Recipe : Kashmiri Dum Aloo

In my quest to search and cook new things for hubby, I stumbled upon this wonderful group - Chef At Large (CAL). The wonderful people, cooking wonderful dishes inspired me to no end.

I had bought a kg of baby potatoes to try my hand at 'dhaniye ke aloo', inspired by my mum in law and my bua saas. That my friends, was a failed first attempt. I will need to go back to those wonderful cooks to learn that recipe properly. So I had these left over baby potatoes and a husband who kept mentioning dum aloo and how he is going to cook the dish one of these days.

Being inspired by the group, I fired up my laptop, searched the internet for a recipe, found one - altered and tweaked it a bit to my taste and voila - I had the perfect Kashmiri Dum Aloo! And the real happiness comes when after the first bite husband says - bahut badhiya... oh the joy that filled me!

So here's my altered recipe...

Difficulty Level : ☆☆

Time Required : 

          Preparation - 30 minutes

          Cooking - 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

Baby Potatoes 20 nos. boiled in salted water and peeled

Onion 1 medium size, finely chopped

Thick Curd 3/4 cup or 5 tbsp

Bay Leaf 1 no.

Asafoetida (Hing) 1 pinch

Red Chili Powder 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp

Coriander Powder 1 tsp

Cumin Powder (bhuna pisa jeera) 1/2 tsp

Ginger 1 pc.

Garlic 4-5 cloves

Green Cardamom (Elaichi) 1 pod

Cinnamon 1 small pc. 

Cloves 4 nos.

Kasuri Methi 1/2 tbsp

Sugar 1 tsp

Cooking Oil 3 and 1/2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Corriander Leaves 1 tbsp, finely chopped (for garnishing)

PROCEDURE:

1. Take boiled and peeled baby potatoes and poke them slightly with a fork (this would make sure that flavors go deep inside).

2. Dry roast cardamom pod, cinnamon and cloves on a flat tava for 2 minutes and then crush them in a mortar and pestle till they are grounded to a fine powder. Keep it aside.

3. Grate ginger and garlic and keep aside. 

4. Take about 1 and 1/2 tbsp oil in a wok and heat it. Then add the potatoes to it and shallow fry them till they are golden brown. 

5. Strain them and keep aside.

6. Add remaining oil to the wok and heat it. Now add asafoetida and saute for about 10 seconds.

7. Add the bay leaf and chopped onion and saute till the onion turns slightly translucent.

8. Add the ginger and garlic from 3rd step to the wok and saute for another 30 seconds.

9. Now add the dry powder from 2nd step to the wok and saute for a minute.

10. Beat the curd and slowly add it to the wok. Add the turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder to it. Mix again.

11. Continue stirring  for about 3 minutes or till the oil separates.

12. Add shallow fried potatoes from 4th step to the wok.

13. Add kasuri methi, sugar and salt and cook on low heat for about 2 minutes.

14. Add 1 cup water and bring to boil.

15. When it starts to boil, cover the wok with a lid and cook on low heat till desired consistency of the gravy is achieved.

16. Transfer to serving bowl, garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot.

Additional Noteworthy Points:

1. Grating ginger and garlic imparts extra flavor. You can grind them in a mixer or use garlic ginger paste instead.

2. Dry roasting and then crushing the pod, cinnamon and cloves imparts more flavor. You can grind them directly in a mixer as well.

3. For additional richness, you can grind about 8 to 10 cashews with the spices as well.

Cook With Love...