Potoler Dorma/Stuffed Pointed Guard

'Potoler Dorma' is a traditional Bengali recipe which is actually a fusion of Armenian 'Dolma' and Jewish 'Mahashas'(stuffed vegetable). During the eighteenth century the Armenian,Jewish,Greek and Arab traders used to carry out their business to Kolkata. Specially the Armenian get integrated with Bengali's and they started celebrating their Christmas with them.Gradually they started sharing recipes as well. One of the famous Armenian recipe was 'Dolma' which is nothing but meat and rice wrap in grape leaves.The food loving Bengali's added their own flavor and changes into it and transformed it to the famous 'Potoler Dorma'

Ingredients:

• Pointed guard (Potol/Parval) 10-12 pieces.
• Mutton Kima/Smashed Paneer/Chicken Kima/Smashed fish or shrimp 300gms
• Chopped Onion 1/2 cup
• Onion paste 1/2 cup
• Ginger & Garlic paste 1 teaspoon
• Coconut paste 1/2 cup
• Tomato paste 1/2 cup
• Green chili paste 1 teaspoon
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Red chili powder 1/2 teaspoon
• 1/3rd teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/3 rd teaspoon cumin powder
• 1/3 rd teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/4 rd  teaspoon garam masala powder(optional)
• 3-4 tablespoon oil.
• salt as per taste

Procedure:

First of all you can make the stuffing as per your choice that's why I have mentioned mutton,chicken,fish paneer all of then in the ingredients list. That means you can pick any one of them as your stuffing.Rest of the process will be same. Today I will make the Dorma with mutton kima.

• First we will make the stuffing. Take a frying pan and place it on medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of  oil and let it warm a little bit. Then add mutton kima,chopped onion,1/2 teaspoon ginger garlic paste,1 teaspoon of green chili paste,a pinch of turmeric powder and salt as per taste. Mix it really well and let it fry in high heat till it get cooked completely. If you don't want to make it hot you can always decrease the quantity of green chili paste or simply skip it. Now pour the kima in a separate bowl.
• Peel the skin of the pointed guard or parval in alternate fashion and then cut a small portion from the top.
• Now scoop out all the seeds from it. Now do the same for all of them.

• Stuff it with the Kima.

• Take a non stick pan and place it into medium flame. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil and let it warm up. Then add the stuffed Parval one by one. Sprinkle some salt from top and let it fry for 10-15 mins or till it become little soft. Remember we don't want the Parval to become completely soft rather we need a little crunch in it. So do not overcook it.
• Now take out the fried parval in a separate plate and soak the excess oil with a kitchen tissue.
• Again warm up 1 table spoon of oil in a non stick pan and add onion paste in it. Let it fry till the onion will become light pink.
• Then add coconut paste,ginger garlic paste,tomato paste,turmeric powder,coriander powder,cumin powder, red chili powder and sugar one by one. Mix it really well and let it fry in the high heat till it oozes out some oil. Add little bit of water and salt and decrease the flame. Add the fried Parval and let it cook for 5mins in medium heat with the lid on.
• Take off the lid after 5mins and pour Potoler Dorma on a serving bowl.Sprinkle some garam masala powder from top and serve it with steam rice.