Sheem'er Bhorta

Sheem or flat beans is one of our favourites among the huge variety of winter vegetables in Bengal. The dark green ones have a strong vegetal and almost green-peppery flavour. In winter Bengalis eat sheem in every form; just plain boiled sheem with phena bhaat (congee) or sheem in light, winter-special fish curries.

This sheem bhorta recipe comes from one of the most naturally talented cooks we know, my mother’s neighbour and friend Aditi Bhowmik—we call her Lopa kakima. This recipe is her third on our channel, the other two being her extremely tasty shorshe-posto diye maccher jhol and the most sublime kacha tetuler tok.

I think of this dish, sheemer bhorta, like a savoury haluwa, where the flat beans are ground and then cooked down in a lot of mustard oil until almost all of the water evaporates, the mixture becomes glossy, and finally if you continue down that path it becomes caramel-y and fudgy. Imagine a hot, savoury fudge with vegetable notes. That is what this tastes like.

In the sequence of a Bengali lunch, you will be served only a small spoon of this. You mix it with plain boiled rice, preferably a sturdy parboiled rice, and devour it, savouring the heat. Afterwards, you realise your forehead is shiny with sweat even on a cool winter day. We hope you make it while sheem is in season.