Dum Aaloo (Kashmiri Potatoes)

Dum Aaloo

A blog after a long time, and more importantly a kinda royal touch to food after a long time. After a long time again, I stole some moments out of my own busy afternoon, kept the strategy project work aside and headed to my kitchen. I peeped into the refrigerator and saw small lovely potatoes and instantly felt like making dum aaloo. A perfectly royal and mouth watering dish made with small potatoes. Sometimes cooking feels like freedom and like love. It is such a relaxing feeling in itself :) 

So what I did - I took eight small potatoes out of my refrigerator (yes!! I do keep my onions and potatoes in the refrigerator.. you might think I am crazy but trust me it keeps them fresh and also reduces the wastage by a good amount). So!! eight potatoes washed and cleaned, but not peeled. Next I took a kitchen knife and gently scrapped the skin of potatoes in a way that only part of the skin comes out. Next I pricked the potatoes with a fork nicely on all sides. Then i soaked these potatoes in cold salt water (around 3 cups with 1.5 teaspoon salt) for 2 hours. This was to let the potatoes uniformly soak in salt.

And then I was back to my Integrated Strategy project again :) 

2 hours later !! --> I took out the potatoes, pat dried them with a paper towel and deep fried the potatoes till they are almost deep brown. I tried to occasionally check if my potatoes were cooked even in the middle with a knife while they were frying, however I will strongly advise not to do it as there is always a risk of splashing oil onto yourself :) and I dont want any of you lovely guys to get burnt. So perhaps if you do want to check, then do so after taking them out of the oil. Remember it is not mandatory to cook the potatoes till the centre at this step, as we will let the potatoes cook again in the final gravy so even if they are not completely done, just ensure that they are red-brown and take them out. 

Next I took 2 teaspoon of cumin seeds (jeera) + 4 cloves (laung) + 1.5 teaspoon of fennel seeds (saunf) + 3-4 cardomom's seeds (choti elachi). I roasted all these on a flat pan for 1 min and then ground them into a powder. 

I added this powder to 3 cups of curd (make sure curd is not sour) + 1.5 teaspoon of garam masala and 2 teaspoon of chillies. Then I added the deep fried potatoes in this curd mix and left them to marinate. 

In the meantime, I grated 3 onions and 4 tomatoes. Then i heated 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil in a pan and fried grated onions. When the onions were golden brown, I added 2 teaspoons of ginger-garlic paste to this mixture and kept frying. When the onions were little more brown, I added the grated tomatoes to the pan and fried till the tomatoes started separating from the oil. When the onions and tomatoes were nicely fried, I added the curd-potato marinated mixture to the pan and gave a good stir to the whole thing. Then I added a little water (like half a glass) and added salt to taste. Finally I added 2 teaspoons sugar to this recipe and covered the lid (sugar is not needed if tomatoes are little sweet...mine were very sour...so I added sugar).

I let this dish cook for 20 minutes on low heat. The slower the potatoes cook the better taste they get :) 

Finally I added fresh chopped cilantro (and a lot of it) to the dish and served hot with rice and chapatis. 

:) Njoy!! and see you next time again with something new :)