Badshahi Potol (Royal Parval/ Pointed Gourd) with Archita Ray (Kolkata Food Blogger)

After having a splendid and blissful vacation with my family I am again back to crunch. And one of them of course is the luring call from the blogosphere. I have to wrap up a lot of pending stuff that just left neglected for last three weeks. My lazy soul is still in the vacation mood and in a trance to lazily move around. I need to have some booster to gear back with full vigour to finish my undone works. Ok..Let me stop cribbing back to job. Today I am glad to introduce one of my very good Kolkata Food Blogger friends as a part of the ongoing event - "Know your Kolkata Food blogger Friend". Archita Chanda Ray who blogs from My Food My Life, is one of the most sincere bloggers of our group and also our inspiration to blog with full earnestness.  The gorgeous and charming lady with a very innocent and vibrant smile is always there to help her friends.  She is very much balance headed and always ready with her fair and practical judgment and advises  A great cook she is, who loves to try her hand in experimental cooking and loves to feed her family and friend with great pleasure. Being an Ex-Banker she is now a full time mom of a handsome and sweet little kiddo and enjoys her life with utmost satisfaction.  We met each other through a Food Group but I never knew that she is a blogger and also lives in the same city. Thanks to Sayantani who added her in our group and now we can't imagine the group without her. She takes care of all the duties with full of responsibility and we always have the blind trust on her. Her blog is new but already there are so many sumptuous recipes that each one them tended me to try. I have already tried few of her dishes and also there are many in my bookmarked list. This time I have recreated her Badshahi Chicken Dish (click to see how Archita made it) and molded it in vegetarian attire.

I very much wanted to cook the Badshahi dish with chicken. But in my collection I was only able to accumulate some Potol /Pointed gourd. So I thought of giving it a vegetarian try. And no need to say it came out super delicious. My daughter again demanded to make it today as she liked it that much. And the man too devoured and smacked the dish with the gastronomic satiation.  So here is my dish Badshai Potol/Parval/Pointed gourd.

Ingredients:

Potol/ Pointed Gourd - 8 medium size

Onion - 2 small

Tomato - 1 medium

Poppy Seed Paste- 2 tspns

Cashew nuts - 6-7 pcs

Ginger paste - 1 tspn

Turmaric Powder - 1/4 tspn

Red Chilly Powder - 1/2 tspn (more or less - As per hot quotient )

Salt & Sugar - As per taste (the tends to taste a bit sweetish)

Whole Garam Masala - 2 per peice

Mustard Oil - As per requirement

Ghee - a pinch

 Method:

1. Semi skin the Potol / Pointed Gourd and give 4 slits length wise (First half then half of the half) but be careful each Potol / Pointed Gourd should remain as a whole piece.
2. Boil the onion and the tomato for 6-8 mnts. Strain the water and then cool it down. Make a paste along with Ginger and Cashew. Reserve.
3. Heat enough oil in a Kodai or a deep dense pan so that all the 8 pieces of Potol / Pointed Gourd can be fried. Fry well the Potol / Pointed Gourds till they turns semi brown and soft. Starin them out from the oil and reserve.
4. If you have a good amount of oil in the Kodai left, then put it in a separate bowl. Just keep 1 tbspn oil in the Kodai/Pan.
5. Add whole Garam Masala. Let them sputter. Add the Onion paste. After some time add the poppy seed paste. Stir nicely till the masala is well cooked and the oil starts to separate. Add salt and sugar.  Add the Potol / Pointed Gourd. Stir for 4-5 mnts. Add water and cover it with a lid.
6. Cook for 4-5 mnts. Then Take off the lid. Check the consistency of the gravy. The texture should be semi thick. If you feel the gravy is done then taste it if more salt or sugar is needed. Before taking it off the stove add a pinch of ghee and enjoy it with rice, roti, Puri or Polao.