Achari Aloo Recipe | Indian Roast Potatoes with Pickling Spices

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I was staring at the blinking curser on my laptop for the past ten minutes, desperately hoping for some words to come flooding from my mind to tip of my fingers. But alas, my mind seems to have its own agenda and all I can think is summer days where I can lounge away in the beach with a book in my hand, sand on my toes and the warmth of sun rays kissing my face. But at the moment it feels anything but summer as the temperature stubbornly refuses to rise in spite the fact that the days are growing longer…

Spices used for Achari Masala/Pickling Spices for Achari Aloo

After staring at the blinking curser for another five minutes, I decided to step out and get me a nice cup of green tea with ginger and honey to lift my spirit on a grey and windy day. As the kettle hissed as it boiled water, there was a sudden shower of hailstones from the skies, hitting angrily at the glass window panes. The pearls of ice that looked like a thermocol balls looked pretty on the lawn and reminded me of my hostel days in Dharwad where we collected them in buckets to pour them down from the terrace at unsuspecting visitors! The fond memories made me smile and shake head at our silly, harmless pranks. Ah, those carefree days of student life where fun was the mantra of life! My lips curved up with a nostalgic smile and it remained there as I sipped my tea watching the hailstones bounce off the floor and then settle comfortably. Halfway through my cuppa, I saw the clouds part and sun come out with all his glory and kiss the pearls of ice and melt them into a small puddles. Ah, the very unpredictable British weather! One minute it is raining, the next there is hailstones and the moment later the sun is shining only to hide behind the dark clouds as though a naughty boy has been sent back to his room while trying to sneak downstairs after way past his bedtime!

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“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

~ Albert Einstein

Last week was the most testing, tiring and anxious time for K and me as parents. It was not something entirely new as LD periodically finds himself swallowing cocktails of paracetamol and ibuprofen sometimes flavoured by teaspoonful of antibiotics! ~sigh~ It’s not my favourite sight, but something I have come to accept and carry on as his doctor keep reminding us how he is more susceptible to infections when compared to his peers due to his birth history. We hope that it will get better as he gets old when his immune system is better at coping with infections. For few months, it did look that way until LD ended up in the hospital!

Dum Aloo Kashmiri Recipe | How to Make Kashmiri Dum Alu

Learn how to make Dum Aloo Kashmiri ~ A traditional Kashmiri dish of deep fried baby potatoes cooked in creamy almond and cashew gravy, no onion-garlic recipe

After a month of sultry hot summer days, the skies have opened their doors to cool showers. The welcoming sight of rain drenched plants and trees and the pearly rain drops on a window pane is what exactly we needed after a days of heat waves. As the temperature dropped couple of degrees, our cravings for some spicy delights just went up a notch! Another reason to love the pittar-patter rain!

Husband had come home with a bag of baby potatoes from market and dropping few hints about the Dum Aloo Kashmiri he had had couple of years ago! I pretended not to hear him as the last few attempts of making the famous Kashmiri Dum Aloo were far from being a success story! And the triple sin of not just cooking the potatoes, but also deep frying them before dunking in a rich cashew-almond gravy was something I wanted to avoid when I am on a path of eating healthy! Well, I don’t have to say who won in the end! Interestingly I am not even ashamed to have had committed this triple sin! Ha…

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She was sleeping soundly, smiling in her sleep while she dreamt of splashing water in the stream that gurgled next to her grandma’s house. Or was it the dream where she was chasing colourful butterflies in the garden or climbing the guava tree in the backyard that produced the sweetest guava with delicious red pulp inside! The ceiling fan spinning lazily above made the wild curly waves on her forehead tickle her cheeks, nose and eyes. When the persistent afternoon sun shone brightly on her face, little girl with pigtails sighed and snuggled back under the covers, blissfully embracing slumber.

Dahi Aloo Recipe: Baby Potatoes in Creamy Yogurt Gravy

Dahi Aloo/Baby Potatoes in Creamy Yogurt Gravy

The day started with a big bang! I had taken a day off from work, a much deserving one that is, and decided to make the most of it. My ‘much’ better half left to office and lil dumpling nicely settled in his day care, I had huge, I mean HUGE, plan for the day ahead. A quick call to my hair stylist to book an appointment for the evening, catch up with all the emails from friends, long chat session with my Amma, cook food in leisure, and a long soak in bubbles with my favourite drink and the book I have been wanting to read for ages! Everything was well planned to T!

Gingerly Cooking... From Cookery Show: Ginger-Potato Curry

Ginger-Potato Curry

The symptoms were there but it was not known to me or to my family for quite many months until last week. Like many people I had been unknowingly affected by cooking shows and it was too obvious not to see what I was doing. The first sign of it showed on one weekend morning when I realised I was talking to myself. I had been making our favourite breakfast Upma. “First we chop these ‘lovely’ onions very finely. Don’t we all love the aroma of onions frying in oil”, I whispered. “Next chop these hot green chillies and these ‘gorgeous’ plump red tomatoes. Make sure that you have sharp knife so that tomatoes are chopped into nice small chunks without much difficulty”, I said flashing all 31 teeth to my virtual audience who were watching my actions keenly. “Pick few coriander leaves and chop them very finely…. Mmmm… I love the fresh smell of these coriander leaves and always end up adding more”, I winked at my fans. “You know what the trick behind good Upma is? It is to roast the semolina in low flame till it turns golden brown and to add water little by little when cooking”, said to my all impressed audience.

Yes, I have had fallen a victim of “food porn” in capital letters. Fallen prey for all those flashy cookware and utensils, the way food is cooked and presented, the charming chefs (Jamie Oliver is the one;). It shouldn’t be a big shock for a person who is a foodie and has her own food blog going on full swing. It shouldn’t be a big shock to her husband who is getting used to the sight of his wife clicking pictures of each and every thing which comes under the category food or anything edible. But talking to myself in kitchen pretending to be a celebrity chef on TV is little too much for my own sake. But hey, it was kind of fun while it lasted ;)

With too many cooking shows in too many channels hosted by too many chefs and too many food blogs I some time wonder at this new craze of cooking. You flip the channels and you will find Gordon Ramsey's explosive attitude showering F-words at would-be chefs in one channel, Nigella Lawson whipping delicious (???) food in minutes in other channel. Other channel has its viewers glued to their screen with all sorts of so called celebrities from politics, movies, music backgrounds trying to win Master Chef fame in one show and next one has tight competition going on for the best dish prepared by Michelin-star chefs for Her Majesty, The Queen. I am not sure if the number of people and time spent in preparing food in their own kitchen has increased or is it just another TV show gimmick! But one thing is for sure, the attitude towards cooking has surely changed. In spite of working late in offices or workplace outside home, both men and women are spending much more time with their families in the kitchen cooking everyday meals. Few years before, it was just the lady of the house whom we would see slogging in her kitchen. With changing time, attitude and lifestyle, we can see many men cooking along with their spouse at home. (Well, at least this is the case in our home:)

Coming back to Cookery shows, Ginger-Potato Curry is adapted from the recipe demonstrated by Rakesh Sethi of Mirch Masala fame. With free-view channels with our TV package, I came across this show on Star Plus and watched Mr. Sethi cooking this dish which immediately caught my attention. This was the first time I came across a recipe which uses so much of deep fried ginger and using it as the main ingredient in a curry. With Sunita hosting this month’s Think Spice event where she asked us to cook with Ginger, I could hardly stop myself from giving it a go. I have made few changes to the recipe to suit my taste. Chef Rakesh used 1 cup of ginger julienne for 250 gms of baby potato which I thought will be too bitter and spicy for our palate. I added 1 tbsp cashew paste because I wanted little thick gravy than thin watery one. It was spicy, sour and sweet with tingling taste of fried ginger and sweet taste of baby potatoes and it tasted better the next day when potatoes nicely absorbed the flavours. Next time I might roughly mash potatoes for the flavours to blend well. So with all these changes here is my Ginger-Potato Curry.

Ginger-Potato Curry

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Ginger-Potato Curry
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Serves: 3-4
Recipe Source: Rakesh Sethi of Mirch Masala

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Ingredients:
10-12 Baby Potatoes, cooked and peeled
¼ cup Ginger juliennes (Original recipe called for 1 cup)
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
1-1½ tsp Chilli Powder (preferably Kashmiri Chilli Powder)
1 lime size Tamarind Pulp
½ tsp Methi/Fenugreek, lightly roasted and powdered
1-2 tsp Brown Sugar/Jaggary (adjust acc to taste)
2-3 tbsp Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp Cashew Paste (Optional)
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

For Tempering:
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
2 Dry Red Chillies, broken
Few Curry Leaves
¼ tsp Hing Asafoetida
½ tbsp Kasoori Methi
1 tbsp Oil

Ginger Juliennes Before Frying

Ginger Juliennes After Frying

Method:

Place tamarind pulp in ½ cup of hot water for around 10 minutes. Squeeze the pulp and collect the puree and discard the pulp.
Mix turmeric powder, red chilli powder, tamarind puree, salt to taste with ½ cup of water. This is the basic marinade for the potatoes. Prick cooked and peeled baby potatoes with fork and place then in the marinade. Mix them well and keep aside for around 15 minutes (Chef didn't marinade the potatoes and used it directly). After 15-20 minutes, separate the potatoes and the marinade.
Deep fry ginger juliennes in heated oil in a slow flame till they turn brown and crisp. Drain them on paper towel and keep aside.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add mustard, red chillies, hing and curry leaves.
When mustard starts to pop and splutter, add marinade mixture carefully and mix well. Bring this mixture to a boil at medium flame.
Now add fried ginger, kasuri methi, brown sugar/jaggery, cashew paste and mix well. Cook for further 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add baby potatoes and methi powder and cook over a low flame for 10-12 minutes till all the flavours blend well.
Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves with rice or roties.

Chat-Pata Baby Potatoes

Yeaterday I felt like cooking some chat-pata curry and whenever i think of it first thing comes to my mind is red hot chilli, tarmarind and jaggary. So I tried this new recipe and voila...it turned out to be a hit with K. Its avery simple to make and takes vey less effort... So here is the recipe...

Chat-pata Baby Potatoes

Ingredients:
1 finely chopped Onion
2 chopped tomatoes
8-10 baby potatoes, boiled and peeled
1 tbsp thick tarmarind extract
Fresh finely chopped coriander leaves
5-6 Dry red chillies
4-5 Tblsp of Jaggary
4-5 flakes of garlic
1 Tblsp Jeera/Cumin seeds
Salt to taste
1 Tblsp Oil

Ingredients for Chat-pata Baby Potatoes

Method:
Take a spoon of oil in a pan and add onions till they turn translucent.
Add chopped tomatoes and cook for another few minutes.
Crush red chillies, garlic and jeera and add this to the pan
When the masala leaves its aroma add tarmarind juice, jaggary and salt and mix well.
Make small pores with fork on boiled n peeled baby potatoes so that it absorbs the curry well. Add them to the masalas and cook them in medium flames for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from flame and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
Serve hot with roties or rice.

Chat-pata Baby Potatoes

Tip:
You can make your own variationa by adding or removing some other ingredients.