Bengali

Boroma, my great-grandmother got married, in the early 1900s, when she was fifteen to a member of a Zamindari family of Dharula, Chittagong District, in what is now Bangladesh. Boroma's Dharula home had separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian kitchens in the courtyard behind the house.

Here food was cooked on stoves run on kerosene and cow dung cakes. Her cooking vessels were all metallic: iron, brass and copper. Boroma's vegetarian dishes, flavoured with mild spices, were family favourites.

Ingredients

• 500 grams 1 lb tender Bottle Gourd cut into thin, short strips
• 2-3 chopped green chillies
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1/2 tspn cumin seeds
• 1 tspn oil or ghee
• Salt to taste
• A pinch of turmeric powder
• A pinch of cinnamon-cardamom powder

Method

Heat oil/ghee in a kadai/wok/heavy bottomed saucepan.

Put in all masalas except cinnamon-cardamom powder and fry for a few seconds.

Put in gourd strips and mix lightly.

Cover and cook on slow heat until water dries up.

Sprinkle cinnamom-cardamom powder on top and serve hot.

© Manjula Mathur, India 2008