Kochur Loti

I am Bangal, which means I come from the other side of the border. My family migrated at the time of partition and even if the Bengalis on this side of the border call us refugees, we like to believe that we came, we saw, we conquered. In any case, we did teach those Bengalis what real food should be like.

The one good thing about us Bangals is that we don't waste food. We use up almost every edible part of what we are eating. In the case of colocassia, for example, we eat the root, the stem, the leaves and the fruit. Ghotis, or the original inhabitants of West Bengal don't, but then, remember we taught them how to eat.

Kochur loti or the colocassia stem, looks quite ordinary. You would ignore it as dry shrubbery if you are not acquainted with it. What you need to do though, is get a good peeler and work your way down from the top. Peel off the brown/green skin and the white skin just underneath or you will get a bad sore throat. I should have taken a photo of the thing before I cooked it, but a Google search gave me this photo. Peel the whole thing off:

 

We cook it with a paste of mustard and poppy seeds - shorshe posto bata. It is a bit of an acquired taste, and my very Ghoti husband detests it, but in Bangal circles, it is still quite the dish!

What you need:

Nigella seeds/kalo jeere, Green chillies, oil, salt to taste, turmeric powder, a paste of mustard and poppy seeds (2:1)

How I Do It:

Peel the colocassia stem very well. Now cut it into 2-inch long pieces. Bring a pot of salted water to boil and tip in the cleaned and cut stems. 

Now heat oil and temper with kalo jeere and green chillies. When it sizzles, add the mustard-poppy paste, turmeric and salt. Cook till the raw smell leaves and add the boiled stems. Add a little sugar and mix it all up so the extra moisture steams off and the shorshe-posto bata sticks to the stems. Serve hot with rice.