Potato And Bitter Gourd Stir Fry, Urulaikizhangu Pavakkai Vadakkal

          Last month, we had lunch at a Bengali restaurant, though I have tasted Bengali food a couple of times, I cannot talk about the authenticity of a dish. But on that day, I spoke to a girl ( a Bengali student ) sitting at the next table and she told me that she was tasting home style food after a long time, I took that as the verdict. One of the dishes that we ordered that day was a vegetable bajje ( appetizer ), I thought it would be some vegetable, dipped in batter and deep fried. To my surprise, it was a potato and bitter gourd fry, I think both the vegetables were deep fried and then sauteed with some spices. We just loved it, and I wanted to try it at home, I have tried to reproduce it from what I had tasted, I didn't get the recipe, and also I have tried to make it healthy too, try this, even kids wouldn't mind the pavakkai/ karela/ bitter gourd in this..

Need To Have

• Bitter Gourd - 2 medium
• Potatoes - 3 small
• Fennel Seed Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Red Chilly Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt to taste

Method

          Slightly scrape the outer skin of the bitter gourd, slice into half, scoop out the seeds in the middle and make thin half-moon slices. Peel and slice the potatoes like we do it for French fries. 

          Heat some oil in a pan, add the potato slices and a little salt,  cover and keep sauteing, till the potato fingers turn golden with few brown spots here and there, remove and keep. 

          Add some more oil, now add the sliced bitter gourd and salt and cover and keep sauteing till it gets wrinkled, gets cooked and slightly crispy, remove and keep. 

          Add a little oil, add the fennel seed, chilly and turmeric powders along with the sugar, give a mix and add both the vegetables, mix with the spice powders and keep sauteing for another 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and serve it warm with dal and rice or rotis.

Note

You can deep fry both the potato and bitter gourd, the dish at the restaurant was just oozing out oil.

The final dish should not be crunchy, but sort of soft and crispy at the same time.

The bitter gourd loses most of its bitter taste.

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Aloo Bhindi/ Potato And Okra Curry

          I love potatoes, this vegetable is so versatile, you can make so many dishes with it, gravies, fries, chips, even sweets can be made from this vegetable. It not only tastes good, all by itself, but combines beautifully with almost any vegetable and gives a wonderful taste to any dish. I have used it in combination with eggplants, green peas, spinach, and now for today's recipe, along with okra/ bhindi/ lady's finger. Even people who otherwise don't like okra because of its sliminess would try this dish with potato. This dish has a nice garlic flavor and goes very well with both rotis and rice..

Need to Have

• Potato - 2 medium, chopped
• Okra - 1" pieces, 2 cups
• Garlic - 5 cloves, crushed with the skin
• Onions - 2 medium, chopped
• Tomato - 1 medium, chopped
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Coriander Powder - 1 teaspoon
• Chilli Powder - 3/4 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - 10

Method

          Heat some oil, add the potato pieces, saute on reduced heat, till it turns golden and is almost cooked, remove the potatoes and keep.

          If needed, add a little oil, add the okra pieces and saute till gets light brown spots and is almost cooked, remove and keep.

          Now add some oil, add the cumin seeds, once it starts sizzling, add the garlic pieces and mix till you get a nice flavor from the garlic and it turns golden. Then add the chopped onions and keep sauteing till it turns pink, then add the turmeric, chilli and coriander powders and mix for a minute.

          Now add the potato and okra pieces, add some salt, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Remove the lid, add the tomatoes, cover it one more time and cook till the tomatoes start to break down. Then, remove the lid, add the curry leaves, if needed a little oil and keep sauteing for 4 to 5 minutes on reduced heat, Remove and serve warm with rice or rotis along with some dal.

Note
You can also deep fry the potato and okra pieces, I have avoided it to keep the dish a little healthy.
Can double the amount of garlic if you like it.

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Potatoes Boulangère

I got yet another pound of potatoes in my Boston Organics delivery and was trying to figure out a new way to eat it.  I love potatoes, but I was a little tired of having them crashed or dominoed.  Then while watching the season 1 premiere of Gordon Ramsay's The F Word, inspiration struck.  He made something called potatoes boulangère, which look like scalloped potatoes but without all the cheese or cream.  I had never heard of it before, and I didn't even know how to spell it, so I had to look up the episode to figure it out.

Basically, you layer thinly sliced potatoes with onions and then braise the whole thing in the oven with some stock.  It's amazingly simple, but if you take the time of arrange the layers, can look very elegant.  I chose to follow the recipe from the James Beard Foundation which has you sweat the onions first until golden, adding a some depth to the flavor.  I also sprinkled in some chopped rosemary and thyme, adding another dimension of flavor.

The addition of the stock and the braising method of cooking is what sets this dish apart from a potato galette.  The stock you add is absorbed by the potatoes and onions and really infuses it all with a nice shot of umami.  By braising it in the oven, you get a nice gradient of texture, from the crispy browned edges to the soft, melt-in-your-mouth layers in the middle.  It's so good I have to admit I ate half the dish in one sitting.

Potatoes Boulangère (adapted from the James Beard Foundation)
makes 2 servings

2 medium-large potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary and/or thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup of chicken, beef, or vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Thinly slice the onion.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter and the oil in a skillet and add onions. Cook until golden and soft (not brown), shaking the pan occasionally. Drain, saving the liquid.

Using a mandoline, slice the potatoes into paper-thin slices.  (I left the skin on this time, but you can also peel the skin off beforehand.)

Liberally butter a 1-quart baking dish (I used a pie pan).

Put in a layer of potatoes, followed by a layer of onions. Season with the chopped herbs, salt, and pepper.

Continue to make layers of potatoes and onions, seasoning the layers, and end with a top layer of potatoes.

Season with more chopped herbs, salt, and pepper and dot with remaining butter.

Pour on the liquid from the onions and the stock.

Bake about 30 or 40 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed and the potatoes test tender with a fork.

Honestly, you could just fill in all the bottom layers haphazardly and just make the top layer look all pretty, and you'd get the same effect!

Three years ago:  Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce

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Potato Curry With Fresh Spice Powder/ Urulaikizhangu Podi Curry

          Once again, another potato curry, but do we get tired of potatoes, definitely no. This curry is similar to the Kathirikkai Podi Curry, with only a little variation here and there, but still I thought I should do a separate post on it. It tasted awesome with a mild fenugreek flavor and goes well with almost anything, especially  tastes very good with sambar and curd rice..

Need To Have

• Baby Potatoes - 3 cups, boiled and peeled
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Asafoetida Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - 10
• Salt - to taste

To Powder

• Coriander Seeds - 2 teaspoons
• Chana Dal/ Bengal Gram - 1 teaspoon
• Dried Red Chillies - 4
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Method

          Roast the ingredients given under ' to powder ' in  very little oil, in the order given, adding the fenugreek seeds last, taking care not to burn the fenugreek seeds, tastes bitter. Cool, powder coarsely and keep.

          Heat some oil, add the mustard seeds, when it starts spluttering, add the potatoes and keep roasting on low heat for 5 to 7 minutes.

          Then add the turmeric powder, salt, asafoetida and the ground powder, mix for 2 minutes. Add the curry leaves, if needed a little more oil and keep frying for another 3 to 4 minutes. Remove and serve warm.

Note
You should do this curry with potatoes that don't become mushy while frying, don't use the ones used for mashed potatoes.

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Aloo Methi/ Potato With Fresh Fenugreek, Dry Version

          Potatoes, there can be very few people who'll say 'I hate this vegetable', we might be avoiding it for health reasons, but then the simple potato curry is always very tempting. My daughter loves potatoes, so I make them at least once a week, and this combination with methi/ fenugreek leaves is simply too good. I have another version in my blog which has some gravy, this one is a dry version. I have used Tarla Dalal's recipe, I know, I'll be making this again and again..

Need To Have

• Potatoes - Boiled, peeled and cubed - 21/2 cups
• Chopped Methi - 3 cups
• Ginger - 1" piece, grated
• Garlic - 2 cloves, grated
• Green Chilly - 1, chopped finely
• Dried Red Chillies - 2
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Coriander Powder - 2 teaspoons
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon

Method

          Dry roast the red chillies and break it into small pieces and keep. Add a little salt to the methi, leave it for half an hour and squeeze out the water. Heat some oil, add the cumin seeds, when it starts sizzling, add the ginger, garlic and the red chillies, saute for a minute till the raw garlic smell goes off. Then add the diced potatoes and saute for about 5 minutes.

Now add the turmeric, coriander powders, asafoetida and salt, chopped methi and green chilly, mix, cover and cook on slow heat for about 10 minutes. Serve it warm with pooris or rotis.

Note
Don't skip the step, squeezing the excess water from the methi, otherwise the dish will not come out dry.
You can use baby potatoes or any potato that doesn't turn mushy will sauteing.
Use fresh coriander powder if possible, it always adds to the flavor.
You can find fresh fenugreek leaves in Indian stores, you can also use the frozen one too, in fact, I always, clean, chop and freeze the methi, so that I can use it later.

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Potato Dominoes

I've made potatoes french fried, hashed, crashed, mashed on a pizza, and even mashed in a St. Patrick's Day maki roll, but never have I ever heard of making them dominoed before.  Then all within the span of one day, I read two separate posts about Francis Mallmann's Potato Dominoes.  Coincidence?  I think not.

They're basically potatoes cut into rectangular blocks, then sliced thinly into something like a deck of cards.  Then they're roasted with clarified butter and some salt.  That's it!

The great thing about making potatoes this way is that it totally works for potatoes that may have been sitting around a little too long.  You know the ones I'm talking about--the ones that have little (or maybe not so little) growths in the eyes--the same ones that you may just throw away in a couple of days.  The genius of this recipe is that in order to get the potatoes into that block shape, you end up cutting off a lot of the outside.  While with normal potatoes this would seem like a waste (although you could always save them to make oven fries or loaded potato skins), with the old, squidgy potatoes, you'd be cutting all that off anyways!

 
Potato Dominoes (adapted from Seven Fires:  Grilling the Argentine Way)
serves 1-2

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 lb. potatoes
Coarse salt

 
Make clarified butter by slowly melting the butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat; do not stir.

Remove from the heat and carefully spoon off any foam from the top.

 
Carefully pour the clear liquid butter into a small container, leaving behind the solids in the pan.  Once cool, the clarified butter can be refrigerated for weeks.

Preheat oven (with the rack positioned in the center of the oven) to 400°F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with a Silpat.

 
Cut off the two ends of a potato. Trim the 4 sides of the potato to form an even brick.

 
Slice the potato about 1/8 inch thick on a mandoline.

 
Stack the slices together like a deck of cards.  Tilt the stack over at an angle and lay on the prepared baking sheet.  Dot the top and sides with 1 tablespoon of the clarified butter.

 
Sprinkle with salt to taste. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, keeping the stacks at least 2 inches apart.

 
Bake for 40 minutes or until the potatoes are browned on the edges and tender in the middle when tested with a skewer. Serve immediately.

 
At first I couldn't understand how Food52 got their potato dominoes to look so browned but then I realized they just flipped them over!

These turned out exactly as promised:  crispy at the edges and yet somehow still creamy in the middle.  I loved that each slice was cooked through; I really hate the taste and texture of undercooked potato.  I'd love to try this with maybe a sprig of rosemary or thyme laid across the top of each stack or maybe even with duck fat instead of the butter.

Four years ago:  Tomato and Eggs over Rice, Cassava Heavy Cake

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Potato And Eggplant Curry

          Most of the times when I have potatoes and eggplants/brinjals, I make separate curries with them, very rarely I do a combo with them except in a kurma. I have made this curry only a couple of times. The two vegetables pair very well, especially if you choose the right kind of eggplants and potatoes. When sauteed with some freshly ground spice powder, it turned out to be very flavorful and tasty, it's a good side dish with both rice and rotis..

Need To Have

• Baby Eggplants - 11/2 cup diced
• Potatoes - 11/2 cup, boiled, peeled and diced
• Onion - 1 medium chopped
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Chopped Coriander - 1/4 cup
• Salt - to taste

To Powder

• Dried Red Chillies - 2
• Coriander Seeds - 1 tablespoon
• White Poppy Seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon

Method

          Grind all the ingredients given under 'to powder'. Heat some oil, add the mustard and cumin seeds, when it starts spluttering add the asafoetida and the chopped onions and saute till it turns pink.

          Now add the eggplants and mix. Then add the turmeric powder and salt. Cover and cook till the brinjals are done.

          Then add the potatoes, mix, add the ground powder and mix well. Keep sauteing it for another 5 minutes. Finally mix in the chopped coriander, serve it warm with rice and dal or even with some rotis.

Note
I have used baby eggplants, you can also use the regular big ones too.
Choose potatoes which are not used for baking, that holds shape when cooked.

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