A video that has gone viral on social media shows a man from the UK making the Bengali dish aloo posto.
West Bengal is famous for an array of things, and one of the most important of them is food. The mouth-watering Rasgullas, Chomchom, and Rasamalai, the super tasty Sorshe Ilish and Chingri Macher Malai Curry are a few of the mouthwatering and tempting foods of the highly illustrated and exquisite Bengali cuisine.
Bengalis love poppy seeds. They really do and why won't they, it makes food so much tastier! Now, a video has become viral featuring a UK person named Jake Dryan, who cooked the Bengali dish ‘Aloo Posto’. This preparation above is also made of poppy or Posto as the Bengalis like to call it. It is a preparation of Posto with potatoes completed with red and green chillies and sometimes coconut puree to add some much-needed spice to it. It truly is one of the classic Bengali dishes and famous food of West Bengal.
Watch the video here.
Jake Dryan, who enjoys cooking, has a love of Indian food that is pretty evident from his Instagram feed. He has been dedicating each week to a particular state in India and cooking an array of dishes from there.
During the ‘West Bengal Week’, Jake cooked aloo posto, a dish made with poppy seeds and potatoes. It was one of the first items he tried from the Bengali cuisine. He followed it up with dishes like aam dal, radhaballavi and ghugni in the following days. Other than West Bengal, he has tried making food from the Indian states of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
While making aloo posto, Jake starts by dicing the potatoes and then makes a thick poppy seeds paste. He takes a pan and adds some jeera, whole red chillies, onions, and potatoes. He fries the potatoes for a while and ends the recipe with scoops of poppy seeds paste.
“Aloo posto. You know I always love a new potato recipe to add to my life and this one was INCREDIBLE creamy, savoury and spicy,” the video caption reads.
The video was shared on Instagram in March and it has garnered over 6 lakh views.
While some users were super impressed with the outcome, there were a few who pointed out that onions are not added in aloo posto. “Very well done !! I guess some Bengalis won’t like the fact that you added turmeric and red chilli powder in this ! Never mind, it looks perfect,” a user wrote.
“Long awaited Bengali week in this recipe a lot of us don’t put onions, instead use kalongi/ kalo jeere/ black nigella in oil ( however, this is not an absolute one- there are huge variations in the recipe. A lot of people put in onions, and the recipe turns out great as well),” another user wrote.
