Aloo Potala Tarkari

Aloo Potala tarkari... Finally got these beauties (Potala), my first aloo potalo tarkari for this season... Me n Soumya both love this vegetable in all forms but my little one only likes this gravy wali curry of Potala.. So mostly nowadays I make this gravy. This simple curry actually boasts of flavours n taste. Potala is pointed gourd, also known as parwal in Hindi . It's a seasonal n common vegetable during summer in Odisha, Bihar n Bengal. Growing up sometimes I detested eating them because we used to have it so frequently. But when I shifted to Bangalore, I'm talking about 12 yrs back at that time I never found Potala out here. I always missed this simple flavourful vegetable, but nowadays quite often we get them here also (perks of living in outskirts) 

Here 's the recipe :-

Ingredients :-

Sl. no	Item	Quantity
1	Potato	2-3
2	Potala /Parwal/Pointed Gourd	250 gm
3	Tomato	1
4	Onion	1
5	Mustard Oil	4 tbsp
6	Pancha Phutan	1 tsp
7	Cumin seeds	1 tsp
8	Coriander seeds	1 tsp
9	Bay Leaf	1
10	Cardamom (green)	2
11	Ginger garlic paste	1 tbsp
12	Red chilly powder	1 tsp
13	Turmeric powder	1 tsp
14	Sugar	1/2 tsp
15	Salt	As per taste

Method :-

• Peel off the skin of potato and cut into two halves or even quarters.
• Trim off both the end of Potala and gently scarpe ou the outer skin.
• Cut each potala diagonlaly into two halves and keep aside.
• Then in a blender jar take roughly chopped onion ,tomato ,corriander seeds,cumin seeds,green cardmom and blend into a very fine paste without adding any water and keep the paste aside.
• Heat the wok with 2 tbsp oil and add potato and potala in the wok and fry them untill they turning light golden in color, Switch off the flame.
• Take out the fried potata n Potala from the wok and again heat the wok having leftover mustard oil.
• Then add the sugar and allow to melt . Add bayleaves n Panchaphutan n allow to splutter .
• Add the ginger-garlic paste into this and then add onion, tomato masala paste and cook over low medium heat till the raw smell goes away.
• Add red chilly powder ,salt and turmeric powder and mix everything well.
• Cook the spices on a medium flame till oil shows separately.
• Add fried vegetables and 2 - 2.5cups water into this and give a nice stir.
• Cover n cook till all the Potala n potatoes are well cooked over low medium heat.
• After the vegetables cooked ,switch off the heat and serve it with plain rice, roti or paratha.