Creamy Radish and Pumpkin Medley – Moolo Kumro Posto

It has been sweltering hot today, yes, summer is indeed upon us with a vengeance I might add, and instinctively with the rhythm of childhood conditioning, I reached for the container of poppy seeds or posto as we call it in Bengali. Today’s dish is a delicate and pretty Radish and Pumpkin medley, as relevant in spring as it is in summer.

The dish comes together with panchphoron or Bengali Five Spices, green chilies, ginger and the poppy seeds. These nutrient rich (super-high in Omega-3) tiny little seeds are the yin to the yan of the sharp mustard seeds, in almost any form these seeds are Bengali comfort food and particularly relished in the summer months, as they are meant to have a cooling effect on the body.I had really not planned this, but, as I say years of conditioning and eating with the seasons form their own instinctive routine.

A routine that tells you, when its hot you reach for cooling preparations, soothing comfort cuisine that takes you to the annals of an Indian summer. In my case, I think of Bengali dishes of my childhood, like posto or poppy seed based dishes and lentils with green mangoes all with steaming

White rice. In spite of all the heat, it sometimes felt cooler especially in my grandparent’s house. The stone floors were quite, the windows cracked open, with water still held in earthenware pots called kolshis. It is true my grandmother had gotten round to the new world with a refrigerator, but she did not trust it very much. At the most it held fried fish to be stewed in a day or two, or some small amounts of left overs that would be consumed in the next day or so.

My grandmother favored white cotton sarees, usually with a narrow dark hued border, mostly her concession to the fact that my grandfather was not a part of her life anymore. The house was quieter and hence cooler, no steaming washer dryers or noisy dishwashers, instead there was the rhythm of a gentle grinding stone taking the place of the noisy blender, all of this creating an atmosphere that seemed cooler than an air-conditioner, quitter and summer like in sync with the seasons.

This super simple creation came together peacefully in my kitchen, I have been making this with the seasonal radishes this year, I have tried two variations, ok, make that three, I meshed this with ridge gourd or jhinge, then tried this with turnips and radishes and finally with the kabocha squash. Honestly, it really does not matter what you pair it with, it just needs to be a balance, to the gentle sharp texture of the radish and of course what you have in your refrigerator.