Spinach Veggie - Palong Shak er ghanto! - A bengali veg favorite

Bengali cuisine is often mistaken for serving only fish and non-vegetarian dishes, whereas quite a wide variety of vegetable star dishes cover the spread of bengali cuisine.
One of them is a type of mixed vegetable with Spinach (Palong Shak) being the star of it. Bori - sun dried lentil fritters (shaped more like hershey's kisses) is also a highlight of this dish.

Now let's get cooking.

We need -
1 Potato
1/2 Daikon
1 Eggplant
500 gm Spinach
4 green chilies (optional)
1 inch of ginger - ground or finely grated.

Panch Foron ( A mix of 5 spices - frenuegreek, cumin(/sometimes nigella seeds or kalonjee), fennel, mustard, celerey seeds)
2 Dry red chilis

Cooking oil of your choice.

10 Boris

Process

• Wash all vegetables thoroughly
• Peel and cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes
• Peel and cut Daikon into 1 inch cubes
• Cut eggplants into 1 inch thick and 2 inches long pieces
• Chop spinach into strips. If you are using baby spinach you can leave them as is.

Heat 3 tb spoon of oil ( I use mustard oil) and once the oil  starts to smoke, add the daikons. 

Lightly fry them and set them aside.

Add the potato cubes to the same oil to light fry and set them aside.

• Fry the boris. Be careful about not leave the sight because they easily burn.

• Add the panch foron & dry chilies.
• When crackles, add the eggplant pieces, and then some salt for the veggie to soften.
• Cover and cook them for 3-5 minutes as they become tender but retain their shape.

• Add the potato and daikon and then the ginger paste.
• Chop or slice the green chilies and add at this point.
• Add salt.
• Cover them and cook. Stir occasionally to ensure it does not stick or burn.
• Add very little water if only needed to prevent burning. The vegetables should cook in their own water and steam.
• When they seem cooked , add the spinach.
• Don't cover any more to retain the nice green color.
• Cook until spinach is done.

Remove the mix to a serving bowl.
Crumble the fried bori and sprinkle over the prepared dish.

This is ready now. This goes well with both rice and roti.