over to Neha…
Aaloo Pyaaz with some Jazz!
The saying that ‘Home is where your heart is’, should also include ‘where my bed, my bath and my kind of food are’. Returning home from a short beachy and yet chilly Goa trip, I and Ashima were both looking forward to this homely-embrace. My kind of food, is simple home cooked yellow dal with ghee ka tadka, plain aaloo ki sabzi, and soft warm phulkas, and I know Ashima also likes this, so the menu for our meal was kind of already decided. It was also Ashima’s last meal (for the time being) in India as she was flying to Angola at night. However, this meal was following an interesting conversation which had escalated into an argument, and I was looking to soothe those sediments. So the simple menu had to be jazzed a little.
I am not a meticulous cooking person, and I say that because I find it really hard to follow a recipe sincerely (which has led me to make and serve disasters many a times). I am always looking to change some part of it, trying to adapt it to my way. I decided to modify my mother’s famous Aaloo Pyaaz ki sabzi for the dinner. She deep fries the potatoes, and onions in Ghee and then cooks it in the curd based gravy which she has cooked separately. I decided to substitute the deep fry with shallow fry and substituted ghee with extra-virgin olive oil, and plate it slightly my way (one of my many leanings from Masterchef Australia). The result was pure contentment, both for the stomach and the heart.
I also added a quick papad churi to the menu to give it a crunch.
Aaloo Pyaaz with some jazz (Potato-onion vegetable fry)
By Neha Gupta
Preparation time: |Cooking time: |Serves: 3-4
3-4 medium sized potatoes, each peeled and chopped into 2 or 3 pieces
3-4 medium sized onions, each chopped into half
3 tbsp Olive oil
For the gravy
2 tomatoes finely chopped
2 onions finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
salt and red pepper powder to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp yoghurt, whisked
- Heat about 3 tbsp olive oil in a flat pan. Add cumin seeds. When the seeds start to sputter, add potatoes.
- Shallow fry potatoes and then the onions till they are caramelized. Keep aside.
for the gravy
- Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds and let them sputter till they become dark brown.
- Add the onion and sauté until they start to turn soft. Add tomatoes, salt, turmeric and red pepper powder and cook till it becomes soft, and the gravy starts leaving oil on the sides.
- Finally add whisked yoghurt and let the gravy simmer for 5 minutes. If required, add some water, and boil it to get the desired consistency.
- Traditionally the shallow fried Aaloo and Pyaaz are then added to this gravy and simmered on low flame for another 5-10 min. I am not really fond of this, and like to keep the vegetables separate from the gravy. I feel this preserves the taste of the vegetables.
- While serving, I made a bed of the gravy on the serving platter and then placed the shallow fried aaloo and pyaaz (potato and onion) pieces on top of it.
Happy home-coming 🙂
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