Dum Aloo and Assorted Weekend Variouses

July 9, 2007 at 1:26 am · Filed under Cooking, garden, indian cuisine

I found a heap of bargain veggies — price drastically reduced.
When these are offered I scan carefully for often they are in perfect shape,
only in need of quick cooking before they spoil.

I bought the tomatoes I used for chutney and…

these poblano peppers…

gorgeous green poblanos

and these little baby potatoes.
For all they are labor intensive, I love baby potatoes!

baby potatoes… too tender to peel

I’ve wanted to make dum aloo for some time. I have seen it with and without nuts, cream, yogurt, etc. I have seen boiled ‘taters and deep-fried. I wanted something a little rich but not so high-calorie. So I tried my own version, no grinding because I was feeling lazy 🙂

Some of the delicious dum aloo recipes I checked out and took inspiration from:

Anthony’s

Indira’s

Sra’s

Swapna’s

Thanks to you all and mostly to Seema for her easy tasty version which I followed pretty closely — thank you Seema!

Dum Aloo, Rustic-style

12 baby potatoes
1 TB ghee

1 TB ginger/garlic paste
1 c chopped onion
2-3 small tomatoes, chopped

2-3 bay leaves
1 small cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp chile powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 TB cumin/coriander powder
2 TB charoli nuts — or nuts/seeds of your choice

Salt to taste

tomato chutney (optional)

~~~

Scrub the potatoes well. The choice to peel or not to peel is yours.
I have seen recipes going either way. I like to leave the peel because it’s full of vitamins. To be sure the potatoes soaked up the spices, I made sure to prick them extra well.

Boil the potatoes until almost tender. Remove and run under cool water to stop the cooking. Drain and cool to room temperature.

Over medium heat, melt the ghee in a saucepan and add the potatoes. Saute on all sides about 10-15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and keep aside. In the ghee remaining, cook the ginger-garlic paste a few minutes, then add the onions. Fry until golden, then add the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, spice powders, and the nuts. Fry another minute before adding the tomatoes and one cup water. Mix well and simmer about 10 minutes.
At this point if you want a smoother sauce, you can use the hand blender to break up some of the veggies. Add the browned potatoes. Stir to blend, cover, and cook 20-30 minutes on low heat, until sauce thickens and potatoes are infused with flavor. Add salt to taste and serve hot or room temperature.

I stirred in the leftover tomato chutney (about 1/4 cup) and it gave the dish an extra kick.

Tasted *much* better the next day.

dum aloo with a rustic, chunky masala

~~~~~

So what happened to the peppers?

I often bookmark recipes and finally try them months later. With the peppers, I made ISG’s Mixed Beans and Poblano Peppers, only inside-out.
Where ISG mixed her peppers in the beans, I roasted then stuffed the peppers *with* the beans.
Other than that I followed her recipe and it was easy and delicious, thanks ISG!

clockwise from upper left: poblanos ready to cook, roasted black and mellow, beans masala cooking, the beans in measuring cup, and finally the lunch packed for work: beans masala in roasted poblano, with radish stirfry (yoo hoo, bee and jai — it’s quite good! 😉 )

So that was the end of the breakdown lane veggie fest.
In the past couple of weeks I’ve also made:

flower chi bhaji from Vani’s Mysoorean, rich with goda masala

With kitties and babies and delicious recipes, Vani is always busy with good things — thank you Vani! 🙂

And…

ISG’s roasted chora dal, or arisim paruppusatham

I didn’t have the proper dal to start, but used what I did have and roasted it. Came out great, a keeper for sure.

Thanks again, ISG! 🙂

Last but not least, a picture of something dear to my heart. I can’t begin to say why every time I have started a garden, I have somehow run into disaster. This year I am so thrilled to have a few… nope, won’t even say it now! 🙂

I don’t dare name them for fear of jinxing them… but oooh!! 🙂

and thanks to you mm… for sharing the garden venture! 🙂

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