This Kumro Bhaate, also known as ‘kumro bhorta’ is a simple Bengali side dish where kumro or pumpkin is cooked till soft and tender and then mashed with a couple of ingredients. This kumro bhate recipe is mostly served with rice for a lunch meal and is consumed at the beginning of the meal.
Like most of the Bengali daily cooking recipes, it is a simple, hassle-free and easy to digest recipe. Ideally, completely ripened pumpkins are used here as they are sweet in taste. Also, they are less watery than unripened green pumpkins. Hence, it strikes the perfect balance of taste and texture when mashed with chopped chillies, salt and drizzle of mustard oil.
Understanding the concept of traditional ‘bhaate’?
Bhaate has its roots in the Bengali family structure in earlier times. Even a couple of decades back it was quite normal to see people living in joint families which included several smaller families living together under the same roof. With around two dozen of people, if not more, eating four meals every day, it would necessitate the cooking of huge pots full of rice every day.
Interestingly, the term bhaate means ‘in the rice’. That doesn’t sound like any mashed up, right? Actually, this term has its origin in the practice of preparation of the veggies before they get mashed up.
A typical Bengali traditional lunch meals often comprise several side dishes, one of them would be this bhaate where veggies or lentils would be enveloped in a pocket of muslin cloth and dropped in the water boiling with the rice. This allows the cooking of two dishes simultaneously in one single pot. Thus cooking two dishes at the same time, something that is very economic when cooking for a bunch of people.
As the rice gets cooked, this vegetable or lentil would also get soft and tender in the starchy rice water. Later the cloth would be taken out and the vegetable or lentil would be mashed with some mustard oil, chopped chillies, salt and some mustard seeds paste. This would be served at the beginning of the meal with rice.
Vegetables could be anything like potatoes, pumpkins, bitter gourd, long beans, snake beans, pointed gourd, okra, yams etc. Similarly, various lentils would also be cooked like this like musur dal bhate, motor dal bhate, etc.
How to make Kumro Bhaate – Ingredient List
- Kumro or Ripe Pumpkin
- Salt
- Mustard Oil
- Green Chilli
Step-by-step instruction of how to make Mashed Pumpkin in Bengali style
- Prepare the pumpkin by discarding the inner portion of seeds and stringy portions. Remove the peel as well.
- Wash the pumpkin once again. Now cut them in thin slices of 1-inch thickness.
- Take a pressure cooker and drop the pumpkin. Pour 2 tbsp water, a pinch of salt and a light drizzle of mustard oil. Place the lid and let it whistle 2-3 times or till they become absolutely soft
- Take the pumpkin pieces out on a plate. Now add some finely chopped green chillies and salt before mashing everything together. Drizzle some more mustard oil for extra pungency and serve.
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This Kumro Bhaate, also known as ‘kumro bhorta’ is a simple Bengali side dish where kumro or pumpkin is cooked till soft and tender and then mashed with a couple of ingredients. This kumro bhate recipe is mostly served with rice for a lunch meal and is consumed at the beginning of the meal.
- 250 gms Kumro or Ripe Pumpkin
- Salt to Taste
- 1 tbsp Mustard Oil Adjust as per taste & preference
- 1 Green Chilli Again, adjust as per preference for heat
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Prepare the pumpkin by discarding the inner portion of seeds and stringy portions. Remove the peel as well.
-
Wash the pumpkin once again. Now cut them in thin slices of 1-inch thickness.
-
Take a pressure cooker and drop the pumpkin. Pour 2 tbsp water, a pinch of salt and a light drizzle of mustard oil. Place the lid and let it whistle 2-3 times or till they become absolutely soft
-
Take the pumpkin pieces out on a plate. Now add some finely chopped green chillies and salt before mashing everything together. Drizzle some more mustard oil for extra pungency and serve.
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