Re: Share your recipes
Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 2:21 am
Potato Dry Fry
This makes an awesome side dish for the lemon flavoured rice I posted earlier. I am going to post two dishes done in different methods. one from my mom and the other from a distant grandma.
Starting with the dish from my mom
Ingredients
Potatoes -2 medium sized. NOT the sweet ones; the light/dark soil colored ones; any local variety will do. Wash and peel the skin off. There is another line of cooking where these are boiled in a pressure cooker for 2/3 whistles and then used in this method later, but I personally do not like this method since the potatoes will not absorb any flavour while boiling. So I will let the boiling happen in the pan with all flavours. Cut these into medium sized cubes after peeling off the skin
Oinion & tomato - half to 1 full size each; sliced and diced as small as we can cut these since they form the backbone for gravy/curry. I do not like adding tomato, but my mom does to add quantity to the dry gravy
Garlic - 2 - sliced and diced as small as we can cut these, or even better, if we can make a paste out of this. I do not suggest going for ready made paste available in stores since they contain preservatives - ALERT - fresh ingredients preferred always in Indian style cooking.
Ginger - equal in quantity to that of garlic after minced.
Black mustard seeds - 1/4 spoon
Urad gram or cumin seeds - 1/4 spoon. I forgot what my mom adds, but I usuall add either of these two.
Notes:
Garlic and ginger along with curmin seeds are added to balance or in fact relieve the flatulence from consuming potato.
Method
1. Heat a medium sized pan, add oil once the pan is heated and once the oil gets heated, add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let it splutter
2. Add the garlic & ginger and let them turn light brown. Then add the onions and let it become translucent/light/golden brown
3. Add the tomatoes at this point if tomatoes are preferred to add more dry gravy to the overall dish.
4. Add potatoes and let them stay on the pan with occasional stirring for a couple of minutes. make sure none of the ingredients gets burned. Cooking always needs 100% manual presence during these times. Either add little more oil at the start or make sure to stir frequently so nothing gets burned
5. Once the potatoes get slightly cooked, add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and give a nice stir so all the sides of the potatoes gets coated with these
6. Add enough water to submerge the potatoes, stir again to make sure everything is mixed nicely well and cover the pan
7. Occasional stirring is required to make sure all the sides of potatoes and all the potatoes in the pan gets uniform flavour.
8. When all the added water gets vapourised under the pan cover, check if the potatoes are cooked nicely. This can be done by poking them with a fork/spoon and if we do not feel any resistance, then done.
9. Leave the pan open for a couple of minutes till the remaining water gets vapourised and the heat can be switched off
10. When we were kids, mom does not usually stop at Step 9. She will add little oil on the pan sides and give all the potatoes a nice stir and leave the heat at mid or even slow/low, so the potatoes gets a nice golden brown/dark brown skin and a little crispy. This can be done given the cook and the eater has patience and hunger that can be held a little longer:)
============================================
The second dish from that distant grandma
Potato - 2 medium sized ones - peel off the skin and cut these into small sized squares/rectangles the size of our nails.
Lemon - 1, depends on the size again. Juiced
Turmeric powder - 1/8 spoon
Chilli Powder - 1/2 Spoon (I see a lot of variety in the Indian grocery stores abroad like Extra hot, Hot, Mild - so please quantify based on these spice levels)
Salt - as required
Oil - locally available oil and as required
Notes: This is actually a cheat dish, it does not have the usual ingredients nor follow the usual method to cook. Its more or like Cajun potato fries we get in Five guys burger food chain in US, the only difference is the shape of the potatoes.
Method -
1.Add 1/8 spoon of turmeric powder, 1/2 spoon of chilli powder, 1/4 spoon of salt and generous (1 lemon) juice to the above cut potatoes
2. Mix all the above nicely so all the potato pieces are coated with all the other ingredients.
3. Heat a pan (I prefer cast iron, but any pan will do), add a generous amount of oil (6/7 spoons)
4. Once the oil gets heated, add all the mixed contents to the oil
5. There will be a light splutter because of the lemon juice and the hot oil, but soon it will subside
6. Keep turning over from time to time till the potatoes are nicely cooked and roasted.
7. Keep an eye not to over roast the potatoes. The perfect time to switch off the heat is when the outer layer of the potatoes are light to dark brown color and crisp but the inner flesh of the potato is still moist, but cooked
8. Serve hot. This is important since once it becomes cold, the crispiness goes off and it does not taste good when consumed.
============================================
I will try to post photos from my personal collections of these dishes later.
This makes an awesome side dish for the lemon flavoured rice I posted earlier. I am going to post two dishes done in different methods. one from my mom and the other from a distant grandma.
Starting with the dish from my mom
Ingredients
Potatoes -2 medium sized. NOT the sweet ones; the light/dark soil colored ones; any local variety will do. Wash and peel the skin off. There is another line of cooking where these are boiled in a pressure cooker for 2/3 whistles and then used in this method later, but I personally do not like this method since the potatoes will not absorb any flavour while boiling. So I will let the boiling happen in the pan with all flavours. Cut these into medium sized cubes after peeling off the skin
Oinion & tomato - half to 1 full size each; sliced and diced as small as we can cut these since they form the backbone for gravy/curry. I do not like adding tomato, but my mom does to add quantity to the dry gravy
Garlic - 2 - sliced and diced as small as we can cut these, or even better, if we can make a paste out of this. I do not suggest going for ready made paste available in stores since they contain preservatives - ALERT - fresh ingredients preferred always in Indian style cooking.
Ginger - equal in quantity to that of garlic after minced.
Black mustard seeds - 1/4 spoon
Urad gram or cumin seeds - 1/4 spoon. I forgot what my mom adds, but I usuall add either of these two.
Notes:
Garlic and ginger along with curmin seeds are added to balance or in fact relieve the flatulence from consuming potato.
Method
1. Heat a medium sized pan, add oil once the pan is heated and once the oil gets heated, add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let it splutter
2. Add the garlic & ginger and let them turn light brown. Then add the onions and let it become translucent/light/golden brown
3. Add the tomatoes at this point if tomatoes are preferred to add more dry gravy to the overall dish.
4. Add potatoes and let them stay on the pan with occasional stirring for a couple of minutes. make sure none of the ingredients gets burned. Cooking always needs 100% manual presence during these times. Either add little more oil at the start or make sure to stir frequently so nothing gets burned
5. Once the potatoes get slightly cooked, add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and give a nice stir so all the sides of the potatoes gets coated with these
6. Add enough water to submerge the potatoes, stir again to make sure everything is mixed nicely well and cover the pan
7. Occasional stirring is required to make sure all the sides of potatoes and all the potatoes in the pan gets uniform flavour.
8. When all the added water gets vapourised under the pan cover, check if the potatoes are cooked nicely. This can be done by poking them with a fork/spoon and if we do not feel any resistance, then done.
9. Leave the pan open for a couple of minutes till the remaining water gets vapourised and the heat can be switched off
10. When we were kids, mom does not usually stop at Step 9. She will add little oil on the pan sides and give all the potatoes a nice stir and leave the heat at mid or even slow/low, so the potatoes gets a nice golden brown/dark brown skin and a little crispy. This can be done given the cook and the eater has patience and hunger that can be held a little longer:)
============================================
The second dish from that distant grandma
Potato - 2 medium sized ones - peel off the skin and cut these into small sized squares/rectangles the size of our nails.
Lemon - 1, depends on the size again. Juiced
Turmeric powder - 1/8 spoon
Chilli Powder - 1/2 Spoon (I see a lot of variety in the Indian grocery stores abroad like Extra hot, Hot, Mild - so please quantify based on these spice levels)
Salt - as required
Oil - locally available oil and as required
Notes: This is actually a cheat dish, it does not have the usual ingredients nor follow the usual method to cook. Its more or like Cajun potato fries we get in Five guys burger food chain in US, the only difference is the shape of the potatoes.
Method -
1.Add 1/8 spoon of turmeric powder, 1/2 spoon of chilli powder, 1/4 spoon of salt and generous (1 lemon) juice to the above cut potatoes
2. Mix all the above nicely so all the potato pieces are coated with all the other ingredients.
3. Heat a pan (I prefer cast iron, but any pan will do), add a generous amount of oil (6/7 spoons)
4. Once the oil gets heated, add all the mixed contents to the oil
5. There will be a light splutter because of the lemon juice and the hot oil, but soon it will subside
6. Keep turning over from time to time till the potatoes are nicely cooked and roasted.
7. Keep an eye not to over roast the potatoes. The perfect time to switch off the heat is when the outer layer of the potatoes are light to dark brown color and crisp but the inner flesh of the potato is still moist, but cooked
8. Serve hot. This is important since once it becomes cold, the crispiness goes off and it does not taste good when consumed.
============================================
I will try to post photos from my personal collections of these dishes later.