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| Doi posto shorshe begun |
An Instagram inspired blog post
“I love Bengali food and would love to have the recipe of doi begun and dhokar dalna,” said Surabhi Sehgal. Surabhi is a food stylist who has recently moved back to India, specifically Pune, from Dubai where she was till recently. I met her at a session on food blogging at the Grand Sheraton, Pune. It was organised by Jayesh Paranjape of Western Routes and Dushyant Bhatia of Eating Culture who had invited me to talk on my experience as a food blogger. In the Q&A session that followed, Surabhi spoke about how she focuses on making day to day Indian food look soulful through her work.
Her request for Bengali recipes was part of an Instagram conversation that we later had. I told her that I have a doi begun recipe on the blog but had never made dhokar dalna myself. Dhokar dalna is a dish which is often served to vegetarians on festive occasions in Kolkata. My mother used to make the latter in Kolkata when I was in school. She would make the dhoka, a ground dal based dumpling, using ready mixes from the local market.
Our Instagram conversation came back to me when our cook, Banu, came to work today. Which explains why I got her to make a doi shorshe begun for lunch.
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| At the end of our session at Pune. Location, Grand Sheraton, Pune |
What is doi shorshe begun? It is a dish made with aubergines fried in mustard oil and finished in a yogurt and crushed mustard seed based paste. I have no idea if mine is an authentic recipe. My mother, or grandmother, had never made this at home as far as I remember.
Banu could follow the instructions easily (I gave her the spices) and what came out of our kitchen today tasted pretty good. If that entices you, then here is the recipe.
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| Messy rims are good? Read on |
My doi shorshe begun recipe
Ingredients:
- 250 g elongated aubergines (ideally), cut into rectangular pieces
- Smeared with a pinch of salt, and 1/2 a teaspoon each of red chilli and turmeric powder
- 1 tablespoon mustard oil
- Yogurt mix. Step 1: dry grind 1 teaspoon whole black mustard seeds and green chilli. Step 2: add this to 50 g dahi/ doi/ unsweetened yogurt and 1/2 a teaspoon turmeric powder and gently beat it together with a pinch of salt
Recipe
- Heat the mustard oil
- Add a split green chilli once the oil is hot
- Then add the turmeric, red chilli powder & salt smeared aubergine to the wok. As I told Banu later, make the fleshy part of the aubergine face the surface of the wok. Then gently press the pieces with a ladle so that it cooks right through. Hers was a bit undercooked. Aubergines soak up oil so need a fair bit of tending if you skimp on the oil.
- Once done, add the yogurt mix, spread it across the aubergines and turn off the flame
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| Loita jhuri (mashed Bombay duck), prawns wrapped in coulcasia leaves and steamed in a mustard pasts, rupchanda or black pomfret fry Maharashtrian turi bharta, rice, mooshoori dal infused with Gondhoraj lebu leaves |
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| Design inspiration from the ginni. Bengali for bairi. Parsi for wife. |
