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This post is all about ‘The Bengali and their immense love for potatoes’.
I mentioned a few times before in my blog that how much we Bongs love potato and drool over this most common veggie. So we invented a variety of recipes of potato by keeping it as the core ingredient to avoid boredom of it. The reason of it is simple, we want to enjoy it everyday but without it being very ‘aam’ (common). Every bong’s kitchen has its own little secret recipe to keep it alive as a special one apart from regular preparations.
I mentioned a few times before in my blog that how much we Bongs love potato and drool over this most common veggie. So we invented a variety of recipes of potato by keeping it as the core ingredient to avoid boredom of it. The reason of it is simple, we want to enjoy it everyday but without it being very ‘aam’ (common). Every bong’s kitchen has its own little secret recipe to keep it alive as a special one apart from regular preparations.
There are many preparations of potato which are widely used by Bengalis. Thus they are common, but their cooking technique and complementary ingredients makes each of them very much different from the other.
My today’s pick is from the common yet uncommon category: Jhal Jhal Aloor Dum or Alur Dom. It is a dry preparation originally. But can be made in both dry and gravy versions. I made this few days back with Radhaballavi and Cholar dal. Then I had huge left over. So on the next day we had these spicy potatoes as chaat with more Bhaja Moshla (dry roasted spices) and few more ingredients (actually, whatever I had home). I’ll share that recipe some other day.
For today it is the recipe of Jhaal Jhaal Alur dom or Aloo Dum.
Core Ingredients:
Small size potato: 500 gms (if you don’t have these small potatoes, go for normal size and make them half)
Tomatoes: 2-3 (large, ripe) or Tomato Puree: 2-3 tbsp
Warm water: 2 cups
Coriander leaves: for decoration, (I never find them in my pantry when I need them 🙁 )
Spices:
Red chilli powder: 2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1 ½ tsp
Cumin powder: 1 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar to balance
Ingredients for tempering oil:
Oil: 4-5 tbsp (you can use ghee for this. But I somehow restrained myself 😛 )
Cinnamon stick: 2”
Green cardamom: handful
Cloves: handful
Sugar: ½ tsp
Asafetida/ hing: 1 pinch (See Tips)
Preparation:
First make the tomato puree if you are not using store bought one. Roughly chop the tomatoes and make a puree of it with the help of a blender. Don’t throw away the skin. Use the tomatoes with their skins on. (See Tips)
Clean and peel all the potatoes. (See Tips)
Soak potatoes in water (room temperature) to avoid black patches on them.
Take a large nonstick wok and heat oil in it on high flame.
Add ingredients under ‘For Tempering oil’ and let them crackle.
Once it is fragrant, drain water and add potatoes in the wok.
Fry them for few mins (say 3-4 mins.) on high flame. Once potatoes change the color to slightly golden, add all the spices except BhajaMoshla. Also turn the flame on medium.
Mix all the spices well so that each potato gets coated with the spices. Keep frying on medium flame.
Once raw smell of spices is gone, add tomato puree and mix it well with the rest.
Let it cook for another few mins. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking to the bottom.
Add water and let it boil on high flame. When bubbles start appearing, keep it covered on low flame and let it cook until potatoes are done.
Check the seasoning and desired consistency of the gravy. As I wanted it as a dry item, I evaporated most of the gravy.
Be careful not to break or smash the potatoes as they are very tender now.
And your Jhal Jhal Alur Dom is ready to serve. Decorate with coriander leaves and let it invite all to the dinner table.
Serve it with Luchi, Poori, Kochuri (Kachori) or Radhaballavi; it tastes fingerliciously good with any of them. You can serve it with simple Rotior Fulka as well. You know what? Even you don’t need anything to go with it. Serve it as an appetizer or chat as it is and it will still rock any party hard.
Tips:
1. Some people recommend to use Asafetida/hing, but frankly speaking for Bengali Alur Dom I personally don’t prefer this; so I never used it.
3. To get the extra rich red color of the gravy, always use red fully ripe tomatoes. And never ever de-skin the tomatoes; use the skin as well as the pulp.
4. It is a boring and tedious job to peel all those tiny potatoes; I know. If you are comfortable to keep the skin on, go ahead, I wasn’t so I peeledthem off.
I tried your recipe for Alu Dum it turned out to be awesome…the best ever I have made till date…thank you!!
Its Really awesome recipe. Thanks for sharing.
This recipe is a hit! thank you for illustrating so well and inspiring others to cook.
Please mention the "bhaja moshla" ingredients.
Ingredients and recipe link is already here. Click on the word 'Bhaja Moshla' and you will be on the particular page.