Cook's Hideout: Alugadda Vepudu (Spicy Potato Fry)

April 04, 2014

Alugadda Vepudu (Spicy Potato Fry)

I wanted to keep the theme for this month's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge same as the theme for the on-going month long marathon, which means I will be posting some Indian dishes from cookbooks every weekend.
For the first week, I'm cooking from 'The India Cookbook' by Pushpesh Pant. This is a HUGE book with around 1000 recipes from all over India. I remember borrowing this book from the library couple of years back, but returned it without cooking anything from it because I was literally overwhelmed with the number of dishes in the book and couldn't decide what to make before I had to return the book.
This time I borrowed it again, hoping that it would help for the A-Z Indian states marathon. I couldn't find many recipes from the states I was looking for, but ended up bookmarking other dishes that I wanted to make for CCChallenge. Unfortunately I sat on the book for too long not doing anything with it that I had to return it to the library yesterday. I was able to make only 1 dish from it. I went ahead and requested it again, so at least I can make the dishes that I bookmarked.
I was inspired to make a thali after looking at the amazing thalis on Rajani's and Manjula's blogs. I have a very very simple Andhra thali and is nowhere close to comparison to either of their thalis. Here's what I made for the thali:
Simple Vegetarian Andhra Thali
Author says the origin of today's curry is Andhra/ Hyderabad. This is a simple potato fry with spices and the addition of these spices really makes this dish extra special. My potato-loving husband absolutely loved this dish. Original recipe used whole spices that are ground to a powder, but I just used the already ground spices that I had in the pantry to save time.
Alugadda Vepudu (Spicy Potato Fry)
Ingredients:
Potatoes - 3 medium, boiled, peeled and chopped 
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Salt - to taste

For the Spice Powder:*
Coriander seeds - 1tbsp 
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Cinnamon - 1" piece
Cloves - 4
Dry red chili - 4, broken
Turmeric - ½tsp
Salt - to taste

For the Tempering:
Onion - 1 medium, thinly sliced
Curry leaves - 10~12

Method:
  • Grind all the ingredients under Spice Powder into a powder. Set aside until ready to use.*
  • Heat 1tbsp oil in a nonstick pan, add the mustard and cumin seeds. Once the seeds start to splutter, add the boiled and chopped potatoes and fry on medium flame until golden, about 5~6 minutes. Add spice powder. Cook for 1~2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from flame and set aside.
  • In another pan, heat 2tsp oil. Add curry leaves and sliced onions. Cook on medium flame until onions are golden, about 5~6 minutes.
  • Top the potatoes with the onions and serve with white rice.
* Spice Powder from Ground Spices: Simply mix all the ground spices in a small bowl and add to the curry in the 2nd step.
Ground Coriander - 1tbsp 
Ground Cumin - 1tsp
Ground Cinnamon - ½tsp
Cloves - ¼tsp
Red chili powder - 1~2tsp (adjust as per taste)
Turmeric - ½tsp
Salt - to taste
Alugadda Vepudu (Spicy Potato Fry)



Linking this curry to Valli's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge: April -- Week 1.









And to Fabulous Feast Friday# 9 being hosted by Mir & Sandhya.
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13 comments:

  1. Looks lovely.

    I know what you mean about the size of Pushpesh Pant's book. Its the only reason, I haven't bought the book yet :)

    My husband is off potatoes for awhile, otherwise I would have loved to try this dish out, looks so yummy

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  2. Wow! What a wonderful meal... Loved it!! :)

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  3. wow love potatoes in any form and they are best when spiced up like this. perfect

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  4. I am drooling. curry looks really yummy and the thali looks really colorful

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  5. Love to relish this entire dishes..absolutely delicious and inviting..

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  6. Pavani, I love potato curry that uses a spice mix. This one has been promptly bookmarked. And I wish I could find that book in our library...

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  7. Wowww.. Wonderful platter.. Amazing! :)

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  8. Very nice platter ..everything looks so tempting!

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  9. Beautiful platter, Pavani !! Love the spices in the potatoes .....

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  10. I too had to return the book before I tried all I had bookmarked. I need to take it out again also :)

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  11. Wow amazing pavani, didn't realize you are up to so much efforts on the side..:)..great platter, so simple and yet so comforting..all the dishes on the plate is so inviting..heard much about the author, though don't own a copy!

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  12. Too lovely preparation, and like your thali too :)

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  13. yummm..potatoes r my favourite too

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