This is one of those classic mustard paste dishes so beloved in the Anga-Vanga-Kalinga region that is modern-day Bihar, Bengal, Odisha; its constitution changes across borders and becomes a virtual vocabulary of love in its various regional inflections. 

I’ve made it here following a recipe from Ritu (find the video on her page). Malabar spinach leaves and stems are the dish’s eponymous heroes, but I’ve also used Siru Kizhangu/Potato Yam/Dioscorea Esculenta and tender eggplants. The rest are “desi vegetables”: ridge gourd, red pumpkin, potato is beloved, raw banana wouldn’t be out of place. Roots, shoots, leaves and all besides. Badis (lentil dumplings) are customary in the absence of shrimp – but I didn’t have any, so went without and without complaint. 

How? Make a paste of 1T each black+yellow mustard seeds, 1T cumin, garlic; leave to bloom. Prep the vegetables, fry the spinach stems and eggplant separately, boil the root vegetables until half-done. Tempering is panch phoron (mustard oil of course), followed by chopped tomatoes. Then the mustard paste, a little water, jaggery, the half-cooked roots in relatively quick succession or mustard turns bitter, the gourds held in reserve. Once those are tender, add in the fried stems and eggplant+the spinach leaves. Mix, simmer, eat with rice!

My thanks to Ritu Apa for inspiration+guidance and Lopa & Sheetal for connective details that brought it all together in my head and on my plate.