Peyajkoli Bhaja

A stir-fry with onion-blossom stalk

  • Cooking time
    40 mins
  • Calories
    160
    kcal
Recommended by
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Peyajkoli or peyaj-kali are the shoots that the onion plant produces when it flowers. Peyajkoli looks similar to green onions or scallions, but you can differentiate them by the white flowers at the end of the stalk, as well as their beefier build. After pollination these flowers produce seeds that resemble nigella seeds—which is why many people call nigella seeds "onion seeds" (even though they are not the same).

Peyajkoli appears in the markets of Bengal in early November and stays on till January. Since a lot of peyajkoli is consumed here, there are certain varieties of onion that are cultivated in West Bengal and Bangladesh particularly for the blossom stalks. These varieties produce peyajkoli much more quickly than regular onion varieties, even though their onion bulbs are small and are usually only used for growing new plants.

Besides peyajkoli this recipe uses a few of Bengal's winter favourites—sheem or flat beans, tomato (because unlike cooler countries, winter, not summer, is the season for tomatoes in the Indian plains), and coriander (the flavour of winter coriander is very different from the stuff that we find all year 'round now in the markets).

We like to keep the peyajkoli a little crunchy, but many people cook them longer so that they turn softer. Not all families add flat beans to this recipe, but they are a nice addition. The flavour of peyajkoli is somewhere between that of onion and garlic, somewhat like shallots. So a clove of garlic, roughly chopped, complements the flavour, but can be skipped. The tomatoes, besides adding a hint of acidity, give the stir fry a bit of a body. The tomatoes are optional too.

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Ingredients

Serves
5
  • 500 g peyajkoli (onion-blossom stalk)
  • 300 g sheem (bread beans)
  • 150 g potatoes
  • 30 g tomatoes
  • 10 g coriander leaves
  • 3 g garlic
  • 2 green chillies
  • 40 g mustard oil
  • 1 dried red chilli
  • ½ tsp kaalo jeere (nigella seeds)
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tsp red chilli powder
  • 6 g salt
  • 12 g sugar

Method

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1-cm wide sticks; destring the sheem and chop 1-cm wide; divide the peyajkoli stalks into 4-cm long segments; roughly chop tomato and garlic; slit green chillies.
  2. Heat mustard oil in a kadai. Temper with dried red chilli and kaalo jeere.
  3. Add the potatoes and fry on medium heat, covered, for 2 mins.
  4. Add the sheem and chopped garlic, and continue frying for another minute.
  5. Add peyajkoli and slit green chillies. Put the lid back on and fry for about 4 mins.
  6. Add tomatoes, and give everything a nice stir. Then add turmeric, red chilli powder, salt and sugar.
  7. Keep cooking until the vegetables are done. Make sure they don't soften too much—they should still retain a slight crunch.
  8. Finish with fresh chopped coriander leaves.
  9. We've served peyajkoli bhaja with moog–mosur dal and Mallifulo (brown) rice from Jhargram.

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