Dum Aaloo (Punjabi style)

Potatoes are everyone's favorite and there are loads of yummy dishes that you can prepare using them. One of the yummy dishes is Dum Aaloo, which is prepared by using baby potatoes. We prepared it the Punjabi style yesterday and they turned out real nice - spicy and sour!

Here's the recipe...

Ingredients:

• Baby potatoes: 10-12
• Red onions: 2 big
• Tomatoes: 3-4
• Garlic: 2 buds
• Green chillies: 2-3
• Curd: 1 small bowl
• Cardamom (Elaichi): 2-3
• Cinnamon (Dalchini): 1 stick
• Cloves (Laung): 2-3
• Cumin (Jeera) seeds: 1 TSP
• Red Chilly Powder: 1/2 TSP
• Coriander (Dhaniya) powder: 1/2 TSP
• Turmeric (Haldi) powder: 1/2 TSP
• Garam Masala: 1/2 TSP
• Salt (to taste)
• Coriander leaves (to garnish)
• Vegetable oil (enough to deep fry the potatoes)

Procedure:

Peel the potatoes and keep them soaked in salty water for half an hour. If the size of the potatoes if big, halve them. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the potatoes till they turn very light golden brown. Keep the potatoes aside.

Blend onions, tomatoes, and garlic and green chilly to a coarse paste. Beat the curd in a bowl and keep it aside.

Heat 1 TSP oil in another pan and add cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. Wait until they start crackling and then add cumin seeds. Let the cumin seeds also crackle and then add the onion-tomato-garlic paste. Cook the mixture on a low flame for 5 mins.

Add red chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, and salt to the mixture and cook it for 1 more min. Enjoy the aroma of the mixture and watch it changing its color. Remove the pan from the flame for a while and add the beaten curd to it. Put the pan back on the flame and cook the mixture for another 5 mins.

Add potatoes to the mixture and let them get soaked in the gravy. Since we've already deep-fried the potatoes, they'd already be soft and wouldn't need much time to get cooked. When the potatoes are nicely cooked and soft enough, add Garam Masala and mix it with the gravy. Make sure that you do not stir the gravy too vigorously to end up with mashed potatoes! :)

Dum Aaloo is ready! Transfer them to a serving dish and garnish them with chopped coriander leaves. You can also crush dry fenugreek leaves and sprinkle them on the top of Dum Aaloo for an extra flavor.

Dum Aaloo go well with Naan, Paranthas, and Pooris. Enjoy!!

Aaloo Achari - on public demand!

So this happened a week ago when Divu was continuously trying out new stuff and happened to try Achari Aaloo as well. They turned out so good the first time that we decided to make it for the next potluck. And this time, I gave her a hand. ;) They tend to become a hit with everyone and people have been asking for its recipe since long. So here it is, on public demand! :)

Ingredients:

• Potatoes (medium-sized, boiled, and cut into wedges - around 1 inch Size ) - 4-5
• Medium-sized Red onions (ground) - 4-5
• Ginger paste - 1 TSP
• Garlic paste - 1 TSP
• Salt, turmeric powder (haldi), red chilly powder, cumin seeds (jeera), mustard seeds (sarson), onion seeds (kalaounji) - all to taste
• Whole red dry chilies - 3-4
• Cooking oil

Keep these two aside as extras for the end :-)

• Sugar (1 TSP)
• Vinegar (1/3 cup)

Procedure:

1. Deep fry the potato wedges in oil till they are golden and keep them aside.
2. Heat one TSP oil in a wok, add onion paste to it, and saute it till it turns brown.
3. Make sure that you stir the paste constantly to avoid overcooking it. We need a light brown color - no dark shades. :) In less moisture, the onions should not take more than 3-4 mins to get the right color, but if the moisture is high, they might take 2 extra mins.
4. Add garlic and ginger paste to it and saute for some more time - around 3-4 mins.
5. Add salt, red chilly powder, turmeric, and then stir for a min ; at this point, the hot mixture should start releasing its fragrance and you can smell the taste :-) "Make sure you don't have runny nose at this time or you would miss some real good fragrances. ;-) "
6. Add the fried potatoes now.
7. Mix the potatoes well with the mixture and add a cup of water to it. We don't want to make the potatoes float and nor do we want them to be dry. So add water appropriately.
8. Let the mixture cook on low flame for 3-4 minutes.
9. Heat 1 TSP of oil in another pan.
10. Add whole red chillies, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and onion seeds to it.
11. We did not have whole red chillies so we used chilly flakes. :)
12. When the seeds begin to crackle and the chillies turn dark, pour this mixture on the top of the potatoes.
13. Achari Aaloo is ready steady go!

I had earlier asked you to keep Vinegar and Sugar aside; here is why. The above recipe will give you salty Achari Aaloo. If you intend to make it a little sweet to maskofy your "woh" do this:


After step 6-7 (adding water and stirring), mix sugar and vinegar in a separate bowl and add it to the mixture. Stir it for 1-2 mins and then do the remaining steps.

Aaloo Achari would go best with garma-garam pooris, butter naan, and my personal favzz Plain Lachhaa Paranthaazzzz....yummmyyy mummmyy.


Best of Luck and Enjoyzzz!