Dum Aloo (steam cooked potatoes)

The Supermarket Waitrose has been supporting the Soil Association’s ‘Small Changes, Big Difference’ campaign by celebrating everything organic.   I was invited to take part in this celebration and asked  if I would swap one meal a day to organic for a week.  I liked the challenge and will be creating some exciting and tasty new recipes over the week using as much Organic foodstuff as I can find.

Waitrose is my regular supermarket so it was quite easy for me to swap my daily staples such as milk, rice, yogurt, fruit and vegetables to Organic products. Some organic products took me by surprise e.g. I  wasn’t aware that you could get Organic Basmati rice, pasta, pasta sauce  and the Organic Heinz Baked beans!!   To give you ideas on what to cook using organic products , Waitrose have some helpful recipes  on their website. 

My dish for Day 2  using organic products is a quick easy and healthy version of Dum Aloo (Indian potato curry using spices and cashews)  using organic potatoes. Dum Aloo is made from baby potatoes which are first deep fried and then cooked slowly with spices in a gravy. I  skipped the frying stage of the potatoes to avoid using more oil.

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Ingredients:

• 14-15 small organic potatoes
• 1 organic onion
• 2-3 cloves of organic garlic
• 2 cups of organic pasatta
• 2-3 tbls organic Yogurt
• small piece of ginger about half inch long
• 12-14 organic cashew nuts
• 2 organic green peppers
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbl coriander powder
• 1 tbl cumin powder
• 1-2 tsp any sugar or sugar substitute.  jaggery if you are able to get some.
• juice of half an organic lemon
• 2-3 tbls oil
• Spray oil (optional)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 2-3 cloves
• 1-2 sticks of cinnamon
• 2-3 dried red chilies
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp. kasuri methi

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes and peel them when cooled. Once peeled, transfer them to a clean tray and prick them all over using a tooth pick and sprinkle some salt and pepper on them.    If you have some spray oil, spray them on the potatoes and cook them in the oven for 10-12 minutes on a moderate heat 170 degrees C, 325 degrees F and Gas mark 3. (or use your hands to rub some oil on the potatoes).  You can also lightly stir fry them in a frying pan to make them crispy if you don’t want to put them in the oven.

2. Grind 10 of the cashews and leave them in a bowl. Soak the remaining cashews to use as garnishing.

3. Now prepare the sauce: Transfer the pasatta to a blender and add in the onions, ginger, garlic, salt, turmeric,green peppers, coriander powder, cumin powder, lemon juice and jaggery and blend until smooth.

4. Heat the 3 tablespoons of oil and add the mustard seeds, cloves, cinnamon and the dried chilies. As soon as the mustard and cloves stop popping, add the sauce to the oil and allow it to cook for 3-4 minutes.

5. Now add the cashew powder to the sauce.

6.   Once the mixture starts to simmer, add the boiled potatoes. Add half a cup of water and cover the saucepan with the kid.  Cook this for 15 minutes on a low heat with the saucepan lid on.

7.  Stir in the Organic Yogurt and serve the dum aloo hot with any Indian bread.   We all felt that the curry tasted great when using organic potatoes.

 

You may wish to try other potato recipes from my blog:

• Aloo gobi
• Mathura ke Aloo
• Bombay Aloo

I was sent a voucher by Waitrose to purchase Organic Foods in order to undertake this challenge.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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