DUM ALOO

Serves: 4 as part of an Indian meal.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours.

Dietary Style: Veg. GF.

Dum aloo is a festive dish - it was served at our wedding, and also at my Dad’s funeral. Of course I already made a story about that beautiful coincidence.

This is a great dish to start with if you’d like to try to produce a very traditional Kashmiri Pandit dish but are a little bit intimidated by starting with the complexity of lamb or chicken. Potatoes are familiar, and they are forgiving when it comes to small errors of cooking.

Try the recipe. You won’t regret it.

INGREDIENTS

• 700 g chat or baby potatoes, skin on
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup mustard oil
• 5 tbsp mustard oil
• 4 tbsp yoghurt, heaped
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 cup water
• 1 ½ tsp fennel powder

• 1 ½ tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• Pinch of asafoetida
• 6 black cardamom pods, crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 clove buds
• 2 tsp fine pink salt

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1. Fill a medium-sized pot with water and boil on high heat. When boiling add in the baby potatoes and cook with the lid off until just tender so that a fork poked into a potato will meet little resistance, but will not break the potato apart. About 12 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool.

2. Once cool, gently peel the potatoes. With a thin skewer, poke two to three holes in each potato to enable it to take on the spice.

3. Heat a heavy-based, deep pot or cast-iron wok with two cups vegetable oil and one cup mustard oil until very hot, so that the potato immediately sizzles as it hits the oil. Fry the potatoes in small batches until deep golden brown, moving them gently through the oil so as to not break them apart. A crust should form on the outside of the potato. Drain potatoes of oil on a paper towel and set aside. Once the fried potatoes are cooled slightly, use a skewer again to pole two to three holes in each potato.

4. In a separate, medium-sized heavy-based pot heat five tbsp of mustard oil on high.

5. While the mustard oil is heating, mix together the yoghurt and red chilli powder in a small bowl and add to the hot oil. It will spatter, so be careful to step back. Stir the yoghurt, chilli and oil mix briskly until it splits. About one minute.

6. Still, on high heat, add water and stir well. Add the rest of the spices and lettuce yoghurt, oil, water and spices keep cooking at a boil for one minute or until stirred through. Add the fried potatoes, turn the heat down to medium-low and keep cooking, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is almost dry and the oil separates. This should take around 20 minutes. If you are having trouble with the potato sticking, turn the heat down further and take more time to reduce the liquid.

7. Remove from the stovetop and serve hot with rice and dal, or chapati and pickle.

   Note

   • Mustard oil and asafoetida can be found in all Indian and most Asian grocers.