Cookilicious Kitchen Stories - Episode 5

Episode 5 – Recreating Restaurant Favorite Curries II

Hello and welcome to episode 5 of Cookilicious Kitchen Stories. I hope you’ve been enjoying our podcast so far. Please take a moment to subscribe to our podcast so you’re in the loop when new episodes come online. In the previous episode, I showed you how you to create two restaurant style dishes at home. If you haven’t checked out episode 4, then I suggest you do it after listening to this episode, you will not be disappointed!

Today, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite dishes. It’s called Dum Aloo.

Dum Aloo is a delicious Indian potato curry in which baby potatoes are simmered in a creamy, flavorful vegetarian gravy. The dish originates in Kashmir which is the northernmost state of India.

Aloo means potatoes in Hindi, and Dum which means pressure refers to the style of cooking. The potatoes are slow cooked in a sealed vessel under the pressure of the trapped steam.

Though it originates from the North, this dish is very popular all over India. It is also one of the more popular menu items in Indian restaurants.

The recipe I’m about to talk about today comes together in about 45 minutes, and is perfect for a family of 4. If you’re craving some restaurant-style food at home, then go ahead and try this dish. You will love it!

There are multiple ways of making this dish. I’m going to present a version that’s different from the original Kashmiri Dum Aloo recipe. 

It may look like a lot of ingredients are needed to make this dish, but trust me, every ingredient plays a crucial role in bringing out the flavor of this dish!

For ease of preparation, I’m going to split the recipe into sections.

Step 1, We’ll prepare a tomato-onion paste. This will form the base of the curry. To make this, you’ll need the following ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 2-3 cloves
• 2-3 peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoons Kasoori Methi (or dried fenugreek)
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 2 finely chopped tomatoes
• ⅓ cup of cashews
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ¾ cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon salt

Here are the steps to make the paste:

1. Add oil to a pan and once the oil is hot, saute the bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick and Kasoori Methi for 4-5 minutes. Saute until the Methi releases a nice aroma.
2. Add the chopped onion along with cashews and further saute until the onions turn translucent.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and the salt. Cook until the tomatoes turn soft.
4. Add the milk.
5. Cover the pan and let everything cook for about 10 minutes or until it comes to a boil.
6. Take the pan off the flame and let the mixture cool down.
7. Transfer the mixture to a blender jar and grind to a smooth paste

The tomato-onion paste is ready. Set it aside for now.

Step 2, prepping the potatoes. For this you will need,

• 20 baby potatoes
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 2 cups of buttermilk
• 1-2 teaspoons of salt
• 2-3 minced green chillies or jalapenos

Here’s how to make the potatoes.

1. Add the buttermilk, salt, and minced green chilies to a bowl. Stir well and keep aside.
2. Boil the potatoes until they just turn soft. To test if the potatoes are done, stick a fork in a couple of them. If the fork goes in smoothly, the potatoes are done. I just microwave them for about 10 minutes and that’s usually enough, but you can use any method you wish to boil them. Just be careful to not overcook them, else they will break apart.
3. Once done, peel the potatoes and prick them all over, using a fork or a toothpick. The holes will help absorb the flavors of the masala.
4. Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the potatoes until they turn a light golden color. Keep tossing them so they fry evenly. 
5. Take them out of the pan, and remove any excess oil using paper towels. Immerse them in the buttermilk mixture. Let them soak for a minimum of 20 minutes.
6. Strain the potatoes, but don’t throw away the buttermilk mixture.

The potatoes are ready. Now, let’s talk about the final part – preparing the curry. For this you will need the following ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 tablespoon ginger paste or freshly grated ginger
• 5 cloves of finely chopped garlic
• 2-3 minced green chillies or jalapenos
• A ¼ cup of finely chopped cilantro
• 2 teaspoons of Paprika
• 2 teaspoons of garam masala
• 1-2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 cup of water
•  Lemon juice (this is optional)

To make the curry, follow these steps:

1. Heat oil in a pan and once it’s hot, add the ginger paste, half the cilantro, the garlic, and the green chillies.
2. Saute for about 2-3 minutes or until the smell of raw garlic goes away.
3. Now add the tomato-onion paste from step 1, and the salt and continue to cook the mixture for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Add some water to the mixture to get a gravy like consistency.
5. Add the paprika and garam masala and stir well.
6. Now add the strained potatoes from step 2. Mix the potatoes into the gravy making sure that they don’t break.
7. Cover the pan and cook everything for about 5-7 minutes
8. Garnish with the remaining cilantro and take the pan off the flame.
9. Squeeze some lemon juice on top to give the curry some tang

That’s it, the Dum Aloo is ready!

Serve this delicious Dum Aloo warm with Naan, chapati or roti. This curry tastes great with steamed rice too. If you're looking for a low carb variation, serve it with cooked quinoa or any other grains or even cauliflower rice. Serve the leftover buttermilk on the side.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you with this recipe

• Cooking the potatoes correctly is very important. They need to be cooked al dente and should not break or mash easily.
• If you don’t have baby potatoes, you can use regular potatoes. Cook them and then slice them in half or fourths before frying.
• For a more authentic restaurant-style taste, deep fry the potatoes. Alternatively, to keep it low-fat, you can roast them in an Air Fryer.
• While preparing the tomato-onion paste, you can also add cumin seeds, coriander powder, and fennel seeds to the oil to make the curry more aromatic. 
• If you don’t want to use cashews, use yogurt or cream instead.
• Some people prefer to use tomato puree instead of regular tomatoes, to make the gravy more thick.
• As far as storing the dish goes, the prepared curry can be refrigerated for 3-4 days easily. You can also freeze it.
• One way to prepare this dish is to make and freeze the gravy. On the day you want to make Dum Aloo, you can prep the potatoes, thaw and heat the gravy, and then add the potatoes to it. 
• To make this dish vegan, you can use vegan buttermilk to soak the potatoes.
• To make the tomato-onion paste vegan, use nut milk, water or vegetable stock, instead of the buttermilk.

That’s all there is to making delicious Dum Aloo. The link to the blog post is the episode notes. In the post, you will find some ingredient shots that may help you some more. If you have any questions about this recipe, please reach out to me, my email address is also in the notes. If you do make this dish, then please share photos of your dish with me, my Instagram handle is cookilicious.

If you enjoyed this podcast then please take a moment to subscribe to it so you don’t miss out on any upcoming episodes. I’ll be back soon with another delicious recipe. Until next time, this is Priya signing off. Stay safe and keep cooking delicious!

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 6

Episode 7