Janhi Aloo Posto….Ridge gourd and potatoes cooked with Poppy seed paste
A Odia recipe finally! The recipe was sitting in my drafts for a long time and I just kept postponing it. Janhi aloo posto is one of my favourites, the recipe posted here is straight from my mom’s kitchen. This curry is a regular side dish in lunch during the summers at my mom’s place. Most of the poppy seed based curries are eaten with rice in Odisha as rice is the staple diet here. Till date I don’t enjoy this with Rotis or Chapatis.
Janhi or better known as Ridge gourd in English or Turai in Hindi is cooked with diced potatoes in Posto bata or poppy seed paste or khus khus in hindi. The poppy seeds impart a rich creamy texture to the curry. The ubiquitous Posto or poppy seeds is a very common ingredient in a Odia kitchen. It is normally ground on a shila bata or a grinding stone which is a rare thing in modern kitchens now. The paste can be made in a mixer grinder also.
The Ridge gourd is a summer vegetable, with lot of minerals and with absolutely no fat content. It is mostly considered bland and not relished by many. The mustard oil with its sharp taste and aroma gives a distinct flavour to the curry. In Orissa most of the curries are mustard oil based, even the pakoras or gram flour dumplings are also deep fried in mustard oil.
- 3 Long Ridge gourd diced into cubes
- 2 Medium potatoes diced into cubes
- 1 tsp Kalonji seeds or nigella ( kala jeera in oriya)
- 2 tbsps mustard oil
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- to taste salt
- 1 cup water
- 2 1/2 tbsps Poppy seeds or Posto
- 4 - 5 garlic flakes
- 2 chillies Green (if you like your curry spicy)
- Heat the mustard oil in a wok till smoking point and lessen the heat.This is done so that the raw smell from the mustard oil goes away.
- Add the kalonjI or kala jeera ,let it splutter, then add the diced potatoes and keep it on medium flame while stirring.
- When the potatoes are little cooked add the diced janhi or ridge gourd, turmeric and salt.
- Stir it, cover and cook till the curry is 3/4 th cooked.
- Add the posto bata or poppy seed paste to the curry let it cook for 2-3 minutes. The posto can be ground in a mixer grinder with garlic and chilly, the poppy seeds can be soaked in little milk for 15 mins before grinding.
- Add the water, stir and let the veggies simmer with the paste till it is semi dry and cooked properly which takes nearly 5-7 mins.
- Serve with Rice and Dal and enjoy!
This looks good Saswati….Oriya cuisine is not one that I am very familiar with and so this is one good reason to make a beginning. Looking forward to all those delicious dishes that we savored while in Goa last week. It was truly a wonderful holiday…thks:) to u both
Hi Saswati! Thanks for visiting my blog. This is a new recipe to me, would love to try this out.. thanks for sharing!!
I was meaning to make aloo posto since long, this is so very different
Wow this dish looks delicious and sounds truly delicious, thanks for sharing..new for me..
Oriya cuisine is totally new, would love to see more of that! The curry is creamy and should have tasted yum!
Oh Saswati..thanks for sharing an Oriya recipe. I’m always on the lookout for regional recipes and also excited to try out recipes I have never tried b4. This recipe sounds and looks delicious..Janhi Aloo Posto has been bookmarked. As you mentioned I will enjoy this with Rice..Thanks to ur mom for this recipe.
Thats very different recipe, looks creamy and yumm!
Vandana you are welcome and do try this dish Suma trying to post more of oriya recipesno deesha its not so different from the alloo posto,just the addition of ridge gourdpriya it is truly deliciousCham would surely try to post more
Dolly do try and let me know:)parita thanx for visiting
Saswathi,,, thanks for ur lovely words on my recipe dear… aloo posto is new to me ur’s looks good n nice presentation..
This looks so tempting..Have seen thisonly in blogs..got to try this 🙂
Sounds great!! Cannot wait for turai season to begin here; just a couple months more.
Hi Saswati,Good to see u back in the blog world…With so very few Oriya food blogs around its really heartening to see yours up again…very good presentation..jahni alu poshto mora bi fav recipe..kintu rasuna mu use kareni..will try ur version soon
Sathya thanxGulmohar try and let me know…this recipe is very different in tasteEt hope you will like it:)Random thoughts there are lot of ppl who don’t use Garlic but I have always seen my mom using…tenu mu bhi use kare:)try kariki kahiba
I could so have this with some dal and hot rice right now!Soma(www.ecurry.com)
this is simply great… i love this a lot as i was brought up in kolkata
i love jahni posto too…. awesome one…
This recipe looks good. Iam sure to try it out!!!!
Hello Di…..i was looking for janhi aloo posta on the web and pat comes your blog…..now please guess who this nice visitor to your site is 🙂
Good day! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading through your articles. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects? Appreciate it!
The garlic cloves if in lesser amount tastes great!
Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks dear Snigdha….in fact lot of people do not use garlic at all…learnt this recipe from my mom who always used garlic and have always liked it that way. Thanks for visiting my space.
Thanks for the recipe. I followed the instructions but I don’t know wat went wrong my curry smells really very nice but tasted lil bit more bitter…how to make it right?