Aloo posto

What makes it aloo posto

• White poppy seed, soaked and ground smooth.
• Potatoes cut in cubes, cooked in the paste until it clings.
• Nigella and green chilli, and a trickle of raw mustard oil to finish.

Where it comes from

Poppy seed, posto, is the pride of the dry western districts of Bengal — Birbhum, Bankura, Bardhaman — where it goes into potatoes, ridge gourd, onions and even a raw paste eaten with rice. The story often told is that it took hold in the nineteenth century, when poppy was grown for the opium trade and the seeds were left over.

It's lunch food: a mound of rice, dal, and a spoonful of aloo posto, often at a Bengali home on the most ordinary of days.

How it varies

Jhinge posto

With ridge gourd instead of, or as well as, potato.

Posto bata

Raw poppy paste with onion, chilli and mustard oil, eaten with rice.