Chorchori or charchari (, bn, চচ্চড়ি) is a unique
char
Char may refer to:
People
* Char Fontane, American actress
* Char Margolis, American spiritualist
* René Char (1907–1988), French poet
*The Char family of Colombia:
** Fuad Char, Colombian senator
** Alejandro Char Chaljub, mayor of Barranquill ...
-flavored mixed vegetable dish of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
and
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
, found primarily in
Odia
Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to:
* Odia people in Odisha, India
* Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family
* Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
and
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
cuisine of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...
.
Origin
Chorchori is often cooked with leftover vegetables at the end of the week.
The story behind the dish is that in Bengali households, traditionally men would go grocery shopping once a week. At the end of the week, the household would be left with bits of all the vegetables bought earlier in the week.
Preparation
To cook chorchori, a ''
chaunk'' is prepared by frying spices such as
black mustard seeds and minced
ginger
Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of ...
root in oil or
ghee
Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals.
Description
Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from ...
. Often,
panch phoron is used. Then, chopped vegetables are added and stir-fried briefly. Water, salt, and more spices are added, and the vegetables are allowed to simmer.
Once all the liquid has been absorbed and cooked off, the vegetables begin to fry in the oil or ghee left in the bottom of the pot. As the vegetables begin to char, a sizzling sound is heard, and the pot is removed from the heat.
After a few minutes, the thin charred crust is stirred gently into the dish.
Typical vegetables used for ''chadachadi'' include
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...
es,
eggplant
Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit.
Mo ...
,
spinach
Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed either f ...
,
French beans, and
cauliflower.
See also
*
Oriya cuisine
Odia cuisine is the cuisine of the Indian state of Odisha. Compared to other regional Indian cuisines, Odia cuisine uses less oil and is less spicy while nonetheless remaining flavourful. Rice is the staple food of this region. Mustard oil is u ...
*
Bengali cuisine
Bengali cuisine ( bn, বাঙ্গালী রন্ধনপ্রণালী) is the culinary style of Bengal, a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent encompassing Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura ...
References
*
Yamuna Devi (1987). ''The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking: Lord Krishna's Cuisine''. Illustrations by David Baird. New York, New York: Bala Books.
External links
Charchari recipe(about 1/3 of the way down the page)
Odia cuisine
Bengali cuisine
Bangladeshi cuisine
{{Bangladesh-cuisine-stub