Stuffed Pointed gourd - traditional Bengali Potoler Dolma

‘Dolma’ is a Turkish word meaning ‘stuffed’ relating to Ottoman cuisine. It is generally made with a filling of meat, seafood, rice, and fruits or combining them together stuffed inside a vegetable or leaf. Historically stuffed vegetable dishes have been part of Middle Eastern cuisine for centuries.

But it is unknown how and when this cuisine entered the Bengali kitchen. If we look back at our culinary history, we find its mention in Bengali kitchens much before the independence of India in 1947. ‘Dolma’ in Bengali kitchen is mostly done with the pointed gourd or ‘Potol’ as it is known in Bengali. The ‘Potol’ is scooped out of its inner seeds and contents, keeping the outer layer intact. A filling cooked with prawns or minced meat or fish is stuffed inside. Then it’s cooked into a gravy, which is called in Bengali as ‘Potoler Dolma’.

Presented today is the ‘Potoler Dolma’ prepared traditionally in Bengali kitchens.

Ingredients:

Pointed Gourd ‘Potol’ large ones – 400 g washed and lightly scraped off the green outer skin.

Prawns – 200 g

Dolma stuffing Masala

Mustard oil – 5 tbsp for frying the ‘Potols’

Onion (medium size) - 1

Garlic cloves - 7

Ginger – ½ inch

Green Chillies - 2

Tomato (Medium size) - 1

Cashew Nuts – 2

Green cardamom - 2

Cloves - 4

Cinnamon stick – ½ inch

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¾ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Sugar – ¼ tsp

 

Dolma gravy

 

Mustard Oil - 8-9 tbsp

Onion – 2 medium-sized pasted

Garlic – 5 cloves

Ginger – ½ inch

Green chillies - 3

Green cardamom - 2

Cloves - 5

Cinnamon Stick – ½ inch

Cashew Nuts – 8-10

Curd – 3tbsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Sugar – ½ tsp

 

Instructions:

Scrape the potol or pointed gourd outer skin, do not peel it. At one end of the potol cut off ½ inch from the top and at the other end cut off ¼ inch, keep the ½ inch cap aside for later use.

Scoop out the potol inner contents through one end of the opening with the help of a spoon handle, not damaging the outer wall, wash and keep them aside for later use.

Prepare prawn stuffing:

Chop the prawns to make a mince or grind it to make its paste. (2/3^rd keep for stuffing and keep 1/3^rd for the gravy)

Prepare a masala by grinding the ginger, garlic, green chillies, cashew nuts, whole garam masala and tomato into a smooth paste.

Heat a pan, and add mustard oil.

Fry the finely chopped onion.

Make a paste of scooped out potol inner contents and fry with onion until its raw smell goes off.

Then add 2/3^rd of the prawn mince/paste into the pan and sauté well for 1 min.

Add the masala prepared earlier to the pan and stir well.

Then add cumin powder, red chilli powder, and turmeric powder into the masala and keep roasting the masala until the stuffing dries off.

Add salt and little sugar, mix up with the stuffing cook for a while and turn off the heat.

Prawn stuffing is ready, let it cool.

When the stuffing cools down, stuff it into the scooped potol and close the ends with the ½ caps by securing it with a toothpick. Be careful while stuffing so that the potol does not break. Keep them aside.

Potoler dolma gravy

Grind ginger, garlic, cashew nuts, green chillies, whole garam masala and add the curd to make a masala paste.

On a heated pan add mustard oil, and fry the stuffed potols by adding ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp turmeric powder.

Be careful while frying the potols so that they do not break.

Once the potols are fried well, take them out of the pan and keep them aside.

Then add some prawn mince/paste into the pan and sauté well for 1 min.

Then add the masala paste into the pan, and sauté with salt, turmeric, red chilli powder and little sugar to taste.

Sauté the masala until released oil, then add a cup of water and mix well with the masala.

Let the gravy boil, once the gravy starts to boil, add the fried stuffed potol to the gravy and stir them gently.

Cook the potols for 10 mins on slow heat by covering the pan.

Once the gravy gets slightly thick then turn off the heat.

Potoler dolma is ready, serve this with steaming hot rice.