Punjabi Dum Aloo: Baby Potatoes In Rich Tomato Gravy

A non Indian friend who follows my blog and loves my cooking always asks-don’t you get bored of Indian cooking, rolling rotis and making curries every day? Ah! No, I don’t. Indian cooking is therapeutic and rejuvenating. Every massala is important, every spice is significant and every step is pure bliss. Cooking Indian food is a magical process, a satisfying experience and an art. You can’t throw or mix anything at anytime; you need to wait for the oil to get hot, for cumin to splutter and for aroma to rise. Oh, only an Indian can understand my words.

Rich curries like paneer butter massala, paneer kofta, daal makhani happens once a month because such recipes are royal in terms of process and ingredients.  There are simple Indian curries which are everyday affair such as gajar mutter, palak bhaji or gobi mutter –straightforward and uncomplicated. So when I have time and good mood, I like to indulge myself into royal cooking experience else I stick to simple Indian cooking-but, no, I never get bored and I never will :-)

Moving on, we have subscribed to Netflix and now we hardly move out of the house. We finished watching breaking bad series (all seasons) in 15 days-yeah we are hooked to our television set. Saturday we had no other plans either, we are now binge watching Homeland. Mr. Husband wanted to eat something nice, I know his ‘nice’.-meaning a subji that has aloo (potatoes). How about sukha aloo (dry potatoes) I asked. No, he said, something spicy that would go with this wintery climate. Dum Aloo, I whispered. He nodded yes with excitement. Dum Aloo is another example of how amazing and creative Indian cooking can be.

Dum Aloo (baby potatoes in gravy) ,takes on different flavours as it travels from state to state throughout the India. Kashmiri Dum Alu is made using yogurt (dahi) and cashews and is sweet in taste. In Bengal, it is known as 'Aloor Dom' and is said to be lightly spiced and simple. Laknawi (Lucknow) style dum aloo has center filled with paneer and later dunked into caramelized onion gravy. Today I am sharing Punjabi Dum Aloo.

In Punjab, its more like restaurant's, with a thick and tangy gravy with tomatoes and yogurt and delicately spiced. This has balance of all the taste buds- sweet, spicy and bit tangy. Lots of whole spices are used to release subtle aroma. We both love and relish Punjabi style of Dum Aloo the most. Don’t stop or hesitate to cook this after seeing the number of steps, like I said, Indian cooking is the best-do try this.

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes-10

1/4 tsp asafoetida /hing

1 medium sized onion roughly chopped

2 medium sized tomatoes roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ginger/adrak chopped

4 cloves garlic/lehsun chopped

1 cup of curd/yogurt

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder/haldi

1 teaspoon red chilli powder/lal mirch

1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves/Kasturi methi

1 bay leaf/tej patta

Oil for cooking and shallow frying

1 tablespoon butter or ghee

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon corn flour

4 tablespoon coriander leaves finely chopped for garnishing

(For Massala/Spice mix)

1 Black cardamom/badi elyachi

2 green cardamoms/hari elaychi

5  peppercorns/kali micrh

1 tablespoon coriander seeds/dhaniya

1/2 teaspoon fennel/saunf

1/2 inch cinnamon stick/dal chini

3 cloves/laung

2 dry red chillies

Method:

1. Dry roast all the ingredients listed under spice mix list on slow heat. Once cooled, grind them to fine powder.
2. Wash potatoes. In a pressure cooker put sufficient water (just to cover potatoes) with 1 teaspoon salt. Cook on high flame till 2 whistles are released. Peel the potatoes.
3. Take a fork and start pricking every potato with it (make holes). Heat 4 tablespoon oil in a pan and shallow fry potatoes till golden and crip from all the sides.
4. Heat oil in a wok/kadai. When hot, add in asafoetida and bay leaf.
5. Add garlic, ginger. Mix for 1 minute.
6. Slow down the heat. Add chopped onions and cook till onions turn dark pink in colour.
7. Add chopped tomato. Mix in salt, corn flour, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and 1 teaspoon fenugreek leaves. Cover and cook till tomatoes are soft and mushy.
8. Mix the dry roasted spice mix with yogurt and beat till smooth. Pour this paste in tomato paste and keep stirring for 2 minutes. When you start seeing oil on the edges, turn the heat to low and cook it covered for 5 minutes.
9. Blend the above made gravy in the blender with 1 cup of water. Sieve this gravy (chaan le).
10. Heat ghee/butter in a pan and add gravy to it. Throw in potatoes and sugar, cover and let it simmer on slow heat for 10 minutes.
11. Garnish with coriander leaves and dried fenugreek leaves.

Notes:

This can be made all yogurt or all tomato gravy as well. Only the colour will change.

For low fat (healthy) version don’t shallow fry the potatoes, just use the boiled one.

Every pressure cooker is different, so make your own judgement while boiling potatoes.

Dry roasting and grinding the spices can be done 1 week before.

Consistency of gravy is smooth and thick, but, feel free to adjust water as per your choice.

Serving Suggestions:

Serve with naan, roti or any plain paratha. I served with methi theplas.

Goes well with rice or biryani.

It is a royal dish, so do make this to please your guests for parties of get together.

For the complete Punjabi thali serve it with paneer butter massala and dal makhani.