Kashmiri Dum Aloo for ICC-November

For this month’s Indian Cooking Challenge, Valli chose a yummy gravy dish from Kashmir. I don’t think I’ve ever made anything Kashmiri and didn’t know that they use ground ginger in cooking. I was excited to try the recipe, but had to make some changes to the recipe due to my husband’s dietary concerns. He doesn’t eat yogurt, I can sneak in couple of spoons of yogurt in a dish but the original recipe from Indian food called for 2½ cups of yogurt, which is a little difficult to camouflage for a super-sensitive dairy hater.

I used the same spices as the original recipe, but changed the sauce ingredients to suit our taste. I used onion paste & cashew butter to make the sauce rich and creamy. I made it in a pressure cooker instead of using the traditional ‘dum’ method due to lack of time. Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:
Baby Potatoes – 12, scrubbed (I peeled them as my potatoes were a little dirty to begin with)
Onion – 1 large, chopped
Tomato paste – 2tsp
Yogurt -3tbsp
Cumin seeds – 1tsp, roasted and ground into a powder
Kashmiri Lal mirch powder – 1tsp
Ginger powder – 1tsp
Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
Cloves – 6, roasted and powdered
Garam masala – 1tsp
Ginger + garlic paste – 1tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Cashew butter – 2tbsp
Asafetida (Hing)– pinch
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Poke the potatoes with a fork and drop them in a bowl of salted water for 20 minutes. Drain the water and set aside in a colander.
• In the mean time, heat 2tbsp oil in a large sauté pan. Sauté the potatoes until they are golden brown on all sides. Remove onto a paper towel.
• In a bowl whisk together yogurt, ginger powder, cardamom powder, fennel powder, Kashmiri chili powder and ½ cup water. Add the fried potatoes and mix well.
• In the same pan used for frying potatoes, add onions and sauté until lightly brown. Add ginger+garlic paste and cook for another minute. Let the mixture cool for a bit and grind into a smooth paste along with cashew butter.
• Add 2tsp mustard oil in a pressure cooker, add hing and clove powder and mix well. Add the onion paste and cook for couple of minutes.
• Next add tomato paste and cook for 2-3 minutes. Pour ½ cup water and salt, bring to a boil.
• Add the potato & yogurt mixture and garam masala, mix well and cover with the lid. Cook on high flame for 1 whistle.
• After the pressure releases, open the lid and garnish with coriander leaves and serve with roti or naan.

Thank you Valli for choosing such a flavorful dish for ICC and I hope you wouldn't my tweaking the original recipe. We thoroughly enjoyed the dish and I’ll be making this whenever I get my hands on some baby potatoes.