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Life has a way of surprising us. For example, who would have thought that I would be one of the most vocal participants in a day ordained to celebrate Indian vegetables on social media? I am known for my love for fish and meat after all. But that’s exactly what I did for this Subzi Tarkari Din.

Subzi Tarkari Din is the 11th of a series of Indian Food Observance Days which is a brainchild of food blogger, writer and consultant Rushina Munshaw Ghildayal, and which have grown in popularity since the time she first started these a year back.

This time around I found myself in the thick of things when I interviewed Rushina for my Facebook Live show, Chatting With Your Mouth Full, where we spoke about the idea behind these food observance days, the response to it and then the plans for the sabzi tarkari din celebrations which were planned for 31st March.

The next morning, Rushina and I went to Lalu’s at Bandra’s Pali Market, and did a Facebook Live broadcast discussing the vegetables that were there and the memories that they evoked in us.

I then got into the mood and accompanied her to the potluck that some Mumbai based food bloggers and home chefs had arranged for the occasion. The lovely ladies had put out food representing different parts of India and this included Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kashmir, Hyderabad, Punjab, Bundelkhand and Assam.

While I hadn’t brought anything for the potluck, I took out potatoes and chillies that I had bought from Lalu’s and some kalo jeere (nigella seeds) that I had got from home and made the Bengali styled shaada alur torkari. A very subtly flavoured Bengali potato curry which my granny has made for me right since my childhood and which I love.

The ladies looked on rather incredulously as I tried to make sense of the induction stove that I was given to cook in but I then took the pan to the kitchen and came out with a dish that my didu would be proud of.

Here’s the recipe:

  1. Heat vegetable oil in a pan
  2. Add nigella seeds and green chillies in it
  3. Add parboiled potatoes to this and break them into pieces. Add salt and stir
  4. Add water and then let it slow cook till the curry looks a bit cloudy and takes in the flavours of the potatoes
The girls said that they liked it. Maybe they were being kind!
Watch this video to see what happened and also to see the great dishes that they cooked

PS: My non-vegetarian readers would be happy to know that I had mutton puff at Candies as an evening snack


Appendix:
Link to the episode of Chatting With Your Mouth Full where I spoke to Rushina about the Indian Food Observance Day

Link to the Facebook Live that I did from Lalu’s vegetable shop with Rushina

My earlier blog post on Didu’s potato curry with a slightly different recipe


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