So what is malabar spinach? Haha is it a silly question? I mean you know that “macher raja rui & shaaker raja pui’. If you are Bengali then you definitely know this. Okay, malabar spinach is called as poi in Hindi and pui in Bengali. It is a popular leafy vegetable all across India, Bangladesh, the South East Asian countries (like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia etc), Australia etc. Bengali people use it to make delicious malabar spinach curry.
Did you ever try such Bengali style malabar spinach curry (pui shaker ghyat or chorchori)? In Bengali, ghyat mean something served with mixed vegetables & slightly mashed. In West Bengal, at any village, you will find papaya tree bottle gourd plant, & malabar spinach vine at almost every household. Almost every house owner tries to grow these plants at their backyard. These are easy to grow and everybody likes.
But people who are living in a city are not so fortunate because they generally do not have a garden to grow such plants. But if there is a will there is a way. Malabar spinach can be easily grown in a container. I have grown 3 vines in different types of container. Within one month, one of those plants reached at a length of 3 feet.
So I have already started harvesting its leaves. Leaves of that vine are huge. Even 5-6 full-size leaves are enough for a dish.
I am already creating a mini-farm on our rooftop and growing various vegetables in pots/containers. It became very beneficial during this lockdown period because I hardly need to visit a vegetable market.
I shared my garden overview every month here. You can check those pages. Though I shared those monthly updates to share with readers. But nowadays it becomes beneficial for me to know the growth of my plants. I can compare the growth of my plants every month. So I believe that every gardener should take snaps of his garden on a specific date of every month and keep those in different folders month-wise for future reference.
Okay, now coming to the Bengali style malabar spinach curry (pui shaker ghyat or chorchori). This is the dish what I used to eat since my childhood. Dal & rice and this malabar spinach curry is a perfect combination. But I love this curry with khichdi because pumpkin & various other vegetables are added here.
Malabar spinach curry recipe
- 1.5 cup chopped malabar spinach leaves (or use 7-8 big size fresh leaves)
- 1 cup pumpkin pieces
- ½ cup brinjal/eggplant/baingan pieces
- 1 small potato, cut into small pieces
- 5 long beans/snake beans/borboti, cut into inch size small pieces
- 1 teaspoons kalonji/nigella seeds/kalo jeera
- 1.5 teaspoons turmeric powder/haldi
- 2 whole red chillies
- 2 green chillies
- Salt to taste
- 1.5 tablespoons refined oil
- Heat refined oil in a kadai and add kalonji seeds & whole red chillies and saute till raw aroma goes away
- Now add all vegetables (Wash, peeled & cut into pieces) and cook till next 5 minutes
- Then add Turmeric powder, green chillies & salt and mix properly with all vegetables for next 1-2 minutes
- Now pour 1 cup water, cover the pot with a lid and cook over medium flame, for next 5 mins or till water almost dried (Stir it after ever one minute)
- Switch off the flame & serve
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