These recipes have been selected from Purba : Feasts from the East.

Kakharoo Pula Bara - pumpkin blossom patties

1 dozen pumpkin blossoms
1/4 cup rice, soaked for two hours
salt to taste
chilli powder to heat
oil to shallow fry

Grind the soaked rice to a paste in the blender and add the seasonings. Clean the blossoms, remove stems and stamens. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Delicately dip each blossom into the seasoned rice paste and shallow fry till light brown. The coating is thin like a tempura,rather than like a frier.You can substitute with zucchini or squash blossoms

Anda Masala
2 large, hard boiled eggs, halved
1 recipe jeera masala- ( grind 2 pods garlic,1cm ginger root unpeeled, 3 tsp cumin seeds,1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds,1 green chillie and a pinch of turmeric)
1 large potato cubed
salt to taste
oil for frying
Dhania Patra to garnish. (cilantro) Heat three tablespoons of oil in a frying pan. Add the eggs and blister the albumen(white) surface to a light crunchy golden brown. Drain and keep aside. In the same pan, add the jeera masala and fry till aromatic. Then add the potatoes, salt to taste and enough water to cook the potatoes. Simmmer till the potatoes are done. Add the blistered eggs and bring it to a boil. Take off the heat and garnish

Sajana Chuin Tarkari – drumstick curry

4 drumsticks, destringed and chopped into 3 inch pieces
2 small potatoes cut into one eighths ( quartered and then each quarter is further halved)
1 recipe sorisa masala ( grind to a paste 2 pods of garlic, 1 cm ginger root, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 tsp whole black mustard seeds, 1 green chilli or red chilli powder, a pinch of turmeric)
salt to taste
1 tablespoon oil

Heat the oil and then add the potatoes and drumsticks. Stir fry this till very lightly browned. Add the sorisa masala with salt to taste, and about a cup of water and cover. Cook till the vegetables are tender. You may have to adjust the amount of water, depending on the drumsticks and the potatoes. The tarkari has some moisture which you can adjust, depending on your taste.

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