Niramish Doi Potol is a simply delicious traditional Bengali dish cooked with potol, yoghurt, poppy seeds & cashew without onion and garlic. This dish contains a creamy semi dry gravy, so it mainly goes well with rice or roti. This is one of the most simple recipes of potol, so I often make this niramish doi potol at home.
The Bengali term, “Niramish”, means the food cooked without onion and garlic. “Doi” meaning yoghurt/curd in English and Dahi in Hindi & “Potol” meaning pointed gourd in English & parwal in Hindi. So Doi potol is also popular as dahi parwal in Hindi speaking Indian states.
To make this niramish doi potol, fried parwal is seared in a yoghurt, poppy seeds and cashew based creamy gravy with a few simple seasonings. A smooth blending of yoghurt, poppy seeds, cashew and green chilli makes the gravy scrumptious and takes less time.
Important tips about the recipe
For making this dish, we need kochi potol. Kochi potol is a soft and light green colour young variety of pointed gourd. Fry the parwal until golden from all sides; no raw smell should remain. Because the raw smell of parwal can spoil the taste of this gravy.
Doi or yoghurt should not be older than 2-3 days. Try to use fresh yoghurt for this recipe. Adding fresh yoghurt to cooking never curdles the gravy and never adds sourness to the gravy as well.
Poppy seeds are known as posto dana in Bengali and khus khus in Hindi. Perfectly roast the poppy seeds paste to remove the raw smell of poppy seeds, which can also spoil the taste of this gravy.
Cashew paste contains gravy that tends to quickly stick to the bottom of the pan and easily gets burnt. So while cooking, frequently stir the gravy to avoid such situations.
This is a no onion garlic doi potol recipe; however, to make it with onion garlic, blend the garlic with poppy seeds and cashew and fry the onion after frying the potol.
Simply follow all the steps of this recipe and get a mouthwatering doi potol curry. Hope the video of this recipe will guide you well to make it perfect.
If you are a Potol lover, then you can try my other delicious Bengali potol recipes
Ghee Garam Moshla Diye Aloo Potoler Tarkari
Chingri’r Pur Bhora Potoler Dorma
Try my other yummy Bengali niramish recipes –
Feel free to share your feedback or ask any queries in the comment section below. I will surely reply.
Niramish Doi Potol recipe with video
Course: LunchCuisine: Bengali VegDifficulty: Easy4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalNiramish Doi Potol(aka Dahi parwal) is a no onion and garlic Bengali dish cooked with potol, tok doi, posto, kaju and seasonings. Goes well with steamed rice, roti or any Bengali pulao rice. Easy to make at home.
Ingredients
500 g Potol/Pointed gourd/Parwal
3 tbsp Tok Doi/Yogurt/Dahi
1 tsp Poppy Seeds(পোস্ত)
3 Green Chillies
12-15 Cashew/Kaju
1/4 tsp Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/4 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder
1+ 1/2 tsp Sugar
3/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Kalojeere
2 Dry Red chillies
6 tbsp Mustard Oil
2 Cups of Water
- *1 Cup = 250 ml
- *Tsp= Teaspoon
- *Tbsp= Tablespoon
Cooking Method
- First, wash and peel the skin of potol, making cross slits on both ends of potol through which potol absorbs gravy.
- Heat a pan on medium flame, heat oil, and fry the potol. I do not add salt or turmeric while frying potol to prevent water loss from the potol, which keeps the taste intact.
- Fry the potol until they are golden from all sides, take them out of the pan and keep them aside.
- In the same pan, add dry red chillies and kalokeere, and saute for 5-6 secs.
- Then add a paste of posto, cashew(soaked for 10 mins before grinding), green chillies and tok doi (preferably hung curd). *Check the tips section, on how to make hung curd at home.
- Next add chilli powder, turmeric powder, Kashmiri chilli powder, sugar and salt to the pan. Mix them well with the existing masala in the pan.
- Roast the masala until the masala leaves oil or when oil floats over the masala. If the masala is not roasted well, the raw smell of poppy seeds will exist in the gravy and spoil the taste.
- Then add water over the masala and mix well. Let the masala start boiling.
- Once boiling, add the fried potol to the gravy. In this stage, slow down the heat of the oven or stove and cover the pan.
- Cook until the potol gets soft.
- Then check the taste of the gravy, add a little salt and sugar if it feels less.
- Cook until the salt and sugar are completely mixed with the gravy.
- Doi potol has a slightly thick gravy, so cook until the gravy gets slightly thick.
- Once it is slightly thick and creamy indicates Doi Potol is ready to serve.
Niramish doi potol recipe video
How to make Niramish Doi Potol step by step
Fry the potol
1. First, wash and peel the skin of potol, making cross slits on both ends of potol through which potol absorbs gravy.
2. Heat a pan on medium flame, heat oil and fry the potol. I do not add salt or turmeric while frying potol. Firstly, prevent it from water loss, so do not use salt. Secondly, turmeric turns the oil black after frying potol, so do not use turmeric.
3. Fry the potol until they are golden from all sides, take them out from the pan and keep them aside.
How to make gravy
1. In the same pan, medium heat, add dry red chillies and kalokeere, and saute for 5-6 secs.
2. Then add a paste of posto, cashew(soaked for 10 mins before grinding), green chillies and yogurt (preferably hung curd). *Check the tips section, on how to make hung curd at home.
3. Next add chilli powder, turmeric powder, Kashmiri chilli powder, sugar and salt to the pan. Mix them well with the existing masala in the pan.
4. Roast the masala until the masala leaves oil or when oil floats over the masala. If the masala is not perfectly roasted, the raw smell of poppy seeds will exist in the gravy and spoil the taste.
5. Then add water over the masala and mix well. Let the masala start boiling.
6. Once it starts boiling, add the fried potol to the gravy. In this stage, slow down the heat of the oven or stove, and cover the pan.
7. Cook the potol until gets soft.
8. Then check the taste of the gravy, add a little salt and sugar if it feels less.
9. Cook it until salt and sugar are completely incorporated into the gravy.
10. Doi potol has a slightly thick gravy so cook it until the gravy gets slightly thick.
11. Once the gravy is slightly thick and creamy, it indicates Doi Potol is ready to serve.
Tips
1. Try to use fresh tok doi hardly 1 or 2 days old. 4-5 days old doi tastes a little bit more sour and tends to get curdled while mixing in hot gravy.
2. Here I use Posto and cashew paste to neutralise the sourness of Doi. Posto and cashew paste also bring creaminess to this curry.
3. If you do not have poppy seeds at home, you can replace the poppy seeds with white sesame seeds or soda til.
4. Instead of poppy seeds you can fully make this gravy with cashews, almonds or melon seeds too. You can even use dry-roasted peanut paste.
*5. Here I have used hung curd which helps me to get a smooth grinding of posto and cashew. Making hung curd at home is very easy, just put the regular curd in a stainer for 15-20 mins to remove the excess water of curd and hung curd is ready. However, you can use store-bought hung curd or thick yogurt too.