Try some simple Taki dishes this hot summer
Taki cuisine has always stood out from the rest, not just because of its Jessore influence, but also because of its less spicy appeal. Delicious, yet not too spicy, making them healthy. A well-known dish of Taki thus happens to be Sada Dalna or Jjalphoroner Dalna. Green chilly or Kancha Lanka is known as Jhalor Morich in Taki, a legacy of Jessore dialect. The name itself indicates that the dish is non-spicy, other than the mild dash of green chilli. This dish is cooked round the year and is a sort of a vegetable stew with seasonal vegetables. Vegetables used, include potol, jhinge, Sweet Pumpkin or laal kumro, green papaya, carrots, beans, barbati, sheem, cauliflower florets, potatoes, jackfruit seeds etc. Brinjal, raw banana, drumsticks, sweet-potato are never used. Sometimes tender stalks of Lal Sak, minus the leaves and the white root of spinach are added.
Fried bori adds to the taste of the dish. The vegetables are sauted lightly in small quantity of mustard oil after adding salt to taste. There should be no excess oil. The sauted vegetables are then boiled in water in a covered vessel. After the vegetables are cooked, fried bori, little sugar and some milk mixed with a little flour are added. This is the trickiest part. The dalna should be slightly sweet to taste. Correct blending of salt and sugar, gives the dalna its taste. Less flour will make the milk curdle and transform the dish into a tasteless watery substance, at the same time excess flour will thicken it and turn this beautiful dish into a thick floury paste. Similarly, too many boris will turn the Dalna into Charchari. Some green chillies are added at this stage and the dish is boiled for few seconds. Finally, good quality ghee is heated and Bayleaf-Randhuni and two or three split green chillies are added.
This healthy and tasty Sada or Jhalphoroner Dalna can be eaten with rice, luchi and paratha. Lau Ghanta is prepared in the same way with milk and flour and with the same tampering. Only the Lauki is cut into extremely fine strips and just steamed with green peas after adding a little salt without addition of water or oil.The gourd will cook in its own juice. Instead of Bori, small fried baras made by grinding pre-soaked mong daal and frying them in mustard oil is added while adding the milk and flour. At the end chopped coriander leaves may be added for additional flavour. As a finishing touch coarsely crushed fried bori is added as a topping.
