Shukto

Ingredients

• 150 g drumsticks, cut into 5 cm lengths
• 120 g sweet potato, cut into thick wedges
• 100 g potato, cut into thick wedges
• 150 g green unripe banana, cut into thick batons
• 150 g green papaya, cut into thick batons
• 100 g aubergine, cut into batons
• 100 g flat beans, topped and halved
• 50 g bitter gourd, cut into 4 cm slices
• 10 sun-dried lentil dumplings (bori)
• 60 ml vegetable oil
• 4 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp panch phoron
• 35 g ginger paste
• 2 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
• 15 g grated fresh coconut
• 100 ml milk
• 1/4 tsp plain flour
• 2 tsp salt, plus 1 tsp for the parboiling water
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground radhuni, or ground ajwain
• 2 tsp ghee
• 600 ml water

Before you cook

• Cut every vegetable into the sizes listed so they cook at roughly the same rate.
• Soak the mustard seeds in warm water for 20 minutes, then grind them with a pinch of salt and a splash of water to a smooth paste.
• Whisk the flour into the cold milk until no lumps remain.

Steps

1. Bring the 600 ml water to a boil with 1 tsp salt in a wide pan.
2. Add the drumsticks, papaya, flat beans, sweet potato and potato, cover, and simmer for fifteen minutes.
3. Drain the vegetables and keep the cooking water in a jug.
4. Heat the oil in a kadai and fry the bori for about a minute until they are deep gold, then lift them out.
5. Fry the bitter gourd slices in the same oil for three minutes until browned at the edges, then lift them out.
6. Fry the green banana and aubergine for four minutes until golden, then lift them out.
7. Temper the remaining oil with the bay leaves and panch phoron for twenty seconds.
8. Add the ginger paste and fry it on low heat for one minute.
9. Add the mustard paste and fry for two minutes, splashing in a little reserved water whenever it threatens to catch.
10. Tip in the parboiled vegetables with the 2 tsp salt, the sugar and the grated coconut, and stir gently so nothing breaks.
11. Pour in 250 ml of the reserved cooking water and simmer for five minutes.
12. Return the fried bitter gourd, banana, aubergine and bori to the pan.
13. Stir the flour-and-milk mixture into the pan and simmer for three minutes until the gravy turns pale and glossy.
14. Sprinkle over the ground radhuni, add the ghee, and cover the pan.
15. Rest for two minutes off the heat, then serve as the first course with rice.