South Indian Aloo Masala |Boiled Potatoes' Mash For Puri and Dosa| Alu Bhaji

A south Indian style potatoes curry. A dry curry, kind of a side one, served generously on a dosa or paired alongside puri or paratha. When we talk about south Indian cuisine, picture the use of lentils, tamarind, curry leaves, mustard seeds and coconut. Right from south Indian chutneys to daily curries to routine staple food such as sambhar, idli, dosa, vada, appam-they use above mentioned ingredients a lot.

Even though the use of potatoes aka aloo, is in abundance in other parts of India, potatoes are rarely used in Southern indian cooking even today, barring one or two dishes like Potato Fry and Masala Dosa Or Alu Massala.

To tell you about southern India, South India consists of the five southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Pondicherry, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar. So even though they eat similar kinds of food, the taste and the way of preparing the meal is widely different. That’s why same dosa in Chennai will be different to the one is Mysore or same idli in Kerala can be different to the one served in Hydrabad. The same goes for today's post too. Potato Massala can be kerala style, or Tamil Nadu style but since I am not from south India, I will keep it as a whole- South Indian Style Potato Masala.

Potato Massala or Aloo Massala or Aloo Bhaji is made with semi mashed potatoes. So if you ask, how to boil potatoes? You can pressure cook potatoes in the pressure cooker for 1-2 whistles. I generally use the microwave method. To do so, make a slit on the potatoes with a knife. Keep it in a glass bowl full of water and microwave for 12 minutes. You might need to reduce or increase the time depending on the size of the potatoes.

 So, once boiled potatoes are ready then you just need to sauté it with thinly sliced onions and green chilies. I would say that if you don’t have curry leaves, do not make this, because honestly curry leaves brings out such a good aroma to otherwise plain aalo masala.  It is a such a simple dish that gets ready quickly, and you can serve as a stuffing for dosa or pair along with fried poori such ajwain puri or palak poori.  You can also use this as stuffing for sandwiches, kathi rolls, wraps and frankies.

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes boiled (around 1.5 cups)

1 medium sized onion, thinly sliced

1 green chilli, finely chopped

2 dry red chillies

2 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon urad daal

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds/rai

10 curry leaves

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder/haldi

salt to taste

Little water to sprinkle

Method:

Mash the potatoes. I used hands to do so. Do not over-mash the potatoes, it should have lumps.

Heat oil in pan. When oil gets hot, add in mustard seeds. When mustard seeds starts to crackle, reduce the heat to medium.

Then add urad daal and fry till golden.

Add in curry leaves, dry red chilies, green chilies and onion. Fry onion till its transparent.

Then add in potatoes, turmeric and salt. Mix well.

Sprinkle some water to make like massala consistency. Cover and cook again for 1 minute.

Serve.