Baisali's homely kitchen: Kumro Ghonto - A pumpkin potato medley

To me Ghonto is thick vegetable gravy with two or more vegetable cooked in authentic Bengali way. I prepared this dish for two reasons – one is we should eat veggies and more importantly seasonal veggies like pumpkin and secondly my son does not eat chola or chick peas alone. But he can eat it in ghonto. So I searched down the memory lane and found this dish which was a favorite in my grandma’s kitchen. She used to cook this during Durga Puja. In fact if you go to your neighborhood Durga Puja pandal you would surely had this dish in your child hood.

Preparation Time: - 15 min

Cooking Time: - 25~30 min

Servings: - 4~5 persons

Ingredients:-

400 gm Pumpkin
2 big Potatos
4 tbsp Kalo Chola /Chole (Black Chana)
3 tbsp Curd or Yogurt
2 tsp Garam Masala
2 tsp Panchforon (Bengali 5 spice mix) /Methi seeds /Nigela seeds – I used panchforon
2 silted green chili (1 for garnish and 1 for cooking)
2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 inch Cinnamon stick
1 big Bay leaf
Pinch of Hing (asfotida) - optional
2 tsp Roasted Jeera / Cumin powder
8 tbsp Mustard Oil (Since it is a authentic Bengali dish mustard oil should be used but most of the time I use a 1:1 mixture of mustard and sunflower oil. If you do not like the smell of mustard oil then you can use any vegetable oil)
1 tbsp Ghee
Salt and Sugar to taste

Preparation:-

Soak the chola overnight in little water. Pressure cook with salt till it becomes soft.
Peel and chop the pumpkin and potato in cubes. The sizce of pumkin pieces should be bigger than the potatoes as pumpkin gets cooked quicker than potatoes.
Wash, drain and keep aside.
Heat a pan and add cumin seeds, roast in medium flame until light dark brown and fragrant. Then grind this and keep aside. You could add a red chili with the cumin seeds if you want more spice.
Beat the curd in a bowl and keep aside.
Take a Kadai/wok, pour 4 tbsp oil and fry the pumpkin and potato separately. Keep aside.
Use the same kadai and heat the oil in high flame. Then turn the heat to medium flame and put the panchforon, 1 green chili, bay leaf, hing and cinnamon stick.
When spice splutter pour the curd. Sprinkle turmeric powder and garam masala.
Add the already fried pumpkin and potato. Stir continuously and cook for 3~4 minutes.
Add chola and sufficient water.
Continue boiling for some time. Add salt and sugar when properly boiled.
When the gravy becomes thick as per your taste add Ghee and roasted Jeera mix prepared in step 4 - mix it well. This will enhance the aroma of the preparation. Sauté for one minute and switch off the burner.
Now the dish is ready. Garnish with a green chili or as per your choice.