Aloo Posto is an iconic Bengali vegetarian dish that’s as embedded in the Bengali culture as Durga puja is. In the rest of India, Posto or poppy seeds, which is  “khus khus” in Hindi or “kasa kasaa” in Tamil, are used for tempering or seasoning purpose. But Bengalis use poppy seeds more generously- as a major ingredient in many preparations. 

Aloo Posto, or potatoes in poppy seeds gravy, has a few variations depending on what other vegetables are added. Each vegetable brings its own unique taste, colour, and texture to the delicious white poppy seeds gravy. Here, we have cooked the good old Aloo Posto with drumsticks and tomatoes- in an effort to blend the bitter with the tangy. Did we do well?  You have to cook it the way we have and you will know yourself!

Aloo Posto: Ingredients

• Potato – 500 gm.
• White poppy seeds – 50 gm
• Drumstick, young – 5 
• Salt to taste
• Panch phoron (the five spices)
• Green chillies – 5-6 pieces
• Mustard oil – 3-4 tbsp
• Ginger, chopped – 5 gm
• Tomato – 1, chopped
  

   Aloo Posto: Preparation

• Peel the potatoes. Cut into cubes
• Partially peel the drumsticks and cut them into finger length stubs.

• Take a mixing bowl and soak the poppy seeds in water for about half-an-hour. Next, add a pinch of salt, ginger, chopped tomato and two green chillies to the soaked seeds and grind them together using an electric mixer grinder. What you don’t want at this stage is a very fine poppy seeds paste. Aloo Posto tastes best when you craftily retain the grainy nature of the poppy seeds, but still manage to get the juice out into the paste.

• Heat mustard oil in a frying pan. As the oil tends to boil, sprinkle a pinch of ‘panch-phoron’ or five spices mixture over the hot oil for tempering. Spice seeds will immediately crackle up in the oil with a popping sound. Fry for about 6-8 seconds and not more. Or else, the spices may turn black, bitter and a vile smell may replace the unique aroma achieved in tempering.  Add cubed potatoes into the oil now and fry lightly stirring with a ladle.

• Add the chopped drumsticks to the pan now. But don’t fry so much as to make them hard,  bereft of the unique natural herbal flavour they bring to the preparation.

• Now add the poppy seeds paste, one tsp salt and two chopped chillies and one small cup of hot water to the frying pan. Stir briefly and cover the pan until the potatoes and drumsticks are boiled well.

• When the vegetables are well-boiled, uncover the pan. The mouthwatering, irresistible aroma of cooked poppy seeds paste featuring fresh and young drumsticks, green chilly, ginger, tomatoes and potatoes will fill up the kitchen air. Check if the water content of the preparation is to your preference- some like the gravy thick, while some want it juicy.

• Before you remove the pan from the burner,  sprinkle 1 tbsp of raw mustard oil over the surface of the preparation. Now remove the pan, but don’t blend the mustard oil with the gravy- rather allow it to settle with for 5 minutes.

Aloo Posto is to be served with long grain rice. It’s not a great associate of hand-rolled bread or Rotis. Bengalis generally have it with rice and a dilute black gram (a lentil type) soup. And that tastes absolutely outworldly and amazing, different from anything you have ever eaten so far if you happen to be from outside India. 

* Though there’s no bar in buying or selling poppy seeds in most parts of India, Nepal,  Bangladesh and some other countries, it’s sold restrictively or totally banned in many countries. We recommend checking the legalities before making an effort to purchase this item from open markets.