Sometimes, as I introspect and look back at my childhood days, when we were incessantly pampered by our parents with good foods and more foods, when seasons were defined more with vegetables, fishes and dishes, I only wish if a flowing breeze from somewhere would have quietly hinted us that these luxuries were going to end soon. I probably would have stopped time and made the most of it. Such was life during my grown-up days, when good food and delicacies were in empty, and thus, less was the appreciation.
Those were the days when bhajas and boras were the order of the day. No multi course meal was complete without a daal (lentil soup), and no daal was complete without bhajas. And what more! From flowers to peels, from lentils to grains, from stem to root, even the seeds of vegetables were put to use and were turned into awesome bhajas and boras. The unstoppable brilliants in kitchen did not stop there. The delectable seasonal vegetable fritters were further enhanced, and many were upgraded to stuffed fritters.
One such kind of stuffed fritter was Shorshe Diye Kakrol Pur Bhaja or Stuffed Teasel Gourd Fritters with Mustard Paste. Although, I was not in the favour of mustard paste stuffing over mashed potato and onion stuffing, however, I understood the importance and taste, once I started missing Kakrol the vegetable and Kakrol Pur Bhaja, as I left home for studies.
At my home, Shorshe Diye Kakrul Pur Bhaja or fritters were prepared to accompany daal bhat (lentil rice). But we always used to save the fritters for the last, and would have it as it is.
On all those days when nostalgia is strongly driven by certain foods, any chance to recreate the childhood magic leads to string of emotions inside heart. Here is the step by step account of my journey to recreate the memory through Shorshe Diye Kakrul Pur Bhaja.
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Recipe: Shorshe Diye Kakrol Pur Bhaja Or Stuffed Teasel Gourd With Mustard Sauce
Preparation Time: Around 1 hour Simmering Teasel Gourd: Around 15 minutes Frying Time: 53 minutes Equipment Used: A pan, a turner, a knife, a large plate, grinder Yield: 10 Purs or fritters
Ingredients:
- 3/8 cups rice
- 5 teasel gourds
- 3 & ¼ cups water
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
- 1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
- 1 green chilli
- 1/8 cup maida (all purpose flour)
- 1 tablespoon semolina
- 1 & ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/8 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon and 10 tablespoons mustard oil
Method:
- Soak 3/8 cups rice for 2 to 3 hours
- Wash the teasel gourds properly
- Smoothen the edges of teasel gourds with a knife
- Cut each gourd into half by slicing them vertically
- Simmer the vegetable pieces after adding 3 cups of water into the pan
- In the meantime, grind the soaked rice to fine paste
- Check if the vegetable pieces are soft with the help of a fork
- Switch off the flame and remove the gourds from the pan, once the gourds are sufficiently cooked
- Scrape the inner flesh from the cooked gourd pieces, leaving the outer shell intact
- Grind the scraped flesh with mustard seeds and green chilli. If you are using mortar pestle or sil batta (batan & una) for grinding, then grind the mustard seeds and green chilli first, followed by mashing the scraped gourd flesh with ground paste
- Add ¾ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon mustard oil to the gourd & mustard paste and keep it aside
- Now make a batter for coating, by adding, 1/8 cup maida, 1 tablespoon semolina, ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon sugar and ¼ cup water to the ground rice paste
- Heat a pan and heat 10 tablespoons mustard oil
- Start filling the kakrol shell simultaneously with the already prepared gourd & mustard paste
- Coat each filled kakrol/teasel gourd with batter and deep fry them
Soak 3/8 cups rice.
Wash and smoothen the edges of teasel gourds.
Cut each gourds into half.
Simmer the vegetables after adding water into the pan.
Grind the soaked rice to fine paste.
Check if the vegetable pieces are soft.
Scrape the inner flesh, when the gourd pieces are tender.
Grind the scraped flesh with mustard seeds and green chilli.
Add salt and mustard oil to the gourd & mustard paste and keep it aside.
Add maida, semolina, turmeric powder, salt, sugar andwater to the ground rice paste, and make a batter for coating.
Heat a pan and heat 10 tablespoons mustard oil.
Stuff the teasel gourd shell with the prepared filling and coat each stuffed kakrol/teasel gourd piece with the prepared batter.
Deep fry them.
Tips:
- Use large size teasel gourd
- To have soft and melt in mouth stuffing, use tender teasel gourd with soft seeds for this recipe. I had to manage with little overripe teasel gourd and hence hard seeds
- Smoothening of teasel gourd skin is done, so that they are comfortably edible
- Simmer the vegetable pieces only till the fork can be inserted properly. Don’t over-cook the vegetables. The purpose is to be able to bite into the fritters comfortably
- Squeeze out water from the rice before grinding them
- For even frying, don’t fry more than 2-3 fritters at a time with a normal pan size
- You can increase or decrease the pungency by changing the proportion of black and yellow mustard seeds. Black being more pungent and yellow being less
- Adjust salt and sugar according to your taste, by adding very little at a time
- You can make the dish hotter by adding more green chillies into the filling
- To reduce the bitterness of mustard seeds, you may grind the mustard seeds the day before so that the paste mellows down, or you may grind the same with traditional methods using mortar pestle or sil batta (batan una)
- You may use the left-over oil and left-over batter later, to prepare some other dishes
