shak (shredded). Stir a little.
Add turmeric powder
Stir a little so that it get mixed well with the shak
Add salt
Stir.
Let it cook. Do not add water now. Let it get fried a little. And stir so as to fry it uniformly.
Add a little water.
Cover with a lid. Let it cook.
Turn off the oven when the leaved are softened i.e. completely cooked and the water it dried. It is a dry preparation Gravy should not be there.

And chholar dal and kankrol bhaja?
And luchi and alu bhaja?

I will tell you later. Bye bye!