Echorer Dalna

Bengali young jackfruit curry: echor browned in mustard oil and braised with potatoes, ginger, cumin, and tomato, without onion or garlic, until the chunks turn meaty, then finished with ghee and garam masala

Origin: Bengal

From the journey of Jackfruit.

Echor is the Bengali name for jackfruit picked young, before the seeds have hardened, and echorer dalna is the gentle, gravied way of cooking it: the chunks boiled, browned in mustard oil, and braised with potatoes, ginger, and ground spices, then finished with ghee and a pinch of garam masala. Cooked this way the fruit turns dense and fibrous and takes up the spices as meat would, which has earned it the name gachh-pantha, the goat that grows on a tree. It is said to have been the nearest thing to mutton allowed to the Hindu widows of Bengal, who were forbidden meat, onion, and garlic, and this dalna, like theirs, uses neither. The jackfruit has been esteemed in Bengal for a long time. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who reached Pundravardhana, in northern Bengal, around 640, found it 'plentiful' and yet 'highly esteemed', and when Ma Huan came to Bengal with the Ming fleets in the fifteenth century the jackfruit headed his list of the country's fruits. Bangladesh has since made it the national fruit, kathal or kanthal, and the dish is cooked on both sides of the modern border. The latex is why every jackfruit recipe begins with oil on the hands. Babur, who met the kadhil in Hindustan in the 1520s, noted that many people rubbed their mouths with oil before eating it, and a proverb of the Gangetic plain, recorded by Yule and Burnell, mocks anyone who gets ready too early: gāchh men kathal, honṭh men tel, the jack still on the tree and the oil already on your lips.

Ingredients

Jackfruit

800 g young green jackfruit (echor), or 2 x 400 g tins of young jackfruit in brine, drained
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt

Dalna

2 medium potatoes (about 300 g), peeled and quartered
5 tbsp mustard oil
2 Indian bay leaves (tej pata)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 dried red chillies
2 tbsp ginger paste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
1 medium tomato, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
350 ml hot water

To Finish

1 tbsp ghee
0.5 tsp Bengali garam masala (ground cinnamon, green cardamom, and cloves)

Method

Oil your hands and a heavy knife. Cut the young jackfruit into quarters, cut away the skin in a thick layer and the core, and cut the flesh into 4 cm chunks.
Boil the fresh chunks with the turmeric and salt for 10 to 12 minutes, until a knife goes in with slight resistance. Drain.
Heat the mustard oil in a kadai until it smokes, then let it cool for a moment. Fry the potatoes until golden and lift them out; fry the jackfruit until patched with brown and lift it out.
In the same oil fry the bay leaves, cumin seeds, and dried chillies until the cumin crackles.
Add the ginger paste and the ground spices with a splash of water and fry for 2 to 3 minutes, until the oil separates. Add the tomato and sugar and cook until the tomato has collapsed.
Return the potatoes and jackfruit and turn them in the masala over a moderate heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the hot water and salt to taste, cover, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the gravy has thickened.
Take off the heat, stir in the ghee and garam masala, cover for 2 minutes, and serve with rice or luchi.

Notes

Onion and garlic are left out, as in the niramish cooking of Bengali Hindu households. A richer version with onion, garlic, and more chilli, kosha echor, is cooked like mutton. Do not use jackfruit whose seeds have hardened: it will be too fibrous for echor.

The Gastrographer

Name: Echorer Dalna
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Bengal
Ingredients: 800 g young green jackfruit (echor), or 2 x 400 g tins of young jackfruit in brine, drained; 1 tsp ground turmeric; 1 tsp salt; 2 medium potatoes (about 300 g), peeled and quartered; 5 tbsp mustard oil; 2 Indian bay leaves (tej pata); 1 tsp cumin seeds; 2 dried red chillies; 2 tbsp ginger paste; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp ground coriander; 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder; 0.5 tsp ground turmeric; 1 medium tomato, finely chopped; 1 tsp sugar; 350 ml hot water; 1 tbsp ghee; 0.5 tsp Bengali garam masala (ground cinnamon, green cardamom, and cloves)

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control