Making Kochur Loti Bhaji – A Peak into Bengali Kitchen #263

Living in the small bubble of my home town gave me ample chance to have authentic Bengali dishes every single day without fully appreciating them. While for livelihood I travelled to the south (India), I couldn’t see many dishes which I used to have probably every week back at my home.

I have taken eager interest in finding similarities and dissimilarities of food habits in different parts of India – my colleagues brought cultures from all over the country to the lunch table – more power to them! While they got me many unforgettable dishes, they were completely unaware of something like Kochur Loti which is so common in Bengal.

Kochur Loti looks like green stems of a plant. It can be consumed in many different ways- I hope I would be able to share some of my mom’s favourite preparation of Kochur Loti in this blog.

Things you need

1. 2 grated onions
2. 5-6 cloves of garlic
3. 300 g. Small size prawns (Skip for vegetarian)
4. Kochur Loti / Taro stolon
5. 1 cup of Grated coconut
6. Turmeric powder 1 tbsp
7. Chili powder 1 tsp
8. Salt
9. Mustard oil
10. 1 roughly chopped tomato (optional)

Preparation

1. Peel kochur loti and chop them into small pieces and wash them thoroughly.
2. Lightly fry the prawns with salt ans turmeric powder.
3. Add turmeric powder, chili powder, salt, 1 tsp sugar, grated coconut, chopped tomato, 2 tsp mustard oil to the chopped Kochur Loti and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Procedure

1. Fry the onion and garlic in 3 tbsp mustard oil until golden brown.
2. Heat a pan on medium flame and add the onion-garlic, prawns and Kochur Loti together and let it cook with lid on for 5 mins.
3. Put off the lid, stir fry until the moisture escapes and looks thoroughly cooked.

Kochur Loti Bhaji is ready to be served. It tastes best with freshly cooked rice.

Thanks for reading. You might also like another recipe with Kochu/Taro root.