I have a love-hate relation with Potol. I never liked it in curry but like it better when fried. By the way, you may ask, what is a Potol? Potol is a vital summer vegetable in Bangladesh, also known as Pointed Gourd in English (scientific name: Trichosanthes dioica) because of pointy ends on both side. As I said before, some Bangladeshi dies for potol, some like me, love Potol in certain ways only. But today I am going to share a recipe called Potato with Potol in a gravy (alu potoler jhol) which I have never cooked before. So let’s see how it turned out!

For this recipe, we need the typical ingredients for curry like ginger garlic paste, onion, turmeric, coriander, cumin powder along with some potato and potol. However, what makes this curry tastes much better is nigella seed. I am going to share how to use nigella seeds for this recipe.

To bring the most flavor out of nigella seeds, first you need to heat up the oil and then add nigella seeds. You need to wait until they start popping before adding other ingredients. In this way, nigella seeds add the most flavor to any gravy or dish so to speak.

Then we add sliced onion and saute until golden. You can add a little bit of salt so that onion cooks faster. When onions are golden, I added ginger garlic paste, sauteed until the raw smell is gone (first picture above). Then I added other dry spices like turmeric, coriander, cumin powder and sliced chili. Don’t cook them for more then a minute otherwise they starts to burn.

Now I am adding potatoes. I let them sit in the spices in low heat so potatoes get bit roasted and absorbs the flavors too. But don’t forget to stir often.

Meanwhile I am showing how to prepare potol. Potol has a very thin layer which if we remove by peeling, we loose half of the vegetable. So the best way to remove the skin is to scrape with sharp side of knife and remove the striped green skin. Also don’t forget to remove the both ‘pointy’ side of Pointed gourd.

Now, after scraping the skin, if you cut the potol in half, you will see the seeds. Some seeds are soft but when the flesh inside is bit yellowish, it means the seeds are hard and not palatable. So I removed the harder seeds with a help of spoon.

Then I cut potol in smaller pieces and made them ready to cook.

Now the potatoes looking like this, nicely coated with spices and slightly roasted.

Now I will be adding potol pieces to potatoes and stir until they are slightly roasted.

I added water just enough to cover the veggies, because the veggies will release some water. Then I cover the pan with lid and let the veggies cook until the gravy looks thicker (see the difference between picture one and two).

This is how the simple yet marvelous potato potol curry looks. The creamy potato melts in your mouth while crunchy texture of potol give you an unique taste – I guess that’s why Bangladeshis love Potol so much!

Recipe: Potato Potol Curry, serves 4

Ingredients: Potol/pointed gourds- 4 medium pieces Potato- 5/6 small Onion- 1 medium Green Chili- 4/5 pieces Garlic paste – 1/2 tsp Ginger paste – 1tsp Cumin powder – 1/2 tsp Coriander powder – 1/2 tsp Tumeric powder – 1/2 tsp Nigella seeds – 1tsp Salt – to taste Vegetable oil – 2tbsp

1. In a pan, heat oil and add nigella seeds. When nigella seeds start popping, add sliced onion. 2. Add ginger garlic paste when onion are golden. Cook until raw smells are gone. Add rest of spices – turmeric, cumin, coriander powder, green chili. Cook everything for one minute. 3. Add peeled and cubed potatoes to spices and cook them in medium heat until potatoes are slightly roasted. Meanwhile prepare potol, scrape the skin, remove the seeds and cut them into pieces. 4. Add potol pieces with potatoes, stir everything until potol are slightly roasted. 5. Add water just enough to cover the veggies and cook with lid on. Cook until the gravy is thick. Adjust the salt if needed. Serve with warm rice.