Punjabi dum aloo

Flavours from North India

Dum aloo is my favourite. I like Kashmiri dum aloo which is bit spicy and punjabi dum aloo which is tangy. Today I made Punjabi dum aloo. 



Ingredients

Baby potato - 1/2 kg
onion - 1
Tomato - 2
Ginger - one large piece
Green chilli - 2
milk - 1/4 cup
fresh home made cream - 1 tbsp
coriander leaves - 1/2 tsp chopped

For dry roast masala

Saunf - 1 tsp
coriander seeds - 1 tsp
jeera - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 1 broken
elachi /cardamom - 3
cinnamon - a small piece

Method of Preparation

* Wash and cook baby potato in medium flame in pressure cooker till soft. Peel the skin and poke the baby potatoes with a toothpick. In a kadai pour two table spoon of oil/ghee and roast potatoes by adding turmeric and salt till golden brown.

*Roast saunf,coriander,jeera,red chilli, elachi and cinnamon, Make a coarse powder using a mixer or morter and piston.

* In little water add chopped oonion, tomato, ginger and green chilli and keep in slow fire.  Once onion becomes translucent remove from water and grind to a smooth onion and tomato paste. Preserve the cooked water. 

*Pour oil in a large pan Add onion tomato paste, Allow it to further cook by adding roasted masala. You can add preserved water as this stage and keep it in slow flame. Once the gravy becomes thick add roasted potato and mix well. Allow potato to absorb the juicy masala. At this stage add fresh cream and 1/4 cup milk and allow it to mix well with aloo dum. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with roti, kulcha, naan or rice.

Variation : Instead of milk you can add yogurt/lemon juice. I have not added yougurt today as the tomatoes were ripe and tangy just right for tangy punjabi dum aloo. 

Optional : Soak about 10 to 12 whole cashew nuts and make gravy out of it. Add this gravy once dum aloo absorbs all masala. I have skipped this step as cashew make dum aloo gravy very rich and bit sweet too. I wanted Punjabi aloo dum to be tangy this time.