Wax gourd is not very common vegetable in European countries, but sure there are many original recipes that can be found in Bangladesh. I have written a detail about wax gourd in my previous post but today I am writing another recipe from the fabulous writer Smriti Bhadra, wax gourd in mustard or as in Bangla, Kumra Besshori.

As the title says, we need mustard for this recipe. Beside wax gourd, mustard is one of the main ingredients. It is another very few ingredient dish, even there are no onion or garlic needed.

First, we need to make a smooth blend of mustard seed and green chili. Now, the best tool to blend mustard seed would be the Bangladeshi version of mortar and pestle. Since those are very heavy to carry from Bangladesh, I have to depend on modern blender and grinder. So what I have done is, used a coffee grinder to make a fine powder of mustard seeds, then used a food processor to blend green chili with mustard powder. I have added some mustard oil to make them a smooth paste. Well, it was not the ideal way to do it, but this is what I could do best!

Next I prepped the wax gourd, peeled the skin and cut them in thin triangular pieces. You can cut them in any shape you like but make sure to slice them thin, as we are not using extra water.

In a medium bottom pan, I heated mustard oil. You can use any kinds of vegetable oil but I think mustard oil goes best with this recipe. Then I added black cumin (nigella seeds) and let it cook until they start popping.

Then I added wax gourd pieces to the pan and mixed them well so that the pieces are well coated in oil and black cumin.

After a minute or two of cooking wax gourd in oil, I covered them with a lid and cooked for 10 minutes with lid on low-medium heat. I have check in every 5 minutes. If it needs, you can add 10-20ml of water or as needed but try not to use too much water because when cooking vegegies on low-medium heat will release water.

In 10 minutes, wax gourds will look much softer. At this step I added pinch of turmeric powder and salt. As the main recipe says, where you use mustard, you don’t need to add lot of turmeric to the dish. I mixed them well and covered them again for two to three minutes.

When gourds were almost cooked, I finally added the mustard-chili paste. I mixed spice paste well with gourds and turned off the heat. We don’t need to cook gourds with mustard paste for long time, so keeping them on heated stove for a minute is enough.

So here is the very quick, easy and classic recipe of wax gourd in mustard! Thank you again Smriti Bhadra for writing and sharing amazing recipes with us!

Recipe: 4 Servings Prep time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients: 1 Chal Kumra/Wax Gourd/Ash gourd 1 tablespoon Mustard seed (red or yellow) 2 Green Chili 1 teaspoon Black cumin 1/2 teaspoon of Turmeric powder 20ml Mustard oil/Vegetable oil 1teaspoon Salt

Instruction: 1. Peel and cut wax gourd and scoop the seeds out. Slice cleaned gourd very thin. Also, make a smooth paste of mustard seed and green chili. 2. Warm oil in a pan and add black cumin seeds. When popping, add sliced wax gourds. Mix well with black cumin seeds and cook for 10-15 minutes with lid on low-medium heat. 3. After 10 minutes, uncover and add salt and turmeric powder. Mix well and cover again. 4. Finally, when gourd pieces are almost cooked and soft, add mustard-chili paste. Mix well everything and keep for a minute. Serve warm with rice.