Hello everyone! Hope everyone is doing good! The festive season has begun in India, and currently, Navratri is going on. Navratri literally translates to ‘nine nights’. It is a Hindu festival where people across the country worship different avatars of goddess Durga. Today I have a traditional Bengali dish to share with you guys- Bengali dum aloo | Alur Dum. Stir-fried baby potatoes are simmered in a thick curry consisting of tomatoes and aromatic spices. It is spicy, well balanced and delicious. Traditionally, it is paired with luchis, but you can enjoy it with any flatbread.
In several parts of India, people keep Vrata (fasting), during Navratri. People tend to eat pure vegetarian food, excluding onion and garlic, except Bengalis who do consume non- vegetarian meals during Navratri. So this recipe is perfect for all the readers if you want to try something without these ingredients. About Bengali cuisine, frankly, I have never tasted authentic Bengali food, but have heard some awesome stuff about how good it really is! Fortunately, I met a lovely person, Ujjaini Majumdar on my FB foodie group, who hails from Bengal, India and settled in Philadelphia. I learnt this particular recipe from her, and couldn’t wait to try it! This is a dry version of dum aloo, it is not very saucy nor rich as the Punjabi dum aloo. It turned out to be absolutely delicious! It is interesting to know that dum aloo is prepared slightly differently in different regions of India. The most popular being the Kashmiri and Punjabi dum aloo, both of which I love. This is the first time I tried making Bengali dum aloo and I loved it. Well, I love anything with potatoes!! But moreover, I love the fact that this dish is light and can easily be enjoyed often and not just reserved for an occasion. Then there is also a Banarasi dum aloo, a UP style preparation. I’d love to try that out next!.
HOW TO MAKE BENGALI DUM ALOO AT HOME?
This is a Bengali niramish recipe. Niramish means there is no use of onion or garlic in the dish. So any dish that is devoid of onion and garlic begins with niramish. To make dum aloo, you need to prep up your baby potatoes. Boil them and deep fry or shallow fry them. Simultaneously start off with your gravy preparation, which is a tomato based flavored with spices like ginger, red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, some whole spices, and coriander leaves and stalks. There is no yogurt, nut, nor any cream, unlike the Punjabi dum aloo which is quite rich. Aloo luchi is a classic combo in Bengali cuisine. Luchi is nothing, but a Bengali style poori (unleavened deep-fried puffy bread) made with refined flour. I hope you enjoyed this simple aloo dum recipe and will try it out soon.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE BENGALI NIRAMISH ALOO DUM | BENGALI DUM ALOO
1.Pressure cook the baby potatoes until fork tender. Peel and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy bottomed skillet, shallow fry the boiled baby potatoes on medium heat until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
2.In the same pan/pot, add another tablespoon of oil. Add bay leaf, cinnamon, cumin seeds, broken red chillies, green cardamom. Sauté until cumin crackles and spices are aromatic.
3.Add the tomatoes and a pinch of hing and the chopped cilantro stems.
4.When the tomatoes soften, add tomato purée, sauté until the masala leaves oil.
5.Add the ginger paste along with the chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, sugar, and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of water and mix everything well. Sauté until the rawness of spices vanishes.
6.When the masala is fried properly, you will see oil separating, add the slit green chillies.
7.Add the fried potatoes and mix well with the above masala.
8.Add about 3/4th cup of water, mix well. Bring to a boil.
9.Lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the desired thickness of curry. Stir occasionally. Sprinkle garam masala, mix well, garnish with chopped cilantro, serve hot with luchis, paratha or any flatbread.
NOTES 1.Instead of adding the whole spices in step 2, you may dry roast the bay leaf, dried red chillies, green cardamom and cinnamon on low heat until fragrant. Powder it and use it in the 2nd step after the cumin seeds crackle. Reserve a little of the ground spice powder to be sprinkled in the last step and skip the garam masala. 2.Post updated with new pictures.
HOW TO MAKE BENGALI DUM ALOO?
I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to share your feedback with photos and suggestions to me at [email protected] You can also follow me on : Facebook Pinterest Instagram Twitter Regards, Freda
