This is one of my mum's recipes which uses a very typical Bengali ingredient- mustard, and in this case ground whole black mustard seeds. It makes a perfect side dish to go with Indian food, and is pungent with mustard and garlic with a little carrot-y sweetness. For me it's an ideal way to use up a carrot glut, so just scale this recipe up (or down) as required.You should be able to find whole black mustard seeds in any Indian grocery shop, and then grind them yourself. I use an electric coffee grinder for this, just don't expect to be able to use it for coffee beans too.
Recipe (enough for loads)
1kg carrots (grated)
Around 3-4 tsp ground black mustard seeds
3 medium cloves garlic (crushed)
Small bunch corriander (roughly chopped)
1 medium green chilli
Around 1-2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt (or enough to season to taste)
Put the oil in large pan, and heat until hot but not smoking and add in the carrots. Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add in the ground mustard. You basically want enough mustard so you can see the little grains against the carrot, as in the picture. Give everything a good stir, add in the garlic, pierce the chilli a few times and then add this in too. Piercing the chilli means you should get the flavour from it but not too much heat. Cover the pan and leave to cook for around ten to fifteen minutes or until the carrots are almost tender. Then add in the corriander and salt, stir and cook for another five minutes or so, by which time the carrots should be fully cooked through. Serve with dhal and rice or some Indian breads, or indeed anything that is likely to go with carrots and mustard.
Addendum: Following on-going conversations, my mother says that she also uses a couple of teaspoons of kalo jeera/black onion seeds in this dish- frying them in the oil at the start before the carrot goes in. However, I cook it without and it's still lovely. She also adds that if you are a serious mustard fan, you could also add some shorshe tel or mustard oil. It's pretty potent stuff though, so exercise caution!
10 comments:
This looks delicious! I need to learn more about Bengali cuisine!
Yum!
Hi Su-Lin, I've realised that I take it for granted too much!
Thanks Joy!
I really like the taste of mustard, and this is a great way to use up carrots too. Do you think I can use ground mustard powder, or would that be like substituting real ginger with ground ginger?
Hi Xinmei! The only ground mustard powder I know about is that very yellow ground English mustard. I think this is much stronger than Indian black mustard. I guess the flavour is quite similar though, so maybe give it a try but use less of it. Or at least start with less, taste, and then add more if you want to! Thinking about it, maybe some wholegrain/dijon mustard might work too. Or a combo of both? Hope that helps!
This looks delicious and a perfect way to use up the carrots I always seem to have lying around! Thanks!
My favourite lunch is carrot sandwich - which isn't a whole carrot between two slices of Mother's Pride, but grated carrot salad plus dressing, toasted pumpkin seeds and in toasted wholemeal. I reckon this would compete as the Asian version - rolled up in Chapatis probably, going to try it out!
Hi Emily- thanks and hope you like it if you try making it!
Hey Dr O, I like your carrot sandwich idea! I've had something similar but with hummous in it too. Reckon the chapati concept would be good as well- I would be very tempted to wrap everything in tin foil so it stayed hot too!
Hi, love the blog. I will be trying this recipe out later in the week as I seem to have bought an excessive amount of carrots.
I have another great carrot salad recipe on my blog, if you fancy trying it Moroccan-style.
http://harassedgastro.blogspot.com/2011/06/so-very-moorish.html
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