Rastar Moto Aloor Dom / Street Style Dum Aloo

As I type...my cat sits beside my laptop and soon falls asleep. Her dozing nose slowly touches the charger of the laptop and feeling something alien she adjusts a bit, curls her thick puffy tail under her belly and taking a bit of position like the sphinx she dozes off again. Her ears tremble a little from time to time....or else she remains very still...very very still. I guess I can never be this much peaceful even in my sleep.

As a child I was extremely talkative and very very naughty. In my very strict missionary school I was very popular among my teachers for all the wrong reasons. For laughing, talking and being inattentive in the classes. My parents used to be panic stricken that I might do big blunders in school and the teachers will call them to report about me. But thankfully that never happened and I passed all the classes with flying colours. In front of the street of my school there used to sit a lady in a very small shaft in the morning who sold parathas with spicy dum aloos.

Prepare the onion paste.

rub turmeric powder and salt over the boiled potatoes and fry them until golden.

Heat oil and add cumin seeds, dry red chilli and asafoetida. Then add the tomato paste and cook until oil separates.

Add salt, bhaja mosla, tandoori masala and red chilli powder.Cook until the raw smell of the spices are gone.

Add the potatoes and tamarind pulp. Sprinkle a dash of water and cover them to cook for 2 minutes.

Finally add garam masala powder and chopped coriander leaves. Mix them and put off theflames.

I never ate from her but they sure looked tempting. Those dum aloos were red hot in colour and were smothered with coriander leaves. On days when Ma could not make breakfasts for us...father used to buy Paratha / kachori and dum aloo from a nearby shop. Those spicy dum aloos were really addictive. Sometimes I finished them all without even eating a single piece tearing from the paratha / kachori. But the best spicy dum aloos I ate are not from any stalls or shops but in the trains. They serve it in a small disposable dry leaf plate with a lots of coriander leaves and some fresh coconut scrapes. Lovely!!

Rastar Moto Alur Dom / Street Style Dum Aloo

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

10-12 baby potatoes – boiled with some salt and peeled

1 medium tomato

Very little ginger – about ¼ th inch or ½ tsp ginger paste

A handful of fresh coriander leaves

3-4 green chillies
2-3 tbsp of tamarind pump

2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp tandoori masala

1-2 tbsp bhaja mosla (dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns and dry red chillies. Then grind them to a fine powder. Store in a container and use accordingly.)

1 dry red chilli

1 tsp cumin seeds

A pinch of hing / asafoetida

Salt

1-2 tbsp mustard oil

Method:

In a grinder grind the tomatoes, ginger, green chillies and a little coriander leaves. Grind until smooth.

In a kadai / pan heat the mustard oil.

Sprinkle 1 tsp turmeric powder and salt over the boiled potatoes. Rub them well so each of them gets covered with the salt and turmeric powder.

Fry the baby potatoes in the mustard oil in small batches till they are nicely golden from the outside.

Once done, take all the potatoes out of the kadai / pan and keep aside.

In the remaining oil add the cumin seeds, dry red chilli and asafoetida.

Sauté them for some seconds and then pour in the prepared tomato paste.

Sprinkle some salt over them and cook till the tomatoes start to release oil from them.

Now add the red chilli powder, tandoori masala, half of the bhaja mosla and mix in. Cook them for another 2 minutes to ward off the raw spice smell.

Immediately add the fried potatoes and tamarind pulp to them.

Sprinkle a dash of water and cover them for 2 minutes.

After 2 minutes open the cover and let all the water dry out. The Aloor Dom should be dry and the gravy should cling to the potatoes.

Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Finally sprinkle the the rest of the bhaja mosla and the rest of the chopped coriander leaves over them.

Give them a final stir and put off the flame.