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Jahni Alu Posta
March 30, 2007 |
Ridge Gourd and Potato in a Poppy Seed Sauce
The Ridge gourd is used in most parts of the world, as a beauty aid, to make loofahs. In India, it is prized for its delicate flavour in many regional cuisines.
In south India, a chutney made out of its peels is quite popular.
Jahni or Jahmi are the words for ridge gourd in the eastern state of Orissa. Oriya cuisine is very sophisticated, and has given the world delicacies such as payesh or kheeri (sweet rice pudding), which originated in Puri a thousand years ago, and rasagolla, which is usually associated with Bengal.
The ridge gourd has a lot of symbolism in Oriya culture, and
…. is a forbidden fruit for the unmarried girls in the month of Bhadrava. The goddess Vrundavati who is located in the basil plant (Tulsi) is worshipped in this month.
Poppy seeds (posta), mustard oil and garlic flavour this creamy, truly sublime dish.
JAHNI ALU POSTA (Ridge gourd and potatoes in a poppy seed paste)
(from lokpriya.com)
Ingredients
4 medium ridge gourd (5 cups chopped)
3 potatoes (4 cups chopped)
3 tablespoons white poppy seeds
10 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon punch phutana (panch phoron) - equal parts of cumin, mustard, fennel, fenugreek and nigella seeds
4 green chillies
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons oil (preferably mustard)
Salt to taste
Method
1. Peel and chop the vegetables.
2. Soak the poppy seeds in warm water for 10 minutes. Grind the garlic and soaked poppy seeds to a fine paste.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add the punch phutana and green chillies. When the seeds start crackling, add chopped vegetables, salt and turmeric powder. Saute for 5 minutes. Add a little water if necessary and cook until the vegetables are 3/4th done.
4. Add the poppy paste. Mix well and cook on a low flame till completely done.
Serve with rice or rotis.
Our Entry for Nupur’s A-Z Vegetable Challenge.
Orissa in pictures
Oriya cuisine here and here
An Oriya Cookbook
Chillies/Peppers, Garlic, jahni-alu-posta, Orissa, Potato, Ridge Gourd, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes
I just left a comment on your previous post in the morning and there you are again!!;D
Too much Bee too much!HAHAHAHA!!
We call it Heerekai in Kannada and I made that peel chutney yesterday!Oriyan dishes are new to me.Looks great.I will try next time I get this veg.Have a great weekend:)
This is a Bengali delicacy too call it “Jhinge Posto”. But we don’t add garlic as it is supposed to be purely vegetarian
I didn’t know payesh originated in Puri too, do you have a link, then I could update my post.
But its true that Orissa and Bengal, the two nighboring states have a lot of common food and many Oriya Cooks, all men would migrate to Bengal and take up a cooking job. Many Bengali literary pieces mentions “Ure Thakur” in the household which is “Oriya Cook” and they were very good cooks
here, sandeepa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriya_cuisine
i’m assuming payesh and kheer have the same origin. they call it ‘kheeri’, bengalis call it ‘payesh’.
This post was a walk down food - memory lane
I grew up in Orissa and the food is so simple yet with so much “swad”. Johny-Alu-Posto is a all time favorite.
Hi Bee,
It is “posta” in Oriya. Bengali and Oriya - language and cuisine it very similar. Hope this helps
tx. i didn’t want to mutilate your beautiful language. - bee
very interesting bee. I have the bengali alu jhinge (substituted by zuchhini) posto in my blog. Like Sandeepa, I’ve never tasted garlic in the posto. Payesh originated in Puri… now it makes sense. When we visited Puri years ago, the temple gave it as prasad in the morning.
i like the garlic a lot in this dish. it makes it fabulous. after that my home reeked of garlic, so i made kashmiri garam masala. it’s like pot pourri. problem solved. - bee
hi Bee, I have heard of gravys made with poppy seed paste. but this subzi, for the first time. Have some seeds in my pantry. will try out sometime.
sharmi
Hey Bee, nice to know about Oddisi cuisine, we hardly hear of those dishes otherwise.
Bee, my Oriya friend will be extremely happy to know that you’ve credited rossogolla (and payesh) to Orissa. She’s always been bitter about how Bengal got credit for a lot of things that originated in/belonged to Orissa. If only the poet Jayadeva of Geeta Govinda fame had lived closer to Bengal, he’d have been appropriated by Bengal too, she would say! I visited Orissa two years ago - the food is lovely. The place needs to sell itself more!
I didn’t get the e-mail you mentioned.
This is one great Oriya recipe…..thanks for posting this, Bee. Oriya cuisine is so rich…..i once had a Jackfruit sabzi at an Oriya friend’s place-one of the best i’ve ever had. Girls, do any of you know any Oriya food blogs, resources.
Sra, one of my graduate school classmates used to say pretty much the same things.
try this - http://members.tripod.com/oriyakitchen/ - bee
Hey bee, and the chutney made from turai/tori/beerakaya peels is popular in a lot of Indian subcultures-Punjus make it too (not all, only some regions). Thanks for the link to the chutney recipe.
Bee, Oriya cuisine is something new to me. I had a friend from Orissa but never had a chance to actually taste any authentic food from that part. As usual your picture makes me hungry:)).
Thanks a ton, bee.
hugs, musical.
wow , u managed to find something from I & J for the A-Z event!! gr8:)
Hi Bee,
Lovely looking dish. Just couldn’t believe its heerekai and heerekai with Alu seems very interesting.
Bee,
That is a good combination, I say. Ever tried okra+potato? Do try it. Going by this post of yours I am sure you will like it. Some great links there about Orissa!
Thanks for the reference to my ridgegourd peel chutney in your blog.
Cheers,
Mythili
yep, okra is our favorite veggie - we’ve tried okra stuffed with potatoes and okra-potato stir fry. like it both ways — Jai
More trivia on rasgulla from google:
There are several claims regarding the creation of the Rossogolla. According to one, Rossogolla or Rasgulla originated from the temple town of Puri in Orissa state in eastern India, where it has been eaten since medieval times. According to century old tradition, each year during the Rath Yatra festival (chariot festival) Lord Jagganath (the Hindu diety in Puri) is offered rashogolla at the end of his symbolic journey. The best rassogollas in Orissa are available at Salepur which is not far from Cuttack. A variety of Rassogolla called Pahala is found around Bhubaneswar and is much sought after.
It is said that the Bengali version of rossogolla was first made by Haradhan Maira, a confectioner from Phulia in Nadia district, West Bengal during the time of Bengal renaissance.
Yet according to another claim, the creation of the Rossogolla is attributed to Nobin Chandra Das. During 1866, Nobin Chandra set up a small sweet shop in Baghbazaar in North Kolkata. Being a born innovator, he was fired by the ambition to do something by which posterity could remember him. At that time the Sandesh was holding sway over the Bengali sweet tooth. Nobin Chandra believed that he could develop a tastier sweet than the Sandesh. And in 1868, shortly after opening shop, he developed the Rossogolla. He had however to wait for his creation to gain popularity. Those were not the days when brands could be advertised on the TV or a media campaign could be launched with film personalities to increase visibility. It is said that one fine morning a grand Landau pulled up in front of Nobin Das’s shop in Baghbazaar. A wealthy businessman and his family stepped out of the carriage. One of the children was thirsty. Nobin Chandra offered the child water and a rossogolla. After eating the unique sweet, the child was delighted and asked his father to take a bite. The father was no less ecstatic on tasting the sweet. He immediately bought a huge quantity of rossogolla for his relatives and friends. And with no time Nobin Chandra Das and Rossogolla had arrived! Nobin Das is immortalised in the Bengali limerick “Bagbazar’s Nobin Das / Rossogolla’s Columbus”. Nobin Chandra’s son Krishna Chandra Das continued the innovative trend that his father set and soon developed the world famous chain of Bengali sweet shop - K.C.Das & Sons. K.C. Das & Sons was the first to develop and market the canned version of rossogolla which led to its wider availability.
Oriya cuisine! Something I know so little about. Thanks for sharing a wonderful recipe!
Hi Bee, this looks so appealing. I love ridge gourd. Have not used poppy seeds much, but I have ‘em in the freezer! I am long overdue for a veggie-shopping spree at my neighborhood Asian grocery. Can’t wait to try this out. Thanks for all the interesting links too. Shall save those
A very nice recipe Bee …. seems you know a lot about the regional cuisines of India..
I am new to the ridge gourd and its good to see more and more recipes out there now.this recipe looks so easy!
I love ridge gourd. I had no idea that ridge gourd and potatoes can be cooked together. I always thought ridgegourd’s taste is unique and it doesno’t go well with other veggies. Have to try this.
Looks yummy guys! You guys always come with exotic named dishes! Will try this out when i get a chance!
Cheers
Latha
hello!
this is the first time im commenting on anyone’s blog although im an avid blog reader.stumbled on ur blog thru indira’s and on reading ur post about ‘jahni alu posta’ i couldn’t hold myself back.its one of my all time favs.serve it to me daily for all three meals,and i’ll savor with utmost delight!i belong to orissa and am just curious if u guys are also oriya.
great site,great photos.keep the good work going!
thanks for stopping by. B is “almost” malayalee
and I am a tamilian…we’re interested in a variety of cuisines - oriya has a lot to offer and we just loved this dish –Jai
Oriya delicacies are truly scrumptuous. I have had the opportunity to savour some dishes and sweets and found them to be simply out of this world.
Interesting to see how wikipedia has rightly credited rasgullas to Orissa. Oriya rasgullas are softer and much better than the Bengali ones. The only problem is they have to be eaten hours after they are cooked. They are highly perishable. The Bengali ones are more popular because they stay much longer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasgulla
Poor poor K. C. Das must be rolling in his grave. Orissan cooking is awesome!!!!
[...] When Swapna announced the Regional Cuisine of Indian - Orissa event, I thought, ‘fuggedaboutit!!’ I had already posted the only Oriya recipe that I knew. [...]
[...] Fellow bloggers have already experimented with Oriya cuisine and come up with dishes such as Jahni Alu Posta, Luchi aur Aloor Dom, and Shrimp with Opo [...]
Hi I am orissa. I saw this yummy dish and couldn’t resist. This was my favorite dish and I used to make it many a times.
Good to know that u are interested in Oriya recipes.
I have started a website featuring some oriya dishes.
Thanks
[...] Jahni Alu Posta (Orissa) [...]
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