Tangy Baby Potatoes in Onion-Cilantro Curry

 

It happens some times with me that I intend to make some thing and then I find myself short of certain ingredients. Then I concoct something instantaneously and it turns out good. Earlier I had made lot of things like this and  would conveniently forget them. And then kids would demand Mom make what you made that day and I will have a complete question mark on my face, as I would fail to recollect what I concocted… I am glad with this blog, there will be  no question marks any more.

It was one such day when I was planning to make Dum Aloo and I had picked up these baby potatoes specifically for that. I boiled the potatoes and realised I was short of a major ingredient for my Dum Aloo ( I will surely post the recipe later) and I was stuck. I could have made the Dum Aloo easily in the basic onion-tomato gravy… but I was in no mood to use my dear Tomatoes. I desperately wanted to make something interesting and different. Now the grey cells in my brain started working and I again started exploring my refrigerator to find something more interesting. The things I found were a small bunch of coriander , a little ginger , some lime juice ,some tamarind paste, a few dry fruits and a few regular veggies which I did not feel like mixing in my Potatoes. I wanted a dish only with the potatoes. 

Finally, I thought the small bunch of coriander was inviting me and then I just knew what I had to do. I wanted to make something tangy using the coriander and tamarind. I know one would wonder what is interesting with these ingredients…but make this dish to believe with such regular things, such simple yet very tasty curry could be made.And this is what I did…

I parboiled about 400 gms of peeled baby potatoes in water added with salt and turmeric. This imparts a nice yellow color to the potatoes.

Now I blended 3 medium onions coarsely . Heated some oil in the pan and put the blended onions in it and sauted them till light brown in color.

I added the very basic spices like chili pwd 1 tsp, 3 tsp coriander pwd, 1 tsp cumin pwd, 1/2 tsp turmeric pwd and salt to taste. Mixed them and cooked them for a while till the spices got nicely roasted.

Then the boiled potatoes were added and mixed properly in the spice-onion mix. The water was added at this stage to make a slightly thin curry and the curry was brought  to a boil.

In the chutney blender was taken a small bunch of washed and roughly chopped cilantro,3 green chilies, 5 garlic pods and half inch piece of ginger and ground  to a paste using a little water.

This paste was then added to the boiling curry. 3 tbsp tamarind paste was also added at this stage to provide the tang  and the pan was covered with the lid , the curry was let cook on a low flame till it thickened.

It was then garnished with cilantro and served hot with some phulkas and hot rice. Personally I loved eating it with rice.

This curry can be kept thin if it is to be served only with rice. It tastes good either way. The curry has the richness of all fresh flavors.

I am sending this to  It’s Vegan world- Indian hosted by Erbe in Cucina and is the brainchild of Vaishali .