Tel Potol Recipe | Authentic Bengali Pointed Gourd Curry
When it comes to traditional Bengali comfort food, few dishes capture the beauty of simple cooking quite like Tel Potol. Made with fresh pointed gourd (also known as parwal or potol), fragrant mustard oil, and a handful of aromatic spices, this humble curry proves that delicious food doesn't need complicated ingredients.
Ingredients
- 8 Pointed gourd
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 Small size tomato
- 3 tablespoon Mustard oil
- 1 tablespoon Flour
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- Salt as per taste
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
Whole Spices
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 2 small cinnamon bark
- 4 cloves
- 1 Dry Red Chili
Ground Spices
- ½ teaspoon Cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon Coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
Instructions
- Wash the pointed gourd and then, depending on the size, you could either scrape the skin off carefully with a sharp knife or peel the skin off using a vegetable peeler. Whichever method you choose, try to keep alternate dark skins on. (This will maintain a crunch instead to cooking the gourd down to mushy and soggy)
- Make a small slit on both the edges.
- Place a pan on medium high and pour 2 tablespoons of mustard oil. Scatter the cumin seeds, cloves and cinnamon stick along with dry red chili. Let it sizzle for few seconds
- Then carefully slide the pointed gourd and stir it around. Season with salt and all the turmeric powder. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, to let the pointed gourd softened down a little.
- Next, add the grated ginger and finely chopped tomato. Give it a stir.
- Add the ground spice along with sugar, gently mix it all around. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. This will softened the tomatoes, cook the spices and release the oil from the side.
- Pour hot water and give a mix. Bring the water to rolling boil and let it boil for 3 minutes.
- Prepare a roux to thicken the gravy by mixing the flour with 2 tablespoons of the gravy. Pour the mixture into the pan and let it simmer for 1 minute.
- Taste for salt and add more if needed. Just before serving, drizzle little mustard oil.
- Serve warm with rice.
Nutrition
Serving: 1Serves 4