Satkora Gosht Chaanp

Some fruits get a bad name for no reason at all. I certainly don’t like it when someone complains about “being given a lemon” while referring to a bad deal. It gives you negative vibes about the poor lemon, which has been doing a yeoman service to food for a long time. Where, for instance, would our aloo chaat be without a lime?

I am not the only one to feel strongly about lemons. The huge world of citrus fruits — which includes all kinds of lemons — evokes strong passions. A friend of mine believes the batabi lebu — fat and pulpy — is a wonderful ingredient. Those who like the Gondhoraj say nothing can beat its aromatic fragrance. And then there is this huge lemon called galgal which is so sour that you don’t forget it once you’ve tasted it.

I don’t want to start a war of the lemons, but I have to put in a word for the satkora with which chef Utpal Mondal, the corporate executive chef of Hotel Hindusthan International (HHI), does wonderful things. The chef had been speaking for quite a while about this special fruit that he procures from Sylhet in Bangladesh. And once he gets some, he cooks them with all kinds of ingredients — fish, meat, prawns and veggies — to rustle up dishes that you are not likely to forget.

Chitol Satkora Curry

The fruit — called the Citrus macroptera — is nice and sour. Its rind — green or yellow, depending how raw or ripe it is — is also used to enhance flavours. The lemon is often turned into a pickle, and the pickle — prepared with chunks of satkora, soaked in oil and vinegar and seasoned with various kinds of spices such as red chillies, the Bengali spice panchphoron, cumin powder, turmeric and salt — is used to flavour a dish.

Chef Mondal turns quite lyrical when he is talking about the satkora. This may surprise you but some of our top chefs are proud of their lemon fixations. Chef Joymalya Banerjee of Bohemian says that the ada jamir is his favourite. Its juice goes particularly well with vegetables and dal, he holds.

For Satarupa Banerjee, the Calcutta-based writer of a series of cookbooks, the Gondhoraj rules. “It works with everything but is particularly divine when it comes to the simple dal,” she says. Banerjee quarters a Gondhoraj lebu and puts the chunks in the dal when it is boiling for best results. And she uses the juice of the wonderfully fragrant lemon, along with its leaves, while cooking ilish.

Chef Mondal, on the other hand, reposes his faith in satkora, though he also uses something called the gaunra lebu — which is very, very sour.

Bagda ChingRi Aar Kochi Bansher Jugalbandi

By comparison, satkora is a lighter lime with a taste that is sour but not of the lip- puckering kind. The satkora pickle, in particular, adds all kinds of tart flavours to a dish. The chef adds it to his satkora gosht chaanp and angara satkora paneer. He also makes good use of the pickle in his bagda chingri aar kochi bansher jugolbondi (tiger prawns and bamboo shoot).

For this, you have to marinade tiger prawns with salt, red chilli and turmeric powders. Fry onions till golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste. Add chilli and turmeric powders and sauté. Sauté with chopped tomatoes and then add boiled and sliced bamboo shoots to the mix. Fry for a few more minutes and then add diced satkora pickle. Now the prawns go in. Stir for five minutes. Add some mustard paste and cook till dry.

This, the chef says, should be eaten 24 hours after it is cooked. “It tastes better because the pickle then really goes into the prawn,” he says. “And you can serve it either hot or cold, with rice or roti.”

The achari satkora subzi again uses the flavours of the pickle for its characteristic taste. It’s a dry vegetable preparation — quite like chorchori, says the chef, but different because of the pickle. “It tastes great in the rainy season and in winter,” he says.

It’s incredible what you can do with these big lemons. I have a foodie filmmaker friend called Joydeep Ghosh (who has made quite a name for himself with his first Bengali feature film Mayabazaar) who also likes to experiment with lemons. His favourite is the batabi lebu, which he uses in a prawn salad. He steams prawns with salt and pepper, and then chops them into small pieces. Then he takes the pulp out of the lemon and mixes it with green chillies, sugar and salt. He chops the pulp into small pieces too and mixes them with the prawns. He serves it as a cold salad garnished with fresh coriander leaves

The pulp of the satkora is generally not used in dishes, though its rind often is. The chef uses the skin to give a fragrance and taste to the chitol satkora curry — a fish curry.

That lemons have such fan followings is interesting. For many, clearly, sour is sweet.

Achari Satkora Subzi (serves 2)

Ingredients: • 50g baby potato • 30g sweet potato • 30g shallots • 30g cauliflower • 30g beans • 70g pui saag • 30g radish • 30ml mustard oil la pinch of panchphoron • 2 bay leaves • 8g ginger paste • 2g slit green chillies • 2g red chilli powder • 2g turmeric powder • 2g radhuni • 2g whole black pepper • 3g cumin seeds • 3g coriander seeds • 20g curd l6g satkora pickle paste • 4g satkora pickle diced • salt and sugar to taste

Method

Peel and cut the vegetables into medium-sized pieces. Put mustard oil in a kadhai. Add panchphoron and bay leaves. Beat the curd and gently add it to the oil. Cook slowly for 2-3 minutes. Put slit green chillies and ginger paste. Add the satkora pickle paste. Add all the vegetables and sauté for ten minutes. Add salt, sugar, red chilli and turmeric powders. When all the vegetables are almost cooked, add the diced satkora pickle. Finish with roasted cumin seeds, black peppercorn, coriander seeds and radhuni powder. Serve hot with rice.