Panch Phoron Potato Capsicum Curry

Making Potato Capsicum Curry with Panch Phoron

Exploring other cuisine and learning their spices is always fun and interesting too. During last April month marathon, I saw my fellow bloggers posting recipes from Bengali cuisine featuring this panch phoron spices. To be honest, that marathon was my main source of inspiration and I started exploring recipes from Bengal. Slowly, I started to try the recipes and modified some to suit our taste buds and started to post them in my blog too. Today’s recipe is one such simple recipe with panch phoron mix. I cannot call this as a traditional and authentic Bengali recipe. In fact, I am still getting acquired to mustard oil, so for this recipe, I went with regular sunflower oil. I just used panch phoron mix and combined it along with our favorite vegetable. We personally love the combination of potato and capsicum. These two pairs well and it’s a perfect side for both rice and roti. It is easy to chop these two vegetables too. I included besan just to get the brown crust and but that’s completely optional.

What Is Panch Phoron Mix?

So what’s this panch phoron mix? It’s blend of 5 seeds or spices. It is popularly called as Bengali 5 spice mix too. The spices are seeds here, not the powder. So the panch phoron mix is the equal quantity of Nigella seeds (Kalonji), Yellow mustard seeds (Rai, some mix have black too. The one that I used had yellow mustard seeds), Fennel seeds (Saunf), Cumin seeds (Jeera) and Fenugreek seeds (Methi). Interesting combination huh? For this recipe, I just used 1.5 tsp, but that is more than sufficient to add that unique flavor. I have tried adding more, but it makes the dish slightly bitter so I think at the maximum you can go up to 2 tsps for this recipe. I have the store bought panch phoron mix, but you can prepare this mix easily at home too. It’s just the equal measure of all the above seeds.

Here comes the simple recipe.

Panch Phoron Potato Capsicum Curry Recipe

Ingredients:

Capsicum – 2 Potatoes -3 Oil – 1 tbsp Panch Phoron mix – 1.5 tsps Red Chilly Powder – ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder – a pinch Salt – 1 tsp Besan – 2 tsps Water – 3 tbsps

Prep – Work:

Chop the potato and capsicum into small pieces. I chopped into small squares.

Steps:

Heat a pan or kadai and add oil. Once the oil is hot, add the panch phoron mix. As the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the chopped capsicum and potato. Add the salt, turmeric powder, red chilly powder and mix well.

Sprinkle some water and cover and cook for 5 minutes. Make sure you stir the veggies once for every two minutes. After 5 minutes, when the potatoes are semi-tender, remove the lids and cook over low heat until the veggie becomes soft and tender.

At this stage, the water should be evaporated and now add the besan and mix well. Cook over low heat for 3 minutes and that’s it. Turn off the heat.

Simple, yet delicious panch phoron capsicum curry is ready. Stay tuned for my thali post to see how I served this.

Notes:

We love the combination of potato and capsicum. Instead of combining both, you can either one. Similar curry can be prepared with brinjals and also cauliflower. As I used capsicum, I went with just ¼ tsp of red chilly powder. But adjust the spice as per the veggie and as per your taste preference. After adding besan, if you prefer brown crust, you can additional oil and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

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