SHUKTO is a pure traditional Bengali vegetarian dish, which is cooked during festivals and special occasions like rice eating ceremony, baby shower and many more. Basically SHUKTO is a very popular dish in Bengali cuisine which is mainly a creamy, slightly sweet and bitter in taste. My mother often cooks this recipe in our house. To make this recipe we need to use three most important ingredients, bitter gourd, milk and ghee.

The tradition of starting a meal by consuming bitters, considered to have a medicinal value, dates back to the ancient times and was promoted by the authors of Ayurveda. The ancient Bengali kingdoms of Anga, Vanga, and Kalinga used shukto as a cooling agent in their hot and muggy conditions.

This recipe is made with a variety of vegetables including bittergourd. Ayurvedic treatments claim that bitter gourd is great for balancing Kapha, aids in blood tissue purification, improves digestion, and stimulates the liver.

This recipe is easy to follow, there are certain steps that needs to be followed in order to achieve the authentic flavour of the SHUKTO curry. So let me go ahead and tell you  how to make this delicious dish liked by all Bengali people.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Bitter gourd
• Green raw banana
• 1 carrot (medium size)
• Two potato
• 1 ridge gourd
• 1 drumstick (cut into 2 inch pieces)
• 1 sweet potato
• 1/2 of papaya
• 1/2 brinjal
• 6-7 beans
• 10-12 lentil dumplings (dal er bori)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoon ghee.
• 5 tablespoon mustard oil
• Salt as per TASTE

 

INGREDIENTS FOR SHUKTO MASALA

1. 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2. 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
3. 1/2 inch ginger
4. 1 teaspoon five spices (paanch phoron)

 

HOW TO MAKE SHUKTO STEP BY STEP

This recipe is very easy to follow.

Preparation:

• Heat a pan, place it on medium heat, let the pan heat up. Then add mustard oil to it.
• Once the oil gets heated, add 10-12 lentil dumpling (dal er bori) to the pan and fry it until it gets golden brown in colour.
• Remove the bori from the pan and keep it aside.
• Then fry the bitter gourd on the same oil and fry it get a light golden brown texture but don’t make it crispy. Remove it from the pan and keep it in a plate.
• Add flat beans to the pan and fry both the sides for 2 minutes.
• Next fry the raw green banana for 2 minutes as well.
• Then fry brinjal, sweet potato, beans carrot and potato on both side.

In this way all the vegetables are fried one by one then keep set the aside.

 

HOW TO MAKE SHUKTO MASALA

• TAKE a bowl and add mustard and poppy seeds to it, add water and soak it for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, we need to put the well- soaked seeds in a blender jar with ginger and blend all the ingredients together to make a smooth masala paste.

HOW TO MAKE SHUKTO GRAVY

• Heat the same pan, add paanch phoron ( Bengali five spices) for tempering in the hot oil.
• When the aroma starts coming from the paanch phoron then add the masala paste to the pan and saute it.
• Then add salt and sugar to the pan as per taste and give a good stir.
• When the oil starts separating from the masala then add one cup of water to it.
• Once the gravy starts to boil, add fried potatoes, raw banana, flat beans and all the vegetables to it, stir it well.
• Cover the pan and let it boil on a medium flame for 10 minutes.
• Lastly add fried bitter gourd and lentil dumplings to the pan and mix it well.
• Now it’s time to add one cup of milk to the pan and let it cook for sometime so that the gravy gets mixed well with the vegetables.
• When all the veggies are well cooked, add 1/2 teaspoon roasted radhuni and 1/2 teaspoon roasted paanch phoron in the pan. This is my secret masala for making SHUKTO recipe.
• And lastly add 2 tablespoon of ghee and give a quick mix. Now turn off the heat.
• Finally your traditional SHUKTO recipe is ready.
• Serve this recipe with steamed rice and enjoy your Bengali meal.

 

Nutritional benefit

Shukto is a low-calorie recipe with a lot of nutritional benefits as it contains

vegetables rich in vitamins & minerals. Poppy seed’s addition makes this recipe rich not only in taste but also it is a good source of minerals like calcium & zinc.

Per Serving: 1 Medium Bowl – 135.0 gm

• Carbohydrate :66 gm
• Protein :41 gm
• Fat :56 gm
• Fiber :59 gm

Every house has their own recipe when it comes to making shukto. This recipe is what I follow when I make shukto in my home.  A secret additional step which I include in this dish is a blend of 1/2 teaspoon roasted radhuni and 1/2 teaspoon roasted paanch phoron, which creates an aromatic smell and provides another layer of depth of flavour to the curry.

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