To make this dish, start by preparing the vegetables. Cut the potatoes, sweet potatoes, green papaya, green banana, eggplant, flat beans, bitter gourd, and drumsticks into 1.5-inch pieces, making sure they are all roughly the same size.
Next, bring a pan of salted water to a boil and add the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and papaya. Boil them for 2 minutes and then add the flat beans and drumsticks. The idea is to parboil the vegetables, so don't cook them completely. Once they are about 50% cooked, remove them from the water, but don't throw away the vegetable stock. This will come in handy later.
In a separate pan, heat up enough oil to fry the daler bori (lentil dumplings). Once they are golden brown, remove them from the oil and set them aside. Fry the eggplant and green banana in the same oil until they are about 60-70% cooked. Remove them from the oil and set them aside.
Now it's time to make the spice paste. Grind half an inch of ginger, 3 teaspoons of mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon of poppy seeds, and 2 teaspoons of ground coconut into a fine paste.
In another pan, dry roast 1 teaspoon of randhuni (celery seed) and 1 teaspoon of fennel seed, and then grind them into a powder
In the remaining oil from frying the vegetables, sprinkle some panchforon (a blend of five whole spices) and add 2 teaspoons of the mustard paste you just made. Stir it over low heat for 2-3 minutes until the raw smell of the paste goes away.
Next, add the parboiled vegetables to the pan and gently mix everything together. Pour in 2.5 cups of milk and some water, including the vegetable stock you saved earlier. Add salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar and let everything boil for a few minutes.
Now it's time to add the fried vegetables and the daler bori. After 2-3 minutes, add the dry powder you made and mix everything well. Finally, add 1 teaspoon of ghee or clarified butter and stir it in.
Your dish is now ready to be served with plain white rice. Enjoy the flavors of this beautiful medley of vegetables and spices!
