Saturday 1 September 2018

Recipe 37: Dum Aloo

Dearest Potato has such a mixed reputation.

Some hate and criticize it for making people gain weight. Others love potato for being so tasty.

Either way, you cannot deny that we all eat and love this humble vegetable.

Potato is so versatile. It can be boiled, fried, put in gravy, mashed, steamed, grilled, anything. It can be paired with vegetables and meats. Had in the form of a sandwich or with rice or roti. And don't even get me started on the numerous recipes in which potato plays a great role.

Thus, it is high time we understand its importance and begin to acknowledge our love for it.

Being a good source of carbohydrates, potato is full of energy and comes under weight gaining foods. Also, potato absorbs a lot of oil at the time cooking. But if cooked wisely, then potato would not be as fattening as you think.

Today, I bring to you all a very popular dish called Dum Aloo. But my version uses very less oil and you will not feel guilty while enjoying the soft and spicy potato with a puri. The ingredients and its preparation is so basic that after you finish reading you can enter your kitchen and start right away.
As a bonus, I will show you how you can turn 1 preparation into 2 dishes.

So, lets start !

Ingredients:

  1. 5-6 large/medium potatoes
  2. 2 medium onions
  3. 2 large tomatoes
  4. 2 tsp. haldi/turmeric powder
  5. 2 tsp. red chilly powder (the spicy kind)
  6. 2 tsp. garam masala
  7. 3 tsp. zeera/cumin powder
  8. salt to taste

Method:

Peel the potatoes and do not chop or slice.
This dish will take 30-40 minutes to prepare. And in that time the potatoes will cook fully. Chopping will make potatoes disappear in the gravy. Being main ingredient, the potatoes need to be large.
Make thin slices of onions.
Heat a kadhai or a wok.
Add some oil.
Fry on high heat the potatoes and onions together.
Let them develop some brown color.
Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes into small bits.
Add tomatoes to the fried potato and onions.
Make a slurry of all the dry spices.
Add it to the dish.
Reduce the flame and let the potatoes soften on low heat.
Cover the vessel.
No need to disturb the dish for the next 20 minutes.
The salt will help extract water from the potatoes and tomatoes.
After 10 minutes, add about 1 glass of water.
Cover and cook till potatoes being to disintegrate and the dish has a soft creamy gravy.
If needed, you can add more water for more gravy.
Finish off with some coriander leaves and juice of a lime.
Serve hot with naan, puri, roti or paratha.

Dish 2

Fry some paneer/cottage cheese.
Add more water for gravy to the potato dish and let it boil.
Add the paneer.
Additionally some green peas can be added to the dish as well.
Cook till oil separates and forms a layer on top.
This can be a quick matar paneer from leftover dum aloo recipe.



2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you so much. Simple ingredients and recipes results in tasty food.

      Delete