Patoler Dolma
In International cuisine stuffed vegetables Dolma named as "dolmades" or "yemista", which is a part of the Greek cuisine, in Polish "golabki", in Romania "sarma", in Sweden "kaldolmar", and Egyptian dolma is called "Mahshi Wara."
Published by Barnali Dutta on May 6, 2014
Whatever the recipe variant we could try for Indian "Dolma" or "bharwa" or "Bharela", there are two main categories of Bengali Dolma, one those filled with a minced meat kyma or fish mixture and other one those filled without meat, a veg mixture like nuts and spices, rice also can be added like Filfil Mahshi a Tunisian cuisine dish in which a stuffed vegetable dishes that consists of stuffed peppers, zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, cabbage, and lettuce etc. The word Mahshi itself means stuffed as Dolma and is generally followed or preceded by the name of the vegetable used like tomato dolma, capsicum dolma, patoler dolma etc. The inner part of some vegetables or fruits which are hollowed out can be added into the filling. One side of the vegetables can left open or can be tied up like a pouch with white thread. Veg or nonveg ingredients are chosen in Bengal depends on occasions or festivals. Stuffed vegetables are also pickled and preserved for the other seasons.
My kids what I can use the word "hate" the patol or parwal, but I can never ignore the fact that it is a good source of carbohydrates, vitamin A, vitamin C, and essential oil. It also contains major nutrients and trace elements (magnesium, potassium, copper, sulphur, and chlorine) which are needed in small quantities for playing essential roles in human physiology and very good for kids. In summer when this vegetable is more available and cheaper than the others my choice of recipe becomes more tricky to treat those jiddy or stubborn young and they love this veg or nonveg dish so much that I had to make uncountable numbers of dolma every time.
Ingredients : Serves 2
1. Big parwal, 4
2. Salt and turmeric for seasoning ,1 teaspoon.
3. Cooking oil to shallow fry, 100ml
For filling (veg)
1. Peanuts, 1 cup, toasted and crushed.
2. Raisin, 1 tablespoon, soaked in water to make paste.
3. Red onion, 2 small, chopped
4. Kalonji or onion seeds, 1 teaspoon, toasted and powdered
5. Green chili, 2, chopped
6. Vegetable oil, 2 teaspoon.
7. Salt and granulated sugar to taste.
Directions:
- Wash, clean, and cut one of the pointed side of the gourd, take out the seeds to make a hollow inside, keep aside.
- Take a nonstick frying pan, put on fire, add 2 teaspoon oil, add chopped onion, green chili, powdered kalonji, raisin paste for binding, and crushed peanuts one by one, add salt and sugar to taste, fry for 5 to 7 minutes in low flame by then it will become sticky over your ladder. Put off the flame and keep aside the mixture to cool enough to touch.
- Take pointed gourd one by one, put some prepared mixture into the hole with your finger. Do not press much or it will crack.
- Now season the stuffed parwals with salt and turmeric.
- Soon after seasoning take a deep frying pan, put on fire, add oil to fry the stuffed parwals, wait to heat the oil until smoking point.
- Add stuffed parwals in small batches, do not let them crowd in the pan.
- Wait until parwal to cook completely, it will change the color to dark green, take out and keep them on a kitchen paper to soak extra oil.
- It will take approximately 10 minutes to fry all the tasty Dolmas. Serve hot.
Cooking options
* For non-veg dolmas, when I am in a hurry I replace the peanuts with leftover cooked meat after chopping the meat thoroughly into tiny pieces, although there are huge collections of traditional Dolma recipes in Bengal.
** For fish stuffing, I would prefer the prawn filling patoler dolma apart from Rui fish roe or betki.