Bengali Raw Papaya Curry | Kancha Peper Ghonto
Kancha Peper Ghonto is Bengali style raw papaya dry curry with potatoes traditionally cooked in mustard oil and flavoured with panch phoron, green chillies and ginger.
Ingredients
- 1 small raw papaya
- 1 medium potato
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 1/2 tsp grated ginger
- 1-2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 3 green chillies slit
- 1/2 tsp panch phoron mix of 5 whole spices
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
Instructions
- To prepare the raw papaya curry, start by peeling the papaya. Cut into two halves vertically and keep this immersed in a bowl of water for 10 minutes. This is to make it easier to cut without all the sap sticking to the fingers. Peel and cut the potato into two halves, vertically. Slice each half into long thin strips and keep aside. Cut the papaya halves into similar sized strips and keep aside.
- In a heavy bottomed kadai / pan, heat mustard oil until smoking hot. Add ginger, garlic, chillies and panch phoron spice mix. Stir for a few seconds. Don’t let the garlic brown.
- Mix in the sliced raw papaya and potato.
- Sprinkle turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, sugar and stir well to combine. Add 1/4 cup water and cover the pan with a lid, steam cook for 10-12 minutes until the papaya and potato slices can be mashed with pressure from a spatula. Keep pan open and allow any leftover water to evaporate on medium flame.
- Garnish with a few more slit green chillies and serve with steaming hot Gobindobhog rice (or any other fragrant white rice).
Notes
This is a fairly dry preparation, but such curries are traditionally mixed into fragrant white rice and had as one of the courses of the meal. If you liked this recipe, you will also like Sheem Paturi - flat beans in banana leaf parcels.