Spicy potato and pumpkin with Chana (Indian Chickpeas)
Few weeks back, my daughter picked up a pumpkin during our visit to a farm. Given that she is only three years old, there is no way she is going to be carving that for Halloween. Candies and costumes matter to her as far as Halloween is concerned. For the foodie in me, it seems like a waste to carve and not eat the pumpkin. So, I decided to cook it up this season. As a child, I had seen my mom make this dish, often during the festive season. The reason was that we needed to eat vegetarian dish during some days and this served as a good dish to go with parathas/puris. In Bengali, it is called 'Kumror chhokka' -- Kumro meaning Pumpkin.
The pumpkins needed to be prepped few days before the actual cooking - peeled, cut and diced into small cubes. Before going out for work that day, I remembered to soak some Chana in water.
(Serves 4)
Ingredients:
Pumpkin - one-fourth of a small pumpkin (peeled, cut & diced)
Russet potato -1 (peeled and cubed)
Ginger - 1 inch (grated)
Chana (Indian chickpeas) - soaked in water for about 8 hours
Cumin powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1tsp
Red chilli powder/paprika to taste (optional)
Turmeric - 0.5 tsp
Sugar & salt to taste
Olive oil - 2tbsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Five spices (fennel seed, mustard seed, fenugreek seed, cumin seed, onion seed) - 1tsp
Whole dried red chilli - 1
Since it was a working day, I could not do much cooking before feeding the 3-year old. However, before starting the dinner with my little princess, I heated up some oil in a cooking pan and added the potato, pumpkin and chickpeas with salt,turmeric,ginger,cumin and coriander . I left this covered on low heat and went back to mommy duties. A couple of Diego & Dora episodes later, the outcome was a full tummy and a happy child who could now play by herself.
Taking advantage of the circumstances, I went back to the kitchen and added about one-sixth cup of water to keep the vegetables moist. When everything looked cooked, I added sugar and red chill powder. Two minutes before I was ready to take the dish down from heat, I heated up some ghee, in a separate small pan, and splattered the five spices and whole red chill in it. This imparts a very Bengali aroma to the dish and reminds me of home every time. The roasted seeds & red chilli was poured into the dish along with the ghee. After mixing for a minute, this dish was ready.
