In Bangladesh, shukto is a complex mixed-vegetable stew that's usually eaten as a first course to a meal or as the main meal, often served at festivals or special occasions. The flavor is supposed to be quite bitter. I'm usually okay with bitter flavors, but my version went maybe a little overboard on the bitterness. I did have to substitute quite a bit of ingredients, so I would probably enjoy an authentic version of this, but I have nothing to prepare it to so I have no idea how bitter it's really supposed to be.
The main component of the dish is a variety of vegetables. Every recipe I looked at had a different combination, but I went with potato, sweet potato, green beans, and plantains. Authentic shukto would also contain bitter gourd and "drumsticks" which are a unique vegetable in the Indian subcontinent. I'm not sure what flavor they would compare to, but they look kind of like super long, skinny okra.
I added all the vegetables to a big pot with a little water to steam them to pre-cook before stewing everything together.
In the meantime, I prepared the spices. I had to get a little creative and used what I had on hand here as well. Looking at this picture, I'm guessing one of the reasons my shukto ended up so bitter was because I used way too much turmeric. I have my turmeric in a small mason jar and spoon out a little at a time, so sometimes I tend to go overboard with it. Along with the turmeric, I added cumin, ginger, ajwain, and fennel seed.
Normally, Bengali five spice, or panch phoron, would include black mustard seeds. Since I didn't have any of those, I simply added some prepared mustard to the spice mix to create a paste.
Once the vegetables had softened a bit, I added my spice paste and let that cook a bit.
Then I added a couple teaspoons of flour. Not all recipes call for flour, but it helps the stew thicken up considerably.
Once that had simmered for a bit, I then added some coconut milk to bump up the richness and also temper down the bitterness of the spices and vegetables.
I've realized recently that I'm not the biggest fan of plantains boiled in a savory soup or stew. They're so much better fried when super ripe and they've got that sweetness to them. Starchy half-ripe boiled plantain is just not that appetizing. Besides being amazingly bitter, it was definitely the kind of stew to stay in your stomach for a while, probably due to the plantain and other starchy vegetables.
It was certainly an adventure, though! And an interesting look into the world of Bangladeshi cuisine. It's a fascinating mix of Indian and southeast Asian foods. I'm sure there are lots of other foods eaten in Bangladesh that I would enjoy a lot more, and I'm sure with the right proportions of spices and types of veg, this dish could be good. But, you can't win them all!
Recipes Used: Bengali Vegetable Curry // Shukto
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