Traditional Pot Roasted Potatoes -Hing Diye Alur Dom
Mahalaya, or the first day of Durga Puja. Folklore heralds this as the day the goddess starts her journey to earth. In Kolkata, the day is synonymous with waking up early. All to listen to the All India Radio program called Mahishasur Mardini, or the slayer of the demon. An audio version an equivalent to the Nut Cracker around Christmas. I am celebrating with this classic Alur Dom.
Other things and Fall Festivals
The calendar seems to have pegged the festival earlier this year. Rosh Hashanah making the weather very appropriate for all things festive. With the grace of the mother Goddess the storm at work seems to have abated making it quite perfect to enjoy time in the kitchen.
As for the early morning ritual, well no radio listening here. But racing to the school and making the train in this nippy weather sort of is invigorating too! I have been noticing bright leaves of all kinds of pretty colors, I need to get my act together to take some pictures before fall passes by.
Grape Harvest Ritual
Last weekend, we also harvested all our red grapes and in celebration. It is an entire day of fun with crush grapes and extracting the juice. A lot of work, but fun too! A curry garden ritual to celebrate.
We had invited Anju over to join the fun and to celebrate, I cooked the family a variation of what I call my ultimate Alur Dom. Folks to get this down to a happy spot, it has taken some practice and I am now ready to share. The distinction of this variation of Alur Dom, is that it is made with Hing or Asafetida, and is also sometimes know as Niramish or (Vegetarian) alur Dom. This dish with hot fluffy luchis is my idea of ultimate happiness. It brings back memories of Durga Puja, especially the ones in my teens that I spent with my grandmother. In those days, my grandmother very skeptical about the street food that I later began to devour with a gusto, although today I would trade in a heart beat if I could bring back her cooking.
I had not been brave enough to add this when I wrote the Bengali Five Spice Chronicles, of course, I do have another family recipe for Alur Dom in book, this one is distinct in its use of asafetida or Hing and a lot of careful done with love on the stove top slow cooking. No gimmicks, to get the results, this baby needs the time. Although while it is cooking it really needs minimal stirring, not loads of effort.
Our traditional family recipe used to add thick yogurt to the mix, instead of the tomatoes. Anju is the vegan for whom many of the vegan recipes on this blog are created with care, so, I added two tomatoes. By the time the dish cooked down, I was pleased with the results, no necessary redness here. I would have liked smaller potatoes for this dish and promise to recreate this with those next time, and the key is of course to remember to take the pictures.
A perfect creation for festive eating, perfect with the bengali fried bread called luchi.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 3/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 3 dried red chilies
- 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek (methi) seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 3 pounds of small white skinned round potatoes
- 1/4 cup oil (such as canola)
- 3/4 teaspoon asafetida
- 2 to 3 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon fresh finely grated ginger
- 11/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 11/2 teaspoons Kashmiri chili powder or paprika
- 3/4 teaspoon red cayenne pepper
- 3 medium sized tomatoes chopped
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 11/2 teaspoons garam masala (preferably the Bengali variety)
- 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro (optional)
Instructions
- Place the spices for the spice base in a spice grinder and grind until nice and smooth and set aside.
- In a large pot add a lot of water and boil the potatoes for about 5 minutes, please note the objective here is to par-boil them, not cook them through as that would be a disaster.
- Cool and peel the potatoes and set aside to dry.
- Heat the oil and very hot,and add in the asafetida and bay leaves followed fairly quickly by the grated ginger.
- Saute the ginger for 2 minutes and add in the turmeric, paprika and the cayenne pepper.
- Add in the peeled potatoes with the prepared spice mixture carefully and mix will, the mixture should coat the potatoes uniformly. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Add in the tomatoes sugar, salt and cook for about 15 minutes on low heat, until the mixture is soft and well coated. Add in about 3/4 cup water and continue cooking the mixtures on low heat for another 25 minutes. This will allow the flavors to develop and the mixture to cook through.
- Eventually you should have soft golden yellow potatoes coated with flecks of a dark spicy mixture.
- Sprinkle with the garam masala and the chopped cilantro if using and serve hot.
monika
hiiii,
use of sugar is compulsary???
rinkub@aol.com
No, but it does add a little color and balances the other flavors.