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Monday, October 26, 2015

Baati Chorchori

Last night I was in no mood to cook. So I thought of trying what my mom used to do. With limited ingredients at home, I had to do best with what I had. Baati Chorchori - a one bowl meal.

So I diced 3 potatoes, 1 eggplant, 3 tomatoes, a bit of paneer and a few green chillies.
Then in a pot, I put them all, added some salt, turmeric powder, cumin powder, chilli powder, some coriander leaves and mustard oil.

I put that on the gas and let it simmer.

After an hour, it was done. Smelt well. Tasted good.

How did the term originate? I had seen something on TV once, so maybe that was how it started.
Apart from the basic potatoes , salt, little water, green chilli, and mustard oil and soil, scrapped coconut and prawns went into a coconut shell. This was the 'bati' or bowl. A chorchori would mean a mixture of vegetables. This was then covered the other half of the shell.

The cracks were glued together with kneaded dough.

Then the 'coconut', was smeared with mud, was thrown in the embers of the burning oven. This was before the days when modern gas / electric ovens had taken over.

After sometime, the flavors would mix up and a nice dish would be ready.


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